A colourful place to keep track of my crafty adventures, interesting things I've spotted and great links. You'll find knitting, crochet and sewing with a smattering of baking and lots and lots of tea.
Now with added embroidery!
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Yarn Monster from toddtreece on Vimeo.
The knitters and crocheteers amongst us could probably be called yarn monsters at the rate we can get through it! But this is a true yarn monster. The good thing about it though is that the yarn goes in one end and out the other in a lovely ball!! Now that’s a monster that there’s no need to be scared of!
I first saw this on Union Bridge via Craftzine
I have now completed 5 full rounds of each colour in the growing big happy granny stripe blanket! I knew the first bundle of yarn I had wouldn’t be enough for the size of blanket I wanted so ages ago I bought a second set!
I still have a little of each colour left from each ball but don’t want to change yarn half way through the next 19 rows, so I am starting the new balls of yarn at the start of each row when I would normally change colour. The remainders of some of the balls have already been used for the Party Ring Scarf I made for my niece.
The blanket is going to have 7 sets of each colourrepeat overall and with the border I intend to put on I expect to have used about one and a half balls of each colour.
Now that I’m stuck into this big project again I am really, really enjoying it. I’ve spent all the run up to Christmas working on small projects and gifts which was lovely but I do think there’s a lot to be said for something so big and its somehow even more rewarding, particularly because it is for me to keep and use when it’s finished.
I have really enjoyed seeing the blankets like this that others have made on flickr and how the different colour orders used make such a difference. There are lots of fantastic colourful crochet groups on there. Here’s a couple to get you started – go have a look!
I thought I’d show you some of the lovely owl things that I was given in the past few weeks for my birthday and for Christmas.
I’m a lucky gal as my friends and family are very good at choosing gifts for me that I love. And I love owls! Just look at all these lovely, snuggly, gorgeous owls:
There’s a hot water bottle in an owl cover, lavender filled owls and a bright blue owl purse, as well as the cutest owl cards.
I especially love the hot water bottle. I’m a massive fan of hot water bottles and take one to bed on all but the hottest nights of the year. I know that might sound mad, but I love to be cosy in my bed.
Now, while I’m on the subject of animals, there’s another that I have a fascination with. I can’t in truth say its a love fascination, more like a strange curiosity! Am I the only one in the world that finds pandas a bit weird? Caveman gave me this hugging panda salt and pepper set:
They have such strange block markings and they bumble around eating bamboo shoots while looking really quite sad!
If it ever came to light that pandas aren’t actually real I wouldn’t be at all surprised. You heard it here first!
I was so proud of myself for getting stuck into the granny stripe blanket the last few days until something occurred to me mid row last night…. I was using the wrong size hook!
I started working on the blanket using a 4.5mm hook but when I restarted it this week without even thinking I used a 4mm. I’ve done several rows with the 4mm and it doesn’t seem to have made a difference. I’m back to 4.5mm now and I am wondering if there will be a slight ‘pull’ in these rows.
But will o.5mm really make such a difference? I doubt it in this project but isn’t if funny how such a tiny measurement can make a difference in others! Have you ever had an experience of this?
Just yesterday I wrote about a few crochet projects I wanted to get on with in the new year and I haven’t wasted any time in getting started! The granny stripe blanket that I began way back in sunnier days last summer has been sitting neatly folded but untouched for a few months – until last night.
I was itching to get on with some crochet but not inclined to start anything new, or in truth anything that required a great deal of thought. Resurrecting the granny stripe blanket was just perfect. Despite it being quite large I managed to get several striped rows done while half watching tv: I am sure my treble speed has increased since I last worked on it. I’m now about two thirds of the way through so it might just be finished before the spring / summer comes round again, so long as I don’t get too distracted!
I have also been somewhat inspired by Ali at Snipsnaphappy! She’s said she needed a large and easy project she can work on without much thought so has started a granny stripe blanket. She’s called hers the ‘Big Happy’. Isn’t that a great name? And with so many lovely colours in blankets like this it can be quite hard to fight they happy that they can bring while hooking along.
Here’s to lots of big and happy crochet ahead!!
Are you feeling that anticipation of a fresh, new year starting? I’d love to say I was but I just can’t get it. Maybe it will come, maybe not. I’ve never been the biggest fan of new year. I tend to think if things are to change then why wait until a landmark date. The last few months have been pretty tough for me and my family, and will be for a few months yet, so maybe our fresh start will be later in the year.
But until then there is still plenty to do. There’s always crochet and now that I have more time on my hands I will have more time to do the things I enjoy, which can’t be a bad thing, can it?
So what will I be doing with that time:
I hope I see you somewhere along the way! X X
