When a blanket became a cushion and other stories

Hello!!

It feels like a bit of a Ta-Dah moment here - although its also confession time. The next BB is now officially a cushion cover and its the most Juicy and delicious cushion cover in our entire house.
I think I have mentioned before that Im a total harlot when it comes to crochet and Im easily tempted and seduced by new projects and new wool.
Anyway, I got to the last white round on the glorious summer grannies (yes, Attic24 ones if anyone was curious) and I thought to myself...hmmmm, yes. This is definately cushion fodder. It had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I had been sent delirious by ripple blankets Id seen on various flickr sites, no, it was suddenly just very cushiony looking and so it now sits awaiting its back which Im hoping to make this weekend.



Ive also been working on some characters, that is to say, when I haven't been looking after the Little Person who has the most croaky voice and bad cold - its making her extremely crabby but the little nap she has taken today has given me a couple of hours grace to get the paints out again. So, below is an example of a character that Im in the middle of creating. Im still not too happy with some of the facial features, hence the back view! But Im going at it with determination, I wont be sending them in until Im 1000% happy. This is a sketch/painting and the character is a naughty mischievous little girl Im calling Mo.I even think her hair looks like it belongs to someone naughty...!



Anyway, at the weekend I finally went into our overgrown jungle of a garden, armed with secateurs and some serious intentions to clear up. The whole place had been taken over by crawling nasturtium creepers which had turned squishy and yellow from all the snow. I spent two hours cutting back dead things and raking up old fallen leaves and other such rubbish and I began to uncover the tiniest green buds in the hard soil - after that freezing winter snap we all had it was like manna from heaven seeing these early signs of spring coming through. A broken pot found languishing in a corner revealed a pleasant surprise:

...and as by this point spring was most definately in my bones, I picked up this cheerful little primrose at the garden centre (it was only 65pence!!) and it now glows radiantly on our kitchen windowledge, cheering me up everytime I look out of the window into a fog drenched back garden that is now covered with yet another layer of snow.

So...back to blankets. As I was saying before, I had a yearning to make a ripple blanket and I think that I just really fancied a change from doing lots of little squares, which although pleasurable and fun are sometimes a bit of a faff. I think I was hankering after something a bit different, and when the Little Person in our house peered over my shoulder at the ripplesome lovliness that is Lucy's blanket (at Attic24) and said 'will you make one like that next Mummy?' then who am I to say no!?!

I looked for some scrumptious colours that I could use to create a fabulous rainbow of a blanket with - and I discovered a tremendously beautiful colour palette from this wool, Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK and found this website which has a fantastic selection and picked a few out.


Yes, this blanket will take along time, yes it will cost me alot of money (but I dont mind, its going to last a lifetime and be handed down through the generations) and if I buy the wool in batches then it doesn't cost lots and lots all at once...does it. :D


Im looking forward to getting started on my new ripple blanket, the wool arrived today...

Im having to sit on my hands until I can start it later! The photograph doesn't do the colours justice, they are rich and sumptuous with glorious names for colours like Nest Egg, Shortbread and Periwinkle...oh I just have to keep scooping them up, they are so very soft and Im going delirious again just writing about it!!


Other things that have been happening here this last week is that Ive started to practise yoga. Oh goodness me, how long has it been since I subjected my little bod to anything more energetic than a gentle walk? Ive stretched muscles I didn't realise I had, but Im feeling rather nice and Ive treated myself to a couple of good DVD's to do at home as there is no decent yoga class close enough to us in this far flung country backwater!! It's certainly a nice antidote to the general mayhem that is life in our house! Also, the niggling pain at the base of my spine that Ive had these last few weeks has seemingly (after just 3 sessions of this wonder exercise) disappeared! Hurrah!!


I hope you all have scrumptious weekends, Im hoping mine has lots of little pockets to crochet in, and also if the weather brightens and the Little One is better, we hope to go to the garden centre to get our seed compost! Oh yes, already our little propagator is waiting to be filled with seeds, which we sent for from the fabulous Sarah Raven the other week, picking interesting things like Crystal Lemons (little round cucumbers) and Munchkin Pumpkins (teeny tiny ones) to grow. Can't wait!!


See you all again soon, thank you for stopping by my blog, its a pleasure to see you here!

Much love
Julia x