Anyone for Crochet?

Hello :)

Do you remember quite a while ago I started a blanket from that lovely book by Nicki Trench ~ Cute & Easy Crochet...

I had a stash of acrylic wool (a mixture of King Cole and Stylecraft Special DK), and started in earnest to make four hundred or so little squares...

...well it's been a while since I did any little squares, but at the weekend I decided to dig the yarn bag out and crack on.

Thing was, I felt a little bit burdened by the idea of making four hundred squares.  I know I could have made a smaller blanket, I suppose you can make any shape or size you like with a pattern such as this one, but a New Idea presented itself.  Just as I was thinking 'well if I'm not making my little squares blanket, what on earth can I use all this wool for then?' the answer to that question popped in my head and there was no going back.


I would make a cushion out of the little pile of squares for my little girl's bedroom, and I would use the rest of the wool to make a Granny Stripe! blanket


So that's what I did on Sunday.

As luck would have it I already had a small square cushion pad, and I had sixteen little squares already made up which fitted just right.
Sunday afternoon was spent crocheting them all together, along with many cups of tea and spontaneous games and lego building in between.

I made the cushion envelope style, and sewed on some sparkly pink buttons to fasten it together.  Needless to say, my little girl is over the moon with it, and it now sits with Bunny on her bed.

But you know how it is, when you've got the seed of an idea blossoming in the recess of your mind, you want to get cracking on it.  Well, I do at least.  I was itching to start my Granny Stripe once I'd made my mind up to do it and once Small was in bed, I got busy.

Out came those gloriously sweet shades of wool...and out came the hook...a couple of hours of delicious hooky bliss ensued...

I confess to being in love with Granny Striping; how easy it is, how lovely and rythmical...how soothing it is to work up and down those colourful rainbow enriched rows, and how quickly it seems to grow!

I can heartily recommend doing a Granny Stripe blanket to anyone - it is one of the most satisfying things to have in your WIP basket.  I've decided to make this blanket for my daughter, the colours are so sugary bright and just right for a little girl.  As for the wool, I think I've mentioned before that as far as acrylic wool goes they seem pretty good, not overly greasy or squeaky, and the colours make it a very happy crocheting experience. 

I'll keep you updated on my progress, if I carry on at this rate it might be finished in just a few weeks!

Before I go, I'd just like to thank you for your comments and enquiries from the last post, you're very kind and it's much appreciated :)

I hope you're enjoying a bright sunny week, thanks for popping in to see me today...

Love Julia x

Blanket Love

 

Hello!

Thank you so much for all your fabulous comments on the last post, about my Rainbow Ripple Blanket Ta~Daaah!  I was blown away with them, and I'm delighted you all like it so much.  I've now started work on the New Blanket, and I'm absolooooodely in love with those little squares that are appearing, somewhat rapidly each evening.

The extra balls of yarn that I ordered online arrived and I have to pass on Big Thank You's to those of you who have been recommending Stylecraft; excellent choice it turns out as I'd ordered three balls from their 'Special DK' range and I'm really pleased with it - plus it's cheaper than the King Cole stuff.  Anyways, I think the three bolder colours pull those sweetie jar colours together beautifully ~ I ordered Shrimp, Saffron and Grape and now I am beyond excited about this blanket, can't get enough of it...

Here are the new colours, nestling in my yarn bag - can you spot them?

 

Much better don't you think?

 

So, the last few evenings have seen me getting very busy with these little squares which are amazingly easy, and surprisingly therapeutic to make.  But oh my word, just look at all those ends...

 

I've took a tip from Vanessa at Coco Rose Diaries who also made this blanket, and who waited until the end to sew all the ends in.  I have to agree with her, if I did the ends each time I finished a square this blanket just wouldn't happen.  I'm going to have to dedicate some serious time to doing it all when the squares are finished, but I don't want to think about that part of it yet (I really don't like the yucky sewing in of ends).  So, here's how it's coming on so far, I do enjoy laying out the little squares in rows to get a feel for how it's going to look:

Can you see why I'm so excited?  Those colours just Zing!!  I can already picture it when the squares are crocheted together with that lovely raised edging, it's going to be amazing.  Only several hundred more squares to go, but oh my goodness it's going to be so very worth it, and all the more wonderful because it will so very cheap to make - bonkerdoodles cheap actually in comparison to the luxury yarn I used to make the last one!

Aside from all this hookyness, life has been pootling on here as usual.  I'm working on some sketches at the mo for a rather larger painting than usual.  It's a coastal themed one and I'm looking forward to sharing it's progress with you when I get started on it.  The Circus illustration is still very much a WIP ~ I've come to a point with it where I'm not sure if it's going the way I really want it to go, so am giving it one of my famous cooling off periods and will return to it when I feel more inspired.

One more thing to tell you before I disappear for the weekend - I am now being represented by the fabulous 'From The Wilde Gallery'.  I'm really delighted to have my originals, prints and cards included alongside the work of all the other hugely talented artists and designers.

 

You can visit the website here - it's well worth a look.

Well I think that's me done for now - once again, thanks for dropping in; it's always lovely of you to do so.  I hope you have a smashing weekend, sending love to you, 

Julia x

 

Rainbow Ripple Ta~Daaaaah!!!!

 

I have to warn you - this post is very much a festival of Ta~Daaahing over my newly completed Rainbow Ripple Blanket.  If you are not in the mood for gratuitous shots of bright coloured yarn, and artfully draped blankets then I suggest you skip this post and come back another time :D  If you are, then sit back and prepare your eyes for a burst of rippling lovely~ness!

You may remember me starting this blanket way back in February 2010.  It has taken a long time to finish it - 18 months to be exact but it finally is finished and I have to confess to being absoloooooodely and completely in love with it.

 

Just look at those gorgeous rippling colours...it sends me into a slight trance looking at it.  In fact, this will be the perfect Dreaming Blanket...imagine one of those days where the need to snuggle up and spontaneously nap occurs...  It fits the bill perfectly.

I used a lovely bunch of colours from the Sirdar Sublime Cashmere Merino DK range.  Needless to say, it was not a cheap blanket to make; and that is also one of the reasons why it took me so long to complete (I had to keep saving up for new yarn supplies).  However, it is beautifully soft, and naturally warm and I know it will become a well loved, well used blanket over the years (which kind of justifies the expense).

 

The measurements of the blanket are approximately 130cm x 130cm square.  I would tell you how many balls of wool I used, but as it's taken me so long I've kind of lost count.

There were heaps of ends to weave in, which I finished off last night.  There is something very pretty about all the little inchy bits of wool collected together in a bowl.

 

The pattern, which is fantastically simple to follow, can be found at Attic 24 Blog here.

 

My sofa is becoming one of my favourite, and most comfortable places to be in the whole house.  It is a feast of colour and soft yarn...I love it.

So what next, you may be asking - of course I'm still working on my Japanese Flower scarf which I started in June and it's coming on nicely in fits and starts.  But it seems I cannot be without a Big Project.  No, there has to be something on the sidelines that I can go back to over time, that may take a while to do but is satisfying in that it's there and can be picked up and put down as the feeling takes me.

A Blanket then.  Another one.

And this time a request from my daughter; 'please can I have a blanket for when I get my new Big Girl's Bed?'

How could I possibly say no to that?  So I dug out the only pattern that I'd been itching to do, from a rather lovely book I treated myself to some time ago:

You can find this quite cheaply on both Amazon, and The Book Depository websites.  There are some gorgeous things to crochet in it, but this is what caught my eye:

See that blanket?  Oh my - heart stoppingly glorious!! I am already With Wool for this...

...these are some of the colours my wee one helped me choose, much lighter than my normal bright palette, but she likes the wool that looks like sweeties.  I'm waiting on three slightly more vibrant shades to be delivered that weren't in stock in my local wool shop and I think that these will stop it looking too wishy washy.

The wool I'm using for this project is a rather cheap acrylic one.  The stuff in the picture is King Cole Big Value DK (a couple of pounds for a 100g ball).  I've worked up a few squares already and whilst it's a pretty soft yarn and will make a perfect blanket for general everyday use (read den making, snuggling, spilling drinks on etc) I'm finding it a teeny tiny bit greasy to work with after a time.  I'm guessing it's because acrylic yarns are oil based, but I'm going to bear with it as it ought to be cheap as anything to make; which in these cash strapped times is a bit of a Good Thing isn't it?

Right - well that's about it!  If you're still reading along after all those hooky yarny pictures, thank you!  I'm so glad that you stopped by today and would like to thank you for taking the time to visit and read.  Also, apologies too because my little trips around Blogland haven't been so frequent just lately due to me having a rather Busy Time of it both work and family wise, but I will endeavour to catch up with you soon and just wanted you to know, I haven't forgotten you.

Sending you love

J x