Green garden grannies

Hello :) It's been a few weeks since I spontaniously blogged - since going back to Caroles One-a-day project I've only been blogging my Tuesdays Tallies - this weeks will be *very* exciting though :D

I got to a point in hexagon making where I ran out of cream wool, which was kind of essential to joining the whole thing together! While I was waiting for more to arrive in the post I whipped up these.


I've got a lovely collection of green yarns now (I wish Stylecrafts range was better!) and I've had an urge to go back to squares for a while so it seemed like a good opportunity. I've been making more today actually, I think it might end up as a cushion.


I got the pattern from Attic 24, it's her Summer Garden Granny Square and I love the way it starts as a circle (like the hexagons!) and ends up as a square :)


I've edged these in white using trebles and sewed them together with the long tail left over. For the other side I'm going to keep the whole thing green and use Lucy's join-as-you-go method, really to use a variety of techniques and have a bit of fun.


This is one finished side. The other is still a work in progress.


Thanks to everyone who's pushed me into completing my hexagon blanket, I can promise that on Tuesday I'll have a ta-dah for you!!

x x x x

Rainbow ripples

I know I shouldn't have... But I've started a new project!




I had all good intentions of finishing my hexagon blanket first (and all the other WIPs!) but Deramores were selling Stylecraft at 10% off and I was running low. I also have a Little Woolie inspired blanket in my mind that was calling out for some Stylecraft so a purchase was very necessary.

I just hadn't planned on starting a ripple on the same day the yarn arrived!

This will be a blanket for my new niece or nephew! J's sister & brother-in-law are having a little one in Spring next year so this will either be an xmas present or a baby shower present. I'm sure I can russle up some other baby goodies if it becomes an xmas present!

Lucy & Heather (Attic 24 & Little Tin Bird) are doing a Ripple Along here so it made sense to join in :-)

My cowl/snood is coming along reeeeally lovely but my camera (ok J's...) needs to be charged so I can't show you. I needed more yarn for it and guess what was opposite the pub I went to on Friday - the yarn shop! This is a total coinsidence I promise, I didn't even pick the pub!

In other news I've recently taken up climbing... I can't honestly tell you why, it never appealed to me before and I'm not a big fan of heights but I thought I'd give it a go - now I'm hooked!

This is where we go:




I've been to the top of the nearside right wall (it's green) and others of a similar height which are about 10m or so. ScArY stuff!

Anywho that's all from me, apart to say (which I totally forgot) my interview went well and I get to keep my job, horray! Hope you're all enjoying your weekends (it's actually sunny here!) and hope you're getting some hooky / knitting time in :-)

x x x x

In rainbows

Hello! Happy Wednesday afternoon :-) The weather is absolutely lovely here, it feels like we might have a proper summer afterall! It's a shame it wasn't like this on Friday because my mum took me to the RHS Hampton Court flower show (and you know how I love gardening!) and it rained quite a lot. Nothing was going to stop us from enjoying ourselves and getting down to some serious plant buying; we just hid in the Rose tent while the rain did it's thing :-)

I present to you the product of two women and a garden show! Thank goodness my brother came, I don't know how we'd have carried everything. He took many many more photos (I took 4...) so as soon as he gets them online I'll pick out a few good ones to show you.

So onto more crafty things then. You may remember back here I said I'd been part of a Ravelrly swap and got sent loads of amazing yarn, well I finally put some of it to very good use!



I've made a little phone pouch for my android incase I drop it, which I have a habit of doing! It's a very simple design, just rounds of trebles, slip stitched at the end so there's no seam.



I found a cute button in my button stash (from an old top) and made a little chain ring to fasten.



It was a really quick project which is something you need from time to time isn't it? I have so many long term projects on the go (I actually have 4 WIPs on the go now...!) so it's nice to see something finished for once.

Although improvised the general gist of this pattern is from Lucys jar jackets (I call them jar cosies!) over on Attic 24, so you can pick up how to make it properly over there. I just stopped doing rounds when I reached the top of the phone and did stripes for a flap.

Right I'd better be off because I have a million and one things to do, but I've lots of posts to share so hopefully I'll be back very soon :-)

x x x x

P.S I have 38 followers!!! I'm on the slow count up to 40 when I'll be having a little celebration :-D Thanks guys x

P.P.S! I knew I'd seen inspiration for the pouch and I just stumbled upon it! Sahm Saritha at Rainbow Bunting made a very lovely pouch for a friend and although the colours are very different it definitely made me want to make one!

Hexagon blanket

H-e-l-l-o! Yes I felt the need to spell that out, a big welcome to you all! What a week. What a long and borrrrrrrrrrrrrring week! It's been one of those where on Wednesday you think tomorrow is Friday and the real Thursday and Friday end up being a real disappointment - "this should be the weekend in my mind!"




Well nevermind, it's Friday now which is fan-flipping-tastic. I wanted to quickly share with you my current project! I realised I haven't actually made any attempts to blog about it and I should have done because I'm loving it!



I've wanted to make a hexagon blanket for absolutely ages (infact while I was making the granny squares...) so I'm really happy that I've finally started.

These photos admittedly were taken several months ago. The projects been on & off while I made other things, but never far from my mind :-)



It took a while to decide how to join them all as I wanted the hexagons to be fully formed with a white border, not colourful circles with a white border making them into a hexagon shape... Erm, does that make sense? Perhaps not! It did mean I had to figure this out by trial and error. When I dc'd them together there was a kind of ridge between them; this would not do! I've decided a much simplier option is to sew them together :-)



So I made a start! Back when I was visiting my parents, I made use of their lovely grass.



I'm much much further along than this but I don't want to show you all at once you see or it will spoil the journey of making! Hope you like :-)

x x x x

Baby Granny Stripe is.... Finished!!!

It's finally time to reveal my finished baby blanket. Yay!!!

This has probably been my favourite thing to work on, it hasn't taken me a hideous number of months to complete and I couldn't put it down! I am so pleased with the edging too, usually I get so bored of my projects I hurry to finish, but not this time.

So here we go... Drum roll...

Yay!





Ohh I know I shouldn't be this pleased but really I am thrilled to bits, I hope my friend loves it too and that it keeps their baby snuggly and warm!

I think the edge it my favourite part actually. Remember how I said the blanket looked quite "girly" before and my friends might be having a boy, well I really think this has toned the pink down a lot!





I did treble clusters around the edge and into that single trebles into each st and 6 into the corners. I wish I'd taken a photo before doing the shells because it was lovely and round! The scallop or shell eddging was a little improvised. I looked at some tutorials and ended up using a mix of a few.

Now if I remember rightly it was sl st, 1 dc in next st, 2 hdc in next st, 1 dc in next st, sl st









I can't wait until this little one is born and I can finally give the blanket away. I'm going to be very sad to see it go so I might just have to make another.....!

x x x x

Baby Granny Stripe Progress Part II

Hellooooooo! Thanks for stopping by :-) I just wanted to say thanks and much love to all my followers, I've gone from 1 or 2 to over 20 in a couple of months and I'm soooooooooooooooo chuffed! Literally beaming with excitement!!!!

This is a good thing (not just for my sense of ego, yay!) but because I feel more obliged to update and therefore to crochet more! So I'm pretty excited to let you know how my baby Granny Stripes getting on!

I went home to my parents house a couple of weeks ago and really got some good crochet time in! In fact, I managed to finish the main part of the blanket!!!

I like how it finishes at each end with the same colour, and I'm pretty happy with the length. It's for a baby but I wanted to make sure it's a little bigger so that when he or she's older they can keep using it!

Now that brings me onto the colours... A colleague at work said to me "it's lovely and girly isn't it!" Lovely I like, girly I do not because I don't know if my friends having a girl or a boy yet! I've decided when I do my edging to use a blue or green (both colours I didn't use from my Stylecraft stash) and this will hopefully balance out all the pinks I've got here.

Anyway, I'm super super happy and can't wait to post a finished photo very soon!!!

x x x x

Baby Granny Stripe Progress

Ahhh now time for a little update. I'm not too much further on yet but we're 28 and a bit rows in now! Looking good isn't it? I'm liking it very much, I can see why so many others have also made Granny Stripes using Styleraft (see here!)

I tell you this yarn is so lovely to work with, it's so soft for an acrylic! Much better than any of the yarns I used in my Granny Squares (a project which is finished by the way, despite the lack of a tah-dah post which I only just noticed I never wrote...)

Here's a little close up. Mmmmm stripy goodness!

Have a lovely weekend! x

Baby Granny Stripe Blanket

I'm really very excited about starting this next project as it's the first big thing I will have made to give away. Shocking I know! I read about all these generous people whipping up blankets for friends and loved ones and here's me surrounded by my own creations, hoarding them for myself! That's probably why I like reading Lucy's blog because she has no problem making herself lovely things and keeping them - and so she should!

I made a granny stripe (see here!) before using Drops Paris, and although I'm happy with the result now I wasn't at the time and admittedly I hated the yarn! It was too splitty and my fingers hurt the whole time I was making it, BUT! It has lovely colours and my friend thought so too because she's creating a child in her womb and has asked me to make her a granny stripe! I was thrilled, chuffed to bits; someone liked something I made enough to wrap their own child in it? Amazing!!

I've dropped the Drops though (haha) and instead opted to use the Stylecraft I've been making my (abandoned) hexagons* out of because it's going to be a lot softer and snugglier for a small person. I also love using it!
*Hexagons not abandoned, just postponed!

So here we go!

I hadn't planned to start so soon but got a little carried away, and the light wasn't good (and still isn't here) so I'd already finished 11 rows before getting my first picture. I hope you like it, I hope they like it and I hope they don't see it before its finished! I also hope that annoying little blue stripe between the green and yellow doesn't annoy anyone else as much as it annoys me!

Bye bye bye x

Granny Stripe Update: 2

It would be nice to have a finished "ta dah" post but we're not quite there yet with the Granny Stripes. I thought I'd give an update anyway as it's probably at least half way there now, 46.5 rows!

Do you like my slippers? I wish I could make things like this!

I started to do the first round of the border before finishing purely because I'm impatient and I wanted to see what it would look like! Using a different colour to the stripes and I think it works quite well.

Granny Stripes

I know I shouldn't be starting a new project, what with my granny squares blanket still not complete, but I just can't help it! I recently added to my wool stash recently with a lovely order or Drops Paris after another blogger Corn Poppy Girl put some pictures up of the lovely colours. I have to confess I bought the exact same colours but they are just so fab!

So a little bit about Drops Paris then. I'd heard about it being quite splitty, you know where it all starts to unravel and your hook ends up putting it apart? Well it's not as bad as the Kool Kotton I've used before and I think I've gotten used to it so I can't complain at all really. It's a very thick wool so would make for good winter blankets. But what to do with the new stash :o

I've been following the blogs of Lucy in the Attic of 24 (as I'm sure you already know) and tried my hand at her ripple blanket, which went very well in the test (pictures later) but I just wasn't sure I wanted my own ripple blanket. As it happens she has been working on a wonderful new (ish) idea; Granny Stripes!

I say new-ish, I was sure this must have been done before due to it being such a simple idea, however it's actually really difficult impossible to find other people doing it! So perhaps this is a brand new thing, who knows, what I do know is I love it!

What do you think? It's a little on the small side I admit, after the granny squares blanket I think I need to keep things simple. This should make a nice little sofa blanket however, or a throw or something like that, we'll have to see I guess!

P.S Thank god for autosave as I just closed this by mistake. Eeeek!

Happy Bank Holiday :-)

I've got lots of little crochet projects to show you (very exciting!) which I've been working on over the last couple of weeks and have only just got round to uploading to my Flickr account. I've wanted some bunting for aaaaageeees and I've seen various tutorials on how to make hearts but my favourites were the ones on Lucy's blog / flickr (Attic 24) although the tutorial is from Bella Dia .

I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with them (and only really started after buying a stash of pink wool) but they've ended up becoming bunting (surprising!) and I'm very chuffed! Have a go, they are very easy to make (if I can, ANYONE can)

I haven't totally given up on my monster blanket, in fact I think I've got less than 20 squares left to make, and these are the middles needed. I'm out of the green and purple wool so relying on my friend having some left over or it will be an unfortunate* trip to Abakhans.

*By unfortunate I mean really really good!

Last but not least I thought I'd better get round to showing you my mittens, even though it's May now and becoming quite warm! I'm really please with them although to be honest I could have picked a better colour choice. They will do for now :-) They are loosely hugely inspired by Attic 24 again although I actually made them in the same way the jar cosies were made, just starting the next round a few crochets later for the thumb holes and finishing earlier, this means there's no seam down the side :-)