Rosie Elmer Squares

Hellooooo, I've been feeling the urge to blog for ages because I have squares to show you but time seems to have just gone so quickly!  I am finally nearing the end of this thing, there is light at the end of the tunnel!  If I could finish next weekend I would be sooooo happy.

In May 2013 (yep, 2013...) I started a new blanket, which I nick named my Rosie Elmer.  The name came from a lovely patchwork blanket made by Lucy, which was inspired by Elmer the Elephant.  I wanted a blanket in shades of pink so that's why mine's a little different ♥

(I blogged about it here, here, here, here and  here but then I got side tracked (read; bored) and went onto other things.  My biggest problem was finding a colour combination I liked, and did I go through a few...

Nope.  Too pale, just didn't like.

Pomegranate just isn't helping.

Yuck.  Those dark purple squares pop out too much.

Hmmm better.  This one had merit, but it felt more like a baby blanket to me, which may come to fruition in the future

Getting there, definitely! Unfortunately I ran out of some of the purple (which I bought in Italy as far as I can remember).  I think I might have actually lost the rest of it because I'm sure I've hardly used it. 

I've made loads of Wisteria, Meadow, Lavender and Clematis squares that I no longer plan on using but I may put into a baby blanket instead.

I'm now using Purple from the Womens Institute range in Hobby Craft, and in Stylecraft Special DK; Pomegranate, Plum, Pale Rose, Camel, Magenta, Pomegranate, Violet and Grape

*** WI purple

*** Raspberry

*** Plum

*** Pale Rose

*** Camel

*** Magenta
*** Pomegranate
*** Violet
*** Grape

I'm really happy with these and I think they look a bit like shades of a sunset, don't you?

I've mocked up in Photoshop what I want the blanket to look like and it's looking pretty awesome!  I can't wait to get sewing all these squares together and finally be finished.  Even J said it looked like Elmer when I laid them out, amazing!

Moggy tried to help but she gave up and fell asleep ♥

x x x x

Rosie elmer blanket update

I haven't posted any updates about my Rosie Elmer blanket in a while and part of that has been the constant indecision about which colours to stick with.  I honestly didn't want to keep boring people with my ummming and ahhhhing.

Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my previous posts though, it's given me a lot of food for thought, not least this website called Design Seeds. I warn you, you'll end up buying a shed load of yarn so you can whip up beautiful projects based on tropical birds, berries and doorways I tell you!

♥

Unfortunately I couldn't find a colour palette that matched mine but I do have some ideas for the future. When I've cut down my wool stash to a sensible amount I'm going to save up & treat myself to a purposeful order, but I can't get too carried away yet because I am nowhere near that stage yet!

A few weeks ago I had two ways of going with the blanket... #1 was a warmer mix of squares.  I do love the green  ♥ but I think it was the green making things difficult.

#2 worked better but felt quite dull, a bit like how things look on a cloudy day.  Does that make sense?  I don't know, but that's how it made me feel!

Then I had a look in one of my yarn boxes and it hit me that I really do have too much because I found some stylecraft that I'd forgotten I had... Honestly!

I found the lovely plum and  magenta and that's it :)  Problem solved

 

Woooooopeeeee!!!

I can't really explain how great this feels because this is exactly how I was imagining my blanket (ok, with some green) and it's just been really hard to pull this out of my head and make it. 

I even feel like I might start joining them all together soon....  Oh what fun :)

x x x x

Choosing colour

It's not working!!! :(  

I totally thought I had it, what other colour would sort out my blanket than....  

Purple!

So I hooked up these four squares and I was pretty excited until last night when I put them with the other colours & it just doesn't work for me.  Not one bit.

I tried it without the green, and it's better but I do like the green so I'm not sure now what to do.  I've decided the purple is too dark, it either needs a shade between to made it blend or it needs to go.  It's only four squares and they can be saved for another project.

I went back to my original colour palette with an even mix of colours but the problem with this is I've run out of Pomegranate, Wisteria and Meadow
so if I want an even mix this is as big as it can get!

I added in the grey, which I'm still happy with because it's not too far from the Wisteria / Lavender shades.

I might have run out of Stylecraft but I do have some lovely shades of pink sent to me by Nanita who if you remember ages ago I did a swap with? I posted about it here, two years ago!!

I haven't used all of the yarn so I'm going to see how more pink works out...  And then decide whether to go all pink or try to keep with a bit of green... This was supposed to be fun right?  ;)

x x x x

We wanted to be the sky

Procrastinating
I have been very good at this lately & I can't quite put my finger on why.  I haven't written in weeks, I've got lots of things I've been meaning to sew but just don't 'feel' like doing them, I've been putting off sending emails, phoning friends or sending messages for 'another day', I haven't checked Feedly since before Glastonbury; I have 394 unread blog posts.  Crappity crap!

I've decided enough is enough!  This will not do...  No...  

I'm going to fix a skirt that I sewed up pretty badly later this evening and I am blogging as we speak!!  I've sent messages to a couple of friends that I'd been meaning to catch up with and I've read some of my fave blogs which has massively cheered me up - well, made me feel better, I have to say I'm pretty cheery as it happens, just a bit off balance maybe?  I do have a lot to catch up on though so here goes...

Crocheting

Today would be 'Tuesdays Tallies' if only I'd kept up, but hey I'm still going with this one right?  I ran out of a few colours which I mentioned in my last post so I've introduced some light grey.  Unfortunately it's just a cheap acrylic yarn & I've no idea where it came from or who it's made by but it's fairly soft, just not Stylecraft soft :(

 

I think it's working quite well but I've definitely got too much of the pale pink going on (I just have a lot more of this left!) I'm going to have to raid more of my yarn stash I think to find a new colour to add, but for now one thing is clear; I need to stop with the pink!

One of the reasons I have such a pathetic number of squares is I've been knitting up a super teddy bear from Knitted Toy Tales (which is my new favourite book)

She was originally intended for my friends baby (she's due in November!) but while sewing all the legs, arms, ears & patches on a little voice was saying "this might not be baby safe!" and another voice was saying "keep it!" and another voice said "I'll have it!" - that last one was my mum.  Ok, those weren't her exact words, it was something along the lines of 'maybe it should be for an older person' and a certain someones age might have been mentioned.

Well, bear who has not yet been named - or photographed even - went home with my mum & dad yesterday morning when they left ours after a lovely long weekend.  My mum is under a promise to take some lovely photos to share with you all.

House

   

I would quite like to own one of these (houses, not the vase because I own that, isn't it cute?) it would seem that luck isn't on our side.  We thought that the house had just been over-valued but actually it's much worse!  

It's worth bang-on what we've offered, if we get a full structural engineers survey done because the chimney breasts were removed & therefore the chimney isn't supported.  Oh, and if we get the wall built up in the loft so we can't climb into the neighbours house.  And if we get some cavity wall ties checked.  And have a damp, timber & electric check done.

HUH? When was I informed that house buying would be this complicated?!  Needless to say things have stalled to pretty much a halt.  Infact we've gone backwards in as far as we've started to look at other houses, just-in-case.  Bummer!

Everything else

Maybe everything else would be too much, probably best to be shared another time - like the promise of teddy bear photos, or the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show, or shopping bargains :)

x x x x

Tuesdays Tallies 4

 

Ooops, I nearly forgot that it was Tuesday :)  It feels like a Wednesday which is a big disappointment when you realise it's still 3 days til the weekend...  We've been busy on the house hunting front (still no joy yet) so where I usually crochet at lunch I've been ringing up every estate agent in the area booking appointments!  I'm also getting very excited about a certain upcoming festival...

 All this together means I've only managed a mere five squares this week - & three of those were made today!

 

I'm totally out of Meadow now and just about to run out of Wisteria so I may become a little stuck with how much more I can do.  I don't want to buy more, so I might introduce new colours...

So on that note thank you for all your lovely responses about Pomegranate - I'm starting to think you were completely right.

These are the squares without, & although it's quite a calm looking blanket, which was originally what I was after, I can't help feeling like it's lacking something.

I'm not sure if it's because everything we have is so bright and I did want something a little less that, something that goes with our sofa and might look nice in our eventual new home...

...But look!

 

You guys are fab! ♥

I had a go at blocking the whole lot this evening.  I could do with getting some of those foam play mats, I've used our bath mat but it means taking the pins all out.  I measured them all out perfectly & everything!

I'm so excited with how they're looking now they're actually square :D  It makes such a difference though and it's saved me doing them all at the end.  Just a steam iron & NO touching the yarn :)

x x x x

So the de-stashing count begins!

Meadow 
Wisteria

Tuesdays Tallies 3

 

Just back from tonights WI so only a quick one to share this weeks crochet squares!

So not quite seven (not sure I've even truly been doing one a day) but I'm half way through seven so maybe if I finish it soon I can count it?

I've introduced a new colour this week, I'm not sure whether to stick with it or not really so I did two

Pomegranate is my favourite colour from the Stylecraft Special DK range so I guess that's probably why I added it!  My original plan though was a more subtle and quieter blanket so we'll see...  If anyone else is joining in with One-a-Day please let me know, I know Carole hasn't blogged since May so hoping all is well with her x

On the house hunting front, we made an offer on a nice terrace and then the seller decided not to sell!  So if any of you have any good house hunting vibes please send them my way, I really am desperate!

x x x x

Tuesdays Tallies 2

 

Hello lovely people :)  I hope you're having as nice weather as we are here, it's just wonderful to have sunshine and warmth at last!  It's made cycling to work even more of a joy :)

♥

I've actually got a Tuesdays tallies for you, although maybe not as many squares as I'd imagined.  I'm calling this project my Rosie Elmer Blanket.  If Elmer the Elephant was rosie, maybe this is what she'd look like!

These are the squares I'd made by Saturday, or it might have been Sunday I forget

Then I had a go at blocking them, using a steam iron and hovering over (not touching!!) like Lucy over in the Attic at number 24 suggested.  Works a treat!

I could do with making a grid or something so they're all blocked the same but I doubt it matters that much

And lastly this is a very bad photo of how many I've got right now.  I need to start using our digital camera instead of my phone but I'm feeling really lazy today!

As always, click the One a Day banner to visit Carole and see the other One a Day projects

x x x x

Tuesdays Tallies 1 - the secret project!

... is back!!

❤

Last year I joined in with the One A Day project hosted by Carole over at Ginger Bread Girl. It was definitely the motivating factor that got my hexagon blanket finished.

 Last week Carole posted that she was starting up again but at the time I said I didn't really have any One A Day suitable projects...

Oh what I didn't know then!  Over the weekend I was reading Heathers latest post on Little Tin Bird and it was all over.  That fire ignited in my head and heart, I just HAD to make myself a blanket like this!

❤

You'll know that I'm on a bit of a yarn de-stash so this looks perfect.  I want to use pinks/purples and some green from my Stylecraft bag.  Here's what I've hooked up so far

And because there's not a lot to see, here's them arranged differently.  How exciting ;-)

I've followed Heathers tutorial which is really easy and can be found here.  It's the same one that she's used for her beautiful Elmer blankets as well.

They're super quick to make, I think I can get one done in about 15 minutes, which may sound a lot but trust me when you're making granny squares with rounds in different colours this is much quicker.

❤ 

Unlike Heather who is far more generous, I will be keeping my blanket all for me!  Mostly because J has been stealing my hexagons (I've had to rescue it as my end weaving wasn't very good!).

Ahh...  now speaking of J, you might be wondering why this is a secret project!  I've already said it's for me so you know I'm not hiding it from it's recipient.  No.  I just can't bring myself to tell J I'm making another blanket when we have so many already (handmade & otherwise) because I can't quite believe I'm doing this again when I swore I wouldn't!

This one will be different, I'm thinking more of a lap blanket so hopefully much smaller.  We'll see.

Anywho, pop over to Caroles blog to see if anyone else has joined in :D

x x x x