July Challenge

Well.

It's the beginning of another month, and we all know what that means...

IT'S CHALLENGE TIME.

What do you think of this fabulous bear skin blankie???

It's a knitting challenge and the pattern will be FREE to those participating.

You need to make the rug and post photos before the end of the month. As always I will choose my favourite one, and then that person tells me what to design for the next knitting challenge.

Fuzzy measures 51 cm (20 in) in length and 36 cm (14 ¼ in) in width.

He is made using 150g of 10 ply/worsted weight yarn and a pair of 4.5 mm (US 7) needles.

Interested?

Send me a message with your email address…

And I look forward to seeing what you create!

Scrappy Blanket - Complete

It was worth it!

Saving all those leftover threads...

Tying them all together...

Knitting up the squares...

And joining them all!

I am totally in LOVE with this Scrappy Blanket.

It has been the perfect time of year for piecing it all together.

We're in the thick of Winter here at the moment - and the evenings really do get mighty cold. The heating system here is one of those central systems, where you have to heat the whole house... and I really don't see the point in doing that - especially if I am the only one up!

I've been toasty and warm though.

With the blanket sitting on my lap as I work - I've been warmer and warmer with every square that was added.

So my new Scrappy Blanket is now the Couch Blanket...

Mr Goldfish loves it - and so do the kiddies. I've made it a single bed size - which means it's large enough for two people to snuggle under - or even three...

And there are loads of squares leftover, too!

As you can see, I've joined my squares in a basket weave pattern... where one square sits horizontally and the next one vertically. I love the effect of the stripes all criss-crossy like this.

Just LOVE!

Now what to make with the leftovers?

(I haven't counted them yet - but I'm pretty certain I've only used about half of them)

Could be another blanket - Because I know there will be tussles over this one...

You voted me INSANE! and I love it

So last week I asked you to vote in a poll... about whether it was INSPIRED or INSANE to save teabag strings for the purpose of knotting them together into yarn...

The results were closer than I expected, but not surprisingly the insane vote won out:

The most received comments about this latest recycling phase of mine, went along the lines of:

"Don't you have enough to do with your time already?"

and

"Won't there be a lot of knots?"

And the answer is a resounding YES to both questions!

Yes, I do have a lot to do with my time already,

but this is Fun, Challenging and Free...

Yes, there will be a huge number of knots,

but I think that is part of the charm...

Like my Scrappy Blanket.

Remember I keep telling you to save your ends? Even the short ones?

Well I've been saving mine for a while now - and many of my Craft Buddies have been saving their ends for me to. Gotta love the enablers of the madness!

Anyway.

The ends have been knotted together...

 and rolled into balls of yarn.

Then knit into squares

(mostly while I was pregnant with Charlotte, and a bit brain dead in the creativity department)

Then those squares sat around in a bag for a year and a bit...

 

And now they're becoming a blanket...

Aiming to finish it up today, so I can share a finished photo with you tomorrow.

(and best thing of all - NO ends to weave in!!!)

Finished.

So that Charity Blanket is finally finished...

Ends are sewn in, and the edging is done.

You know the way some projects just go ON and ON and ON and ON and you seriously start wondering if it is EVER coming to an end???

I enjoyed the pattern itself - a nice simple Granny Stripe - which made it an easy one to work on while watching TV, or supervising the kids at the park or the pool... or gossiping at a Crochet Meet.

I think that I was just SO incredibly bored with the colours, that I lost interest in it.



So here are the details:

Pattern:

• Granny Stripe Blanket, by Lucy of Attic24
• click here for FREE online pattern

Yarn:

• mostly 8plys, with a few 10 plys, and some doubled 4 plys...
• a variety of reclaimed yarns in navy, greys and cream

Hook:

• 4.0mm aluminium hook

Modifications:

1. First of all I skipped Row 1. Simply worked the pattern straight into the row of chains. Tried it the way the pattern was written, but prefer it my way.
2. Then instead of working 2 rows per colour, I changed at the end of every row. Just Because.
3. To finish off neatly, I worked 2 rounds in pattern, then turned my work and did a round of hdc in each st. The hdc gives it a nice firm edge.

Getting There.

Those ends are almost all sewn in... but I'll still need to crochet a border to finish the blanket off.

As always, I'm keeping my scraps!

Scary.

The main part of the blanket is finished, but look at ALL those ends to sew in!

Starting Over

Sometimes you just have to abandon a project.

If the love is not there, and it makes you miserable to work on... then LET IT GO...

The way that I see it, there's enough of the 'tough stuff' in life - and if crafting is your leisure time, then you should make a habit of enjoying it.

And I was not enjoying the Charity Blanket.

First the tension was all over the place, and I couldn't work out why...

Then the tension problems were solved (thanks Daphne) but I was still not liking it. It was an absoloute drag to work on. It was almost like with every stitch I was chanting "I hate it... I hate it... I hate it"

And even though it was "only for charity" I still wanted to love it!

So I made a decision...

R-I-P-P-I-T

And rip it I did.

Frog, frog, frog, frog, frog.

I've stared anew. Same colours, but making a granny stripe instead of a square. Only a small change, but I'm loving it now.

It feels right.

Tension Problems...

Do you ever have days where you just don't seem to be able to get it right?

Or maybe even weeks?

Frustrating isn't it?

Especially when we're talking about activities that you could usually do in your sleep - but for some reason, you just can't get your act together, no matter how many times you try.

For me, it's the HUMBLE GRANNY SQUARE.

Now I've made The Granny MANY times before, but this past week my efforts have been pathetic. I just can't get my tension right.

I'm supposed to be working on this knee rug for the Nursing Home, but it's doing my head in!

For some reason my tension is all over the place, and the 'squares' aren't sitting at all nicely...

Here's my first effort - I was really unhappy with the way that the greys were so loose compared with the rest of the work



Now the greys were slightly thicker yarns than the navy, so I thought that was the reason for the problems... but then I started a new square, ugh!



This next effort seems to get looser and looser with every round... regardless of which yarns I use!

Aaaarghhhhh!

A little bit of irregularity can be blocked out quite easily - but this is beyond help. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow...

My Little Helper

Actually, it's not really that helpful to have little fingers which get into EVERYTHING!

But she's so gorgeous that you just can't get mad with her...

And it's not her fault that she feels so drawn to fibre... it's genetic, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm working up a knee rug to help a friend who is organising some charity rugs for her local Nursing Home... Hello there Marie!

Hopefully I'll have a lot more progress to show you next week.

Enjoy your weekend - What are you up to?

That Patchwork Blanket...

Thanks to all of you for your lovely comments on Friday, about my gorgeous Little One in her new dress...

And a very big welcome to everyone who has been visiting here from Rhonda's blog!

In the comments on Friday, Tammy was asking me about the blanket in the photos, and whether I had made it?

Yes I did... and I love it to pieces. For such a simple blanket, it gets SO many compliments whenever we use it. Generally it stays in the pram, so it's always on display when we go shopping, or out for a walk...

I get a real buzz when people ask me about it!!!

I blogged about it when I had just started on it, but I don't think that I ever got around to showing you the finished project. The original post is here.

So I started out knitting in strips like this:



And then joined them together:



Which gave me this lovely looking blanket:




But the egdes were lacking stablility, and the blanket was losing it's neat shape really easily...

So I decided to add a crochet border:



I only wanted something simple, which wouldn't detract from those fun squares. But one round wasn't substantial enough... see how the edges were all wavy? It didn't matter how many times I frogged it and tried again, it just wouldn't sit nicely!



But with a few more rounds, I ended up with this edging:



And here's a full view of the finished project:



But it looks much cuter with BABY hands on it, don't you agree?



Adorable... Dimply... Pudgy... Scrumptious Little Fingers...

I could just KISS them right off...

"Too Late!" she cried...

"Too Late!" she cried...

The deed is done.



The Ripple Blanket is no more...

No regrets though. I've been stewing on this one for quite a while now, and it actually feels like quite a relief to have finally made a decision about it.

And yes, Sam... I probably, okay.... definitely am just being picky...

But I'm allowed to be!

I'll do it anyway...

You can tell me not to, but I'll do it anyway...

I should probably have that tattooed on my forehead, it seems to be my motto in life!

Anyway... ages ago I started on this crochet ripple blanket.

The plan was to make it for my bed, but plans have changed (as they do) and now I'll be making it for my daughter. Which means that it now only needs to fit a single bed, and not a queen size.

But it's wide enough for a queen, and I've worked about a third of the lenghth...

I could turn it sideways, and have the ripples running lengthways down the bed... but I didn't like it like that

So I thought I might literally cut it in half, and secure the ends.. then add the top to the bottom.

Only I decided it wasn't worth the effort, because I don't like the two rows of each colour...

So I'm GOING TO FROG IT!

Yes... unravel ALL of it... and START AGAIN.

I know that an awful lot of work has already gone into it - but if I don't like it now, it's going to drive me mad forever... and FOREVER is a very very long time!

my distraction...

here she is...

the gorgeous little blossom who has been distracting me from my blogging -

little miss charlotte, now 11 weeks old

isn't she precious???

the hat and jacket were made by a couple of very crafty girls from my local crochet group...

and a bunch of them worked together on this blanket for her also:

we're so spoiled!

festive fish surprise...

Well, it turns out that I am not the only one who has been making beautiful things for my baby girl...

Isn't this the most gorgeous blanket?

I have to say a super big thank you to my dear friend Tess for this wonderful creation. She has put so much work into this piece... and every one of those little fishies has been individually blocked before joining. Now that's dedication to the cause!!!

I love the colours...



I love the textures too... look closely at the eyes and the fins... what wonderful depth the project has!

And the joining method is exquisite...

The pattern is Festive Fish by Paula Levy. You can also check out the project page by Tess over at Ravelry for more details.

round ripple baby afghan

For a while there, I was expecting to spend the last six weeks of my pregnancy in hospital. I had been told to make all necessary arrangements, and have myself packed and ready to go...

And do you know what the hardest part was?

Packing clothes and toiletries were easy...

Selecting reading material was easy...

Organising care for the three other children was easy...

The hardest part was choosing which craft projects to take with me!!!

The thing was... I was quite healthy - so I knew that I would be bored out of my brain if I didn't take my craft along with me...

But how much should I take???

I mean, I was going to have all day... every day... for six weeks... to craft to my heart's content. No washing. No cleaning. No cooking. No children!

I was so worried that I might run out if I didn't take enough along with me!

Anyway, I bundled up a number of projects and squeezed them into a bag. Then, feeling rather sorry for myself, I decided that I needed some more!

So I went shopping...

Real shopping...

For NEW yarn! (shock, horror)

I've been wanting to make this round ripple blanket for a while now. In fact, it has been in my Ravelry queue since 2008! At that point I was thinking I would make it for a gift, but now I had a need for one myself! I also had a number of gift vouchers to use up, so I took myself along to Lincraft to check out the baby yarn there...

I found the gorgeous range of Shepherd yarns, and chose the 4ply Baby Wool Merino in a number of bright colours. It felt so decadent to buy brand new yarn after so many years of recycling, but to be honest, I loved every minute of it!



So the pattern is Lyn's Round Ripple Baby Afghan. I used the 4ply yarn with a 3.0mm hook, and it came up beautifully. As you can see, I started with a solid red centre, and then just randomly worked each round in a different colour. To finish off I worked several rounds in the red again, with a final round of hdc as suggested in the pattern.

The only down side to all those colour changes, is the end which need woven in. And I have a confession to make...

I still have some ends left!

look what I made!

Okay... so I didn't do it entirely on my own, but look at what I made

A gorgeous little girl baby!



Little Miss Charlotte is three weeks old now. I'd forgotten just how much of my day would be absorbed by her - the feeding and burping and changing for starters, and then the cuddling... I could quite happily spend the entire day just cuddling her (and sometimes I do)

Thanks to everyone for all your well wishes throughout the pregnancy. I'm afraid I zoned out through most of it. It was almost as though the process of growing a baby was consuming all of my energy, and there was none left at the end of the day for thinking, let alone blogging!

Back soon to tell you all about that gorgeous bright blanket which is keeping my little girl warm...

what are you making for the baby???

"What are you making for the baby???"

It would have to be one of the most frequently asked questions of me at the moment... it's right up there with "When are you due?" and "How far along are you?" and "Is it a boy or a girl?"

So to answer a few of those others... I am due June 19th... which happens to also be my 12th Wedding Anniversary (and three days before I turn 40)

Which makes me 26 weeks along at the moment, and those weeks really are starting to fly by.

No idea what the gender is. I like surprises, so I'll just be patient and wait until it POPS OUT and then find out! Not sure what it's like in your part of the world, but I almost feel like a bit of a freak here for not yet knowing the gender. So many expectant mothers do choose to know, and it feels quite odd to NOT know.

As for my own maternal instinct... who knows? Most days I'm certain that I'm carrying a girl... but then there's the odd day when I'm just as certain that it is a boy!!!

SO...

What am I making for the baby???

Well... remember all those mini skeins?

I started making them into small knitted squares...

And then joined them together in a basketweave type layout...

But I didn't like how they sat so unevenly... it kind of gave a wavy appearance, rather than clean straight lines...

So I started over again, this time working in lengths like so...

And when I find the battery charger for my camera, I'll be able to take a progress photo to show you where I'm up to now!

I'm loving the way it looks, and I think you will too...

Now..

Does anyone know where my charger is???

I haven't used it since before I fell pregnant... and it isn't where I expected it to be!

Aaarghhhh!!!