September

Well, it certainly looks as though the summer is over, judging from the weather this last week or two - the air is definitely autumnal now. The leaves on the trees are already turning brown, I noticed, and the nights are pulling in.

Our little Madam started school last week, something she was very excited about. The past few weeks have been a flurry of preparations for this event - buying sets of skirts, shirts, shoes, plimsolls, trousers, pinafores, socks, jumpers, cardigans....the list is endless, not to mention the sewing in of the ubiquitous name labels. It made me feel rather nostalgic for my own childhood, actually, sewing those in. I think my mum even has some of my name tags in her sewing box still!

Although Madam starting school has been a big step, and one which I have been mildly dreading, I can't pretend that having a few hours to myself in the week isn't something I haven't been looking forward to. I only work part-time, which leaves me plenty of time to browse the internet and crochet keep on top of the housework.
Luckily, just in case I run out of housework to do (no danger of that!), I have several new projects which are sure to keep me busy.

I have waited very patiently to order the yarn for these projects. Firstly, I made sure that I had ticked off most of the things on my crafty To-Do list, which had been languishing half-finished in my craft box. Secondly, I wanted to wait until the expense of July and August were over (two weddings and no less than five family/close friend birthdays to buy for!). Finally, I was able to place my order with Mason's, which arrived in less than 48 hours.

What did I order? Stylecraft Special DK, 19 balls of it, for three different projects all destined to be Christmas presents.

From top, L-R: Mocha, Walnut, Meadow, Spring Green, Clematis, Fondant, Raspberry.

 Project 1

This yarn is for a blanket for an old housemate of mine from university. We hardly ever see each other now, due to distance, so it's really hard to buy presents for her as I don't know what stuff she already has, etc. I normally go with an amusing novelty gift, but I do like to give useful things too, so I thought I'd make her a blanket for Christmas, as I know she always used to like her fleece lap blanket at uni. In fact we had matching ones. Originally, I thought I would make her a Wavy Blanket, which looked great when I'd completed a few rows, but I quickly realised that it would be quite a yarn-hungry project and I wouldn't have enough yarn to complete it, and I didn't really want to have to order more. Plus, I found that the (US) treble stitches quite hard on the hands. Anyway, here's a pic of where I got to:

I made the decision to make a Summer Garden Granny Square instead, which was an exciting thought as I now had seven colours to mix and match, as opposed to five when I made the Seafoam Granny Square. I thought I wouldn't follow a plan with regards to colour placement; just try to make sure the colours were evenly spaced and not clumped together. Here's where I've got to so far:

Forty-five squares of loveliness! Unfortunately, I have neglected to sew in any ends, so I am in for a treat when this is finished! 

Project 2

I am making a ripple blanket for my 10 year old sister, who detests anything pink and girly. So I picked seven shades of blue. (Sherbert, Cloud Blue, Aster, Denim, Bluebell, Royal, and Midnight). Annoyingly, I had to rip back what I've just posted a picture of, as somehow I had neglected to put in two DC into the top of the chain-3 at the end of a row, and everything got all out of sync. When I started again, I decided to go with a graduated colour scheme, rather than random. I think it looks good, although it will be hard to tell until I've done a few colour repeats. 

Project 3

This little lot is to become a Doctor Who Scarf for my stepdad, who is a keen sci-fi fan. The website I've linked to gives lots of great pictures of the different scarves used in the series (I naively thought that they used the same scarf the whole way through!), so I tried to match up similar colours on Mason's website. Up there I've got Khaki, Teal (Masons made a bit of a boo boo and sent me Teal instead of Turquoise for the ripple, so I've pinched the Denim that was meant to be for this for the ripple blanket, and used the Teal for the scarf. Actually I think it goes rather well, so no matter!), Camel, Copper and Mocha - plus a barely touched ball of Plum that I have left over. I don't think I will make the scarf quite so long as the scarf from season 15, (as 16ft would be rather impractical, I feel!), but long and wide enough to be a cosy winter scarf anyway.

I seem to have typed rather a lot tonight, so perhaps I will leave it there for now!  :-)

Mummy's Little Helper

Seafoam Granny Square Blanket - Finally Finished!

OK, I am officially rubbish at keeping up with my blog!! I have blog posts in my head, but never seem to get round to actually writing them down, especially when I haven't got anything particularly 'exciting' to write about, like a Finished Object. I must work on not being embarrassed to post whatever I fancy on my own blog, lol!

Anyway, I thought that since I actually have a FO or two to post about, I would take the time to write a post!

Presenting....the Seafoam Granny Square Blanket!

I ordered the yarn for this blanket back in January, and worked on it sporadically throughout the spring. I decided to use a combination of traditional granny squares, Attic24's Summer Garden Granny Squares and Flowers in the Snow squares I found on Ravelry. I decided to use Stylecraft Special DK again, and ordered Cream, Sherbert, Cloud Blue, Aspen and Spring Green, as I was planning to crochet some flowers and leaves to attach to the squares. I hadn't realised Aspen would prove to be quite such a bold greeny colour (the perils of internet shopping!), but I think the colours work well together. I was too lazy to crochet flowers to attach, so I just incorporated the Spring Green into the squares. 

I used the join-as-you-go technique to join my squares which saved loads of time, and also saved me from losing squares in my various project bags and boxes. 

Finished off with the granny blanket edging found at Attic24.

It took me months to finish sewing in all the ends. In fact, I even pressed it into service on the bed before I'd fully completed it. I did a few squares at a time - whilst on the phone, or watching TV. I did take it round to my mum's one day, where we sat out the back for a pleasant hour or so, weaving in all the ends together. Finally, this weekend, it was all finished! I've enjoyed admiring it spread across the bed, without those pesky ends sticking up everywhere, and I've been lucky enough to get some lovely comments on it on Flickr. 

I haven't got all the measurements yet, but I will get round to that soon hopefully! 

Going to the chapel....

One of my best friends got married this weekend, and I was her bridesmaid, which was rather exciting. The couple requested money rather than gifts as they already have things for their house, but I wanted to give them a little something with a personal touch as well. (For our wedding two years ago, they gave us a Welsh love spoon with our names and the date engraved on it).

So I decided to knit them a pair of wedding teddies, with the outfits personalised to them. The pattern came from a book called Twenty To Make - Knitted Bears by Val Pierce, which I picked up about 18 months ago in WHSmith, before I learnt to crochet.

The bride wore a full-skirted dress with beads and sequins sewn onto the skirt. The colour scheme was black and yellow, and the groom wore a black suit, white shirt and yellow tie and pocket square. I had to text my friend to get her to send me pictures without letting her know why I wanted them, lol. 

The pattern says to use beads as eyes, and sew the nose and mouth with yarn, but the bears ended up looking rather evil for some reason, so I scrapped that idea and cut pieces from fabric and glued it on instead.

The bride wore a bubble veil (had to Google that! lol).

I lent her my blue garter, so of course, I had to put one on the bear! 

...and she carried a bouquet of pale yellow dahlias (could only find these yellow ones in The Works but I think they suit).

Some pics from the actual wedding...

View of Tintern Abbey from the car (the wedding was in Merthyr Tydfil and we had to take a detour through the valleys as the Brynglas tunnel near Newport was shut due to an explosion. I didn't mind though...the scenery was wonderful!)

A close-up of my bouquet. The lovely little yellow flowers are a type of Australian daisy and are called Billy Buttons. The groomsmen wore them as buttonholes too. 

Obligatory shoe shot! Mine is on the right!

The reception venue

 The tables were named after Welsh theatres (bride studied Drama and is involved with the theatre) or tools (groom is a carpenter!) 

Funky cake toppers! 

My present for being bridesmaid was a gorgeous charm bracelet, including this cute little yarn charm! 

                                                                 Me, the bride, and our other friend who got married this year comparing our bling!

All in all, it was an amazing day! I'm now impatiently waiting for more of my friends to get engaged!

PS - I have it on good authority that the bears now have a happy home on the mantelpiece! 
                        

Bank Holiday Monday

Bit late with this post, never mind! Last Monday both hubby and I were off work, so we decided to go to the Natural History Museum and brave the train/tube with the little one. We had a brilliant time. Little miss was absolutely fine on the way, and behaved perfectly even though we had to queue for an hour to get into the museum. (I think she must take after hubby, as I was always, and still am, a terrible traveller and very impatient!)

She enjoyed all the exhibits - especially the dinosaurs. I was more taken with the amazing architecture - I hadn't visited in about 12 years and hadn't noticed it then.

The detail was amazing

I love the creatures carved into the walls inside.

And the amazing ceiling paintings

The mosaic floor must have taken ages to complete! 

I really enjoy going to London occasionally, but I'm not a fan of crowds, so there's no way I could live there. Not that we could afford it - ha! 

Previous crochet projects...

To get into the swing of things, I thought I would post about a few previous crochet projects of mine. I am not a natural writer, and often find it a struggle to write in an engaging way like I've seen on a lot of blogs. I guess a lot of it comes down to practice though! 

This is one of the first cushion covers I made last summer - a solid granny square on one side and a Summer Garden Granny Square courtesy of Attic24 on the other. I made it in blue and white to match the chair that I painted, and which sits in our bedroom. (The little hearts hanging from the chair are knitted ones that I made before discovering crochet). 

This is the cushion I made for my daughter's room, to go with her painted green and white chair. I used Attic24's Granny Stripe pattern. I really like the effect that the Granny Stripe produces, both in this cushion and in various projects I've seen on the internet, but I find the actual process of crocheting it rather monotonous - quite strange really, as it seems to be quite a favourite on Ravelry and Flickr. Must be something to do with all those clusters! 

A ripple blanket I made for my mother-in-law for Christmas. For some reason, I don't have any decent pictures of the finished object, and obviously now it's gone off to its new home. I think M-I-L was happy with her present - she is a chilly mortal like myself and always appreciates a warm blanket to snuggle under on the sofa. I really love the ripple pattern - I found the pattern really quite soothing in its repetitiveness. It did take a while to get going with though - I think it was only my second project, and that first foundation row was rather  a test of my patience, what with missing out stitches (valuable lesson in not making your first starting chain too tight here!), and ripples getting out of sync and thus becoming distinctly un-ripply. I think it was definitely worth the effort though! 

And finally, my very first crochet project! I rather naively attempted to master the ripple pattern first, but with all the palava of the foundation row, I set it aside for a while and browsed the net for a simpler pattern. I found the Vintage Stripe Blanket pattern, which was just the thing for easing me into crochet without putting me off. I completed the blanket within about three weeks. It now belongs on my dad's bed! 

Crafting History

I used to think that knitting and crochet was the preserve of the elderly, and sewing was something that my mum usually did, under duress, the night before a school play or fancy dress day that required her to make a 'cowboy waistcoat', or a 'villager's skirt'. How wrong was I?


I began to learn to knit in spring 2009, after a forum I used began a knitalong. I learnt to knit a mitred square blanket (after many false starts!!), then progressed to small toys and other items such as hot water bottle covers. The problem with knitting, for me at least, was that it was so slooooow. I was put off starting any big projects as my impatience usually meant that if a pattern stated 'knit until piece is 20cms in length', I would get bored at around row 10. I think part of the problem was that fact that I couldn't hold the needles and yarn in the 'proper' way, which resulted in aching wrists and fingers.


Then, in summer 2010, after marvelling over the crochet creations in various blogs I read, I was determined to learn how to crochet. With the help of many, many Youtube and blog tutorials, I eventually picked it up and crocheted a big Vintage Stripe blanket within a month, and haven't looked back since! (I'm ashamed to say I haven't picked up my knitting needles in over a year!)


Sewing-wise, I'm not particularly gifted; I often make it up as I go along, and have really only done a couple of small items, but I do enjoy it and it's fun learning!


Here's a pic of my current crochet work in progress...