Granny Stripe reveal.

I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted!

It was a fairly busy month with family visits and graduations, but even so I don't really know where all that time has gone. I have still managed to get a some crochet done though, hence this post.
I have finished the Granny Stripe blanket that I have been working on!

But before I show you the pictures I just want to thank Michelle from The Royal Sisters. She does a wonderful tutorial for the Grandma all square which I used to make this cushion a few months ago. She kindly did a blog post about it and made some lovely comments about this blog. If you haven't already seen her blog it is well worth a visit.






 And finally here are the details and pictures of the Granny Stripe blanket I made using the pattern from the lovely Lucy at Attic 24.

It has 100 stripes, it's 175 cms wide, 195 cms long and weighs approx 2 kgs.

 I have done my edging slightly differently to Lucy. I have used her suggestion of doing treble clusters (uk) all round as the first row of the edging which worked brilliantly, I then did 3 rows of double crochet (uk) and then a row of crab stitch.

So now it is decision time once again, I really am not sure what I am going to make next. I think it is time to trawl though all the pages I have bookmarked for ideas.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Celebrations and Strawberries & Cream

It's been a great week. My boy/girl twins got their degree results from their respective Universities this week and have got a high 2:1 and a First between them. I cannot tell you how proud I am of them, it has not been an easy 3 years for either of them, but they persevered and came through with flying colours!  Well done J & B!!!!!!!!! Did I say how proud I am of them?


This week I made some more squares for SIBOL  If you haven't already visited it is well worth a look. Sue is making blankets for the elderly and people all over the world are sending her squares.
Here is a picture of the thank you card Sue sent me. You can see some of the absolutely stunning blankets she has already finished on it.

Sibol's current blue and white theme ends in a few days and the next one is Strawberries and Cream. I was trying to decide what to make in strawberry and cream colours and came up with the idea of taking the theme literally. Here are the resulting squares.

The squares with the small strawberries are No 98 Old Vienna from Jan Eaton's 200 Crochet blocks book.

 I found the appliqué strawberry pattern here

The big strawberry square is a heart pattern I downloaded from  here  (you need to scroll down to find it) I changed the top slightly to fit a strawberry rather than a heart.
Then to make the big strawberry I made the appliqué strawberry a bit bigger.

I also made Sue a Strawberry Coaster that I thought she could keep as a little memento of this theme.

I got the Strawberry Coaster pattern from here. I forgot to take a picture of the actual one I sent Sue, so the above picture is one I made last month.

Lastly a couple of pictures of a couple of recent mini crochet projects.

A cover for the mayonnaise jar that I keep my clover crochet hooks in. I need to do some decoration to hide the rim, I haven't decided what yet. Any suggestions?

I kept seeing pictures of these butterflies on Flickr and also a couple of blogs and so had to give it a go.

The pattern can be found on Netpets blog. They are so cute, I will definitely be making some more!

I'm still working on the granny stripe blanket, I've completed 40 stripes so far, but am progressing slowly as it makes me too hot when working on it on these warm days.

Thanking for visiting, hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend. 

Jenny

Resistance is futile!

Hi everyone,

It's been a quiet week so I've done a fair bit of hooking, though I seem to have spent more time reading about crochet than actually doing it.

I made a pair of Granny Square slippers using the pattern from The Purl Bee's blog  The pattern was quick and easy to follow. Though I got my measurements slightly wrong, so they are a little bit too big for me. I am trying to decide whether to leave them as they are, as they will fit perfectly over a couple of pairs of socks to help keep my feet warm next winter or whether to take them apart and reduce each square by one row. Somehow I think I will take the lazy option and keep them as they are.

The other thing I have been working on is a Granny Stripe blanket, inspired by Lucy from Attic 24
I really did try to resist temptation, but in the end I succumbed! Someone on Ravelry did tell me resistance is futile and they were so right.
I have promised myself that I will only use my stash yarn for this, well apart from the couple of colours I would like need to buy from the market on Monday. The market stall is the only place in town I can buy yarn from as the shop that had a small stock of wool, had a fire a couple of months ago and has been closed ever since.

I have completed about 26 stripes so far, I think I will need about 130 stripes in total, so there's quite a lot more to do.

Lastly here's a picture I took this morning down at the river. The cygnets were so cute.

Thanks to you all for reading this and have a good week.

African Flower bag June 2010

African Flower bag June 2010


I've just finished this African Flower bag. I used Inga's pattern on Ravelry for the construction . For the squares I used the graph for an African Flower square posted on Flicker by Pertinitaco

The bag itself was quick and easy to make. Then I decided to line it, not really a good idea as sewing is not my thing and I don't own a sewing machine so it had to be hand sewn.

I was determined to do it properly as the last bag I lined was my Attic 24 bag.

That lining looks fine from a distance but close inspection would show that I didn't do it very well. It was an old skirt with the hem sewn to to top of the bag and a running stitch pulled tight to gather the bottom.

This time I cut a pattern from brown paper, used some poly-cotton that I bought at the local market and did it properly. It is not perfect but at least I won't be worried about anyone seeing inside!

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a good week.

It's Finished!

The ripple is finished!

I am so pleased that it is done. It is the first one I've made that has been for me, though with the current warm weather it probably won't be used for quite a while.

I have developed some weird and wonderful crochet positions these past few days as I've been trying to do it without it resting on me which isn't easy with a double bed sized blanket. I suppose I could have waited for it to be a bit cooler but it was getting so close to finishing I didn't want to stop.

Anyway here it is.

I still haven't decided what to do next! I have quite a few ideas, mostly inspired by other peoples blogs and flickr pictures. One thing certain though is that it will be something small that won't cause me to overheat whilst making it.

Too hot to ripple!

It has been a strange week on the crochet front, I had to stop working on the ripple for a few days as it got so hot last weekend that I didn't really want a blanket anywhere near me. So I then started making the inner circles for my next planned big project which will be a blanket using the Summer Garden Granny Squares from Lucy at Attic 24's pattern. After about 40 I realised my heart really wasn't in it, I wanted to make something that I could use now. Also I don't really want 2 big blankets on the go at the same time.
So I decided that I would make a cardigan, I spent ages trying to find a pattern, I ended up finding this free one by Doris Chan.
I wasn't sure how it would turn out as it is a least 26 years since I last crocheted any clothing for myself other than the scarf I made recently.

It worked up really quickly and I am quite pleased with the finished cardigan.

I made it a bit longer than the pattern and also did a button instead of the ties that are in the pattern. I used an old button and covered it using the Easy Crocheted Button Cover pattern from Crochet Me.


Now I have to decide what to do next, with the weather being a bit cooler more rippling is definitely on the books, but I am also very tempted to have a go at this African Tissue Box cover by Daniella H on Flicker. There are so many potential projects buzzing around in my head, I just don't know where to start!

The Postman has been

Hi everyone,

I'm still working on my ripple and it's about one fifth completed. Although I love my ripples I do get a bit bored when making them and often stop and do a bit of work on something else. The arrival of the postman yesterday gave me the ideal opportunity for such a break!

 So I ended up spending a lot of time playing with my new tunisian hooks and trying out various stitches.  As tunisian crochet is new to me I had to learn how to do it, luckily there are lots of of great tutorials on the internet.

I found a pattern for a Tunisian colour block throw and had a go at one of the squares, 

I was happy with the centre but am not so sure about the edging it seems very loose compared to the tightness of the centre. Maybe I will try reworking it with a smaller hook. However the crochet cotton I had received was calling me, I haven't worked with such fine thread for about16 years so was looking forward to making something with it.
I had ordered the red and green because I had found this Strawberry Coaster pattern  and really wanted to make them.

 This time I was pleased with the result, it worked up really well and lays nice and flat. Though I am not sure that I could actually bring myself to actually use it as a coaster and put a drink on it!









Thanks to everyone for visiting and for the lovely comments you left on my first two blogs, also thanks to Sue at SIBOL for her support and linking to here on her blog. If you haven't visited it, it is well worth a visit, though I'm assuming most of you have as that is how you found me. :)

Bye for now, I had better go as my ripple is feeling a bit neglected!