Monday, May 27, 2013

Bumbleberry pie blanket

Hello all. Thanks for visiting me. I am on half term break so thought an update was due. 
Now you may remember the Bumbleberry Pie afghan blanket I started in my last post?? Well, I am pleased to announce that I have indeed finished it! Yes! It was a super quick and super enjoyable project and I would highly recommend it. 

I used Mikey's Bumbleberry pattern for it which you can find here. I love Youtube for crochet videos and this guy is great. In fact, he is the guy that taught me to crochet so I owe a lot to him. I have realised just how much of a kinaesthetic learner I am. I need to be shown what to do. In fact, my neighbour helped me the other day by making me a Weekend in Stockholm square but that is another story, my friend, and since then I have found a Youtube video for that too which I have pinned to my Pinterest board. Oh what joy there is in crochet. I have a list as long as time of patterns I want to make but I am running out of room in my house for blankets! Can we ever have too many blankets?? My neighbour suggests I should make them and sell them. Well, maybe one day when I can bear to part with them. Anyway, back to the blanket in question....

I used Mikey's pattern for the squares but I joined them as I went instead of joining at the end. It was a bit confusing to do at first as they lie on a diagonal and actually you need to do them in blocks of two rows at a time as one row has seven squares and the next row has eight. You need to remember this when nearing the finish. I had enough wool to make my last two rows and a final edge with picots on each point. There are 128 squares in total. For the last round I used the granny zigzag pattern which you can find links to on the right of my blog. The wool I used was Drops Big Delight in Berry Muffin which is an aran weight 100% wool in variegated shades. I love the look of this and it was quite difficult to get pictures of the colour so I have taken a few close ups of it. I hope you like it!




Here are some close ups and of course a folded picture. Must have a folded blanket pic.






Here's a little tiny picot example:

Please click on images for close ups to see the colours better.

Well, that's it from me folks. Till next time....

Happy Stitching and Crocheting! By the way, has anyone seen my stitching mojo???



Sunday, May 05, 2013

Nasty Nasty fall

Hello everyone. How are you doing? Well, it's been a while and I figured it was time for a quick update. I have lots of time to do one as I am laid up in bed after having yet another nasty fall last night. I have torn the same ligament in my arm again along with multiple bruising on my body in other parts. I am very sore and fed up. 

So I managed to take a few pics of things I  have been making of late. Here's a quick perusal....

I have made my mum a blanket for her birthday. I decided to use Tillie Tulip's design of daisies. It looks wonderful. 
Colours used were:

cream
meadow
khaki
saffron
All from the Stylecraft Special range.





The edging was one I used from the Crochet Borders book. Very simple but I like it. 

I loved making this blanket so much that I decided I would do another one in whites and blues. This green one was 9x6 squares so 54 squares altogether. Just the right size. 

A few weeks ago I won some very pretty Tilda yarn from Annette at My Rose Valley blog. She had made some beautiful little flowers into a garland so I decided to do the same thing and hung them in my bathroom. They are very easy to do and don't take but a few minutes to make one. You can find the link to the pattern here

Not a great pic but you get the idea. 

Next up is a blanket inspired by Mikey's Bumble Berry blanket which you can find the pattern to here
I really liked the simplicity of it and the mixture of colours but the Bernat yarn was hard to find and expensive over here in the UK. I decided since Drops were having  a sale, I would try out their Big Delight in Berry Muffin shade. Now I have taken soem pictures but the light and the colours is hard to capture. There are a lot more colours in this yarn than is shown. Reds, oranges, greens, blues, purples and pinks. It is gorgeous and I am loving making it. The only difference is that I am joining them as I go instead of joining them at the end. Joining this blanket as you go is a bit different than normal as it is in a diamond pattern so you need to give a little more thought about where to place them. Anyway, here are the pics so far. 




I think  the pattern is so simple and quick that this will be finished in no time. Hopefully, we will have better weather and I will be able to take it outside to get a better look at the colours. The yarn is an aran weight and I am using a 5mm hook. I purchased the yarn from here. I love this company and recommend then most highly.

So, that's me for now. I am sorry I have been so quiet. Husband has been away for a month and comes back tomorrow and it has been a case of getting my head down and getting on with it. Tis the only way I can cope. 
Thanks for reading and I will be back soon with more pictures to share. 
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