Sun Breaks in the Clouds

Hello folks!  As you can see above we are in the thick of winter.  This photo was taken this morning as I wended my weary flu ridden body to the dairy (local corner store) to get milk and bread.  There were some breaks in the clouds and we had a short burst of sun.  Since then the weather has even got colder!  No snow here yet, that only happens once every 20 years or so.  But we have had some big hail storms.  Luckily, no damage.

I think I have broken the back of the flu and it will be better every day.  Sorry if I haven’t got around to you and visited, I have tried but my head was so foggy, I have given up for the time being, sometimes I looked, but my head couldn't cope with finding the words for comments.  Also I said that I would post a blog hop that Anna of Number Elva  passed on to me.  Sorry Anna I will try and do it next week.

Enough of the excuses and moans, I am feeling a lot better and have actually started to crochet again!  I suddenly realized that I have to get cracking on the baby blanket I am doing for a friends first granddaughter, It is due in a month and I want it to be well finished by then.  

So yesterday I got to and started to sew the squares together, I think it is going to be lovely.

This morning I started a doily – a simple one I found on Ravelry called appropriately enough Simple Pineapple Doily.  The link is http://www.ravelry.com/designers/sylvia-landman

I hope to have the doily finished by middle of the week.

I decided to use the colour yellow to make me think of sunny days to come and I thought it would be great to have on the bench where I keep my bowl of fruit, which at the moment is full of lemons from my lemon tree, great for my flu!  I have heaps enough for lemon curd and Preserved Moroccan Lemon. 

On my wander around the garden during one of the sun breaks, I spotted my first daffodils in flower, I normally try and leave them in the garden to give a lovely display and only pick when I have a surplus.  However I needed a bit of sunshine inside so I picked and these have had me smiling all afternoon despite the gloom and doom!

Anyway these pot marigolds are enough to keep the outside smiling and they can take whatever the weather throws at them!  

Thanks for visiting and have a smiley week.

Blanket WIP

This week I have been working on my (Japanese) flower garden blanket, it started out as a shawl, but I decided that it would make an awesome blanket.  It took me ages to work out the pattern as there are several variations of it on the web; in the end I used Lucy of Attic24’s photo.  I was a bit concerned that my petals were too full, and tried a smaller hook, as I am a loose crocheter.  However it still puckered!  Curious I tried different wool and it worked out flat.

(The light colours are really pale greens and lilac, I had to use a flash as the light is bad today.)

So it is the type of wool.  I prefer the raised 3D effect as it gives the blanket texture.   The wool is King Cole Riot Double Knitting, there is an amazing range and so far I am using 4 colour ways.  I might do some blue and teal and purple colours on the outer edges.  Leaves floating along in a stream!

It is such fun to make and very fast as I don’t have to decide what colours and so on for each motif.  Being a ‘join as you go’ project there has to be some thought to placement, but that’s not hard.

The colours make me think of the colours of autumn/winter and I found some photos of my garden I took a few weeks back.

Along the boundary, they really are next door’s trees, don’t you love borrowed landscapes!

Under the plum tree, I think I will have to move the cotoneaster as it will take over if given half a chance.

I also did some doilies this week but will leave that for another post.

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful week everyone.

My Crochet Week

I have wanted to redecorate my house, especially my bedroom for a while, it is decidedly getting shabby, I can’t even say it is shabby chic!  Over the last few weeks I have been delighting in Pinterest, oh my gosh isn't it addictive!  I have gone from bohemian to gypsy chic to shabby chic to romantic, there is just so much wonderful stuff out there.  I had come to no decision until I was in the local fabric shop and spotted the fabric I want for the curtains.  I just fell in love with it.  So now I had the colours.  Of course my head immediately went to what hooky stuff I could have in there.

For years I have wanted a cotton lacy crochet bedspread in white.  So I picked up some white cotton and of course I had to pick out a green and the rusty red colour.

Getting home I thought I could get started on a small cushion to see how the colours work.  I am very fascinated with the popcorn stitch at the moment so I went scouring the net for ideas.  First idea was from  AnaZard Atelier.

I was not convinced and when I saw this square I knew I had found the answer. It is Primavera Grannie Square from Dada's Place.

I decided to even abandon the completely white bedspread in favour of a mix of the three above.  I am not sure at this stage whether I will add a blue or pale yellow. 

Of course, being addicted to mandalas at the moment I had to try one in these colours.

Think it will OK, nice on the bedside table, the pattern was from  Lizzie Bella.

While I was at it I had to try the pattern adapted slightly with some cotton I had found in the local hospice op shop..  12 balls of Twilleys no 3 in pampas, goodness how old it was as it had the price labels from James Smith a big department store in Wellington that closed about 15 or more years ago!  I only paid $4!  I picked up some other crochet bargains, but will blog about it later.

I think I would call this a doily rather than a mandala.  You can see it in the photo but it has a nice sheen to it.

This week I have also been working on my shawl, scarves for family and granny squares for a baby blanket.

Are you like me and have numerous projects on the go? However, sometimes I wish I could just work on one project at a time and get it finished faster!

Linking to Annmarie's Link your Stuff

Mood Blanket 2014

I am having a love affair with hexagons!  In fact I have 3 projects that involve them!

I have decided to do a Mood Blanket,  it involves doing one square, row or whatever a day for a year. Originally I was going to do the hexagons in one colour according to my mood of that day.  But when I saw Attic's 24 flower garden, I just had to do that, after all our mood changes during the course of a day.

Lucy's tutorial also showed how to join as you go, I gave it a go but in the end decided to sew them together in my usual manner as I wanted to do the complete hexagon in one go.

As I have changed the project for the mood blanket I am playing catch up! So far I have 35 hexagons, but then I have about 30 of the origional which I am using to make a throw for one of my sofas.

If you want to take part in the project there is a facebook group. 

Hooked on Crochet!

Last September I took early retirement because of a disability from a car accident several years ago.  Yay, now I have time to do all the projects I have wanted to do over the years!  I am afraid to say I drifted for a couple of months, adjusting I suppose to not having a tight time schedule.  One blog that I follow is Down to Earth and there was a lot of talk about homemade dishcloths, I thought how hard is that.   I ventured into a wool shop to buy some cotton.  Well to a colour junkie like me it was heaven!

Needless to say I made a dishcloth using crochet as I thought it would be quicker.  I search out some U-Tube videos and I was away.

Well, I started to research crochet sites and discovered heaven!  I used to have a tapestry business in a past life (making up my own designs and painting them on canvas and selling them as kits at craft fairs).  I had a trunk of hanks of wool.  I promised myself that if I could use some of that stash, then I was allowed to go and buy some new wool.

My first project was a small lap rug in grannie squares and matching cushion.

 I am afraid to say that two of my fur babies commandeered them!

 So I had to make another for myself, this was a throw size cover and adorns my sofa in the lounge.

Well you can guess I was fully hooked so to speak.  I am now a well-known customer of the two wool shops in town!

I think I have blankie fever as I have few more on the go and will blog about them at a later date.  I am also managing to get a few little items done as well, such as tea cozies.  Well a girl who has tea in her veins can’t have too many cozies. Here is my first tea cozy.  I made it up as I went along, I haven’t got the shaping technique right yet, so I used some flower patterns from attic 24 to hide the faults!

So proud of those flowers!  Well, as you can see this crochet lark is no flash in the pan.  I don’t think there is a day without a crochet hook in my hand!

        Bye for now.