Finishing WIPs

I’m been finishing off a lot of WIPs (Work In Progress) and its such a lovely feeling 🙂 Most of them are baby related, some for my new granddaughter Rose and some for a new baby soon to be born to Jess at work.

Here we go with the photos:

This is a knitted babygrow; I do prefer the look of knitting to crochet for clothes, but am more prolific at crocheting, hence why I make so many blankets. The babygrow is from a Deramores pattern, I love the colours here: Stylecraft Shrimp and Saffron, and the contrasting colour changes hopefully make it a little more unique.

I also made an aran all-in-one for wearing outside with little wooden toggles, again this is knitted:

 and here’s a close-up of the cable:

I’m going to have to get some photos of Rose wearing it, hopefully those photos will look better! Rose grew out of the shrimp and saffron one before I had finished it, so I have made his one extra long to fit. She’s going to be a tall girl!

Another knitted one: a tiny pink cardi with rosebuds and a little pearl button from the Sublime pattern book:

A crocheted blanket for Jess’ baby using the Cedar River pattern from Deramores. It’s my first C2C blanket and a joy to make:

I have also been making some Christmas baubles inspired by Heather at the Patchwork Heart:

This is one of Heather’s photos, doesn’t she do beautiful staging. I’ve traded some crocheted baubles for some good photos of my own so I’m hoping they’ll make an appearance on my Etsy shop soon.

Continuing the Christmas theme, I have crocheted a gorgeous little stocking ready for Rose’ first Christmas, see the little red rose on the cuff so Santa knows whose presents to put in?

Well blogging is an exhausting business, as is taking photos! So I shall get back to my restful hooking and continue with the Christmas bauble production line. And good news on the M.E. front: I have been given the go-ahead for a new wheelchair with a tilt-in-space mechanism. For those not au fait with wheelchairs and their tricks, it will hopefully mean that I can rest from my wheelchair, spend less time lying flat in bed and hopefully be sociable for longer before crashing. Happy days 🙂

 

Painted Roses Blanket

I’ve just finished the Painted Roses Blanket. It’s for my friend Em’s baby Lucy’s cot as a homewarming present. I hope they both like it! The pattern is from Cherry Heart This is her second pattern I have used and it’s beautifully clear and easy to follow. I copied her colours as I’ve discovered they can make or break a project and often what I picture in my head doesn’t work out in reality! I like Stylecraft Special DK for it’s price and softness so most of the colours are from there. However their duck egg blue isn’t released until October and I just couldn’t wait so I went ahead with Hayfield’s instead. Not as soft, but a good colour.

I’ve finished quite a few blankets lately:

• The Lilypond which is for sale in my Etsy shop

• An Aran Hearts Throw for my friend Nicole’s wedding present

• A Sophie’s Universe done in one colour, just cream

although that photo is not so good and I don’t have the energy to do another for now:( but maybe it gives you an idea of the intricacies of the stitches

• and I’m currently working on a large Sophie using the colour pack suggested by Dedri

As you can see it’s my usual story of enough energy to crochet, but too little for great photos and wordy blogging! 🙂

Rainbow Granny, Lilypond and Sophie’s Universe

I have been making this Rainbow Granny as a quick, easy make to cover a new day-bed we have. I made it following inspiration from the Patchwork Heart, I love her colour combinations – or “colour recipes” as she calls them. I have used Stylecraft Special DK with parchment on alternate rows. The rainbow rows are: copper, spice, gold, lime, meadow, khaki, petrol, teal, violet, grape, plum, burgundy, and claret. I prefer a denser granny square so I didn’t do any chains between the treble groups, and only one chain at the corners. I went round in a square until I had the correct width and then just continued in the colour sequence until I had the length I needed. It’s been a great blanket to make, so easy so I can watch a film at the same time or if I’m having a bad M.E. day and need something brainless.

For those days when I need more of a challenge, I have started a Sophie’s Universe. There are gorgeous pictures of these creations all over blogland and Facebook.

I’m a bit late to the party and have decided to make my first Sophie in Cream, then when I’m familiar with the pattern I will choose my colour combination. You see, I’m accepting there will be more than one Sophie – they are so addictive! Actually I love the effect of Sophie in a neutral colour; she is so intricate that she doesn’t need colour and in many ways I think colour would detract from her detail. It’s the best pattern I’ve ever used, and I have been crocheting for yeeears! Dedri, from LookWhatIMade must have spent hours writing up the detailed instructions. I love it that she tells you exactly where you should find yourself after each little group of instructions. Perfect. And if it doesn’t seem to make sense, there’s a video at Its All In A Nutshell demonstrating the whole blanket. I’m totally submerged in Sophie’s Universe; I truly love it!

The third blanket I have on the go at the moment is the Lilypond CAL (Crochet-A-Long) by Janie Crow and Stylecraft. I love the colours in this and I’m currently waiting for week 7 to come out next Tuesday. It’s a mix between flower squares and ripple and wave blocks, so great for keeping you interested. I haven’t decided what to do with mine when I have finished, I think I may hang it as a wall-hanging, but the question is where?!

Trio of Baby Rainbow Blankets

I’ve been making blankets, blankets and more blankets recently. The baby rainbow squares was my first, an idea which I found at the Patchwork Heart (she’s sooo good with colours). Then I wondered how it would look as spots, so just did the usual increases each round to get it to the desired size then turned my spots into squares with cream. The ripple, well I just love rippling, and rippling a rainbow was a a perfect excuse to do another.

Thankfully there are many babies due soon, so my crochet all has homes to go to.

The need to ripple continues – it is so addictive.

The pink ripple I did a while ago (see earlier post), but people keep borrowing it so I’m making it’s brother in blue. It took a while to get the colour choices right, first I made it with Midnight, Teal and Aspen as above, but then I wasn’t sure so did a few rows using Sherbet instead of the Aspen. A nicer colour on its own I think, but the combination felt more cohesive with the Aspen, so I frogged all the Sherbet back and started again! I never mind frogging, many people seem horrified as I pull row after row of work out, but for me its more important to get it right, yarn is expensive and anyway, it’s the journey of crocheting I love, not just the destination.

Humpty Dumpty Blanket

I’m currently on a run of making blankets. So this post will be the first of a few on the blankets I’ve been making. I made this blanket for my little nephew Harry whose favourite toy is Humpty Dumpty. His mum sent me a photo of Humpty:

My husband put it into Photoshop and put a 200 square grid over it as 200 stitches sounded about right. Then I had the chart to work from with one square per stitch. It didn’t work perfectly and needed a little artistic licence to make it work on the blanket, but I don’t mind unpicking because it’s the journey that counts – right?!

To make it more fun I appliqued the eyes, a sun and added a big bow tie on the top. Surface crochet for the eyebrows and mouth, (I can see I need a bit more practice at that – maybe one of those pens which disappear would have helped) and finally a big squidgy pom pom for his nose! Such fun to do and added pzazz!

I’m pleased to say the Humpty Blanket was a hit with Harry and is now snuggled on the sofa and draped to make dens 🙂

Hooking not blogging

Hi, I’ve not been around for a while as, is the way with C.F.S./M.E., I’ve had a bit of a relapse since Easter. This has meant many hours lying in a darkened silent room, just resting and recovering. Once I improved slightly I was able to crochet slowly and listen to audiobooks so these helped to distract me from the pain. So I have been hooking, just too poorly to blog about it. It’s interesting how different things take up different amounts of energy: hooking is very low down on the energy scale, whereas watching tv, chatting to a friend, or using a computer use up way more energy and require me to be quite well.

So the crochet items I have made while I’ve been offline are:

• a jumper and a gilet for my little grandson, ready for cooler weather!
• an african flower hexagon blanket
• bunting
• an long aran cardi, still a Work In Progress
• a black cotton lacy cardi for my niece’s 18th birthday
• a little house keyring

I love making baby sized clothes, you can run them up in a weekend so there’s a quick feeling of achievement. However it’s currently sunny June so I’m hoping they’ll be the right size for him come autumn and winter. My teenage son like the gilet so much that he’s asked for an adult sized version with sleeves. That’ll take a lot more than a weekend but I’ll try and get it done ready for when he goes off to Uni in September – snuggly crochet to remind him of home :p

I bought the yarn for this blanket just because I liked the colours together – it’s Stylecraft’s copper, gold, spice and safron. I saw them together on this post of Heather’s (she does have a gift with colour!) I love her Facebook page The Patchwork Heart and her blog and get so much inspiration from her work. Initially I had no idea what I was going to do with the yarn, then I found the african flower hexagon pattern and loved it. So this blanket has kept me quiet and focused for a while – it has been a joy to make. I joined the hexagons using slip stitch as I prefer to crochet joins than sew. I just need to block it to finish it off properly so all the edges lie nice and flat.

The bunting was just to use up some leftovers of Stylecraft yarn, when I needed to crochet but without much thought or effort. Brightens up the balcony.

The little house keyring was a fun-make one evening. My daughter needed a keyring so she chose her colours and buttons and I created it in just a few minutes. I love the way crochet is so versatile, you can make it up as you go along and can so quickly create finished items. My kind of instant gratification!

I don’t currently have a photo of the black lacy cardi I made for my niece – I’ll try and get one of her wearing it after her birthday – hope it fits!

I’m feeling much better now, back to pacing and the energy levels which have been my normal for the last few years. It’s good to be back xx

 

 

 

 

Baby Cashmerino

My friend Jeanne has asked me to crochet for some new babies in her family. I’ve had such a lovely time doing it because she chose Baby Cashmerino yarn which is soooo soft and a dream to crochet with. Above is a photo of the 4 items I have made: 2 ripple blankets, a boy’s hooded jacket and a girl’s cardi.

The girl’s cardigan is from Nicki Trench’s book Cute and Easy Crocheted Babies Clothes, unfortunately the pattern only goes up to 3-6 months so I tried doing it with a bigger hook and it has come out suitable for a 1 year old. I think it’s such a pretty pattern with the flowers on the front.

The boy’s hooded jacket is from a Hayfield pattern which I’ve made a few times now. It’s hard to photo flat as the baby’s hoods are always so big. I love faux cables on crochet work, a lovely touch brightening up a baby’s jacket:

 

And finally a photo of the 2 ripple blankets:

I love rippling, I especially love rippling in Baby Cashmerino; it is so soft and every stitch you hook you can imagine a tiny soft newborn wrapped in it. Just lovely!

 

Pass It On – Sewing In The Ends

I recently finished the ripple blanket which I’ve been making for a while. I used Stylecraft Special DK yarn in raspberry, pale rose and grape. I’ve been hooking a lot for others lately and I just fancied a blanket I could snuggle under for myself. I was pleased it was finished and enjoyed using it for a few weeks when I noticed the ends were starting to show. Disaster! Some had even unravelled so much a hole was starting to appear 😦

Obviously with this ripple blanket there are a lot of colour changes so there were lots of ends I had sewn it as I went along. I had been taught that knots were not professional so I had either crocheted the ends in as I made the next row, or used a tapestry needle to sew the ends under for about 4cm. This clearly was not a robust enough method to stand the test of time so I went on the internet to see what other people were doing. I found many advising to do exactly what I had been doing, so I continued to search. Then I found a few websites that suggested going under 4cm as I had done, but then turning back the other the other direction and going back under again. Hold on! Surely that will just pull out completely??? But no, you have to miss the last stitch you went under when you turn around for your way back. Right! I could see how that would hold securely, and by doing the colour change at the end of the row it will become hardly noticeable. Brilliant! I was sure this would make all the difference. So I thought I would have a go and see how it worked. I’m currently making a baby ripple blanket for my friend Jeanne (more about the gorgeous baby cashmerino yarn I’m using for this later!) I’m doing it in white this time, but I’ll add a blue stripe to try out this technique.

So this time I made sure I left a long tail – no skimping on tails for me any more!

Firstly I crocheted both ends in for approx 4 cm on my next row as usual

Then I threaded my ends onto a tapestry needle and turned back in the other direction, missing the first stitch.

Finally the finished result – it definitely feels more robust than was I was doing before:

and I feel confident it won’t unravel over time and use. Hurrah! 🙂

This blog entry is my submission to the Deramores Blog Awards 2014. Deramores is the UK’s number one online retailer of knitting and crochet supplies.  www.deramores.com/blog-awards:

Joining The Granny Squares

I’m having a really lovely time right now joining the granny squares for the blanket I have been making. For me this is one of the best bits – not sewing, if it were sewing the granny squares would be in a bag behind the sofa and the blanket would never be finished! Joining the squares with double crochet, on the right side so you end up with a ridged effect. So I’ve joined them all in one direction, so its starting to look quite blanketty. Now I’m doing the rows of double crochet in the other direction, so no thinking about which colour to add next, no reaching for squares out of my basket, just rhythmically hooking, calm, relaxed, meditatively making a blanket as I go. The finished achievement is in sight, but I’m still enjoying the hooking. Perfect. Ahhhh.

Blankets

I am currently in the middle of making 2 blankets:  a ripple one which is for me:

and a granny square one I am making for my daughter Jude. 

I love making blankets; they are my favourite thing. You just hook away, without any fiddly bits to think about. The ripple is the best, you can do it without thinking but its not too boring or without shape – just count to 4 every now and again. I also love that you can snuggle under the blankets while you’re making them, making hooky time comforting and productive at the same time. 

The ripple blanket I am making was originally going to be bright red, purple and fuchsia pink, but when I started with these colours it didn’t look anything like I had imagined in my head, just horribly garish; so I started again with these 3 colours. I’m using grape, pale rose and raspberry from Stylecraft DK. I love Stylecraft yarn; it is a cheap acrylic so easy on the purse strings but is as soft as the more expensive cashmerino. It may be acrylic but it’s not plastic or squeaky, perfect for blankets. I decided not to do regular ripple spacing but Interlocking ripple as described by Lucy from Attic24 here. I love the way different colours come to the fore as you look at it; sometimes it’s the raspberry which zings at you, but look away and back and it could be the pale rose you notice most. Much more interesting!

The second blanket I’m currently making for Jude is from Nicki Trench’s book Cute and Easy Crochet. She calls it the Camellia blanket and I made a cotton version a few years ago for my eldest daughter Hannah in the colours Nicki suggests. It’s very classy. This time around I’m doing it in Stylecraft DK (of course!) using parchment for the main colour.

What I love about this granny square blanket is that you don’t have to sew it up at the end. The squares are crocheted together using a double crochet stitch. This gives a very distinctive finish as well as being preferable to do. 

I’m supposed to be making the granny square blanket first as Jude is asking for it, but the ripple seems to be getting there more quickly – I do enjoy hooking a ripple – sorry Jude! I’ll put Ta-Dah! photos on when they are finished.

Congratulations!

We heard my daughter Tess is expecting our first grandchild – great joy! For a crochet addict like me that means only one thing – the best excuse in the world to buy lots of yarn and make all sorts of baby clothes. Of course at the beginning of the pregnancy you don’t know the sex of the baby, but isn’t that just a lovely excuse to make both boy and girl clothes? Some suggested gender neutral colours like yellow and green, but I really didn’t mind the extra “work” involved in crocheting both boy and girl clothes :p !!

So first stop was a baby shawl. It’s a lovely pattern in 3 ply so lots of hours involved but a perfect mix of easy but interesting repeat pattern. Made in Sirdar Baby Snuggly yarn its soft but washable and tumble dryable – a must for sicky babies, but still beautiful enough to be used as a Christening shawl.

Here it is spread out over the sofa:

and a close up of the stitch: