Tuesday Tallies on Wednesday, oops

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I’m a day late on Tuesdays Tallies. I was in hospital yesterday with my son for a check up and we got on brilliantly. He doesn’t have to go back until November. He was born 11 weeks premature in June and spent 8 weeks in hospital, since then we’ve had weekly checkups due to complications of prematurity. Thankfully all these issues are getting sorted and he’s growing into a big strong boy. He was 16weeks old on Saturday and now weighs 10lbs 7ozs. We were so happy with results yesterday that Tuesdays Tallies got postponed until today with all the excitement.

Now onto the One a Day progress. I did two new blocks this week and four of each of them. They are all the traditional Granny design in different colour combinations. I’ve ran out of brown yarn now so I’ll have to make a trip to the yarn store later today to stock up (any excuse). I’m planning to make ten of each type of block, then lay them out and see which I need more off. I’m happier this week with my progress, even though I’m still not sure on the design the blocks look good together just left stacked up on the table.

In other news this week my cousin got married. Unfortunately we couldn’t go to the wedding but I wanted to make her a little something. We were given a lovely knitted bride and groom on our wedding day so I thought something similar would be nice to make and send. I found a lovely pattern on Lion Brand Yarn website for an amigurimi bride and groom. Amigurumi Bunny Wedding Cake Topper, Pattern number 80306AD. This is the website, http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/80306AD.html. I’ve tried to link it but I don’t know if it will work. If it doesn’t you should be able to find the pattern by searching bunny wedding cake topper. When I was on this website I found loads of really good amigurimi patterns for Halloween and Christmas. It’s well worth a look.

The pattern was really easy to follow and worked up quickly. I love amigurimi because I think it’s a great way of using up small pieces of yarn and you get results fast. I had wanted to make little amigurimi animals as name cards for my wedding but after I got to fifty (I needed about 200) I just ran out of time and my love of amigurimi was slightly quashed for sometime after that. So this is my finished bride and groom and I’m pleased with how they turned out.

Well thats all my progress since last week. I hope everyone else is getting on well.

Until next time,

Happy Crocheting, x

Tuesday Tallies

Hi Everyone,

Progress on my One a Day has been slow this week. I didn't try any new blocks, I just kept to the Traditional Granny and Granny with a Twist squares. I think they'll look nice once they're all put together. I haven't taken any pictures because they're the same squares as i've already posted. Hopefully by next week i'll have enough to have a definite pattern to show.

Hope everyone's projects are going well. I'm looking forward to checking in with everyone now to see their progress.

Happy Crocheting,
Niamh x

Less is More???

Happy Tuesday Everyone,

I just wanted to start by saying thank you to all who looked at my blog and especially those who left comments. It’s very encouraging to get comments about the squares. I’ve never had a blog before so I’m just learning about blogging and how to create the blog I really want. I don’t know if there’s such a thing as blogging etiquette. For example if someone follows me should I follow them? This is probably second nature to seasoned bloggers but I am new to this world so I apologise in advance if I insult anyone.

Now onto the CAL and my All about Granny Blanket. Since my last post I ploughed on regardless and completed 9 more of the Traditional Granny Squares, 4 Plain Granny Squares and 3 Granny Stripes Squares, all in the colour combinations of the last blog post. Now the decision is where to go from here. I know it’s a waste of yarn to go any further until I have some sort of plan.

I should point out at this stage that I can follow a pattern but I do not have an artistic or creative mind which is why planning a design for the quilt is becoming a mammoth task and eating into valuable crochet time and yarn.

The design of the quilt is weighing heavily on my mind. This is especially true this morning because I really don’t know what squares or colour combination to do next. I laid out some of the squares to see what potential combinations I could do. I did one Nine Patch Granny Square and had planned to use this as the central square but now this just doesn’t look right.  

I’m beginning to think now that less is more and just going with the traditional granny square and the granny with a twist square.

I really like the granny stripes square though but I just don’t think it’s fitting. Maybe it’s the colour combination I used.

Apologies also for the messy ends in the photos. My nemesis is sewing in ends so I'm avoiding doing this until I'm sure that the squares will be used in the blanket.

Well thats my progress since last time. I'm going to make some more plain granny squares in darker colours next and see if they help tie the squares together. The cream was just to wishy washy.

Any ideas or thoughts on the combinations shown would be greatly appreciated.

Until next time,

Happy Crocheting, x

One a Day CAL

For the One a Day CAL I've decided to crochet some blocks from Jan Eatons 200 Crochet Blocks. I'm using Sirdar Snuggly DK in Brown (0200), Dark Green (0417), Light Green (0422), Cream (0344), Red (0413), Blue (0256), Yellow (0418) and Pink (0261).

I'm going to make the blanket using a combination of granny squares or granny inspired squares from the book. So far I’ve picked 56 Plain Granny, 40 Granny with a Twist, 18 Traditional Granny, 61 Nine Patch Granny and 76 Granny Stripes. I haven't really formed a definite plan for putting the squares together so I don't know yet how many of each I’ll need.

Traditional Granny

Granny with a Twist

Granny Stripes

I started by doing one of each to check tension and to see how they'll look together. I'm not sure of the colour combination with working in the light green shade so I’ve only done one of the blocks so far with the light green shade.

I’m working up some plain granny blocks now and once those are finished I’m going to lay out the blocks done so far and see how they look. Then I’ll try to make a plan to estimate how many of each type of block I’ll need.

I’d love to say there’s method to madness but clearly there isn’t. If I had the patience to sit down and make a plan at the beginning I’d probably never end up ripping back or wasting yarn but where would the fun be in that????

Ok i’m off to finish some plain granny blocks.

Till next time, Happy Crocheting, x

A little bit about me

My name is Niamh. I’m married to Adrian and we have a beautiful son Ben. We also have 3 very demanding but lovable cats. I love to crochet. My two weaknesses in life are yarn and books.

I recently joined a CAL on Ravelry called One a Day and I thought that this is as good a time as any to start a blog and document my One a Day for the group. As my New Year resolution this year I decided I would like to start a blog about crochet and finish a crochet tea cosy pattern that I’ve been working on for months by the time my first baby was due in August.

This never happened. I thought alot about what to write but never actually put fingers to keyboard. The tea cosy design also got sidetracked by morning sickness that lasted morning, noon and night. Fast forward to June and our son was born 11 wks early. After all that I am only beginning my much debated blog now, September 2011.

I learned to crochet in National School, just basic stitches to create the necessary matinee coat that every child seems to make. I loved needle crafts but after secondary school I just didn’t keep up with them. About 7 years ago I decided to start crocheting again. I purchased a ball of Tivoli Little Angel yarn, 2 crochet hooks and an online pattern for a crochet cardigan. It took a few weeks but I eventually finished the pattern. I was so pleased with myself that I immediately began a blanket of granny squares. I haven’t stopped since. My stash has multiplied to numerous boxes and bags of yarn, needles, ribbons, buttons, fabric and patterns. I have a million ideas for projects I want to try and a stack of patterns which could easily keep me busy forever.

My latest idea was to use the scraps of yarns that have been building up. I decided to do another granny square blanket but I decided it would be nice to do the final row of the square and all the joins in the same colour. I didn’t have enough of any one yarn to do this so I decided I would have to get a ball or two of a nice neutral colour to tie all the squares together. This led to a trip to a local yarn store. Four hours later I returned home with the required yarn plus 2 bags full of additional yarn.

I bought some Sirdar Snuggly DK to make some blocks I’d been looking at making from Jan Eatons 200 Crochet Blocks Book which is going to form a blanket for the One a Day CAL. I’m going to call the blanket All about Granny and make it up of granny square blocks and variations of granny square blocks. I’ll try to keep my next post about this project and my progress.

Till next time, Happy Crocheting, Niamh x