One a day update

Hi Everyone,

Well I'm a week and a bit behind in posting. I'd noticed everyone was being struck down by nasty bugs and flu's but thought I was escaping. I didn't. Hubby got sick first, then little dude and finally me. What a rotten dose.

Most importantly though one a day is going well. I have 83 rows done now and i'm onto the third rotation of colours. I really love this blanket because it requires no concentration and i can pick it up and do a few stitches whenever i have a minute.

I had to buy another 2 packs of the stylecraft yarn to keep the project going as i was going to run out of some colours, shock horror. Luckily I had a discount code for 15% off so that took a bit of a sting out of the purchase. Hubby very kindly purchased it for me too. I know he was feeling sorry for me in my sick state, plus i burnt my arm over the steamer when i was cooking dinner and then had a picture fall on my other arm when cleaning the bookcase. I may have informed him of all these ailments more than once. Of course I wasn't complaining though :)

Here's a pic of my progress. Sorry the photo isn't great. My phone is a stone age nokia and thats the only camera I had access too.

 

I have to finish the zigzag tea cosy this week too. I just needed some buttons, which is where my mom comes in. My mom works in my grandparents shop. It used to have a very large haberdashery department but when granny retired that department retired too. Recently we've been trying to build it back up again. Anyway there is a massive stand of buttons and some are old, very old, older than me. We'll use the term vintage. Mom very kindly packed up a bag of them and sent them down to me. She sees them as a bit of a thorn in her side but i was so excited when i opened the package. I love them and have picked a few that will go perfectly on the tea cosy so no more excuses, tea cosy you will get finished.

I hope everyone elses progress is going well.  

Until next time, 

Happy Crocheting, x

Tuesday Tallies - On Wednesday, oopsie

Hi Everyone,

I started my new one a day project. Its a granny stripe blanket using Stylecraft DK, colour combination and pattern from Lucy at Attic 24. Progress is going well. I needed to pick a project that I had the yarn for and that wouldn't require huge amounts of concentration. Time is precious so I needed to have a project that could be picked up without ten minutes figuring out where I was when I last put it down. This is perfect for that. I have all the yarn bands numbered in their order so its just a case of reach into the stash, grab the colour change and continue. That's as complicated as it gets.

I started last Wednesday so i'm exactly a week at it. I started with 240ch and I plan to continue in length until it is roughly a square. I have each colour done once and there's 17 colours in all, 2 rows in each stripe so that's a total of 34 rows this week. I know each week won't be as good as this but i'm hoping that i'll get a colour a day(2rows) done.

I hope everyone else is getting on well. I don't think Gingerbread Girl has posted this week so if she hasn't everyone's progress can be checked out on the groups Ravelry page.

I mentioned yesterday that I'm giving my All About Granny Blanket to my aunt. She's been very good to us and i'm glad its going to a good home. I hope she'll get the use out of it. Here she is all wrapped up and ready to go.

Until next time,

Happy Crocheting, x

Surprise Parcels

Hi Everyone,

Its official, I have the best husband in the world ever. I am so so so lucky. This morning the postman arrived with not one but two surprise parcels. One was a beautiful pair of stud earrings. I had recently lost one of my studs and had been switching my remaining stud between ears to stop them closing up.

The second parcel though is the one I am most excited about. It is the All Sewn Up book by Chloe Owens. I saw a review of it recently and I had shown a photo of the owl cushion to my husband. It looked like a beautiful book and got a great review so I put the reference in my Amazon wishlist and thought no more off it till this morning when I opened my second parcel.

I thought I would burst with excitement when I started going through the book. It is absolutely stunning and inspiring. I could not put it down. From the first pattern to the last, they are all patterns I would try. I think I'm going to start with the Springtime Showers Mobile. I'm also going to do the Customised Lampshade Covers because I have three plain cream lampshades around the house and it would be nice to have a burst of colour on them. Not too mention trying the Owl Cushion. I have the kid in a candy store feeling where I don't really know what to do first.

All this reading is making me neglect my granny stripe blanket but I have the 7 rows done for the week so I'm happy. More on that tomorrow on Tuesday Tallies. Oh and I decided I'm going to give my All about Granny blanket to my Aunt as a present. She's always very good to us and I know she'll like it. I want it to go to a good home where it will get use and I'm sure it will there.

Hope you all had a good weekend. See you tomorrow for One a Day.

Happy Crafting, x

Horray for Friday

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a good week. Things are good here. Enjoying time with my little man so not getting much done. Sorry I didn't post for the one a day. I was trying to pick my next project. I made myself a promise that everything I make this year has to be able to be entered into the agricultural shows crafts section during the summer. Having that said though I always have an overwhelming urge to make blankets, which I could enter but they rarely win. So I decided the heart must win out over the head. Therefore I've began another blanket for the one a day. I picked Lucy's Granny Stripe Blanket from Attic24 because I had the yarn and it was a pattern that I could remember easily.

I began it on Wednesday and I love it already. It's easy to follow and I don't have to spend 10 minutes trying to remember where I was when I pick it up. Just what I need at the moment.

I do have a little confession though. I justified picking this pattern because I had the yarn but I had been using some of the yarn for other projects so I may have to buy more, oops :)

I will definitely do the hexagon blanket after this one, I just needed something that didn't require alot of concentration now.

I'm still working on the tea cosy I started 2 weeks ago. I worked up both sides in a day, I just have buttons to finish it off so its sitting WIP pile. Oh and it still needs to be blocked.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Happy Crocheting, x

Ta-Dah - Finaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy

Hi Everyone,

All about Granny is finally finished. Well it would have been finished months ago if I hadn't been so slow, picked a regular join and had calculated yarn amounts correctly. Anyway its finished now and i'm relieved.

I did a granny stripe around the edge and then a final row to edge it. For that I did a 6tr together in a chain space (like a scallop) then 1ch and a slip stitch in the next ch sp and repeated it around. (6tr, 1ch, sl st, 1ch, rep to end).

It's very snug but very droopy if that makes sense. The yarn was a wool blend and very soft so I probably should have used a smaller hook if I wanted a tighter stitch and more rigid finish. The main thing is though is that its snug and warm which is what is needed on a cold winters night.

So now its time to decide on the next project. I started a tea cosy Friday which I'll finish while I decide what to do next. Maybe some cushions would be nice.

How are you all getting on? I'm looking forward to checking out everyone's progress over at Gingerbread Girl.

Have a good week.

Happy Crocheting, x

Tea Cosy Love

Hi Everyone,

I hope your all having a good week. I was delighted to be awarded the Versatile Blogger Award by two more lovely bloggers, Judy at Vintage Homespun and Jill at Stocki. Thank you very much to both of you, I really enjoy reading your blogs and i'm delighted that you both enjoy my blog. Its been a hectic week so far with hospital appointments for Ben but i'll try before long to think up some more random bits about myself and pass on the award to some more favourite blogs.

Once again I missed Tuesday Tallies on the One a Day. I'm still sewing in those pesky ends but i'm sooooooooooooo close to being finished.

I did finally finish a tea cosy I was making from the book Cute and Easy Crochet so I'm delighted to have a little ta-dah moment for the week. I love tea cosies, tea just tastes so much better from a tea cosy snuggled tea pot :)

This is the second tea cosy i've crocheted. I also crocheted a tea cosy from Crochet with Raymonds blog. I love both of them and I found both of them easy to make so would definitely recommend them. The tutorial for Crochet with Raymond is here.

This week was my husbands birthday so I made his favourite Lemon tart and Chocolate cake. I'll leave with a picture of the chocolate, it was yummy.

Have a great week. Until next time,
Happy Crocheting, x

One a Day - I'm baaaaaack

Hi Everyone,

I'm baaaaaack, finally. Sorry its taken me so long to get back on the one a day wagon. I must start with a confession I didn't do one a day. I finally picked up where I left off all those weeks ago when I ran out of cream yarn on Sunday. I finished joining the final line, did a row of cream dc around all the rows and then began a row of granny stripe around that.

Guess what though????? I'm over half way around and don't think i'll have enough cream, AGAIN. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, I knew in my heart when I began the row it'd be a long shot to get it finished and now I've realised it was a silly ambition. Not too worry though I can just rip it out and finish off the blanket with the green and red yarn I have left over. Red and green just happen to be the Mayo colours, which is the county i'm from so i'm very happy to be finishing in those colours.

Hopefully by next week i'll have some good progress to show. For the time being though I will spend my time pondering that age old question, Why, Oh Why did I not sew in ends as I was going along. What was I thinking? I hate sewing in ends. I promised myself i'd be good and keep on top of it but of course I let it go :(

I hope everyone's progress is going well. I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone over on Gingerbread Girls blog.

Until next time,
Happy Crocheting, x