Current Crochet

Although I'm not blogging I am still keeping up with the things I used to blog about, so as well as still buying polish and painting my nails regularly I have been keeping up with my crochet too, obviously James has been helping me...

 

 

This is a baby blanket I made and as you can see from the picture above I finally got around to ordering the bits and pieces required to block things properly which has made a huge difference to the finished articles.

 

I've also made another baby blanket with the multicoloured yarn I bought a while back and posted about HERE.

 

 

It was pre blocking supplies which I am a bit annoyed about as I could have made those edges perfectly straight with my new goodies, but aside from that I think it turned out pretty well.

 

Finally another baby blanket, which is what I am working on currently, for some reason the photos refuse to load / post the right way, so tip your head to the side for the full 'right way up' effect.

 

 

I have acquired quite a lot of new yarn so I have a few ideas in the pipeline and I really must make the effort to get going on them, I'm running out of room to store the yearn so it needs to turn into something fast mostly so I can go out and buy more. ;)

 

 

 

 

Rainbow Ripple Blanket - Complete!

Finally, I have another update on my Rainbow Ripple and this time it's the final one!  It's finished!

 

Technically it's not quite finished in these pictures, the ends were still to be sew in but I wanted to get a picture while the light was good, the ends are all sewn in now.

 

I'm very proud of how it turned out, despite the battle I had trying to straighten the ripple edges, at the time I swore I was never going to do it again but seeing the finished product makes me think it was almost worth it!

 

 

It was a rather long process but I love the finished product, although I think if I was doing it again I would go back to a more random ripple colour pattern, like this one, or maybe use fewer colours.

 

Overall I am delighted with it though and looking forward to my next project.

 

Colour change yarn and a bit of knitting

I was tipped off recently that Pound Stretchers sometimes carry some interesting yarn so I decided to head along and check it out.  The tip off was correct and I came away with a few balls of this lovely Magic Aran colour change yarn.  You can just see on the left of the photo the picture on the band around the yarn which shows the effect when it's knitted up, sort of like stripes with a row of little purple flowers going across one of the stripes. 

 

 

I loved the colours and although crocheting didn't give the same effect as shown on the packaging I did quite like the look so I decided to make a baby blanket in double crochet; here's the swatch I did to begin with, you can see how the colours are forming fairly nice even stripes.

 

So I made a good long chain and started on my baby blanket, to begin with I loved how it was looking, each colour seemed to take up almost a row and it looked pretty good...

 

Unfortunately as I got further on the pattern started to pool oddly, all the lilac smudges which on the packaging made up the rows of little flowers were cramped up at one end of the blanket while the other end had all the blue, green and yellow yarn; not quite the effect I was hoping for.

 

I'm still not quite sure what to do with the blanket, I could carry on and see if it's better once it's the right size (you can see the pattern does seemed to have jumped over to the other side), maybe once it's larger the pattern won't look quite so wonky.  Or I could rip it out and start over; possibly doing smaller squares and then crocheting them together.

 

My indecision led me to the conclusion that this sort of yarn would be much better for knitting.  My gran taught me to knit when I was very young but I never mastered casting on, casting off or indeed the purl stitch, I could literally just do the knit stitch.  How hard could it be?  I can crochet relatively well after quite a short space of time so I figured knitting couldn't be much harder.

 

Not so...

 

Although I managed the cast on fine and I can sometimes do both knit and purl stitches now I seem to have a serious issue with creating extra stitches and also the ability to add in holes and weird loops.

 

While it's not disastrous for a first go there is definitely A LOT of room for improvement.  I'm finding it all rather frustrating though, especially since I could chuck the knitting needles to one side and go back to being relatively confident at crochet at any time.

 

I'm determined to give it another go and I've found some good You Tube videos which I think might help me work out where those extra stitches are coming from so expect another knitty update at some point in the future, hopefully the next attempt will be slightly better than this one!

Rainbow Ripple

I last posted about this project back in mid November, not a huge amount has changed since then, I've just added a few more rows.  I sort of lost my crochet mojo for a little while and did absolutely nothing over the Christmas break or most of January.  I've started to get back into it a bit now so hopefully it shouldn't be too long before this blanket is close to being finished.

 

 

I'd say it's about half way through now, I've done two full rainbow repeats and I'm on to the third.  I think 4 full repeats might be enough for this blanket, although I might squeeze on a fifth depending on how much yarn I have left and how much I think it needs the extra length.

 

I'm pretty pleased with how it's looking although I'm still not sure about the colours, the dark stripes seem a bit out of place, I think I might have liked it better without them, although they do add a definite contrast.  I guess I'll just need to wait and see how I feel when it's finished!

Rainbow Ripple Progress

I finally decided on a definite order for my rainbow and started work on the blanket.

 

 

I've had some assistance and supervision...

 

...and so far it's going well, I think having previously done a smaller version of the ripple blanket I have a good grasp of the pattern so I find it quite therapeutic to work away at it without having to think too much, it's working up fairly quickly and I'm pretty pleased with the size of it - it's wide enough to cover my lap but not so wide that there's loads of extra to scrunch up and get in the way.

 

I'm still not 100% on the colours, I am beginning to wonder if less might have been more and I've tried to cram too many different shades in but I'm fairly determined to carry on and see how it goes, it's certainly very bright!

Bunting Progress...

My bunting is coming along nicely, so far I have 7 little triangles, a few more and I think I can start to string them together, I'm planning on putting them above my fire so I shouldn't need too many of them to stretch across the hearth.

 

 

I'm really enjoying working with the cotton, it's quite a different feel to the acrylic yarn I am used to and I'm definitely tempted to order some other colour and maybe try a blanket with it at some point.

 

I'm not totally sure just yet how I am going to string the triangles together, I want something fairly simple but sturdy so that they bunting holds it's shape when it's hung up.

 

I still have a lot of ends to sew in and a few more triangles to make but so far I'm really pleased with hos this little Christmas project is coming along.

Rainbow Ripple Yarn Haul

Since winter is properly drawing in I thought I should have a nice big blanket project on the go to cosy up under when I'm sitting on the sofa watching TV of an evening.  I really liked the way my small ripple blanket turned out so I decided to use the same pattern and this time go for a slightly larger sized blanket.  I'm aiming for around single bed sized when it's done and this time I wanted to do a proper rainbow sort of colourway.

 

Time to order some yarn...

 

 

I went for more Stylecraft Special DK, 17 colours for the main body of the blanket and two greys which may or may not end up as a border, I'm not totally decided on that yet.

 

Here are the colour swatches and names to show you exactly what yarn I chose:

 

I ordered from Wool Warehouse again, I really love this website, they have a great selection of wool and yarn and their prices are very reasonable.  They also have free P&P if you spend over £25 and unlike some free P&P deals it still arrives really fast.  I've never waited more than about 36 hours from ordering to having the yarn in my hands, brilliant service.

 

I've completed the first few rows so stand by for another post with some pictures of the beginning of my rainbow coming very soon.

Christmas Crochet - Bunting

My second idea for Christmas, crochet wise, is to try and make some bunting.  Again I think I will probably end up going with Lucy from Attic24's pattern as it seems simple enough and the bunting for Yarndale looked pretty effective.

 

To keep it looking Christmasssy I decided to use very specific colours, and a new type of yarn...

 

 

After having read about Rico creative cotton on various blogs I was really keen to try it out but not quite brave enough, or rich enough, to order enough to make a full blanket without knowing I would love it.  So I thought choosing a selection of festive colours and making some bunting might be a good start amd would give me an idea how it was to work with.

 

Hopefully the colours alone will make it obviously Christmassy although I can't help thinking ITALY when I look at the pictures. :D  I'll post an update when I've had a go and, hopefully, created a few triangles!



Christmas Crochet - Snowflakes

 I'm making an attempt to get ahead with Christmas planning this year and I wanted to try and make some form of decoration for the flat. You may remember that I brought back some thin crochet cotton from Spain with me, this seemed like the ideal way to try it out.   Although I have to admit it was by far the most fiddly crochet I have ever attempted due to the thin cotton and small hook.

 

I saw that Lucy from Attic24 had a pattern for snowflakes and since I generally get on alright with her instructions I decided to give it a bash, she uses much thicker yarn though on a bigger hook.  My hook is a 2mm one which is by far the thinnest I have ever crocheted with so far.

 

Despite that I think my first attempt went quite well...

 

The only issue is that making it with such thin cotton and a small hook the snowflakes ended up being rather smaller than I had hoped...

 

I'm going to need A LOT of these to actually create anything worthy of using it to decorate with!

Granny Squares.

I posted about my granny square project a couple of months back so I thought I would up date on how I am getting along.  Slowly is the answer.

 

 

I have 6 of each square now and still quite a bit of yarn left to make some more.  I'm doing these when I am not at home so progress is a bit hit and miss depending on time and enthusiasm.

 

I've pretty much decided that I'll join these together to make a blanket but I'm not quite sure for what purpose, it's not going to be particularly big due to a lack of yarn so it won't do as a blanket for an adult so it looks like I might have to find a small person to give it a good home.

 

I'm going to try and crack on with it in the hope it might turn into something finished by Christmas.

Granny Shawl Finished!

I finished the fringing on my granny shawl so it's ready for it's big reveal and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, although the photos leave a lot to be desired.

 

 

It's super cosy and I don't think it looks too homemade to give as a Christmas gift (this has to be the earliest EVER I have had a Christmas gift ready).

 

It does a bit of a strange scooping in and under at the bottom corner but it actually sort of works in that it makes the shawl hug around your bottom a bit which makes it fit nicely when you're wearing it so I am going to pretend it's meant to be that way.

 

I'm tempted to make another one as it crocheted up nice and fast (only took about 2 weeks of on off work) but I don't know if I can give every female in my life a shawl for Christmas, I might have to start thinking of something else to work on.

Fringing for Crochet

My Chunky Granny Shawl has got to the stage where I think it's just about the right size so I decided to start work on finishing off the edges which I decided to do with some fringing.  I had a hunt online and found various tutorials and how to posts, one example is HERE, so I decided to just follow their lead and have a go.

 

I'm using chunky yarn for this project and I decided to make my fringe with two pieces of each colour of the yarn I had used for the main body of the shawl:

 

In hindsight I could probably have done with making the tassles a little bit longer and a little less chunky, it's becoming a bit tassle-tastic the more I add.

 

My other concern is that it seems to look very retro for some reason, I don't know whether it's the colours or the tassels but it definitely has an air of West Coast America in the late 60s...

 

Let's hope once it's finished I feel a bit happier with it, or at least like it enough to give it as a gift as intended. *fingers crossed*.

Chunk Granny Shawl

I wanted to make something for my partner's gran for Christmas and I decided a shawl might be a good idea, that way she could use it over her knees or shoulders when she was feeling a bit chilly.  I decided to go with soft heather sort of tones and a chunky yarn so it should work up fairly fast.  You can see all the project details and a link to the pattern on my Ravelry page; HERE.

So far I am pretty pleased with it, although I do wish it was more of a compact triangle, it feels a bit long and stretched out as the rows get bigger.

I'm pretty pleased with my colour choices (I really struggle to pick colours, I get panic stricken when faced by a whole wall of yarn and can't work out what will go with what) although I'm not sure how heathery they look, there may be a hint of sludge in there too...

The shawl is working up pretty fast so I don't think there should be any issue with having it done by Christmas, in fact I might be able to know up a few other bits and pieces in time too.

Ripple Progress

My ripple blanket progress is going well, in fact I am pretty much finished, I was just heading towards the end of the very last ripple and this happened...

 

 

Is there anything more annoying?  I was literally just a few inches short of finishing and of course I had no more grey yarn.  I could have ripped out the grey and ended on the purple but I was determined to start and finish on the same colour so instead I decided to just go out and buy another ball of it so I could finish off.

 

Other than that minor set back I am pretty delighted with how this has turned out, I love the pattern and the colours, although I do wish it was a bit more of an exact rainbow than just sort of in rainbow colours.  Next time I am going to be much more strict about my rainbow order.

 

It's definitely a pattern I will be following again as it's not too complicated once you get into the way of it and I think it looks really effective.

 

Crochet Cotton

While I was in Spain I took the opportunity to pick up some crochet cotton (also from a China Bazaar, the shop of wonder where I got my nail polish, they really do sell everything) so that I could have a go at some more delicate crochet work.  Something like this...

 

 

I don't hold out a huge amount of hope for my first effort looking like that though.  I chose two different types, one plain white in size 5 and one variegated turquoise in size 8.  I have no idea what the sizes mean or if I have chosen the right size for the sort of thing I want to make.

 

I decided to wing it and hope for the best, at 2 euros each they weren't exactly a huge outlay.

 

As always my (not so) tiny blog model had to get in on the act of photographing the goods.

 

Hopefully I'll be back soon with an update of what I have made, or tried to make, with these new yarns. *fingers crossed*