Baby Shower 1.

I can now reveal one of my secret projects. The first baby shower has been and gone and this is now in the hands of the mum to be. I decided on a baby blanket. Hardly original for me. If it's not hats and socks then it's baby blankets. This time though I decided to try for something different. First of all I put my crochet skills to the test. I wanted to try a new pattern. Remember the hearts crochet I mentioned on my bucket list post? Well I hunted down the pattern and it turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. It's made up mainly of trebles, chains and a few single crochet in there.

To be honest I don't actually think it looks much like hearts. It's still pretty though and I am happy with the way it turned out. Even if my sister did call it my fried egg blanket (was not amused by that one which just made it all the more hilarious for my sister). If you are interested you can find the patter here. It is in dutch but I just used the chart at the bottom of the page.

I used the same cotton I had used for my mood blanket. Rico essentials cotton. It was a bit splitty but I had the same problem with it before so I was aware that it was going to happen. I had a little leftover so I tidied the edges with some double crochet. I thought the fan edging I usually give to anything I crochet would be too much. I am pleased to say that mum to be liked it. Just two more secret projects to go!

Oh, and can I count this off my bucket list as something different with crochet? It was the image I used when listing it. However, it might be cheating as I already did the crochet frames under that listing.

Mood Blanket All Finished!

It's finished! Finally says you. No more updates. I actually should have finished it on Tuesday but I was a few days behind. I say a few, I hadn't added to it since my last update until yesterday. I had been so good up until that point too. I had kept a not of my moods though. As much as I like the colours individually I still don't like them all together. I guess I am a minimalist as well as an OCD girl. My mum though is delighted with it. It's also the perfect length for a lapghan. So she can sit it over her knee while watching a dvd or knitting.

I also feel kind of sad that it is finished. I think I could quite happily do another project that involved doing a little bit each day. Perhaps not a mood blanket but maybe something similar.

I highly recommend the cotton I used. If you remember back it is called Rico Essentials and is a DK cotton. The colours are lovely and bright and I love the feel of it once it is crocheted up. As always with cotton there is the problem of splitting. This particularly kind isn't as bad as some but it still happens. There are many sins hidden in the blanket as a result of splitting.

Day 45 - White - fairly good mood. Mostly spent in front of the computer.

Day 46 - Grey - not so much my mood although was tired from very little sleep. More to match the stormy weather in Scotland. My classes were cancelled as a result.

Day 47 - mid green - finished an actual book. These days it's a rarity so it always puts me in a good mood.

Day 48 - pale pink - Sister day. spent it planning her birthday weekend and drinking lots of tea (there may have been a glass of wine or two in there too).

Day 49 - mid blue - great mood. Came home to see the decorations going up. There seem to be a lot more of them this year. Also got some Christmas presents finished. Pleased with how they turned out.

Day 50 - dark blue - mood was only okay. Finished the first draft of another essay only to find out later that day that I am going to have to re-do it. At least I know what I am doing, right?

Day 51 - yellow - last day of my knitting group for Christmas. As sad as that is I was looking forward to it. I also finally settled on a pattern for my Gran's Christmas socks.

The End!

Crochet Along

A lovely lady from my knitting group is a co-administrator for a yarn love facebook page. Most of the members are crochet fans but there are a few knitters in there too. Well, she came up with the idea of doing a crochet along. I am a sucker for group projects like this and was intrigued. The idea is to crochet a mood lapghan or scarf. You crochet two rows each day and the colour you choose on each day should represent your mood. This starts on Monday and lasts for a month.

The point of it is really for everyone to do something together and see how everyone has interpreted the project. This is one of the aspects of these things that I love. It's also a way of stash busting. Which is perfect for most people. However, remember all those cotton cushions I made? Well that was my stash busting and I used it all. As I am a student and don't work my funds are limited and so I tend to only buy yarn when I need it. I have some leftover sock yarn but I am already stash busting that as I go and there wouldn't be enough for a lapghan. Therefore, I had no choice really but to buy some yarn if I wanted to join in.

I was strict with myself and decided to only to spend a certain amount. I found this beautiful cotton over at Black Sheep Wools and I couldn't resist. Plus it was on offer so I picked out an extra colour. AND they are offering free P&P until Sunday night. It was like it was meant to be. I have always wanted to to a bright colourful blanket with cotton. I realise it was meant to be a mood blanket though and tried to pick out a darker colour. Sadly, the darker colour has turned out to be my favourite of the bunch. I swear it was more grey than teal in the photo.

I promise to post regular updates on how I am getting on. Can't wait for this. Oh, and if you want to join the group it's called For The Love of Yarnigans and everyone on there is lovely!

Granny Stripes and More Cotton!

Ever get the feeling that the bag of cotton is endless? This is yet another cushion from that stash in my attempt to use it up. The third one to be exact. I decided to go for stripes this time. My friend Donna taught me how to crochet granny stripes at last years knitting weekend away. About time I used what I learned.

I even managed to use buttons from my stash this time. In other words I wasn't lazy and hunted through the case to find buttons that match. I love my button tin (which is actually a cute mini case rather than a tin). I love looking through it. I do not love trying to find matching buttons if they aren't staring me in the face straight away. Anyways, I am pleased with them. The only thing I think I should have done is made the flap at the back shorter. What I did was make one large rectangle and then crocheted the sides together so that is looked almost like an envelope. I liked the idea of the flap being long enough to almost reach the bottom of the cushion. However, it's creates gaps at the sides and only buttons running up them will fix that. Would need to get new buttons for that so just going to leave it. i can live with it.

A close up of the stripy goodness. I did each stripe different and I had colours in the same group together with white between each. I quite like the effect. Although my friend taught me how to do this I have seen a good tutorial on one of my favourite blogs if you are interested. It's by Attic 24 (everyone should visit that blog) and you can see it here.

Since I am now in love with instagram here is a photo I took with that. The dangly bit in the bottom corner is a shoe lace from under the table and not my cushion. Apologies for the blurriness. My batter was running out and I didn't pay much attention to how it turned out. Oh, and if you can make it out I did the fan edging again.

I probably have enough to do just one more cushion but I am setting the cotton aside for now.

Easter Granny Square Cushion

Remember these a few posts back? I was learning to crochet circles a few weeks ago thanks to pinterest.

Those squares eventually became lots of squares. 32 to be exact. Every single one of them different.

This is what they look like all put together. I am so pleased with the way it turned out. I used every colour in that bag and somehow they all seemed to go together. They aren't colours I would normally put in one project.

I even copied the edging from the Cath Kidston. In the cotton it's a little more subtle. I quite like it though. Hopefully my sister will to as it is for her. I have a load more of this cotton left so I am working on something else. If that doesn't use it up then I have more plans for it.

If you want to learn how to do those granny squares there is a great tutorial on a blog called Crochet With Raymond. That's where I learned. They are actually called grandala squares but I call them circular squares. The tutorial is good although it took some getting used to. Fellow Brit's dc is what we would call a treble.

Oh, and if you are on pinterest say hello. You'll find me there under Karensi1.