work in progress – Crochet Along With Me

First of two?

Yes, this might be the first post of two today, but I may run out of time!

Firstly, did you catch the recent post on Stashbusters Anonymous? You may like to read it, it might fill in a few gaps! The main purpose of this post, however, is to hilight a project in which you may like to get involved.

I recently spotted a request for granny squares by @purplestarmonkey on Instagram. She is making a blanket to be raffled to raise money for #sepsisawareness. Her request is relatively specific, but not difficult to fulfil, and even one square would be a help and a support. I managed to find a few of the colour she is using and have made 10 squares. The ends need weaving in, that will be my next step, but my eyes have not been up to the task while I’ve been poorly.

All you need is a 4mm hook and some Stylecraft Special DK in one or more of the following colours: Copper, Graphite, Mustard, Spice, Lipstick, Buttermilk, Gold, Parchment, Grey.

I may get some more made, but in truth I have taken on too many projects for this month. I didn’t expect to be poorly! But then, we never do, do we?

Happy Hooking.

Oh! Calamity!

Have you missed me? I’ve been here, but….

…. my phone was full and I couldn’t move any of the photos to the computer! I managed a few photos on Instagram, but none of the other apps would work!

So frustrating, but let’s face it, hardly a real calamity! It’s suprising how much I rely on it, though, as most of my blog posts start their life on the phone when I upload the photographs to the WordPress App. It’s a really good app, and works perfectly either on it’s own or in conjunction with the computer – which is the way I prefer to blog here.

So, February ended by making it’s mark. We had snow!

This is very unusual. In the 30+ years we have lived here we have had snow less than a handful of times. I don’t enjoy it. The hatches are battened down and apart from continuing to feed the birds I didn’t go outside. True, I didn’t need too. The storecupboard was already well stocked, and I have enough yarn to sink a battleship! I must have been prepared for a bad end to winter.

On some days the sky was blue, as can be seen by this view from my ‘studio’ (aka kitchen), but there were dull, grey, snowladen skies too.

The eucalyptus, which I grow for it’s dyeing properties, didn’t enjoy the cool weather, but it’s a strong plant and won’t fare any the worse in the long run.

Other creatures ventured out. We were visited by a couple of foxes at least. I took this photo on the first morning, it wasn’t very thick then, and it was interesting to view their tracks and see their pathways. Their footmarks were very distinctive, we could see that there was more than one.

Yes, I crocheted! I think I’ll post a couple of update posts about this as there is at least one project that hasn’t been shared so far. Watch out for something else later today, and if you too had snow I hope it clears for you really quickly too. Spring is here! We just need it to make it’s appearance felt. (Edited at 16.00 as the first post is now up, you can find it here.)

Seven Colour Saturday!

No, I don’t think this will become a regular feature but it seems a good title for today’s post! I don’t think I’ve miscounted, but we’ll see.

I am really enjoying the temperature projects for February. The colours are stimulating despite the chill in the air.

You may remember that as well as making a temperature blanket showing morning and later temperatures, I am also comparing this year and last year in a Spirit of February blanket

Above I’ve shown yesterday’s squares from both, but as I was joining each I put them next to each other by chance.

Below are the four squares. Some of the colours are the same, but together they are inspiring me to make another blanket at some time. The colours are Stylecraft Special DK:

Sherbet
Storm blue
Violet
Bluebell
Wisteria
Parma Violet and
Parchment

And yes! That’s seven!!

This was the moment…

…

Working by lamplight isn’t easy, especially if you are partly distracted by an interesting tv show. (Let’s face it, there aren’t many, so this was unusual!)

The cold light of day, however, revealed that I’d picked up Sage instead of Storm Blue! Fortunately it won’t matter, I can just reverse their placement, but this is a warning …

Always read the label!

More about this very soon.

Almost there …

My first blanket of the Stashbuster series is almost finished. I just have a little more tidying up to do and that will be that. I’m going to call it the Betsy Blanket because it reminds me of someone! Here are a few glimpses, but another post will come soon with further details.

I’m really pleased with it

Because it really is made entirely with stash
It hasn’t taken long
It’s caused the beginnings of another project!

There will be more details about the C2C in another post to come soon. In the meantime – it’s back to the Spirit of January and the temperature blanket!

Temperature update

January has been an interesting month. Unlike last year it has been particularly gloomy for several days. The few that have been sunlit have been such a blessing. Today was such a day, although this evening is wet. Nights have been very dark. The moon isn’t rising until the early hours (this morning it rose after I was up for the day) so the sky is hardly lit. This has not been good for either choosing colours, or for photographs! All crochet has been done during the hours of darkness, so I’ve been waiting to take pictures, and finally here are a few…

This year I’m making the temperature blanket in a slightly different way. Last year’s was made in monthly blocks – and these were joined into the seasons. I used 4 linking colours, but this year I’m only using one – and there will be no seasonal breaks. One long strip of granny blocks is a little boring, so instead, here is a block of nine days (a photo collage)

The colours are as cool as the weather and edged with Parchment. I think it goes very well with the blues and lilacs.

I’m using the same colour to edge the blocks for the Spirit of January. You may remember that I’m comparing the days of last year with those of this – so each square has 4 rounds of colour. Here is a photo collage of nine days.

You can see that so far last year was far more colourful than this year, and in the above no days were the same. However….

that changed at the weekend. You can see that the days were identical as far as temperature was concerned.

How is your blanket coming along? Are you making a Temperature Blanket? They are fun – and worth the long effort of making a square a day.

Stash and Scrap!

My first stash blanket of the year is coming along nicely.

I’m also managing to incorporate some longer scraps as you can see from these joins.

Once the little ends are also woven in they will be completely invisible.

I know that the theory of stashbusting is that no more yarn is bought until it has been reduced, but it’s worth noting that Deramores has a really good sale until Jan 7th, with free postage for orders of only £15. There is a code on the first page of their website. Make sure you take advantage.