Sunburst Squares

Hello everyone, I hope you're ok. I've heard it's going to be a stormy night here tonight - lots of wind and rain etc. So what better excuse for snuggling down with some crochet in a warm place?!

Since last time I have been working on these Sunburst Squares.

I see a lot of these around on Pinterest, and other blogs. I have sort of resisted making them so far, just because everyone seems to make them! However, I think I've been sort of cutting my nose off to spite my face.

The other week I was contemplating my big pile of colourful yarn, wondering what to do with it all. As you may remember I started making African Flowers. Then sort of lost momentum. They are quite time consuming to make, and I somehow couldn't see myself making anything very useful from them. Thanks to those of you who suggested various things to make from the little pile of squares I had though - your suggestions are duly noted, and perhaps when I have some time....

Well, anyway, back to the Sunburst Squares.

I think the thing that attracted me to them in the end was the 3d effect created by the puff stitch in the second round. It reminds me of the something pretty flower squares which I had so much fun making at the start of the year. 

The Sunburst pattern I'm using is from the book 'The Gentle Art of Knitting', which I love for it's laid back attitude towards craft.

I haven't managed to make many of my Sunburst Squares yet. Over the last 2 weeks I've managed to make about 40. I'm aiming for a blanket, but this is going to be a slow process. That doesn't bother me though. I'm taking my time, only working on the squares when I feel like it, rather than in a mad rush. I normally crochet or knit in every spare second I have, but lately I'm feeling ok with taking things at a slower pace. I think this will be a good thing for me. I still really enjoy my crafting, but it's about getting a balance with all the other important things in life right now, and that's healthy I think.

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There has been some more glorious autumn whether here this week. I know I've already shared so many autumn colour and leaf pictures already, but I can't stop myself showing you some more!

These leaves (above) look so perfect don't they? I almost stepped right over them one lunch time last week. They look like they've been deliberately arranged, and it tickled my fancy so I had to take a snap.

These other pictures are from a park nearby where I live - on a glorious day last week!

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Hope the rest of you are all doing ok. Happy Sunday all, hope you're enjoying some gentle crafting too!

Pastel granny squares

 

 

Several months ago I started a pastel coloured granny square project - I remember being very excited about getting a big batch of pastel coloured yarn through the post, and blogging about it here and here. I patiently worked away, making a whole heap of pastel granny squares.

 

 

 

Then, as often happens, other things came along and distracted me - knitting, and brightly coloured yarn in hexagon motifs!

 

The pastel grannies were stashed away in a cupboard awaiting their moment in the sun.

 

This week I pulled out that bag of grannies again and had a think.

 

Originally I was going to use these squares to make a throw, in the same way as I made my Cathedral blanket earlier in the year. However, on looking at the heap of grannies afresh over the weekend, I began to feel that a pastel throw made entirely of little grannies with white seaming might be a little too much somehow. It just didn't 'feel' right.

 

So I decided to work the squares into a much smaller project - a granny square pillow cover for a rectangular cushion.

 

And...................

.............here it is!

 

 

I have to admit, finishing off a project that has been lurking in the back of your cupboard and the back of your mind for a while is a very good feeling! You get some instant gratification because a lot of the work has already been done, and a nice feeling of satisfaction from knowing that the pesky lurking project can be ticked off your mental list!

 

You can see above the new granny cushion getting cosy with the pastel ripple cushions I made earlier in the year. 

 

I do love this cushion - having the pale yellow shade included has really made it very "dolly-mixture", and I like that!

 

 

It was also fun to give the cushion button fastening with lots of little shell buttons. I do love a button fastening for a crochet cushion, I think they are perfect partners.

 

 

The rose pictures are for no particular reason - just because I love roses!

 

Have a happy, creative day wherever you are!

 

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Lazy Sunday

I think I may have developed a split personality when it comes to crochet. I love making things in bright colours and using lots of different colours together, but I also love a more restrained colour palette and choice and the more vintage vibe that you seem to get when working with one colour, but in a more complex stitch.

 I spent my crochet time yesterday working on the Erika Knight hexagon blanket I'm making, and spent today playing working on another pastel toned blanket!

I started working on this blanket at the start of May, but have only worked on it sporadically since then, so progress has been slow.

Do you remember my Cathedral Blanket? Well this project is going to be a pastel version of that, with pale cream seaming instead of black.

I'm using far fewer colours (about 8 different shades) and I think I will arrange the colours at random rather than having them in order like I did for the Cathedral Blanket.

Whilst working on this I've also been daydreaming about making more pastel coloured cushion covers with mother of pearl button fastenings - hence my not being able to resist getting out my button collection and playing in these pictures!

I was also tempted this afternoon to try out a starburst stitch. I haven't tried this kind of stitch for a while because the last time I tried, a few years ago, I couldn't seem to get the hang of it.

This piece is at a very early stage - its quite time consuming to do, but I love the result - it looks beautiful in the ivory yarn, and has such as lovely vintage feel to it. I think its the sort of thing a Victorian or Edwardian lady would use! I'm not sure quite what this piece will be yet, but it's only quite a small sample, so it will probably end up being a jewellery case or similar. 

Happy Sunday everyone!

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Colour me happy?

 

Yes, today's post is starting with a big pile of colourful yarn! I can certainly think of worse ways to begin!

The above stash of Stylecraft Special DK has been lurking in my house for a while now - maybe 6 months or so.

It has been niggling me, in a not unpleasant way - it's nice to think you have a heap of yarn ready and waiting to be transformed into something bright and happy.

The niggling part was, what should I do with it?

On Sunday, I finally decided. It was destined to become a many-coloured blanket. Yup, I know, it's hardly original for me, but there you go. That was what I knew I wanted to make, and so I made a start.

I have been thinking a lot about colour this week. I discovered the brilliant A creative being blog last weekend, and have been entranced by the wonderful Weekly Mandalas shown there - so many variations in colour! I felt really inspired to try and experiment with colours and this big stash of Stylecraft seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

I decided on little granny squares, with 3 colours each and a cream border.

At first I struggled to come up with colour combinations for my little granny squares which I liked with this yarn.

 I'm going to sound like a yarn snob now, but.... part of the reason I have had this Stylecraft for so long is because I always struggle to put the colours together in a way that seems satisfactory to me. Here comes the yarn snobbery....I've wondered if it was something to do with the way the 100% acrylic fibres of the yarn take the dye colours - the colours of this yarn sometimes seem a little harsh to me, and as if they don't want to go together, but just scream out loud on their own.

I promise I'm really not a yarn snob! I do love this yarn, for the value, softness and yes, the range of colours! 

Well, happily, as you can see, I persevered, and finally something seemed to click! Suddenly I could see many different colour combinations that I loved!

So now I am well on the way to my blanket. Here are some of my favourite colour combinations so far:

I also love the way you can change the look and feel of the squares so much just be altering the proportions of the colours used. In the pairs shown above, square within its pair uses the same colours, but they manage to look quite different just from the colours being ordered differently.

I only have one problem now: I love seeing the colours next to each other so much that I am starting to wonder if I should include the cream border or not?

What do you think? Are you a fan or colour on cream, or do you just go for colour all the way?

Until next time!

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Hello again!

It has been a while between posts for me (again), but I'm glad to be back!

Before I say anything else, I want to say hello and welcome to all the new followers who have come to visit in February and March. One of the reasons I started this blog was to try and feel part of a crafting community. 

I don't know many people who have the same level of crochet and knitting obsession that I do, so I really wanted to try and connect with some other like minded people, and there is such an active craft community online that I thought a blog would be a good way to do that.

 Its so great to now have people regularly visiting this blog, and leaving such kind comments. I'm sorry if I don't always reply individually to each comment, its just due to general business rather than anything else. Please be assured that I do still read and value every comment, even if I don't reply.

 I have been beavering away on my blanket - a lot of progress has been made since my last post. I've spent most of the last 2 weeks doing the seaming on this, but I'm nearly there now!

The (brief) flashes of sunshine that have from time to time come through the window while I have been working on this blanket have really highlighted the stained glass effect I think.

Normally when working on a blanket like this, I would have a smaller project on the go simultaneously, so that I can have a little break from the blanket if I need to. However, since I started adding the black seaming to the blanket, I've just found it so absorbing and fun to work on that I haven't wanted to put it down!

I think this may be my favourite blanket yet! Hopefully I will finish it over the weekend, and then be able to share full completed snaps with you!

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Cathedral blanket - progress

Morning (well afternoon now!) and Happy Mothers Day everyone! I am very excited to be able to share with your some snaps of my cathedral blanket!

I have been working away on this for almost 2 weeks now, managing to do at least a couple of squares every night. For days now I have had stacks and stacks of little squares. I haven't been able to start joing them, up which has been a little frustrating, but also sort of exciting too - the anticipation! Because I'm working with scraps and doing diagonal rows, I didn't want to start joing the squares yet, as I don't know how many squares I will have for each colour and therefore what the colour sequence will be for each row going straight across.

I found some scraps of one mid-blue yarn - a Rowan Cashsoft DK, and was able to make 4 squares using that. I knew I had another ball of that somewhere, but thought I may have left it at my boyfriend's place (isn't he nice to put up with my leaving yarn lying around at his flat for weeks on end!). Anyway, this morning I had a burst of inspiration as to where the stray ball might be, rooted through my cupboard in my yarn storage box and lo and behold, there it was, along with some other scraps that will also do nicely for the blanket! 

So I should be able to finish making squares and start joining this week! So excited! Here is the planned arrangement - it may come out a little bugger in the end - I figure I may as well use as many scraps as fit in!

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Granny squares

After a couple of weeks of frantically trying to finish my latest assignment, I finally have a chance to relax.

I'm celebrating by making as many of tbese granny squares as I can in 1 weekend! At the moment they are destined for a throw, but we'll see.