Colour play

It has been wild and windy here! Our house was without power for about 7 hours on Monday, the day of the big storm. Suddenly being without electricity makes you realise how much you depend on it - for everything from boiling a kettle to heating water to shower or bath in!

Actually, I kind of liked not having electricity for a little while! It was nice to have no distractions and be forced to fall back on more traditional methods of entertainment, such as reading (and crochet of course). Though I probably would have taken a different view if the power outage had lasted until dark - as my other half said "crochet by candlelight - very exciting"! Exciting it may have been, but I'm sure it would have been bad for my eyes.

We were lucky to have our power back the same day - I know some people who were still without power on Tuesday afternoon/evening.

Perhaps my liking for not having electricity relates to a general need I'm feeling lately to try and slow life down. I feel a bit like I'm on a merry-go-round at the moment. I'm trying to cram so much into the days that the hours just fly by, and it leaves me feeling a little dizzy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - I'm loving everything I'm doing at the moment - work and study. It's just that some times I find myself at one of the regular points in my routine feeling like it's only been about a minute since I was doing the same thing the day before!

Do you ever feel like that? Is it a side effect of modern life? I think it must be.

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Well, continuing with my attempt at a slow pace of life here, I've spent some time over the last couple of days playing around with the colours for my starburst squares, rolling ends into nice neat little balls, not hurrying the process, but just enjoying. 

In the photo above you can see the colours I'm using. I was going to try and tell you what make and shade each colour was, but I've completely gotten mixed up with trying to work it out now! Maybe I'll try again when I've finished the blanket.

I've made around 90 of these little squares now, and have started sewing them together.

I find working in batches make the process flow a little more smoothly, so I've been working the first two rounds on a batch of circles, then the third and finally the white edging.

Tonight I'm starting the stitching together process - I have to say it looks pretty good so far!

Stay warm

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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!

Sunshine cushion

I can't believe it has been over a week since my last post. This week has gone so fast, and to be honest I have just been plain lazy about posting! In my last post I said that I might have a completed cushion cover to share with you - well, I do!

Here is the cushion made with my latest motif design. I'm calling this motif the sunshine motif. I'm quite pleased with the way this cushion turned out, and I loved working with all these colours!

I think this cushion has a South American feel to it. Something about all the colours together and the sunburst element of the motif. Can anyone else see that?

I also made a button closure for this cushion - I do love that on a crochet cushion, I think it gives such a nice finishing touch! 

I would love to share this pattern with you - I'm actually mulling over the purchase of crochet chart software. I think this would be much better than writing out patterns long-hand, which, let's face it, is a bit of a chore!

Well, I think you have probably had enough of the cushion for now! As Autumn is approaching here with the start of September I've been turning my thoughts to knitwear. More soon!

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Pink & red

 Pink and red blooms in a hanging basket - they look very striking against the blue tiled wall.

A red phone-box behind a bed of pink and red flowers - looking comically as if it's trying to hide behind a tree!

A single red rose and fallen petal.

Gorgeous vibrant pink blooms along the river.

Hope you've had a lovely weekend.

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Hexagon blanket

This week I finally finished my hexagon blanket! This blanket has taken me quite a while - I started it back in May, do you remember?

For those of you who like to know this sort of thing, here are some blanket statistics for you, this blankt is:

195 hexgaons

double knit yarn (various types)

single bed size

lovely and snuggly!

I am so glad I have finally managed to make this blanket - after a couple of false starts over the years.

Hope you have a creative Sunday - now I'm off for some more happy hooky!

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My weekend

Hello everyone! I hope you have all had a nice weekend.

S and I had our usual cosy weekend together, wandering around town and then settling down to watch a film on Saturday night.

I have some yarny goings on to relate! In my last post I showed you a big pile of scrap yarn and asked you if you could guess what I was going to turn it into.

Well here you are....

Yes, you might have guessed, it's a granny square somthing!

This will eventually become a cushion cover I hope. I was inspired by an old post which I saw on the Attic 24 blog last week, where Lucy had made a granny square cushion cover from her own stash of colourful scraps. You can find her post here.

As you can see my cushion has 3 round granny squares rather than the 2 round ones in the cushion cover Lucy made. That's just because I didn't think I could cope with so many teeny squares, as beautiful as they look in Lucy's pictures! I also plan to make a matching granny sqaure back for my cushion - I really do have a lot of little scraps!

 I also bought something over the weekend, which I plan to use for my granny cushion cover - this cute little jar of multi-coloured buttons!

I have had my eye on this little jar for a while. I got it in the haberdashery department at John Lewis - I just couldn't resist! There are also versions in single colour hues (blue/blue green and white) and a pastel coloured button selection! Hmm, I think I may have to go back and get the other colours too! Now, I'm sure you want to see a bit more of the colourful contents of this jar....

I think a couple of these little darlings will look perfect as a button fastening for my cushion when it is finished - if I can bring myself to use them!

As usual I also had a look at the yarn whilst in John Lewis. Although I did make a purchase (which I'll show you soon - and don't worry I did stick within my self imposed yarn budget - so far!) I came away feeling a little disappointed to be honest. One type of yarn which I loved - Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK - has been discontinued. I loved this yarn because there were so many bright, rich colours. Looking at the other yarns in the store, I just couldn't find anything at all similar. In fact, the colour palettes of most of the other dk wool-mix yarns seem quite muted at the moment. I'm going to have to search for a brand that does the kind of colours I like.

On my travels this weekend, I saw some lovely flowers in various locations:

All these flowers are the kind of colours that I want for my next crochet project, but currently can't find. I'm thinking of rich magenta, geranium and pomegranate reds, violets and lavender, golden yellow, azure blue and turquiose and kingfisher or peacock colours.

Can anyone suggest a yarn I might try?

Hope you all had a lovely crafty weekend!

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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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Cathedral blanket

I had the day off work today and was able to spend it relaxing and starting my next crochet project. It's another blanket - after this I really must make something that is not a blanket! In my defence this blanket idea has been lurking in my head for nearly 2 years now, so I think its about time it had its day!

I'm calling it my cathedral blanket, but its really inspired by stained glass windows in general. Whenever S and I visit anywhere with a cathedral or church, we always take a look. I've seen some beautiful stained glass windows on these visits: these are from a small Chapel in the grounds of Edinburgh Castle, which we visited last summer:

My plan is to make granny squares and join them using black yarn to create a similar effect to a stained glass window. I've chosen lots of bright colours, as well as the left overs in my stash to create this, and already I have a small pile of granny squares! I'm making small squares to get the effect of little pieces of glass.

I think its going to be a lot of fun to make, and I look forward to sharing its progress with you!

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