Improving, Some Follow Ups and Mosaic CAL's

 Thank you all for all your best wishes for my recovery from Covid, it was horrid! I'm hoping that I never get it again, I tested negative on the 15th day but it has left me with a cough and my voice is so hoarse, it hurts if I talk much so I'm resting it as much as possible, I'm hoping that there's not going to be any lasting damage because my throat was very sore for quite a few days and the continuous coughing didn't help.  I am trying to increase my exercise every day, my appetite has returned and food tastes almost normal again.

Onwards and upwards I hate to dwell on illness lets talk about nicer things like little grandson number two  I actually got to meet him for the first time yesterday.

Baby Julian

I was happy to see him wrapped in the little blanket I had made for him but he was wearing a crochet jacket which his mummy had bought from Etsy and I couldn't help thinking why buy from Etsy when he has a grandma who is more than willing to make him anything he needs but DIL said she had gone a little crazy with buying him far too much stuff than he will ever need. I'm already planning what I can make him for when he gets older.

More good news which I didn't want to share until we were sure that all was going to be ok, if you remember grandson number one Mikey's mummy lost a baby a couple of years ago but now she is pregnant again and due in February, she is having a boy as well so I'll have three lovely little grandsons.

Tedds Poncho

Ted was so happy with his poncho and wore it for the Abba Tribute 

Ted Wearing His Poncho

Apparently it was a great show and everyone had a fabulous time, I was so sorry to have missed it, Ted says he is looking forward to wearing his poncho to many more Red Hatter events and thanked me with a crochet pattern booklet and a gift voucher for a yarn store bless him I didn't expect anything I enjoyed making it for him.

I was asked to make a pair of thumbless mittens for my  friend Carols granddaughter, Carol  loves to crochet herself but is partially sighted now and finds it difficult to crochet. She asked me the evening before I was due to meet her, I was determined to make them that evening and have them ready for her the next day. After almost completing one mitten I came to the conclusion that it just wouldn't do, it had almost no stretch and her granddaughter would find it hard  to put her little hands into them. Although I love crochet items you can't beat a knitted rib and so I quickly made these little thumbless mittens for her, I managed to make one the evening before we met and I sat knitting the second one in the garden centre where we met.

Alyana modelling her mittens

I can't wait to make her and Carols other granddaughter some more it's lovely to make things for little girls, I'm thinking cute little sweaters with hats to match 😀

That trip to the garden centre was my first time out following Covid and my friend Jan joined us there, she had brought along a bag of crochet granny squares which she had been asked to join into a blanket for Macmillan, she knits and crochets for them but she had never joined squares to make into a blanket and wanted my advice.  I offered to do it for her...

A nice and easy project which took no time at all

It measures 38" x 42" and it's made in chunky yarn and will make a lovely throw or lap blanket.

So it's been quite a busy two weeks and now I'm looking forward to a Mosaic Crochet crochet along which starts at the end of this month.  It's hosted by Rosina Plane and it's called Sonia's Holiday Mosaic, this is the blanket/throw..

I'm going to make it for my daughter, I already have some of the yarn and I'm in the process of ordering the rest. You can find the details here if you fancy joining me. It's that time of the year when lots of crochet alongs are being announced and I get quite excited and end up buying lots of patterns while they are discounted, another one that is starting at the beginning of November is this ....

Happy CAL hosted by Tinna Thórudóttir

A very easy Mosaic Pattern which would be great for beginners.

Today I will will be doing some sewing, I need to catch up on my embroidery..

I'm determined to get it finished before the end of the month.🌝

Have a great week ahead.💗

Click here to see all the great parties that I will be linking with this week.

Teds Poncho

 Thank you for all your lovely comments it's great to be back again and I'm going to try and blog more often, it may be easier now that Autumn is officially here and the garden is winding down, I'm a fair weather gardener and rarely venture out once the weather changes.  I'm looking forward to Spring already and have bought lots of Spring bulbs, I'm going to plant them in pots and will look forward to them emerging in the Spring, I still need to buy some crocus as well and these will be dotted about my lawn both front and back of the house. 

Teds Poncho

Have you heard of the Red Hatters?  click on the name if you haven't and it will take you to the Red Hatter site.  We have a Red Hatters group in our u3a which has just started up again since before Covid.  We have a few male members who don't mind wearing the obligatory red hat and purple clothing.  One of them is Ted and although he's in very poor health it is obvious that Ted wants to embrace life and throw himself into as many activities as his declining health allows. Ted approached me and asked me if I would crochet him a purple poncho, I think our upcoming outing to a Abba thank you for the music evening  triggered this request as poncho's were very much the thing in the 70's

Well we sat and pondered, time was short as I was in the middle of making things for my upcoming grandchild and charity makes, so it was decided that a granny square poncho would be the quickest to make. I made a few samples so that he could choose which pattern he wanted...

He chose number two and I started making it, but it soon became apparent that because of all the other stuff I was trying to make there was no way I would finish it in time, so I made the decision with Teds blessing that it would look much better if the patterned  squares were just around the edges and plain purple squares in the centre. 

 I could have approached my crochet group and asked for their help but as you must realise everyone's tension is different and for the poncho to look good the squares need to be the same size, however because time was short, Pamela who runs the knitting group as well as being as member of my crochet group insisted on trying to help and she made quite a few of the plain purple squares thank you lovely Pamela! 

I'm so pleased to say that we did it!!

It consists of 69, 6 inch squares - there are 116 tassels! yes I counted them and the ends that needed to be woven in were in their hundreds. 

I used Stylecraft special dk and it took 1000 grams.

I found this such a lovely project I love making granny squares don't you? 

Fingers crossed Ted will like it I will try and get a photo of him wearing it and show you with his permission of course. 

Have a great Sunday 😘😘

Linking with..

Slow Sunday Stitching

As far as I'm going to go.

If you remember at the end of January I resurrected this partly finished blanket which was started back in 1012 read here I was determined to do something with it and after putting it together as best I can, I have decided  that this is as far as I can go with it.  

I have managed to include all the original squares from the CAL apart from an oblong square which I plan to use as the center for another blanket and although it's smaller than I planned it is plenty big enough for someone to use as a lapghan.  I did start to make more squares but I think that I'll use those in another blanket somewhere down the line.

I'm so pleased with how it's turned out even though it looks nothing like it should do, some of you clever people can make different sized squares into a lovely blanket but not me I'm afraid.

I cheated by making all the squares the same size and then joined them around the inner rectangle. I'm glad that I can draw a line under this and send it on to someone who can make use of it I'm hoping that all the pretty squares will give someone some cheer and warmth.

Speaking of cheer and warmth I am so sick of the cold weather, we had snow and bitterly cold winds over the weekend, in an effort to feel more Spring like I have changed my header from the previous snow scene to this one of daffodils which are flowering their pretty socks off in my garden at the moment even the snow hasn't deterred them.

Have a great week.😊

Resurrecting an Old Friend.

When trying to decide which of the crochet a longs to follow I decided to make some of the squares from the 2018 Granny Square Cal when I realised that some of them seemed familiar and little bell tinkled in the far recesses of my brain oh yes! The Granny Square Afghan Sampler! back in 2012 I followed a crochet along for this, the blog is sadly no longer in existence so I can't link you back there but it was hosted by Blair Stocker and after doing just a little bit of research I have found her on Ravelry and her new blog Wise craft can be found here along with links to this project, I remember I enjoyed making the actual squares but not the joining up because they were all different sizes, what a challenge! first we were advised to make the center of the Afghan, it took me ages to figure it out...

and then join them together...

we then had to join the rest of the squares to the blanket..

I did try, in fact I tried for ages until I got fed up with it, I wasn't convinced that it would be worth all the work it would take to put it together or big enough to make a decent sized Afghan so it got stuffed into a bag and pushed out of sight, UNTIL NOW! yes six years later I have dug it out and have looked back and traced the project, I was so pleased to find that the whole project is there along with links to all the squares.  I'm also quite ashamed to see that lots of people followed this CAL and managed to complete this Afghan with no difficulty at all and there are some lovely examples on Ravelry.

I have decided to try to put it together however, I know that it's no use me trying to put it together as it is, it would be too small to be practical and it would be so fiddly to fit this jigsaw together, so I'm going to enlarge each square to six inches and then include some of the squares from 2018 Granny Square CAL until it's the size I want, well that's the plan wish me luck.😊

You can find the project here with links to all the patterns 

A Great Start to the New Year.

Or should I say finish!

this was supposed to be my winter project but it's finished already...  

I know all things granny are fun but I have to say I think that this particular square is my absolute favourite to make, that's why I managed to finish the blanket so quickly. Starting off with an easy circle and then squaring it off is very satisfying indeed.

I began this blankets journey here and at this point I realised that I wouldn't have enough  grey but with your encouragement I added in the cream and I think it looks great don't you? Find the circle in a square pattern here

A very satisfying stash-bust, the blanket used 1,237 grams of yarn and it will fit a single bed..

This will be the first item to place into a box to be sent to Operation Orphan, I wonder how long it will take to fill the box.😉

A big thank you for staying with me even though I've been noticeably absent of late and for all the lovely comments I received throughout 2017.  It was a very difficult year for me and although I am settling into my lovely new home, I received yet another set back regarding my old house just before Christmas, my fourth lot of buyers had to pull out because of problems with their own house sale. I have taken the house off the market because I need a break from the stress of it all. I will put it back on in a few weeks and hopefully 2018 will be a better year for me.😊

Thank you for the lovely comments about my header, it's a Church situated not too far from where I live and the photograph was taken by my brother he takes amazing photo's.

I hope your first weekend of the New Year is a good one, what will you all be up to? I'm going to sort my stash so wish me luck! see you soon. 

A Poncho for Joanie.

A few weeks ago my friends Mother had a very bad fall in her home and had to be admitted to hospital, she sustained a large gash to her forehead and broke her shoulder.  It was touch and go for a while for poor Joanie she's 90 years old and as you can imagine it was a huge shock to her system and she was in considerable pain, luckily she is on the mend but it's going to take a long time for her to recover.

I offered to make this poncho for her as she needed something that was practical and easy to wear. My friend told me what her favourite colours were and luckily I had enough yarn in my stash to make this.

I started by making some granny rose squares and then just used a zig zag granny stitch pattern until it was the length I needed. 

I made a crochet edging rather than a fringe as I thought it would be safer and look a lot neater too. I'm hoping that she'll like it.

You can find the Granny Rose Pattern here The pattern for the edging is the same as the one I used for my Nola Shawl and can be found here

I used 400 grams of Dk yarn and a 4mm hook

I got the inspiration from the granny rose poncho I made here  I can't believe that was more than four years ago!

Have a great week! 

Look on my right hand sidebar to see where I will be linking this week.

One Entry Down and One to go!

Thank you for all your lovely comments and good wishes I'm pleased  to say things are progressing albeit very slowly and my fingers are crossed that nothing is going to interfere or hold up the process now that it's started to inch forward.  I know it all sounds very criptic all I can say at the moment is that it involves selling a property please keep your fingers crossed for me. :)

 If you can remember my challenge for this month was to join in with the crochet crowd's feel good charity challenge and submit at least one entry...

Tadaaa.....

One entry all done for the Afghan section

This was an absolute joy to make a fabulously easy granny stripe just the thing to relax with and calm  ragged nerves..

I used stash yarn most of it was Stylecraft Special Aran and I used the Random stripe generator which is such fun and for me  it was great not have to think 'now what colour next?' 

You can find the pattern with tutorial here.

I thought I had another entry for the hat category but when I've counted the hats I've made there is one short so I'm off to make that now I have till the end  of the month so plenty of time to submit them both and get started on my May sweater which will end up as being May/June sweater I think.


For those of you that haven't heard Daniel from the Crochet Crowd has suffered a heart attack I would like to send my best wishes for a speedy recovery. xx

The Mystery Revealed

Mystery Afghan CAL

The Mystery Afghan is now complete and here is the result....

As always trying to get a decent photo of the colours is difficult especially when you are working with pastel shades, I think this one taken on my patio table is the closest.

I always take dozens of photo's but am never happy with any of them, anyway I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed this crochet along, it was great fun trying to guess what the next clue was going to reveal.

I'm also pleased that I was able to use stash yarn for this and didn't have to buy anything for it.

I have learnt quite a lot and it has taught me that in crochet anything is possible, not to be afraid and to just go for it.  I can see myself making this again in the future and maybe tweaking it here and there. Some of the colourways of others who have participated are amazing.

I would think that the size would be perfect for a crib cover, I had planned on sending this to one of the charities I support but have decided to keep it for my granny drawer which has now increased to a drawer and two suitcases, I live in hope. :)

The pattern is available here and believe me it isn't difficult and it's great fun to do if you would like to give it a try.  I made mine using Double knit yarn but the actual pattern is for worsted or Aran weight so it would result in a bigger size, you could of course make it any size you want.

STATS
The finished Afghan measures 36 x 28 inches and it weighs in at 430 grams.

You can see more amazing finishes here, some of them put mine in the shade.

Thank you to Mikey and the Crochet Crowd for hosting such a great CAL!

Linking with....

Snickerdoodle Sunday
Handmade Monday - Creative Tuesday - Eyeloveknots - Link and share Wednesday - Lunamon Design

Progress

The making of blocks from the book 200 Crochet Blocks continues quietly in the background.

Block 76 Granny Stripes

 A lovely block to make I love it to bits, I have always liked granny stripes and of course a granny stripe blanket is always pretty.  The only negative is the ends of course all that weaving in, I have made eight of these for the current project I'm working on so I'm using the ends to sew them together.

Block 6 Textures Bluebells (in this case red bells)

I love this one too so easy and it has a great texture, I have made five of these they go so well with the granny stripes.

So there you have it, I'm determined to make as many projects as I can out of the book this one is about half way through and I'm still not sure if it will work, I'm going to try and get it completed by the middle of March I need to add another two different blocks to complete the puzzle and I have already chosen them I will need just three more altogether one of one and two of the other then I will try and put it all together fingers crossed. :) 

Yesterday's clue three for the mystery CAL is even more crazy than the last, I will be showing you when they are done.

Linking with