Box of Squares

Well it's been quite a week first being nominated for the sunshine award and now I have just discovered that I have had my Purple Suns Blanket featured over on lifemultithreaded. It's always nice to know that the things you make are admired and give inspiration to others. 

As for this week I have been trying to make that little crochet dungaree pattern I mentioned in my Cute Dungarees post and I am pleased to announce that I have actually managed to make the dungarees and I am pleased with the result.  I have written down exacly what iv'e done but... actually writing it all out in legible pattern format will be a challenge but one I will try to complete for next week. 

I have been meaning to post about that huge box of squares I received way back in March, just in case you were wondering about what I  managed to make with all those squares all is now finally revealed.

One baby blanket 

made with six inch squares joined with sc and

.

 

finished with a pretty border.

36 squares

Three poncho's

find out about it here

find out about it here

find out about it here

16 squares each = 48 squares

Blanket made up of twelve inch squares, joined and edged with sc

  12 squares

Blanket made with mixed twelve inch squares

12 squares

Blanket made with  mixture of crochet and knitted six inch squares

30 Squares

Small blanket made of mixed sized squares in crochet

15 Squares

Huge blanket made out of six inch knitted squares

81 Squares

I also made two pet blankets with odd squares but for some reason I can't get the pictures from flickr onto this blog so here are the links

Pet blanket one made with six inch knitted squares  here

36 squares

Pet blanket two made with odd six inch knitted squares here

25 squares

So thats a total of 295 squares.  

I did enjoy sewing them up but I just did it slowly between other projects.  These blankets have now been sent off to Lou at Loving Hands where she can send them on to worthy causes. Here they are all ready to be sent off.

  I know what you are thinking ......I bet she is glad they are all sewn up ha ha well would you like a peep into the box

I can actually see the bottom of the box wahey!! but as you can see there is still a good blanket or two's worth in there.  These are the very challenging one's that are left, all different sizes and textures and I'm going to have to have a lot of time and patience to put them together, if and when that happens I will show you the finished result and the empty box.  :)

Now I'm off to invite the ladies of Loving Hands to take a peek and see if any of them can recognise their squares.  

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

When two CALs Meet :)

I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who has left me lovely comments about my posts and a big welcome to all my new Followers, I love to read your comments, it does mean a lot to me to hear your views and to know that you enjoy my blog, AND I now have 99 Followers I'm wondering who is going to be my 100th :)

This week I have been combining my love of making poncho's with my love of granny Roses, so it seemed to make sense to make a poncho for Angie's CAL and decorated it with Astri's granny roses and here is the result.

 

I just love it, those lovely roses turn everything into something special.

If you remember I began this little poncho here

Here it is all finished and decorated with a granny rose.  These little poncho's will be ideal for this part of the Loving Hands Summer challenges. 

If you remember I found some lovely snugly wool in my stash and I decided to make a poncho for myself, well it's nearly finished and I will post a picture as soon as it's done.  

Sweet Little Things

Angel Claire body warmer

I love making baby and preemie things because they are so quick to do and of course they are so sweet.  I have been working my way through Mayflowers patterns and here is what I've done so far.

So tiny only 6'' long

As Big as it gets cardigan

Sunday best jacket and bonnet

Springtime  cardigan

Weenie waistcoat

 Chullo and mittens

lil bit bigger jacket

Sweater set

Girly Hat and Scarf

There are still quite a few more of Mayflowers patterns to do but I'm not sure if I will have time to do them all because the Spring Challenge ends at the end of this month.  Still I'm sure that we will still beat the 1000 item target because I know lots of Loving hands members have been making her designs, the favourite is definitely the Marie Claire body warmer it's lovely to make and once you start making it making just one is not an option :) 

In Memory of a Friend

It's a while since I knitted anything because I find that I prefer crochet, however I have dug out the knitting needles for the following project and I find I am quite enjoying it.  Maybe it's good to have a break from things now and again.

Sadly one of our lovely Loving Hands members passed away last year, we new her as Mayflower and she was an inspiration to us all.  Not only did she turn out many beautiful items she also shared her knitting patterns with us. As a tribute to Mayflower part of the Spring Challenges is for us to make 1000 items from her patterns.  This is will be a pleasure for us to do because her patterns are very simple and easy to follow.  

Unfortunately I can't share the patterns with you because they are for Loving Hands members only, but I will be showing you the finished items as I make them.  I intend to do at least one item of each of her patterns which are all knitted and are mostly for babies and Preemies.

Mayflowers Wee Cardigan

I have made this one before it's a lovely pattern to make and as simple as can be.

If you would like to join Loving Hands just e-mail Lou on this link

End of Winter Challenge.

The Loving Hands Winter Challenge seemed to come to an end so quickly, the last three months just flew.  With Christmas being in the middle of the challenge I didn't really have time to make as much as I would have liked to.  Never mind at least I have a few things packed up and ready to go, this is what went into the box this time.

One Elephant Blanket
One Blanket for the homeless
Two little tops
Scarf's for the homeless
Washables and underwear.
Polo shirts for Springs of life school in Kenya.

and here is the box just waiting to be closed sealed and sent off to Lou :)

The new Spring Challenge has started already and will run to 28th April 2012. 

If anyone would like to join this lovely group just contact Lou jaap, the contact details can be found here

Project Washables.

One of the projects in the loving hands winter challenge is what we call washables or washable sanitary towels for women and young girls in Africa.  It seems sad and unbelievable that in this day and age such basic items which we take for granted aren't readily available the world over but sadly it's true.  These links can explain it better than I can.here and here

So for the past week I have been making these, there are quite a few patterns on the web because people are becoming more aware of the need to recycle and  home made towels are becoming more popular, I have kept mine simple however because to be honest my sewing skills are appalling  lol it has taken me a whole week to make just 25 towels 25 covers and 5 bags to hold 5 towels each.  My poor sewing machine nearly found it's way sailing through the window on several occasions, why does the thread snap so often and why does the tension keep changing and don't get me started on trying to thread the needle lol.

New Challenges

I would just like to send a huge thank you to everyone who has given me such lovely feed back in their comments on my work it is very motivating and means a great deal to me  :) 

The Halloween fayre was such fun, I was amazed at the beautiful things the ladies of loving hands had sent in, so much talent, and the good thing is that items that wern't sold will be sent on to worthy causes so nothing is wasted.  

Now I can turn my thoughts to the new challenges.  I have decided to make two blankets, one for the homeless and one for the elephants.  Hats and scarves for the homeless and in between all that, christmas gifts for friends and family so it's going to be a busy couple of months.
I have started to work on the first blanket already it's something I have wanted to try for ages and now the new challenges have given me the opportunity.  I love making granny squares but I wanted to do something different and I think I have found the ideal solution in this granny ripple.  I know some of the ladies in blogland are busy making ripple blankets and they are coming on a treat but I have just made one of those so a granny ripple I think is the way to go especially having seen a beautifully made one on Chalky's World yesterday I think I have made the right decision, if I can make one half as nice I will be happy.
So here I am at the moment planning as I go, it is going  to be a stash buster blanket, so it is a bit of a challenge trying to fit in what colour goes where and whether there will be enough wool to finish two rows lol, I have tried the weighing the wool method but I have found it isn't that accurate, the only real fool proof method is to crochet a row, pull it out then measure it and then you know exactly how long your piece of yarn should be.

Here I am at the start of my journey and I must say I am loving it so far. :)

Autumn Challenge 2011 Draws to a close.

The end of the Autumn challenge is drawing near and so once again it is time to pack up my box of items to send to Lou, however this time I will be taking the box up to Scotland myself and attending the Halloween Fayre she has organised.  I am really looking forward to meeting Lou and some of the ladies from loving hands, less than two weeks to go I can hardly wait.  So what is going into the box this time? most of the things I have blogged about of course and a few surprises.

I apologise in advance for the poor light quality of the photo's, it's so hard to get a picture minus the shadows.

So we start with all the lovely blankets, there are twelve of them in all mostly for babies and preemies.

Here they all are lying snugly in the bottom of the box making a soft cushion for the little tops to lie on.

Here are the little cute tops for teeny tinny babies, babies and toddlers.

There you have 10 tops, 2 poncho's, 3 pairs of booties and 2 little hats, and here they are lying in the box.

Next come 15 little bags of all colours shapes and sizes, I had so much fun making these.

 All lying snuggly in their own little special box with a little sweetie treat inside.

Remember these little guys, 25 little finger puppets cute when finished but so fiddly to make lol

Then last but not least 8 teenie little shoe box Teds cute enough I hope for any child to love and 3 pair of Angel Teds.

Tiny Teds

They will share a shoe box with the finger puppets.  So there you have it one box nearly full to the top, just waiting for some last minute items I may slip into there before I take it up to Scotland.

Spring Challenge 2011

Ready to be packed away.

Well they have just collected my box for the spring challenges.  I always feel sad when I say goodbye to the box that has taken me three months to fill  but at least I have lots of photo's to remind me of the things I have made and the knowledge that they will be put to good use.  It would be lovely to see where everything ended up I hope that everything will benefit someone somewhere and will easing someone's suffering in some small way.

These just made it.

   This climbed in right at the very end lol                                            

Ready to go for Winter 2010 Callenge

These are all ready to go for little Bravin the Kenyan boy for the winter 2010 challenge.