A bit of Allsorts.

Firstly thank you all for the lovely comments you left for my Mosaic blanket in the previous post, I was quite surprised to hear that many of you hadn't heard of mosaic crochet before, I would urge you to give it a try because it's surprising just how easy it is. This is the one I have just started working on...

Well this week has been a bit of a mixed bag, I forced myself to get out for a walk it seems ages since I did so because of the awful weather we have been having it's much easier to stay cosy inside with your crochet hook but the weather improved and out I went..

I'm always happy once I do get out there I mean to say just look at this view at the end of my street..

a little bit dull I do admit but seeing that yacht on the water  quite lifted my heart, I usually take a circular walk it takes me just over an hour, or maybe a bit  more because I do tend to stop and admire and take the odd photo or two or do a little foraging, put it this way I never come home empty handed.

I have been wanting to make Elderflower cordial for weeks but I was afraid that it may be too late to find any flowers but luckily I found a few on my walk and was able to make some cordial for the first time and it turned out really well.  I managed to make one bottle and I filled an ice cube bag and put that in the freezer thinking I would be able to put Elderflower ice cubes straight into a glass of water but they haven't frozen so that's not going to work. Next time I'll freeze it  in small bottles.

I always go down onto the beach as part of my walk and collect a few beach pebbles, if you recall the idea was to paint them for my grandson Mikey.  I have spent a pleasant few weeks doing just that.  The problem is, this little one is learning so fast I can't keep up with him, he was crazy about numbers and letters and loved reciting the alphabet and saying his numbers so I duly made some alphabet and number stones

Then it was shapes, that boy knows the names of  shapes I didn't even know existed!

The latest craze is planets ...

I had them all made ready for when he came to visit last weekend he wasn't interested in the letters and numbers but he spent two hours playing with the shapes and loved the planets he lines them all up in the correct order and says what they all are.  He even knows the secondary planets but I'm going to have to look those up.😂

I'm trying to guess what he will be into next any idea's? he's just two and four months old but seems to be way ahead of what my kids were at that age.

I'm really enjoying the whole rock art thing, I have turned my summerhouse into a workshop because it is a messy business.  For Mikeys stones I have prepared the stones by washing them then painting them with acrylic paint, then printed pictures of numbers, letters, shapes and planets, cut them out and stuck them onto the rocks with Mod Podge,



I enjoyed hand painting these ladybirds....
I plan to have these dotted around my garden and there will be more just to hand out to friends when they pop by.  

Ladybird invasion!

At the moment some are getting the decoupage treatment actually the possibilities are endless I have to thank Linda from Crafty Gardener for giving me the idea she has done some great rock art you can see hers here. 

A couple of firsts
I know it's just a pansy but can you believe I sewed these seeds right back in March and they are just starting to flower, I was so excited I had to take photo of the first one to bloom.

The same can be said of the sweet peas and all of the seeds I have nurtured for weeks on end, they are taking an age to flower I have to ask myself if it's really worth it, all those weeks of waiting when you can just go out to the garden centre or supermarket and buy bedding plants quite cheaply and already established.

The rose is the Charlotte rose which I managed to rescue from my previous garden 3 years ago, it hasn't done a thing since then and has looked very weak I didn't think it would survive but look, a beautiful flower at last

It's Fully opened today

Have a great weekend and stay safe! 😘😘

Click here to see some of the great parties I will be linking to this week.

I can't Believe I made this!

Indiana Afghan

The first time I was introduced to mosaic crochet was back in February 2019 when I followed the Havana CAL you can see the blanket here.  I was amazed that something that looks so intricate could be so easy to make.



You would think that Mosaic crochet would be a slow process because you use only single crochet and double crochet stitches ( US terms) and as the double crochet stitches are worked into the row below it means the blanket is only growing as high as a single crochet stitch row on row, however I found that this blanket grew quite quickly, it was started at the beginning of May and it was finished exactly two months later, I could have even finished it earlier but I was working on other projects at the same time, I think two months for a blanket this size isn't too bad at all.



I've had this on my to do list for a long time and have been itching to make it but then I have to ask myself  do I really need another blanket? My family are inundated with my blankets so who can I give it to, most of the blankets I make go to charities but they weren't accepting donations because of Covid-19, in the end I asked a friend... can I make a blanket for you? and he said yes of course!! so I had my excuse to start yet another blanket. (One of these days I will go back and have a blanket count just for fun to see how many I have made over the past few years)



I loved making it and watching all the patterns reveal themselves like magic, the designer makes it easy as the pattern is very clear and explicit.  I found the hardest part was the star design which I made harder for myself by using black yarn, I really struggled to see the stitches, (note to self ... avoid dark colours!) but it was worth all the hassle as I just love those stars.

I chose not to make the double border and made a twisted fringe instead, which I made as I went along so I didn't have the whole lot to do at the end, the hardest part of that process was getting the fringe the same length, it's not perfect but it will do and I'm sure the recipient won't even notice it's a bit uneven  anyway. 

Stats...
It took 1100 grams of dk yarn, most of which was Stylecraft special Dk which I already had in my stash, I added a few balls of Hayfield Bonus which I can buy locally. The pattern calls for aran/worsted weight so I added more stitches and worked more rows to get a decent sized blanket it measures  40" x 65".  If I make it again I will add enough stitches so that I have five of the star pattern repeats just to make it that bit wider. 

The designer is Tinna Thórudóttir Thorvaldsdóttir and you can buy the pattern here on Ravelry 



I want to make all this designers patterns as I love them all, but then I'm just completely hooked on Mosaic crochet at the moment.  I have just started another blanket (this time for me) but it's a different designer and I'm struggling, I'm hoping that once I get used to her way of writing it will be easier.

Have you tried mosaic crochet? do you love it like I do? I would love to see your work.😃

Have a great weekend and stay safe!😘😘

See the great parties I will be linking with here

Slow loading time resolved! and a Finish!

Since I returned to this little space of mine back in May, I have been aware that my blog has been very slow to load, not a good thing when people pop in to visit.  No one has the time to wait around for pages to load and it's even worse if you are wanting to leave a comment, we all love to hear from our blogging friends but the comment section was taking an age to load too. 

So I have spent weeks literally trying to find out why, I'm not that good at technology that's why it's taken me so long, I have googled  and visited help rooms followed all suggestions and none of them worked.

It has been a case of trial and error, I have removed elements from my blog page I have reduced the size of my photos, I have removed widgets one by one with no effect until the penny dropped! I am a little slow and it has to be said my thought processes are getting slower as the the years progress.😕

Can you remember that little widget that you could place at the foot of your post saying "you may also like " and it left pictures of previous posts so you could click on them and go to a post that interests you.  I had quite forgotten all about it until it struck me the other day...I wonder what happened to those pictures because they don't appear anymore.  So I went into the layout of my blog and there it was at the foot of my post, as it wasn't working I deleted it and yay! the problem was seemingly resolved with the click of that delete tab. 

 Now for those of you who knew that already this is of course no big deal but for me and maybe others who could be struggling with slower than usual loading times this could help.  Apparently blogger doesn't support many of the widgets it once did so if you have any that aren't working anymore delete them.  

Now all I have to do is restore all the other stuff I deleted.

Another ta-dah moment ...

Finished at last! I started this for my daughters birthday a couple of years ago but I never had the time to actually sit down and get it done so being in lock-down does give you some positives.           

I really  enjoyed making this, it was a kit bought from a TV craft program although I substituted the embroidery silks for my own as the colours and the quality of threads they sent were awful. The picture is a little dark but the colours are brighter in real life I hope she will like it. I'm now about to start something different but want to finish my Indiana crochet blanket first and it's almost there! so there will be another ta-dah moment next week too.

Aren't these lilies beautiful bright and vibrant they shine out from the shaded area on the decking at the foot of my garden they clash with the bright pink of the hydrangea in a neighbouring pot but somehow that doesn't bother me at all. 

and I'm leaving you with these do have one!  they do taste quite nice even though I say it myself, made for a little family gathering last week just two bites and they are gone so hardly any calories at all.😇

Have a great weekend.😘😘



Click here to see all the great Parties I'll be linking with