Slow and steady

 The crochet is back out, a combination of my spinning and the slightly cooler weather means that I've been able to get yarny projects without feeling like I'm going to melt. I put this away when I got about eight colours in to it and realised that there was a mistake in it, it was definitely tapering in. So I pulled it back to the first row and started it again and I'm now at the lovely point of doing new bits, I'm not just repeating the bits that I did wrong the first time, I'm now doing new bits. It's not looking like a blanket yet, but it's starting to get there. Plus if if was too blankety I wouldn't be able to work on it because, despite the fact that it has got cooler I don't want to be working on something that is still a massive blanket, so I can probably work another five to ten rows before I start to melt and need to wait until October before I can work on it.

The stitching is growing, although not as fast as it should be. The brown continues, it continues to be worked on and it continues to be so brown, but as I had pointed out to me a few days ago, there are other colours I just haven't quite reached them yet, and sadly I won't reach them on this page, but at least I know that they're out there, waiting for me, one day.

It's still a leg, but it also has an arm...

Do dragons have arms? I don't know what else to call it, as it's definitely not a wing (although they are there too), so I'm going to have to refer to it as an arm... and now that I think about it, I'd better hope he's got arms, or else how is he steering that motorbike? More accurately it's actually an elbow... yup, once again I've moved my nose more that four inches away from it, and suddenly the whole has come into focus.

I was planning on finishing his leg this week, but it hasn't quite happened, however I didn't plan on getting as much below his leg done as I have so it sort of evens out. As is often the case, all the colours in that little patch just below his belly are also in the silver and blue of the bike, so as they were out I did that bit as well, but it meant that the leg isn't quite done, but I'm on the last colour, so hopefully not much longer until it is... and then hopefully I'm not that far off a page finish (sssh, don't say it too loud)

And secondly, the crochet is back out (because this is the weather to be working on blankets, but never mind). I was slightly enviously watching people crocheting at my craft group last week and figured that it was definitely time for mine to come out. Sadly, the first thing I did was frog 13 rows of the project on the right, but I'm back on that now, and on the left is my third attempt at working out what to do with one of my many whirls. I like corner to corner blankets, so hopefully this is the one. We'll see what happens anyway.

A page finish already!?!?!

Technically this is two pages, but seeing as one page is just the bottom two rows, I really don't think that it can be classified as two page finishes... it only just counts as one. It doesn't look like much, it's mostly just pretty swirls at the moment, but I'm proud of how much I've managed to get done this week. The next couple of weeks won't see as much progress (even vaguely), but I'm looking good for a couple of weeks time... so, who do you think is coming out to play next? 

Secondly my colourful blanket continues to be colourful... buying new colours for this is a little bit addictive now... I almost certainly have more than I need, but every time I see something pretty... and I want to include as many different dyers as possible!

Page finish!

Hello again my dears, can you believe that I'm posting again, and I've got a page finish as well, who would have thought it a couple of months ago? The worm continues to grow, I'll give in now and own up to what it is, seeing as they're now being tucked away for a while, this is Spirited Away by Jonas Joedicke from Geckorouge. I love it, all the more that I've actually managed a half decent page finish for the first time since goodness knows when. I love the Studio Ghibli films, and am always glad to see charts come up, so I've got both of Jonas, and as soon as I get a Howl's Moving Castle chart I'll be so happy!

Second up my ripple blanket is growing, although at the moment it is distinctly more scarf like than blanket like. I'm wondering how many different dyers I can get into one blanket. So far I've got Truly Hooked, For the love of Yarn, Rhapsodye Yarns and All Wool that Ends Wool. I have many others to add to the blanket, loads of Verity's and a few other dyers as well. Sadly I've run out of black and black dye, so I'm waiting for my latest dye order to arrive so that I can get some more black dyed so I can carry on. It's been less than a week and I'm already missing this blanket so much. Despite the fact that I love the blend, this is also my first time actually working for silk blends, oh my word, it feels so lovely! A have a few more silks in the stash for this project so I look forward to using a few more of them.

EDIT: I'ven just gone back and looked, my last proper page finish (a decent sized page) was July 2016, that's horrendous. Right, let the stitching commence!

Three weeks in a row...

I know, I'm posting, and I have something to show, for the third time in as many weeks, who'd have thunk it?

Anyway, this particular picture is just to prove that stitching has happened, as I won't be working on it again. It's a design that I love, but I bought it from a slightly less reliable source, and it turns out that I just feel really guilty about it, so I can't quite bring myself to work on it. I am a fool, and I don't know which bit I'm calling myself a fool over. Anyway, there has been a conversation with a friend, and they are going to contact the artist in question and see if they would be interested in something slightly more official, so I'm hoping that a proper version of this will come out at some point in the future... watch this space! 

Secondly is some stitching that hopefully will see the light of day again, even if it does look suspiciously like a worm at the moment, although that's not as far off as you'd think so again, watch this space. Hopefully I'll get a little bit of time on this this week and it'll look like something, but I wouldn't count on it any time soon, but, lets see if I can make it four weeks in a row shall we? (Shocked face!)

And finally, just to prove that crochet is still happening, and although some of you may be sick of the sign of my hooking, here's my latest project, it's a blanket, just for a change! Not that I'm obsessed with blanket making or anything. This is something that I've had in my head for a long time since seeing a picture of a similar idea, and so far I'm absolutely loving it. I've been collecting lots of lovely hand dyed yarns, and although I'm only on my third colour so far, they're all making up really nicely so far. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't match what I had in my head, but thus far I'm pretty happy! For those that are interested I'm using Lucy from Attic24's pattern, but only doing 1 row of each colour as I worried that the coloured yarns would jumble their colours on the second row.

I finally finished the blanket

I did it, I finally finished the blanket after a fairly major push this week, I seem to have spent all of my spare time this week darning in the ends, and, as much as it drove me insane doing it, I do rather like how it's turned out. It gives a ruffle to the edge of the blanket, which I'm sure that I'm not meant to like, because it really means that I've not worked it out properly and tried to fit too many stitches in, but in practice I like the shape it gives it, so I must just be a bad crocheter.

And just to show off, this is it all bundled up, waiting to be gifted to the little man who is now nearly two months old.

This picture means that I can now work on other things, I have other crochet projects lined up, of varying colourfulness and variety, and I have assorted stitching plans. I have that new started I showed about two months that I still haven't properly announced I don't think, I have the presents I'm making for friends, Dargon Rider is due some love, and my SAL with a group, this months theme is Halloween, so I ought to do something on that as well.  tad ambitious by my current standards, but let's see what happens. If I can manage more than one post a month I'll be doing prety well.

Hello my dears, sorry I've been so poor at posting again just recently, work continues to be manic. I think it is slowing up slightly, but not so much that I actually have free time, and what free time I do have has exciting new challenges in it, but more of that later... I have managed a little bit more stitching, Cut Thru Castle continues, as does my sense of impending doom as to how my friend will react when I present her with a gift for her daughter which definitely contains a man on the toilet. 

Second, the continuing crochet, this is not as much as should be done, and I have no real excuse (other than the exciting new challenges), this is portable, I should be able to do another one whenever I have ten minutes free, but I'm lazy, and quite tired at the moment, see earlier manic-ness, and all I really want to do when I get some is lie on the sofa. But I need to start thinking about that deadline pretty soon, so I have started to be a bit more dedicated again this week.

 And this is the excitingness, I've started experimenting with yarn dyeing. I'm quite enjoying it and have many ambitious plans, but it is rather time consuming. This was my first attempt, when all I had was some primary colours to play with and my attempt at mixing purple did not go well.

This is my second attempt after I'd gone out and got some new colours... yes, there are mistakes, yes, I don't think I'd be able to replicate it, but this was a second attempt and when you consider that I'm pretty proud of these.

The one second from the left has potential, I wanted the pink to be more vibrant, and I think I know why it isn't, so I'll try that again. The same with the one in the middle, that and the fact that it came out lighter than I intended.

The one on the right was also meant to be more vibrant, again, I think I know what I did wrong and I think a different technique would work better, so I'll try that again. The one on the left was just dunked into an un-exhausted dye bath and actually turned out kinda pretty. The one second from the left was the last one I did and pretty much playing with what I had left, and I love it, and will have to try and find a way of perfecting it.

There will come a point when my yarn dyeing lives on another blog, but at the moment, sorry guys, you're stuck with it.

Pottering along

This is amazing, second time in as many weeks that I have actual progress to show, I'm so proud. Cut Thru Castle is progressing, you can even see the beginning of what this room is starting to look like, and the shape of the next room. I meant to do this one room at a time, but I wasn't concentrating properly when I started highlighting the chart for the yellow, and then realised that I was flowing in to the next room, so I went with it. And the next room is only a wee room (literally) so it'll give me something to work towards and have two rooms done before you know it (hahaha! Got to love the optimism). 

And the blanket is progressing as well. I finished my target of all the green (again, so proud), and have started on the purples as well. I intended to get a big chunk done today, but we've got my family staying next weekend, so it occurred to us that we probably ought to do some housework, so that's how today was spent instead. Now I remember why I hate cleaning the kitchen, especially the oven... my hands feel horrible now because they've been submerged in water and cleaning chemicals for half the day.

I'm not sure how mum time I'll have this week and so I may not have much progress to show next week, but I'll give it a shot. Happy crafting all!

Stitching, actual stitching!

And here it is, there has been actual progress on Dragon Rider, I'm so happy! I meant to have the tail and above done, but didn't take in to account just how much those colours appeared further down the page as well, if it hadn't been for that I would have managed it. I had meant to have this page finished by the end of the month (there's a chance that I have a new start planned for July, ooops), but I don't think I'm going to manage that... however after several months of not stitching at all I'll take this much as something!

It's probably quite sad just how happy being able to do this made me my week... I forgot just how much stitching is my relaxation until I did some and was suddenly just so much happier again!

Second up, my Granny Starbursts, I wasn't going to post on this this week as I didn't really have much progress to show, however I went round to a friends to watch a film tonight and she was very understanding about me turning up with my crochet so I managed to get another 21 greens done and suddenly made my showing for this week much more respectable. My target for next week is to have all of the greens done and to be moving on to the purple, then before long I'll be trying to work out whether I'm doing the final rounds and then sewing together or if I'm going to try and master the join as I go method. 

And finally, I may have had another new start (and have another another new start planned), but I can justify this one and my another another one as well, these are both intended as presents for people, and I don't quite know what my deadline is on either of those so, wish me luck basically. I will still try and get some time in on my rotation pieces (as I am loving actually being able to stitch again), but these two and the blanket at the main focus pieces for a while, just because they are all time based gifts.

In other news, I'm planning on trying my hand at yarn dying in the next few weeks... I'm quite excited and quite nervous all at the same time... it'll probably be in a couple of weeks time, but I promise I'll put some pics up, no matter how successful or unsuccessful it is so that you can cheer me on or laugh hysterically!

Crafting (sort of)

The wedding's over, I said. I'll have all this free time, I said. I'll be able to craft again, I said. I forgot to factor in how much time I spend at work. Still, I'm eternally optimistic and I'll have more time this week instead (hahaha!).

Anyway, here is the little progress that I do have to show from this week (thank goodness for Craft Group). The blanket (which is currently 144 separate pieces) is progressing, but as per usual, I'm not quite sure if I'm going to get it done in time, but what's life without a little panic hey? Especially as I've not got another present planned as well... why do I do these things to myself?

The wedding is over, the crafting can begin

The title says it, I am now married, I am now Mrs Grant, which means that I will (hopefully) have time to actually craft things other than for the wedding, and in theory my hours should be improving at work so I may be able to craft, and I may actually be able to show something on here, and actually post regularly again. If you have any interest in the wedding I will do a separate post,  so if you're not interested in it you no longer have to listen to me go one about it. So, in the spirit of not going on about it, here is something I worked on while Ben and I were away. It was a hot country and this is acrylic, so I couldn't do that much on it, but I started a new blanket (because that's what I need in my life, more projects), but I wanted something that was simple, repeating and that I didn't need to keep changing yarns on so didn't have to pack loads of balls, so this was perfect. The pattern is Blackberry Stripe, just without the colour changes, and the yarn is Ice Yarns.

Secondly, I've done a tiny bit on Dragon Rider, it doesn't look much different at the moment, but I'm just so excited to have him out and being worked on again. Every time I get this out to work on it I'm amazed by how metallic the parts of the bike look, it fascinates me every time.

Anyway, Dragon Rider its back, I do have some other projects to work on, and a couple of starts planned (only a couple, who am I kidding), but I am going to try and put a bit of a push on this, it's been a 'focus' piece for so long and it's not really progressing, so I need to start putting some serious effort in on it I think, besides, then I get the fun of choosing anew focus piece, and so on. In the mean time, I fall out with this quite regularly, but I always love it when I come back to it again, so I need to try and keep the love going this time. Wish me luck. I don't see a finish on this any time soon, but I hope that I'll at least be able to show some half decent progress by the end of the year and not miss my target quite as widely as I did last year. 

And finally, I can show off my Secret Project, as it's now been gifted and thankfully for his life and my sanity it seems to be appreciated as well.

This is the crochet blanket that I gave to Ben as a W present. It has been quite possibly the most difficult thing that I've made to date.There were about thirty balls of yarn attached to this at one point, and my sanity was seriously suffering because of it. There were times when I really wanted to throw it out of the window, but I am quite proud of the final result at least!

Things I should be working on and things I get distracted by

So, I'll be good and start with the project that I'm meant to be working on, and I've been good, this is my second time this week working on it, and I've done four whole rounds this evening (a miracle by my standards, I had to stop when I realised I was clenching my jaw as I concentrated, patterns are not my forte - I like blankets!). Anyway, this is a child/baby hat that will one day look like a sheep, and looks more like a sheep than it has done up until this point, so I'll take that as a win. And it's currently being modelled by my knee, because I looked round my house and realised I had nothing the size and shape of a childs head (which sounds a lot creepier when I actually run that sentence through), the closest thing, rather disturbingly, was my own know. It's like the weirdest version of the hotdog legs game that you'll ever play! 

Secondly is what I'm getting distracted by, I've been trying to find something that works with this neon yarn, and I think I've finally found something that seems to look right. I can (almost) justify the fact that I got distracted last week, we went away last week and granny squares are much more portable (and take a lot less concentration) than the sheep hat. Also, as we were flying it meant that if they took my hook off my for the squares, I have three in that size and it wouldn't be an issue, if they'd taken my hook off me for my hat it's the only one I have and I'd have been lost. This is also the first time that I've attempted to get a hook onto a flight (albeit only a domestic one), I was told it was fine as long as it was in a secure case. I've yet to meet someone with a 'secure' case for their hooks, so I took everything else out of my hook roll and took that with one lonely hook in, I think even that was a wasted effort, airport security seemed more interested in my deodorant than my hook.

Just a wee bit this week

Just a quick update, firstly I think I've finally found a pattern that I like the variagated yarn in. I've was contemplating doing it as one big continuous square, but I think that lots of little squares will work better, especially if I use black for my joining. Plus it means I can make the blanket the shape I want rather than it having to be square. I've never actually tried a solid granny square before, and I have to say I like it a lot more than I expected, and it turns out it works really well with this yarn. Although I admit that this was my second attempt, I had to play a little but with the corners as I was starting to get a bit of a ripple in my square.

Also, I've done another couple of rounds on the sheep hat, which seeing as it needs to be finished by next weekend means I'm probably doomed, but it's grown, so I'll take that as a win. Other than these I've not really had much time this week, so a bit of crochet is all I have to show, the joy of the run up to Christmas.

Can you guess what it is yet?

It looks suspiciously like a wrinkled pear, strangely that is not what I'm crocheting (although I'm sure there's a pattern for one out there somewhere). This is my first attempt at one of the Edward's Menagerie's patterns, and as I'm still a bit of a noobe I started with the first one in the book as they're meant to get more complicated as you work through. This is a bunny... well, more accurately it's a bunny's belly.

Blanket Finish

I finished the blanket, wohoo. My original plan was to put more border on it, there were going to be another four rounds, but Ben declared it finished last night, and I decided not to fight him on it. Especially as I was going to go straight onto another blanket gift (which I had started before finishing this one, oops!) but was informed that I had to spend some time on my own stitching before going onto other gifts. It's been a long few weeks with long hours at work and very little free time, so the idea of a bit of stitching sounds quite nice. Hopefully I'll have some kind of progress to show next week.

A little stitching time

It's not much, but I've managed to get a bit of stitching done, still all in the same colour, so it's nice easy block stitching, everything under the line is the same colour, so it's mindless, which seeing as we're quite busy at work at the moment is a good thing. I have also crocheted this week, but it's just the continuation of the blanket, so there isn't much to show really, and I'm ripping out another blanket which is taking a very long time because the fibre's are very lose, so I'm having to work it very carefully!

However, I did have one finish last week, (I'd completely forgotten, how is that possible).

I can't believe I forgot this, I've been taunting you with this little dude for a couple of weeks, so here he is all done, this is Groot!

Bits and Bats

The title says it all, I have lots of little bits of progress this week, a few rows of blanket mean that I finally feel like I'm closer to finishing to starting, woohoo. I do love the colours on this, and I finally feel like I've made peace with the pattern, it doesn't seem to taper in the way that it was, this is now bad photography not bad crochet! 

Secondly the second post of 'can you guess what it's going to be yet?' I'm seeing progress, but I'm aware that to most people it looks like a flower pot, and I'm not even going to comment on what the two small bits on the left look like to me at the moment, if you have a filthy mind you'll probably get there too. Hopefully by next week you'll actually be able to vaguely see what it's meant to be. 

Finally, my stitching is back out. I've just scrolled back and the last time I posted something that was for me was mid May, so six weeks ago. It feels like longer, so I'm just grateful that I am finally working on it again. this is now the full bottom width of Cara Mia Mon Chere, I know it doesn't look like anything yet, but I can see the shape, and that makes me happy! Oooh, and I got a new kits last week (ooops), Medusa Dollmaker did a Princess Bride artwork and Gecko got permission to chart it as a limited edition. It arrived and I love it, and I'm having to work quite hard at not instantly starting it, although it has been added to my start soon list, I'm very excited!

Bit of Crochet

So, I've managed to get some crochet done this week, all on gifts, but I'm hoping another couple of productive evenings and I might be able to let myself have an evening towards my stitching... is it sad that I'm excited about that? However, in the mean time, I started a new gift this week, can you guess what it is? 

Secondly, the baby blanket continues! You can see the difference, and I do finally seem to have mastered it not tapering in. I have no idea how, but I'm taking it as a win.

I'm really craving a new start. I'm trying to convince myself that starting a couple of other gifts in the next couple of weeks will do it, but what I really want to do is a block stitch blanket that I have a pattern for. One day!

Ooops, how did that happen?

Firstly, thank you so much for everyone who sent me congratulations last week, I have finally stopped being giddy (mostly because I've now realised that we've got a wedding plan, and that's in no way scary, but we've got a couple of long car journeys ahead of us, captive audience conversations, it'll be fine). 

Secondly, crafting, you know, the thing this blog is actually about (I'll try to keep wedding panics to a minimum, but I'm not guaranteeing that they won't happen). So, I finished the baby blanket off, it's not actually that different to last weeks post, as I decided to go for a simple, one round of triples in lemon, but I do still quite like it, now I've just got to organise a visit with the little dude and his parents to pass it on.

And here's the beginning of the next baby blanket, I do so love variegated yarn, it avoids all those tedious yarn changes (and all that darning in), although I do have some lovely colour strip plans in my future, you know with my copious free time. Anyway, this is using Magic Light by Ice Yarns (again) and the pattern is Cosy Strip by Attic 24, just without the actually striping. I do love her patterns and can see myself making many variations of both this and her ripple blanket in the not too distant future.

Finally, a tiny bit of me stitching (because that's what I need in my life, more me stitching that I don't have time to work on). Geckorouge had a sale recently with an additional 10% off on existing member discounts, and I was very weak and ended up with two kits (this when my next members kit is due in a couple of months anyway). This is, obviously, one of those, it's Cara Mia Mon Chere
by Medusa Dollmaker, and I'm completely in love with it. I actually started it last Friday before we went for our weekend away and so in my head it has sort of become linked with our engagement, and it has a sort of romantic theme, if you think about it, so it has now become my engagement project. Chances of it being finished before the wedding, zero! Chances that working on it will make me happy, very! So in to the rotation it goes. I'll finish something, one day, in the dark and distant future.

And talking of new starts (and ignoring the fact that I have a new start list a mile long), I've half got it in my head to make a wedding present for Ben, I'm just mulling over ideas for that at the moment (along with when I think I'm going to do it).

Look, stuff has happened!

I'm quite proud of myself that I'm actually having stuff to show at the moment, on a weekly basis you can see the difference, well, I can, but I'm not counting on the fact that you can. Either way, don't get used to it. However, I digress, and so early in the post. Here is the main body of the first baby blanket completed, I now just need to do a border on it, and decide what I want to do with that, I was thinking just a basic triple stitch (double for the US), but I can't decide whether I should do something else as well, I'm just not sure what. 

Secondly the wedding sampler continues, I know, it still doesn't look like much, but I am loving being back to my stitching, I've added a whole second colour now, and hopefully am on track, ideally I'm looking for it being finished by the end June, I think it's possible.

And finally I do have other news, I got engaged at the weekend. See how good I was, see how I posted about the crochet and stitching, the things that are meant to be about first before going all giddy about it! I am quite giddy I must admit. I tend not to post about my personal life on here, but I couldn't resist sharing that one.