The Under The Stars Blanket

Round about a month ago - maybe you remember? - I cracked. I couldn't go on. The Granny Squares were getting to me and I'd reached a low crochet moment, wrapped up  amongst all that red and cream and endless finishing off and starting again. As a remedy there was, I decided, only one way to go. Large. One large Granny Square. One blanket. Many, many rounds of simple, satisfying, fast hooking, without any fiddle. I'd make a blanket for Little E.

And now it's finished:

When I posted that I'd made a start, someone called it an "under the stars" blanket. Isn't that perfect? I'd like to think that Little E might indeed drag it outside and lie on his back in the grass and look at the sky. I hope he likes it. I did think carefully about choices for a boy:

Not too big, not too small. He needs to be able to haul it about for adventures, maybe pack it in a bag. But it needs to be big enough to keep a growing boy warm for years to come.

Not too bright, not too dull. Grey and blue for his bedroom. But bright green and red for his personality.

And, above all, not a blanket for girls. That meant no pompom edging (one of these days I'll get to try it!). Instead, something simple

All worked in Stylecraft Special DK in Grey, Silver, Denim, Lime, Matador, Midnight and Graphite.

An under the stars blanket, for a boy who is under the weather just at the minute. Get Well Soon, Little E! We don't want you sick when you turn six.

ps: I finished this while watching Tiny House Nation last night. Tiny Houses! I want one!

Me On Monday

It was a taking a trip to the airport, saying cheerio and don't forget to work hard, play hard this term kind of weekend. A looking forward to April already, just think you'll be twenty the next time we see you weekend. 

And so it was also, I have to admit, a bit of a comfort food eating and calming crochet weekend, too.

I love to see him going off to do something he enjoys so much. Learning the Law suits him just fine. But he's easy to be around, you know? We like the same stuff.

Mmm..crochet, crochet, crochet. Hook, hook, hook. Very soothing. Two weeks ago I'd had enough of tiny Granny Squares for the moment, so I went large again, with a big Granny square made from remnants of that first ever crochet blanket I worked on last Spring. That's the bigger, heavier, striped one in the photos. Now, to match, there is a lighter, easier to carry around and then throw over the back of the sofa Granny blanket. I didn't have to buy anything for it: it's leftovers of the Stylecraft Double Knitting from the original. Two for the price of one. I'm so sold on the idea of crocheting round and round, choosing colours as I go. Two weeks this one took! Two weeks! Next up? An all purpose camping, picnicking, hiding under special blanket for Little E. 

I'll order the wool straight after lunch:

A magazine and a nice bowl of soup

That'll put off my afternoon of paperwork for just a little bit longer..

Have a great week! And if you feel like sharing your Monday, then, please, give us a wave. Last week Helena, Becky, Alison, Fiona, Barbara, Jane, Cheri, Deb, Ladkyis, Ruth and Liz all Mondayed along. Hope you have a good one.

And Finally I Grannied

Sshh..don't tell anyone. It';; be our secret. I had a funny little life ambition and now, at last, I've managed it. I crocheted a granny square! 

I know, I know: as life skills go it's hardly going to help me change the world, but it has made me more than a little happy. I defy you to look at a stack of springy, woolly, bright and cheery granny squares and not want to smile. And now I know how to make them! 

Six months ago I couldn't crochet at all. Not in any way. But I took up my hook and I made a start and I've finished two blankets since March. Am I ready to stop? Not likely. Si I looked round the house for a space into which I could squeeze another crochet creation, and I thought about the sofa in the kitchen, and - to my surprise - round here they thought that wasn't a bad idea. because, as they said, it's a sofa, in a kitchen, it's covered in - you know, splats and spills and stuff. I could make a cover-up, they said, so I grabbed my hook and ran with it because, as you probably know, not all creative ideas are deemed useful and worthwhile by the ones you love. 

This cover-up, then I realised, shouldn't be too bobbly, not if it had to act as a throw and we might end up sitting on it. That ruled out any kind of bumpy  motif, which was a shame (I love this owl one). I looked at Attic24's Summer Garden granny square, too. But in the end I decided that if it had to sit with the cowboy cushions, it had to look a bit more manly: rougher and tougher, like a campfire rug, so I chose a basic granny from the tutorial here on Little Tin Bird. There are lots of photos and it was very easy to follow.

Oh yes, I had a couple of false starts and I have a little pile of rejects

But then I started to get the hang of it. And now? I do love a Granny! More progress reports soon. The only trouble is I'm twenty squares in and I'm already thinking about what I could make next..

A Little Colour

I've got a quirky, quick story about coincidences today. Don't you just love it when you can say - isn't the world a small place? or how did that happen? There are no photos to go with this story - because asking for a picture would just have been too weird - so what say I completely disregard that blogging convention thing which says one subject, relevant pictures etc etc, and show you some of the other things colouring up my world as I talk? Because it all brightened my day, yesterday.

Playing about with my new colour display. A wooden tray bought from a pop up salvage shop. It came from a local branch library and was clearly meant for me..

So, there I was in the queue in Tescos. I had quite a load of stuff all piled up on the belt ready to go, most probably because I'd made a half hearted attempt to do a big shop last week, and the week before; but I'd bailed half way through and now I guess you could say the turkeys were coming home to roost. Except we were having chicken. 

The old sellotaped labels will fall off eventually I suppose, but I couldn't bear to take them off myself

Anyway, I noticed that the girl who had just joined the line behind me had only one item in her basket and that item was a stick on heat patch. Nobody wants to stand in a queue when the only thing they need to buy is a stick on patch, so I asked her if she wanted to go in front of me, and she thanked me, very politely, and she paid and  she left.

The colour I work on in the evenings: progress on my Cath Kidston inspired crochet

Fasr forward several hours and I'm out on an entirely different errand. Different part of town, miles away from Tescos. I'm in the Health Centre and I realise the lift door is about to close. I hit the button, hard, but it's okay because the person inside the lift sees me and kindly hits the doors open button too and I have time to jump in. So I do, jump in, and I look up to thank that button presser...

....and, okay, I guess you're ahead of me - it was the same girl! The very same one, from the queue in Tesco! And we recognise each other and we laugh and suddenly being in the Health Centre doesn't seem so bad after all (though I don't have anything requiring a heat patch. I hope she's alright..). And we had each done the other a favour, two complete strangers on the same day in two different places in the same town, though we might never, ever cross paths again. How did that happen?

My favourite colours at the moment: Dolly Mixtures, which I eat as I make the dinner. Though, they don't seem as colourful as they used to.The brown ones are my favourites, closely followed by orange.

Last day today to enter the draw for a place on May Flaum's new class Supplies in Hand. Click here to read more.

Let's Call It Knit-Let

...to sound like croch-et. You know, that one handed knitting Granny says I've been doing? She can say what she likes, I'm very pleased with the progress I've made this week. Of course, maybe the progress has something to do with the fact this has been GCSE results week..

An hours knit-let in the evening can be very, very calming.

This blanket feels like an adventure for me. All those bright colours, all together, all in one place! I'm doing a Cath Kidston inspired look for our place by the sea, using Stylecraft Double Knitting in Cloud Blue, Meadow, Aster, Silver, Pomegranate, Candy Floss, Fondant, Sherbert, Spring Green and Citron.

Look everybody! I said. It really is turning out Cath!

Don't you need more flowers on it, then? asked The Tall One. To make it really Cath?

And then the colour drained from his face as he realised he had just engaged his mother in a conversation about interior design. I guess that's what happens when you are two weeks away from moving into your own flat. Maybe you start thinking about flowers a bit more.

Lucky, I'm well ahead of him..

Books, Crochet, Books

Saturday, and I'm just about to phone Granny to ask if there is anything she'd like me to bring when we visit tomorrow. I expect she'll be wanting to see what I eventually chose to buy with her Amazon voucher. Lucky our post has just arrived, then, and I have in my hot little hands the Dorling Kindersley Crochet Complete Step By Step Guide

A satisfyingly chunky hardback - maybe a bit heavy for bedtime reading, but perhaps that's a good thing? It's too easy to slip sleep if it means time to conjure up a new colour scheme instead.

The raindrop pattern blanket of turquoise, yellow, pinks and grey, which I started in March, is finished and ready for the end of the bed when The (Not So) Small One's room is finally put back together again. I'm sure there'll be a photo at some point. But that means I have been looking about for a new project. Another blanket to keep me hooking into the autumn, something to huddle under as it grows. I thought about granny squares, or flower patches, but it's a quicker fix to keep crocheting row after row with no sewing together at the end; so, although I hovered over a ripple, I decided to go for a simple Granny Stripe. I'm using the Attic 24 tutorial in a selection of Cath Kidston inspired colours pulled from a palette by The Homemakery. If I hook a little more tonight I'll have enough to show Granny tomorrow.

It's a shame the other book I ordered hasn't arrived, though, because I know she'll be interested in it too.  The other day I spotted a reference to an online class about Laura Ingalls Wilder: maybe you've seen it too? Seems like many, many scrapbookers are fans and several message boards have threads about it already, looking forward. All the details are here. It doesn't cost a penny and it doesn't start for another month. So there's plenty of time to sign up and grab a copy of the required reading Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life by tutor Pamela Smith Hill. 

I'll be going through my shelves here looking for my old paperbacks. The Long Winter was the first one I read. I was tucked up in bed, ill, under my candy striped flannel sheets, waiting for everyone to get back from the library, I remember, and suddenly into my lap fell a shiny green hardback and a whole new world. In my underheated 1970's bedroom, in my fevered nine year old state, I felt a certain solidarity with Laura as she wore her coat and muffler inside and waited for Spring to come. That book will always be a favourite. I've read them all; and I'm older now, and wiser, and I know that what she wrote wasn't always what happened and that memoir can be like that. That'll be something for the scrapbookers to think about. I'm looking forward to it. If you're a fan, check it out, let me know if you're in, we can talk pioneer girl talk together.

Happy Saturday!

Crochet Catch Up

It's been a birthday cake eating, physics revising, vitamin buying, tile grouting, comfy trouser finding, too cold for barbecue-ing, Ikea shopping, knitting planning, woolly tights wearing, Polaroid camera testing, Florida dreaming, picture framing, mirror hanging, slug pellet-ing, flower watering, butcher block oiling, snooker watching and...

...crochet marathon-ing 

kind of weekend here.She says it's long, but not long enough.. So I'm going to keep going for a bit yet with that raindrops stitch pattern from Attic24 That will mean buying extra balls of wool - so far I've done very nearly 12x100g - but I needed to get more for the border anyway. I'm thinking turquoise for that. Or maybe yellow. Or..

If it's a Bank Holiday with you, I hope it's warmer than it is here and that you get a chance to do something you enjoy. If it isn't? Have a good week!