More Squares and a Purchase or Two!

Hi everyone, I'm back at work now so have less time on my hands but I have been beavering away at my Crofter squares and have two more colours to show you.

 

 Fairisle is mainly shades of green from palest mint to deep jade with a bit of grey in the mix.

On this Magilly I was quite nicely surprised at some of the colours that emerged. I was expecting mostly blue and turquoise when looking at the ball and thought it may be a bit brash against the other colours. But when I started working it up that was not the case at all.

So far I'm enjoying all of the colours and love to see how each square turns out so differently. More squares to come soon.

The yarn is lovely to work with, it is soft and flowing and the squares seem to almost make themselves. The composition is 60% acrylic, 25% cotton and 15% wool.

So far I haven't got a favourite, but I haven't used the Seagrass yet!

The squares have taken a bit of a back seat at the moment while I make a dog blanket for a friend.

Now the purchases;

A sea glass marble for my collection.

Fabric to make some little hearts, took this at Easter and forgot to post it!

Cotton yarn for face cloths.

Some yarn with Merino to edge the Billy Blanket squares, see here

A pot of hyacinths

A little charity shop find.

That looks lovely with some white chrysanthemums.

I can't wait till the weekend so I can get cracking on some bits! I am still adding to my Ripple and to the wiggly worm project that isn't a wiggly worm at all now, but something looking quite good! Something I am very, very pleased with and will show you soon.

Well, I have to go and be a mum now as both children are back from the library and tea is the next job. They both wanted Pepperoni omelette and salad tonight so that's an easy one, got some crusty bread too, must dash.

 A little glass bowl full of ends from my squares :-)

A Little Bit of Ripple and a Few Small Things

Have I told you that I'm loving this blanket? I love the rhythm of the stitches and the soft wave they produce. I love the softness of the yarn, so good for an acrylic! I know some people prefer all natural yarns but to be honest, I can't afford them and this Stylecraft Special DK works up beautifully. I've been told it washes well too.
I did have a few doubts with some of my colour choices but as the blanket progressed they seem to work. Now I am not so sure! What do you think?
So a little peek for you, to be going on with.

When it's spread out it's bigger than I thought, whoop, whoop not so far to go now! For the second time of using all the colours I went in three's and reversed the order I had them in to start with, if that makes sense. So Wisteria, Cloud Blue, Magenta the first time of using them was ordered Cloud Blue, Wisteria, Magenta the second time and will rotate again for the third time.

In my last post I showed a picture of the new blanket I'm starting in the Crofter DK. The first colour I used was May, see below. The ball made 12 squares.

Here is the ball band with shade details and this is all the yarn left from the first ball. As I complete the balls I will post the squares.

You can't see the range of colours from just looking at the ball and in the next colour I am doing I have been very surprised by the contrasts.

Next up is a little piece of Tunisian Crochet. I saw that Sue of Sweet Pea family had tried it here and wanted to have a go. So hooks were ordered, waited for (not very patiently) and arrived. I got busy with a practice piece and here it is.

Tunisian crochet goes VERY curly so I will have to give it a good press as I dont think I can block acrylic yarn. It also has a definite right and wrong side, you may be able to see that on the curled up bit!

This is just my first trial piece using Tunisian Simple Stitch. I started off with a 4.0 hook with the DK yarn but it seemed to be very tight, but that could be my tension! The 5.0 gave a more supple feel to the piece, but I am still experimenting. This type of crochet would be great for bags as it has less stretch than ordinary crochet. I'm thinking of making a cushion cover, so another reason to watch this space!

My goodness I have half finished items all over the place! Just the way I like to work, so exciting, and I can pick which one I work on according to my mood. Also it's good to have a small project on the go as it is much more portable. I don't think I would haul my ripple blanket round to my friends for coffee, but a little bag with a ball of yarn, a hook and a square on the go is easily managed :-)

See you all next time, have a good day wherever you are.

A Dog Walk, Advice Needed and a Sneaky Peek!

Firstly, I thought I would share some pictures I took when I was out with my daughter and the dogs the other day. I am taking my photographs with my iPhone and so far I am very pleased with the outcome. I usually have it with me so it is very handy and also compact.

The sky was a gorgeous blue, with cotton wool clouds.

There were some strange shadows!

My daughter was off in front with our beagle.

There are lots of catkins about now.

More Blackthorn is in blossom.

There are gateways to go through.

Bridges to cross.

Paths to follow.

Fields to gaze at.

Trees covered with Lichen.

Trees with lovely peeling, silver bark.

A few attempted 'arty' shots!

After all the rain we had, how come the land is so dry!

So there you are, shots from a dog walk. Next time I will do some on a beach walk but I don't walk the dogs on the beach when it is busy. As soon as the holiday season starts dogs are not allowed on the main beach which is very sensible considering the large amount of dog owners who do not 'pick up' after their dogs!
Now the Easter weekend is over it will be quiet again until May Bank Holiday so I will grab an opportunity.

Right, now for the advice.
This is the first blanket I have made from individual granny squares. It is the squares you had a peek of in this post here. I laid them all out on the floor and I haven't got quite enough yet, but my question is this, would you leave them as they are and join them or crochet another round in cream? I'm not quite sure what to do!
Love that they all came from balls of the same variegated yarn.

Little bundles of squares waiting for a decision.

I have an announcement to make :-)

I saw this somewhere on the net and thought it was so me, and I am working on my half finished projects, honest. The little wiggly crochet worm is growing and I will post more pics soon. See the above link if you don't know what I'm on about!
But I had the yarn for this so I thought I'd get started.

Issue 24 of Mollie Makes

It uses Sirdar Crofter DK and Sirdar Calico DK, neither of which I have used before. The Crofter is lovely and I have one colour called Seagrass which I can't wait to use. The squares I have done so far are in May shade 0074 and the constant colour changing makes me crochet faster to see how the squares will turn out! Does anyone else do this?

Phew, that was a bit of a rambly post. Please feel free to comment with your ideas about what I should do with my Granny Square blanket*, I know there are quite a few people dropping in but not commenting ;-)

*Named Billy Blanket (after my Jack Russell who is no longer with me, he always used to sit next to me under my projects and yarn and was a real character who is very much missed.

Many thanks to those who have already commented on my blog, it is always lovely to know that someone is reading and even better when they take the time to leave a comment. I appreciate them all xxx