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

Crochet Projects

Helloooo, how are you today?
I thought I would show you a few of the the previous projects I have finished or started! As I have said before I usually have a few things on the go, this is;

a) to prevent me from getting bored
b) because I can't resist trying new ideas
c) ditto new yarns
d) ditto new patterns

To be honest I don't get that much crochet time, I fit it in between children, work,  dogs and home/housework, as a lot of us do. Notice housework comes last on the list! It's a bit like this poem.


The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

From Song for a Fifth Child by Ruth Hulbert Hamilton 

Scroll down a bit to see the full poem. 

For me it would be;

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

For it will still be there as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.

I’m crocheting my blanket the ironing can keep.

Anyway I'm rambling, back to the crochet projects, which is after all the title of this post!

The first pic is one of the dog blankets that got me crocheting again! Read my Why Crochet? post for more details.
This is James C. Brett Marble Chunky and just a basic huge granny square.

It may be basic but the dogs like them :-)


This pic is of a Lark's Foot Afghan that I did earlier this year. I got the stitch from a tutorial on YouTube search Larks foot stitch, I used the one by Crochet Geek. My LYS only stocks James C. Brett so I am a bit limited unless I use the Internet. But this yarn was their Rustic with Wool Aran 400g balls. It is lovely and warm but it did get quite heavy towards the end when I was working it.

Close up of the stitch, a bit difficult to see because of the muted colours.

Next is my Garden Gate throw from the Crochet Crowd, they have lots of video tutorials which are very good. I use this site quite a lot for tutorials and patterns. This is done in James C. Brett Marble DK and their white top value DK.

I love the way this is turning out, but it has been put on one side for now! The yarn transitions into different tones very slowly so the round on one side of the blanket may appear a different colour to the opposite side.

I also want to do a hexagon blanket like the centre of this, without the box and block outer rounds.

I recently discovered Attic24, Lucy' blog is amazing and I'm sure I'm late to the party on this one but if you don't know it go and take a look. You won't be disappointed! This bag is a pattern of hers and I made this one in scraps of yarn, I got carried away and it is bigger than hers but I am making another in RICO Cotton which will be the same.

Next a little mat from the Crochet Crowd again, this was a really quick project I made sat in bed one night. I had been browsing the website when I saw the pattern, so I went and grabbed the yarn and did it there and then!

Last but not least for now is this Wave blanket which I have loved doing and which I know I'm going to love using next winter (or maybe this Easter, as it is almost, almost finished!) One of the dogs seems to like it too! this is in Stylecraft Special Aran, which is acrylic but so soft. I love their 'Special' range as it is yarn I can afford which works up beautifully. You can find this pattern here at Lanas de Ana.

Just a few ends to darn in, and a border to add and yipeee a blanket!

Older son is very practical, not at all dreamy and certainly doesn't understand how close you get to a blanket when you are working on it! I quote
 "Yes it's nice mum, but what are you going to do with another blanket? Why do you keep making them, do you need another one?"
Hmmmm, shall I tell him or will you!