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

Sea Glass

 "The only problem with looking for sea glass...is that you never look up. You never see the view. You never see the houses or the ocean, because you're afraid you'll miss something in the sand."

Quote from Sea Glass by Anita Shreve


I live near the sea.
A ten minute walk from the sea.
I walk my dogs on the beach.
I never find sea glass!

I love sea glass, the colours and textures, the romance ..... yes the romance! Where has it come from, how did it come to be in the sea, for how many years has it been tossed and tumbled by the tide, how many beaches has it washed up on and where in the world were they.

I read Anita Shreve's book Sea Glass and walked with Honora on the beach as she found the precious pieces and collected them all in the bowl in her seaside home.

I have sea glass, I keep it in a jar and love the way the sunlight makes the colours come alive. I had to buy the pieces I have as I NEVER FIND ANY ON THE BEACH!!

For anyone interested I get my sea glass from Back From the Beach. It is all found by Lynne Robertson, a very lucky lady who finds sea glass on her local beach all the time! She sells loose pieces, pre-drilled pieces for jewellery making and also makes amazing jewellery herself! She has an Etsy page here. Please go and take a look but please leave some for me :-).

But I still look and search, because one day you never know, one rough tide may wash some up on my beach (not that I own it you understand) and then I will be ecstatic.
I never give up hope!

Hmmm could I crochet a 'Sea Glass' afghan?

Old Glass

I like to collect old glass bottles, I prefer the bluey green ones but have also got some clearish ones, if I like it and can afford it I buy it.

 Some of them remind me of sea glass (more on this in another post) as they are worn from where they have been buried and rediscovered.
I search charity shops and car boot sales for them and sometimes get given them as gifts.
Some of them are quite expensive and I often can't justify the expense, so my collecting comes to a standstill until I find my next bargain. I think that makes the bottles I have more special and the collecting more fun. It wouldn't be the same if it was easy, if I could buy whatever I wanted, where's the thrill in that!

I would love some with the original marble stoppers but have yet to find one in my price range.

On a sunny day the colours look beautiful.

 I mess around with the groupings all the time. If you check out Sarah's amazing A Beach Cottage blog, she calls it 'foofing' in a recent post. Sarah is in Australia, although a Brit by birth and her blog is full of the most gorgeous photographs of her home and the surrounding area. Although at the moment she is travelling around Australia with Tourism Australia.

 I especially like the bottles with words on them and this is a favourite. It says POISONOUS along its length and NOT TO BE TAKEN around the top. I wonder what it held and for what purpose it was used! It doesn't show up well in the picture but it is made from an iridescent glass that shows purples, greens and blues when the light hits it.

This little bottle has EIFFEL TOWER FRUIT JUICES on the side. I found this when I searched on the internet.
To be honest I haven't researched much as I buy the bottles because I like them not because I think they might be worth something, but if I get time I may look more to see what I can discover.

Another Completion

Have I mentioned that I am on holiday at the moment - for a whole fortnight! Whoop whoop! Soooo, lots of crochet getting done, well lots more than usual anyway :-)
Which meant that I decided to try and finish a few things, or work on those projects closest to being finished, if you see what I mean.
Now me being me, this sort of worked and sort of didn't! I did finish one project, which I am pleased about as to be honest I was getting bored with it and I wanted to do other things. This basic granny 'use up some scrap' blanket has been languishing in the depths of a bag for ages, and ages, and ages. Now however it is all finished (for the moment, I may add a border at some stage) and out in the sunshine.

I have to say I quite like it. As I say it was a scrap blanket and not all rounds were complete but when it is spread out it's not really noticeable.

It looks good scrunched up too and goes well with the chair I think.

Looks good on the wicker too. Can you spot my mistake? I haven't made covers for the cushions yet and forgot to take the plastic anti-dog covers off for the photo!
Hmmm this blanket is definitely growing on me.

On the subject of bags, and the depths thereof, where crochet projects lurk in the darkness, waiting patiently to be picked up and worked on, and if they're really lucky, actually finished! On the subject of bags, this is my latest one.

 

I love dragonflies and a lovely lady I know from Facebook made me this as a special order. I gave her the measurements and picked the fabric and not very long after this arrived. Just what I wanted, a lovely big bag to accommodate my latest yarn and project. So big thanks to Lynne of Dazlyn Designs,  she also makes lovely beaded jewellery too, I bought a lot for Christmas pressies and everyone loved them. Go and have a search for her and see.

A little peek there of a granny square from another project.

All the squares are made from the James C. Brett Woodlander which you can see in the picture in the picture. So they are all the same tones but each square is slightly different from the variations in the yarn.

I have 86 squares done so maybe it will be ready to sew together soon, that could take a while!
Love those dragonflies :-)

The bag has a lovely little elasticated pocket inside for my hooks or a pattern. At the moment it is holding my latest Attic 24 bag which just needs handles. Go to Lucy's blog for this pattern, if you haven't already got it. I suspect most crochet addicts have found it already!

So all was going well, one blanket finished, one granny square blanket nearing the sewing stage, a bag only requiring handles, my Blackberry Ripple which has taken a back burner for now and my Joseph ripple blanket which is still on the go! Quite enough to be going on with you may think!
Come on ladies, this is me we're talking about!
Only four projects to be finished!
Pah!
Definitely room for one more!
So, here we go, a little wriggly worm bit of crochet in another bag.

Hmmm what could it be, well you will have to wait and see :-)