French Knots

365 Project

I'm finding most of my photos are indoor shots because of the dull grey days but if the sun comes out I grab my camera and take a picture quickly! Hopefully as Spring arrives and we get some brighter, sunny days (oh soon please!) I'll be able to take some more outdoor shots and get out and about a bit with my camera.

I really want to save up for a 50mm lens so I can achieve some of the effects I see on other people photos but until then I had a play with this toy that Things handmade linked to, could be hours wasted fiddling about with this!

Have a lovely weekend hope the weather smiles on you!

More crochet....

I ordered more wool for the ice cream granny square blanket from Colourway as they had all the colours I needed in stock. Delivery was really quick so I got hooking again, joinng the squares to make larger squares

 with a border round each. I'm not sure how quickly the new wool will get used up with joining and edging so the plan is to join and edge the squares I have made so far and then make extra grannys to form new blocks of 4. So the finished size will be decided by how far the wool goes. I love the colour mix, so cheerful and bright.

 My tension is improving I think and most of the grannys are more or less the same size. Will blocking work as they are knitted out of cotton rather than wool? I tried just catching the ends in under the sets of trebles but some have come loose so I'm going to sew them in instead, after all this work I want it to last. I've got half an eye on my next project, have you seen the James Brett Kool cotton? It's only £1.50 per ball and comes in a good selection of colours and would make one of Vanessa's amazing Little Squares Scarf.  

It's a lovely way to spend the evenings; woodburner crackling, hook in hand, watching the Winter Olympics.  Skeleton, bob sleigh,ice dance, curling and the cool snowboarders doing actobatics I'm enjoying it all!

My new love

Ah crochet, how I love you! To have taken so long to discover your hooky goodness, how many years wasted!

My first project, the ice cream granny square blanket is on hold as I've run out of wool, luckily the jumble sale came up trumps with a carrier bag lurking at the bottom of a box - inside were 5 balls of wool, 50p well spent I think.

 There was just enough cream to edge each square and I used some spare cream from my stash to join the squares together using  the  Attic 24  joining tutorial which gives a lovely flat finish.

 I love the way it grows so quickly, I took it with me this week to the garage while my car was being fixed ( long time readers will remember I now have a Scenic, not a pale blue soft top Beetle anymore, and it is a functional rather than a loved car) as the dashboard broke! Digital display, here one minute gone the next! Apparently it is a fault with them, oh well that's ok then, silly me expecting the dashboard to last the lifetime of the car! Anyway I sat in the waiting area grannying along, which passed the time quite nicely.

 

So - addictive, portable, fast growing, colour combination playing - crochet I love you!

ps. Is anyone else having trouble with Bloglines? Some blogs don't update, then 4 posts update together. I've emailed them but of course they haven't replied. Uusually when a feed isn't working properly it gets a little red ! but none of them have this time.

Makeover

A while ago I saw this at the charity shop

yes it is indeed a hideous confection of nylon lace!

But

stripped back to it's bare bones it has potential, I'm planning a patchwork quilt, pillow and a crochet blanket no doubt as it is my new addiction!  A fine place for teddies to snuggle, once I get round to it.

There has also been some finishing off in The Baby Brother's bedroom

Baskets for toy storage, some wall stickers to brighten things up and a recycled jeans basket for socks

Taking a photo a day, mostly in the house as it is so grey outside, has made me notice lots of little things needing attention and sprucing. And tidying, oh yes lots of corners needing tidying. Oh well they'll keep for another day there's sewing to do.......  !
 

7 days swap

7 days of specialness to cheer up grey February days - Thank you Ali for such a good idea, it has cheered my mornings up no end having a special parcel just for me.

My swap partner was Dottycookie so I read through some of her past posts to get an idea of what to send, trying to choose something she would like! Her parcels to me were wrapped with shades of pink tissue and pretty ribbon and showing surprising self control I only opened one each day, if only I could have the same measure of self control when it comes to the biscuit tin!

 Just look what she sent me - buttons and beads, chocolates and seeds! A pretty felt covered notebook, just right for lists instead of the back of an envelope. I'm going to clear a patch on my allotment to make a cutting garden for the seeds, the chocolate seems to have been nibbled (ahem!) and have you seen the lovely colours in the wool. It's lovely heathery shades, I've not decided what I'll make yet but will have a look on Ravelry for inspiration - that's a couple of hours lost then!

Look at the necklace she made me too, the iridescent beads really catch the light and once The Baby Brother has got past the 'use a necklace as a handle to hang on to Mummy'stage I'll be wearing it a lot as blue is my favourite colour. And the stitch markers, so much better than the buttons on safety pins that I normally use so sock knitting will be much more swish!

Thank you Val for being such a super swap partner!