I'm taking a leap of faith😷

Hello again to you all. Having done Motif no.1 of a baby blanket for a friend, I have the urge for more colour than just white. After all it is a bank holiday weekend. A weekend free of major obligations. Why not use some of the time to give in to pleasure and fulfil my creative urges. All u will have is a picture of the yarns. I think I know what they need to become but since I am not sure, I won't show you till the idea is definite within my mind. So ponder the picture before you. Wonder at what is calling out from within the centres of these colours. What would you make given the same yarn? Lol.... Do I go back or do I go forward? Or should I stand still? Lol 😂😃😄 I am filled with joy at the opportunity before me. Watch this space for the answers that I don't have at this moment in time...sigh...

A new start

Good evening to you all. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to get to the yarn shop. since they do not open until next week Tuesday, it leaves me stranded. I'm still ahead of time as the blanket is due to be handed over in September. That gives me about 3 days (tue-thurs) to complete it. In the meantime, I had to keep myself busy. Below is what I have began. I am making this for a friend. She does not know I am making it. She is due to have a little boy at the end of December. Hopefully it will be done by the end of November. It is another pattern from the 'best baby afghans' book. So I'm sure it's going to be another big blanket. For now I have 52 motifs to make. This is motif no.1

As for my commission...😝

It wants to eat even more yarn!!!! It is meant to be a baby blanket!!! I think at its present size, it can decently cover a single bed 😳 .
In the picture below, it is laid out on a 3 seater sofa.
I am out of yarn and it is night time so, I'm going to have to wait till tomorrow afternoon!!!😁 All I need is enough for one more row!!!😣
But, a lack of yarn is an excuse for me to consider what I may want to do with my other yarn stashes 😊.
Oh i cant work on my granny ripple cause i left it at work. have to wait till Tuesday to pick it up 😢 I have been working on it during my lunch breaks so I hope it will be a pleasure to behold when I update you all.

She finished it but...

.... She made a mistake so, she unravelled her first attempt and made a new one. At the end, she made another mistake with her cast off but then she is only 8 and this is her first time knitting. Additionally, I did not show her how to cast off, so book worm that she is, she borrowed her aunty's knitting book and followed the instructions!! 😳😊😃. Makes me a real proud mama indeed.
She managed to decide what to make her new piece of knitting into. Below is her first attempt as well her finished design. She has been wearing it inspite of the hot weather 😊😂. Now I am being told,"Mummy I need to get to the yarn store as I need more yarn!"😳 What am I creating?😱😊

The girls have got the bug.

As I have been doing a lot of crochet recently the girls have wanted to join in. The older one is aiming to make 100 granny squares to be joined into a nice throw for her to use. The little one is finally learning how to knit. She is sooo excited by her achievement so far. She is already thinking of what she will make next. Below are pictures of their achievement. Makes me happy to know I have done my bit passing on the skills to a new generation

So.. this is what happened...

Well as you may be aware, I finally completed the addition of the final motif to my current commission. The plan was to complete the border last saturday evening but...

The family and I went to watch the kayaking and canoeing olympic finals. I had debated the matter of whether or not to carry any crochet with me. 

without much struggle, [as if there was any doubt] I came to the decision that I would carry something the question being what?

The commission?

 No too big.  My experiment [below]?

No i was not feeling inspired by it.

So, I took my new yarn with me. you remember it?

We had to travel to Windsor. This took about 1hr 30 mins

On The way, I managed to make quite a few granny squares. I was so excited!!! I could not stop myself. The return journey was very uncomfortable due to beautiful sunny weather however the extra heat of having wool in my lap could not stop me. I already knew where my journey was leading me. I knew i was in for 'crochet satisfaction'

On the trip back to London, I started the next stage and all I can say is WoW!!!!!!!! Not only is it big, it is also gorgeous. It makes me feel like I might actually be good at crochet!!!  :-)D Enjoy the pictures. I hope I have enough Yarn to make it what it should be but gosh I love it!!!!!!!

   
I think I have about 800g left but I think I will have to go and buy some more cause I don't think that it is going to be enough.

This is the reason why i never got to the border of my other project. I came home and continued working feverishly in an almost obsessed manner. I had to add the next part of the story. it had to be done before it was lost from my head. until it was done, i would have no rest.  At  my stop point 200g of yarn was already used

So the plan is to carry on with it. it will guide me as it grows. I am constantly amazed by what can be made with a simple granny square. 

I know what is said yesterday but...

I said I would start on the commission border tonight but .... I became distracted by the voice of a certain yarn. It spoke to me this morning so, it went on a lovely day trip with me today. I think to make the story interesting, I will use the pc and tell you more tomorrow. For now, enjoy the sneak photo. Why not try guessing what I am making. So until tomorrow, stay well.

Let's get this done

Hello all,
I have my vavavoom back. I pulled out the commission and i worked on it tonight.
Once again, I had great difficulties with the way the instructions are set out. They are divided in places they don't need to be and then they are not detailed enough where you need them to be.
The good news is that I have finished the final motif.
Tomorrow I will start the border... I'm looking forward to that.

Amazing

Ok I know this is not crochet but I just had the most amazing hula hoop experience in the park 👍😊 gosh it was beyond gorgeously lovely wonderful brilliant. It was excellent and wonderful. I worked on some of my moves. If you have never tried, it is worth a go👍😊

Zilch!!!!

If you are wondering what I have been up to since i last spoke to you, I would say plenty however if you were to ask me have you finished that lovely baby blanket, my answer would be no.

I know I know I am desperate to get it done as well [obviously not that desperate since it is not yet done :)D ] but as any avid crocheter will tell you, we are like the british weather. we say it will be sunny then we bring you rain. so ... you wonder what i have been up to?

well.... I went out and bought more yarn. I blame it on my lovely work colleague whose name starts with A :) I was discussing yarn with her ...yes yarn......!!!!! there is plenty to discuss regarding yarn !!!  Anyways the topic led to king cole which led to yarn stores in the area which led me to the thought 'mmm... i have not visited that shop in a while..... and they have some lovely kingcole yarn.' Wednesday afternoon found me popping in to see what they had ... and i came out with more yarn. 

Oh yes; I also managed to promise my sister that i would start to create my own yarn designs eeeek!!!!

yesterday seemed like the perfect opportunity to start. being an amazing fantasist, i could not choose a simple design as my first attempt. No i had to make it big. I will show you each stage as I go along and if anyone is very interested in making something similar, let me know and I will recreate it with instructions.

Below is part one of my design. it has taken me the whole of yesterday evening [with plenty of frogging], a discussion with A today and the arrival of my lovely new book [above] to work out how to do part 2 of my plan.

I am working with king cole variegated yarn. I am loving the colours. I tried to find a granny square which works up the way I am planning but could not so had to think it out myself. ignore the unweaved in yarn as well as the warped look to it. it will improve as i go along. I have enough yarn [800g] to allow for improvement.

It does not look like much right now but wait till you see my ambitious plans  :)D

Ok I am off to sleep. I need a few early  nights, feeling tired from too many nights.

As Promised

Good evening to you all. 
As promised, i am about to tell you about my current WIP. As you know, I have been stopped in my tracks by the fact that i don't have enough motifs to complete the project. Instead, I will be working on something else until i can get to my favourite Yarn store.

In the beginning,  there was a leisure arts book called 'Our Best baby afghans'

I happened to carry it with me to work. I was on a study day and of course to keep the boredom at bay, i had carried my current WIP in with me.

At the time i was working on a corner to corner crochet blanket which had been ordered by someone.

I was enjoying working on it however there were a few crochet enthusiasts in the group with me. they kept interrupting my work to see how i was getting on...... don't you hate it when someone pulls at your work. below is a picture of what i was working on

 I know i am showing you the finished product but this spill is about my current WIP

suffice to say the customer was extremely pleased by the out come. 

 She asked for booties and although there were several patterns available for free online, I made some up combining what i liked in the bootees i had seen others make. In the picture above they were not yet fully blocked yet hence the puckered right bootee.

So a work colleague having seen what i could do decided she wanted a blanket for her niece to be. The baby is not due till this september. she looked through my book and chose a blanket from the book above.  she offered the job to another crochet enthusiast however... this person seemed reluctant to attempt what seemed to be a rather big project so she slowly pulled herself out and offered my services instead. Being a crochet addict, I could not say no.... 

I went away excited and full of purpose. I bought my yarn - baby style craft yarn in yellow [a 200g ball of aran] and 2 white balls. according to the instructions, the blanket would use up a total of about 500g.

Having spent a lot of time sneaking peaks at other peoples blogs, i had discovered a new way of working. it involves working on each phase of the motif separately to create the whole. 

It was actually quite easy i had to make a total of 80 motifs for the blanket. working constantly i finished them all within a week. I did not keep track of how many hours it took.

 Towards the end, i got a bit worried that the yarn would not be enough. i thought i had my 80 flowers but obviously not. Now i will have to buy a new ball of yarn in order to make just one more of these little yellow flowers!!!! but oh well who would say not to a trip to a yarn store. This project is taking more yarn than the instructions said it would. 

The next stage of the project involved working with the white yarn to create the border of the motifs. The pattern required that i join the motifs as i go along. As a person who hates joining, being asked to join by crochet is absolutely fine by me. Ask me to weave in and that is another matter altogether.

so... my lunch break at work was an opportunity to work on stage 2 as i was calling it

 As i worked, I also day dreamed of my next project from the same book.  Below ... Isn't it absolutely gorgeous? I will be making it for i work colleague who is currently having a hard time during her pregnancy. I am hoping that it will be as gorgeous as it looks in the book.  And yes i have already bought the yarn. Of course it will be white... i can't imagine it in another colour yet, mmm... other than blue... or yellow... or a lilac.... :-)

 So.... getting back to the WIP, i worked on it at every opportunity, below i was at kwik fit having my car MOTd

 I would spend a few minutes before bedtime adding one or two more flowers

 At times i would set myself targets such as 2 motifs to be added before i stop.  I started to enjoy watching the contrast of the yellow flower and the white flower created in-between... niyiceee...

 When the weather was good, i would sit in the garden with a nice cup of tea to keep me company.

 What amazed me is the size it was growing to. Methinks it could be used as a cot blanket once the border is added.

 It is so big!!!!! 

Its length will be greater than a metre And its width will also be greater than a metre when it is complete

 Sadly as you all know, we are at a standstill now. I need to buy more yarn tomorrow. Then we will be able to carry on.

 In the meantime, the world's worst job needs to be done. weaving in the ends created by the constant cutting as each motif is joined.

I did this last night whilst watching great Britains, Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah win Gold. It was so exhilarating!!!!! i felt as if i was the one winning. I have been inspired to take up more sports.  I have tried many in the past but hula hooping has overshadowed everything else. I might go back to swimming, walking, jogging, running.... 

 So Until tomorrow, below is what i am going to be working with. As per above, i will wait till I am progressing, then I will tell you all about it.  I will post tease pics if i think it is going well. [please ignore the extra text you can barely see. i am only just learning how to use instagram]