Onwards with better drive

Greetings I cannot believe that I have not posted since January especially when blogging has been simplified😳 

I am well and the knitting fever has disappeared for now. Before it did I managed to make a few hats 

and socks.

Fell in love with knitting socks. I had always thought that it was a hard thing to make but it turned out that they are extremely easy.

I also started a cardigan for my niece 

But I am now back to crochet. I have a drive to clear as much of my yarn stash as I can in this year. To achieve this I have been making and gifting afghans. I started with my nieces and nephews 

My aim has been to try maintaining the yarn colours used for each family 

The above were completed by Christmas. The next 2 were completed by the end of march 

This blanket was an absolute pleasure to make and the recipient one of my many nephews was extremely pleased with it. He insisted on his mother covering him with it the very night he had received it. It is a woven stitch found online via google search.

Prior to this I completed a blanket which I gifted to my older sister. It was made from yarn I had bought from Lidl. 

I am continuing with the making and gifting to my sisters. Once I'm done with them I will have to decide who I gift to next:) I have an idea but I would like to keep it secret. 

Here is a corner to corner also made for another of my sisters

The decision of who an afghan goes to is unknown to me when I start a project the idea tends to come to me as I sit there lost in the crochet rhythms. Suddenly it will come to me exactly who the afghan wants to go to and once that decision is made the process becomes more feverish and it becomes the case that I think of that person more when I am working on something for them. 

My favourite part of this afghan was the border. Love love love it very much. My sister tells me that every time she covers herself with it whilst watching tv, she ends up falling asleep because it is socomfortable  and warm.. 😂😂😂 made me laugh

This is not my most successful blogging but I will do better when I update you regarding other things I have been crocheting. I leave you with another picture of my corner to corner 

Starting mid sentence

I don't know what to say. I feel I am starting mid sentence because, my plans for the new year were for me to start with a crochet blog but what happens? It is going to be a knit one!!!! I don't know what has gotten into me!! I have been busy making plenty of lovely crochet stuff such as ...

And

Or maybe

But oh no I have been getting urges to make myself some fingerless mittens. I happened to see some knitted ones that looked so pretty I just had to give it a go. Before you ask, yes I can knit and no I don't like knitting - it's too slow for me :)D 

But I went bought some double pointed needles and pulled out some variegated yarn. I have looked up plenty of patterns but none seem to make sense so I decided to just go with the flow. No I have never successfully used double pointed needles. I have never shaped fingers and thumbs. Oh well.. Let the experiment begin.. 

This is what I have so far

As I work away I am thinking it needs a hat!!!! NOOOOOooooo!!!!!! Save me from myself!!!!!

I have a Facebook CAL that I have joined and I have an item to complete by the end of the month. Each row is taking ages!!! That is cause it is big. Maybe that is why I am procrastinating with knitting 

Before I get back to it, check out my current CAL. From the stitch along with us Facebook group. They are lovely in the group you should join us with your projects if you wish

It is a drop in the pond afghan which is proving to be massive. Will tell u more in a separate blog next week.

Have a lovely week

Crochet hiatus..

Have you ever had one? A crochet hiatus that is.. When nothing you want to make seems right; you start a project only to frog it; You look at your pattern books looking for inspiration but find nothing... What do you do in such a situation?

I made a lovely circular ripple blanket

and it appears to have taken all my inspiration or is it the baby blanket I made for a work colleagues granddaughter?

Or maybe the rushed little bag i just had to make the day I finished the blanket. Simply because I just had to feel that pattern flow through my fingers.

I know not, from whence the stagnation comes. All I know is that it is. I am now going to try and work out how to get over it. I have plenty of yarn..

For those who read my blog you may have seen how much yarn i have. If I did not blog about it let me know and I will enlighten you. 

So if yarn is not the issue what is? I recently discovered walking.??

Moves is an absolutely wonderful free iphone app that is helping me fulfil my 10,000 steps a day 

I am spending so much time in my head space surrounded by beautiful scenery

my creative side should be full of inspiration but oh no...nothing is good enough. I sit, I wait, I hope and I look for inspiration hopefully it will come soon.  In the mean time I will browse some of my crochet books looking for inspiration...

Here is to hoping that my inspiration will return. I yearn to create; to express; to share; I shall. Most definitely I will.

The Secret and crochet

Well I am currently working on improving my positive outlook to life in general. As part of that, I am going through life with daily guidance from the secret. One main message within it is to be positive. I take that as not only looking at everything in a positive way but also acknowledging and being thankful for my achievements. Today I am thankful for all I have achieved in terms of crochet. I managed to finish a shrug a baby hat and baby cardigan. Although beige and brown aren't really my colours I learnt that you cannot judge a book by its cover. I had little joy in the process but once I put it over my shoulders it was transformed into a thing of beauty. I am thankful that I persevered with it. I think that translates in other areas of our lives. It is easy to give up before we achieve our goals because the journey can be so hard... It can be filled with pain, internal turmoil boredom and what can appear to be self denial; but if we persevere, we often find the outcome to be absolutely amazing!!! What positive things have happened in your day?

Where to start

When one has been away from blog land for a while, it can be difficult to know where to start. So much I want to tell you and yet I don't want to bore you. As a crochet blog surfer, I like to see some information about each project from its conception to completion but, I don't like to see too much. Getting that balance right is a difficult art indeed. So what have I been up to? In the upcoming blogs I will just pick any project and tell you about it. They won't be in order of creation. Today, we will look at:
My scrappy step afghan
I made this using the tutorial by Bethinx on you tube. Watch the video and the rest is history :)D the yarn I used came from America curtesy of my sister. There were a variety of colours which made deciding on a project more difficult. Lots of colour choice but limited yarn amounts.
The Scrappy Step Afghan is a very forgiving project. I would recommend it to anyone with loads of different coloured yarn odds and ends with limited amounts of each colour.
This afghan can be classified as easy to make. It grew at an amazingly fast rate and the constant changes of colour kept you interested. I think it was done at the end of 3 weeks of evening and weekend crochet. As it neared completion I decided on its recipient; my older daughter. It was with trepidation that I laid it out on her bed whilst she was out. I then waited to see if it would be loved or hated.... Well it was an instant success. It is dragged round the house and it is always on the bed.
No she is not 5; she is going to be 16 this year. Those of you with teenagers will understand what a compliment it is to see an open display of love. But then she is a sweet girl with a sweet heart :)D