Cuddly blanket

I've finished my baby blanket for the Cwtch of comfort project that my wonderful sister Liz is collecting squares and blankets for.

My blanket is made using the lovely 'Circle of friends' square designed by Patrica Hewitt and because of the bobbles it is lovely and cuddly.

For the boarders I worked even more bobbles to match the squares and I'm so pleased with them.

My blanket is 4x4 6" squares boarded in white and then joined together with an extra board round the edge to bring the size up to 30".

Sam is here to help you see how large it actually is.

Good luck with collecting squares and making up blankets Liz - I hope you receive lots and have enough time (and wrist strength!) to make plenty of blankets :-)

Granny square love

A few weeks ago I got to teach a crochet class as part of JanJan Designs weekly 'crafternoon' sessions. The session was so much fun - we all had a great time making granny squares and everyone left delighted with their work.

To help with the class I made up a batch of example squares - I always find looking at a real piece of crochet so much more helpful than a photograph. So after the class I had a batch of squares left and as I couldn't face starting a blanket decided to turn them into a scarf instead...

July's decoration: Mini crochet stars

Just finished up a batch of these cute granny style Christmas stars up using crochet thread. I just need to find my gold crochet thread to make hanging loops for them and then they too can go in the Christmas box.

The pattern is very simple and includes a great photo tutorial so well worth having a go at if you are stuck for a last minute Christmas present. I think these would also look great strung together as a Christmas garland... I may even give that a go too!

The pattern is by Michelle Kludas and you can find it on her blog here - Grandma Twinkle pattern

Squares for SIBOL

Though you might not think it from my recent lack of posting I have been doing quite a lot of crochet recently.

These two squares are for the SIBOL group - a lovely group of ladies organised by the fantastic Mrs Twins (Sue) who takes in all our squares and then with a little magic and a huge amount of work turns them into lap blankets for the elderly in care.

She was also asking for some extra butterflies so using my recent butterfly pattern I've made her up a small stack in some of my favourite blues - I hope she likes them, and I can't wait to see what she does with my two squares :-)

What a lucky girl I am!

We have no doorbell at the moment (we've just had new carpets fitted and the lovely men who fitted it seem to have wandered off with the doorbell plug socket thingie) so when the postman came round yesterday with a surprise package we very almost missed it. Luck was with us as we happened to notice the van outside and Rich dashed down just in time.

This very beautiful blanket was in the parcel (as well as a train cake silicone mold which I can't wait to try out) and it came as a complete surprise. My lovely sister Liz seems to have been very busy crocheting this up for our home and it is simply stunning! She has such a good eye for unusual colour combinations - some really striking squares with all sorts of colours that I would never have thought to put together but they work so well. Liz is also proud of the fact that she is learning to do different squares, there are a whole range of different motifs to be found in this blanket and all of them are worked so beautifully.

This blanket is now living in our sitting room so that it will always be on hand to snuggle up in, luckily it's big enough that all the family should fit under it as otherwise I'm sure there would be arguments about who gets to have it! Thank you ever so much Liz - this blanket means so much to me and I am so in awe of your fantastic workmanship :-)

Completed squares

Some of you may remember that back in June I did some work on some squares for the wonderful Sunshine International Blanket of Love project (SIBOL). Well shamefully I never got around to finishing those squares off as I had wanted to make a few more squares to go with them.

However, after reading that Sue needed one more square for her first Jan Eaton blanket I decided that this was what I needed inspire me to finish off those other squares and make me feel a little less guilty about not sending them sooner. Sue was very understanding about just how long it has taken me to send her the original squares that I had promised and said that she would be happy for me to have a go at block 21 "Blue shades".

So this weekend I tackled "Blue shades" and though it was a quick and easy block to make up I wouldn't recommend it as one to base a blanket on - it would be very tricky to join up with other squares and even after having a go at blocking it this weekend it still looks crocked to me.

I'm very happy to be done though and so very proud to be included in the first of the Jan Eaton blankets - I can't wait to see how Sue puts them all together.

Finally finished!

This is it - my son's cot bed blanket finally all joined together and all loose ends worked in!

This blanket has been made to fit his cot bed so hopefully he'll get a good few years use out of it on his bed and after that he can always have it as a lap-blanket when he moves into a proper sized bed.

The squares are all joined with the single crochet method which leaves a lovely ridged effect on the back of the blanket which makes it even warmer. However, using this method also meant that the blanket became a little smaller than I had thought so I ended up having to crochet another load of granny squares so that it would still be the right size for the cot - oops!

I just love how the colours all seem to complement each other so well on this blanket. I've used a range of yarns from my stash (mostly acrylic) including some of my favourites which I've been saving for a special project. Because of how much yarn this project seemed to be using I even had to borrow a few extra colours from my sister's stash as I was fast running out. Oh - and the purple & lilac squares were also a late addition due to shortage of blue yarn... but somehow it all seems to work.

Calming crochet

Having a little 3 month old baby around the house doesn't leave much time for complicated crochet projects... there is always something that needs to be done like changing a nappy or reading a story so you are constantly stopping and starting.

So the best way to get a little crafting done in the short breaks between is to do something like this granny square blanket that I've started working on for my little bundle of trouble. I'm trying to use up a good few oddments of wool with this project and I've even had to borrow a few extra shades of blue as I keep forgetting just how much wool is needed to make a large crochet item. This blanket will be going on my son's new cot bed and as he is fast outgrowing his moses basket I'm going to have to be quick with it. The cot bed is pretty big (my little baby looks so small compared to it - I hope I don't lose him in there!) so I'm going to need another 70 squares... why do I always seem to be leaving my projects to the last minute?

I received a couple of lovely new crafting books for Christmas which I'm very excited about:

The friend who bought me this book must really know me very well as it is such fun. I love the idea of using my old socks to make these strange creatures - I've got a drawer full of socks that are full of holes but I just can't bear to throw away as I love the colours and patterns that they have.

The instructions are clear and well written and the author encourages you to experiment and not worry about following an exact pattern. There is also an inspiration section at the back showing a whole host of other creatures made by the author - they are just so lovable!

I'm really looking forward to having a go at making a creature or two myself now so hopefully the results of my own experiments will be making an appearance here soon.


Amy Butler's book has been on my wishlist for sometime - I've seen it reviewed on a few other crafting blogs and was very keen to get a copy for myself.

I'm so impressed with this book - the patterns are lovely, the projects are all beautifully photographed and the book itself is spiral bound to make using it much easier.

My mother-in-law has an old spare sewing machine that she is going to be giving me in April so hopefully I'll be able to have a go at machine sewing for the first time. I'm pretty nervous - but determined to have a go as there are so many lovely things that I want to have a go at making.