Clearly it's been a busy week, both at work (year end) and at home. First up, a couple of purchases. As I've probably mentioned - and shown you before - I really like to use stitch markers with my crochet. Normally danglely, sparkly things - so much so that's I've been making them myself and really should list them in my Folksy Shop... But anyway, while scrolling through Instagram (my new addiction - I post regularly) I came across a pic of some cake stitch markers and followed the link to Chapel View Crafts on Etsy. The owner Cheryl makes the most amazing miniature food which she turns into stitch markers and magnetic needle rests.
I ordered a matching set of stitch markers and needle rest. Then I saw hot cross buns on a plate! I emailed Cheryl and asked if I could have some hot cross bun stitch markers too and she happily obliged. Want to see??
They really are stunning and they were a very reasonable price too - thanks Cheryl!!
I've been making circles this week, so haven't had chance to use the stitch markers yet but the needle rest has been thoroughly tested and I do wonder how I've got through life without one before!!
I made myself a couple more stitch markers yesterday (as if I don't have enough!), although these are more "memory" markers. Here's one of them. The shell was collected from a beach in Greece nearly 20 years ago on my first foreign holiday shared with friends and their family. Some members of that family are now gone and others have joined - the shell reminds me of those people. The fresh water pearl reminds me of the Philippines (they produce very good pearls) and therefore of Mara, the little girl a friend sponsors and Shanelle, the girl that I sponsor.
I will think of all those people every time I use it.
Now - onto the subject of Wool!! I was going to share some photos with you last week of the wool arriving in the shop but I was too busy playing with it!
It arrived 2 weeks earlier than expected and Lynn had a lot of work and a very later night preparing the space for it - but I think she quite enjoyed unpacking and arranging it all -
She chose quite a nice selection to stock and I picked out 6 colours of the James Brett Supreme DK for my Baby Blanket. I think I've mentioned before that I've been planning the design and researching the join as you go method - all I needed was the wool! Well here it is -
My wool winder was an ebay find from a few years ago. My Mother used to have exactly this model when I was a child and she made a million children's jumpers/cardigan on a knitting machine, having first wound the wool into centre pull balls. Naturally, we got to wind them up too!
I made a sample circle in a square (that one with the shell stitch marker on it up above) and calculated I'd need 48 (hopefully) plus a border to give a nice size blanket. Well, I've made those 48 circles already!!! They worked up so quickly and I even managed to make sure they are all different too - not difficult with 6 colours to work with to be honest.Although I quickly decided that the pink and orange looked distinctly unpleasant when placed right next to each other!! They were ok with another colour between them but not together, so I did have to try and work round that but I think I worked out that I could have made 384 different circles altogether had I wanted to! Another blanket perhaps!! (Heather from The Patchwork Heart has a good tutorial on how to do this.)
My 48 circles have eight of each colour in the centre and eight of each colour on the outside, and whatever I plumped for in the middle - although like I say, there are no two the same.
I've put some pics on Instagram during the week and asked what I should call my blanket and someone suggested "Merry-Go-Round". I really like the name but I don't know that it really goes with these colours - I think perhaps Tooti Fruity might be better, especially if I could have found a purple shade to add to the set!! Do you remember Tooti Fruity sweets?? They were one of my favourites!!
Later on today, I will lay them all out on the table and decide exactly where to place each one to give a good spread of colour across the blanket - a bit like Soduko but with wool!
I will attempt to pop back with a photo but you might have to wait a while for that!!
I can't start joining them today as I forgot to go back and buy the white yarn for that... so maybe I'll write up a sort of pattern with all the links you'll need if you want to make your own.
I've used very little wool so far from my 6 colours, so there's ample left to make the next blanket which will be a sampler/stripey blanket using all sorts (Allsorts!!) of different stitches. I also intend to make sure it's reversible, in as much as it looks as good from the "front" as it does from the "back".
You know, I'm sure there were lots of other things I wanted to share with you today but I've quite forgotten at the moment. It must be an age thing. Rotten short term memory, hot flushes, not sleeping, arthritic type pain in my hands and knees. Oh the joy of getting old...
Enjoy the sunshine today - till next time! T xXx
.
.
.
.
.
.
Back again - 6 hours later!
So, the Tooty Fruity Blanket is now ready to join!! I lay them all out Soduko style, with six stacks of 8 circles all with the same outside colour. For the first six rows I kept them in the same order but moved two places to the right. The last 2 rows were sort of the same type of thing but with a bit more moving aorund to get them just so. But I was happy with the arrangement on my first go - result!!
I then drew a plan with colours, numbers and joining "route" to keep with it so I can't go wrong, and lastly, threaded all the circles onto a long cord, beginning with the last and ending with the first. So I'm all set ready to go. Just as soon as I buy the white wool....
No comments:
Post a Comment