A quick hello!

A very quick hello today, from a beautifully sunny Hampshire. Indeed, we look to be in for a week of really good weather - finally! The timing couldn't be better as I'm off on holiday on Tuesday, visiting friends in Northumberland. We haven't seen each other for a long time and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going by train and will have a long trip each way, so have put together a project bag for the journey.
I thought maybe I should make another stripey blanket to see if I can follow my own pattern, and check if I need to make any changes. I thought perhaps a sort of rainbow this time and I'll keep the colours in the same order, rather than mix them up.

I went through my stash looking for the leftovers from the star blanket I finished recently. There wasn't as much as I thought,  then I remembered I'd used it to make 2 cushions and 2 mandalas as well. I think there's enough but it's Style craft DK so I can easily get more. Naturally I took a photo or two!

I had fun weighing it to see if there was enough! 

And here's my project bag, complete with a little colour card. I hope there isn't too much blue. The colours aren't correct in the pic but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed it'll look okay! 

I should be working on my waistcoat while I'm away really but I want to concentrate on it so I don't risk messing up! A holiday may not be the right place! Here it is having a quick fitting. It's working up very quickly and the yarn, apart from being a beautiful colour,  is also beautiful to work with.  I may have to buy some more! The top part of the bodice is done but I won't start the lacey "skirt " til I get home. 

The first skein (I only bought 2!) just about made it! This is all that was left!

That's all for today!  I might pop in during the week but I'm hoping for lots of walking, followed by lots of eating and drinking and not surfing etc!! 

Enjoy the good weather and see you soon,  T  xXx 

Lost in Time Ta-dah !!

It's finished already!! The blanket I mentioned last week is already finished, washed and blocked and listed on Folksy!! (Edit: Sold long ago though...) The design is called Lost in Time - possibly because it is so enjoyable to make that you lose track of time!!! It's a bit of a wool eater though with all that texture and I was worried I wasn't going to make it to the end. I couldn't do the edging exactly as the pattern suggested due to the lack of wool but I did manage to edge it nicely. Want to see??
(Also, I should mention that the free pat*tern by Johanna is for a triangular shawl but it was very easy to re-work it into a square, although I wish I had thought to add some texture in the middle... She has now designed a square version too.)

I really like this and I do hope it sells as I'm sure a young child would love it too - there's so much colour and texture to stimulate their interest.

So, what do I make next??? I have seen some very nice daisy squares on Instagram this week, so I thought I could make one or two at work tomorrow - not sure if I've got enough wool left for a whole blanket though. I've run out of some of the colours I bought for the first Tooty Fruity Blanket but I do have a reasonable amount of yellow and orange and a bit of white. Plus I had to buy a second ball of pale pink, so we'll see how far it goes.

I bought a very nice book this week. I saw a feature in Crochet Now - the magazine I mentioned 2 or 3 weeks ago - about a designer called Leonie Morgan. There were lots of colourful photos of her work and she mentioned she had a new book recently published. It certainly merited a closer look,  so I popped over to her website WoolnHook and had a good look. Within minutes I'd ordered a copy and it's worth every penny - and there's a UK terms version, as well as US terms!!!! I think it's going to be one of my favourite "go to" books when I need inspiration for a new project. It wasn't expensive at all and definitely worth every penny!!

As the weather was lovely again today  - apart from a short heavy rain shower that dampened the washing!! - I managed to sit on the patio and re-work the sample using the "Cyclamen Shade" 4 ply I bought a couple of months ago. I really want to get on and use this stunning yarn. It's going to be an absolute pleasure to work with such an amazing colour! (I saw recently that there is a shade in deep mauve and bright green called Iris available. Very tempting!) I'm going to make a waistcoat, which I'm sure you'll get to see as it grows.

I'm off on holiday soon, visiting friends in Northumberland, so may not have time to stop by next weekend but I'll be on Instagram, should you want to keep up with me there. I can see why bloggers love Instagram so much, it really is so simple to take a pic, have a quick chat about it and post it. I love it! I posted a pic here last time of my first photo to have 100 likes, plus I had just reached 100 followers.
That picture has now had 200+ views and I have 200+ followers. Woo Hoo!!

And if you keep popping in waiting patiently for the Tooty Stripey Blanket Pattern, then I must apologise as it isn't quite ready yet. Plus I'm having trouble finding someone who can scan it for me as the scanner at work is playing up. But I'll do it as soon as I can...

Til next time,   T xXx

Woo Hoo!!

Woo Hoo and THANK YOU to anyone who follows me on Instagram!! I now have over 100 followers! I never expected that at all, especially when I realised that only 4 of them are friends - the rest are people who clearly like the pics I post. How lovely!! That really has made my day!

   😉

Bluebells and Blankets

The weather turned out to be soooo much better than was forecast in my part of the world (Hampshire, UK). Saturday morning I decided to get up early, get my arse in gear and go out to see the Bluebells in Micheldever Wood again, and boy was it worth it!! They look amazing and have the beautiful fragrance you only get with English Bluebells.
I wasn't in the same area of Woods as last time. A dog walker had suggested walking a bit further along the road from the main car park, (only 200yds) and going into the woods on the other side. She said the bluebells were even better there, although to be honest, I thought they were just as good as the main woods, the difference was the noise. Or rather the lack of it. Micheldever Woods runs alongside the M3 motorway and there is a constant drone of traffic. The other area of woods just had birdsong. And very few people too - I counted ten people in the 90 minutes I was there. It was idyllic and I took a million photos but don't you know it, the best ones are on my phone...I've emailed myself one or four to show you.

The lovely shades of lavender blue reminded me of the bargello piece I made last year, inspired by the bluebells.

When I got home I settled down to start writing up the pattern for my Tooty Stripey Blanket. I decided to go for a chart format and it took quite a long time but I got there - although I don't know if it will make sense to anyone else!! It's over 3 pages already and I haven't mentioned the border yet...
Obviously, anyone who wants to use it will need to know how to read a chart as I am not planning on writing instructions in "long hand", or doing any kind of tutorial - it's just a chart. And it's a bit scruffy. But I will be adding plenty of links to lovely bloggers who have already done fabulous tutorials on how to work every stitch - and I'll look for one on how to read a chart!!
When complete there will be a separate tab at the top of the page. No, it's not there yet, I'm still working on it!!
I need to scan my pages and save them as pdf's, upload them, then make them downloadable - it's been a while since I did that, hope I can remember how! Then write all the extra text to support it. Not much then! To all those bloggers out there who do write complete tutorials with lots and lots of photos to help even the complete beginner along the way - THANKYOU!! I take my hat off to your talent and generosity. Mine looks very poor in comparison...
Want a quick peak??

Naturally, I have started something else already. I kept seeing pics on Instagram of a gorgeous shawl with lots of texture. It was called the "Lost in Time Shawl", designed by Johanna of Mijo Crochet.
I thought the shawl pattern would work as a square baby blanket - and boy does it!! If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen all the pics I've been posting this week. I did some more rows today, sat on the patio in the sunshine we were lucky enough to enjoy again. Mind you, it's 20" square now and takes a long time to work my way around all four sides - especially working the texture rows!!!
I'm still using my tooty fruity colour palette but this time I sorted them into a particular order and have kept repeating that order. The pattern has twelve rows and I have eleven colours, so the pattern and texture does appear to be changing as it grows giving a very pleasing effect. I've decided to call it the "Lost in Tooty Time Blanket" !!! I hope Johanna doesn't mind...

Well, that's all for today as there's crochet to be done!! See you again soon, T xXx

PS I've just noticed the Pageview Counter for my little blog has passed 25,000!!! Woo Hoo!!! Thank you so much for dropping by!