WIP Weds: Yarn FAIL

When I first started making granny squares with my leftover Stylecraft Special I hadn't quite decided what I was going to do with them. Then I decided I'd edge them all with white and join them. The original plan was to make two blankets from the leftovers so I only bought one ball of white to see how it looked. Anyway, I changed my mind about doing two blankets from them as I found I didn't have enough bright, colourful leftovers to give a reasonable balance in both blankets. I decided on a granny stripe for the other as my Aunty's Xmas present had worked up pretty quickly and thought that by alternating every colour with white it would tie in a bit with the granny square blanket (the kids share a room). This meant I used up the white much quicker than expected, so I picked up another ball on Saturday. Well, I did in fact use that one up by Sunday evening. So I picked up another ball while at sewing class on Monday evening thinking it would be enough to finish the granny square blanket and then I could do a batch order for the granny stripe as I'm going to need some of the other colours too.

It wasn't enough. I've run out on the final horizontal join and still have the vertical joins to do. So here it is after I ran out a little after midnight - I was trying to get the squares joined so that I didn't end up joining them in the wrong place!

I might head over to Knit & Natter on Friday and pick up another ball of white while I'm there, though I should be revising really.

Until then I shall have to get on with sewing instead. I have plenty of sewing projects on the go and first up is a Halloween project I started last year. Not a lot left to do on it but it's the fiddly bits that are left.

I've gone round most of the edges and mainly have the features to add (eyes & hair). Hopefully I'll have it finished before this Halloween!!!

More WIP post at Tami's blog and at Frontier Dreams.

WIP Weds: More Granny Squares and More Mario

This might be the post that proves I'm mad! Having just finished making 252 granny squares for the mario blanket, I've started more granny squares for another blanket. Luckily I only need 84 this time and I've done the main section of them all (4 rounds in one colour). I'm planning to add a final round of white to each one and then join them using single crochet. It's been a bit of a stash-busting project, using up lots of leftovers and basically tidying up my yarn stash.

What's that on top of those granny squares? Well that's a granny stripe blanket in progress! The plan for these two blankets is that there will be one for each of the kids for Christmas.

On top of those two blankets I'm waiting on some yarn and fabric for some charity blankets I've offered to make. They'll be fairly quick I hope because they don't need to be very big. More on that next week perhaps.

Onto the next Christmas present...

My husband really liked the mario blanket and mentioned he'd quite like a Mario coaster for work. So I used the pattern to do a cross-stitch mario (basically I did a block of 4 stitches for each 'granny square' on the pattern). It's still in progress because I had no flesh colour thread so will be buying some tomorrow to finish it off and then needs to turn it into a coaster but here it is so far:

For more WIP projects check out Tami's blog

Pretty Much Finished: Mario!!!

It's finished, apart from the last two ends to weave in. I am pondering doing a second round of the black but I quite liked it with just the one round so I'll probably think on it a bit.

It's from this pattern by Russ McAllister.

FO Friday: Squares

I have been very busy making squares for memory blankets. On Monday I had the pleasure of meeting up with some other ladies to help one of them with her crochet (the other two were knitting) and drinking coffee. Orla was very well behaved, spending most of the time eating breadsticks and counting crochet hooks!

Here's some of the finished squares:

My favourite square so far, from this pattern
The only adjustments I made was to replace the final round of sc with a round of dc to make the square up to the required 6".

Yellow Puff Granny Square

I did a few basic granny squares, but will just show one here!

A shell stitch 'square'

Shell Stitch Square

An Attic24 Neat Ripple square
I edged this using different height stitches in order to square it up.

And a Flower Granny Square, from this pattern.

Today's Crafting - Granny Square Quilt

 Back in the middle of April I started making this Granny Square quilt. I got most of the centre bits cut and sewn and then I had to wait for my Kona Cotton to arrive. That meant the quilt top ended up on the pile of stuff to start up again at some undetermined point in the future. Well it seems that I reached that point this evening. Actually I found that I had enough time to cut the strips of Kona cotton, with the plan to take it all to sewing class tomorrow night but I got it cut quicker than I expected and couldn't help but start a bit of sewing.

I took one full set of strips and sewed the Kona cotton to those. I'll do the other sets after finishing the blocks from this set so as to not get in a muddle. Then I started cutting strips for my first block, partly because Alan wanted to see how it all joined up.

Here it is before trimming:

Granny Square patch before trimming

...and here it is after:

Granny Square first block

It's not as wonky as it looks in the picture (two of the corners lift up slightlymaking it look badly cut)

 

FO: Hexagon Blanket, Granny Square & Spotty Cushion Covers

So I finally finished the Hexagon Blanket. I don't have accurate amounts for the yarn used because I started with leftovers from the granny ripple blanket. Basically I finished the leftovers and used 1 more ball of each colour, plus maybe half a ball to finish the border rounds.

The first 6 rounds of the hexagons were made in various combinations of lipstick, teal, grey & graphite Stylecraft Special DK. There are no repeated hexagons. Then each of the 39 hexagons had a final seventh round added in parchment, joining each as I went along. I then added the first border round in parchment. I couldn't quite decide what colour to use for the second border round but decided that the first parchement round didn't really look like a border, so I added the second border round in parchment too. I did then ponder adding a third round but decided against it, or rather my husband did.

So, we changed the cover on the sofa so that I could display the blanket nicely:

This gave me an idea of leaving it on the sofa. Of course it needed cushions...luckily I'd finished the granny square cushion cover by sewing three buttons on (that's been waiting a while because it's one of those 5 minute jobs you just never get round to).

And then I dashed into the kitchen to whizz up a couple of spotty cushion covers with the sewing machine. These only took about 20 minutes. They're made with Cath Kidston fabric that I've had for ages. I bought it when visiting the in-laws a few years ago. It had 25% off and I planned to make a bag with it but never got round to it. I am so glad I didn't because I think the cushions look fab! What do you think?

WIP Weds: Hexagon Blanket & Granny Square Cushion

Ok, so the Hexagon blanket is a little addictive. Perhaps because it's appealing to the mathematician in me to come up with colour combinations. You see, it's not THAT simple. The pattern calls for 39 hexagons, each consisting of 7 rounds. Now the final round of each is going to be in parchment. That leaves me needing to create 39 hexagons of 6 rounds from 4 colours, so if I exhaust colour combinations there's no way of getting an odd number.

On the other hand the pattern does assume you sew them together as a row of 6 then a row of 5, then 6, then 5, and so on ending on a 6. So I have the option of sewing them all in 6's, which would change the outline of the blanket slightly but in a way that I think would work fine.

The other option would be for me to miss some of the grey combinations as I have two shades of grey in it. I'll carry on with the current combinations and see how I feel when I lay them out to get a better idea of the look.

Since it was pancake day yesterday I just had to take a picture of them like a stack of pancakes! I'm up to 26 but all the ends are still to weave in.

As well as the hexagons i just couldn't resist starting a granny square cushion. This yarn was sent to me in a Christmas Swap on Ravelry and I just couldn't decide what to make with it. It's Rowan Handknit Cotton dk and I'd have probably made lots of little things if I'd bought it myself but as it was a gift I wanted to show it off a bit more. Luckily the colours go really well with the new colour in the living room so a cushion seemed perfect. I'm a little worried I might run out of yarn before it gets big enough to cover the cushion pads I had though so I may have an excuse to buy some more.

Almost a FO

Well this is almost a finished object! Also made with scraps from the ripple blanket, this is going to be the front of a cushion cover. I'll make the rest of the cover with a chopped up jumper as before.

It's not been blocked yet so will look a lot neater after that.

I've also finished some bunting but that needs blocked before I photo it as it won't hang nicely at the moment.