Red and denim and white and green

I love, love, love this pram blanket and everyone who’s seen it whilst in progress have loved it too – well at least that’s what they’ve said and maybe the ones that didn’t love it just didn’t say anything!  Four friends at Armchair Yoga wanted to know where the pattern came from and two friends last night described it as striking.

Although I selected the yarn I didn’t as such pick the colours – if you know what I mean. No? Well, its for the impending grandson of a lady who works at the Royal and the pram that’s been bought for him is denim outside with the lining white, red, lime green and denim so she gave me the list of colours and I went and shopped for the actual shades.

Now I’m not going to even pretend that given the whole of the Sirdar Bonus DK colour range that I would have selected these four colours to go into one blanket but I’m truly in love with it – surprisingly smitten actually since although they went together okay when still on the balls it was only when combined in the pattern that I started feeling a growing affection but only after  I’d changed the colour order.

I initially started following the order the colours were written down in on the basis that if you were listing the colours on something you might note them down in the order you saw them (apparently they hadn’t done this anyway).   However the red and denim together just looked too heavy.  So I undid it back to the denim set up row and re-ordered it along the lines of light and dark which I think works much better.

Then there was the issue of the number of colours.  Did I work each strip separately ie, cut the yarn at the end of its current use or did I carry the yarns up the side.  I thought it would be easier to cut the colours, knot them and crochet the edging over it.

Then one of the Armchair Yoga ladies queried this as she wasn’t at all envious of all those ends to deal with and I explained that I didn’t want to spend ages un-tangling the four balls but since I had about a third to go I decided to give it a go.

I have to say the later was the better option.  Not only was it neater but it was way easier to edge over.  Fortunately I’d already decided to edge in denim but had I chosen the green or white I would have had to change my mind as the stronger colours would have peeked through.

The edging was the single crochet (US double crochet) first round and a second round of sc (dc) worked backwards – it’s so simple and every time I’ve used it I’m always pleased with the result.

I’d done the six rows I didn’t like by Sunday morning and this was when I undid five of them and started again from the set-up row and I finished edging it today – which shows it’s quite an easy pattern that grows quickly.  Mind you it’s not like I’ve been doing tons of other stuff although if I hadn’t gone out for my tea yesterday I could have had it finished then.  (I didn’t go out with B by the way but two friends one of whom was a bit worried about me going as B told her I’d been sick yesterday – which I had but apparently the way B told her she thought I’d literally just up-chucked but it had been in the morning.  As it turned out I was fine and really enjoyed the food – I had stilton and garlic mushrooms and then lamb shank with mash and green beans- sometimes anti-sickness meds are just wonderful.)

The blanket measures 75 cm (29.5″) x 95cm (37.5″) and the pattern is Greenway from Comfort Knitting and Crochet Afghans – again!  It’s a good job I don’t have to pay royalties – I’ve never had such use out of a book of afghans.

Other creative spaces are here.

Me Balls are too Big

I thought it was about time we had a craft related post.  I’ll start with what I did while on my five week Royal-cation.

I did 20 fancy crocheted squares – I had 63 to choose from in the booklet which was just as well as there were a number I undid, either because I had too many or too few chains left at the end of the base row or it didn’t turn out the right size.  I must apologise for the picture quality but I took some of them on my phone.

I had plenty of yarn left over from making the fancy squares so I made another 45 (I already had five made at home) for Share a Square.  Shelly was a little short of contributors, as every square in an afghan should come from someone different, so it was suggested that if you crocheted them you could put a friend/family member on the tag that accompanies them.  So I did this batch from my Auntie Ann  – needless to say I had to handwrite the tags.

This was one of the squares I’d already done.  This and the other 45 squares are in Red Heart aran/worsted and this one is called Bikini.  I have  to say I was very impressed with Red Heart’s service.  I ordered on a Saturday night, the order was processed on the Monday and I received it Friday – all the way from the US.

Now we’ll get onto the subject of big balls and me being a tad (read that as very) slow.  I selected some yarn for a blanket from my local yarn store over the phone and a friend picked it up.  B brought the book in I needed – Comfort Knitting and Crochet Afghans and off I went.  I have to admit that the last week in the hospital I didn’t do any knitting at all.  Yes, I felt somewhat crappy but if I’d had something to do that didn’t involve four colours in a row I might have been more inclined to do some but I had already managed a fair bit…

Plus the balls were all 400g and actually seemed to be getting bigger rather than smaller, as they loosened up, so it was really a mither to untangle the yarn part way through.  I started knitting again on Wednesday and saw the light – why didn’t I just wrap smaller balls to make it easier – Doh!

The pattern itself is really clever, well I think so, in that you start with a straight row of stitches…

and because of the decreases in the middle it forms a square when finished.

On Tuesday this week I decided I’d like to do some crochet and thought I’d start a blanket for the creche/hospital in South Africa that our GPs’ receptionist, and husband, are involved with using the bag of tiny balls that one of the other receptionists gave me.  I also had quite a few bits hanging about myself.

I crocheted them together as I went along otherwise I would have crocheted round each square in the same colour, say cream, to unite it more.  Now my sister in law, Gill, rang on Tuesday to ask if I had a crochet hook that she could borrow for some double knit yarn she’d bought.  She’s never crocheted before but is having trouble sleeping so she thought it might be an idea to learn so that she could crochet when she’s awake in the middle of the night.  She’s left handed but had found an instructional video for left handed people on the internet. I said no problem, I have lots of crochet hooks.  Turns out I only have one 4.5mm which was the size I was using for the blanket so after I’d lent it to Gill I needed something else to do in dialysis on Wednesday, so I did these…

They are in a chunky yarn, which I wouldn’t usually use, but was given two bags full by a friend from Armchair Yoga so I thought I’d use that as it would crochet up quickly.

And finally, I actually finished my second Stephen West Knitalong shawl, for a friend for Christmas, just before I went into hospital.  I hadn’t blocked it though I had left it to dry flat and I was so annoyed with myself on Christmas Eve.  Chris called round with my present (and we had a chat with me in the vestibule and her in the porch – as she had a cold) and I hadn’t had chance to block the shawl.  After she’d gone I went upstairs and when I looked at the shawl it would have been fine – I could have just wrapped it up.  Double doh!

I have to say I really like the colours particularly as I wasn’t too sure how they would look together.

And one little departure from crafting – when I went to dialysis yesterday both the doctor and dietitian called in to see me.  The dietitian was asking me how my mouth was and I said it was loads better, the only thing that really made it sting was the potassium tablets I’d been given to take when I left the hospital.  It turned out that my potassium was too high on Wednesday but this would be the reason and since I took the last ones on Wednesday it should settle back down.

My phosphate had also been low prompting a phone call from one of the doctors on Monday afternoon but since I didn’t feel nauseous and was eating it wasn’t too much cause for concern and it had gone up a little by Wednesday.

The other thing was the 24 hour wee collection I’d taken in on Monday – 1.8 litres!  Just a tad different from the 200 to 300ml I was producing at first.  When analysed it didn’t have that many toxins in it which would have showed that my kidneys were recovering and dialysis could be stopped at some point,  but it did have some.  The doctor said though that there is still a little hope that they will pick up and I need to do a monthly collection.  It was just as well that I hadn’t got my hopes up but then again you never know, stranger things have happened at sea.

Happy Christmas Crochet

Some of you may remember this…

my attempt at broomstick lace earlier in the year.  Now although I didn’t dislike the effect the whole effort of wrapping the yarn around a big fat knitting needle on every other row was a pain in the proverbial – to say it didn’t flow was an understatement and I couldn’t have done it in public as it involved way too much propping of the knitting needle against a leg, stomach or other convenient body part.

So I abandoned it and used the yarn in my second holiday project which I have now finished…

It is intended to be a Christmas present and I’m sure it will be but we all like it. I’m taken with it, B has actually said he thinks it’s one of the nicest blankets I’ve done and this is what Bud thinks of it…

I only moved it to one side to get up to answer the phone and whoosh he pounced.

While attempting to do the above earlier Bud was getting a little restless as I decided that he wasn’t getting a second walk tonight and he didn’t exactly concur so I made him a super quick toy.  I had thought about this the other day and decided it would be a good thing to keep him occupied.

I took three old pillow cases I’d been hanging onto because they may ‘come in handy’  one day.  It may also have been because I used to buy organic bedlinen and at that sort of price (even if I could get it on sale) I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out when they got worn out.

So I cut the pillowcases up the sides so they looked like this…

plaited them and tied a knot at each end.

‘What do you think Bud?’

Seems like a winner, although it probably won’t last that long but then none of his soft toys do, and I don’t think he likes pretending to be a sumo wrestler in it.

Don’t fall till you get home

I received a phone call last evening informing me that the family had a new member.  Although I was extremely happy at this news and that mother and baby were both doing well despite one of them having about 3,000 stitches it buggered up my planned present!

I have been getting on with my Greenway blanket from Comfort Knitting and Crochet Afghans and liking it a lot.

The ‘daisy-shaped’ blocks are just beguiling (there’s a word I never thought I’d used) and with the original having multi-coloured stripes rather than just the two I’d thought a blanket in pale baby colours would be great – so ‘daisy-shaped’ blocks in pastel colours – maybe not so good for a boy!

Anyway I suppose I should just thank my lucky stars that I’m in any condition to crochet/knit anything as on Sunday I fell.  And not just a quick slump to the ground but a wild and dramatic stumble that lasted about an hour before I ended up on my back staring up at B bending down over me looking slightly, okay I under exaggerate, he looked extremely horrified.

My left ankle kind of went over and then I must have over compensated to the right and I veered to the right of the path crossing in front of B and almost stopping half way across as I received a note from my collapsed L3 vertebra that it really didn’t like what I was asking it to do and then I was on the ground.  Well okay I managed to think in-between the vertebra message and landing ‘Oh dear!’. Really, that was all – although I can at times turn the air blue at others for some reason I say ‘gosh’ or ‘blimey’ or, as the case in point, ‘Oh dear’.

So there I was on the ground on the weedy/grassy edge of the track in complete and utter surprise – the surprise stemming not so much from the fall as from the lack of pain – any sort of pain – other than a teeny, tiny bit of grazing to my palm from an equally teeny, tiny splinter.  At the realisation that I’d not broken, bruised or sprained anything I started to laugh.  B reached down and lifted up my sunglasses to check whether it was a laugh or a cry – popped then back down and after giving me a minute helped me to my feet.  After me declining the offer to go back home (we hadn’t even got that far) we carried on, me with a feeling of almost euphoria and B being the one who probably needed to go home for a stiff drink.

Afghans

As in blankets not people from Afghanistan!

I don’t usually buy books purely with afghan patterns in because I end up thinking that I could have come up with that idea myself however I came across this one and I love it.

There are some I wouldn’t consider making either because I’m none too keen on the style or I couldn’t be bothered with the pattern (Westchester Winter) but on the whole I’m very impressed.  It was certainly worth its £8.99 from amazon if for no other reason than it’s a nice book to look through – okay I know that may sound a bit odd but I like craft books that are nice to browse through even if I don’t make anything from them.  (I also like cookery books with photos, in fact I insist on cookery books that have a photo of every single recipe in them – basically because I like seeing what it should have looked like!  That’s not saying I’m a bad cook, I am in fact a good one, but since things always take longer to make then anticipated B is generally having about waiting for FOOD and it ends up getting slopped on the plate.)

I particularly like Petal, Bright Star and Ukranian Tiles – one of which may be coming soon to a bed near us!