Some successes…. And one not so much!

Hey there everyone. I’ve been catching up with a bit of crochet. The butterfly shawl is finally finished : I’m really pleased with it but I’ve realised I probably won’t wear it… Partly because it’s too green to match any of my outfits, and partly because I can’t see myself wearing a triangular shawl. Maybe I’ll have a go at making one in a rectangle and in different colours. I’ve also joined in Eleonora’s crochet along, with a stash busting blanket that requires 4 rows a week. Perfect! I’ve done my first four rows already, and am enjoying choosing colours and wools to use. Plus I decided I’d use this as an opportunity to have a go at learning a foundation treble crochet instead of crocheting a whole chain and then doing the first row. It looks a bit shorter than the next rows but I’m essentially happy with it! Finally I fancied joining in with rosina’s granny along. She also mentioned in one of her posts a heart blanket using squares from different people to make it up, that they will raffle to raise money for charities helping children who have great problems. I started working on one of the patterns but got myself very confused and ended up with too many puff stitches so it was growing too quickly. I was also reminded that I find puff stitches very frustrating as my hook often gets stuck or catches another bit of wool. So… It’s frogged, but it was fun having a go at it. Maybe I’ll try one of the other heart designs as there are several to choose from.

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Blanket WIP update

Well, I’ve done lots of the blanket, which unfortunately means I’ve made lots of mistakes! The blanket will be fine but I’m not sure how useful my services as pattern tester will be. 

This is where it was last time I blogged about it. 

Then I had a lovely evening crocheting with my friend lizzy while she knitted a hot  water bottle cover. It got this far then

Then I did the odd few rows, and then went to a crochet morning at our church. I did a couple of rows and realised I’d missed something out so frogged. But then I realised I hadn’t frogged far enough, and to get it right I’d have to frog back past my new ball of wool join and lose about 2 inches of work. Well, that would just be too disheartening, so i keep going and decided i’d have a pair  of leaves missing and a bigger  gap between the flowers. 

So tonight I’ve kept going and have appreciated they loan of a spindly spool thing that I put the wool onto so it unravels without going everywhere. Thank you to lovely Ann from church for lending it to me. I normally take wool from the centre of the ball, but i felt the colours would match better if I started from the outside of this second ball. 

Here’s where I’ve got to now after an evening of sitting listening to my sister reading a loud from little town on the prairie to my niecephews as I crocheted… I felt like I’d gone back in time! 

Just need to make the final flower and then make the blanket the right length and do the border. 

Here’s a close up of tonight’s flowers which look different to each other when they’re supposed to be the same, and which have big gapey holes in the bottom edges. Other than those two issues I’m quite pleased with them! 

I’m getting better at living with and adapting as a result of my mistakes in crochet, but I’ve realised that I overestimated my ability as  a pattern tester, and I’ve also learnt a very important lesson that it helps to tick off the tows on the pattern as you crochet them. On my defence I didn’t do that because I thought I would want to use the pattern more than once, but I’ve now realised that problem can be overcome with different coloured pens!! 

Loads of different things!

Hey there everyone. Hope you all had a good weekend. My husband and I had kept this weekend free, after having a few busy weeks, and it was lush to have time to catch up with each other, and have time to focus on crafts. 

On Saturday we  went to a gorgeous cafe next to the canal, called the stables café. I took my crochet and sat  in the sun with this beautiful view! 

The blanket is coming along though I still seem to be making lots of mistakes. I know they won’t really notice too much, but it’s bugging me that I keep ending up with too many stitches in the row and I don’t know why I’m getting them. Plus I obviously got a bit cocky with one set of leaves and managed to add an unnecessary loop in front of the stalk! But… At least it is growing! 

I also spent time making collage cards for a giveaway on kelleysdiy which I am really excited to be part of. Do go and check it out… She’s had loads of sponsors donating things for the giveaway so there will be loads of chances to win something lovely. 

I love the idea of giveaways, and can give you a heads up that I plan to do my own to celebrate when I have 50 WordPress followers… Don’t think it’ll be too long now! 🤣

I got really excited when I discovered a blog written in french and English, and found that Charlotte makes beautiful wooden items. She wanted to do a craft swap for a gorgeous unicorn necklace, so I’m going to make her a crochet shawl in exchange. It might take a while though as I really need to finish pattern testing this blanket too. 

My final area of creativity was making a photo book online for one of my nephews who I’d taken on a zookeeper day. It was so much fun going through the photos again and adding comments about what he’d been doing. They’re coming to stay soon, so i hope it arrives before then so I can give it to him and see his  reaction. 

Ooh, and finally… How could I forget?? I had the most gorgeous parcel from wool warehouse, with my book and the wools to make Sophie’s universe. I love the bag it came in too! 

The project will have to go on hold for a while as I have too many things on  the go at the moment, but maybe it will make a lovely winter project.