Closs & Hamblin Feature

Things have been really interesting and exciting this week so far (and it's only Tuesday!) with developing and promoting my stitchscapes. Yesterday I raced down to the printers in my lunch break and picked up nine of the most fabulous prints! I'm so chuffed with how they've turned out, the detail is brilliant and the colours superbly vibrant. There are still lots of my embroideries to photograph and edit, and I have a stack of stitchscapes to mount properly before I can even get around to the photography stage- I really must get cracking!

The second enormously exciting piece of news is that the interview I was asked to do for the Closs & Hamblin blog has been published!! You can find it by clicking here. I was quite nervous for it to be released but I think it's come out rather well, do let me know what you think. If anyone has been directed to here from there then welcome! I know I rabbit on about lots of different things; places I visit, crochet projects, flowers, cats, but if you ever want to narrow down on the posts that you see, you can whittle down to posts with specific labels, for example 'stitchscapes', by clicking on the label in the topics cloud on the right hand side.

As you can see I have started a new piece and this one is completely different from the moorland theme. For this one I wanted to revisit the sunset theme and also try something a little bit new with a winding river. I've used lots of my new fabrics that I bought with the credit from crocheting up the Cabaret shawl and I'm rather chuffed with them- especially the strange plain/not-plain fabrics. They have just slight gradients of texture which are almost like a metallic under layer, but it's so subtle you can hardly tell it's there. I shall have to go back and buy a rainbow of colours with the remaining vouchers! I haven't come up with a name for it yet either, any suggestions?

WPLUP: Christmas Crochet

Hello! Hello, and welcome to the first Winter Project Link Up Party of 2017!! As always, hosted by the lovely Jen over at Thistle Bear who very generously allows lots of other bloggers to cram up her blog page with their own projects and stories. It's a brilliant way to show how diverse and supportive the creative blogging community is when we can all muddle in together. Of course, this does mean now that we are on the final stretch of the WPLUP's and there aren't that many left to go before we can consider ourselves to be well on the way to Summer.

Those just popping in from Thistlebear probably won't recognise my current crochet WIP, which I started at the beginning of December (see introductory post here) in a quest for something rather more simple and mindless than my previous blanket, the Geometric Triangle, which was complicated and made up of lots of individual pieces. The blanket has taken something of a back seat over the festive weeks, and progress is slow but steady. I generally picked it up when my hands needed a break from the intricate and tiny stitches I have been doing on my Stitchscapes- I can't just sit still and do nothing so crochet is a good compromise. It is a really easy, granny stripe blanket and I have decided to order the colours in a regular repeat so that each colour is used evenly but I don't have to think about which one to put in next- simple, straightforward and easy are the words I am going with on this one.

Christmas time brought me lots of wool! Two bags of it in fact! All in my favourite brand and type, Stylecraft Special DK which, in my opinion, has the best range of colours and feels beautiful for an Acrylic yarn, both while crocheting with it and during use. It just seems to get softer and softer over time. The first bag contained ten balls which were in the latest colours released by Stylecraft, and some I think you will recognise from my previous blankets (the mustard returns!). In the above picture, from left to right, we have:

Top Row: * Mustard * Pistachio * Cypress * Kelly Green * Grass Green *

Bottom Row: * Fuchsia Purple * Boysenberry * Lobelia * Empire * Duck Egg *

I don't currently have any particular plans for this wool, although some of the colours- Duck Egg, Boysenberry and Fuchsia Purple- are being used in my stripey blanket so they will likely be incorporated into that one when I run out of the current balls of wool. I shall have to put my thinking cap on for the rest!

The second bag of wool I received was from The Mother, and is very exciting. She, too, reads Attic24's blog and knew all about the Moorland Blanket Crochet-A-Long, and decided to buy me the yarn pack from Wool Warehouse so that I could join in the CAL. This blanket has, not surprisingly, been inspired by the moors around where Lucy of Attic24 lives, and the colours have been chosen to reflect a landscape view of the green hills, purple heather and blue sky. The colours for this blanket (looking at the above image) are:

Top Row: * Storm Blue * Cloud Blue * Duck Egg * Sage * Mocha * 

Middle Row: * Walnut * Grape * Violet * Wisteria * Plum *

Bottom Row: * Pistachio * Lime * Cypress * Meadow * Khaki * 

The first instalment of the CAL was published yesterday (Friday 6th January) and I am planning on beginning mine this weekend. Lucy will publish 20 stripe colours a week so that everyone can follow along- if you wanted to join in there's still time- plus all of her posts will stay on her blog so you can join in whenever you want and go at your own pace. This is probably good for me as I will be attempting two blankets at the same time, plus keeping up with my stitchscaping!

I'm looking forwards to joining in with this project and seeing how everyone else does. It would be interesting to see if anyone chooses to join in with their own colour combinations which is good fun.
So then, as always, thank you if you have joined me from Thistlebear (and if you are regular readers as well), do hop on over to Jen's blog and see what everyone else in the party has been getting up to! (Just click here for the link!)

WPLUP- Partys End

Hello hello!! Welcome to the last Winter Project Link Up Party post of 2015-2016!!! It is a good day to end on as Winter clearly has now been and gone; I have spent the morning sitting in the warm sunshine in the garden finishing up a project to prove it. I have hung washing on the line for the first time this year, eaten breakfast on the patio, and sat and listened to the birds sing.

Ziggy is beside himself with joy at the arrival of proper, lasting sunshine. He dozes all around the garden, remembering his favourite spots from last summer and breaking them in ready for the coming one. His moods very much reflect the weather- very depressed and grumpy when it's raining or dull, moping around the house and getting under everyone's feet, or a smiling white spot in the garden when it's sunny, only returning when its dinner time and bouncing around playfully.

It was so lovely to be sat outside with the three c's again (cat, coffee, crochet), I have missed it very much. Winter crochet is great as it creates a really snuggly, warm, safe environment, just what you need when it's howling and bitter outside- but it is equally enjoyable to take your project into the clear air and just enjoy the outdoors; both very different experiences.

This little project is just a very quick finish up of my Mini Granny Square Blanket squares (if you missed the ta-daah of this blanket, please find it here). After making all of those little granny squares out of the leftovers of the Log Cabin Blanket, not all of the squares fitted onto one blanket as there was an odd number. So the Baby Granny Square Blanket was born, to use up the leftovers of the leftovers. I finished it this morning in the sun, it only took about a week to finish off and I am quite chuffed with it.

The finished size is about a metre square, and I have played with a lacy effect edging to give it a delicate edge, and then added a round of little tiny picot stitches to give it some texture. I didn't follow a pattern for this, it was just an idea that popped into my head. The picots were made by slip stitching into the space I wanted it, then two chains and a slip stitch back into the same stitch before moving on. I really like the twisted bobble shape it has made and think it finishes the blanket nicely.

It's quite cute seeing the 'mummy' and 'baby' blankets together!!

I would just like to take a quick minute to say thank you to Jen at Thistle Bear for being such a brilliant hostess of the WPLUP- it's only now I look back from when it first started that I realise how much I have actually achieved this winter. Five blankets!!! I was a woman on a mission! Thank you also to everyone who has popped over from the party post to say hi and leave a comment. I'm not brilliant at leaving comments on other blogs but I do try and read all of the blog posts that have been linked. I hope very much that we can have another monthly party next Winter!

If you would like to see all of the other WPLUP posts, I have linked them up for you below. And please don't forget to hop on over to Thistle Bear to see what everyone else has achieved over the last few months. xx

* October * November * December * January * February * March *

WPLUP- Still On The Edge

Hello! And welcome, welcome to the fourth instalment of the Winter Project Link Up Party, hosted by Jen at Thistle Bear. I am muchly enjoying the experience of showing you a project only once a month so you can see how it's changed, and also seeing how all of the other party participant's projects have been growing over the months. The top photo was where we got to last time as a reminder for you, although if you want a really detailed recap then the October, November and December posts are all linked up for you. 

This last month things have progressed relatively slowly as the blanket took a back seat to all of my Christmas projects (the embroidery for my Gran being the main focus). I did finish the first band of three rows of triple granny stitches, and also started the second wave of double crochet rows. I am trying to mimic what happens in the centre granny squares, but in a border-ey sort of way. 

This blanket has started to remind me of rainy days spent indoors. It has quite literally not stopped raining this Winter. It rained whilst I was crocheting on the bus, it rained when I was crocheingd on Firle Beacon, it rained whilst I was sat in my chair crocheting and binge watching Criminal Minds and it is raining now as I type this post. Every morning I long for some sunshine so that I can take bright and cheerful photos of this blanket but usually I awaken to the same dull, dreary, dark day as before. Still, never mind, rain is a great reason to do absolutely nothing but watch TV and crochet with coffee and leftover mince pies for sustenance.

I have now started the final three rows of white treble stitches which I think should then complete the border nicely. Unfortunately, I am halfway through the second row and have completely run out of wool- such a bummer! So this blanket is again halted in a really inconvenient place until I can get into work and buy one more ball! How annoying is that!?! Just when I am on the final stretch to having a ta-daah for this blanket and I can go no further. Still, it will be finished by the time another party is published so I will have to wait for my ta-daah moment.

Ziggy is not impressed by any of it. Look at that little unhappy face, he is not liking the weather either. He has given up on going to every door and window in the house, hoping that out of one the weather will be good and now stays in all the time unless nature calls and he is forced to make a dash for it. Luckily he hasn't shown much interest in my blanket, otherwise he would likely try to use it as a towel for his wet fur. See you next time my friends!!

Edit to add: Don't forget to hop on over to the Winter Project Link Up Page and see what everyone else has been up to!!

Winter Project Link Up Party

Hello!!! This is an exciting post! It is the first properly dedicated 'Winter Project Link Up Party' post!! You may remember I mentioned that I was joining in with Thistle Bear's party last month (in this post) when I was given some crochet squares from my Aunt. The basic idea is that lots of different bloggers add their links to Thistle Bear's blog and we all check out each other's winter posts, a nice online community thing to get us through the darker months.

So, it has been a month since I mentioned this project, and last time you saw the squares they looked like the picture above.

I spent several days going around the existing squares with two rounds of granny trebles (each stitch going in roughly every three double crochet stitches that made up the solid border) in the cream colour. I wasn't able to exactly match all of the shades that my Aunt had used as she had been hanging on to these balls of wool for a while and the batches were all different. I did manage to find the wool (Sirdar Supersoft Aran) so the texture is all the same, and actually I quite like the different variations on the same colour.

I have had to make a few squares from scratch as I was only given 18, and the hardest thing for me has been matching the tension. I think I have mentioned this before, how everybody has an inbuilt 'comfortable' tension and it is really difficult to try and copy someone who has a tension different to yours. I have discovered that I crochet quite tightly, whereas my Aunt crochets very loosely (it may also be how we hold the crochet hook, she holds hers in a weird way (I think), so that probably doesn't help). My squares have worked out slightly smaller than the original ones even though I was trying really hard to make them bigger, although I don't think it will matter overall.

The other evening I got bored with making up the squares and was desperate to start joining them together! I played around with positionings and different colourways to get a feel for how it should go together.

Kit decided that it was a good time for the squares to have their comfortability test. All blankets should have this test, where you lay it all out on the floor and wait for the cat to discover it. If the cat sits right in the middle of the squares and promptly falls asleep then your blanket has passed the test. If they walk away then you should probably have used a different wool. My blanket squares passed with flying colours!!

So the next few pictures will bring you completely up to date with the blanket. I have spent all week joining the squares as I go, adding another round of cream trebles to make the blanket feel light and airy, and this is how big it currently is...

There is a sort of system in here, each row has alternating fourth granny square round colours. So the last round of granny squares before the double crochet border. One row alternates the green and white, and the next row alternates the dark blue and reddish pink.

It doesn't quite lie flat yet unless you smooth and pull it down so I might have to do a full on carpet blocking at the end. Currently there are four rows of six, so I need two more rows I think to make it square.

It is huge already. Each square, including the three cream granny rows measures roughly 20 centimetres, so it should end up being about 120 centimetres square before I add the border. I have no idea how many balls of wool have been used so far in this section of it- I have used probably half a ball of each colour and three or four balls of the cream, but I don't know how much was used before it was passed to me- possibly just one ball in each colour.

So, on to the technical part of the post. There are lots of different bloggers all linking up their winter projects to THIS post on the Thistle Bear Blog. If you have half an hour to spare have a hop around the web and see what everyone else is up to this Winter. You can even link to your own projects.

Crochet Left Overs

Look!!! Look what arrived in the post this week!!! My new blog cards!! I can't really call them business cards as I don't run a business, but I do like to occasionally chat about my blog and these are the perfect way to advertise whilst I'm chatting. I'm really chuffed with the clean look of them (and of course they perfectly match my blog and Facebook page!!).

If you do follow me on the Facebook page, you will have already seen these little crochet squares. They were made by one of my Aunt's who has since become bored with the project and handed it over to me.

I haven't really got a definite idea of what to do with these little squares (as usual), however I am thinking along the lines of big white borders between them all to give it a lighter look. Perhaps granny stitch borders?

I have had to do a little investigative work with this project as I was only given a smidge of the blue and reddish wool which was left over, but other than 'Aran', there wasn't any information given about the wool used or the hook size (which is either a 5mm or a 4.5mm...maybe). After some pootling around at work in the yarn department I finally found the wool- having held up the square next to the colours and having a bit of a fondle- which is Sirdar Supersoft Aran.

Unfortunately I can't seem to match the green with any of the greens that Sirdar do in this range, neither the Sugarsnap or the Jolly Green seemed quite right. I think that it probably was a Jolly Green wool but a completely different batch number so that colour has since slightly changed. Nevertheless, I will try to meld in this slightly brighter green with the softer, mintier version and see how I go.
The other colours are Berry Burst, Cream and Denim.

This little blanket project will be my new Winter Project (hopefully one of many), and I have stumbled across a 'Winter Project Link Party' on a fantastic blog, Thistle Bear- whom I came across via the beautiful blog, Tales From A Happy House! Did you stay with me on that little journey? I love how blogs and blog writers all link up and share one another's thoughts and ideas- it's just a great community to be a part of. Anyhow, the WPLP is hosted by Thistle Bear and she has many other bloggers sharing stories and updates on their Winter WIPs every first weekend of the month through to Spring. It's worth a look just to see what we have all been getting up to, and if you are a blog writer yourself then why not join in?