A Tale of Two Blankets

I don't really know how I've ended up working on two blankets, especially as it is now the end of May, so early summer. As they get bigger, I get hotter, not good for a woman of a certain age.

This one is my ripple blanket as per Lucy from Attic24 I've used her Cosy pack of yarn from Wool Warehouse it's Stylecraft Special DK. It's great for this project as it's soft, washable, the colours are perfect and its very cheap. I've just finished the third repeat of the 15 colours and I need to do six to complete it, so half way there.

This one is my sock yarn blanket, as those of you who know me know, I like knitting socks, there is always some left over so I was ending up with a huge bag of bits of sock yarn. I used this pattern by Shelley Lang and set to. I have been knitting this for ages and ages. I'm now trying to be disciplined and knitting at least one square per day, as they only take about 20 minutes that's doable. Hopefully I should be nearly done by Christmas.

Every big project needs a bit project bag. The sock yarn blanket lives in my huge Cath Kidston project bag and my crochet ripple blanket lives in the enormous beach bag I made the other week. Even though these are both getting really big, they remain projects that can be picked up and put down easily as the method for both if very simple, no trawling through the pattern to see where I'm up to and what to do next. With these its just knit another square or crochet another ripple. So off I go to knit another square and crochet another ripple.

Indulgent Post

My first time ever at Chelsea Flower Show. I've never been able to go before because it is always in term time and the weekend days would have been just too busy and impossible to see anything. I went on Wednesday, it was fantastic. Gorgeous gardens, colours, scents, things to buy, people to see. I loved it.

What about that sweet teapot with a plant in, definitely something to try once I've found a little tea pot at a car boot sale.

How about the garden in a pond rather than a pond in a garden, fantastic. The mirrored boxes that held the cactus' reflected all the available light and looked as though they had lightbulbs in them. What a great idea.

So many alliums, on display in the floral marquee and amongst the planting in so many of the gardens. Many varieties were on display, they seem to be able to do the formal and the informal, I love them.

All in all a really good day. I will definitely go again next year, I've joined the RHS so hopefully I can go on a member only day which will make it less busy. 

Feeling Sheepish

O.K. so its been many, many months since my last post. I would apologise but I doubt if anyone is  reading as its been so long since there has been anything to read.

I have recently been feeling the need to blog if just to record some of my craftiness. Things I have made, how and why with pictures. That was mostly what this blog was about anyway so I'm going to try and rekindle this and be more disciplined with it as a record for myself mostly. I might revamp the blog a bit, ditch a few things, add a few things just for a change.

I thought this first post for ages should contain lots of colour so here is a picture of my Ripple Blanket with the Cosy Colour Pack.

More colour than you can shake a stick at. This pattern and colours are from Lucy at Attic24, the pattern is in a list of her crochet patterns on the blog. Lucy's patterns are so well written, I'm loving the rhythm of the hooking and watching the colours as the blanket grows. The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK, cheap as chips but great for this project as its soft and washable.

Recently I have been attending a sewing group on  Tuesday evening. We have made a peg bag, a chicken doorstop and most recently a large beach bag. Mine is not for the beach, it is for the above blanket. I didn't choose the fabric so it is by sheer chance that it looks as good as it does in the bag.

The bag is huge, just as well for a blanket project. The outer fabric is from Ikea, I hand quilted it as the design was perfect for hand quilting and it wasn't quilt sized to it didn't take long.

That's it for now, I'm off for a walk and then some more hooking.