What shall I make next?

What shall I crochet next is the question that has been playing on my mind for the last week. I have just finished my striped blanket, which I am very pleased with.  The yellow, orange and gold are very bright and cheerful.

I wanted it to have a special cover, so I decided to make a cushion cover for it.  This means it now has two uses; as a blanket, or as a cushion.  I am very pleased with the result.

Mulling over my next crochet project, and not wanting to be sat idle, my eye fell on a knitting pattern for a lovely baby blanket.  Now knitting is not my favourite thing to do - I much prefer crocheting - but I so loved the look of the baby blanket decided to give it a go.  All went swimmingly until I tried to knit whilst watching television. Needless to say I have had to undo most of my knitting. I have started again and have found that if I write down the repeat for each row, on a separate piece of paper, I can follow the pattern a lot more easily.  (Here's hoping).

Focussing my mind on the knitting helped me to decide on my next crochet project. I think it will be another striped blanket.  I have picked out the colours, but have yet to decide on a design.

In the meantime, will crack on with the knitted blanket, but will give the television a miss when I am knitting.

What's not to like

Knitting and coffee on a sunny afternoon - what's not to like?

I have been joining in with the Winwick Mum sock-a-long.  I have never knitted a sock before and it is something I had not even considered doing.  In fact I had rather gone off knitting in favour of crocheting.  However, my sister kindly enlisted me in the sock-a-long, so I thought I would give it a go.  Well after several false starts, I have finally made a pair of socks. Not perfect by any means, but a pair of wearable socks at least.  I never thought I would say this, but I have thoroughly enjoyed knitting the socks (using 5 DPNs - I didn't even know what DPN referred to before I started). Christine Perry is the inspiration behind the sock-a-long.  It is thanks to her tutorial that I am now competent in sock knitting.

Here is the link to her blog click here if anyone would like to give it a go.  I can thoroughly recommend it.   So, thank you sis for introducing me to this lovely event.

A walk at Vicar Water

The day might be cloudy and gloomy, but we still found plenty to cheer us up on our walk around Vicar Water.

Whilst walking the dogs, or rather being pulled along by them, we came across a woman walking a beagle. She had apparently encountered Ty and Dottie before because as soon as she saw us she turned and sped off the other way. Unfortunately the dogs had already clocked one another, so a furious barking match took place, with Dottie having the last bark as usual.

Walking The Dogs

On our walk today Dottie found half a carrot, a parsnip, a mouldy crust (all of which I managed to stop her eating) and something disgusting under a hedge, which she beat me to.

I did manage to spot some lovely spring flowers though.

Cushion Completed

Well, I have now finished my cushion and am ready for the unveiling.  What do you think?  This is the front of the cushion. I have crocheted granny squares around a central flower motif and used the join as you go method to join the squares together.  I used Stylecraft double knitting wool as they have so many colours to choose from and it is so soft - it is lovely to use.

This is the back of the cushion, which I have completed in Tunisian Crochet.  The back is in two parts, so that the cushion pad can be removed.  It is held together by six pink buttons.

What is it about buttons. I can't resist them. When I was a child I loved to play with my mum's button tin. My children were the same. If you think about it, they are quite educational; colour sorting, counting, matching.  Anyway I think the buttons really finish it off nicely, so it can be reversed for a different look.

I am now on to my next cushion, more of which later.

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Snowy Day to work on my cushion

Looks lovely, but not really the weather for taking the dogs for a walk. They seemed to enjoy it though.

Back home now and working on my cushion. The front is in granny squares, with a central floral motif . I have used the join as you go method for joining the squares.

For the back of the cushion I have decided to try Tunisian crochet.  Tunisian crochet is something I have only recently learned how to do and I am pleased with the effect.

I am eager to join both pieces together so I can have some idea of how the finished cushion will look - after I have had a cup of tea.

Walk with Ty and Dottie

It is cold and misty today and the snow is slowly melting.  The dogs pull me along.  I spotted this little flower sheltering under a tree.

and these lovely red berries;

I don't know what tree this is - but it looks so pretty;

Back home after our walk - here are my two little angels waiting for their biscuit treat;

January 2015 update

I decided to try something new this year, so I have joined a CAL (Crochet along) on Ravelry - https://www.ravelry.com.  The idea is to crochet one main square and one filler square per month. The finished square can be shared on their website alongside others taking part.  At the end of the year I should have enough squares to make a throw or blanket.  I thought it was a really good idea, It would help to keep me motivated and there is an opportunity to interact with other crochet lovers.  It will also push me to try new more complicated designs.  

The first hurdle I encountered was that the instructions were in US terms, so I had to keep referring to a book of UK/US conversion stitches.  This got a bit confusing as I kept getting them muddled up. It would have helped if I had printed off the pattern first, instead of reading from the computer - I could then have marked off each row as I finished it.  If I had followed my own advice I wouldn't now find myself on row 13 with too many stitches! AAARGH!

Another thing - which I hadn't factored in - I should have checked my wool supply.   If I intend completing the twelve months' squares and joining them into a blanket or throw, I need enough wool in my chosen colours to complete it.

Here is my first effort so far.

I struggled a bit with the last two rows of this pattern, but with perseverance and bit of tweaking, here is the finished square.

I am now off to try the filler square.