Age Morgannwg

So I meant to post about these a long while back-as usual I've had so little energy that crocheting has been a struggle and I'm so out of practise with blogging!

These are the first five blankets I've completed for my stash-busting!  They are small 'lapghan' style blankets, ideal for just keeping cosy while seated and inspired by the amazing SIBOL project.  I was originally hoping to donate these directly to SIBOL (Sunshine International Blankets Of Love donated blankets to elderly care homes all across the UK) but the founder has retired it and as I only had five to donate, I didn't feel that donating those to a care facility would work!  Maybe in future...

So most of these blankets were made with squares that I'd already made for other projects that never worked out-I had a couple of bags full so it was the best place to start!  Truth is, I keep trying to design and make a blanket for my mum, I get most of the way through making the squares and arranging it all before putting it together before I realise that it doesn't work at all!  I still haven't cracked it but at least I've managed to make some blankets that I think others will like.

I'd made a few phone calls to the local council about possible donation places and they directed me to Age Morgannwg https://www.ageconnectsmorgannwg.org.uk/ which is a local charity that supports the elders of our community in their independence and safety.  I gave them a call and spoke to a lovely lady who was delighted to accept the blankets I'd made so a few days later I was able to pop in with them!
They have assured me that they'll be given to loving homes :-D

HELLO!

And it's been an age!  I have completely disappeared up my own backside these past few years blog-wise.  Life is good, mostly, same old same old and there's a proper update in the near future I promise.  I did transfer within Greggs to a shop closer to me and it has its ups and downs-I'm often so tired that I have very little energy left for crochet and while my crochet group does still meet up, I can't make it down very often and we haven't really had a joint project for a while.  The last few projects we've done have been for Woolly Hugs, who are a fantastic group and well worth supporting as they do a lot of different blanket charity ventures to get involved with.  My issue is that they only accept blankets made with Stylecraft Special DK and they have a very specific palette for each project.  Whilst I understand the reasons for this, it does mean that when I'm trying to de-stash, I want to be able to use up what I've got and in whatever colours I have-Woolly Hugs is something I tend to have to buy yarn for...

So here's the point of this post!  I am attempting to have a declutter and actually get rid of a lot of the yarn I have before I allow myself to buy any more.  I have a lot of bags in the spare room of yarn that was meant to be for certain projects that never worked out (case in point to follow), I have two large bags of pastel/pinks that a friend passed along to me as she was moving house and needed rid of it and I've had a lot of squares kicking about that were meant for blanket projects that again never really worked out.

So over this past week, I have gone through the bags and pulled out all the squares (and there were quite a few!) and so far I have made THREE decent sized lapghans with them!  I also dug out a project a friend asked me to undertake a year or two ago and turn a whole bunch of sample/scrap/practise crochet and knitted pieces of all different sizes (these were made by a dear friend of hers that passed away from cancer) into a blanket-this has been my nemesis for a while but these past 7 days has seen me tackling that too and today it was finished!  Just need to weave some ends in and then it's ready for her....

Sorry!  I digress...back to the point!

My plan is to work through this yarn and make 30 blankets for 6 different charities.  So far, I haven't decided which charities specifically but I want to donate 5 to a nursing home; 5 to a neonatal ward; 5 to hospice care; 5 to foster kids/ kids in shelter; 5 to cancer patients and 5 to bereaved parents (for this, I'm thinking of Cwtch of Comfort of course)  So here's the thing.  I'm positive I've got enough yarn here to do this so please, please, I'm NOT asking for squares or yarn or even for donations from other people as this is a personal goal.  But I would like your recommendations/suggestions of places in the UK (preferably South Wales) to donate to.  And if you like this idea, please feel free to bust that stash and set a goal!  I'll cheer you on all the way :-D

I have three blankets so far to start off with-I'll take photos to share with you as soon as I can!

Time for a much needed catch up!

Things have been a rollercoaster for us here in Wales.  I had such a lovely holiday with my family but when I returned to work, things went haywire.  Suffice to say I actually ended up walking out-I couldn't cope with the abuse from my boss nor the frequent disregard for employee rights.  I immediately applied for other jobs but had an accident and broke my left wrist in two places so I can't work at the moment.  Even more distressingly, I can't crochet!  Myf is having problems still with her father so there has been a lot going on...

Now for some positives!  Myf has started secondary school and, quite literally, has taken to it like a duck to water!  She's settled in brilliantly and I'm so proud of her-she's helping me a lot around the house as well-where did my baby girl go?!
I've lost over half a stone in weight-still a very long way to go as I'm very overweight at 5.2" and 14 stone but it's a great start :-)  I've swapped milk for soy milk (surprisingly nice in cereal) and tried to make better food choices plus I think not having the stress of that workplace is making a difference as well.
I couldn't make my Mum something for her birthday so I went with an idea I had a while back and had some note cards printed using some of the scenic photos I took on our stay in London.  She absolutely loves them-she uses notecards all the time so it was lovely to send her ones made specially.
I'm learning a lot from having a broken wrist-sounds strange but it makes me mindful of what I'm doing-having to take my time, finding ways to adapt, listening to my body and knowing my limits.
I'm blesssed with amazing friends and wonderful family and the past month has shown me truly how important that it :-D
I've also finally got these three blankets for SIBOL packed up to send...

These were sent to me a couple of months ago-they'd been donated but were unfortunately far too small so I was asked to make them bigger-I wanted to do something a little different for each one and tried to keep the theme of the colours originally used.  The first one took ages-I thought trying to make triangles to fit around would be something new so I had to learn how to make big half granny squares.  Not particularly challenging but a bit time consuming!  It also didn't give a flat edge but I like the effect, it looks quite striking!
The other two I used a couple of varieties of small squares (anyone spot the lovely DebiY's squircles?) to add size with a small border.  Hope they find good homes!

How are you?  Hope you are all well! xx