I proudly present...the 'Sleeping Forest' Blanket!

I know you know it was finished a few days ago but I wanted to take a few photos of it laid out.

It's been such a lovely process, taking photos along the way.  It all started here, when I finally decided it was high time I made myself another blanket.  You've seen all the photos as I made 126 squares and put them all together.  I've agonised over the border and taken AGES finishing it as either my daughter or my cats keep nicking it for cuddles.  But now, after 2 and a half months, it's finally finished!  I can't wait to have it on my bed :-)


This isn't my bed, it's in the spare room-but the light is so much better...

...The blanket is MASSIVE-I can't even get all the squares into one shot!

So what do you think?  Isn't it lovely?

Reasons to be Cheerful (slightly late)

My work hours have changed a bit-we're now open until 7pm so on Wednesdays, I'm at work from 10am until 7pm and today I start at 8am until 7pm!  So by the time I get home, usually around 7.45pm, collect Myf from the childminder and get home, I'm usually pretty wiped out.  Having to get up at 5.30am does not agree with me!

We're having beautiful weather at the moment-gorgeous sunshine and clear blue skies and all the plants are getting ready to burst out with all their glorious colours :-)

Yesterday was a pretty good day though.  I got caught up at work and managed to get the stock room sorted out ready for the delivery today.  I was in a positive mood all day!  This is what happens when I am so spoiled by my gorgeous girl-she brought me a cup of tea at 6am yesterday morning :-)

I've been working on the border for the blanket-I was improvising something that was going to involve building it up over a few rounds but after I finished the foundation round and starting improvising the next section, I couldn't make it do what my brain wanted and it looked awful!  And Myf and I really like how the foundation row looks.  So the blanket is finished!  I haven't taken a proper photo of it yet-hopefully I will over the weekend if the weather stays nice but I have taken one of the border...

The border is made up of a round of hdc granny clusters in dark brown (to match the joining), a round of dc granny clusters and a round of sc in cream and then the final round in green which comprises of (sc, ch 5, sc) in the corners and slst, *sc, hdc, dc, htr, ch 5, picot into top of htr, htr, dc, hdc, sc, slst and repeat from * around.

It's currently on the sofa waiting for its photo op and keeping Myf warm :-)  She's making her own crochet project-a scarf in dc that looks fab!

I'm still having loads of fun with the camera as well...

(Artemis doesn't usually go on Myf's lap but the blanket was irresistible!)

Half Term :-)

Half term this week and Myf is spending the first half of the week with me before she goes to her Dad on Wednesday.  We took a trip to Techniquest on Saturday that was a lot of fun

We went swimming today and are going to Cardiff Castle tomorrow and then a quiet day before she goes :-(

In other news, the blanket is almost finished!  I'm working on the border now which may take a few days as I want to try one from the crochet border book.  Myf very kindly has done some blanket modelling :-) apologies for the poor photo quality, I couldn't wait till daytime for better picture quality!

I HAD to lay it out after doing the first border round (hdc clusters in dark brown)

A rare photo of me actually crocheting!  I'm going with a cream for the second round-Myf suggests going with a shade of blue for the bulk of the border (not sure yet whether I want to stick with the Autumn palette)

I used single crochet to join the squares-I like the ridged effect as well how sturdy it is.  Someday, I may use it on the right side of the squares so I get to enjoy that ridged effect as well as all the colours!


Hopefully won't be long now!

Lots of photos...

I have a poorly daughter at the moment-she's been up and down with a nasty viral bug and has spent most of the morning being sick :-(  She's currently tucked up in bed and hopefully she'll be feeling better when she wakes up.

We spent some time this weekend laying out the squares for the Sleeping Forest Blanket-Myf has taken some photos for your enjoyment ;-)

I played around with the arrangement for the next day until it felt like the colours were flowing properly then I pile them up into groups of 14 (vertical strips) and used a little piece of wire to mark the end square so that I crochet the squares together in the order I want!

Over the last couple of days, I've been busy getting some of them crocheted in strips (I crochet the strips together as soon as I finish them) and so far, we have a four-strip wide blanket!

Doesn't it look beautiful already?  Only five more strips to do then it's on to the border!

126 squares made!!!!!

Yay!!  The last of the squares are done and they're all sitting in a pile waiting to be played with :-)

They're a blanket-they just don't know it yet!

Back when I first started making granny squares (nearly 3 years ago!) and before I started making the epic TARDIS blanket, I was making loads of granny squares in different colour combinations just for fun and practise.  Most of them have ended up pressed into service as blankets for Myf's castle or spare coasters!  However, there was one that I found recently that I thought would be perfect for this project.

The centre green is a little blue for the palette I was working with plus it's a round short but I really wanted to include a square from my early days (I'm sentimental).  I ripped the outer brown round, added another green and a dark brown and voila!  A new-old square :-)

These are the last eight granny squares to show you...

For the last special square motifs, I've found some lovely patterns to test myself on and had fun improvising the rest :-)

So much pretty!  I'm itching to start laying them out and getting the pattern I want but I want to finish up a couple of other projects first.  I've done the poncho-which I'll try to photograph tomorrow-and I'm working on a couple of rune pendants and a pair of fingerless gloves.  But then, it's blanket time!

Total number of squares to make-126 (63/63)
Brown edged granny squares-63 DONE!
Special Square Motifs-63 DONE!

Total number of square made so far-126 made.   DONE!!!

The weather has been insane!  One second it's sunny, the next, there's rain lashing at the windows.  I keep having to jump up to turn the light on or off...one way to get exercise!

I finished off a load more brown edged granny squares today and I've managed to make some more special squares without the need for any patterns (they're not particularly unique but I'm proud of them nonetheless) plus a couple more solid squares.  As it's Imbolc (despite this being an Autumnal themed blanket, it feels right to mark the time of year it was made), I've attempted to improvise a 'Brid's Cross' (go and Google it :-D) which isn't exactly as I envisioned it but I think it looks lovely and will hopefully work well in the overall mix.

Hardly any left to make!

Total number of squares to make-126 (63/63)
Brown edged granny squares-55 made.  8 to go!
Special Square Motifs-53 made.  10 to go!

Total number of square made so far-108 made.  18 to go!

Solid Squares

Hello everyone, hope your weekend is drier than ours!  It's been wet and windy so far with Storm Bridget on Her way (this is both amusing and slightly terrifying to me as a Pagan-tomorrow is the Sabbat of Imbolc, the first stirrings of Spring and the Goddess Brid (or Bridget) is directly associated with Imbolc!)  So I've spent some of the morning taking a windswept walk through the park, taking a nice long soak in the bath, pottering around and now settling down with some crochet :-)

One of the things that I haven't liked about the '200 blocks' book is that there are a great number of squares worked in rows of single crochet going back and forth that are only differentiated by the colours used.  I've resisted making any of these from the book but I have come up with a few of my own 'solid squares' where I've incorporated 'spike stitches'.

I also made a square just using some of my favourite Autumn colours in rows of double crochet...

A bit wonky but I'll straighten it out when I put them all together!

Total number of squares to make-126 (63/63)
Brown edged granny squares-47 made.  16 to go!
Special Square Motifs-48 made.  15 to go!

Total number of square made so far-95 made.  31 to go!

Have a Blessed Imbolc