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!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone <3

I'm happily single and expect to remain that way but I don't think romance should be the only focus on a holiday that is supposed to celebrate love.  So along that theme, I want to use my 100th post (yippee!) to celebrate the people I love.

My beautiful girl Myf is my absolute angel-never realised how much I could love someone and can't imagine my life before her

My gorgeous sisters, who I miss so much and wish I lived nearer to

You inspire me :-)

I adore my nieces and nephew completely

As well as my brothers in law (although I don't have a decent photo of them!)

My parents-we've had ups and downs but we have a strong relationship now that I cherish all the more for the work it's taken :-)

My fur babies-they're both so different but they bring us so much joy

My friends and chosen family-both in real life and online-I'm so grateful to have you all in my life <3

Wishing you all the love in the Universe!

Reasons to be cheerful

I'll admit that this week it's been tough to come up with the positive.  Myf hasn't been very well (I had to leave work early today to go and collect her from school which caused all kinds of problems as there was no one to cover me-managed to get it sorted but it took over 2 hours to be able to get to my daughter which was awful)  She's fine, tired and probably growing again, that tends to leave her vulnerable to bugs.

So, back to being cheerful!

The awful flooding going on has had me very worried for my family-spoke to Mum today who reassured me that she and Dad are fine (the Thames river is well reinforced where they are)  My heart goes out to everyone affected but I hope I'm not being selfish in saying that I'm so glad that my family are safe and well.
I often moan about the hill I live on but it's at times like this, with the winds howling and the rains swelling the rivers to bursting, that I'm so grateful to live up a hill!

Despite her not feeling well, Myf has been wonderful in the mornings-I've had TWO cups of tea in bed this week!

I finished off the poncho the other day-sadly, with all the bad weather, photos are pretty dreadful!  I've worked up a flower as well to attach to the neck tie (as usual, I've way overdone the length of the cord and the size of the flower!).  This is a belated Yule gift for a dear friend who is coming to visit this weekend.

The other gift I've been making has been a rune pendant for her birthday (it's her 30th).  Runes are used in divination but they are also associated with different points of the year, a little similar to a star sign-my friend is a rune reader and we have spent many evenings reading runes and tarot together :-) so I felt making a pendant with her birth rune, 'Berkano', would make a lovely gift.

I wanted to use my wood burning pen, but despite tearing the house apart looking, I've had no luck!  So instead, I've used a small chisel to carve the rune and a little woodstain to bring it out...

Crafting always makes me happy :-D

Lastly, there's this photo of Artemis that Myf took-Arti loves boxes!

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!!!

Reasons to be cheerful

It's been a good week in many ways-lots of hooky happiness, luxuriating in the colours and getting very excited to make the last few squares.

I got called into work on Monday to cover Neil who wasn't well but I made the most of Tuesday.  I took a walk through the park in the morning-a little windy but there was a wonderful clear sky and I managed to capture a few shots :-)

I was looking closely for signs of new life and found these beautiful snowdrops :-D

And on the way back through I came across these two...

Other reasons include the mornings being a little brighter and the afternoons a little longer-soon I'll be going to and from work in something approaching daylight!

I've taken a little break from squares for a couple of days and this poncho has been on my hook instead-I'm working it up as a birthday present for a friend

I also was very productive with the cleaning yesterday and gave the kitchen a thorough going over (cupboards and all!) before making a really delicious roast lamb dinner-there's enough left over meat for another week's work of meals :-)

Mornings with Myf, watching some Star Trek or chatting about school, having a hug before I drop her off and go to work or take her to school are still my favourite moments :-D

Happy Wednesday folks, hope you've had a lovely day

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