Joy to the World

May peace and joy surround you at this time of the year.

Red it is.

Do you have a colour that you never feel comfortable using!  For me it is red, I buy red wool or cotton  in tending it for a project and when I come to use it I hate it and choose another colour.  I think I have this feeling about red all my life, I can remember having a tantrum when I was about 8 when my mother wanted me to wear a red dress, I hated it shouting at her that she always dressed me in red and I hated red.   The weird thing was that whenever I wore red everyone would comment and say I looked pretty in it and how red suited me.

I must be mellowing in my old age!  For today I have a red top on and this week red has featured in my crochet in a big way.

First, a sweet little doily from the November doily Cal from the Our Happy Cal Place group on Ravelry.  The doily is Snowflake Doily and Coasters by Binita Majhi.

The variegated red and green cotton was sent to me from Bettina, a Spanish swap partner, she also sent me some other lovely cotton that we can’t get here in NZ.  Lots of coloured doilies coming up.

The second red doily is the December doily Cal from the same group above. I thought it would be good as a Christmas doily.  It is the Starshine Doily by Katherine White.

The third project is not finished yet; it is a doily for a friend who has been hinting to me ever since I took up crochet 2 years ago that she would like a red and black doily for her coffer table.  She has stopped hinting, so imagine her surprise when she opens her gift on Christmas day!

In between this all I have finished my Around the Bases afghan, got to do the ends, when will I learn to do them as I go, lol.  I will post pictures next week.

Finally, here is some more red from my succulent collection.

Have a lovely week and thanks for visiting.

Sharon.

Back Again

Finally!  My blogging and crochet mojo is back!  I have done some serious thinking over the last month or so and have decided that you can have too many projects on the go and for me it creates brain freeze!  I think as a fairly new crochet convert I was like a kid in a candy store, going oh, ahh, wow!  The end result was lots of wips and no finishes.

So, a few weeks back, I piled all my wips into bags and stored them in order, such as ones that need to be finished for Christmas, birthdays and so on.  They have been put into a cupboard, so they are not there to tempt me away from the present wip!  I found that I can cope with two or three out, an afghan, a doily and maybe a small project such as scarfs etc.  It works!

So here is a finished Afghan – the Sweet Pea Afghan, pattern by Julie Yeager.

My helper while I was joining!

With that done and dusted I got out one of my Around the Bases, this one is for a birthday at the end of December, I used the square Tropical Delight as the Designer did, but my inspiration is the Chatham Forget Me Not, it is a lush tropical looking plant that is in fact extremely hardy. 

I am up to week 9 and am not sure whether I will do the whole afghan as the recipient is in a wheel chair and I think it might be better as a lapghan.  It is a metre square at the moment.  I am think when I finish the fans they will make a good edging.  So this one is nearly complete, yay!

My other project I have out is the Advent scarf Cal by Melina Miller.  I am only  a day behind!  It is easy to stay on track with this as it is only about 6 – 8 rows a day.  I am doing it in a fine merino wool with a darker fleck with a large hook so I can block it out to make it extra lacy.

I am working on a doily, a Christmas placement, but will devote a separate post to my beloved doilies.

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Sharon

Sweet Pea MysteryCal

Gosh don’t the weeks fly!

I didn’t get a lot done this week crafting wise, it is the school holidays here and I have been keeping an eye on some little ones for a friend in need.  I get home about 4.30 and all I can do is just sit! However in the quiet moments I have been able to sort out my Sweet Pea Afghan.

 

I am up to date on the motif 2, phew, that was this week’s clue.  They are about 40 cm (15.5 inches) across.  They actually look better in real life, I can’t get the camera to get the red tones right.

Motif 1 (the one in the centre was giving me problems.)  Originally I did the vine bit in silver, but it was dulling the whole thing as it got bigger, so this week I frogged it and tried it in white.  It now was like as if someone had heavy handedly piped frosting on it, it was over the top frothy!  I had more or less decided to use a new colour, parchment. Colourwise it is between the silver and white.  It hit me, while I was doing this week’s clue that i was doing a rotation of solids, silver white and lavender, why not a rotation on the vines!  Yay, it worked.

By the way, this photo is a better representation of the colours.

Now I have to catch up on these motifs, one completed 6 more to go (each only have 3 rounds to do as I am doing them in conveyor belt manner.

 Moral of this story is that when you decide to go down a completely different track in a mystery CAL, you will have to do a lot of frogging if you are a colour freak like me!  In future I think I will wait a few weeks to see where it is going before I decide on colour unless I am using the colours suggested.  Actually I don’t think I have ever followed colour suggestions!

By the way I want to thank everyone for their advice last week on the knitting, I have started over (the wool shop did have more of the colour ways).  The suggested weaving in every 3 -5 stitches works and it is growing a lot faster!  Well it would if I had more time and hands, LOL.

Well that’s all I got time for this week, I hope to get out into the garden next week, with all the rain we have had my garden is looking like a jungle!

The tulips are wonderful this spring.

Now for something completely different.....Knitting!

Ravelry is dangerous!  You can be innocently reading a thread and see something that makes you go wow! Immediately you want to make it, it nags at you until you go rummaging in your stash bins.

This weekend I was reading a thread on Ravelry (The ColourfuL Cal/Kal Group) that I hadn’t noticed before.  It was for a Fair Isle Kal, the work was stunning.  So I went in search of patterns and found some that I liked but they all had you cutting the knitting, now that TERRIFIES me, steeking, it is called.  No way was I going to that, I am a terribly slow knitter and purl/knit is my limit, I just couldn’t cut into something that I had put a lot of time and effort, what if I botched it!  Telling myself “I don’t knit, what is the fuss!”  So I flagged the idea, but, last night dreamt of wonderful Fair Isle Jerseys, waistcoats and scarfs. 

 This morning bright and early, well it would have been if it hadn’t been Daylight Saving Weekend, lost an hour grrr…  I had an idea; I have several Kaffe Fassett books surely there would be something there that would suit a novice…. Eureka!  In the Glorious Colour book there was a pattern that was just the job – Persian Poppies Waistcoat see photo, here’s the Ravelry link via my project page, but the photo here is better than the Ravelry one.

As you can see my fingers were very twitchy and I got started, that nearly took all day, I am very slow.

There are some questions I would like to ask you more experienced Knitters, I find that it rolling up from the bottom is it because there is no ribbing, it starts with a purl row and the first 9 rows are folded back and makes a hem. 

Two, I am not sure if I am doing the carrying of the wool right?, and also  I am wondering if my tension is too tight?

Would the unevenness block out?

I am not worried if I have to start again if I am doing it wrong, I need to get more wool and I won’t know till tomorrow if the local wool shops still have these colours in stock, the wool is a merino  wool from Adriafil.  I hope so as I think they are ideal for the poppies and it is lovely and soft.  If I have to start again I might treat myself to those circular needles, are they difficult to use, I have only ever used the dpns, Oh, I haven’t knitted for over 20 years! And then it was plain knitted things for kiddies.

Oh, and during the last week or so I have done some crochet, mainly the Demelza Cal, run by the Colourful Cal/Kal group.

Last week’s clues.

This week, I need to do 8 of the above and doing the rest production line, up to the last row of petals which is doable as we start on the Thursday for the next part.

The other Cal Sweet Pea is going well, Here was last week’s clues,

I haven’t finished this week’s yet will post photo next week, and I do know I need to show a photo of the Lotus Moon tile Afghan, I did get it finished in time for the Birthday party, but had no time to photograph, will get a photo when I visit the family next week.

Just seen the time, no wonder I am hungry its 7 pm and I haven’t had lunch yet!  Do you find that Daylight Saving mucks up your internal clock?

Have a happy week every body and see you on my visits.

Bits and Pieces

I had hoped to have a picture of the finished Lotus Moon Tile Afghan, this post, but it is not to be, silly person that I am I forgot that there were triangles to do to make the sides straight.  I sat down to do them yesterday and realised I didn’t have enough white, and the shop where I get that particular wool is closed on Saturdays!  Lucky the deadline is next Friday, lol.

So that gave me an opportunity to start my next CAL, The Julie YeagerSweet Pea Mystery ‘Ghan.

My inspiration is a watercolour I did earlier in the year,  I love water colour as you can get the colours to merger into each other as the petals of sweet peas do.

I have spent ages trying work out my colour scheme and in the end decided to use a long variegated wool and a silver grey as the main.

So here is week 1 clues, they come out on Wednesdays/Thursdays, so it is a nice feeling not to be lagging behind as I usually am.

During the week I dragged out another UFO, Colourful City Bag, a project bag that was part of a Cal on the Colouirful Cals group on Ravelry.  I am dreadful at doing the finishing touches of projects as I am eager to get on to the next project, but I want to keep my Sweet Pea Bits and Pieces in it.

I have to line and sew the zip in and add handles, so quite a quick job really,  I made a butterfly to pin to the side as I felt it needed something to match the lettering.

I don’t know if I have said that I love vintage doilies, while I was in town last week I came across these in a local charity shop, all for $2.

Of course I had to get started on one, I think I will do the whole set.  Will make a wonderful gift for a family member who is into vintage china.

Well that is it for today, and I will finish the Lotus Moon this week or I will be trouble, as Kendal wants it for her birthday sleepover!

Here is a very early rose poking its head through the shrubbery!  A promise of Summer.

See you next time and have a wonderful week.

I should be......

I should be finishing my Lotus Moon Tile Afghan for Kendal…

I should be doing this month’s Bamm squares…

I should be pulling out my next UFO (The Puffed Wheat Afghan) and starting on the little squares….

I should be writing my blog post and catching up on blogs….

I should be gardening and cutting the grass…

I should be making orange marmalade with the 5 kilos of oranges that were given to me a week ago…..

I should be doing house work…..

Instead I have been sucked into a GREAT BIG VORTEX called Freeform! To be fair it is one of my 2016 projects, but at the expense of everything else? LOL! 

I made the error of checking of the IFFF group and saw that during September and October they were running a ffal on the theme of leaves and turning a new leaf. That night I had a dream that became my musing for the Ffal.

Musings

She walked into the woods shuffling the autumn leaves as she trudged on, a wind blew up and more leaves fell around her. She did not notice their vibrant colours, her head  down, she thought her life was dead and rusted as the leaves. The path ran alongside a small stream, she noticed a yellow gold leaf floating at the edge, she picked it up, it was beautiful, its shape different from the others, I wonder where it came from she mused, she turned it over, it was lime green! What, how?  She muttered, then she noticed that the light was different, lighter and a sweet scent pervaded the air.  Lifting her head she looked at the other side of the stream, there were blue skies, birds singing, flowers nodding in a gentle breeze, the trees were alive with green leaves.  Astonished she turned the leaf over, suddenly, it was dark, dank and a chill passed over her.  She looked behind back down the path she had walked.  In the distance she could see a golden glow, beautiful, but so far away, her past glories?  Turning the leaf over the spring like scene appeared again , she wanted to so much be part of it but the stream separated her from it.  Maybe she could jump the stream?  It was rather wide.  Indecision stalled her.  A Bellbird sang its song to her, calling her, "Come life is for living!"  She took a deep breath and ran to the edge and leapt into her new life.

My start on this musing

Then last night when I should have been writing this post, I started on this piece

Would you say I am addicted to freeform!?!  Yep!

I have been getting on with Lotus Moon Tile Afghan last week and I am in the process of joining the octagons and squares, still have the triangle bits to crochet (they go on the sides to make the edges straight.)

I have to say I love the “join as you go” that Polly Plum suggests it is so neat looking, and so easy to do.

The link on how to do it is here.

On the front of Marmalade making I have started on making some covers for the jars that I am giving away.

In real life it is more orange and I think I will use raffia to tie them on the jars, hopefully by next week I will have made the marmalade!

Also next week I will show you a picture of the finished Moon Tiles. 

I still haven’t written the blog post for the award that Anna of Annas Simple crochet gave me.  So I will do it quickly here.

The rules:

1) Name who has given you the award

2) Name the rules and post your award

3) Share 7 things about you

4) Nominate up to 7 blogs and inform them of the award

7 Things about myself

I I like to see the funny side of life (love laughing a lot)

2   I am reading David Balducci’s Total Control at the moment.

3  My favourite season is Spring, everything is so fresh and vivid.

4  I am a hopeless romantic.

   If we didn’t have to worry about protein I could just live on vegetables and fruit.

I  I hate strong winds.

I  I love elderly people, they have so much knowledge, and it is fascinating to hear them talk of the old days.  Also their sense of humour often astounds me.

As to the nominations, I have struggled with this as many of the blogs I visit don’t accept them etc etc, so I am going to cheat and offer it to any of the YOP group, please feel free to take it and post.  I couldn’t choose as they are all lovely.  If you are not part of the YOP group click on link below (banner) and it will take you to the list of participants.  (I don’t know if non Ravelry people can view without belonging, does any one know)

Well that’s it today; I now can cross blog writing off my list for a week, so on to finishing the Afghan joining, then I will let myself do some more of my ffal panels!

See you again next week or on my rounds.

Sharon

Tah Dah!

Sorry I didn’t blog last week. My chest infection became pneumonia and I was knocked right off my feet, but an infusion of antibiotics have done the trick and I am nearly functioning on 3 cylinders, lol.   The upside while I didn’t feel like blogging etc . I have especially in the last few days been able to do lots of crochet.

First of all, I did manage to finish the Bam2015  Afghan with a couple of hours to spare for the Ravellenics. So here she is in all her glory.

For my troubles I got two awards, the WIP Wrestling:

And the laurel for modular work from our team Captain:

New Starts

As I last posted on finishing the Afghan I was going to treat myself to starting a new one, well I have decided to do both as I have ideal recipients for both. So the Lotus Moon Tiles started 2 weeks ago and I am motoring ahead of the group on it as it is for my grandnieces birthday and that is before the Cal ends.  By the colours (pinks) you might have guessed Kendal will be 8.

The second one is for my sister in law; it is a Cal run by the Colourful Cal group on Ravelry.  Its starts on 1^st September but  I have got a head start, I am using odds and ends of wool from my stash.  So I present Demelza by Catherine Bligh, it was influenced by The Poldark series on the BBC.  She has also designed a Ross Afghan as well.

So far I have used 18 colours!  It is very satisfying to use up odd bits of wool that have been cluttering up the place for ages.

However, I have to confess that I have an order of wool in the post for the Julie Yeager Cal that starts in 2 weeks, no wonder I need to be ahead on the other cals.

Finally I wish to thank Anna from Anna's Simple Crochet for the One Lovely Blog Award.  I will do a separate post for that during the week.  Have a beautiful creative week everyone and I will see you on my rounds.

Click on logo to go and visit other lovely blogs in the group.