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