Lace Leaf Shawl

At long last I have finally finished my Lace Leaf Shawl!

I have long been an admirer of a certain blogger who makes to most gorgeous shawls, this summer swap shawl is my favourite. Anyway, way way back in March I was thrilled when Mollie announced she would do a KAL for one of her favourite shawl patterns, the camaraderie and guidance would help me through my first shawl challenge.

It started ok but I found I really had to concentrate on the pattern, it is an 8 row repeat and you increase on each row so if you miss calculate you don’t have enough stitches to form the next pattern row. It took me ages to be able to read the pattern to ensure it was going right. But perseverance (and a bit of frogging) paid off in the end!
The pattern is so pretty but just in case you ever think about not blocking take a look at this transformation.

Above you see the finished piece pre blocking, below is a closer shot of the wavy border.

And here is the blocked version.

Isn’t it amazing, thediffernce in the detail.

A close up of the border shows the wavy border at it’s best.

If you fancy making your own pretty shawl you can start by visiting Mollie.

Mollie and Claire’s Lace Leaf Shawl KAL

Yes please I thought when Claire from Mollie and Claire offered to do this KAL.

I am a little behind but wanted to show that I have started and will be focussing on catching up over the next few days.

It was rather lucky that I had this colourful yarn in my stash and have been wondering what I could use it for. It is rather fine for me to knit with but I feel it is perfect for this KAL. I hope Mollie approves.

The Snail of Happiness has Arrived

We would perhaps not generally think of snails in a kind light with their tendancy to invade our gardens. For such a slow moving creature they can wreek havoc in an amazingly short space of time. This bright and colourful snail is a gift from Snail of Happiness

This little critter is a different kind of snail though, he leaves no slimy trail as he slithers through the garden and he doesn’t eat your favouite flowers either. All he does is add a ray of colour streaking across the lawn.

He was rather tired after his journey so enjoyed an hour or two basking in the sunshine on the wall.He also brought all this lovely bunting with him too.

It is now neatly stashed ready to adorn the surgery in acouple of weeks.

Flowers, Lovely Flowers

Here are the next arrivals.

How about these fabulous flowers, they make a garden all on their own. 30 fabulous designs and all different with the exeption of  the 2 tulips. It is worth keeping an eye on Hatted Owl as I think she may be doing a pattern for them to share with us.

Then we received these rather unusual floral baskets, they were kindly donated by a fellow crafter who lives 20 miles down the road. They are really lovely, I am not sure if you can make out from the image but the flowers are made with different yarns including cotton and mohair. It adds contrast and texture to the flowers.

This is a truly international project with parcels coming from different continents and……………. from just down the road.

Amazing and thank you so much.

 

 

Yarnbombing – Call to arms!

At last I reveal the secret project… and a request for a little help!

I work in a lovely little family-orientated GP surgery and I thought it would make our patients smile if we could yarn bomb the place with colourful flowers and wildlife animals and create a ‘Fantasy Garden’, and I thought why not ask for some help from my wonderful blogging friends.

• Can you Knit or Crochet?
• Do you own a yarn stash?
• Then maybe you would be able to help.

If you think you may be able to help make this crazy idea a reality at our little surgery, please email me at TheGrangeRange@hotmail.com and let me know whether you knit or crochet and if you would like any pattern links.

If we can make enough of a display to encourage monetary donations from patients and onlookers, we would like to collect for our local hospital and hospice.

This is a gigantic project, and I would be so grateful if anyone had any discarded flowers or some scraps of yarn left over that could be turned into flowers to help furnish our little surgery with wooly blooms or little animals.

So far I have been making the Birdie Decorations and the Happy Flowers both from Attic24; sunflowers; Shelly the garden snail; a little toadstool house and some gnomes; and the fairies.

Netting fixed over the handrails covered with flowers would create huge impact as patients visit, and maybe a beach scene as we are by the sea?

At the back of the surgery is a disused pond. A local building firm have agreed to donate a frame to support a blue tarpaulin so we can display knitted or crochet ducks, water lilies, frogs etc. and I would love to have some rabbits for under the shrubbery and squirrels and birds for in the trees and shrubs for the children to find.

Of course bunting would be a great feature too and always adds an air of festivity. Please feel free to make suggestions or give your feedback on these ideas.

I can’t help but feel this project is still in its infancy and there are so many ideas in my head that I think it will explode if I don’t share some of them with you.

Feeling inspired? Send me an email and let’s begin!

Knitted Dinosaur Hat

Just a quick mid week post to show you what I have been up to. I swapped my crochet hook for knitting needles just for a change to make this fun hat.

Hats are great for keeping you warm on these lovely spring days, you know when you don’t need a coat but a thick sweater with a hat and scarf are just the trick.

Charity Blanket Squares – Crafters Call to Arms

Found this great idea and wanted to share with you all as I know you too will want to join in and gift a few blanket squares to charitable causes.

It is very brave of our fellow crafter to volunteer to join all the donated squares as we all know this can be the most trying part of blanket making!

As soon as enough generous crafters pledge squares to make this a viable project the instructions will be published and we can all get going, I can just hear it now needles clacking and hooks a-hooking, it is after all the season of goodwill.

To pledge your interest click on the link below and leave a comment.

Help Needed to Crochet for Charity

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Innocent Smoothie Bottle Hats for Age UK

Did you answer the call?

I did but unfortunately I saw the request a little late so have only had time to make 3 hats.

It is such a wonderful idea, the Innocent Drinks company will donate 25p to Age UK for every little hat they receive. Isn’t that great? It is called The Big Knit, I would have loved to make more but sadly have run out of time.

There were even links to patterns. I made the Tortoise and the Owl.

I did try to make my own Frog but I think I will work on the pattern as there is room for improvement.

I was so inspired by this post on Love Lucie enticing we crafters to make hats for smoothie bottles in return for the 25p donation. Now I have the link to the patterns I will make them throughout the year in readiness for next time (I hope there is a next time). They do seem to have done it for a few years now according to some of the other posts I have read.

Check out some of the links below, so many cute little hats!

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Yarndale – A Festival of Yarn

Well at last the day arrived, and so did I very excited and in the lovely town of Skipton to visit Yarndale.

I stayed with my daughter in Leeds on Friday evening and decided at the last minute to leave the car and get the train. Boy was I glad I made that decision, I arrived at the station  at 9:30 and was greeted outside the station by this wonderful sight, an old fashioned double decker adorned with bunting. When we got on the bus I could not resist going upstairs and sitting at the front.

Inside there were more wooly treats, the advertising board had been covered with green felt and decorated with fluffy sheep and flowers, it was fab.

The traffic was unbelievable, backed up right down to the main road. But once we got to the venue there was bunting everywhere.

Then inside even more bunting, it was truly amazing! From the bottom of my heart I thank the lovely ladies who put on this great event, they did a fantastic job and I hope that it will be repeated next year.

I regret to say that it was so busy inside I could not get any photos, there were so many bodies it was hard to get to see some of the stands. There were places called Knit and Natter where you could sit, eat lunch and chat.

I hope it will suffice to say it was truly a celebration of yarn and talent, there was plenty to see and even more I wanted to buy. The workshops looked so much fun too and I regret not pre-booking, the yarn dyeing in particular looked great, but there will hopefully be next year.

I took the bus back into town and went to the Russian Tea Rooms but I will tell you about that another time.

Having exhausted both myself and my purse I headed back to the beautiful Victorian station and went back to my daughters to relax.

If you went too I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you didn’t I hope you can go next time. And thanks again to the Yarndale organisers, I commend you on doing a great job.

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Pink Cardigan with Frilly Edging and My New Labels

What I love most about this cardigan is the shape, it flares slightly and the frill trim that borders it doesn’t pull in like a normal rib would. I love to see little girls in dresses, but when they need an extra layer and you put on a cardigan and the rib pulls in all those lovely flounces on the dress. The flared shaping on this pattern allows it to sit so nicely over a little girls dress and allows the gathers to fall and float as they should.

It’s for my friends granddaughter who happens to be another Miss E, pattern no. 1721 by Sirdar worked in DK yarn so it works up quite quickly. It’s one I have had for ages and have made many times over the years for numerous little ladies.

The frill is worked around the whole of the cardigan also forming the collar and has a gorgeous trim formed by making 6 additional chains between every other stitch.

I am also pleased to show you my new ‘The Grange Range’ labels used for the first time on this pretty pink cardigan.

And a washing advice label too.

I had a bit of bother sewing them into place so will have to give a bit more thought to that on the next project.