Charity Yarn Bombing 2015 – Part 2

Here is the second part of the yarn bombing.

In addition to the five themes we had these gorgeous blankets that were donated by 2 lovely Mama’s. This one is called The Lily Pond and was very generously sent from Mama H, my lovely mother in law. There is so much work in creating a piece like this I don’t know how she could part with it, we offer our heartfelt thanks.

Colourful crochet hexagons make up the second blanket, these were made by my lovely Mum. The hexagons were made from a random batch of yarn and there was an odd number of each colour, this made it quite a task to get the layout right. We had it laid out on the floor so many times before we found a pattern where the colours balanced. I actually joined them all together and edged it and I think it worked out ok in the end.

This rose vine was very sought after on the day which was a huge compliment to the creater who fashioned this pretty floral garland out of donated oddments. Isn’t it amazing what can be made from scraps of yarn when you pass them on to a talented knitter?

Jungle Capers

Cheeky monkeys swinging amongst the vines were a feature in the jungle, these twin primates each sported a little flower, one blue and one pink. Don’t know how they managed to keep them in with all that swinging around!

“And how clever am I? Look one hand!” His lovely stripes must give him super gripping power.

Just in case you are wondering why they all have tickets pinned onto them, we used raffle tickets as an identifier. To make their bid our visitors filled in a form using the number and indicating how much they wanted to offer for the item before slipping it into a sealed box.

Slithering below were the snakes in there glorious stripiness.

This little critter was soooooooo long.

A host of other jungle animals gathered together on the steps just taking in all the adoration bestowed upon them

Under the Sea

If you saw last years event you may recognise the sea blanket but this year we focused on under the sea adding some more creatures and a trio of lovely mermaids. There were three honestly but one of our helpers popped into the pub over the road with a collection bucket and a local fisherman made such a good case for why she should allow him to make a generous offer (too good to refuse) and take her straight away, we were left with two. Their sister was already on her way out to sea on the fishermans trawler!

Sorry about the poor photography of the bicycle, I will try and get some better images for another post but for now I hope you can make out the little fishing boat with it’s net cast into the woolly sea on the front wheel.

And the fish and chip supper residing on the seat.

Round by the farm was also a basket of knitted fruits.

And a wheelbarrow just back from the yarn allotment.

Our event was suported by the local library and their knitting group sent us a several baby and toddler knitwear items. Also the sister of one of our dispensers is a prolific knitter, she sent us some gorgeous jackets and cardigans, I think we must have received one a week! Thank you.

We strung up a washing line and pegged out these hand knitted garments.

Last but not least at the bottom of the drive we put a rose tree and ………………

………….. a country garden crochet bicycle.

This shot was taken outside our house before it was transported to the surgery where it stood against the tree to attract passers by.

The event was a lot of work but so worthwhile on many different levels, it brought together patients, staff and friends of the surgery at our crafty Saturday morning gatherings. So many patients who couldn’t attend joined in by dropping into the surgery with yarn for us or with items they had made for one of the themes.  We were also very generously supported by the blogging community so thank you to all of you too.

 

Crochet Granny Square Afghan – Update

Well I got a lovely surprise when I got onto work yesterday!

I had received a box full of lovely crochet squares and a letter from Mama H. I am so pleased with the colours we chose, when you see them altogether they look really vibrant and cheerful.

I cannot believe how quickly she has got this many done.

When I emptied the box I found a variety of patterns from Granny Twin Stripes No. 5.

Corner Granny No. 7

Then Mama H started to get more adventurous with these Alternate Bobbles N0. 17 in plain colours.

And the wonderfully colourful Arcadia N0. 9

And some more single colour blocks called Openwork Square N0. 10

I have done a few more as well which I will show you later when we start to arrange our blanket into a pattern. Mama H wrote in her letter that we may need some more plain squares and I think she may well be right but I will let you know in our next update.

If you like Granny Squares I found some interesting links below that you might want to take a peek at too.

Related articles

• Granny Squares Are So Passe’ – Learn How to Crochet a Granny Hexagon (blogher.com)
• The Crochet Motif Through the Years (crochetme.com)
• “Celtic” Inspired Afghan (cutoutandkeep.net)

Wave Blanket – Surf and Seaside Ripple Pattern Afghan

I have told you before about when the children were small and we always had a Poorly Blanket, they would snuggle into it on the sofa when they were feeling unwell or tired. Now they are grown I am making a blanket for each of them so they can have their very own ‘Poorly Blanket’s’ in their respective homes.

The boys both surf so I wanted to make a throw that would remind them of their time on the beach and in the sea so I decided on a ripple or wave pattern and picked a range of blues and greens to reflect the colours of the sea and the shore.

As they are both 6 foot something I wanted their blankets to be big enough to cover their feet so decided to make them 5ft by 5ft so through trial and error worked out that the starting chain needed to be 185 stitches long. Here it is after the first few rows, it already reminds me of the sea lapping at the shore.

I get so excited at this stage, I just love picking out the colours and visualising how I want it to look, playing with the colours and seeing how they flow and contrast with each other.

I only ever start with half a plan in my head as the best part of a project for me is developing my idea as I go along selecting the colours randomly.

As you will see on closer inspection there is no format to the colour changes, I tend to pick them as I go along but not forgetting to keep the balance of the lighter and darker shades and the contrasting of the colours.

I went for a walk to the seafront to take a photo of the blanket against the backdrop of the sea and could not resist this shot of the brightly painted chalets with the warm winter sunshine bouncing off their doors. Ahhhh it brings joy to my heart, I do so love living near the sea.

I have edged the boys blankets with two rounds of simple single crochet using a dark blue. I did try a few different edgings but found that this simple look suited the project best creating a simple frame for the waves.

I hope the boys might keep their blankets in the car so they can snuggle into them to warm up after a days surfing.

I am very pleased with the end result of this project, it was rather a long one as I have made two of these, one for each of my lovely chaps. The pattern and the colours really do invoke memories of sea and sand.

Hint and Tips on Blanket Making

I have learnt one or two little things on this journey of blanket making that I would like to share with you.

1. When you are doing the chain to start your project use markers every 25 or 50 stitches so you can check your count if you are interrupted.

2. Use a size larger hook to make the chain than you intend to use for the main body of the blanket, I often find that the chain is a little to tight and tends to draw the work in at the bottom otherwise.

3. I like to pick my colours randomly as I go along, I take a ball of each colour and play with the colours until I am happy with the effect then arrange them on the table where I work and work through them one by one. It is great fun setting out the colours as you go and helps maintain the interest and excitement of the project. Just make sure that you get a balance of lights and darks along the way.

Inspiration for this blanket was from Attic 24 so don’t hang around, go and have a look!

Now to get on with the girls blankets……………

UFO Challenge From Black Sheep Wools

I have bought yarn recently from www.blacksheepwools.com/ the service is great with the order usually being delivered within a couple of days. Once I had bought from them I stated getting their regular emails including the usual offers etc but then this one came, a challenge to complete an unfinished project.

The Hook, Knit and Stitch – a – thon is on!!!

It provided me with just the push I needed to dig out a project that has been hiding in a carrier bag for years.

Here is my UFO story…….

Once when my children were younger we spent a wet and windy half term week learning to knit, with four of them it was quite a challenge and I was constantly helping to cast on, picking up dropped stitches and untangling their wool. Using oddments of leftover chunky yarn we made squares that I would turn into a blanket.

However, best laid plans and all that, the children are all now in their twenties and the squares? Well you may ask, they were still in a bag awaiting their transformation into the promised blanket. It was these squares that sprang to mind when I read Black Sheep UFO challenge, it spurred me on to dig them out of their hiding place in the loft and finally do what I originally intended.

I started by joining together all the squares that the children had made which as you can see formed a very uneven shape baring evidence of the dropped stitches I failed to catch and varied tensions employed by the little people all those years ago, but all these flaws simply add character.

Having joined all the squares together it was not quite big enough to qualify as a blanket so I knitted the long scarf shaped strips to go around the sides and finished it off with some cream edging.

Voila!

I added a second square over the front of one of the squares at the top of the blanket to form a pocket where bits and pieces can be placed such as  little toys or a handkerchief. The contents of the pocket will serve to keep poorly or tired children entertained whilst on the sofa and snuggled beneath the blanket.

To explain, when my children were little we had what was affectionately called ‘the poorly blanket’, if they were ill and cuddled up on the sofa they would be draped with a special blanket. It had to be a particular blanket and in that wonderful way that children believe they really thought it had healing powers!

It is interesting that whilst I was finishing this UFO as my offspring visited they all remembered making the squares and expressed an affectionate interest in acquiring the finished blanket. We have agreed that this newly formed blanket will officially become our new family Poorly Blanket and will passed around as required. In the meantime it is just resting here.

Thank you Black Sheep for inspiring me to complete this long awaited project. Although it is not the best looking finish with all its uneven out of alignment squares and the loose stitches I have to confess it has brought back some lovely memories of crafting with my family when they were younger.