Something new ...

With my ripple blanket, I enjoyed the fact I could sit on the lounge and work on it, or if it got cold, or I was wanting to put my feet up at night, I could also work on it in bed. Neither of those things are something I can do while sewing with my machine! lol! So, although my second UFO challenge of this month is to finish piecing the cowboy quilt top, I did want to have a crochet project on the go for when I need something to do on the couch. Now, I do admit, if I looked in the boxes and bags in my craft room, I probably could have found something half finished (please don't judge me!!!) but I decided to start something new! Plenty of time for me to work on the other UFO in the coming months!

Isn't it a cute top? I thought it would be great for my little miss over a long sleeve top during winter and if she doesn't grow too much, maybe as is in summer too. As you can see, she saw it on the table and was telling me she wanted me to make 'this one, mama!'

The yarn is again from my stash (yay!) and I will decided as I get further down whether I add the band of contrasting colour or not. I also probably have enough to make it a dress by continuing further along, but that may not be allowed if 'someone' starts demanding to wear it!

I am pretty sure the pattern came from Ravelry (I had printed it off and stuck it in a 'to do' pile), but I can't remember if I bought it or not. So far, so good though, just about to start down the front and back so that the armholes are created. Hopefully more to show soon!

Ripple Blanket finished!

Yay!!!
Remember way back in February, when Mel over at One Crafty Mumma organised a crochet blanket Ripple along? I know,it's a while ago now! I have been rather slack with keeping up with my blanket, however, I have finally finished it!

The first half went quickly, but the second half did take me a while, however I am so glad I stuck with it. The coziness of it is just lovely and it has been keeping me warm as I have been working on it!

I lay it out to measure it and my model decided to roll all over it, but it measures approx 41" wide by 46" long. A decent sized lap blanket anyway and my yarn calculations worked out really well. A little bit of the lavender left, I had to use a little of a second ball of cream which had a different batch number, but the same dye number, so that wasn't noticeable, and then I decided to add 3 rows of single crochet (with 1ch spaces) around the edge to finish it off, which used up pretty much all of that second ball. So approx 6 balls of 8ply yarn all from my yarn stash using a 5.5mm hook.
The other thing that makes this blanket special is that the yarn was added to my stash from my Nanna's stash. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to her late last year when she passed away and it has been really hard since then to not be able to visit or pickup the phone and just talk to her. Some days I still forget that she isn't here anymore and of course, the last month or so with Mother's Day and her birthday have been a little less happy occasions this year. My grandpa began sorting out the cupboards early this year and knew that she would want me to have her knitting and wool, so I inherited a yarn stash as big as the one I already had, and working on this blanket with the yarn I know my Nanna had chosen at one time or another has helped me feel closer to her, just for that bit longer.

Thanks for the inspiration Mel and I am happy to have it ready and waiting to be gifted to the right person! Have a look here to see Mel's and some other beautiful ripple blankets!

Making progress ...

Yay! I have finished A3's rag quilt! I have finished the snipping and washed it once already (I followed advice I had read on a blog and put it into a pillowcase which I tacked shut before washing) and will wash it again before taking it to a laundromat and making use of their dryer. However, I have also made another raggy quilt already! I had some pink princess, polkadot and plain flannelette so I decide to make a strip one for A2. Unfortunately the print flannelette was not as wide as the others, but with the offcuts I was able to put together a little quilt for her doll so they will have matching blankets :) Those 2 have also been washed once and I will wash them again before drying them in the drier too.
All in all a productive start to February! I have also cut the pieces for A1's cowboy quilt and they are laid out on the lounge room floor at the moment, waiting to be pieced. Silly me stuffed up one of the cuts and had to go buy another fat quarter just for a 5 1/4" x 9 1/2" piece :( annoying! However, with the leftover piece of the fabric I had to buy yardage of, I should be able to use both with some backing fabric to make a pillowcase, so at least I can use it.
This evening I also did a bit of a tidy up of my yarn stash (well, most of it!) and packaged up the yarns in bags of matching balls. I'm hoping this will make it easy for me to see how much of each I have and choose appropriate patterns. I also found 1 beanie that needs 3 more crocheted rows, 2 beanies that need the ends woven in and a christmas stocking that needs stitching up. There is also a bag that I need to finish for a friends daughters birthday next weekend and a couple of blankets that are half done (1 knit and 1 crochet). I hope to get these things finished off in the next couple of weeks so they can go to their new owners instead of being in my yarn cupboard :) for fun and to use up some scraps I also arm knitted a scarf for A2 using 2 different chunky pinks. I just have to stitch the ends to make it an infinity scarf and I know she'll love it.
Ok, that's it for now, need some sleep so I have energy for all these projects!