More Granny Ripples

It's an addiction i tells ya!!
This is a recent blanket commission for a friend's little girl using the Drop in the Pond pattern with a slight twist on the edging.

 

Drop in the Pink Pond

For the edging i used a "front post treble crochet" round the middle treble in the cluster below instead of a treble into the ch1 space between the clusters, i think it looks really effective and i love how it looks different on the sides and the ends :)

FPTC edging

Currently in my WIP bag are a spotty blanket in pink and white cotton and an urge to start a new blanket with my recently "acquired" Aldi DK.

Spot the Blanket

Aldi DK colours

Bereft!

I have finally finished my Marble Ten-Stitch blanket and i am really sad! I loved knitting this even though it's taken over 3 years! It's been my travelling companion, my camping companion and my shopping delight :D
I'm not sure Lisa would agree, it had become something of an obsession to hunt out the Marble at knittingy shows and dither over colours but i loved the whole process. I needed an extra ball of the grey/white for the border and i still have a green square and a ball of purple/blue floating around somewhere but this blanket is done.

Oh yes, it does still need blocking a bit to get the wrinkles out but never mind that, isn't it pretty!!

Granny Square Ripples pt.2

strips finished and waiting for a joining plan

Further rippling granny adventures!
Once i'd got the ornage strip made, as you can see i went on to make 3 more in different colours. Great, i thought, now i just join them together and it's all hunky dory. Except it's not is it... The only way they are going to join together is if they are staggered because i hadn't followed a pattern i hadn't realised that they would either all need a traingle at one end or alternate stripes would need a traingle at both ends!!
DOH!


After a bit of brain racking i decided to fill in the gaps with cream join-as-you-go granny squares and i am really pleased that i did as i like the way it makes the zig zags of colour really POP!

gaps filled with granny squares

Once they were joined it was just a matter of adding a border and hey presto!
One granny square ripple blanket.

i settled on the central strip colour for the border

I wanted to downplay the very bright pink a little bit so the border is constructed of half teble rows in cream and plae pink and double crochet in the bright pink 

that is a very bright pink!!

 I am enormously happy with my concoction and have decided to offer it for sale at the Crafter's Barn where i have a little shop :)

Granny Square Ripple

Goodness, it's a long time since i posted here isn't it! I do apologise for my absence - i hope my latest project will make up for it ;o)
So, a few weeks ago i saw this blanket and thought how pretty it was and how much i wanted to make one for myself. After some link following i found a tutorial on how to make the central granny strip and as i already know how to make a granny ripple i thought the rest would be easy!
Apparantly i like making things difficult for myself! But i am so glad i do as my finished blanket is something that i am really happy with and better still it's something that i made myself - mostly!

This was my first attempt at the central granny strip but i wasn't happy that it was "random", i mean, how was i going to decide what colour order the ripples would be in?!

granny squares ready to join

So, as the main purpose of the project was to use up the orange and pink stash left over from the giant granny square blanket i decided that i'd make strips of each colour i had and then join them.
this series of photos represent the construction of a granny ripple strip.

joined!

let the rippling commence!

almost there

that'll do it!

So, i had one strip made, now to work on the other colours... 

ThankieBlankie

All finished!

The joining yarn i found in my stash box goes really well with most of the blocks

And of course i finished it with a crab stitch edging :oD

Thankieblankie!

The blocks are all joined and i'm starting the edging. I don't think it needs anything fancy so i'll probably just do a couple of rounds of half double crochet and finish it with my favourite... crab stitch! :D
I found some multi-coloured wool in my stash that goes quite well as it has purple, green and beige in it so it tones well with all the blocks and although it's not my "thing" i kinda like the blankie overall. I hope the recipient does too :)

next up

While i decide what i want to cast on i shall make another square for my spiral patchwork blankie.
As you can see, i have two blocks finished already and i'm currently working on the pink one, i have amazed myself by remembering what to do at the corners! Something's working in my brain for once ::lol::

My problem now is that despite buying extra colours at various shows for the past couple of years i don't actually like them all together!!
I need another pastelly shade which i think is going to have to be the grey and white ball which was originally going to be for the sashing... It's all a bit mind-numbing really. No matter how many times i look at the shade card i just can't settle!

I guess i'll just have to take it all along to Ally Pally in October and try and work it out then!!

Crochet blocks

These 8" blocks have been made for a project blanket that we are making at our knitting club.
A lady who has recently become ill and can no longer knit or crochet has donated all her stash to us so after we'd had a rummage we all took a few odd balls home to make blocks with and we're going to make her a blanket to say thankyou.
I decided to use the patterns in 200 crochet blocks by Jan Eaton cos, well, they are lovely aren't they!
I'm not sure the colours have come out quite right though, the top block is a pinky beigey colour and the bottom two are shades of green :o/

I'll take the book and the rest of my oddments along to knitting group tomorrow and make a fourth square and then i must decide what to cast on next or what to finish... I've not lost my mojo i am just being particularly indecisive at the moment, it's rather annoying!!

With less than 24 hours to go...

I finished the Wedding Present Blankie :oD

Complete with half hexagon edges...

And a very fetching edging of half-trebles and finished off with crab stitch <3

All i need to do now is to get it back from the Bride and Groom so i can wash and block it!!

Hexes

Just a quick update photo...
The main body is done, i have 4 cream hexes to add to each short end and 3 to add to each long end to squre it up a bit more and then i can crack on with the edging. I am VERY pleased with how it's looking :oD

(That's a coke bottle there for scale lol)

New blankie please!

It started with a circle...

That got turned into a hexagon...

That got turned into a rectangle...

That made a gorgeous blankie :D
This is such a cool pattern, very ingenious!

A very washed-out-by-the-flash photo from last night when i had just finished it!
I wasn't sure about the bluey-grey edging but once i did it in crab stitch instead of normal double crochet i was very pleased with how it looked :D
I've thoroughly enjoyed making this, partly because it was so quick, partly cos i watched Wimbledon while i was makig it and partly because it gave me a lovely break from the hexagons so now i can go back to them refreshed!

I wanted, i gotted!

So, i've been working away on The Hexagons but i have been getting a little bored with it as it's very repetitive so i thought i'd make myself a quick something!
This is the Twist and Turn Throw from Red Heart. It's a bit daft really, i was looking through my magazines and blankie books to find just the right pattern and i found this one in "The Ultimate Blankets Handbook" a magazine with 28 crochet blankie patterns in it, some of which are very lovely indeed but i decided i wanted to make the one that was just featured in an advert!! LOL

It's an absolutely lovely blankie featuring a centre circle which then morphs into a hexagon which then becomes a rectangle!
Ingeeeeeeeenious! :oD
I'm using chunky weight, or two strands of DK and a 7mm hook and it's working up nice and quickly, the above photo is the result of about 8 hours of hooking! The wool i am using has come from various places, i picked up a lot last weekend at the CKG swap meet where a local lady had donated all her stash to our group as she has had to give up knitting due to illness and there were a few different odds of pinky colours that went well together plus oddments from the loft and some of my Countrystyle DK stash is being put to use!
We each took a few extra odd balls with us on Saturday to make some 8" squares with to make a "thankyou and get well soon" blankie for the lady so i have been thinking about what pattern to use for them too.

My deadline for The Hexagons is approaching rapidly but i am confident i will finish it in time, just as long as i don't let myself start anything else in the meantime! LOL

Growing

Not much progress as yet but it's getting there!

A Hex on you!

Finally, i have the layout of the hexagon blanket sorted!
There has been MUCH crocheting/frogging/re-crocheting going on for the past few weeks, i don't think a project has ever caused me so much hassle (or if it has it is eclipsed by this!)

This is the last photo i took but it had got much bigger, i think all the cream "circles" were completed and i was extending it further but i really didn't like it. It was just too bland, although i did really like the way the circles popped out more when the background was all one shade...

There is a purpose to the project though, after all this time it finally has a recipient!
It's just been a faithful companion for the last 4 years, picked up and put down at whim but now i have a deadline and everything so now that i have got it sorted i need to get cracking!

WIPs in Progress

Badger Blankie - 7 balls in...

Japanese Garden Shawl - Chart A finished

Kiillaa Sock - Starting gusset increases Knitting is ticking along nicely this month, i'm not making as much progress as i'd like but that's my own fault as i just keep being too tired or achy to pick it up, but i am getting some done every day, even if it's just one ball of Foxy ;o)