Late update

I've been such a bad blogger recently, but I'm trying to be good again. The trouble is I've only got so many things that I can post on my blog, there's the odd secret project knocking about as well, so I can't show those.

Firstly, I accidentally started a new blanket, I'm so weak, I know, but I've been in love with this yarn ever since I saw it at Yarndale and it jumped into my shopping bag. It feels amazing, and it's chunky, so it's making up really quickly, this is already three or four inches wide and I've hardly spent any time on it, but I'll have to go shopping for more yarn, I knew my three skeins wouldn't be enough, but I hadn't factored in how quickly chunky makes up and so uses up. So, my favourite blanket pattern makes another appearance, Cosy Stripe from Attic24. 

Secondly I am trying to put a little bit of time aside each week for stitching,  this was only a couple of hours last week, but at least it's something, and I am loving working on it when I can. And looks, I see a tiny bit more motorbike making shape, I'm so happy! I have (as per usual) such ambitious stitching plans, so a little progress makes me so happy!

Just a quick post

The titles says it all. I've managed the next round on my next set of granny squares. Nothing more I'm afraid.

This and that

I've done a bit of everything this week, which means I have lots of little bits of progress to show, rather than one impressive 'look what I did'. Also my secret project is taking up quite a bit of time at the moment and I can't really show that off until it's done and gifted.

Firstly my Harmony blanket continues, second set of colours added to my second set of squares, slow and steady and all that. 

Secondly, I suddenly realised that one of our friends is due to have a small person soon, and as such I needed to decide what I was going to make for this, and this is what I've decided on, a small cream circle! I hasten to add that this is in no way finished. I've used this as an excuse to pull out a book that I've had for well over a year and have been looking for an excuse to use, and as I'm loving this one thus far I'm sure I'l be finding many other excuses in the future. The book is Crocheted Animal Hats, and it's great

And finally, while I'm not getting much time on my stitching at the moment I am loving what little time I am getting, especially as this is a page with quite a lot going on, you can definitely see the dragons tail taking shape, and there's a tiny patch of motorbike done as well now. It's slow, but it's happening.

And finally finally, I think I mentioned last week that I was going to Yarndale, well, I can't resist showing off my stash enhancement, I had a fabulous weekend!

In this picture, yarny goodness. The three solid colours are the softest yarn I have ever felt, it's  amazing, and I intend to make a blanket out of them (along with many more skeins). The pack of six I intend to have a go at this dragon scale gloves that are going round, and the big one it to take a show at a virus shawl to go round my shoulders for the wedding. Wish me lock on all of those.

In this picture are sillies, car stickers (stops suddenly for yarn shops and no yarn in kept in this vehicle over night), a mammoth pattern and yarn (how cute is the mammoth), a big wodge of batting for spinning and some stitch markers. I did manage to resist a spinning wheel, but I got batting knowing that I'll give in one day, I'm going to book onto a class somewhere to give it a go first, and then I'll buy one :-) 

And here's the 'practical' stuff. Two books of patterns, the blanket book is amazing, and so colourful, Edward's Menagerie is always ridiculously cute, I really didn't mean to buy this, but they were a lot cuter than I expected, and the girl offered me a deal on this and the stuff for the mammoth pattern.

There's a hook keeper, it hasn't come out very well on the picture, but the fabric is brilliant, those balls of wool are all actually sheep.

Oh, and a home dying kit, I'm a little ambitions about that. And a sill card that I bought for my other half promising him a pair of socks, one at a time, I gave him the first one last Christmas.

And now I'll finish with some other pictures from the weekend.

A harmonious dragon

So, I do feel like I actually have something to show this week, how often does that happen? First off, here is Harmony from Attic 24, I've finished my first set of 9 squares, and started my second set, although I'm willing to accept that my second set looks more circular than square at the moment. Hopefully they'll square out a bit.

As you can see from my first set of squares, I'm willing to accept that they're not perfect, although the bottom left one is not so much smaller as it looks in that picture, I have some weird photography skills apparently, but once they're all joined together in a pretty blanket I'm sure they'll be a bit squarer.

My plan with this is to make it to the size that Lucy recommends first (single bed) but then I may add more to make it bigger. I bought this kit at Yarndale last year, and I'm back off to Yarndale this weekend, and I have spending money, who knows that I'll come back with this year, I still haven't ruled out a spinning wheel.

And in other news, look, stitching, and look who has come out to play. Yay!

I know, it's not much, but it's stitching, and I'm so glad to be stitching again. I have discovered my perfect Wednesday evening. Bake Off and stitching (for those in the UK, how upset are we about Bake Off on a scale of one to ten? I'm heart broken, it won't be the same, I'm hoping that the BBC will just create Strictly Come Baking and just carry it on with the stars that it looks like they're keeping. Okay, carrying on for the non-Brits). I do love Dragon Rider, and he is my focus piece, and so lovely at that, also the one that I'm furthest along with in all my projects, having said that, considering that I'm meant to work on this every third project, I'm ashamed to say that I haven't touched Dragon Rider since February, I hadn't realised that it had been so long, I'm quite ashamed of myself. My rotation has obviously failed me completely (again!). I've just looked back, I have cheated, there have been four other projects between this page and the last (bad Kim!) so that partially explains why it's been so long. Anyway, he's back out, I'm excited to see Dragon, and also much more motorbike on this page so generally squeeeee

Right, I'm off to break my credit card at Yarndale, have a fun weekend my dears. Yarn porn almost certainly to follow. (Occasionally I like to add inappropriate words to my blog, I find the idea of someone searching porn and stumbling across this blog strangely amusing. Especially as this is turning into a ridiculously convoluted story in my head where they discover an unknown passion and skill with need and thread or hook and yarn!)

Crochet is all

I had such high hopes for this week, and I've barely achieved anything. However I have at least got something to show, which means I can at least justify a post. The Harmony blanket is continuing. The middle square shows the final round (other than the joining rounds) for this set of squares. I wasn't sure about the dark and light purple together, when I saw the balls next to each other they looked really similar, but that's completely changed when I see it on the square, which is good. Hopefully I'll get this set of squares finished this week. 

I've also been working on my secret project, this is probably the last time that I'll show this. I don't think the person it's for generally watches my blog, but you can't be to careful. I'm basically showing this so you know what my excuse is when I have nothing to show in the weeks to come. These two projects are the reason why I didn't manage to get my stitching project worked on this week. I have the chart out, the fabric is on the frame, and I've highlighted the next colour, but nothing to actually show at the moment. Hopefully this time next week I will have some stitching, but it's also Yarndale next weekend, so I may not achieve much next weekend it self.

I will be a good blogger, I will I will!

 First up is my mystery stitch, I know I'm the only person who is amused by this, so I'll stop being childish and dragging this out, especially as it's now been packed away so I can work on something else for a while. This is Always by Kordek from Tilton Crafts, this is my Alan Rickman from earlier this year, I still haven't quite settled on what my David Bowie tribute is, that are a couple of HAED ones that I'm thinking about, but I really shouldn't add any more new starts into my planned starts and rotation.

So, what is coming out to play I wonder, hmmm, what could it be? Again, I know that I'm the only person that this amuses, thank you for humouring me, or at least not telling me to shut up!

Secondly, and despite the fact that I haven't finished my Toft toy yet, my blanket obsession has won out and a new crochet blanket has been started. This is Harmony from Attic 24. Love this blanket, although I accept that it's not massively blankety yet. I hasten to add that while my crochet isn't brilliant, it's not quite as uneven as this picture makes them look, I think I must have had my camera at an odd angle. Despite the fact that this really isn't my normal sort of colour scheme (I tend to prefer bolder), I loved the colours on this and was really enjoying this. Most of this was actually one evening of work, but as per usual work has got in the way of crafting this week. Besides, if I want to justify starting the new blanket. This was bought at Yarndale last year, and we're only two weeks off this year, so I'm trying to start some of the stuff that I bought this year before I blow everything that I've saved this year. It's quite sad how excited I am about this!

Bits and Bats

The title says it all, I have lots of little bits of progress this week, a few rows of blanket mean that I finally feel like I'm closer to finishing to starting, woohoo. I do love the colours on this, and I finally feel like I've made peace with the pattern, it doesn't seem to taper in the way that it was, this is now bad photography not bad crochet! 

Secondly the second post of 'can you guess what it's going to be yet?' I'm seeing progress, but I'm aware that to most people it looks like a flower pot, and I'm not even going to comment on what the two small bits on the left look like to me at the moment, if you have a filthy mind you'll probably get there too. Hopefully by next week you'll actually be able to vaguely see what it's meant to be. 

Finally, my stitching is back out. I've just scrolled back and the last time I posted something that was for me was mid May, so six weeks ago. It feels like longer, so I'm just grateful that I am finally working on it again. this is now the full bottom width of Cara Mia Mon Chere, I know it doesn't look like anything yet, but I can see the shape, and that makes me happy! Oooh, and I got a new kits last week (ooops), Medusa Dollmaker did a Princess Bride artwork and Gecko got permission to chart it as a limited edition. It arrived and I love it, and I'm having to work quite hard at not instantly starting it, although it has been added to my start soon list, I'm very excited!

It was going so much better

 I'm mourning my baby blanket this morning, I have much more progress than I had to show the last time I posted, but I had even more progress when I initially lay it out to take a picture of it, but then I noticed that it was starting to taper on the right hand side, so I've just ripped out 8 rows out back to where it was starting to taper. I'm having that problem with this blankets, and I don't know why. This is the second time that I've ripped some out since I've started it. Has anyone else done this, is Cosy by Attic 24, and had the same problem. When I redo it the problem seems to go away the second time, and I'm not aware that I'm doing anything different, so it's all a bit puzzling, and means that this blanket is taking me a lot longer than it should be. Very strange.!

Secondly, I only again have progress to show on the sheep. I've only actually got six colours plus back stitch left, but three of those colours take up a lot of space. But at the moment I'm just happy that my sheep are actually starting to look like sheep, and I might actually get this finished in time to get it framed as well. My own work is by the wayside at the moment, but I'm hoping that a couple more weeks of working on these might be able to bring my own work back into time again.

Ooops, how did that happen?

Firstly, thank you so much for everyone who sent me congratulations last week, I have finally stopped being giddy (mostly because I've now realised that we've got a wedding plan, and that's in no way scary, but we've got a couple of long car journeys ahead of us, captive audience conversations, it'll be fine). 

Secondly, crafting, you know, the thing this blog is actually about (I'll try to keep wedding panics to a minimum, but I'm not guaranteeing that they won't happen). So, I finished the baby blanket off, it's not actually that different to last weeks post, as I decided to go for a simple, one round of triples in lemon, but I do still quite like it, now I've just got to organise a visit with the little dude and his parents to pass it on.

And here's the beginning of the next baby blanket, I do so love variegated yarn, it avoids all those tedious yarn changes (and all that darning in), although I do have some lovely colour strip plans in my future, you know with my copious free time. Anyway, this is using Magic Light by Ice Yarns (again) and the pattern is Cosy Strip by Attic 24, just without the actually striping. I do love her patterns and can see myself making many variations of both this and her ripple blanket in the not too distant future.

Finally, a tiny bit of me stitching (because that's what I need in my life, more me stitching that I don't have time to work on). Geckorouge had a sale recently with an additional 10% off on existing member discounts, and I was very weak and ended up with two kits (this when my next members kit is due in a couple of months anyway). This is, obviously, one of those, it's Cara Mia Mon Chere
by Medusa Dollmaker, and I'm completely in love with it. I actually started it last Friday before we went for our weekend away and so in my head it has sort of become linked with our engagement, and it has a sort of romantic theme, if you think about it, so it has now become my engagement project. Chances of it being finished before the wedding, zero! Chances that working on it will make me happy, very! So in to the rotation it goes. I'll finish something, one day, in the dark and distant future.

And talking of new starts (and ignoring the fact that I have a new start list a mile long), I've half got it in my head to make a wedding present for Ben, I'm just mulling over ideas for that at the moment (along with when I think I'm going to do it).

Bad blogger!

Very bad blogger, I've just looked and I didn't post at all in April... so firstly, hello, I'm still here and kicking.

Part of the reason I haven't been blogging is I haven't been cross stitching, and I don't like to post crochet too much because I mostly do blankets, and I'm aware that once you've seen a couple of stripes you've seen them all... however, I finished my first blanket this week,which is a present for my Grandad. It also survived the washing machine, which I'm incredibly releived about. Having been working on this on and off for about six months I think I would have cried if it hadn't.

I have other projects to work on so hopefully I'll be able to post some more updates and try to remember to post once a week again, it's mostly crochet, but there are a few things that aren't blankets, and there is a cross stitch project in my future... I'm definitely missing my own projects at the moment, but I reckon it's going to be a few months before I'm able to get back to that... although my reward is to completely blow off my 2016 plans and allow some new starts once I've got everything I need to done.

The other reason for not posting is I did go on holiday for a week (I got sunburnt in Wales, I'm still amazed by that), and we've been manic at work, having had a few people off sick, so I've been working longer hours and coming home knackered!

Anyway, he's my pretty colourful blankets, and hopefully I'll get back to posting more recently.

And we continue...

 The blanket continues, and I've actually got progress to show, I still think I'm being a little optimistic with when I want to have it finished by, (late May), but at least I can see actual progress, but look at all the ends that need darning in, it's so depressing. I was being really good to begin with, but as you can see that's sort of died off a bit. Oh well.







And Heroes and Heroines is growing, I've finally finished the frame on this page, and I have done a little bit of cream on the peacock, but it doesn't show up very well on the picture. But next week I hope to have new colours included, it's all fun and exciting.
And I've got all those new starts planned, so I really need to finish this page off at some point.

Progress!!! Actual progress!!!

 It feels like it's taken me a long time to get here, finally, a page finish on Dragon Rider, it seems like I've been promising this for ages, but I'm finally here. And it suddenly came together at the end. As is often the case when I was up close and stitching it I couldn't work out how all these blue and grey colours were going to look like anything other than a mess, but then I stepped back, took a picture and suddenly it's the shiny metal of his motorbike. He's gone away for a while but I'm sticking to (some) elements of my rotation (more on that later) faithfully this year, so it won't be long before he's back out to play again.

Next up, Heroes and Heroines has had some work as well, who knew there were so many shades of orange in the world. I had to go and do some of the green just for a bit of a change. It turns out that I don't really like orange, although that could just be when I've not my nose three inches from it, I haven't realised I had an aversion to it before this, but there's a white space where the peacock will one day be, and he's not orange, and there's green in there as well, and I am nearly done with the orange on this page now.

I could get used to having all this time off, it means that I actually have progress to show, don't get used to it, I'm back to work next week, so it'll be back to having nothing much to show.

And finally, the blanket reappears, I did promise that it would, and that it would have actually grown, which is has. It hasn't grown as much as I was planning for it to after my week off, but at least I've actually got some progress to show, and I will have more to show next week as well.

So rotation, cough cough. So, as I said, Dragon Rider will stand firm, every third page that I work on will be Dragon Rider, because I'm determined to finish it one of these days, but there may be some new starts sneaking into my future, in fact there may be quite a few, so much for no new starts, I'm so weak!

Plodding along

 The title says it all really! I'm plodding along with projects, but don't really have much to show for it. The blanket is growing, but I need to up my pace if I'm going to have this ready to gift in May. I am enjoying it though, I love blankets because it's a regular pattern and I can just go. I have so many blanket plans in my head!

Dragon Rider is growing, but very slowly. I can't believe this partial page has already taken about a month. My excuse is that moving house is really cutting into my stitching time, but I think it's time to get my head down and get working, especially as I have a ridiculous number of starts in my future!