One A Day Update - Week 9

First I want to share my latest treats.  I had a lovely postie day yesterday.

Something to view, something to make, something to drink.  What could be better?  I have already started a project from the new book as you can see.  It's about time I started a few Christmas presents, and this book is full of potential pressies. 

Anyway, another week, another update.  Is it just me or are these posts starting to feel a little repetitive?  How many photos can I take of the same blanket but just a little bit longer?  I suppose that's my fault for choosing 2 big, long term projects.  To be honest I'm getting a bit bored of them now.  I'm starting to struggle with having to ripple every day.  Luckily, then, the end is in sight.  Well, for the ripple at least.

Taking this photo was more than a little precarious, perched on top of the high sleeper ladder.  With a guest cameo from Floppy Bunny.

Just a bit longer, and then the border.  I want it roughly the same size as a single duvet, but have yet to measure it off against one to see what needs to be done to make it so.  It's needs to be wider for sure, which the border will have to accomplish.

Details:
Name: Bella Bee Ripple Blanket
Pattern: Ripple Pattern from Compendium of Crochet Techniques by Jan Eaton
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK
Colours: Grape, Pale rose, Meadow, Cream

Join us over at Gingerbread Girl to view all the projects in progress.

One A Day Update - Week 8

Hi all.  I've had a good week, finishing off a knitted gift (which I will share this week), and a lovely weekend celebrating Bonfire night with Bella Bee.  We managed to see the local big firework display for free and in the comfort and warmth of the car by parking in nearby street.  Plus it stopped Bella Bee getting too uncomfortable, as she doesn't like loud noises for a prolonged length of time.  We also attended a private display with family on Sunday.  Bella Bee had a whale of a time running round with her cousins and family friends.  I hardly saw her all evening.  She didn't even seem to mind the fireworks with friends to distract her.

So onto the project update.  This week is the turn of the Summer Garden Granny Blanket.  I discovered last week that I had done one too many blocks while catching up so I've only done one block since the last update 2 weeks ago.  I have since roughly estimated how many blocks I will need to complete the blanket and I think I should have kept to the one block a week and had the extra as a bonus if I'm ever to finish this monster.  I thought I was realistic when starting this project and doing only only square a day was fully expecting not to have a finished blanket to use until next winter.  That, I have since realised, may be unrealistic.

Laying the blocks on the bed this morning and wanting a blanket roughly the same size as the King size quilt I have on the bed I estimated 8 blocks across by 12 blocks down.  That equals a massive 96 blocks.  Ouch.  At 52 weeks in a year, that would take nearly 2 years!  Ha ha ha!  I'm starting to struggle with the long term aspects of these blanket projects as it is.  Maybe I could fit in 2 blocks a week?  Realistically not sure that is feasible as I always have other smaller projects on the go too and completing the one block a week often seems to elude me.

It will be positively gorgeous if I ever finish it though!

Project details
Name : Summer Garden Granny Blanket
Pattern : Summer Garden Granny Square from Lucy at Attic24
Yarn : Stylecraft Special DK
Colours : Grape, Pale Rose, Lemon, Meadow, Cream

Hope your all getting on well with your own projects, and I hope to try and get round you all for a little peek this week through Gingerbread Girl.



Peace Out X

One A Day Update - Week 7 - Take 2 - Eurgh

Take 2.

Bloody computers. 

Don't even want to do the sodding post now.  It was a great post.  An ideal mix of witty, informative, ripply homely goodness.

So now I will sulk.

Here are some photos.

Blah blah blah.

Project details:

Name : Bella Bee Ripple Blanket
Pattern : Neat Ripple Pattern (ish) by Lucy of Attic24
Yarn : Stylecraft Special DK
Colours : Grape, Pale Rose, Meadow and Cream
Size : Single bed size
Measurements : approx 38"/97cm width from a base chain of 183 (12x15)+3

Go over and check out all the other lovely, none sulking One A Day project people at Gingerbread Girl.

Right, now to find something to release this frustration out on.



Peace Out X

One A Day Update

Hope you are all well.  Bella Bee is on Half Term this week and it's lovely to have her at home, but it's sometimes a bit tricky to keep her entertained.  Luckily her gymnastics and swimming classes are still on this week.  So I'm fitting in this post while she's at gymnastics.  Plus her Dad is off work this week and took her to the cinema this morning to watch the new Tintin film and scoff lots of sweets.  Hopefully the gymnastics will work off all the sugar!

So, this week is the turn of the Summer Garden Granny Blanket.  I've got a fair few projects on the go at the moment that need finishing for birthday gifts.  One is already grossly over due and another extremely imminent.  So, as a consequence, the blanket didn't see much attention until the last couple of days.  I cracked on and managed to get back up to date with it, minus some sewing of ends in - bleugh.  I've now also joined them into blocks of 6.  From now on I will be producing one of these completed blocks a week.

They have the same colour combinations in each, as this is the maximum number with the three colours I'm now using for the flowers, and each block is set out in same pattern ensuring even distribution when they are all eventually joined together.

It's good to see them in the completed blocks.  It makes it feel more on the way to becoming a blanket and will give a better idea of how far along I am when laid out.  I even braved a laying out upon the bed it will eventually be used for, but very quickly took them back off again before my brain could do too much calculation.  Yes, this is definitely a long term project!

Project details:
Summer Garden Granny Blanket
Pattern : Summer Garden Granny Square
Size : King size
Yarn : Stylecraft Special DK
Colours : Grape, Pale Rose, Lemon, Meadow, Cream

Feel free to drop by Gingerbread Girl and check out the projects.

Hope you all have a productive week.



Peace Out X

One A Day Update

Some might have noticed I didn't post last week.  I had gotten behind.  I had a nephew's birthday looming and had to abandon current projects for birthday projects.  I'll share the fruits of my labour (up till 3am one night!) soon.  Plus I find that as I'm doing two large projects, the progress doesn't feel as quick as smaller ones and as a result it seems that my photos seem to be very similar from week to week.  So, as I've managed to catch up with the Ripple Blanket, but not yet with the Summer Garden Blanket, from now on I will alternate the blankets each week. 

The Ripple Blanket is now much more substantial, and it's lovely to work on it in the cooler evenings with it across my lap, helping to keep me warm while I try to prolong turning the heating on.

I have now come to the end of my first balls of yarn.  I have completed 17 rows (2 rows per colour stripe) per ball.  I'm thinking I will need another ball and a half to get the required length.  I also need to start thinking about the type of border I want. 

Project details
Name: Bella Bee Ripple Blanket
Pattern: Neat Ripple Pattern (ish)
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK
Colours: Grape, Pale Rose, Meadow and Cream

I hope next week to have much more progress to show you on the Summer Garden Blanket.

Pop along to Gingerbread Girl and check out the other projects.


Peace Out X

One A Day Update

Hi all One A Day-ers.  Welcome to my update.  I've had a busy week and busier weekend and I'm only just recovering.  Recovering is a word I would like to use in conjunction with a wild weekend, or something similarly fun, alas no, instead I am recovering from a huge dose of cleaning.  Carpet cleaning none less.  I have been meaning to get this particular beauty of a task done for quite awhile now, so with a child away and a sunny weekend on the cards, unfortunately it was an ideal time to get it done!  It was not fun, and it was jolly hard work, and I am sick of the smell of wet carpet, but the carpets are now clean, (the upholstery, however, is not, and a complaint to a certain carpet cleaning company is being made later), and woe betide anyone who dirties them, they will feel my wrath!

I also find myself in the middle of painting the kitchen.  Which is stressful.  For two reasons.  The kitchen is in complete chaos.  I am a complete perfectionist.  The two are profoundly linked.  I think this is something which makes me unique, or perhaps some would say 'special'.  I won't go into deeper psychological reasoning for fear of alienation.  My current painting dilemma, which is tearing my soul in two, is when cutting in, do I go out of the lines on the wood work of doorway/window to cover the magnolia from the previous paint job, or do I stick to the lines?  I'm painting the kitchen white, so it shows.  No answer is correct by the way.  Yes, I am a bit wrong.

But, I've managed to keep up with the One A Day progress.  Although I did the weeks worth of squares last night and this morning, and I've not sewn the ends in for the last two weeks, which I'm now regretting.  The ripple I do every evening, so todays stripe is not done. 

And so to the pictures.

Summer Garden Granny Blanket

Minus the squares I don't like

And the Bella Bee Ripple Blanket

Project details

Summer Garden Granny Blanket

Pattern: Summer Garden Granny Square (ish) from Attic24
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK
Colours: Cream, Meadow, Lemon, Pale Rose, Grape
I still hope to add a couple more colours, however this has been postponed for now until more funds become available.

Bella Bee Ripple Blanket

Pattern: Neat Ripple Pattern (ish) from Attic24
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK
Colours: Grape, Pale Rose, Meadow, Cream

Will do my best to pop by and have a nosey at the rest of you taking part in the One A Day Project over at Gingerbread Girl.

Peace Out x

One A Day Update - Week 2

This is week two for the Summer Garden Granny Square Blanket, and week one for the Bella Bee Ripple Blanket.  Steady progress has been made on both.  I had a little catching up to do with the squares so haven't got round to sewing in the ends on the last few.  I feel I still need to work on the colours a bit more on this blanket.  I'm not happy with some of the combinations, and I'm going to stop using the Lavender, it just doesn't seem to be 'gelling' with the others.  The colour palette is a bit too limited.  I'd like a few extra colours to play with so will be looking at getting a few more this week and see how they work out.  Once I'm happy with the colour combinations I can start sewing blocks of squares together so it's not such a big daunting job at the end.  At least with the slow growth it gives me time to work on the colours so I'll be truely happy with it when it's finished.

The ripple though, Oh My, I'm in love!  I'm skippingly happy with it.  I have yet to do today's row as I did initially include yellow, but wasn't satisfied with the result so I ripped it back and it set me back a couple of rows. 

I'm glad I've got both blankets on the go.  The ripple will provide a quicker result and keep me satisfied while I plug away at the other.  And only doing one a day still gives me time to do a little knitting occasionally, because I still need to knit!

I'm off to get rippling.

Please check out the other projects at Gingerbread Girl.

Peace Out x

One A Day Update

Just a brief post to give my update for the One A Day project.  Not the largest of impacts, but I've literally stuck to the one a day since my initial 4 practice squares. I've not yet worked out how many squares I'm going to need for a king size blanket and to be honest I don't think I want to right now.  But being realistic, I don't think I'll be able to use this blanket until next winter!

I'm loving the colour palette I'm using, especially the green!  It's definitely my favourite.  I'm still experimenting with all the different colour combinations and I'm looking at adding a few extra colours.  I had originally picked the majority of the colours for a ripple blanket I plan to make for my daughter for Christmas.  So knowing I need to make a start on that soon if it's going to be anywhere near ready in time I have decided to add it to the One A Day too.  So here's the beginnings of a blanket that will be able to be used this year! 

The pattern I've used is from this Jan Eaton book.  I presume it is very similar to the one Lucy from Attic24 used as inspiration to form her own from this book.  It has the three trebles in between the increases and decreases instead of the four in Lucy's pattern.  I don't think the Jan Eaton one is on Ravelry so I may just put it under the Attic24 pattern anyway.

And finally a thank you for all the lovely comments and compliments on my first One A Day post.  Will make a concerted effort to visit as many of you and your lovely projects this week.

Peace out x

One A Day, A Day Late!

Back to it!  Bella Bee went back to school today.  She was supposed to go back Monday, which I found out Sunday after thinking for 6 weeks she was back on Wednesday!  Panic!  Then Sunday night there was a bit a bleughing and that put paid to any thought of school for a couple of extra days, making her start day Wednesday after all.  I missed not having her around today, but it's also nice as it frees me up a little.  So here I am, back on the blogging train. 

Being as organised as ever and even though Bella Bee went back to school a couple of days later than expected I was too busy ironing uniform and sorting school things to blog last night.  I've decided to join the One A Day CAL/KAL hosted by Gingerbread Girl and Crochet with Raymond over at Ravelry.  So here is my project, just a day late!  I'd been thinking about wanting a large blanket for my bed and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to break such a large project into small manageable chunks.  I've decided to make a Summer Garden Granny Square Blanket.  I've got my colours just about sorted and I spent yesterday making up a few squares to test out slight variations of the pattern to fit my preferences.  So here are my first few squares.

As most of you are probably well aware, the light is absolutely awful for photos at the moment, but it gives you a general idea.  I remade the squares I'd practiced with so they were all uniformally made (yes I am a perfectionist).  The third one across came out ever so slightly bigger than the others for some reason, so I may have to redo that one (yes, I am a perfectionist to the nth degree).  I think I've decided to sew them together rather than join as you go as it is a neater finish and will hopefully not seem as big a job if I join in fours or in rows.  My favourite colour combination so far is this one.

Plan on starting a ripple blanket for Bella Bee in these same colours soon.

Have a fair few more makes completed, so will be back soon to show you those.

Peace out x