Virus Shawl

The virus shawl I mentioned a few days ago is  blocked and dried and photographed.

The pattern I used was one from Ravelry and was designed by Julia Marquardt.  It has been very popular with over 4,000 projects recorded on Ravelry. It only made a small one, just one ball of wool, as I intend to wear it just as a neck shawl, secured with a pin.

I bought the wool at The Slipped Stitch in Sherborne and it is 80% Blue Faced Leicester and 20% nylon and was hand dyed.  The colour is called Olive Groves and it's only when you are working it that you can see just how mane shades of green there are in it.

Little Box Slippers

September's project for Little Box of Crochet was a pair of cosy slippers made in Yarns and Colors Charming which is a cotton and acrylic blend.

Now I haven't got a very good track record when it comes to tension which is why, apart from shawls, I tend not to make garments for myself or anyone else.  But as I always look upon my monthly Box as my monthly challenge, I set to to make this snuggly pair of slippers, ignoring the voice beside me on the sofa saying "what are you going to do with those!"

The first one, true to form, came up so big it was even too big for the voice beside me on the sofa!  I have made the one that fitted a size 7 (my shoe size) so I undid it and made the smallest size - size 4.  This was a good fit and I felt once the trim was worked around the edge, they would fit fine.   The second one was made in exactly the same way but ended up bigger than the first!  Not to be deterred, I made the decorations as instructed but as this did not make any difference to the size, the finished slippers will now be put away, never to be worn.

They look go though!  To give them their full name, they are Bohemian Dreams Slippers designed by Cecile Balladino.

One funny story to finish .... the finished slippers were on my desk when I was wrapping Hope's Blanket ready for her birthday.  However, after  wrapping there was only one slipper left!  I searched all around where I had been but there was no sign of it.   Well you can guess what had happened, and as I wasn't going to unwrap the present, I waited to retrieve it when Hope opened it on her birthday!

Now she's received her blanket, this is what the whole thing looks like.  She loved it!

New Projects

Yet again, I have a few projects on the go that I will share just in case you think I'm doing nothing!

The first is a virus shawl - so called because each row increases as you work - made in a skein of hand dyed wool I bought in Sherborne at The Slipped Stitch.

The shawl I'd actually finished but has been blocked out and is drying so I will share the finished photos in a few days.   Here's a preview.

Another project is a Christmas present for my youngest grandson, Harry.  I made the blanket for his sister, Hope so he requested a Star Wars pillow!

It's a bit of a 'make it up as I go' project, starting with a chart of the design I wanted - a storm trooper - and then adapting it to crochet using a bobble stitch.  Again a quick preview...

Hope has had her birthday this week so has received her blanket so here is a photo of the completed blanket.

Blue and grey Mandala

As I mentioned last month when I shared the Mandala from Little Box of Crochet that I had made, I have finally made a second one, this time in colours to suit suit decor.

Stash Buster for Project Linus

One of my aims for this year was to use up fabric from my stash and make some quilts for Project Linus.  It's been a while since I've done one so I had to put it right.

I had a pack of nautical themed fat quarters which I thought would make a change as I don't make many quilts for little boys.   I got some blue fabric for the backing and binding which went well with the front.

Very pleased with the result.  Now must get round to phoning our local contact for Project Linus to pass on the quilts.

Temperature Blanket - September update

This is a bit later for September but I ran out of the yarn I needed and it took a while to get to a new supply.  Thankfully I have now caught up, finished September and go up to date with October.

Beach Huts quilted panel

For my next quilted squares panel I turned to beach huts for inspiration as they are something I've become rather fond of since our move to the coast and see on many of our walks.

One particular place is along Avon Beach where there are many huts in a variety of blue shades so they inspired this panel.

My original plan was to use photographs of the huts but I just couldn't seem to get the colour right.  I really must work with Photoshop more so I can really make the most of it!  I also felt that the photos didn't add enough to the overall look to spend too much time on so I went for using fabric.

Luckily I had a good stash of blue fabric in the shades that I wanted.  As before, I used fabric that I had dyed myself.

Once the fabric was all pieced I quilted around the beach huts as well as lines to show the wooden panelling the doors are made from. 

 I wanted to quilt the lower part of the panel and as I'd noticed that many of the beach huts had names, on one of our walks I recorded all the names that I thought were fitting. These were machine quilted in wave-like lines using white thread to represent white waves. To emphasised the shape I machine quilted in blue variegated thread. 

The quilted fabric was then stretched over a canvas frame.

October Journal Quilt

Cactus has once again inspired this month's Journal Quilt.

The finished quilt looks very simple and may look like a bit of a cop-out to some but it probably took just as much time and trouble as all the others.

It started with a piece of fabric I had which I think I bought some time ago.  It had been hand dyed and had the appearance of green and yellow stripes and as soon as I saw it in my stash it reminded of a particular cactus we had seen in Gran Canaria - my theme for the year's quilts.

However, the fabric was completely the wrong shape and try as I might I couldn't get it to the 11" square I wanted as the joins needed meant the stripes did not match up.  The downside of hand dyed fabric.   The only way out was to dye my own but of course my result just wasn't as good as the original!

I tried out several ideas for how to create the spikes and settled in the end for free machine quilting them.

The inspirational cactus ....

The November quilt is already to go but I've had a mind block for the final one so let's hope I have some inspiration soon.

WIPs? What WIPs?

Following on from my last post, I am pleased to say that I stuck to my plans to do a bit of each of my Works in Progress each day resulting in three finished crochet projects!

I'm really pleased with the Maid of Honour Shawl because of the way the colours have blended together.   I did have to fiddle a bit at the end as I wanted to make sure I got to the solid colour for the edge and I didn't want to chance not having enough yarn.

So pleased that I worked out how much to do each day for Hope's Blanket as it means I finished it well before her birthday later this month.

I don't want to post to much about it in case she sees it so here's a sneak preview....

My work on the Temperature Blanket has ground to a halt with seven more rows to finish September off.  I have run out of wool in the required colour so as soon as I have caught up I will post the usual monthly update.

And as everything was up to date or finished I managed a couple of extras!

I finally got a chance to start on the August Little Box of Crochet but I must confess I wasn't happy with my efforts.   It was a pattern for a little crochet purse worked in two halves and then joined and sewn in to a frame.  I worked the first side and felt I was struggling so put it to one side.   Once I had time I watched some lovely help videos that went with it and found that my initial attempt was actually okay so I did the second side and finished it last night.

I think this is going to fall into the category of "nice to do but I won't be rushing to do more just yet".

A little extra in the box was some cross-stitch which I did enjoy doing - always find cross stitch calming as it satisfies the mathematical part of my brain.

So, as I've caught up I have been able to add so projects to my list!