Stickytapeandstring

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crochet

Granny Square blankets

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A short post to share a couple of my projects from last year.

When I first started crocheting as a little girl I used to make granny square blankets with all my scrap yarn.    I used to knit a lot so I had quite a bit of scrap yarn left over!   I loved making the blankets and quickly progressed to buying odd balls of remnant yarn from our local wool shop with my pocket money!

I came back to crochet last year and again started with granny square blankets.    I made a huge blanket for our living room first.    My children had just had their rooms decorated and both asked for a blanket for their beds.    You can see the results below.    These blankets are very basic in terms of the stitches used.    They grow really really quickly and you can work them in front of the TV once you get into the rhythm!

This is the blanket my son wanted….

The blankets are very warm.   I think the ‘holes’ actually help the blankets hold the warmth – if that makes any sense.   They do munch an awful lot of yarn so really are excellent for using up scraps but if you are buying yarn to make them you should beware of the overall cost and choose a yarn to suit your budget!   As a guide these blankets are made out of Aran weight yarn and each weighs 2.7kg which would mean around 54 x 50g balls.   However, the blankets I made here are enormous, 2.5 metres square 🙂

This is my daughter’s blanket….

When I finally managed to convince them that the blankets were big enough I had to put an edge on them.    My son didn’t want anything ‘too fancy’ so his was just a couple of coloured bands.  My daughter went for a small scalloped edge.   The edge on my daughters took some time to do but again I think that was because of the sheer size!!

That’s all for now.   Only to let you know that I plan to make some smaller versions of these to sell in my Etsy shop as they make lovely cot blankets and I find them very relaxing to make.

Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

 

 

Flower Hats

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These Flower Hats started out as a stash buster project.    I was looking through my stash and found I had a number of balls of lovely soft yarn.  The yarn is a mix of merino wool and cashmere in various colours.   However, there was not enough to make a blanket.  I had no more than two or three balls of any one colour.

I needed a project that would make the most of this beautiful yarn so I decided to have a go at making a hat.   They were very quick to make and are a lovely snug fit.   The hats looked a little plain so I added flowers to the headband.    The flowers were great to make my commute – I made strings of them without finishing off the ends.   Later I used the ends to attach them to the hats.

Flower Hats

These little hats have been very easy to work on the train.    They only need one ball of yarn and they are nice and compact even when finished!    I will share the pattern I created if anyone is interested.

Over the next couple of weeks, I am planning to complete a few more of these hats.   I will also make a scarf to match but there will only be enough yarn for one scarf so that will be a bit special.   Getting creative on my commute turns an hour of ‘dead’ time into an hour of special time.

I listen to audiobooks on Audible whist crocheting away and the journey whizzes by.    Sometimes when I am working over the weekend at home on my projects I listen to Audible because the books from my commute have become hard to ‘put down’!   Audible normally offer a free trial – you can download one book for free without commitment to see whether you like it or not.    I need to tell you that I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate programe.   This means that if you click on this link below or any other link in my blog I might receive a small income at no additional cost to you.

When I am finished I will list the Flower Hats and the scarf on my Etsy store.    I haven’t actually set up my Etsy store yet as each time I try I seem to be missing a bit of information or a photo.   In fact, I will put out a blog post on preparing to set up an Etsy store!    UPDATE – my Etsy store is now up and running but I am still waiting for my first sale!!  You can visit me here – Stickytapeandstring – Etsy shop.  I also plan to check out Amazon Handmade – has anyone used that yet?   Let me know how it goes 🙂

Happy Crocheting,

Annie 🙂

Sunshine Flower Blanket – adding the big flowers

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This has been an lovely weekend for me with my Sunshine Flower Blanket adding the big flowers to the work.    I started making these months ago and have been working on them on the train to work every morning.   There are six squares on each side of the blanket, 36 in total.  You can read my previous posts on this blanket here Sunshine Flower Blanket, and here Sunshine Flower Blanket – Progress.

First step has been to block each of the squares.  This makes them all beautifully flat and regular – much easier to work with.  I joined six of the squares into a strip using a method that I will share in a separate post.    I found that leaving the ends between the squares unfinished worked well because that gave me more yarn to work with when joining the strip of squares to the main blanket.

Sunshine flower blanket - tiger lily square by Tracey Lord

So far I have only added flower squares to two sides of the blanket.     I have finished all the flower squares I need to complete the blanket but the flower squares for the remaining two sides are still being blocked.  The picture below shows a corner of the blanket with the two sides completed.

Sunshine flower blanket - adding the big flowers

Next weekend I will complete the round of flower squares and then add more Vanilla rounds before putting in another band of colour.   I haven’t found the perfect edging yet but I plan to use all three of the darker colours around the edge.   The finished blanket is going to be around 5 or 6 foot square so the outer rounds will take some time to complete!

There will be some flower squares left over so I have been designing a cushion to match the blanket.    I will make both the blanket and cushion patterns available if there is any interest.   The pattern for the main square came from the book in the link below – ‘A Square a Day’ by Tracey Lord.

I have run out of work to do on this blanket on my commute.  The main blanket is far to big to travel with as a project so  I have started some new work.   I will miss these lovely cheerful colours though they have brightened my journey through the dark winter months 🙂    The final blanket will brighten any room!   I am really looking forward to seeing it finished!     Let me know what you think by leaving me a comment.

Happy crocheting,

Annie 🙂

Commuter crochet

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Commuter crochet – I thought I would start to share some of the methods I have of making my commute more enjoyable and productive.   After recently moving jobs I now have a daily train journey of more than an hour each way.    This means that over the course of a year I will be spending the equivalent of about 61 working days sitting on a train!

I don’t know about you, but I cannot afford to lose that kind of time.   I certainly don’t want to accept that that time is lost or will always be a miserable time of the day.

All my life I have loved crafts so it makes sense to me to use the time to craft and create.  However, I am constrained in terms of the amount of kit I can carry.   I also don’t get a lot of space on the train.   Whatever I do needs to be small, easy to work and carry.  Finally, the trains I am on are reasonably stable but not smooth enough to allow fine work that needs a steady hand.

Knitting was my first go-to but my knitting style is a bit anti-social in that I tend to swing the needles out to the sides.  This doesn’t go down well with my fellow passengers!   Crochet however is perfect!!   I have been crocheting flowers to use in my Sunshine Flower blanket and am almost complete on those now.   They have been ideal for the commute as you can build them up in layers.  This means you can work several at once using only one ball of yarn.  Much better than having to carry four different colours every day.    I also weave in ends on the commute – not my favourite job but it has to be done.

Commuter crochet - blocks made during the commute

Use Pinterest boards to collect ideas!

Pinterest is great as a complete distraction from the journey.   I have a board where I keep all the ideas I find for small projects that would work on the train.   You can see my Pinterest board here.   I will work my way through these ideas and show the results here on my blog.

These ideas for small projects are not restricted to being used on a commute.   It could be that you have time on your hands in other circumstances.  I have been known to whip out the crochet whilst waiting for a film or concert to start.  Sitting in the car waiting to collect my children – out comes the small crochet!

The other thing that makes my commute more enjoyable is listening to music or the radio.   Recently I have been listening to audio books and they really help pass the time.   The books can be expensive but signing up to Audible which charges a monthly fee, gives you one credit a month which means one free book a month and there are regular offers to allow you to get books more cheaply.   There is all sorts of inspirational stuff to listen to 🙂  There is a link below in case you would like to try Audible.  I need to tell you that I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate programme and if you click on this link below or any other links in my blog I might receive a small income at no additional cost to you.

When I have more tips for a happy commute I will post them up here so check back in soon.    I would also love to hear any tips you have to share, just leave me a comment above.

Happy commuting 🙂

Annie.

Sunshine Flower Blanket – progress!

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Sunshine Flower Blanket – progress report!  the blanket is starting to take shape this week.    I have taken a break from making blocks.    The blanket is something I started work on in the summer whilst on holiday.   I found a small yarn shop in the seaside town we were staying in and bought the colours to start the project.   The yarn is Sirdar Cotton DK – the colours are shown in the picture below, the background is shade 502 Vanilla.   My flowers are made up of shade 531, Citrus, shade 508, Honeysuckle and shade 510, Red.  You can read my first post on building the blocks here.

Sunshine flower blanket blocks and colours

Blocking and making up….

Last week I blocked one of the Tiger Lily squares and left the ball attached.   This allowed me to carry on with the rounds of Vanilla in double and treble crochet that make the larger centre square.   You can find the pattern for the Tiger Lily square in a book called ‘A Block A Day’ by Tracey Lord.   I have included a link below to Amazon where you can get hold of a copy of the book.

Next I put a band of colour using the colours of the flowers.    I increased the stitch size each time I changed colour. The Citrus band uses double crochet then the Honeysuckle band is in half treble.   Finally the red band is worked in trebles.

sunshine flower blanket central block

After the red band I worked a couple more rows of Vanilla in trebles and double crochet.

Adding in the little blocks….

The next step was to put in a ring of the smaller squares I have been making on my train to work every day!    I started by joining together the squares in a strip.  Next I joined each strip of squares to the work working round the four sides of the square.   The process of joining them together is very satisfying.  It is easy to get a good finish if you are careful to line up the two pieces and insert your needle cleanly in each stitch.    There are several methods out there for joining pieces together.   I will share the method I use in a separate post.

I put in a couple of rounds of Vanilla when the smaller blocks were all in place.   Then I added another band of the three colours.   This time I started with the red and made a round of trebles.   I followed this with a round of Honeysuckle using half trebles.  Finally, I added a round of double crochet using the Citrus colour.  Next I re-joined the vanilla which I plan to continue for a few inches before starting to incorporate the larger squares.   There are 27 of those larger squares so far and I think I need just one more before I can complete that round.

Sunshine Flower Blanket centre

I really love the overall effect of this blanket so far and I am looking forward to completing it.   You will hear from me when I get to the next stage!    Please let me know what you think and if you would like to see the pattern, I am writing it as I progress so I will make it available if there is interest.

Happy crocheting 🙂

Annie

Sunshine flower blanket

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Sunshine Flower blanket

This is a project I started a little while ago – my Sunshine Flower Blanket.    I found the pattern for the flowers in a book of crochet blocks.  ‘A Square A day’ by Tracey Lord. Working my way through the book making a block a day whilst on holiday last summer was lovely.    I particularly liked this flower block called Tiger Lily.   The book is available on amazon via the link below if you would like to try out the block or any of the others – there are 365, one a day for a year!  Please note – I am an affiliate of Amazon so if you click on the links below or elsewhere in my blog I may receive a small income at no additional cost to you.

The colours in the book reminded me of a time when I was small and colouring in design sheets with my Mum.   I remember my Mum choosing reds, yellows and oranges for her design.   It looked lovely 🙂   My design varies the colours slightly from the book but keeps the red/orange theme.

Sunshine flower blanket - tiger lily block
Tiger Lily block

Building Blocks!

I needed a smaller flower block as part of the blanket pattern so I designed one!   It took a bit of trial and error but I am happy with the final version.     The picture below shows some of these smaller blocks going the blocking process.   The blocks are a bit misshapen when I finish crocheting them.   The blocking process pulls them straight.    You have to pin the block to a foam board, I measure the block as I pin it to make sure that I am turning all my blocks into pieces of the same size!

Once pinned to the foam backboard all you have to do is spray the block with cold water and leave it to dry.   I am leaving mine for a week, after which they are perfect.  It probably doesn’t take that long but I only really get to work on these at weekends so mine get the full seven day treatment!

You will see the foam board I am using is actually a child’s foam play floor tile.   My son, a master of research, found these for me.   These tiles are inexpensive and were recommended on Amazon for the purpose of blocking craft projects.   They have been absolutely ideal.   I am sharing a link below.

That’s all from me for now.    Time to get on with the crochet 🙂   Soon I will be able to start building the blanket from the middle square out.     I will share as I start to join the smaller squares together and show you the blanket as it starts to take shape.    Let me know what you think of my Sunshine Flower Blanket by leaving me comments below.   Bye for now…. happy crocheting 🙂