A Year in Colour

This is my first crochet project ever, finished almost a year ago now. It is a temperature blanket made up of granny squares with one per day and each square having 3 rounds showing the minimum, average and maximum temperature from the centre outwards respectively. At the beginning/end of each month there is a plain grey square so that you end up with a number that divides easily.
My crochet changed a little over the year with the early squares being a bit smaller than the end squares but as it is only for me I don't suppose that is too important. I feel I need to practice more to learn how to hold the wool properly as I don't seem to be able to get it to flow like experienced crocheters.
In the middle the deep reds represent a hot spell when I happened to be camping. It is interesting to see where we had weather out of season with warm days in the cooler seasons and chilly days in the spring etc. This is for 2017, and I think the summer from 2018 might be interesting - lots of reds I imagine, but I don't think I will be doing another.
Not sure when or what my next crochet project will be as I have far too many other things to finish first.

A Right Kerfuffle

Yet another long break. Can't really remember why except when I tried to resurrect the blog a couple of weeks ago I could not remember my password for the blog and that led to numerous exchanges with Google before they eventually decided I was the owner of my email account. And then I couldn't find the lead for my camera. Well all is good now and I'll try and blog more often.

So this lovely monkey was a kit that via a rather circuitous route ended up with me and my mum. Mum crocheted him and I put him together, then took his fingers and toes off and put back once I realised the thumbs and large toes should be on the side like ours - Doh! He is perhaps a little overstuffed but hopefully with love and squishing by his new owners it will flatten a little and he will be more 'brown'.

Back soon with some finished projects.

The Last Third

Here are the last four months of the year - all done. Today I finished sewing in the ends and am now joining this to the rest of the blanket. Then it is just the border to do - not exactly sure what to do for that but it won't be too elaborate as the grey will be a little dull compared to the rest. No idea how long it will take to do a border - hope it is not another year.

The Last Row

At last all the squares are done for the temperature blanket and joined into rows. Just over 1 row to join to the last third now, then ends to sew in. After that join this section to the rest and put an edging on - not sure what to do for that yet.

Summer Progress

Here is the second third of the temperature blanket. The above shows all but one day in May, then June, July and August. Note the really deep red  in June - the really hot days - we happened to be camping just prior to this! Still need to sew most of the ends in on this section - such a tedious task that I need to do it in the company of good friends, so I need more knitting and stitching get togethers.
Purchases from the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show coming up next.

Summer

Here is a little bit of spring/summer on what has been the coldest weekend this end of the year - some of us woke up to snow yesterday morning. The above squares are for May and June with a little bit of July - the really dark reds are around the time I was camping and boy was it hot out there.
I have promised myself that I will get this blog up to date and keep posting - lots to post in the near future.

The Ends are in sight!

Here is the progress so far on the temperature blanket. I have changed how I join them together slightly between the bottom two rows of squares - hopefully it will not make much difference but it did seem like I was trying to join a longer piece to a shorter piece by about a square's width. But as it is my first crochet project, it is a learning curve so it doesn't and will not have to be perfect will it?

And here is the reverse - oh my, all those ends to sew in. Could be taking it along to the next knitting group where hopefully I will not notice the monotonous task whilst chatting and listening to the other ladies.

January's Squares

Here is the progress from January until early February on the temperature blanket. Started to put the squares together in long strips otherwise leaving them to sort and piece together would become quite a slow task. Currently trying to join the strips together.

February's Squares

This little lot of granny squares are the February ones for my temperature blanket. They are made of three rounds - the first represents the minimum temperature, the second  the average, and the third the maximum temperature. The more blue the colder it was and the more green the warmer, with the bright green being warmer still.
I must admit to liking the cold weather but there was something exciting about doing the 2 squares with the bright green where it reached 14 and 13 degrees (20th and 21st if you are interested).
All this makes for a LOT of ends to sew in, especially if we have 3 different temperature ranges in a day - each colour represents 4 degrees in my blanket. It doesn't bear thinking about!
I must sew in as I go along, I must sew in as I go along, I must.......

Coastal Ripple Pack

For a number of years I have been reading blogs. One of them is attic24 written by Lucy and mostly about crochet. This lady makes some beautiful coloured things, particularly blankets. Apart from crafty stuff, some the photographs on her blog feature food, flowers and Yorkshire landscapes and are truly beautiful - and through her blog I have also found another blog that helps with getting your home organised - yes really(!).
One of the blankets that Lucy made was inspired by the sea and coast with a pack of wool being available to buy. Having admired this blanket for some time and thinking the colours might fill some of the gaps in my temperature blanket stash I purchased the pack. My plan is to make this blanket at some time by replacing the colours I use for the temperature blanket. The above photo shows the pack that arrived in a lovely bag and with a free pattern to crochet the Coastal Ripple blanket at some point in the future (I must admit it is tempting to start it, but I am not sure if my skills are up to it yet).

The First Crochet Project

About a year ago I found a crochet project online and having got a little bored of just doings lots of chain or going backwards and forwards practicing crochet stitches, I thought this might be a good project to hone my skills.
It is a temperature blanket. It consists of granny squares using different colours to represent the temperature for each day - so that means a whopping 365 squares to crochet. That should be good, regular practice if nothing else.
It was easy enough to find historical temperatures on the internet but I must have forgotten about the project or maybe I did decide to wait until this year.
So on New Year's Eve when younger people were out partying, I was at home with a glass of something and surfing the web looking at colours and eventually buying wool. That might not have been my best idea as some of the colours were not ideal when they arrived and there were gaps, but with another shopping spree a few weeks later, I had my range of colours sorted and lined up as above.
It might make more sense now looking at the colours as obviously the cool blues represent the cold temperatures and the reds the nice hot ones - watch it be a cold miserable summer this year! With the colours sorted and all lined up in order, I was ready to go.

Another Purchase

This was another purchase from the Bakewell Wool Gathering. It is alpaca wool and purchased from the lady who rears them. She learnt to crochet so she could make use of the yarn. With my beginner crochet skills at the time (miles of chain) she said that I could make a scarf purely from chain stitch, so based on that I purchased this wool. Still not started :-(
Looking at the stash of unstarted projects upstairs I really must stop buying stuff!

Yet More Purchases

Here is one of my purchases from the Bakewell Wool Gathering last weekend. For beginner to intermediate crochet skills - I think the lady was too kind - I can't imagine that I am anywhere near intermediate, but we'll see.
So far I have resisted the temptation to start them as I am going to practice first.The picture is a bit small but it is Owl Bunting - quite cute. The plan is to hang them underneath my map of 100 Aker Wood - yes really.
It seems ages ago since I finished a project so I'll keep this post short so that I can continue with a project - the other purchase from last week which I did not resist from starting.

Crochet Progress

Ok so I got a little bored just going backwards and forwards with double and treble crochet so I decided to tackle a Granny Square - after all there seems to be so many things to do with them. 

A few weeks ago when I was down in my home town I just happened to wander into the wool shop, as you do, and decided to buy some bright coloured wool - and here it is. Just 3 balls  - the photograph does not do the brightness justice but it has been dull most of the weekend and I left it a little late to get the camera out.

So here are the 3 squares I have managed to complete so far  in order starting top left, then right and bottom. I thought the first attempt was ok - following the book, then second, well not too good - maybe I should have followed the book more although it is simple once you get going but I think I have mis-counted and just been too lazy to go back and correct it hence the wonky shape And finally the third one which I think is reasonable and probably makes the first one look a little poor.

This weekend I have been to the Bakewell Wool Gathering with a friend and made a couple of purchases -one to do more crochet - more of that another day.

Hardly a new Skill!

Well some time ago I decided I would like to learn to crochet, which is a brave decision considered my mother described my previous attempts as hopeless :-(
Also a friend bought me the beautiful "Knitting and Crochet Bible" along with wool and crochet hook to make a lovely rabbit, so if ever there was inspiration that is it!
So here is my latest attempt to learn this new skill - it might be unrecognisable but the above consists of double and I think treble crochet - I have certainly done some trebles but can't tell whether this photo includes the trebles - that's how bad I am. On the positive side, it looks like I have mastered the art of shaping although this might not be a plus when I was just trying to a straight piece for practice.
I have got a little bored just going backwards and forwards so I have moved onto to something else but more of that another time.
Today I have been cleaning out the physical "corner-by-the-sofa" - not sure it looks a great deal better but at least it has been vacuumed and the projects I am not currently working on - yes there are some, honest! - have been moved to a room upstairs - probably the are now trying to create their own projects corner-by-the-bed!

Cake!

Here is Sid's last port of call with me at Peak. You can see him a little better here without his attempts at crotchet and taking a rest. He requested a visit to the leader's cafe for tea and cake and I could hardly refuse him could I? It looks like his eyes might have been bigger than his belly as he couldn't eat all his cake - so I had to help him :-) I can't exactly remember what the cake was - some sort of chocolate cake but he had very good taste as it was delicious.
It has occurred to me this week that the New Year's resolution to finish a project a month fell by the wayside very early on in the year so I have been thinking of maybe addressing that.....but then I do have a lot of new projects to do :-) - more of them in the near future.

It's so Exhausting

Here are some photos of the Guides' and Scouts' knitting and crotchet done at Peak. In the Craft Tent the children could have a go at Knitting and Crotchet - this was a bit like a drop-in session where Scouts and Guides could come along and do as much or as little as they liked. Some had never done any knitting or crotchet before and help was at hand to teach them. Others were quite competent and would sit for quite a while doing rows and leaving when they decided that was enough for a while and possibly coming back at another time. I watched one girl on Friday afternoon crotchet - I was quite envious as she was like lightening.

I only worked there on the Friday and initially I found it quite relaxing after working on Junior Peak for 5 days - it was a little like a Knit and Natter to start with then children started dropping by and some needed teaching. I did teach a few how to do a row or two during the day so I did feel as if I had contributed in some way and wasn't just having hiding in the safety of the craft tent!

Over the week they had produced squares or occasionally rectangles to make into blankets for an animal rescue shelter. Alas no-one seemed to know which one but hopefully some animals are snuggling up in them tonight as it has turned chilly after what has been a beautiful day. It has given me an idea as to what our Guides can do this term. :-)

As you can see in the first picture Sid had had an exhausting time learning to crotchet himself so decided to take a rest and test out some of the blankets.

Sid stays at Peak

Gosh it has been weeks since I last posted on here but life has been hectic what with the build up to Peak 2015 at Chatsworth, the camp itself, family holiday and then having a most awful cold.

During July I went Derbyshire's Guide and Scout Camp. We were staying on the Ice Age Sub Camp and an additional camper was Sid the Sloth crocheted by one of our leaders. On the last full day I had to find another job at camp and fortunately through my connections I ended up on the Knitting and Crotchet table in the Craft Tent - well just knitting in my case. During the afternoon session Sid decided to accompany me and here he is trying his hand at crotchet.

It tired him out somewhat so he needed a rest - more of that in another post.

New Year Resolutions

Sorry, sorry for my absence from here. I have taken photographs for the blog but I cannot find the lead for the camera to download them - this has been missing for sometime now - well since the week after the last post!!! Oh dear.

But I was told I could just do words and update the blog. Not quite the same is it, but here goes.

It seems from looking at other blogs that the idea is to put your New Year resolutions here - I know a bit late but they have been in my mind since the 1st January. So without further ado:-

1. To complete a project each month.
A friend of more years than perhaps we care to admit to although we frequently do, suggested this but it was on my list already. I guess with someone checking progress then I might stick to it. (In fact I can report that I have already completed something - done in January, photographed and delivered but just not posted).

2. To learn to crotchet
To help with this another friend of even more years!!!! bought me the Knitting and Crotchet Bible for my birthday, a hook and some beautiful wool, so I am going to have to do it. Perhaps need to start on some other wool first for practice Just need to find the book now - perhaps it is with the camera lead :-(

That was all I had on the list for starters - bit short but I think maybe there is another to add:-

3. To be able to crochet well enough to use the beautiful wool for that which it is intended.
The wool is mohair I think - lovely and fine and fluffy and the pattern it not a simple Granny Square  I think resolution 2 will cover the learning bit and this one is to be able to complete a proper project.

I think the above is realistic (HG would you like me to SMARTen them up? On second thoughts - NO - that is too much like the 'w' word.). I know it will get harder as the year progresses with the first goal as the easier ones projects are picked off.

Ok that's all for today - need to press on with February's completion project and find that wire!!!!