Cosy CAL 4: Seven days of Cosy

Hello..... It's Attic24 'Cosy Crochet Along' time again, last week I was skippy happy and so surprised to find my little blanket had a mention in Lucy's CAL post.  So for this weeks post I thought I'd share with you my 'seven days of Cosy' I'm still loving this project soooo much.

Sunday:

So Sunday was all about sewing in the dreaded ends

I've decided I'm going to do them once a week on a Sunday so they don't mount up, otherwise I just won't want to face them as the blanket get bigger.

Monday:

So Monday saw the first bit of blanket crochet for the week,  first up I selected the next four colours (although to tell the truth I'm a little unsure about the darker Glittery Blue, it's very fitting for the seaside pebble theme of my blanket, but I'm just not certain, I think it might be a bit to dark for the other colours, I guess only time will tell).

Having ME/Lyme Disease means I spend a lot of time stuck in bed, crafting is a bit of a escape for me, I think creativity is very important and it really helps me cope with this terrible illness, so Monday I hunkered down in my comfy bed for a spot of crochet

and it wasn't very long before chief crafting assistant Merlin came to help with the yarn !!

Tuesday :

Tuesday and I'm up and sofa bound, getting a bit of crochet in before heading off to the doctors for my B12 injection.

  Back home after my jab and it was time to make a decision about that blue, yes it's the perfect colour for the English Channel this time of year, but no, I'm just not liking it in mix, so after crocheting a small sample area, I decided it was just too dark against the other tones so I ripped it out.

What do you think was I right to remove it from the mix?

Wednesday:

Wednesday and turned width ways, my blanket is now just wide enough to cover me, and boy has it been cold this week, so I spent the day snuggled up alternating between crocheting a sparkly row of white (how I love the twinkly rows) resting and wrapping up some parcels ready to go off in the post.  

Having to rest for so much of the day means it takes me ages to get anything done, it's taken me all week to parcel up seven packages to go off in the post. As for my blanket well I'm having to pace that too after doing part of a row my arms feel like lead and my joints are all complaining so I have to stop and rest, so that's why I'm going to be making this blanket long after most of the other Crochet Alongers have finished.

  Thursday:

Today I did a spot of Christmas crafting, making a sparkly snowflake with the yarn once I'd finished my White Sparkly row. More on that another time.....

Friday:

As for Friday not a lot of anything got done, as I was feeling so awful so the day was spent resting.

Saturday:

  

Today the sun is shining for the first time this week here at the Summerhouse, so I took the opportunity for a spot of alfresco blankety photography,  So here's where I'm up to with my Cosy Seaside Pebble Blanket.

Row 33-34 Silver Sparkle

Row 35-36 Cream

Row 37-38 Mocha

Row 39-40 White Sparkle

Row 41-42 Parchment

Row 43-44 Silver.

As with the last few weeks I'm also sharing here the music I've been listening to while making my Blanket.

                                          

This week I've been mostly listening to  Hatful of Rains wonderful second Album 'The Morning Key' above is a clip of there latest video 'Scarlet Ribbon'  All profits from digital downloads of this single are going to the Brighton based domestic abuse charity 'Rise'.

You can download the single from itunes 'here' it really is such a poignantly beautiful song, raising money and awarness against domestic violence.

 

Here's another clip off the Album called 'These Street'

Wishing you all a good week.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Cosy Crochet Along 3

Hello......... It's time again for a 'Cosy Crochet Along' catch up post, two weeks in and I'm really loving adding each row, seeing my blanket starting to grow, I'm so pleased that it can no longer be confused with a scarf, as was the case up to now.

So a huge thank you to Lucy at Attic24 for the wonderful pattern and for hosting this fab crochet along, it's lovely to see how all the blankets are coming along in her weekly posts.

As for my blanket this week I managed quite a few rows, it's been lovely to escape to the easy soothing rows, and calming colours of my Seaside Pebble blanket.

We've had a bit of a week of it here at the Summerhouse, so it's been a wonderful distraction, above you can see the blanket snuggled up with it's next set of colours, up until now I'd been just selecting as I went, but on Monday I had to go to the hospital for a tests that took all morning so I took my crochet with me with some pre selected yarns.

It was a bit fraught in the waiting room and people were getting a bit disgruntled about having to wait so long, sitting there three hours we saw so many people coming and going, I think crocheting might be a bit like having a dog !! what I mean is that people seem to always stop and say hello when you are out with a dog, crocheting in public seems to be the same. People stopped and had a chat about crochet and I had some lovely compliments about my blanket.

When I went back into have my second test, the lady drawing the blood, said  that one man had said to her about the wait. 'One poor girls been out there so long she's nearly made a blanket.!!'

So the rest of the week I've been feeling pretty poorly, so lots of time has been spent in bed or hunkered down on the Sofa with my crochet.  I'm trying not to think about all the things I need to get finished and made for Christmas, as this week the wonderful relaxing rows of trebles are just about all I've been up too creating.

I'm really loving this make, but best of all though is when I get to a glittery row, they really put a smile on my face.

So here's where I'm up to.

rows 15-16 Mocha

rows 17-18 Parchment

rows 19-20 Blue Sparkle

rows 21-22 Cream

row 23-24 Silver

row 25-26 Brown Sparkle

row 27-28 Parchment

row 29-30 White

row 31-32 Sherbet

All in  Stylecraft Special DK or James C Brett Twinkle.

The above picture is where I was up to last weekend so you can really see how it's coming along.

 I managed way more of the blanket than I expected this past week, although to tell the truth not much else got done around here.  It's been a wonderful diversion in what's been a week of worry. 

As with last week I thought I'd also share with you the music I've been weaving into my blanket, this week I've been listening to the Wonderful 'Long Gone Out West Blues' by Pharis and Jason Romero, I've put a Clip below if you fancy having a listen.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Cosy CAL 2

Hello.......... five days into the Attic24  Cosy CAL and I'm loving it so much.

I'm loving the easy gentle rows of colour especially the glittery rows

How I look forward to them,

So much so I've added in some more Sparkle (you can never have too much!!) how they twinkle in the evening light

So we have some new colours in the mix,

Seeing as it's 20% of DK yarns at Deramores at the moment, it would have been wrong not too, not all the original mix is staying though, for now I'm exchanging Stone (left) for Mocha (right) it may make it back into the mix, but I've started off a couple of rows with it and the tone is just a little to warm and yellowy, against the other colours so I've had to rip it back out.

So do you want a peak of where I'm up to?

Mini Ta-Dah

Here we have the first 14 rows in.

Parchment

Cream

Silver Sparkle

Sherbet

Parchment

White Sparkle

Silver

As for picking the colours, I did have a plan at first but I'm much more of a organic girl, so things have change along the way I'm now choosing as I go, next up will be two rows of Mocha, I think, I'll start the row and then decide, if it's staying.

Another thing I need to deal with are the pesky ends, maybe I should make a rule of sewing them in at the end of each week.

So there you have it my new mix of colours, how I'm loving this make, I've been a bit naughty this week, escaping into the wonderful calming rows of my Seaside Pebble Blanket

When in fact I should be focusing on all the things I need to get made for Christmas, so things will probably slow up over the next couple of weeks, but I'm going to try a do at a least a row a day.

Spending a bit of time with my hook listening to some music, two of my favourite things, so each week I thought I'd share with you one of the Albums I've been listening to while making my blanket, it'll be mostly Folkie stuff, this weeks Album is

The Carrivick Sisters 'Over the Edge'

Here's a couple of the tracks from the Album, I hope you like them as much as I do, the good thing about this blanket and the Trebles rows especially rows 3- 4 is I've found myself dancing along the rows with my hook to the music that's the good thing with Folk music as there is usually a waltz track, great for the crochet counting in this blanket.

You see I told you I'm bit in love with this make, so much so I Waltzing along the rows.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Festival Star

Hello....... I'm home again after having a wonderful weekend at FolkEast even at I festival I found time for a little bit of crafting.  There were so many different crafts to try there, from felting to ceramics and they had a wonderful crochet tent, more on that another time but in the end I opted to make a ceramic star.  It really is amazing what you can make in a field.

There were lots of different clay shapes to choose from hearts to shells and leaves but I picked a cute little star, that I could hang on my blossom tree at home.

Please ignore my day three festival hair.

There were several glazes to choose from, giving various effects I selected one containing copper which would either give a metallic effect or a blue/green colour depending on how it reacted when fired.  I also added a different glaze to the decorative pattern on the star.

Then you'll never guess!! 

But yes, the Potter popped it into a microwave and heated it for about ten minutes until it was glowing bright orange, so hot at about 1000 degrees, bet you didn't know a microwave could do that.!!

After that it was popped into a tin containing sawdust which smoked and burnt for a while until it was covered over to cool.  While I waited in anticipation not knowing how it would turn out would it be green would it be metallic would it have all gone horribly wrong, it took about ten minutes to cool,  and then it came out of the sawdust all blacken but definitely still a star yippee

Then all that was needed was a bit of a wash off and a polish up with some wire wool

and Ta-Dah one metallic Star, 

I think it turned out well mostly copper with a little petrol like effect in places, I was one happy customer, and all for the price of £5.00, if I'd bought a premade one it would have been £3.50 so I think that's pretty good as it was so great to make my very own.

So if you go to a festival or craft fair and they are offering this craft I'd say go for it.

Here's my little Festival Star back home hanging on my blossom tree, such a great memento of a wonderful weekend and so great to have something I actually made.

More from the festival next time and my do I have some wonderful yarn bombing and music to share with you all.

Linking up with 'Keep Calm Craft on'

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Grey and Gloomy with a chance of Crochet

 Hello.... the weather is a bit wild today here at the Summerhouse as Ex hurricane Bertha is about to blow throw our corner of the world.

So everything is starting to look decidedly grey and gloomy for a August day, with the wind starting to blow a hoolie and the rain lashing against the windows, this is not the Summers day we were hoping for.

  out in the garden the Horse chestnut is starting to get tossed about by the winds

 but at least the Japanese wind anemones are looking a bit more optimistic brightening up all that grey as they dance about.

As for the sweet peas which are only just starting to flower, well I'm a bit worried for them.

The Summer pots on top of the wall have had to be moved in fear, they will fall onto the tomato plants and fruit trees below.

but that's about all the batoning of hatches I've had the energy to do.

So I'm planning on a day of hunkering down with my crochet hook, with my Springtime throw being one project I have to get on with, even that is looking a tad dull in today's gloomy light, believe it or not that is cream yarn in the second round.

With so many yarn end to sew in I'm not really sure I can face them on a day like today. It really has to be the worst job in crochet.

No instead I think I need some sparkle in my life and to find the positives, even on a stormy day like today, I can still find a used for a sundress as backdrop to the crochet. Yes today I think it will be sparkle all the way.

Now even sparkle sometimes isn't worry free, I ordered some extra yarn for my scarf project and instead of the lovely icy greens, silvers, blues and purples.

  I got the above ball on the left, it put in a bit of a spin as the band code was right but it looked nothing like my beloved yarn, so I got into a bit of a yarny frenzy and started pulling at the ball, and you never guess what was inside? yep this rather dishevelled but correct coloured yarn on the right, who would have thought it!!

When I bought my beloved yarn, there was only one like this in the shop, and it was in amongst a whole load of the above green and pink ball.  Some how it must have got balled up differently at the factory a bit of a blessing for me as I would never have bought the other ball, so yay for happy accidents.

So after a bit of winding I had separated the colours off that I didn't need for this project into a cute little ball, this little ball of yarn has made me super smiley it just so cute, it's about the size of a Christmas bauble which has given me the idea to make so super sparklely yarn ball decoration for the tree. 

Simple pleasure it doesn't take much to make me happy, just a little ball of sparkly yarn a crochet hook and the ipod on shuffle and I'm all set.

I might not be around for a little while as I'm hopefully going away at the end of the week, fingers crossed on the weather improving as we have plans to go to The Folk East festival, and wheelchairs and mud are not a good combo, I'm really looking forward to it as my friends band are playing on the main stage, just need to find some energy from somewhere to get me through so it'll be a few bed rest days for me before and after the event.

Linking up with KCCO

Happy Crafting

Clare xx