My son's heirloom crochet blanket

A while ago I promised my 2 boys that I would make them each a crochet granny square blanket for their beds. To keep them warm and snugly at night, and to have something to  for them to keep, and hand down to their children (if they have any!) later on in life. Something that I had made for them. My husband wanted me to make one for our bed too. I had just started to learn to crochet, (granny squares were what I first learnt) and he requested a blanket for our king size bed. Mmmm, I thought, this could take a fair while! Each square took me an hour to crochet. I made 90 squares in total, then there was the tucking in of the ends, joining it all together and then making a border around the edges. Well I made 2 squares a day over last winter and by the end of January I had finished.............

We do really love it, it stays on our bed all year around too. It really is very snugly and cozy. Having seen this one, both my boys said "I want one too". So I half heartedly set about making theirs next. They both wanted to have their blanket made first, so to make it fair I did a bit at a time on each blanket. I kept putting them down, as other projects arose and I was getting a bit bored of the repetitiveness of the granny squares and using the same colours. But now winter is here again I have been inspired to finish the blankets off. Here is my littlest man's blanket all complete........

I have used a mix of granny stripes and granny squares. Mainly to stop me getting bored of making the same thing!

Apologies for this last picture being around the wrong way. For some reason my laptop will not allow me to rotate it! You will just have to crane your neck sideways or if you have a laptop turn it around - lol! 

In the end I decided to concentrate on just the one blanket at a time. I cannot stand to feel bogged down with making things, and would rather complete one project at a time. That way I am satisfied that these rather larger projects do get completed in a shorter space of time! Now to start my bigger ma's blanket. This is going to be very random, with granny squares of all shapes and sizes and granny stripes. Here is a sneaky peek of what I have made so far .........

Before I proceed with the above, I have just been asked by my step-daughter if I could crochet her a  handheld games console cover. So I am currently working on this this afternoon. Speak soon, Natasha xx

My 70's vintage flower afghan (slowly making now!)

I saw this appear in my news feed on Facebook a few weeks ago and instantly fell in love with it. I suddenly had the urge to make one myself....

The very clever Heidi from Speckless wrote a wonderful piece on how to make one of these. You must go over and take a look. I love revisiting her fabulous blog and seeing what she has been up to. Heidi managed to make  a flower with a green edging by just crocheting, rather than using a  flower loom. However I loved the idea of a flower loom and decided to hunt one down. I found a brilliant flower loom on ebay.  Its called a Hana-Ami flower loom, and comes with different sized and shaped looms. the looms are all contained in a handy carry case. The instructions are brilliant too, and these flowers are extremely easy (and very fun) to make.  My friends daughter came over, she is 6 years old and loved making the smaller sized flowers.You can use ribbon, wool, raffia and anything else you can think of to make round, square or hexagon shaped flowers. 

This is my first attempt at using the loom. I have so many ideas about how to use all the flowers that I make. Although, so far I have only used the large circle loom to make similar flowers to the vintage throw.

I found some chunky white wool which I have used for the daisies. The  centres are  made from doubling up some yellow DK yarn and over stitching into each petal. I haven't worked out how to make the larger more prominent flower centres like the original 70's throw. If any of you out there know how to, then please let me know .I  then double crocheted around the edges in a green DK yarn.

I have also made some colourful flowers as I was unsure whether I wanted to make an updated version in some brighter colours.....

 

In the end I decided I liked the vintage look of the plain white daisies with the yellow and pale green, so that is what I am working on now. This is how much I have done so far.........

 The pic above is the right side ip and the lower pic in the wrong side up. I feel that this may be a long, but very enjoyable and satisfying project....... Catch you next time, Natasha xx

October winter warmers!

Hiya! Yet again it has been nearly a whole month since I last sat down and wrote a blog post! Time time time!!! My main excuse is that my laptop has been poorly and has been in for repair for the last 3 weeks, which made it slightly difficult to write a post. Oh, and I have been ill for the past week too.  I have had the horrible flu which turned into a nasty cough and I can't seem to shake it off.  I  hope you are all well, and keeping those awful bugs at bay? The weather is getting colder and I have been making lot's of wrist warmers and hats. I really love to crochet beanie hats as they are really so easy to make and Ilove experimenting with different wools and colours.

 

The above 3 children's hats were made for one customer for Christmas presents for her neice and 2 nephews.

 

 

This one was also made for a customer as a Christmas present for her friend. I also made some matching wrist warmers to go with it.

 

 

I have been making some cotton crochet slippers and lot's of pairs of wrist warmers, as a local arts & crafts shop wanted my crochet items for their shop. Leck & Jones is a fabulous array of gorgeous gifts made by local people of Portland and the surrounding areas. It really is a little treasure trove! If you are ever this way do pop in and take a peek.

 

These are the 4 pairs that I have made for the shop. There are long stripey ones with a black flower and button feature, long multi coloured, snuggly ones, red glitter shorter ones and a pair that are completely different colours as they were made form colour change wool! I posted these on my Facebook page and luckily that made customers order some more pairs.

 

 

 

And finally I made this pair for myself..............

 

 

See the flowers on this pair? Well they are made from a Hana - Ami flower loom which I have just bought myself. Apparently these were very popular in the 60s and 70s and some really wonderfull blankets and afghans were made using one. I am attempting to re-create a flower loom afghan like the vintage ones. But this is a different post for next time! Pop back soon as I will reveal all.......Natasha xxx

 

Just before I go would you like to take a sneaky peek??