TV crochet...

I'm not going to make any excuses for purchasing a whole series of The Waltons. Some might think it's seriously uncool but my excuse is that I missed out first time round, in the late seventies, because they didn't have subtitles back then. I watched bits but I couldn't follow it and it was one of those programmes that my long suffering little bro didn't really want to fill me in on, and who could blame him? Yes I could have bribed him, tied him to a chair, beat him up, but for reasons unknown I let him off the hook on that occasion.

Anyway, I really love all that make do and mend stuff and there was plenty of that in the depression years on Waltons Mountain! I love the fact that extended family live under the same roof and boy, there's so much job sharing going on, it's enough to make me start drawing up a rota for round here!

The grandmother is to be seen with the occasional piece of crochet in her hands (when she's not repairing denim dungarees that is!), the girls make the occasional crochet or knitted scarf and there is one particular crochet blanket that I keep spotting. I liked the way there was no need for an additional border because the treble clusters make a scalloped edge as it is. With a bit of help from my lovely blog friend we (she) solved the mystery of the pattern required to get that edge and hey presto one little sample of the Walton's crochet blanket! The vertical stripe is achieved by surface embroidery which is a little bit tricky since it works upwards into trebles so it doesn't really have a very uniform or obvious stitch on which to space even stitches, but even so, it's not impossible. It's a nice way to gain an extra colour and dimension to a simple shell stitch pattern.

I had better not start another blanket right now but I think a cushion would be fun to make with this pattern. I'll add the basic instructions to this post when I've relocated them from my emails. Done in rows of two they look like four petal flowers so this would probably look quite good in a bright colour combination.

Another WIP bites the dust...

Another WIP crossed off the list! I'm not even going to look back at my posts and see when I started this. It was a badly planned project that started out as a small blanket and turned into a single bed size blanket when I realised I had enough aran wool to do twelve panels.

The blanket was always intended for Jake's bed. In between the start and the finish he moved from a single bed to a small double and had a black and grey bedroom makeover but it will still be a useful tv blanket for draughty winter's evenings.

That sideways picture is Jake holding it up, you can just about see his arms. The blanket must be just over six feet tall so it's a bit of a whopper. It also weighs a considerable amount because the stitch is quite a dense one, but that makes it incredibly warm. I think it's going to be popular. I've already 'borrowed' it myself.

Obviously you can't lay a blanket out on the decking without a dog coming along and laying down on it! Riley says he wouldn't mind this one for his basket. Dream on!

Finishing wips...

I shouldn't really post this stuff just yet. It will spoil the surprise, but nevermind. I'm feeling pleased with myself for sorting out a pile of wips and placing them all in a large basket. The plan is to keep them close by and work my way through them without getting sidetracked with other projects!

With all the heavy rain we've had lately my plan is working nicely. The little 'rice pudding' waistcoat in the first picture originally had buttons. I didn't like them and they made the item look too boyish. So off came the buttons and little ties were made and attached. Much better.

The soft grey blanket got shoved to one side when I became unsure about my original decision to add in a deep gold band in the border. It's a gorgeous shade but maybe not babyish enough. Once I'd decided to leave that out it was just a question of doing several rounds of border. It's probably only a pushchair or pram size blanket but one my niece could use later for dolls, or teddies.

Then we have a wee rabbit who needs eyes! I decided against safety eyes even though I'm sure they are perfectly safe. She just needs a stitch or two once I've found my wool needle.

Finally a teeny tiny little short sleeved cardigan which I'm hoping, if I get a move on, will be a good fit for now. If not, it can be another doll item for later on! Just the borders and sleeves to do.

Just to let you know...I reply to all comments privately. I find it's nice to have a chat that way. I've been asked about Mollie, and no, sadly she still hasn't turned up. It's not a nice feeling not knowing where she is but we are sure that she's gone to cat heaven. She's left a big hole and the family doesn't seem quite right without her presence. I keep having bizarre dreams about her, and what may have happened; most are unrealistic, in some she speaks and is cartoon like, they aren't unpleasant dreams. I'm pretty sure that this is as a result of not having 'closure'.

Mollie...

Mollie hasn't been well for the last few months. The first signs of illness were a strangely wild appetite for food. She'd charge, like a bullet out of a gun, whenever anyone was in the region of her food bowl, then stand there meowing loudly until she was fed. Coupled with a drastic loss of weight, I googled the symptoms (I'm not at all knowledgeable about cats!) and worked out that she had a thyroid problem. The vet confirmed this and she started a course of tablets. Initially she put a few pounds on and we were relieved that's all it was and kind of expected her to live a bit longer.

Although she had a whole lot of other tests at the time of checking out her thyroid function it's possible there was something else making her poorly. In the last month she refused to sleep indoors, preferring to make a cosy nest in a large patch of bamboo to the front of our house.

She's been missing for five days now (she's never gone missing before). We've searched high and low. She was drastically underweight and very weak. We are pretty sure she's taken herself off someone cool, dark and hidden and fallen asleep for the last time.

Goodnight Mollie x

News and a new bag...

This new project bag may well be the last of my productive recuperating crochet phase! I've entered a new productive phase; repairing guttering, hacking down overgrown branches, jet washing mossy decks...I make it sound like we live in the house from The Money Pit with Tom Hanks where it pretty much falls down around them. Let's just say that between work and cricket season my usual handy man is AWOL.

Jake is so tall now (he's over six foot) that he was able to stand on the path outside the conservatory and hold up one end of the guttering while I had to stand on a chair to fix the other end. I'm pretty sure I can line up some other jobs for him. I may not even need my magic apple picking gadget this August when the apples are ready to be picked, or better still I can tie a basket to his head and just pop them in from my position on the top rung of the stepladder!

It's a pity our gaggle of cherry trees at the top of the garden are still only producing small tart cherries. I manage to get through an impressive number of punnets all by myself every year.

Yes the new project bag is a very odd combination of colours. I am steadily working my way through the odds and ends in my cottons basket. This was the last of the useful quantities, less than 100g per colour. This was quite a dedicated make for me. It involved dc throughout with a 4mm hook which is pretty tough on my hands. Htr's with aran weight and a 5mm hook would have been less strenuous but I love the neat fabric the dc's make. The pattern is in a book called Crocheted Gifts: Irresistable Projects to Make and Give by Interweave. It starts with four pieces that kind of end up looking like a child's windmill. Then the stripes are worked onto that after a small bit of sewing seams. It's quite clever.

You can see that I've currently got lots of baby yarns in there...because I am now, officially, an Auntie! I have a niece! I wish I could share a photo with you. It seems I can email the photo and save it but I can't seem to put it in a post. Trust me, she's as cute as a button! When she's a whole lot bigger I think she might like one of these crochet bags to hold a few favourite toys...

Which reminds me. Way back...nearly 18 years ago when Ella was born a good friend of mine decided it would be a good time to learn to knit. I'm not sure that knitting and crochet was enjoying quite the boom period with knit and natter groups that it is now but she did manage to find a local group of old ladies who mainly knitted acrylic baby clothes and four ply sweaters. At 27 she was the youngest there by about fifty years. It proved to be the most amazing way to learn to knit. The first item she knitted was a small jumper for E which consisted of squares of knitted fabric knitted together with the corners folded down to make a collar at the neck opening. It was very simple but worked and E wore it a lot (I loved anything hand knitted). When Ella was toddling about she decided she was too big to knit for and move do on to knitting for E's favourite doll, originally named 'Dolly'. Dolly has a comprehensive wardrobe of fabulously co-ordinated items ranging from outdoor jackets to evening shoes. Dolly is carefully packed away with her special clothes in a small child's suitcase waiting for future grandchildren to enjoy!

Off the hook...summer pouches

I keep meaning to put together a notebook of 'go to' crochet patterns. I've got a few reliable ones jotted down but a few more bookmarked electronically that need adding. I don't quite trust technology to keep these patterns safe!

This clutch pattern is what I'd call a 'go to' pattern purely because it's easy, reliable and has many uses and ways to adapt. I made the grey one first, whilst watching 90 overs of cricket. I paid more attention to the eight overs that J bowled of course and a nail biting few overs when he went in to bat late and needed to get vital runs to win the game. It eventually came down to five runs needed off two balls and my boy hit a crafty four and single to much applause from the men's team he was playing for. Inside I was doing star jumps, on the outside I clapped in a very restrained British way! I always remind J that although he could have lost the match by being out or not getting the runs, it is in fact a team game.

The crochet clutch was intended to be a quick, simple, small project that would fit into my small cricket match watching basket. Something inconspicuous! J once blushed fifty shades of red when I got some crochet out on a train journey but I think he might be slightly over that now because he did come and sit with me when his team were batting despite the fact it was on my lap at the time.

The cotton is aran weight eco recycled something or other and the hook was 6mm. The first pouch was slightly tricky and I did have to rip a few rows back when my shell rows turned and I was leaving something of a gap. I seem to have remedied that in the second one by paying slightly more attention. The jade green pouch came out slightly smaller because I may have inadvertently added rows to the grey one or left some out on the green one. Either way, a happy accident. It looks intentional to have a pair like this! Another accident was the fact that the first one is a perfect fit for my Kindle. Although I have Kindle on my iPad now I find it a bit cumbersome and the matt screen is easier to read in sunshine on the Kindle. Not that I really like my Kindle much. I prefer good old fashioned paperbacks.

I could add buttons or ties at this point but I doubt either would be necessary. They will just keep a few loose bits and bobs together for my cricket match survival kit basket! I think they'd also make nice gifts with something already inside... note cards, soap and face cloth, a sewing kit, chocolate...

The pattern is listed on Tangled Happy under 'purses'.

Chuck it together day...

It's a mini heat wave here in the uk. I say mini because it's really not that much of a heat wave and probably won't last all that long either, but we like to be dramatic and call it a heat wave nonetheless. It's 97 degrees apparently. Woohoo!

The dogs are lying under the apple tree in the long grass. I have water bowls everywhere.

It's slightly cooler indoors so I'm doing the sensible thing and staying out of the midday sun.

I'm still a bit uncomfortable with post op wounds so I decided to whip up a couple of skirts on the sewing machine, elasticated waists that I can sit just where I want them to. The first one won't be worn outside these four walls for the simple reason that I wouldn't be seen dead in florals! I just happened to have a large piece of cotton perfect for a skirt. I used it as my practice piece...

I cut a long rectangle which was the length of the skirt plus a bit for hemming and waist and then cut it double the length of the waist measurement so that I'd have a bit of gather. A bit like the curtain rule which is one and a half times isn't it? I didn't iron it or pin it, shock horror! but it turned out just fine. It taught me that the measurements were just about right and to make the tube for the elastic a bit more snug.

Skirt number two was made using the fabric in the photo above. I don't really do bold patterns either but this one is more my taste colour wise, there's dark indigo and grey in those circles and the fabric has a linen feel though I've no idea what it's actually made of. I bought it years ago and I've forgotten what the original intended use was. I did all the ironing and pinning and proper hemming on this one and it has turned out ok. It would be nice to know how to do fancier waistbands but I think that's one hobby I can resist.

So, two chuck it together skirts, which is a bit like my philosophy with lunches lately. No thought as to whether anything goes together, just chuck it all on a plate and go!

Tomorrow I'll be chucking it all in a cool bag to go. Another county cricket match. Local for a change. Sun hat at the ready! Watching cricket in the sun is a rare thing!