Tag Archives: granny squares

Nov28

November wrap-up

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We’re nearly at the end of November. I’ll be doing Vlogmas on my YouTube channel, Stitches and Slapdashery, so I hope you’ll be able to visit me every day in December over there.

It’s been a quiet month. I was feeling under the weather for a large chunk of it, culminating in a few days of heavy cold, but I’m better now.

I’ve been gradually adding to the pile of small Christmas gifts, including coasters, earrings, upcycled denim bags and pen pouches.

House coasters

The above were made using a YT tutorial called Chicken Love by Minki Kim.

Ugly Christmas sweaters

Crocheted ornaments from a pattern by Fay Lyth on Ravelry.

Handmade journal

Random paper and printed card made for a pretty journal for my December plans.

Lots of grannies

I crocheted 36 fugly granny squares with two strands of DK and a 6.5mm hook, which I’m currently sewing together to make pants!!

Folded square coasters

More coasters from a simple tutorial by SewCanShe.

Three upcycled jeans projects
Some earrings
Pen pouches

These are from Christine’s Home Affairs on YouTube.

I am still between jobs but feeling the urge to get a resumé together so that I can line something up for January. To that end, I’m studying for Food Safe Level 1 so that I can add that qualification to my resumé.

I’d love to see you over on YouTube during December. Happy crafting!

Mar5

FO: giant stash-eating monster-granny-of-doom!

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FO: giant stash-eating monster-granny-of-doom!

She is finished! I actually completed the last round two evenings ago, but waited for a day off to weave in the last four tails and get pics.

Thankfully it’s a beautiful sunny day today. The previous three days were damp and foggy.

She weighs 6lbs 4.5oz/2852g and measures 80″ across (203cm). I started crocheting her on January 2nd, though I wasn’t monogamous. I had knitting and sewing projects on the go too. She’s going on my bed later.

Jan22

Weekend WIPs update

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I seem to be falling into a weekly blog habit. I don’t have a schedule but when a week has gone by without a post I get a niggling reminder in the back of my brain that it’s time to write something.

Do you like the heart? My sister’s stepson makes these, back in Blighty. She sent it to me for Christmas. They are sold to raise funds for Healing Waves in the island of Jersey, which is a charity that takes people with different challenges out into the chilly Atlantic Ocean to surf.

So what are the WIPs this week, I hear you ask!

Version 2 of the Fuck the Cold Beanie. I’m using Lion Brand Mandala for the background and cutting out some of the yarn to make the colours change a little quicker. The gold for the tree and moose is Stylecraft Special DK. Needles are 3.75mm/US5. The gauge is tighter, the stranded colourwork is neater and I’m much happier.

Granny is nearly four feet square. Still lots of yarn left in the bags!

A taster of the sashiko stitching on my denim vest. This has a long way to go but that’s OK.

A small side project inspired by the upcoming Valentine’s Day and gnomie love quilt cotton! Upcycled denim hearts which I am embellishing with fabric, ribbon, buttons etc. I spent a couple of hours faffing about in my sewing room this evening and I intend to complete all six of these before Tuesday.

We had a potluck lunch with friends today and as usual we ate enough that I didn’t need any dinner. So we just wound up our day with a turmeric tea.

I hope your weekend is going well and that you’re making time to be crafty and creative.

Jan15

Galloping grannies

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The giant granny blanket continues to grow. It’s not much of a giant yet – about 37″ across – but I’m hoping it will be huge. I’m prepared to buy more black and grey if it means finishing up my random colours.

Sadly the beanie has had to be frogged.

At the end of the moose/tree section I knew it was likely to be too big. I forged ahead anyway and completed the text part.

Then, I had to be honest with myself. The circumference was 24 inches, bigger than my head, and with the snowflakes and the crown decreases the total height would have been 12 inches. The design wouldn’t have been visible with so much slouch so I made the decision to frog.

I still want this hat so I’ll look at the DK yarn that I have and use some smaller needles and start again.

After seeing a knitted bumwarmer on Ravelry, I picked up a small piece of jersey knit fabric and sewed a tube. It can be worn around the hips for extra warmth, or even the torso Japanese-style or just as a cowl.

Since the big freeze, we’ve had milder temperatures. Minus 3 feels very comfortable now. So the roads are clear of ice again and there’s been lots of melting, though the piles were so deep they haven’t disappeared yet.

I’m working this weekend so I will wrap this up and take myself off to bed. See you soon

Jan4

Happy New Year

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Hello 2022. My brain is having a hard time catching up to the fact that it’s two years since we first heard about The Disease That Shall Not Be Named. It wasn’t last year that my workplace was shut down for 7 weeks, it was two years ago. I feel like 2020 and 2021 have just blended into one long year. A VERY long year!

Anyway let’s focus on the here and now.

Shall we talk about the fact that our winter has been bitterly cold in recent weeks? I think the lowest was -30°C but mostly it was around -17 for quite some time. When it warmed up to -5 the last couple of days it was quite pleasant!

We’ve had lots of snow that’s not had a chance to melt between falls so the roads have been icy and the piles along the sides of the roads and driveways have just got higher.

Mr Fixit is back at work after his week off. Oldest son has had a month off due to his workplace accident but should be back at work tomorrow. Youngest had two weeks off and returned yesterday.

I just had a bonus 4 day stretch – my first New Year’s Day off in 7 years!

Last night three friends came over to knit and drink tea and generally be loud and funny.

The ‘Fuck the Cold’ hat is coming along (pattern is a free download on Ravelry). I cast on on the 1st and I’m halfway through the trees/moose section. Some of my friends are also making this – we are having a knitted colourwork makealong.

And my stashbusting worsted weight granny blanket has grown to 23 inches across in just a few days. My colour order is black/colour/grey/colour. I’m expecting to use up all my random medium weight yarn and hopefully end up with a king size blanket.

As I sit here on the couch writing this before heading down to my sewing room I see snow falling again, the neighbour clearing his drive again, and I’m glad I don’t have to go anywhere today.

Be careful out there!

Mar18

Not a table runner!

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Not a table runner!

Honestly, I didn’t need another cowl (or shawl/neckwarmer/scarf/whatever) but I do love making and wearing them. Nobody likes a cold neck, eh!

I joined most of my grannies together and along the way they told me they wanted to be a cowl.

I briefly considered crocheting around the edges but decided not to.

Love the result.

Feb21

A spring look to the dining room

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A spring look to the dining room

February 12th I showed you my placemats in progress. They sat in my sewing room for over a week, neglected, as I had work and other things on my plate, but today I dedicated a block of sewing time to them and they are done!

Ta dah!

The fabrics I used are more expensive than I’d usually buy, but I did have a gift certificate to spend. Even though the two main designs were from different groupings at the store, the selvages showed that they were designed by the same person which is why they coordinate so beautifully. I used the geometric pattern on the back to guide my quilting.

It feels good to get these off my To Do list (and onto my Ta Dah list – ho ho!).

What else have I been doing? Well, work of course, about which I have been feeling more relaxed lately, which is good as the acid reflux has subsided, thank goodness. And some play with colourful yarn…

Don’t ask me what these three-round granny squares will become. I haven’t decided yet. I’ve made about 40 of them and will see what ideas come to me when the bag of that yarn is almost gone.

I am excited to say that I am getting a new phone very soon and it will be sufficiently advanced that I should be able to get the WordPress app and post easily and quickly from that. That’ll save me a lot of faffing about. Also I will be able to have Facebook and Instagram on it and a bunch of other stuff, so it will basically replace my current Android AND my old and clunky iPad Mini.

I hope you’re all having a great weekend and staying warm (if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere).

Oct16

WIP Wednesday

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It’s blanket season!

I decided when I got back from my holiday that I needed to have something warm to work on so here are my Winter Works in Progress.

The Mindless Use up my Leftovers blanket, using random worsted weight yarn in my stash:

caston

As you can see, so far I have only cast on 370 stitches and knitted a few rounds. Not much warmth there yet!

The Giant Granny:

granny.jpg

Getting to be big enough to at least keep my knees warm, this is going to be a snuggly one quite quickly.

And a non-blanket project, the Party Cardi from The Secret Yarnery:

cardi

Hexagons complete, backs and fronts extended, pieces joined. The dyelots on these two cakes of Mandala Baby are quite different, and the next sections will probably be different again. I really hope this is a wearable garment when done, as so far it’s reminding me of a bed jacket! And there’s a lot of $$$ in five cakes of yarn, assuming I use it all, so if I hate it I will be frogging, not giving it away.

Those are this week’s WIPs. I have another one planned but I need to start it when I have time to focus, which actually could be right now but I have already made it to lunchtime today without getting any housework done or groceries bought so I really should do that first. I have been fighting off a cold for a few days now so have been practising some self-care (which means I have been making excuses for not exercising) but it is a beautiful day out there and we really need to eat and shopping needs to be done and at the very least I should clean the bathrooms and mop the kitchen floor. Hmmm, how quickly could I get those done?!