Time out for half term

Good morning everyone, hope you are enjoying the weekend.

Last week I managed to get a couple of days off work as it was half term, I didn't have the whole week off this time as I have so much to do, but I was very grateful to have some time out from the usual hectic schedule.

On Friday afternoon, after a trip to the newly opened Range store in our town (and delighted with my investment of £1.79 for a balloon whisk AND an ice cream scoop - last of the big spenders or what?!!) I decided to go on a very short drive with my DD around a couple of local villages.  We ended up here for a quick look around...

Mount Saint Bernard's Abbey, it is a monastery very local to our town, a very nice quiet place for a wander around, some lovely grounds and a very interesting building as well to visit.  The church is made from local stone, the photos don't really do the colour justice.  I love to look round places of worship, my days of being head of Religious Studies in a 6th Form College must still haunt me!!

Arriving back home I cooked this cornflake tart, my DS#2 had been asking for this as he could remember it from his days of eating school dinners!

It was declared a big success, and all eaten very quickly together with custard.

Yesterday we had visitors, so much cleaning and cooking, but this morning is grey, raining and dull so a bit of crochet by candlelight is in order...

I am loving my blanket challenge this year, each granny square is made of 3 colours from a palette of 5, with 3 different types of double knit yarn to try to replicate the texture of birch bark.  Each square consists of 10 rows, so takes about 45 minutes to do if there are no interruptions (otherwise the longest it has taken is 3 days - don't ask!).  I have made 17 squares so far as I started the project in April.  I was aiming to do 30 squares in total, but I might make a few more to make the blanket a bit larger, will just have to see how it all shapes up after the summer holidays.

Have a lovely Sunday, and if you are in my part of the UK, lets hope the sun will come out later on!

Helenxx

Crochet Blanket Challenge of 2014 - Project Completed!!

Hi everyone, hope the New Year is going well for you so far!

Exactly a year ago today I joined in the Crochet Blanket Challenge.  Some folks in blogland used this challenge to make a mood blanket, crocheting a square a day, or a square each week, in colours that reflected the feelings of that particular time.  I chose to go for a slightly different plan, using washed out wintry tones, which bought to my mind a forest in winter.  I chose to make 7 row grannies, and aimed to make one each week (although on some occasions I managed to make more).  And, on 30/12/14 the project was completed!

Would you like to see?

It is so soft and comfy...

I am so pleased with the colours I chose...

I joined the squares with a double crochet seam as I liked the idea of texture...

The border is Sandra's (Cherry Heart Blog) Grannies Patches Border pattern, it is an absolute dream to make...

 Vital statistics for this blanket:

• Yarn - a variety from my yarn stash, plus 3 extra balls of Stylecraft Special DK to make up the palette of colours I wanted
• Crochet hook size 4mm
• 54 Granny Squares, each square had 7 granny rows plus an edging of double crochet
• Granny Patches border from Sandra at Cherryheart blog

I still have quite a few oddments of yarn left so I am having a go at a square lap blanket to use up what I have.  I then have another blanket challenge in mind, to start perhaps after my birthday on the 12th - surely a        girl/middle aged woman is allowed to treat herself to some spiffing new yarn for a project that will keep her busy until the next Christmas holidays ;)  I am aiming for a palette of greys and parchment this time, with perhaps a little bit of black and white.  I would love the blanket to represent the colours of birch tree bark (remember my love of the Marimekko birch tree pattern?)

Here is my finished 2014 challenge blanket folded up on the back of my crafting chair, all ready for the chilly evenings ahead...

 

 

 

I am so pleased that I stuck with the project, and am unbelievably happy with the result!!  Did you join in the challenge, and if so, how did you get on?  I would love to hear about it!

 

Helenxx

In-between days

Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying these in-between days between Christmas and New Year.  As I mentioned yesterday, these are some of my favourite days of the entire year, so I thought I would just share some moments from them.

On Sunday we celebrated my Darling Mum's birthday, she was 89 years young.  We usually put on a slap up meal at our house, but this year, with the ice and snow on the ground, the biting below zero winds, coupled with the fact she has been quite poorly on and off since September, we decided to take the meal to her.  DD baked a beautiful Andalusian lemon cake...

It is made with olive oil instead of butter, and has the zest and juice of two lemons, it is so fresh and light and fluffy...

 

We had a lovely meal and had a great time together, laughing and reminiscing...she is an amazing lady and very much loved by us all.

 

It has been lovely to have some time just to "be".  For example, sitting and taking time to look at Christmas decorations...

 

 

 

Loving the flowers that DH bought for me just a day or so before Christmas...

 

Aren't the glittery pinecones lovely?



 

And having time to crochet...

 

 



Now, this was no ordinary crochet project, oh no.  This was the finishing touches of my 2014 challenge:

Way back on 3rd January 2014 I decided to join in with the blanket challenge that many folks were getting into.  And today I have finally finished it!!!!  Sadly the light now is not good so will have to take a photo and post about it another day, but I am so thrilled that it is completed, and that I stuck with the project throughout the year.  It is the largest blanket I have ever made, and I am already feeling wistful and a bit sad that the challenge is over, so might well have to start another one in the New Year!  I really feel like using a palette of greys and parchment this time.  We shall see!

Well, hopefully back tomorrow with what has become a bit of a blog tradition for me, the review of 2014.

In the meantime, make the most of the holiday!

Helenxx

Crochet Blanket Challenge update week 19

Hello there, thank goodness we have arrived at the weekend!  Although in the UK it was a shorter working week thanks to the Bank Holiday last Monday, in fact it felt like a long week - revision and course work going full throttle here at home, and work for DH and I was absolutely hectic.

The last few weeks in fact have been very, very busy, but I have still managed to sneak in some crochet time here and there.  My regular Monday evenings with my dearest friend Sue means that I know I have at least a couple of hours each week to get out the hooks and the yarn as we chat and sip coffee. 

This morning the sun shone for a little while, so quickly snapped a photo of my last few weeks of granny square making:

I now have a total of 56 squares (well actually there is 64 but I have decided not to include the pink ones into the final blanket - these will be used in another project instead).  So most weeks I have managed to make more than one square (we are now into week 19).  My daughter helped me to arrange all the squares on the living room carpet this morning, silly me though forgot to snap a photo.  80 squares will make a very decent sized blanket, especially when there will be several rows of border. 

In amongst the grannies I have also been working on vintage-style pot holders as in this post, here is work in progress on my most recent effort:

I have also been making a little bit of progress with my Couch25K challenge.  This is the start of my third week, DH and I adjusted the programme slightly to start with due to our age and general unfitness!  So this week is the first week of the programme "proper" whereby we alternate one minute of jogging with 90 seconds of brisk walking.  The programme advises a total of 30 minutes for this, but we usually do 40 minutes as we do a complete lap of our local Outwoods.  This week I did the programme along the paths of our local estate midweek, but this really hurt my knees as my trainers are designed for trail running - I really hadn't anticipated how much difference jogging on a hard surface would make.  In the Outwoods the paths are made from decades of packed-down leaves and pine needles so in fact is quite springy.  I must say though, dodgy knees notwithstanding, I am beginning to feel the benefit of this new regime.  And, against my better nature, I am actually enjoying it!!!!

Well, must away, hope you all have a wonderful Saturday!

Helenxx

Autumnal April

Hello everyone, April is flying by!  A very busy time at home and work, but all good.

Last week the UK was affected by a rather unusual weather pattern, which resulted in a lot of pollution finding it's way here from the continent.  This meant that instead of having warm spring sunshine and blue skies we ended up with grey days, mist and fog.  As Autumn is my most favourite season, I have to confess that I rather enjoyed this (apologies to anyone out there whose health was affected by the weather).  A little bit of Autumn in the Spring...

In my job I have to travel around quite a bit, and one morning had to make a phone call to one of my centres.  Now, I can answer calls on the hands-free, but seem incapable of dialing out.  So, I pulled over, switched off the car, and made the call.  After finishing the call, I took a few seconds to really look around me.  And decided to take these photos...

 Dark and grey...

Skeletal trees...

Old iron railings...

Looking across the lake....

A little bit of spring peeking through the autumn mists...

 Of course all this autumnal weather meant that crocheting more squares for my blanket challenge (weeks 14 and 15) was the order of the day...

 Now at this point, dear readers, I do have a teeny little confession to make...this                                  yarn is not from my stash...I was in a tiny little yarn store in one of our local villages, and noticed that they were selling Stylecraft DK.  Now I have read lots and lots of favourable comments on a lot of your blogs, but I have never used this brand before.  I loved this colour, and thought it would add a touch of lightness to the colours I already have for my blanket challenge.  So I bought 2 100g balls.  And I am loving this yarn, it is a dream to work with, no splitting, and it is so snuggly soft and smooth.

 It cost 60p more than my usual acrylic brand I buy from our local market, but I have to say it is worth that little bit extra.  I can get 10 squares from a 100g ball so that is quite reasonable.  The shop had a decent selection of colours, so I think I might pop back there next week and get three more balls so that I can make some potholders - I need to make some little gifts to send to relatives overseas, something small and light.  Potholders will fit the bill nicely, and make a nice little project for the Easter weekend methinks.

Well, must away, quite a few errands to run today.  But hopefully there will be some hooky time later.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Helenxx

April begins...

Good evening everyone - what a lovely Spring day it has been, a lovely way to welcome in the month of April...

(Image courtesy of Google)

No showers to report here, although it seemed more like Autumn early this morning, very damp and misty.  But the sun soon burned all the dampness away, leaving us with blue skies and fluffy blue clouds.

So here we are, week 13 of the Crochet Blanket Challenge - these four squares have been completed and added to the collection...

This is still proving to be a happy project, something that can be picked up and put down, carried around, little moments of crochet often snatched in the 10 minutes waiting for dinner to cook.  Ideal for my often frantic schedule.

I thought I would leave you with a photo of the cake my Darling Daughter made for me for Mothers Day, none left now of course...

Hope you are enjoying these early Spring days!

Helenxx

Crochet Blanket Challenge Update - Week 12

Good morning, and Happy Springtime to you all!  True to form, here in my part of the UK so far the Spring has brought some high winds and heavy rain showers, but still some sunshine in between so no complaints.

Anyhow, I thought it due time to post an update on my progress with the Crochet Blanket Challenge.  During the Christmas holidays I had bought into the idea that I could make one Granny Square each week, with the aim to have a decent sized blanket by the end of 2014.  You may have thought "oh, she has gone a bit quiet on her blog about this, probably given up, oh well, it was a big project..." but, dear readers, I have been crocheting squares when and where I can.  I am now on week 12 of of this project (3 months in, oh my where has that time gone?!).  Here are my efforts of recent weeks:

Lovely to take some photos in natural, sunny light...

Here are all my squares tucked into their little bag for safe keeping, there are actually 48 of them in total....

You may have noticed that the pink squares are all huddled together, I am now not so sure I want to include them - do they go with the washed out wintry Scandi shades...what do you think?  Should they stay or should they go? (Will now have the Clash song running through my head for the rest of the day). If they go I can certainly make something with them, perhaps a cushion for my DD...

All this crochet is certainly making me feel quite chirpy.  Other cheerful things this week include this super bargain picked up during the weekly shop at Aldi for the princely sum of £2.99:

loads of lovely blanket patterns (yes, I think I have caught the blanket bug well and truly) and for half the price of a magazine.  What's not to like?

Also, my second eldest celebrated leaving his teenage years behind by turning 20 years old.  DD made this brilliant cake for him (he loves Chocolate Oranges)

Well, must away, a busy day awaits.  Have a lovely weekend!

Helenxx

Anniversary Rose (and Crochet Blanket Challenge week 6)

Good morning everyone, hope you are all well and enjoying the start of the weekend.

It has been a funny week here, feeling a bit under the weather (to such an extent I couldn't make my weekly craft night meet up with Sue) and generally tired.

But this week (on Wednesday to be precise) it was my 26th Wedding Anniversary.  DH was working away.  I arrived home from work to find the kids looking extremely furtive and giggly.  A very large gift bag was given to me by eldest son - what's this?  It has the Interflora logo on it...and a card from DH...

After some wrangling with the bag this beautiful object emerged....

Such utter perfection in this rose - do you like the little heart gem that had been so carefully added to the petals...

All presented in a lovely vase, which will, of course be used again and again...

I love the little gold heart attached to the vase.  So even after the rose has faded I will have a permanent reminder of our 26th Anniversary.

We are hoping to have a belated celebration the week after next when we are both on holiday from work.  But in the meantime this fabulous rose is filling the living room with a gentle, subtle perfume.  I am feeling very spoiled!

And, whilst I am here, I thought I had better update re. my crochet squares and progress this week - just two again, but still ahead of my "one-a-week" target :)

36 squares in total.

Have a great weekend, DH is having to do some work at home this weekend (due to the afore-mentioned planned week off ) so I think I will take some time to relax, read and craft.

Helenxx

Crochet Blanket Challenge - week 5

Good morning everyone.

Well, the first day of February has arrived - where did January go?  It was a very busy month, with birthdays, the return to work, thesis writing, GCSE coursework deadlines, University offers, etc etc - I feel as if the whole month flew by without me catching my breath.  And of course for most of the month the weather was frightful.

But this morning, on this first day of February the sun is finally shining....

Thesis and coursework have been submitted (some fingernail nibbling going on whilst results are awaited), university offers have been accepted, work is back in full swing, birthdays have been celebrated.  And somehow, in and among all this, I have managed to keep going with my granny squares.  And even more incredibly, this week I have managed to complete six new squares:

so now there are 34 squares in total...

when I see them all together like this I can really see the blanket taking shape.  The squares are big, seven granny rows then an edging of double crochet (sc for my American friends).  I am already beginning to think about possible colour combinations for the blanket edging.  Possibly varying degrees of grey I think....(no sniggering please!) And I think each square will need another row of the colour I finally decide upon for the joining up process.  I think about 80 squares in all should make a pretty big blanket, when including all the edgings.  

To be honest I cant believe how much progress has been made, it makes me feel strangely and unbelievably contented arranging the squares, counting them up, and thinking about the colour combinations.  The colours are somewhat more restrained than how they appear in the photos.  

I am having a lazy morning for the first time in weeks, and looking forward to going up to Manchester later to have an evening out with relatives.  Will be getting the crochet hook out shortly for a while though first.

Hope you all have a lovely Saturday, and that the sun is shining wherever you are!

Helenxx

Crochet Blanket Challenge - week 4

Good morning everyone - a very dull and dark start to the day here in the middle of the British Isles, after horrendous thunder and hail storms yesterday.  At least where I live we have thankfully been spared the dreadful floods that have so badly affected other parts of the country, my heart goes out to all those that have been caught up in that over the past few weeks.

Well, even though it has been an extremely busy week I have managed to make 2 squares to contribute to the steadily-growing blanket project.

Would you like to see?

Loving the colours...

Surprising just how soothing some hooky time can be, the gentle repetition of the stitches and the satisfaction of making progress on yet another square...

Here are the two squares completed this week....

When I was having a little walk down memory lane looking at some photos from 2 years ago I found this, my first attempt since the 1980's of making granny squares:

After making these (for a bloggy swap) I didn't make any more until last autumn when I hooked some to make up into cushions.  And now, somehow, I have become quite addicted to them.  Never thought I would say that as I had previously found making them quite, ahem, boring.  Not tiresome, just boring.  But I think at the moment what I need is a nice, soothing, crafting project like running up squares for something that, in the end will (hopefully) be a large, reasonably impressive outcome.  While making them I can really let my mind relax and wander .  I find myself thinking about a lot of things whilst hooking away, but not stressful thoughts.  I can concentrate on how the yarn feels, the scent of the hyacinths blooming on the windowsill, the sound of the rain (or indeed hail!) on the window, the sound of the cats purring as they sprawl on the carpet at my feet.  All very soothing, very necessary things to be aware of - the simple, little things that form part of the pattern of my life.  And yes, I can think to myself, it isn't all work, work, work, there are so many precious moments to be made the most of.

Hope you have the chance to appreciate the simple things today!

Helenxx

Crochet Blanket Challenge - week 3

Good evening everyone - wow am I feeling tired today!  I only had about 4 hours sleep last night, my brother in law had arrived back from his 4 week break and called us from Heathrow to announce he would drop in for a coffee and a break - this is all great but he arrived at our house just after midnight!  I then drove 90 miles today for my job, and have an evening of thesis writing to look forward to...but thought I would just drop by and share my progress on the crochet square front for last week.

Even though last week was very hectic, what with work and study, somehow I managed to make 7 squares - not one a day, one day I made three and other days I made none.  But I am really chuffed I managed to make so many...

I now have 26 squares made, here they are all together:

I can now see a blanket taking shape!

At least I know my efforts will be appreciated, here is my cute cat Tiger asleep on a cushion I crocheted a couple of years ago:

Have a lovely evening!

Helenxx