Kaleidoscopic frogs and progress...

... I just liked the sound of "kaleidoscopic frogs" and although it will never make complete sense, I'm sticking with it!

I was hooking away at about 6.30am this Sunday morning, as I woke early and decided to get up. I opened the french doors and sat in my rocking chair with a coffee and my crochet, listening to the birds and enjoying the early morning sunshine. A very large flock of geese flew overhead and I wondered if they were migrating for the winter... I really enjoy getting up early on a Sunday sometimes and just having a couple of hours to myself.

The kaleidoscope blanket wasn't "singing" to me this week and I think it was the dark purple mass of hexagons which were to blame, so I pulled them out. Is it called "frogging" when work gets unravelled? This latest blanket development is the "frog" reference in the post title... never a delightful task frogging, but satisfying overall.

Now the dark purple has gone I'm a lot happier with how things are progressing.
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/memerose/kaleidoscopic-blanket

Wishing you a calm sunny Sunday x

***Anne's comment below made me laugh, as well as making the term "frogging" make more sense:

"Yes it is called frogging from the sound of ripping it out: rip it rip it rip it....lol!!!" ***

A kaleidoscopic endeavour...

In the summer of 2010 I decided to try my hand at patchwork... we were just about to move house and the slow process of making up the templates and stitching the small hexagons together by hand calmed my mind. I liked the result but it was a slow process; too slow for me and patchwork gave way to learning to crochet. Recently I have been toying with going back to patchwork - maybe using a bigger hexagonal template or squares, so the process isn't as laborious. Until I saw Ceitaspasaule's blanket, it never occurred to me that I could make a patchwork with crocheted hexagons!

Completely inspired by her blanket, my blanket of many colours is now on its merry way. I'm using BunnyMummy's mini hexagon pattern and I'm aiming to create a blanket using all the colours of the rainbow. Making a mini hexagon is super quick and before long there is a lovely tower of hexagons waiting to be sewn together. It is totally addictive and I love the fact that every scrap of yarn in my stash can be used in this blanket. After I abandoned the popcorn blanket I realised that what I need most is to work with colour. I wondered if I should try to tackle a more complex pattern; a pattern that requires concentration and counting, but by the time I have finished work I'm tired out. No, what I require is a pattern I can make whilst watching TV, that indulges my love of colour.

So here is the result of my labour so far:

Popcorned out...

So... the popcorn blanket wasn't working for me and it has ended up as a rather lovely cushion cover. I think this popcorn granny square design suits a lighter background colour as opposed to the midnight blue I chose. The cushion cover will be ideal for Autumn/Winter and I found a spare 18 inch feather cushion pad, so it is big and cosy...

I'm all popcorned out now and on to pastures new...

the back consists of an old cushion back ... waste not, want not...

I wasn't particularly feeling the love with this project and feel it was wise to stop when I did. Now I am looking forward starting something new and hopefully I will have something to show you soon x

Happy happy happy...

My charity shop hunting has finally paid off and I now have in my possession a 1970s crochet pattern book called All You Can Knit and Crochet for the Home: 50 Patterns. It is love at first sight... I thought you would like to have a look at some of the patterns:  

hexagon rug... yes please!

Hello! Crochet curtains are right up my street...

Cute baby....LOVE the headboard. I hope a similar headboard winds it way into a
local junk shop sometime soon

Crochet wall art... now we're talking. This project is on my "to do list".
With the right colours this would look fabulous...

Foam floor cushions.... ooooo, yes please

I think this chunky chevron blanket looks so cosy and I really think the pom pom
edging is wonderful

This potholder pattern looks very striking with the darker background colour...



I have a lampshade awaiting a crochet transformation and this pattern is just perfect.



There seem to be a few copies of this book available from Amazon.com and  there is a link on the sidebar if you are interested.
All You Can Knit and Crochet for the Home: 50 Patterns

I hope you enjoyed having a look at the vintage crochet... and can I just say "thank you" to everyone who has been visiting my blog and those who leave comments. It always makes my day to know people enjoy my posts x

Scrappy dappy dooooooooooo blanket finished!

I've finished my scrappy blanket which I started with the intention of using up the yarn scraps left over from the Spring blanket... The finished blanket is a good size and will certainly come in handy as the nights get colder. I attempted to edge the blanket in Teresa's slanted blanket edging, but it does not look like Teresa's version.

I do like the way it looks, but Teresa's edging looked more square and slanted, with sharper edges. The reason for this is that I thought I had memorized the pattern and in fact I needed to add another treble to each cluster. That's what happens when you don't write things down! I used a 4mm hook for the edging, but think it would work better with a 3.5mm hook. The blanket was made with left-over Stylecraft acrylic yarn and a 4.5mm hook. It is a good feeling to be able to create something useful out of left-over yarn and I'm glad I got around to finishing this blanket.

I'm getting an idea of what the Autumn blanket will look like now there are four squares completed.

I had to stitch these squares together as my husband had decided they were coasters - which in turn was
ruining their puffy popcorn loveliness...

The idea is to just plod along with this project, doing "one-a-day" until I feel it is big enough.

I'm off to brave the winds now - it might be a good idea to fish out my wellies as heavy rain is forcast. Wishing you all a happy Wednesday x