Week 5 - Granny Square Challenge

I have to admit to not doing a lot this week, I have had an excuse though and have been enjoying the sunshine in France for 4 days.

I have come to a point now where I think I need to get a few of my squares joined together to see what my blanket is looking like so hopefully next week you will see something that looks a bit like a blanket instead of a work in progress photo.

Week 4 - Granny Challenge

I have not made many more squares this week.  Since the weather has been fairly dry and sunny, I have tried to concentrate on my rather neglected garden.

However, I have roughly laid out for you to see what I have done so far.

It is intended to be more of a throw across the foot of the bed, rather than a full size blanket.  It still needs lots more squares.  I have now used all my colours and reversed the colour combinations.  

As mentioned in last weeks Blog, I went out to the wool shop  Crochet Chain in Waltham Abbey on the Beautiful Things outing, Beautiful Things Facebook Page.  and would you believe they sold the same DK Stylecraft Wool I was using and I could not resist buying just three more colours, Lemon, Citron, and Khaki to mix in with what I already had.  It would have been rude not to buy them as we were made very welcome in the shop.  Watch this space next week to see what I came up with.  

Week 3 - Granny Challenge

Since last week I have got rather carried away with making squares and have lost count of how many I have made.  I am now starting over again with the same colours, but in reverse order of centres and outer coloured round.

I am being good and trying to keep sewing the ends in quite frequently, see my comment's in last weeks post.

The picture above show some of the squares I have made this week and I am now making a start on blocking the squares before assembling them into a blanket.  You don't really have to do this, but since so much work goes into making the blanket, I just want to do it all properly.  Like the old saying ' if a jobs worth doing, its worth doing well'

Here is a great little link to the wonderful Lucy from Attic24's tutorial on Blocking

I am hoping to get some more completed on Friday 19th April as I am going on Beautiful Things outing to a lovely shop called the Crochet Chain in Waltham Abbey where we are to enjoy a couple of hours working away on our crochet whilst we all natter and enjoy the company and a cuppa.

I am sure you will see lots of photo's in due course on Beautiful Things Facebook Page.   

Week 2 - Granny Square Challenge

Well, since last week I am pleased to say I have in fact made a further six sets of six Square's all different combinations of blending colours.  Double the figure I expected to make.

It is a great temptation on completion of a pile of six squares to rush off, find different colour combinations and make more sets.  So, I am trying to be very methodical with finishing off all my ends.  I allow myself to start a further set, but only leave the previous set waiting to be finished.  In other words, I am only ever six squares in arrears to be completed.

When sewing in the ends, I start from the middle and work out to the final cast off edge.  With my colour combination, I always have eight ends on each square to sew in.  Once I have sewn them in, I go back and snip off the waste. (saves keeping picking up scissors eight times).

Sounds a bit over the top I hear you say, but how daunting it would be to know once you had made your last square that before you could join them all up, you had hundreds of ends to neaten off.

I would also like to add, that before I entered the challenge, out of the goodness of my heart, I offered to sew in the ends of the instigator of this challenge, so I may be a little slower at producing my own squares, whilst Claire should be able to race away.

Well, here's to a good week and more photo's of progress next week. 

Week 1 - Granny Square Challenge

Firstly I guess I should start by saying, "Welcome Back"!!  It looks as if I have not blogged since July 2009 (woops).

There are a number of reasons for this, but I think most importantly is that I have been quite heavily involved in helping my daughter Claire set up her new craft classes business and enjoying my Grandchildren (We had a new arrival back in 2011 of little Isobel).

Not just that but I had no time to surf the web and subsequently missed out on all the challenges that used to spur me on, so I was delighted when Claire decided to set up a Granny Square challenge on her blog at Beautiful Things.

I have recently got back into crochet after enjoying some of Claires many classes and have often wanted to get started on a slightly bigger project.  I have now signed up to a 6 week kickstarter programme where I will be following Claires 6 square mass production system and committing to at least 6 squares a week for 6 weeks.

So here is week 1:

My wool arrived on Wednesday of this week so I have had to work quickly to get my 1st squares complete by the challenge week end of Friday.

So far I have completed my first 6 squares and am well on the way to finishing off my 2nd set.  I have set myself a personal goal for next week to have another 3 sets completed by next week.  Watch this space to see how I go....................

 Why don't you join in too?  Your welcome to join in at any point along the way.  (Details here) With this rather unusual 'spring' weather (can you see the snow in this picture) it's the perfect time to get hooky with a cuppa and a slice of cake.

Little Eastern Bird

Have found a new Company called The Little Yellow Company and this little bird image is just one of their images available to buy. I have coloured him blue for the Colour Create challenge of Blue & White. I can assure you the card is a very Turquoise Blue and White, but looks green in the photo. As it has lots of flowers on, I have also entered it on My Time to Craft for the Floral Frenzy Challenge

Blossoms & Butterflies

Recyled an old card front by sticking it to a card blank & adding a few extra embellishments for a birthday card for a friend. I then decided it was just right for the Cupcake Challenge no. 48 which is Blossoms and Butterflys