Finished blanket.....well nearly

I have finally finished sewing together the hexagons

I am really pleased with it and love the colour combinations with the variegated wool. I still have over half the hexagons left and another 6 balls of wool but I changed my mind about making a bed spread as I didn't want this to be hidden away on my bed but to add colour and warmth to my front room. I will sew together another smaller one for my french nephew who watched me crochet with utter fascination on his last visit and then make one for my step mother for Christmas.

However I still don't think it looks finished 

I know I still need to tidy up the threads but I think it needs some kind of border to finish it off. There are only 3 options in my Crochet Encyclopaedia so I have ordered 'Around the corner crochet Borders' hoping for some inspiration.

I hope you like it, I love it!

Hexagons continued

I am still making the hexagons and have ignored all other projects. My knitted & crocheted summer jumper is languishing in a bag as I started the sleeves and got a bit bored.

So back to the hexagons, there are quite a few now

So I thought I had better do something with them. But how best to put them together...

I had a look in the Crochet Encyclopaedia and tried a few

This messy and bulky seam was double crochet, this is the front

The back was worse, very lumpy and not at all right for a blanket

So I tried double crochet and chain thinking it would sit a bit flatter

This was even messier

Next I resorted to sewing, not my forte

This is the back and is flat and smooth, perfect for a blanket but what did it look like on the front?

Looking good, I liked the effect and it was a simple stitch even I can do.

Next was what size should it be. I have gone off the idea of a bed blanket as its huge and would be hidden away, instead I think I have enough hexagons for 2, maybe 3 sofa blankets

So I laid it out, I have decided a square of 9 hexagons across and down

now all I need to do is get sewing.....

I have really enjoyed crochet and think I might even prefer it to knitting although recently I have bought a few new knitting books. 

The Very easy guide to Lace knitting by Lynne Watterson  and Knits Men Want for my house full of boys. 

Once I finish sewing this blanket I really must attack those sleeves again and finish the summer jumper I started last summer.

Easter Holidays

I'm still making the hexagons and have made 90 at last count but the children are at home and Noah has wanted to make a recycled monster since he saw it on CBBC Totally Rubbish.

This weekend we had a go after Noah had checked the instructions on the CBBC web site.

He folded some paper in half then drew half his design. He cut this out to make a full monster and then folded an old towel in half. He then pinned his template to the towel and asked me to cut it out. This gave him 2 (almost) the same pieces of towel.

He pinned them then started to sew them together. This is where he came a bit unstuck as he kept loosing the thread and pricking his fingers, he also left far too big a gap between his stitches so all the stuffing would come out. This is where I stepped in and did his sewing. He then added a mouth and buttons for eyes (again with me sewing) We stuffed it and sewed the end together. He is really very pleased with the result.

How cute is that?!

So I had a go....

I'm very pleased with it and it was all hand sewn so I have found yet another reason to get my sewing machine serviced.

I also had a go at something else this week.

After seeing an idea in Making magazine for stamp art from the book The Art of Homemade Living by Willow Crossley I was very happy to help a friend and take home a big bag of used stamps.

It took a while to sort them

As there were loads of gold 1st Class and blue 2nd Class

As well as many coloured ones that I sorted into Bright, Dark and Muted

I had a go at making a Butterfly

I thought it was quite good

So I framed it.

I don't think its quite right. Maybe I should cut the shape out of the card mount so the lines are cleaner & sharper.

I could also use more colour as I have so many bright & colourful stamps.

It is the first attempt so these things are always evolving.

Anyway back to crocheting hexagons...only another 50 to go.....

Hexagon Obsession Continues....

I am so close to finishing the Beach comber jumper as I only have 1 sleeve left to knit and I finally cracked the crochet pattern but my Hexagon obsession has taken hold. Every time I get the knitting bag out I seem to drift across to the crochet hook. Its also because the hexagons are very portable. As I am making them all individually I can take one ball of wool and a hook pretty much anywhere. So the tower gets higher....

I think they look pretty cool

On Mothers Day we stayed home so I sat with a glass of fizz and started adding the white border to them all

144 seems like an awful lot of hexagons and they are pretty big so I laid out all the ones I had made so far to see how big a blanket I could make

Not nearly enough for a double bed so back to making them...144 of them.

Meanwhile I have started a new job as a dog walker and have been enjoying the patterns that nature shows us

Especially when only half frozen

Normally ice freezes in triangles because water molecules are triangular but there was no triangles in these patterns

Maybe I should make the border on the hexagons bigger, giving it more of a patch work feel

hmmm that doesn't seem to have worked, too many stitches. I will have to block it to see how it looks then

Meanwhile the weather has been odd on my first week at work. 

Snow Monday, frost Tuesday, cold sunshine Wednesday, warm almost t shirt weather Thursday and torrential rain Friday but the views are stunning

Wooton Hill

The Chase

Lets see what weather this week brings.

It's all about the Hexagons

I was having a look at the gorgeous Granny Square blanket made by Lucy at Attic 24

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2013/02/page/2/

and was thinking that as I have so many single balls of wool maybe this could be a good project to use them all up.

Then in the latest Mollie Makes

They had another granny square blanket I liked

Using a wool that changes colour

the next day in our local department store I found this in the sale

Reduced to £1.50 a ball. I know I was supposed to be using up wool not buying more but the colours were fab!!

However the granny square shape didn't change colour or inspire me so I got out a great book I use again and again

And found a new shape to play with

I had a go

It looked pretty good and hadn't taken long

But I felt they needed a border so I added a single row in white

This looked better

And defined the colours more when put together.

I now have a bit of a hexagon obsession going on

What size blanket was I going to make? I got pen & paper out and did a bit of maths...

One hexagon is 18cm so 6 hexagons are just over a metre. 36 hexagons are a metre squared. A double duvet is 2m x 2m so I would need 144 hexagons.

I make @4 hexagons a ball so I would need 36 balls in total....rush back to the shop to make sure they have enough in the sale stack.

Phew!

This one will be a slow burner I think. Its nice and portable whereas my knit/crochet jumper is now too big to cart around so I will always have the hexagons in my bag. I still need to finish the jumper now I have cracked the American crochet pattern but I also need to finish knitting the arms. A friend told me after I had cast on that she always knits sleeves together. Casts on twice on the same needle- 2 cast ons, 2 balls of wool- that way they will always be the same. A good tip for next time.

I will finish the jumper as I started it in June but these Hexagons are easy and fun to make, not sure I'll be saying that when I get to 144 mind.....

Catching up

I finally managed to redecorate by the 17th December so Christmas decorations could go up.

These are my new ones this year from Lizzy at No:32

I am very pleased with my gorgeous wall paper in the front room

Its scarily expensive Cole & Son but as I only needed one roll for the chimney breast ebay was my saviour

It just needed a mirror or picture to finish it off. I looked for weeks then Dad came to the rescue with a broken old mirror that used to hang at the bottom of the stairs when I was a child.

A bit of 'no more nails' and some new mirror fixings and it was good as new.

Wonder if my sister will recognise it when she is over next week from France?

Got Jacob a great T shirt from last exit to nowhere a great web site with obscure film referenced t shirts

http://www.lastexittonowhere.com/

Any guesses??

and Noah got the best present ever....

What could it be??

I think he's pleased :0)

Complete with Headphones.

George meanwhile got his favourite thing and built it with a little help from Big Brother

And then we got tickets for a free book event at Windsor Firestation Art Centre to meet none other than George's absolute favourite author in the Whole Wide World...

Andy Stanton!!!

He was fantastic, all the questions were asked by the children and were hilarious then we all had to take part in a book swap then Andy Stanton signed all 9 of his books that George had brought with him. George was lost for words, it was very sweet.

George's other favourite book is by Bonnie Burton, he reads it all the time...

Its the Star Wars Crafts book and is well worth a look. We have made Star wars finger puppets so far

We also spent a bit of time at Christmas fundraising for Marie Curie, in fact we will be out again this Saturday so if you see someone collecting please buy a daffodil

So what did I craft over Christmas?

I decided to make a small crocheted blanket

It was all treble crochet and I changed colours every row

It grew quite quickly as it was easy to do in front of the TV.  I wanted to do it to see if I could keep the edges straight

Although sewing in the edges was a huge bore and I wasn't very happy with the result as I could still see the thread

Finished

Betty liked it!

We had dinner at Nandos one night and look at the light shades

They look crocheted to me

Something to think about.

Meanwhile its time to kick back and relax....

Noah style!