Granny Stripe Blanket.....Done!

I know I said I wouldn't be blogging so frequently any more, but I didn't really expect to be absent for quite so long. My apologies and grateful thanks to anybody visiting.......

Things have been busy as usual over at Magpie Towers and although there have been bits and bobs of crafting going on, not many of them have made it to the finish as yet.

With then kids back at school after half term, I am having the annual panic of thinking "S***, I've only got seven weeks in which to spring clean/redecorate/learn a new language/address monobrow,  etc. before I have NO time in which to do these things because I will be performing earth mother of the year duties keeping my little darlings fully occupied and joyously happy for almost two months".

So, this week I will be attempting to clear a backlog of little jobs whilst having a little creativity thrown in.

I thought you might like to see that I can get some things finished. Here is the blanket which I started when I first learned to crochet last March, and which I finished a few weeks ago with a fetching border....

 

I am really happy with this, not least because it is finally finished, but because we have already been using it for over a year, it has been washed several times and still looks and feels lovely.

The only trouble is, there have also been a few tussles over who will get to snuggle under it at night, so it is back to the crochet hook for big blanket #2.

See you in another few months?

Beth  x

Colour Explosions

.... It wasn't just me apparently, Blogger is having some issues at the moment. I have skirted around the problem by using a different browser. If only it would find the wordy part of the post that Blogger helpfully lost too!

 

Anyway, are you ready to have your day brightened up? These funky ripples are from the secret project I was working on before Christmas. They were to be turned into a cushion for Mr Magpie's sister.



 

I revisited the Neat Ripple pattern from Attic 24 for the cushion, it is so simple and effective and works up quickly. I did the ripples randomly, unlike my Baby Blanket, which was more of a repeat.

To begin, I made a chain slightly shorter than the width of the cushion pad. I then rippled happily away until I was just short of the height, then made the reverse side with the same starting chain and the same number of ripples (forty-ish I think). Although the pattern was random, I did try to make sure that colours weren't used together too often and that the two sides weren't the same.

I intentionally made the two sides smaller than the cushion pad as I wanted to use a new contrasting colour on the edgings. I did this by making two trebles in the end of each row along the sides, once I had woven in all the pesky ends.



 

I had intended to flatten the ripple on the top and bottom but when I held the sides together I realised that they interlocked perfectly and all that was needed to join them together was a row of single crochet.

 

 

 

When I had joined the wavy ends, I turned the cushion inside out and sewed a zip along the row of treble pairs. Once that was in place I trebled all down each side again and then joined all the edges with a final row of singles. I'm afraid I forgot to take close-ups of this part.

 

 

So this is the finished result. I must say I was very pleased with it left it on the sofa for a few days so I could admire it! The recipient was pleased too and has requested more cushions on each birthday and Christmas for several years to come.

 

The next present was the Spectra scarf I was making for my daughter, which ended up being finished over the holidays. Again, I was really happy with the finished item so wasn't too cross when, after trying it on for the first time and keeping it on for all of seven seconds it was pronounced 'too itchy' and handed straight back to me!

I've been struggling to find a way of photographing this scarf in a flattering way, it really does look a lot brighter in 'real life' and I love the way it drapes when worn.

 

 

 

As predicted, I have enough of the colourful Poems yarn left over to make another, which I will probably do.

 

 

The next colourful creation is my Granny Stripe blanket, which gets the odd row added here and there when I can wrestle it away from whoever is snuggling under it of an evening (or afternoon, it has been in great demand by the various poorly Magpies who have been using it as a comforter). It really is huge now and unless I continue with my original plan to make it double-bed sized, I think I will be adding a border soon so that I can pronounce it finished.

 





My thoughts have already been working out the next sofa blanket I need to make (necessitated by the arguments over the Granny Stripe) and I have been steadily stashing the Stylecraft ready to make a start.

 

Until I make a decision, I have decided to embark upon my own crochet cushion covers and am planning to make several in different colours, but using the same group of colours for each, starting with the purple shades.

 

 

To the untrained eye it looks as though I am rippling again. I am, but this time using a different pattern from my Handbook of Crochet Stitches. This pattern does a TR3TOG at the bottom of the valley, five trebles in between and a TR, CH, TR into the mountain, which produces the holes you can see below.

 

Currently I am trying to find a combination of knitting pattern and yarn I like, but not having much success. Looks like the crochet will be taking over again!

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x







Holiday Fun (and a little bit of knitting and crochet)

The summer holidays are in full swing over here at Magpie Towers and we have been getting out and about as much as we can. Over the last week we haven't managed to get to the beach, but tomorrow's forecast is looking good so we will be getting out the buckets and spades once again.

In the last week or so we have enjoyed picnics aplenty in a variety of touristy destinations; it is great living in a seaside town, you feel you are on holiday just by popping a mile up the road. Actually, last year every time we went to the town centre, the littlest Magpie would gleefully announce 'We're at the holiday!'

As well as the picnics, we have been crabbing, swimming, walking, playing at the park (well, several parks) exploring a model town and having a few adventures.

Examining the catch, the final tally was 7!

A brave new friend.

A Model Town



The littlest Magpie wanted to take this cutie home.



That's me - I did the monkey bars!!

My Hitchhiker#2 has been living in my handbag so that it can be whipped out at any available opportunity while the boys are otherwise occupied and has been growing steadily. The missing Hitchhiker#1 got to 45 teeth and I think that the yarn ball looked slightly smaller than this one. I'm on tooth 30 now, so still a way to go but I am proud to say that there are still no mistakes in this one and I aim to keep it that way!

I have also been adding the odd new stripe to my Granny blanket when I get settled enough of an evening. This picture shows 20 more stripes than when I last blogged about the blanket here. Because we have been using the blanket so much already I have changed my mind about making this double-bed sized because I think that if I do it will get left on a bed and would be too big to be carried around by the kids or to be a useful size.

I have just completed stripe 55 and think that I will probably continue to a nice round 60 before moving on to the border.

Granny Magpie has been making her very own Granny Stripe, her first crochet project and I can't wait to see it. A good friend of mine who asked me to show her how to crochet has also been making her own blanket so hopefully soon I can show you pictures of three finished masterpieces!

This weekend we will be having a visit from Grandad, who will be taking the middle-sized Magpie back up to the Midlands to spend a week with Granny Magpie. After a relatively quiet week we will be visited by the Magpie cousins and are looking forward to all the Magpies enjoying some holiday time together as Mr Magpie will be off work too.

I hope that you are enjoying your summer too,

Thanks for reading,

Beth x

Easter Crochet

It has been a bit of a strange Easter Holiday this year. Firstly my daughter has stayed with her Dad for the whole of the break, which is the longest she has ever been away so I am really missing her. I have taken the opportunity of her absence to totally overhaul her bedroom though (with her permission) and I can't wait for her to see the result. It took two full days (including the construction of a flat pack monster) and yielded three full rubbish bags but it is now a teenage haven. For the moment.

During the first week off Mr Magpie was working and I had three night shifts. I took the two youngest boys out on a few outings during the day and we got some chores done too.

Over the Easter weekend we travelled up to Nottingham to see family. Our male teenager came too and his travel sickness relegated me to the back seat with the two younger boys. I took advantage of the journey to get some more work done on my blanket and the boys seemed to like having it draped over them as it moved left and right across my lap. Middle son in particular has taken quite a fancy to the blanket and is keen to know when it will be functional. He has also started to provide design input and due to this I have now commenced a true 'rainbow section'.

The weekend provided rather a lot of unexpected crochet time, so the blanket has grown considerably. Each colour stripe comprises two rows of trebles and takes roughly an hour if I can work steadily without mistakes. I have now completed 34 stripes and have realised that I have probably made the blanket too wide. Lucy of Attic24 crocheted 60 stripes on her granny stripe but I think that I will need nearer 100 to make the length look right against the width, which is almost six feet. A little way to go then. When the children go back to school I will be gearing up to full production mode on the sewing machine so I might have to ask Mr Magpie to hide the blanket away from me for a while to avoid temptation, it really is totally addictive!

After Easter my poor littlest Magpie whose leg is almost better caught a nasty tummy bug and has spent most of the week in a weakened state on the sofa. We have had to postpone his birthday party for a week to give him time to recover.

For the last few days we are hoping to have a few more little outings and finish off the overhaul of the house. I promise to show you around my crafty space soon.

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter break, thanks for stopping by,

Beth x

Rainbow Colours

After a week of crawling and being ferried around in a borrowed buggy, I am happy to report that the leg of the littlest Magpie is now out of plaster. He hasn't broken any bones, but has damaged the soft tissue and is meant to be taking things slowly. Quite how you're supposed to stop a little bundle of energy from bouncing on the trampoline with his brother or from chucking himself around the park is obviously beyond me, but he does seem to mix his bursts of energy with a little limp or wanting to be carried so I suppose he won't hurt himself. Can you tell he's my third child?!

I was gadding about in London when the plaster came off, but Mr Magpie reliably informs me that at first the injury resembled most of the colours of my crochet.

Although I am intending the colours of my blanket to be rainbow-like, the shape similarities are not intentional. Can anyone advise me if this is normal? I am hoping that when I add the edging at the end it will sort out the problem.

I had a great day out in London with my daughter and our friends. We did a LOT of walking and sightseeing, although we didn't get to see the Hockney Exhibition after all as we got a bit lost between Brixton and Piccadilly and didn't have time to queue for the two hours needed for entry. We did find a nice old Irish pub to pass the time in until we had to collect our little goth chicks though, so not all was lost.

Although Mr Magpie soldiered on with the flat-pack construction while I was sightseeing, he did leave me my new desk to construct. I didn't have to swear once while putting it together, so can thoroughly recommend it if you are needing some storage. You get a pic of work in progress but the holidays mean some time away from craft, aside from the odd bit of crochet so you will have to wait a few weeks for a tour of the newly organised room.

After all the glorious sunshine, it is raining here in Bournemouth today so we are off out to find some indoor, leg protecting fun. Hmmm.

Thanks for stopping by,
Beth x

The Big, The Broken and the Colourful

After the lovely news we had about Larmer Tree last Friday, events took a turn for the worse on Sunday afternoon. We had been enjoying an afternoon on the beach, which we had cycled to so that we could see the giant deckchair.

Unfortunately we forgot to take our camera, so these pictures are 'borrowed' from the internet, although when we were there the deckchair was being guarded by ugly railings and two security chaps so these pictures give a better view of the colossal seat.

Anyhow, we had just started cycling back when all of a sudden my bike stopped dead and I almost flew over the handlebars. I managed to hang on, and while my brain was scrambling through what had happened my son whose seat is on my crossbar started screaming.

It appears that he had taken his foot off his footrest and put it near the wheel, whereupon his shoe got caught in the spokes and his leg got dragged through, which stopped the bike. Luckily we weren't travelling at any great speed or things may have been much worse.

As it is, I managed to free the poor lad's foot from the spokes and we quickly applied wet tissues to the ankle. It was obvious from the enormous swelling which came up instantly that he would need medical attention so we had to call an ambulance.

A few awful hours later we returned home with the little chap's leg in plaster. The hospital team couldn't be sure, but they think that he has damaged the growing plate at the end of one of his leg bones, so we were sent home and told to return on Friday for further assessment.

My brave little soldier has been coping so well and I think secretly enjoying all the fuss, and being pushed around in a buggy again.

Crafting for the festival has been put on hold until after the Easter break. Tomorrow we are off to Ikea to purchase some more flatpack joy and a dozen other things that will no doubt catch our eye. I will be buying supplies for festival crafting and finally getting the desk I have been wanting for the dining room which will help me organise everything.

On Friday I am taking my daughter and her friend to London so that they can see some hard rock/heavy metal/I'm not sure but it sounds awful band playing at Brixton Academy. I will be taking my own friend so that we can hopefully go and see the Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy while the girls are watching said awful band.

We shall be travelling to London by coach, which takes about two and a half hours, so I will be taking my crochet so that I can hopefully hook up a couple of large granny squares to act as backs for the two cushion fronts I've made.

I have also started on a granny stripe blanket, inspired by Lucy of Attic24. I'm sure all you crocheters are already aware of this fantabulous blog but if not, please do hop over and have a look, you won't be disappointed.

This is my humble effort so far. I'm hoping that we'll be travelling to Nottingham over Easter to see Granny Magpie and the rest of the clan so the journey can be spent productively for me. My plan is that by the time Larmer Tree comes around I will have a colourful stripe-fest to drape over my Magpie knees when the sun goes down.

For the first time I can remember I am actually a little bit sorry to see the back of the dark evenings. I have been so happy sitting warm by the fire with something to keep my fingers happy (and away from the biscuits). I'm not saying I don't enjoy the longer days, I love summer, but I am glad that I don't need to worry about Winter coming around again.

I hope all of you have been managing to get out in the sun, it's been gorgeous hasn't it?

Thanks for stopping by,

Beth x