Little Tin Bird

Goodness me, isn’t the light disappointing for taking photos at the moment? I am really struggling to take photos of my ripple that show the colours well. I think that my camera may be a little overwhelmed at the number of colours that I’m trying to get it to photograph, as well as the lack of light. I had to fiddle with the colour on this photo to get it looking accurate and that’s something I never do with my photos. I do crop photos, but I never edit them on my blog. Anyway, edited though this photo is, it is a good representation of the colours in my blanket. Pretty lush I think you’d agree!

Anyway, back to unedited, poorly lit photographs! As you can see, my ripple has grown a lot since my last update. Do you know what? The last stripes I worked on this blanket before Christmas were on the 19th November when I stayed with Rach for that Christmassy weekend. After that, I had so many things I needed to finish (like Rach’s birthday blanket) that I didn’t get the opportunity to work on my ripple at all for the rest of the year. I just put it away and left it, poor ripple. When I got back home after Christmas though, I decided to rectify this and thought that perhaps if I put as much effort and dedication into my own projects as I do for those that I make for other people, I could get it finished soon! That was an exciting thought, and I managed ELEVEN stripes in a weekend. Oof, how’s that for productive? I think that it is about 59 stripes long now. I think … tentatively … that that may be nearly done! Another 15-20 stripes to go I reckon, and then a simple border and edging. I’ve been holding off on it this week as I think I’d like to sneak another ball of yellow in. The more I look at it, the more I love the parts where there is yellow. I have a lot of blue tones left to use up and they’re just not doing it for me so much as the warm colours. I need to order another ball of yellow before I can proceed.

Tell you what though, I’m getting a decent amount of leftovers from this. I get two stripes (4 rows) out of a ball, and then almost enough for one stripe leftover. I am having fun plotting my leftovers projects. I think that a very soft cushion might be lovely, one that’s for my bed.

My favourite thing about stripy blankets is not seeing them all stretched out. Oh no. I like it when they’re all smooshled up in a pile where you have colour and stripes everywhere. Rolling it up into a sausage is also a favourite:

Are you loving it? I certainly am. I am very much enjoying my “selfish crochet”. I am being strict with projects this year: I want to finish my ripple, and Andy’s Rialto blanket. I have two baby blankets to make (one is half way through), and after that I don’t want to plan anything … all of last year I had a backlog of WIPs and I’d like to try to be inspired and start something RIGHT NOW and enjoy it, instead of feeling guilty about backlogs. Famous last words!

xxx

The flowers on my windowsill are just going over now (literally in the case of the floppy orange tulips!) but this week they have brought so much colour to my room. They’re beautiful. The white tulips were £1 in the supermarket and I bought them on a whim, lopped the stalks off them and stuck them in a jam jar next to my bed. I don’t usually put flowers there as I worry I’ll knock them over in the night but they’ve been fine and a lovely thing to wake up to. I like to buy flowers in January as a “treat” for putting up with all the grey, miserable weather and it makes me smile to think that Spring is on the way.

Here’s hoping we reach Spring without any snow. (Sorry Lucy, I know your little people want to go sledging but I am feeling decidedly anti-snow!)

xxx

Saturday’s weather was thankfully as sunny as Friday’s weather, although a LOT colder. Saturday is the day I Get Things Done in town and I had some Heather-friendly errands to run today. First off, I needed a ball of yarn: and then I paid two cheques into my bank account. I loooove doing that. The [...]

You may have noticed that I’ve been a bit quite these past two weeks. Truth is, I’ve been feeling miserable and mopey and that’s not been helped by the weather. I could rant on and on about how much I hate wet and stormy weather but I think you’ve got the message by now that [...]

When I posted a photo of this blanket last week it gained quite a few admiring comments, and this made me very chuffed indeed :-) I started working on it in secret in September time and really enjoyed it. It was always intended for Rachel’s birthday, although originally I had planned to make a granny [...]

This week has knocked me for six. Perhaps not six, but certainly a five. January blue coupled with a longer week at work and non-stop torrential rain and stormy weather does that to me. The stormy weather is the worst, I have to wear a change of clothes, wellyboots and a mac just to walk [...]

On January the First 2011 I posted a list of intentions that I wanted to achieve in that year. I feel that I have done well enough with this list (thanks to all the easy-hitters I put on it) to come back to it and review it. The intentions are in black, the reality is [...]

On the very last day of 2011 … a trip on the train, a morning spent with Rach to give her her SURPRISE birthday present. (which is one of the things I was not able to include in my Crochet 2011 post the other day. More photos to come soon.) A little sales shopping and [...]

It’s been a busy year for crochet! I was looking though my photo albums (I have them sorted by month) and was surprised that I didn’t make any finished objects until about March time. I think I wasted a lot of time on the hexagon blanket and I got a lot more done when I [...]

A flaming sunrise on Christmas Eve is not a sight that I had anticipated seeing this year. We (me, my mum and Rachel) raced the sunrise into Banbury for a “New Tradition” of coffee and breakfast, and a bit of a wander around town before coming back home to initiate the ritual of Decorating The [...]