Stash-busting...

There is something about this time of year that makes me want to reach for the yarn bag. Or in my case the yarn bag, box under the bed, odd bag in the cupboard and chest of drawers in the spare room! I seem to have balls of yarn stuffed in every spare space, from projects over the years (some many years!) and the onset of colder, dark evenings made me want to reach for the crochet hook and get blanket making.

I finished the baby blanket that has been stored for 25 years half made...

I have no baby to give it to yet but at least it can go back in the drawer completed and just wait for the right occasion. I do love this pattern and think I would make it again but after all that white I was craving for a bit of colour. Then when hunting for a crochet hook I came across this stash of cotton yarns...

It was like falling upon a rainbow! Some of these date from my very first forays into crochet several years ago when I treated myself to a few balls of lovely Rowan hand knit cotton each time I spotted one in the 'end of lines' box in my yarn store. Of course, when you do this a bit aimlessly without a project in mind you often don't end up using them! Or I don't! So I decided I should do something with these but didn't want to make another granny blanket. Initially I wondered about a ripple but I had this urge to do a rainbow on the diagonal and came across a corner to corner pattern which grow in blocks - perfect! 

It grows quickly in blocks of 4 trebles and I am loving it. It is easy enough once you have the pattern in your head to do in front of a film or easy TV but different enough for me to keep my interest. And relatively few ends to sew in which is always a bonus in my book!

I had pretty much decided to just use up each colour but in fact the first 3 colours conveniently finished at the end of rows and when I got to the yellow it became obvious that a) that would be way too much yellow at once and b) I really needed another round of colours to balance things across the size of a blanket.

I slightly regret the few blocks of green at the beginning of the row but in the spirit of stash busting decided to leave it. Only guess what? Now I need to go and get some more of the dark purple, the light blue, green and orange so that I can repeat the rows! I still have a similar darker blue and the yellows and reds and I don't mind if they are not an exact match but it does rather defeat the object if I end up with more left over at the end!

I am trying to be a bit careful with pennies at the moment so I have put the rainbow project to one side and am really going for it with the rest of the yarn I have stowed! The current project is a complete mish mash of all the dark and bright yarns I have - using a huge hook and 2 strands of different yarns with easy rows of half trebles. I can't quite decide if I am going to like it or not but there is something satisfying about seeing these balls of wool that have been kicking around for years get used up and it is making a very cosy blanket to sit under of an evening! Might post photos at a later stage!

I wonder whether I will ever have the discipline to only buy wool for what I am making and not extra odd balls...

S x

fighting the blues...

This week was a tricky one, not helped by the miserable weather. Much as I don't want to wish the days away, I am really struggling with winter blues at the moment and feel sure that things will feel brighter when the weather picks up. Feels like the barometer has been stuck on this for forever...

...and twice this week I have been soaked to the skin in spite of multiple layers and an attempt to keep some of the rain off...

Don't think I have ever used my umbrella quite so much!

I've been trying to fight off the feeling of lethargy with some sorting and project planning. I have the biggest store of fabrics, some dating back to very early sewing projects. I have offcuts from my bridesmaids dresses, first nursery curtains, blouses and dresses... you name it, its probably there. Plus a few once loved items of clothing, charity shop finds etc. 

I think I should finally do something with them - thinking of a rag rug... May be a long project but hey, no rush, a few more years are neither here nor there.

My little hat make soon took shape - partly because I can't bear going out in the cold without a hat at the moment! Even if I do look a bit of a muppet in a hat!

I don't know how people take photos of hats on their heads! I tried but decided it was impossible to get it in focus if you can't see what you are doing. This yarn feels lovely made up, light and soft and actually very warm but it was a bit of a pain to work with, bit like knitting with two strands of cotton...

Goes a long way though - this hat took less that a 25gm ball so I still have about 60gm to use. Maybe another more slouchy hat? Maybe crochet this time? Not sure what this will be like to crochet with?

And got a bit sidetracked with a cotton yarn find, suddenly had an urge to make cloths/dusters or something else with this knobbly pattern...

Thanks for kind comments, trying hard to keep things in perspective and focus on the future, there are lots of folk with way more to feel low about than me.

Looking forward to a day with my boys tomorrow, eldest son will be 25, don't quite know how those years have gone so fast.

Sx

the smallest room...

Thanks so much to you all for your kind comments and good wishes, I am really touched that people have bothered to send a message, makes me feel very 'connected' across the ether somehow.

Today I have a random selection of things to keep track of! I appreciate this may not be the most glamorous room to 'show and tell' and possibly not the most essential to decorate first but, for me, what my Nannie always euphemistically called 'the smallest room' (as a child I always wondered where she disappeared to and where on earth the smallest room in her bungalow could be!) was the one room that was a bit of an eyesore. It had had a bad touch up job, presumably prior to going on the market, and even after a really thorough clean (which it badly needed!) it still felt a bit cold and drab. I think I was also conscious that it is the one room that it is very likely that guests may visit (after enough cups of tea, almost inevitable!) and with no furniture as such to detract the grotty bits were very visible.

Plus, lets face it you have to paint something in your new house and it didn't take much paint or cost much...so here are before...

Note obligatory test pot patches (which never really reflect what the final room will look like!) and the rather stunning dark red/terracotta that I revealed when I moved the mirror to paint! The whole room must have been this colour originally as it was liberally sprayed over the tiles! I went with the palest of the three yellows in the end (to the right of the window) as we decided the darker yellows might make it feel a bit like sitting in an egg yolk...

And after...

Ok, so its still only a downstairs loo. And I know its not that different really but it feels better to me. After I took this photo I also found a mat in a similar blue to the towel so there is a real splash of colour in there now. I still have to get some shelves up in the corner but basically I feel ok letting people go in there now! Daft, I know.

At the moment my little collection of bottles is in there...

...which worries me slightly as I think my mum has old bottles in her downstairs loo too. Eek, perhaps I am turning into my mother. Lord help me when my sister comes to visit, expect it won't take her long to point that out!

Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I am finding the incessant greyness and wet weather we've been having a bit depressing. Good job I've had lots going on I think as this time of year always just brings me down and I find I need distractions. Yesterday by 4pm I felt I needed a bit of colour and warmth and lit my little candle lanterns. In a fit of pique when we were packing up these nearly didn't make it as they are a bit tatty & battered now. But when they were quiety glowing away there I was very glad I'd salvaged them after all.

Today I was in London for the day at a (looong!) meeting and it was so miserable in London I couldn't even bring myself to wander round there. I love walking round London but there is only so much you can tolerate when it is cold and raining (particularly rubbish when you wear glasses!) so I was trying to kill time in the train station (did you know it is possible to be in Claire's accessories in Liverpool St for almost 30 minutes?!!). I took this photo just after they had announced that one of the Norwich trains and been cancelled... Which gave me another hour to kill...

I resorted to an impulse buy of two magazines and the most expensive jacket potato and cheese in the station cafe that I think I've ever bought!

I was curious to see if I could pick up any tips from the photography one and attracted by this bit of the Reloved magazine...

One of my chairs badly needs re webbing & springing and I wondered whether it might be a feasible project. But it seems you need a number of specialist-ish tools and I'm thinking just maybe it would be possible to make a very bad & costly job of it. Maybe I should just pay someone to reupholster it properly...

There were some other tempting projects though...

I was actually given this book called 'Cloth' for Christmas and fancied a go at a rag rug then. Maybe this would be a good way of using up the hoards of fabric I seem to have!

Can't believe the first month of the year is gone already, Feb tomorrow (eek, today! just looked at the clock!) It'll be spring before we know it won't it?!

S x