Stickytapeandstring

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small crafts

Spring blanket

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The sun has come out in the UK.  It is April and we have had a lovely few days of really warm weather.  I have been working on a blanket in spring colours and was looking for opportunities to work on this on my commute so I have incorporated some pretty flowers and blocks into the design that can be worked up separately and added to the larger work at home 🙂

Here are the colours I am using and you can see I have made a start with the first few rows in basic stitches.   I am trying Stylecraft DK for the first time as I have seen so many crochet bloggers recommending it.   It is certainly good value and has been very nice to work with so far.   There is a fantastic range of colours to inspire and I am already thinking about the next project and the next…. although that does not help me reduce my yarn stash!! (shhhh!!).

The flowers in the picture below will form a row across the blanket and I plan rows of pale pink and white to follow.   These flowers are perfect for working on my commute!!   I have been working up the centres one day and then adding petals the next so that I only ever have to carry one ball of yarn.

The main blanket is already quite large as I am aiming at double bed size.   It can only really be worked on at home now but it is growing quickly.  I love these colours they are making me really happy as I work 🙂

I am documenting the pattern as I go as I plan to list the blanket and pattern in my Etsy shop.  I will post an update when I get to the next stage and I am working up blocks on the commute.   One day I will get organised and issue these patterns as a CAL but I think I need a few more blog readers before I try that.   I wish I could spend more time on my crafting and blogging but I don’t suppose I am alone in that.  Too many ideas and too little time.   Ah well….

Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

 

Sunshine Flower Blanket – update!

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Hello – so excited to report the progress on my Sunshine Flower Blanket.

As you can see I now have all the large flowers added and I am working the final vanilla band before adding the edging.    I am going to edge it with the three colours I used for the flowers but I have a few more rows of Vanilla to work before then.

The blanket is getting quite big now – I think it will be around 1.5 meters square when I finish it.   My earlier posts on this project give you the source for the pattern for the large flowers (A Square A Day by Tracey Lord) and the colours I am using.   I will happily make the pattern available for the smaller flowers and the overall design if anyone would like to see it.   Please just leave me a comment (there is a link above and below this post).

I have already started on my next project so focusing on getting this one finished has been a bit of a struggle!  The rounds get so long towards the end so it feels like you are not making progress and the ends take a long time to weave in.   I am so pleased that I wound most of them in as I was working the squares.   I worked a lot of the squares on my daily commute so always made sure I had a needle with me to finish off the ends as I went.   I certainly wouldn’t like to start on all the ends from scratch when I had finished the blanket!

That is all from me for now – the next time I post on this project will be to show you the finished work which I will probably list on Etsy as a one off.  🙂

happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Commuter crochet

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Commuter crochet – I thought I would start to share some of the methods I have of making my commute more enjoyable and productive.   After recently moving jobs I now have a daily train journey of more than an hour each way.    This means that over the course of a year I will be spending the equivalent of about 61 working days sitting on a train!

I don’t know about you, but I cannot afford to lose that kind of time.   I certainly don’t want to accept that that time is lost or will always be a miserable time of the day.

All my life I have loved crafts so it makes sense to me to use the time to craft and create.  However, I am constrained in terms of the amount of kit I can carry.   I also don’t get a lot of space on the train.   Whatever I do needs to be small, easy to work and carry.  Finally, the trains I am on are reasonably stable but not smooth enough to allow fine work that needs a steady hand.

Knitting was my first go-to but my knitting style is a bit anti-social in that I tend to swing the needles out to the sides.  This doesn’t go down well with my fellow passengers!   Crochet however is perfect!!   I have been crocheting flowers to use in my Sunshine Flower blanket and am almost complete on those now.   They have been ideal for the commute as you can build them up in layers.  This means you can work several at once using only one ball of yarn.  Much better than having to carry four different colours every day.    I also weave in ends on the commute – not my favourite job but it has to be done.

Commuter crochet - blocks made during the commute

Use Pinterest boards to collect ideas!

Pinterest is great as a complete distraction from the journey.   I have a board where I keep all the ideas I find for small projects that would work on the train.   You can see my Pinterest board here.   I will work my way through these ideas and show the results here on my blog.

These ideas for small projects are not restricted to being used on a commute.   It could be that you have time on your hands in other circumstances.  I have been known to whip out the crochet whilst waiting for a film or concert to start.  Sitting in the car waiting to collect my children – out comes the small crochet!

The other thing that makes my commute more enjoyable is listening to music or the radio.   Recently I have been listening to audio books and they really help pass the time.   The books can be expensive but signing up to Audible which charges a monthly fee, gives you one credit a month which means one free book a month and there are regular offers to allow you to get books more cheaply.   There is all sorts of inspirational stuff to listen to 🙂  There is a link below in case you would like to try Audible.  I need to tell you that I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate programme and if you click on this link below or any other links in my blog I might receive a small income at no additional cost to you.

When I have more tips for a happy commute I will post them up here so check back in soon.    I would also love to hear any tips you have to share, just leave me a comment above.

Happy commuting 🙂

Annie.