Let the fun begin!

So university is finished for the Semester, it's 3 months ish until I go back next year. Work is still crazy busy but it is contained to just days. My evenings are mine again!

I have so many awesome plans for this time. Particularly since I spent this last Sunday cleaning my craft room. Oh my it looks stunning! I focused not just on cleaning but on finding homes for everything that was on the floor not just moving it to another area. That is what took so long as I have sorted through a lot of stuff to get it to what I want. I didn't actually take any good before and after photos (bad blogger) but did manage to take two videos which you'll find over on my instagram here. I would embed it here but that has never worked in the past so I'm going to assume it won't now.

I have been working on my rainbow ripple star blanket and it's getting bigger and bigger. I'm not sure exactly where to go with this blanket, not sure how much bigger I'm actually going to push it. When I finish the 6 rows of the blue am I going to call it? Or should I add even one row of each of the colours as a kind of border? Should I add a different border in the blue as the last row of the 6? So many questions going round my head. I will see if I can get a photo of this whole blanket later to show you how big it is now it's big enough to curl up under on the couch but do I want more?

 

Also got some more fabric this is particularly picked up with a pattern in mind. I NEED some shorts for this coming summer. It's already hot so I need to try something. I'm looking at the itch to stitch Belize shorts as they are elastic waisted and don't have a fly, but also don't look like extreme gathering as the front is flat and the elastic is only at the back. You can find the pattern here. 
I will probably add length to the legs but I will be making a muslin before playing with my fun fabrics here. The two dark blue ones are tencel denim and the cactus one is a Duck Cotton. I have enough for 3 pairs of shorts Maybe a 4th if I place things right for Lana if she wants a pair.

Also that dog fabric is actually a sewing finish but I forgot to get photos of me wearing it so a finished post will probably be coming next weekend. It should be washed by then and able to be worn.

Lastly I have been cross stitching!!!! I'm so close to a finish on this Doctor Who biscornu! I am getting really excited about this! Who is watching the new doctor at the moment? I'm loving her and I love how it's panning out.

Expect to see more cross stitch again as I have more time to craft I'm going to get back into it as I really enjoy just stitching. It makes me happy so I need to do it. I'm hoping for a finish on this one by the end of the week as I'm making sure I get off my computer at work and do something at Lunch that isn't staring at a screen so Cross Stitch really works.

Anyway that's it for my update, and expect to see me more around here as I get back into crafting over the holidays.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Green Rainbow Ripple is FINISHED!!!

I am soooooo bloody excited to turn around and say one of the blankets is finished!!!

Actually it has been finished for about 3 weeks now and I haven't had time to say boo let alone take photo.

A bit of information before I show off photos. I used the rainbow ripple baby blanket pattern. It's a free pattern on ravelry, and I just kept increasing in pattern until I had enough. The yarn is a lincraft cake in greens. 

The colours are just gorgeous! And this will make such a wonderful present for my friend. 

It's difficult to get a good image I couldn't get the whole blanket easily in a photo. But these folded photos look cute. 

I did get some help holding it out in the sun but given it has 12 points she did a fantastic job.

Then I played with filters in my editing app.... who needs an excuse? But now it has such a vintage summer vibe. I really like the way the effect on this one came out!

I'm really looking forward to seeing my friend and getting baby cuddles.  I'm also really happy with how it turned out. The colour changes aren't even but I think that adds to the effect with this blanket.  

I even had yarn left over that I've already used to make a couple of items.  You can see a peek at one of them on my Instagram otherwise I'll be sharing about that very soon as I did manage photos on the weekend. I was very productive! 

Happy stitching, 

Caitlin

Slow going - 12 Point Star Blanket

I do have a mini update on my blanket :D Tonight is Doctor Who night. I always forget on Sundays so I sit and watch it Monday evening on ABC iview. I like doing it this way as I can watch it when I can not when they say I can.

 I had my first of 2 exams today and I think I did alright. I know I did the best I could so I am enjoying a little rest before jumping into the crazy tomorrow to prepare for my next exam.

My blanket is getting much bigger but I'm probably only a third of the way. I really would love a nice big blanket but we shall see how that goes as I continue to expand the blanket. I like a blanket that you can really curl up under. I have 8 more balls of yarn so that should be enough to make it a decent size.

I am thinking though that after this lot of repetitions that I will halve the amount I use of each colour so only 3 rows instead of 6. Not sure... will have to think about it when I get there. Still two more colours of 6 to go before I have to think of that.

For more information about the pattern I'm doing you can go to my previous post here. 

Have you ever made a blanket like this? It's taking me ages and unfortunately each round takes longer and longer to complete. Though MAYBE this will be completed before the end of winter this year..... but I'm not holding my breath!

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

New Crochet Project

Ooops I didn't expect to do this.... I blame one of my facebook friends who is doing another version of this pattern herself. She was asking for help reading the pattern so I downloaded it and I was caught by how interesting it looked and I've never made this sort of blanket before.

I wasn't planning to make this as I want to make my c2c blanket but I need to buy more colours for that so I wanted a project I could start and work on for the next couple of weeks at university. I will start my c2c blanket but probably not today.

So without further ado here is my new blanket. It is currently using 4 of the colours from my granny stripe blanket. Though being me I may add more if I feel like it. It's using 8 ply marvel (four seasons) acrylic yarn from spotlight. I just grabbed 4 of the full balls I had in my draw so I knew how much I started with.

I don't know what it is about that hot pink! I couldn't ever get a good impression of it when I would take photos for my granny stripe either! The forth colour is a dark turquoise, which I am almost at the point of adding. I will have to update when I have added it.

The pattern I'm using is this one... Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket if you want to work on this one too. I have made a couple of changes, as I haven't added the white rows between the colours. I didn't have much white at home and didn't want to buy any yarn for this project (at least to start with I may have to buy more if I keep making it really big!) The original pattern is for a baby blanket but I'm just going to keep going and expanding until I get bored. I want it to be at least a good size for curling up under on the couch.

I have changed the colours at the white row so the white row is the first green row and so on. Other than that I'm using a 5.25mm hook as it is what I have been using recently. I like that I usually make a looser blanket with the larger hook. I have a habit of being way too tight when crocheting, I think it's a habit gained from crocheting amigurumi.

 Have you started any new projects recently that you really weren't planning to??

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin