Crochet Hexagon Blanket

The weathers still a bit naff isn't it? I ironed all of my summer dresses last week and only had the chance to wear one. 

On the plus side there's been lots of good too, I picked up a load of vintage sewing patterns at the carboot this weekend and the washer and dryer have finally been taken out of the house so now I have the spare room back for taking outfit pictures! And me made may starts tomorrow which is always nice because I love seeing what the rest of the sewing world is wearing day to day.

Anyway I made this blanket ages ago. I've been trying to experiment with new crochet techniques recently. This is the basic granny square but done as a hexagon. So its not a huge step but at least I tried something different eh? 

Its only a small blanket and I'm not mad on the colour scheme but it did use up a lot of odds and sods of wool so I guess that's good. 

Size wise its not very big. Big enough for a baby or a small dog???? Yep I'm still trying to wear Rikki down to get me a dog of my own. I figure at some point he'll just get sick of me asking and whinging on.

For now its living in the cupboard. 

In other news! 

Ill be spending the rest of today taking pictures for blog posts! 

Apart from when I'm hoovering! 

Then I'll be editing my next you tube video! This ones about the vintage patterns I picked up at he carboot! Now I just need to get lots of nice fabrics so I can sew them up! 

One issue I;m having with the vintage patterns is that they smell a bit musty? So if anyone knows how to make them smell less musty please let me know!!! 

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

Finished Crochet Blanket

Its finished!!! It was a labour of love but I finally managed to complete it and boy am I feeling pleased with myself! 

So here's the general gist :

1 x 20 row granny square

2 x 15 row squares

5 x 10 row granny squares

23 x two colour five row granny squares

2x multi coloured granny squares

I started it just after Christmas and I finished it on the first Sunday in February whilst lil man was feeling poorly. In fact he helped out by passing me various squares to be stitched together! Naturally now he's been telling everyone he made it........

I wish I had blocked the squares because its hanging funny on the washing line, but I guess you live you learn! Size wise Its a bit bigger than I thought it would be but its not huge! I'd say its lap quilt size. Lets put it this way it covers little man very nicely and it covers me if I;m curled up on the sofa after walking to school!

The initial colour pull came from my stash I chose greens, blues, greys, whites, blacks and purples. Towards the end I was starting to run  out though so the final influx of wool came from my lovely pen friend Jeanette [who also sent crochet hooks because she is a BABE! ] And Rikkis Nan who is now trying to learn crochet for herself!  Luckily granny squares only take a small amount of wool so she was able to clear out all of her odds and sods of wool!

I went for a patchwork style of blanket and worked according to a plan I had drawn up. I like the hippy vibe it has and I'm really glad I decided to mix things up because I think I would have been bored if I had just made granny squares of the same size. 

After all the squares were stitched together I decided to add two rows of crochet as a border, This was SOUL DESTROYING! the sides were huge and I felt like I was crocheting for hours! That said I think it really ties the whole thing together!

I am so chuffed with this project, after struggling for so long it felt lovely for the skill to finally click. And it was also nice to see how my granny squares improved over time and got neater. 

Now I just need to work out what my next crochet project is going to be!!!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

My First Ever Crochet Project!

I've done it guys I've actually cracked it! I have mastered the art of crochet! Well I say the art... I can manage a granny square! BUT COME ON GUYS! That's a pretty big deal! Especially for someone who's been struggling for as long as me!

It all started when I unwrapped a Christmas present from my mum and dad, they had gotten me a book on easy crochet. Mainly because when she had a flick through she said the instructions were pretty clear. My first thought was "dear god" how dare they buy me a book on a craft I CANNOT DO! Those swines! Then however, I manned up and thought well why not give this another shot! And guys I did It! I conquered! I mean I only conquered a small amount, if I was an evil dictator it would probably be the equivalent of the Vatican [FYI that is the smallest country in the world , I am so ready for university challenge!]  

Anyways naturally as soon as I had gotten to a place where I felt comfortable with a hook in my hand! [my house is currently littered with my many attempts!] I decided to start a big project! Because why not run before you can walk? I decided to make a blanket!

I know right a blanket, I've never even made a big knitted blanket! but in my defence I'm finding crochet very relaxing and I'm really enjoying how easy it is to pick up and put down as well as the fact its using all of my odds and sods of wool.

Although I am a bit worried I might run out at some point. I've made a desperate plea to Nan for scraps and she says shes going to have a look for me!

So here is the plan: the idea is that the pink ones are multi coloured granny squares of five rounds, the blue ones are five round granny squares of only two colours, the purple are ten round ones in multiple colours and the light green and dark green are 15/20 round ones of multiple colours! 

Then they will be arranged according to my picture in a sort of whimsical scrappy fashion to hopefully create a scrappy patchwork granny square quilt!

So far I've completed all 23 of my five round multi coloured squares and my large twenty round one! So I'm well on my way to snuggly goodness! 

Colour wise I'm working with a lot of dregs from my drawers I'm trying to keep to colour palette, to blues, greens, purples, blacks and white. And so far I am loving how its looking! In fact it might be one of my favourite colour pulls yet!

Size wise I'm aiming for 1 metre square! each patch is just about 10cm and there's ten per row so hopefully my maths works out and my tension stays the same throughout!

In other news THERE WAS SNOW! Yerp we had snow it was all very exciting especially seen as we live on a hill! Nothing quite like watching people struggle on hills in winter! And Lil man had the day off school! I'm not 100% why? the snow wasn't particularly heavy and they had already texted at 6.30am to say it was still on but lo and behold at 7.30 [after I had already gotten us dressed!!!!!] they texted again to say it was cancelled! Leaving me at home with no milk delivery! no bread and one small child! Luckily my mum and dad braved the roads to come and visit us and brought bread! 

anyways I think that's about it! We've got little mans birthday coming up next week so I;m sure preparing for that will keep me busy!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx  

Pixel Mario Blanket

Okay so I'm pretty sure my new neighbours think I'm nuts. My old neighbours had got fairly used to me taking a quilt outside hanging it on the line, taking pictures and then taking it back in. These new neighbours however...... They curtain twitched. Yes the curtains actually twitched.

But anyway curtain twitching aside I managed to take the pictures! This is my finished backed, bound and quilted mario quilt!

After the quilt top sat basted for about two weeks I finally sat down and busted out all the quilting in one evening! Each colour section is quilted In a spiral in the corresponding colour. For example all of the red sections are quilted in red and all the blue are quilted in blue!

That meant I had to change my bobbin about 1 million times but I really think it worth it! I love how the quilting makes each section stand out! I even quilted the background with crosses so that Mario would really stand out.

The Binding is some embroidered white floral stuff that I was given, I think it looks kind of like computer code! And I added a coloured triangle to each of the corners because I might have screwed up on the binding a little bit and had to hack away at it. I'm blaming this on tiredness and lack of playing attention. But you know what they say, they are not mistakes, they are lessons! 

There's no batting in this quilt just the quilt top and then its backed with a fleecy blanket. It's currently my preferred method of finishing a quilt. It means you can layer the quilt on top of a duvet without actually sweating your bum off. Plus *whispers* its cheaper! I do want to do a few quilts with cotton backs and actual batting but for the moment the cheaper option is much better!!!! The "perfect quilts" will have to wait until I have a new house and I've redecorated and made a quilt for every room. Yes I have big plans for when I get to decorate my perfect house!!!!! 

And that's it really, I finished it really late at night so I could wrap it and have it waiting for Rikki when he finished work after a night shift. Like a little treat pressie!!!!!

So yeah we are both very happy with how it turned out and I almost can't wait until Rikki gets the flu so I can snuggle him up in it!!!

Well almost! that man is a baby when he's sick!

Much Love

Frankie

xxxx 

Second Baby Blanket - Spotty Spiral

This is my second baby blanket for a sprog that's being born this year. And i can take no responsibility for the crazy fabric choices, I pulled some very neutral colours from my stash for this quilt, and then Lil man came over asked what I was doing and who the quilt was for and he decided because they have a spotty dog, they must have a spotty quilt and then picked out every spotty fabric I own. 

And then I pulled a few solids and an owl fat quarter and the Spotty Spiral quilt was born!

For the piecing I cut all my fabric into strips the same size and joined them together. so i had one bit long roll of crazy spotty ness, kinda like a jelly roll.

Then I started with my gingham centre square [yeah I put gingham in the mix too!] and added a boarder to each side in a spiral and there you go!! Genuinely some of the most relaxing piecing I've ever done. Sew strip, Cut, Turn, Sew strip, Cut, Turn very therapeutic!

In the end I had to add a solid boarder to balance the quilt a bit more [And its ombre and my awesome matching skills means it goes from dark to light to dark to light perfectly!]

I backed it with white fleece fabric and quilted it in a very simple spiral pattern that I think looks super cool. This was also very relaxing, however I still hate wrestling a quilt under my domestic machine! 

Because of the nature of the project this turned into quite the little stash buster! And although its crazy because of all the prints I think it looks really fun!

And I really love that there's so many different sizes of polka dot! 

The mustard binding really ties the whole thing together, I machined the back and hand stitched the front for a nicer finish. In fact I think hand stitching the binding might be my favourite part of quilting.

I'm pleased with how it all came together especially seen as I didn't choose most of the fabrics and I went for a really simple piecing method! Now both of my baby quilts are finished I can focus on my quilt again! Yay! That is unless someone else decides to get knocked up!!!   

In other news , lil man has been getting up really early which is brilliant obviously [insert copious amounts of sarcasm here]. 

And I've started a full house clean, so far I've done the bathroom and airing cupboard, lil mans room and the kitchen. Just have to do the hallway and its cupboards, the pantry [sobs, there's always spiders in there] and then the living room and the dining/sewing/dvd/guinea pig room! And then our room! Its exhausting but It'll be worth it when its done. So far I'm using the if we don't use it bin it rules! And were putting a lot of stuff up the loft too.

In fact me writing this is me putting off tidying and cleaning 

Much Love

Frankie

xxx   

Melancholy

It's been a bit of a highs and lows sort of few days, I finished a knitting project and cut out some projects but I had to take the Christmas decorations down today which always makes me sad. And sadly our hamster died yesterday , she was fine the day before, well I say fine she hadn't been in her wheel for a few days but she was moving. Anyway she's died now and I was worried about telling lil knitwits... Apparently it's not a problem "don't cry mummy, Sandy gone, she broke , daddy gonna put her in the bin"

Ahh to have the clarity of a 3 year old.

But I did get a project finished recently, it's another knitted blanket in my favourite garter stitch! 

I used a chunky/Aran weight yarn and a simple pattern with size five needles so it was a breeze to knit whilst all the Christmas festivities were happening. Basically I started with three stitches and then increased one stitch at the end of each row. This is a really simple and nice effect, providing your leave enough wool to do the decreases when your happy with the size. 

I did not. Which is why my blanket features a rather fetching hood in a different wool (two strands of 4ply). 

I don't think it turned out too badly , the yarns work quite nicely together colour wise. I think it helps that they are both speckled!

To do the hood I simply decreased with my blue wool until it ran out then continued with the White, I kept decreasing until I had three stitches left and then I started increasing again until the new increased section matched the white section where I decreased. 

If that makes any sense at all. 

Basically it looked like this 

And people said having an alevel in art would be useless. 

Then I just sewed up the seams either side! 

Anyways I'm very pleased with it, I actually think it looks quite chic and I think it's a good size for a newborn. Plus the wool is very lovely and squishy! 

I'm not sure where it's going to end up, a few people I know are expecting babies so probably with one of them!! 

Much love 

Frankie 

Xx

knitting and crochet hybrid baby blanket!

So what do you all think of the new blog design? I felt like I needed a change to something a lil bit more grown up! If your sat reading on a mobile device thinking "what blog design change?" then pop yourself onto a computer pronto!

In other news me and Mr Knitwit treated ourselves to a curry last night to celebrate being on track with paying off the wedding and boy am I feeling it today! I mean boy! Trust me I love curry (well I say curry I have a korma) but boy is my stomach sensitive to the spices they use!

Anyhoo sitting on the sofa feeling sorry for myself gave me a good excuse to finish my latest project!

A diagonal knit baby blanket with a crocheted boarder! Yerp that right I actually crocheted a boarder! And it don't look half bad!

Mr Knitwit doesn't like the wool but I actually think it turned out kinda sweet looking! I especially like the diagonal next to the straight boarder.

And I love my felt flowers I really think they add a lil something to the blanket!

I am so proud of myself for doing a crochet boarder it think its the first time I've ever crocheted something that looks half decent!

Size wise its not a huge blanket because I was running out of wool, but I'd say its juts the right size for a car seat or pram blanket, or even as an emergency changing mat!

I already have a recipient in mind for this, I just hope she likes it!

I made sure I properly secured the buttons on the flowers as well, cos you know babies will destroy things in 20 seconds or less!

I've not include a picture of the back because well its pretty much the same as the front but without the flowers and because its got a personal message sewn to it, and I don't like to share all my secrets on the internet!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

  

Diagonal stripe, rainbow, baby blanket

There's not really a lot I can say about this project to be honest, because I don't completely love it. 

But it's finished so I'm blogging it! I decided not to crochet or knit the border in the end, I knew that sinking precious time into this project would not make me like it anymore so instead I just threaded the edges (my increase and decrease holes) with a sparkly gold ribbon and finished with a big old bow! 

Hopefully the ribbon will help it to hold its shape. 

The patterns pretty basic , I started with two stitches and increased 1 stitch at the end of every row, when I was happy with the size I decreased. Simples! I knitted the whole thing in garter stick but I'm sure it would look nice in stocking stick aswell! In fact my next one might be in stocking stitch! 

I'm still not sure about the rainbow colour palette , but I'm not a very bright colourful person I tend to favour neautrals  . 

Close up of my sparkle bow!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it to be honest, I'm not sure I know anyone who's in the market for a rainbow baby blanket! Mr knit wit has kindly offered to drive me to a local hospital or dogs home if I want to donate it . Apparently dogs homes are always looking for blankets because their dogs get to take them home! It's definitely something I'm going to keep in mind when I'm clearing out the airing cupboard! 

In other news I'm still plugging away at my patchwork and I'm still participating in me made may, I've just given up on the whole taking pictures thing! Life got in the way so I might just run a me made week just for me when I'm less busy! Although I thought then I might just put all my me made clothes to one side so I have to wear different things! 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx