MY HAPPY BLANKET

 

Ta da! I finished the blanket last night. The pattern is Lucy's ( Attic 24) Fireside Blanket and I substituted her chosen colours with colours I had in my stash from a few of Lucy's other blankets I have made.  I did fewer border rounds than hers and now I just need to straighten the blanket out somehow, although it doesn't really matter as I am currently feeling quite snuggly beneath it on my sofa. The colours make me feel happy so it is now called "My Happy Blanket". 

 

I think I am absolutely hooked, no pun intended, on crocheting blankets and have been pondering making Sophie's Universe .  No kits are currently available but I can purchase the book and select my own colours but colour selection is not my forte. 

Before I go I want to acknowledge that a few bloggers are having a stressful time with health issues and some are trying to help elderly parents . I am not alone. I send you all many hugs and am thinking of you. 

NOT MUCH DONE

Due to more health issues the past fortnight I have only been crocheting the last few days and I am happy to have completed the central part of the blanket and added the 1st border consisting of 2 rounds. However, I only had about 2 inches of the 2nd round left to do when I ran out of the colour. Yep, 2 inches! I had not one single scrap left anywhere to be found. Then I had a brainwave,( rare indeed) , and checked to see how much I had wound on the peg. I keep labelled samples of each colour and brand wound onto wooden pegs like Lucy does( Attic 24). So, thankfully, I had enough from the peg to complete that final 2 inches with a small amount left to wind back onto the peg. WHEW! 

I now realise that the top right block is the same colour as the first border which makes that block look over sized. Hmmmm. Anyhoo, I wanted to use that blue and there is no way I have enough of it to unpull and redo another border as it will need even more yarn. 

Today I started the 1st round of the next border ensuring I have fresh new balls available of each colour I use from now on LOL. It is a mauve, not a pink as the pic seems to show. 

My blog is a bit boring with just crochet happening but I do hope to get back to some UFO quilts soon.  Why is the font size changing????????Sorry.

A LITTLE TIME AND ENERGY

 Time and energy has been in short supply recently and it has taken me ages to get back to my  'Fireside' crocheted blanket. I had to look at the pattern again re the joining process as I had forgotten since I was last working on it. There is no pre planning of colour selection for each block  as I am using colours from my stash instead of the colours in the original pattern. So, I find myself auditioning colours for each block as I go which is rather frustrating but necessary to ensure I don't have too much of one colour in areas on the blanket and that the same colour does not connect in 2 blocks. If it wasn't ' join as you go' it would be easier. 

I have finished another book which is the author's latest one. It is  about women in 1950's Melbourne and certainly depicts the attitude and expectations of women at that time. 

            I hope you are a all enjoying some crafty time.

HOPEFULLY SORTED

 

Oh my! What an ordeal it has been to rectify my email issues! I simply couldn't deal with it for a few days as it was too much for my exhausted brain to deal with. I was a bit like an ostrich. After a while I realised how isolated I was without my email access,  which is absolutely ridiculous. However, my only social interaction, apart from family , is " talking " with bloggers.  I cleaned out my inbox, outbox and every other box but I still didn't have enough storage. Eventually I worked out that it was probably all my gallery pics, then I found a heap of videos I had of my eldest grandson when he was younger. After much ado and many hours, alternating between the main computer and my laptop, hubby and I cleaned out the videos after putting them on a memory stick and voila! There was no way that Microsoft was contactable with an actual human to talk to. There was a 1300 number but that was just a highly caffeinated robot speaking a million words a minute which I barely understood and had to listen to 3 times before I realised they were saying to go to a website! No option to speak with anyone! Grrrrr. My BP was sky high that day.

So, after all that hoohah , I got motivated to finish my grandson's Crocheted blankie. Ta dah! Finished last night.

I haven't felt like reading much the last few weeks but I did finish this book and have started another. My reading mojo has now returned.

I am sorry if I missed any emails during my hiccup and hope to restore my version of social interaction now. Thanks for visiting.

CATCH UP

 I haven't posted for about 5 weeks as my mum had a fall playing table tennis and broke her hip. After 2 weeks in hospital followed by a week in rehab then a transfer back to hospital with an infection , she came home on Monday. Juggling almost daily hospital visits taking dad to see mum , ensuring he had everything he needed at home alone, and hubby who was unwell the first week or two, I had no time or energy to crochet or sew anything. 

Now I am catching up with all my overdue appointments before needing to take mum to her post operative checkups and dad to any medical appointments.  I have not been sleeping much, an ongoing issue which has worsened, and my BP is currently being remanaged.  I had an iron infusion yesterday and have been experiencing a few FMS flare ups due to the stress.

2 days ago I realised I wasn't receiving emails . I can send them but not receive them. I have no idea how to fix the problem and can't access the emails I had received earlier. So, if you are trying to contact me via email I am not receiving it and apologise if any emails have been unacknowledged. 

Little progress has been made with my grandson's blanket but here is the latest pic.

I shall try to catch up with all your latest blog posts soon. Today is a day of housework catchup while hubby is out for the day. 

YARN, FLOWERS, CAKE AND CROCHET

 

I was so happy when the yarn arrived from the UK a few days ago so I can get back to crocheting my grandson's green blanket. 

I do love the organza bags they come in and use the larger ones to store my finished crocheted blankets. I also ordered 3 extra balls for the blanket I have been working on as I underestimated the amount in my stash . It seems to be a common problem for me. Here is my progress before I put it away to continue my grandson's blanket.

It was my birthday on the weekend which sneaked up on me. I thought it was next weekend until my dear mum reminded me lol. She insisted on organising afternoon tea at my home , bringing everything ( except the champers) and organising my eldest daughter to bring a cake. So, I was blessed to have my gorgeous parents, eldest daughter , son in law and my 2 grandsons celebrate with me. 

 

Hubby brought home some beautiful roses on Friday. They are a deeper red than shown in the pic, absolutely beautiful.

My parents gave me this lovely cyclamen. I don't have a good history with cyclamens so I hope I can nurture this one better.

Sadly, my youngest daughter and her partner had other things to cope with. The vet was coming to their home to say farewell to their much loved cat who had ongoing health issues for the past couple of years which they had tried to overcome but eventually lost the battle. They gave him some very comfortable and pampered extra years. One of my own cats passed away several years ago on my birthday too. So, it was a bitter sweet birthday but one I hold dear because both my parents were able to celebrate with me as well as my other daughter and her family. 

Pets are always in our hearts just like our family.

CROCHET PROGRESS

I have 3 UFOs in progress at the moment. Little Lucy still needs her borders sewn on and my pandemic quilt (  Wish You Well..Gail Pan) just needs borders cut and sewn on. I also have the Woodland Secrets awaiting sashings. Have I spent time in my sewing room? Nope. I walk in there, take a look, ponder which to tackle first and then walk out again. I guess my sewing mojo has taken a holiday. Thus my crochet progress. 

I am having difficulty trying to work out colour combos and where to place them but I just work it out as I go. I am eager to get back to my grandson's blanket but this one is keeping me busy until the yarn arrives. 

Happy crafting.