Wet Blanket

Only two posts this week as I've been a bit poorly. My crochet blanket is nearing completion but I may have to leave it for a week or two as I won't be home much.

To keep us cheery, here are two pictures I took last spring in Croyde, Devon, England. Spring lambs! Super cute!

I now need to take time out to read up on Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2012 as it's fast approaching. Will you be joining in?

Finished Object: Knitted iPhone Cover

As my marathon effort to make a crochet blanket continues in the background, I thought I'd reveal how my iphone cover ended up. And here it is! My iphone and earphones fit snugly inside and I've wrapped the knitted square around one side again to form a separate pocket for the earphones, preventing the handset from getting scratched.

It's my first finished object completed using an acrylic mix yarn - Patons Beehive soft blend four ply, colour 02 (jade green). I originally intended to button it closed but, not wishing to 'guild the lilly', I think I like it as it is. As you can see, I chose to stitch it with the wrong side facing out to give it a less predictable look. Ad-libbing, this is my own design, not even a design really; I just adapted a practise square I knitted last year, et voila, an iphone cosy!

Shape Shifters

More woolly adventures! Not much news today, so just a quicky. Here are the latest crochet granny squares I've made. I will eventually sew them all together and - hey presto - produce a blanket.

Evolution of the Granny Square

I was going to show you my first few granny squares with these but then thought better of it; they were so misshaped it's embarrassing! I changed my mind back again and decided to put squares together for a blanket rather than spiralling round after all. I'm not sure whether these two will get used yet as they're not perfect and I would imagine I will have produced some even better ones by the time I've finished.

By rough calculation I've estimated I'll need approximately 24 squares to make a very small blanket. At the moment it takes me an hour to make one square but I believe accomplished crocheters can make them in half the time. With this in mind, hopefully I'll have a blanket finished sometime next month.

Afghan Hound

To my surprise, for the Commuter Crochet Challenge I completed two granny squares going to from work on a packed commuter train this week. It is not something I plan to repeat as it's a struggle to even get a seat on the train and even if you do, you barely have any elbow room for 'hooking'.

This afternoon I frogged the granny squares as I've decided that rather than make lots of itty bitty squares, I will instead just keep spiralling round to make a huge multi coloured rainbow blanket/ afghan. The plan is to change colours on each row and blend the colours from light in the centre, to dark around the edge. I'm calling this post Afghan Hound as I think this project will take me a while!

So what else has been happening? Well, spring has most definitely sprung now so yesterday hubby and I enjoyed a lovely evening in Brighton. If you've never had the pleasure of visiting Brighton yourself it's arguably the UK's most fashionable seaside town and has a kind of arty bohemian vibe. It's also a melting pot of youth sub cultures and was a popular haunt for Mods on Vespa scooters in the 1960s. If you're visiting the UK from overseas any time soon I recommend you visit Brighton, it's less than an hour from London and is very cool. True to form, Amazon promptly delivered my new Nikon point and shoot within two days and I managed to pap this crimson vision - the sun setting behind the Victorian pier that once was.

For the record, the other pier (not pictured but located behind me when I took this photo) remains a big attraction in Brighton; a hive of activity, it was teaming with visitors on Saturday.

United Knitdom in Amigurumi Today

Jostling for a position amongst the edited selection of Japanese crochet news from across the blogosphere, my Making Miffy post has been featured in Amigurumi Today! I do enjoy networking with fellow crafters from around the world and this added exposure gives me increased impetus to crack on with more projects.

Before I go, I also wanted to draw readers' attention to this spectacular kaleidoscope blanket by Meme Rose as highlighted on Crochet with Raymond, one of my favourite crochet blogs. Isn't it stunning? It has definitely inspired me to produce something similar and reminds me a lot of the Muse album cover.

Kaleidoscope blanket by Meme Rose.