What a Day!

My first Crochet Class of the day was with a total beginner who want's to learn how to make a Giant Rainbow Granny Square Blanket!  

I double double checked with her that this is exactly what she wanted to learn and once confirmation was given we got started on a Foundation Chain, which she very quickly got nice and "uniform" looking and then we went on to Trebles which she soon got the hang off.

So in the 2nd hour we progressed to making her first Granny Square and like a professional crocheter she was handling her yarn well and by the end of the lesson she had made 2 rows of a Granny Square! 

YAY

Her homework is to practice a little every day and I am already looking forward to seeing her next week.

Next is my Saturday lady who came on a Friday!

Look what she has made for a friends "moving in" present 

WOW

And look at this STAR blanket she's made too!

In the lesson we put her Teddy together - he's a very nice shade of blue and I showed her how to sew on the legs, the head and the ears - so it was more of a "joining together" lesson than a crochet one!

Last lesson of the day started with joining a PINK Teddy!!!

I think my Lemon, Ice & Chocolate Teddies have started a trend

So here is PINKY (we are not sure if it's a Teddy or a Piggy yet LOL) with Head and Ears joined

We then went on to working in Trebles in a round to make a round cushion cover!

Needless to say after 5 hours of teaching today, I am shattered!

Granny a Day 90 is here

As plain as you can get a Granny Square but I didn't have the energy for colour changes

And here are all 90 Granny a Day Granny Squares to date!

Ripples, Ripples, Ripples & GAD 89

I have been busy

Adding rows of colour

To my Ripples Blanket!

Only 5 more colours to go

And I can start the colours all over again!

Here is GAD # 89

Now this is REALLY made of scrap yarns

I wasn't sure if the baby pink in the center would run out before I finished the row and the same applied to the yellow too!  When I finished the Royal Blue border I had about 12 inches of yarn left, so maybe enough for tomorrows GAD?? 

Who Knows & if you want to find out - come back!

Thanks for reading and ta ta for now!

p.s. I have 3 Crochet lessons to take tomorrow - 5 hours in total, so I will be well and truly shattered!!  I am looking forward to them all as one is a new pupil, one is a "help I can't work this out" and the last is another returning pupil that has so much crochet enthusiasm that I love the way it wears off on me - she always comes up with some great ideas to work on.

Granny A Day # 88 and a Kaleidoscope of Colours!

This is # GAD 87 from yesterday - the colours show up a lot better today as I used the flash!

So as you can see, these ARE shades of pink and not purple!

Today's square # 88 is in shades of Red

So starting with red on the outside, two shades of orange, going into a centre of yellow

And here is the Kaleidoscope of colours that I have used in the last 4 days:

From Right to Left - Shades of Blue, Green, Pink & Red!

I have spent some of my time today at the School Garden and at the Allotment, so I have been lucky to get out in the lovely sun and fresh air, which means that I haven't added any more the Ripples Blanket, but I will tonight so come back tomorrow for more Crochet Addictions.....

Day # 87 Granny A Day - Hooray

Well as promised I made a "shades of pink" Granny Square for Day #87

Unfortunately the picture makes it look more purple than pink!!

I took 2 crochet classes today and I am shattered and there is nothing more to report as I am knackered!

sorry about that

More tomorrow!

Day # 86 of Granny a Day and More Ripples

Yesterday it was shades of blue and today it's shades of green!

I might do shades of red tomorrow - who know?

I have 2 two hour crochet classes booked in so I hope I find the time!!

Now for more "Ripples" news

Yesterday I promised to write out the Ripples Pattern in a more civilized manner, and I did exactly that, first thing this morning, so if you missed my earlier post today, you can find the Tutorial HERE

As you can see, I have added a further row or two since yesterday and I will continue "rippling" away for the rest of the night

Ta Ta for now!

Ripples Blanket - Free Tutorial

Ripples Blanket

Here is my Ripples Blanket in Progress

I promised that I would share the pattern with you

So I hope that you can follow this very simple tutorial

Via a Crochet Chart Diagram 

To see a clearer diagram, please click on the FREE TUTORIALS tab above

Just remember to put 2 trebles into the very first chain/stitch (or 3 chains to count as one treble + one treble) and the last chain too!

You can do as many or as little colour changes as you want too - make it unique and do it your way!

Here I have used DK weight yarn with a 4mm hook 



***ALWAYS TRY A SAMPLE FIRST E.G. CHAIN 39 AS IN THE DIAGRAM ABOVE AND MAKE A FEW ROWS AS A "SAMPLER" JUST SO YOU CAN GET THE HANG OF IT***

Day # 85 and I have so much to tell you / show you!

So much to tell you and show you indeed!

Today has been a busy, busy day, I can tell you - so lets start at the beginning.

No. 1 - Our clocks went forward as it's Spring time so Spring Forward & we lost an hour, however the current advantage to that is that our mornings are a little darker for a little longer, so I get to sleep later!

No. 2 - Do you remember this bag that I made last week?

Well I decided that it would be better off lined, so things put into it wouldn't fall out through the holes

So that's what I did

I lined it and now it's ready to go!

No.3 - This is Granny A Day # 85 - I didn't feel blue today but I fancied a change of recent colours so I chose white for the center and then various shades of blue for the other rows.

No. 4 - I added a row of Clover Yellow to my Ripples blanket

And then a row of Coral

And now I am working on a row of Pale Green 

I am using the following method from the Compendium of Crochet Techniques by Jan Eaton  which is to make a foundation chain in whatever length you like, as long as you use multiples of 12 and add 3

I made 240 chains and added 3 and so I had 243

I then followed the following sequence:

1 treble into 4th chain from hook (so you have chains (counts as one treble) and one treble in the same space)

Then 3 trebles

2trtog

3 trebles 

&

2 trebles into each of next 2 trebles (to create 2 "V" shapes)

Then repeat to the end

putting 2 trebles into the very last stitch

So at the start and the end you have 2 trebles going into the same stitch

and in between you make 3 trebles and decrease (so 2 trebles together or 2trtog)

and then make another 3 trebles and increase into next 2 stitches (so 2 trebles into one stitch & 2 trebles into the next one)

Simples!

I will try to write that out in a more civilized manor one day very soon - in the meantime you can try to follow what I have said above OR by Jan Eaton's book via the link above!

That's all folks 

84 Granny Squares made and Ripple Crochet Blanket!

84 Granny Squares to day and here is number 84

I seem to be making a lot of yellow centers at the moment - maybe it's because of the unusually sunny weather we are having here in the UK at the moment?

Now that I have finished my homework motifs, I needed something to keep me occupied, something that I could pick up and put down, pick up again, put down, blah, blah, blah, without a complicated pattern to follow, so I picked up my "special" yarn basket

which is full of very YUMMY colours

Like Olive, Candyfloss, Wisteria and Plum (to name but a few)

And half a hour of umming and ahhing later, a decision was made!

RIPPLES BLANKET 

*YaY*

I have recently taught a pupil how to achieve this effect, so I thought that this was the ideal choice!

I started with the BubbleGum Pink, then went on the Olive, then Sky Blue, followed by Lavender and my husbands choice for row 5 was Lipstick Red!

I am really enjoying make the Crochet Ripple Blanket and I look forward to working on it some more when I next have some "Crochet Time"

(that sounds like "Chicco Time" LOL)

Day # 83 and Homework is Complete! YAY

I am going to start today's Blog Post with Granny A Day # 83

I used scraps of yarns

The Centre and Row 2 were leftovers from my lovely super king sized bed spread that I made a few years ago.

The penultimate row is one of my favourite multi colour yarns that I have used in many a nice beanie hat last Autumn 

and

The final row is a brown and I haven't a clue where that came from !!

Homework

Do you remember that I told you I had homework this week, set by one of my pupils, as she wants me to make a cardigan with her?

Well I text her last night to see how she was getting on, as I had made 6, but she had made 9!!!

So I thought I best catch up today, as I had some free time and I did.  I completed all 12

And here are the first half, being blocked on my pin board

Once they have dried

I will do the other half that you can see dangling on the left by the lamp

Hooray! Stage one is over, but I am now chomping at the bit to get on with it, but I can't and I will have to wait until next Tuesday!

Granny A Day # 82 - Spring Sunshine Granny Square - Free Tutorial

Today was a beautifully SUNNY day and I felt as though Spring has really Sprung and that this IS a time for new beginnings and new hope.

So I decided to make a little "quirk" in my Granny Square

to commemorate such a Sunny day full of HOPE

So here it is

I made the Sun in the middle

The Green is the Grass 

&

The Blue Frame is the Sky

This is my Spring Sunshine Granny Square & I would like to share it with you so that the joy of Spring and the Hope that it brings with it is with you all.....

I started my Granny Square of with a flat round.

Chain 4 & join with a slip stitch to form a ring

Chain 3 (counts as one treble)

11 Trebles all into the ring

join with a slip stitch  into the 3rd chain or the 3 chain you made at the start (so you have 12 tr's in total)

Chain 3 (counts as one treble)

Now put another treble into the same space as the chain

you will have a little "V" shape as you have made 2 stitches into one stitch from the row below.

Continue to put 2 trebles into each treble from the row below (row 1)

You will have 24 trebles  in total.

Remember to join with a slip stitch into the 3rd chain (as above)

Now change colour if you want to

3 chain, then 2 trebles, 3 chains and 3 trebles to form your 1st corner.

1 chain

now miss 2 stitches and put 3 trebles into the next stitch

1 chain

now miss 2 stitches and then 3 trebles, 3 chains and 3 trebles into the next stitch

1 chain 

Repeat this sequence all the way around until Row 3 is finished.

Change colour if you want to.

On the final row, simply put a corner (3 trebles, 3 chains, 3 trebles) into the corner below

(if you are not changing colour then simply slip stitch across to the 3 chain corner space)

1 chain

3 trebles into the one chain space (from the row below)

1 chain

3 trebles into the one chain space (from the row below)

1 chain

make another corner as above into the corner space of the row below and repeat this all the way around until you meet the start!

** Happy Spring **

You've just made my Spring Sunshine Granny Square!

Granny A Day # 81 and more WIP

Granny A Day 81 is partly due to the fact that one of my pupils bought me a lovely ball of lime green wool today!

It's a shame that the photo does not do the colour justice as it really is a lovely lovely vibrant shade.

So I now have a 9 x 9 square blanket so far (81 squares)

and

Here it is!

Now for my homework!

I have completed 5 squares of the 12 so far

Here is a close up

And if you look closely at the picture, you can just make out the motifs at the edge of the cardigan

Sorry it's not more visually clear, but as it's white on white it's very difficult to make out.

Anyway, that's how the finished cardigan is going to look

It's from the previously mentioned SIRDAR pattern book 

Cotton Crochet 376