Granny A Day 152

Granny A Day 152

This Granny a Day is made up of a 

Bright Yellow centre

A Beige 2nd Row

A muted Green 3rd Row

&

A lovely Maroon Frame

I have had a very busy day, lifting Onions & Garlic from my Allotment, before the forecast rains come and storing them in suitable crates in my shed to dry them off before the move.

I have also given my two Goldfish, Cartier & Tiffany a partial water change as they will be transported in plastic bags during the move.  I will put them into a Goldfish Bowl (traditional) for a day before the move, so that I can give their little tank a good clean out.  Well that's the plan anyway!

My Dog is going to the In Laws tomorrow and won't come back to this house as we will pick him up on the way to Dorset, just so that he won't be traumatised by all the comings and goings of the removals men on the  day before and the day of the move.

Gosh with all this forward planning, it's a wonder that I have any time to crochet these days at all!

Another plan:  I am thinking of making about a weeks worth of Granny A Days ahead of time so that I am all done and dusted up to the 10th June - I know it's a little bit of cheating but needs must - what do YOU think?

Please leave your comments if you approve or indeed you don't !

Granny A Day 151 and my LAST Crochet Classes in Surrey

The First of my 2 classes today was attended by one of my oldest (as in time, not in her age!!) pupils who brought a variety of projects along with her.

One of them was called a Maggie Wrap (which if you google you will find online or via Ravelry, which included the beginnings of  the square that you see below as Granny 151.

She had to make the squares and join them as you go, but she didn't see that bit so she had to "frog" the last row of quite a few squares and then I showed her how to join as you go.

She was so thrilled that she brought this along to her last class as she could now finish her project but she was very sad that it was our last lesson together.

I then decided, after a mad dash to the wool shop for some Royal Blue wool, to try out , experiment even, with making a Union Jack Granny Square in time for the Royal Celebrations ahead of this coming 

Diamond Jubilee weekend.

 

Class 2 and my very very final class in Surrey, was with LG who came to me only 2 weeks ago, to learn how to make Granny Squares

This is what she brought along!!

I am very impressed.

In Lesson 1 she learnt to make the basic Foundation Chain and Treble Crochet + start a Granny Square.

In Lesson 2 - that very same week, she learnt to colour change and how to neatly darn in all the ends as you go, to save darning in with a needle at the end, therefore saving her from a horrible end task which so many of us hate and today she learnt how to Join As You Go

And this is what she achieved

Isn't it a fantastic job!

I am really thrilled that she's taken to Crochet so passionately and so quickly too!

She thanked me at the end and said that I am a very good and very patient teacher - how lovely of her.

I shall miss all of my pupils however, I looked forward to all my new pupils that will come along in Dorset.

Granny A Day 150 & Tunisian Crochet

Granny A Day 150 is this rather lovely colour combination of 

A Deep Pink Centre

A Bright Yellow 2nd row

A Dull but still attractive Grey 

Rounded off with a vibrant Orange!

These are all odd colours from my Yarn Scraps basket

Due to my move and therefore clear out of stuff from my Crochet Room I have the space to lay my 

Granny A Day Blanket

of 150 Granny Squares to date

on the floor to photograph it

I love it!

After yesterday's rather brilliant Filofax Cover, which is now in pride of place on my Filofax, which I use a lot, I have gone back to adding a few more rows on my Tunisian Crochet Scarf

As you can see, it's getting thinner the more rows I add.  I must be missing a few stitches here and there as I go, but it's good practice!

I will probably DC in traditional crochet, all around the edge, once its finished to give it a nicer look & I can't wait to wear it.

It's another good way to use up odd balls of wool and yarn.

Granny A Day 149 & Another Filofax Cover

Well, I did get some packing done this morning - the whole of the dining room in fact, and in this heat it wasn't an easy job!

So after a cool drink I made Granny A Day 149

This is the same square but in different light!

As I have a pretty full on day tomorrow, as it's the last day at my gardening job and I have to change all the pots from winter pansies to summer geraniums, I decided not to do any more packing today

Instead, as I had a "taste" for Granny Squares - like I need a reason, I decided to make a Granny Square cover (this is the 4th one I have made & it has a better wardrobe than I do!!) for my Filofax.

I chose some lovely summer colours and with inspiration from 

http://bekaboodesigns.wordpress.com/

Beka Boo Designs by Tracey, who makes the most wonderful crochet bed footers and cushions, plus much, much more.  

The inspiration came from the bed footers that she makes by joining several Granny Squares together to form a long rectangle and then granny shelling around them to keep the shape rectangular rather than square, so this was ideal for my Filofax cover.

 I started by joining 3 Granny's together

(The Front)

And then bordering it with Granny Shells to make the rectangular shape needed for the cover

(The Spine)

And making a DC edging to tidy up the edging

(The Back)

And making some Granny Triangles for the corners

I do hope that you like the fact that I used my spare time to create a new crocheted wonder

GAD 148 & Inspiration from A Stash Addict

This is Granny A Day 148

Again I have just "picked" the colours at random, on this extremely hot day, from the scarp yarn basket.

With a Cream Centre, Mixed Cream & Brown Row two, a vibrant pink Row 3 and a shade of Grey Border I think it looks lovely

but then again I love ALL Granny Squares

My Husband and I decided to take a day off from packing up the house today, so I had a little bit of spare time on my hands.

I decided to wander across a few crochet blogs and I came across this inspirational blog from

A fellow Twitter @AstashAddict

 http://www.astashaddictblog.com/2012/05/crochet-daisy-chain-tutorial.html

Do go and take a look as she takes some wonderful photos and it includes the full tutorial too!

I am going to make a few more and attach them to the front of my bicycle basket to cheer it up as it's of the plain black wire type and not the lovely wicker ones  you can get.
I will post a picture when it's done!

Last by not least was an email update from one of my pupils NR

After having to stop work on her initial Giant Granny Square Blanket, to make a baby blanket, she's picked up pace again and has hit Row 53

It's nearly big enough for her double bed now, as you can see by this wonderful picture!

Well done NR - it's fabulous.

Granny A Day 147

This is Granny A Day 147

The colours are just pulled from the Yarn Stash basket 

at random

and I even had to use 2 shades of Brown

I love the result of this random colour pick

Now back to packing boxes and shredding paper

Oh I must tell you about my paper shredding!  I have, no, I will correct that to HAD bank statements from the year 1999 so thought that I would get rid of them all, apart from the last years worth and shred them.

So I have sat here for hours with my shredder, which keeps on stopping because it gets hot, shredding away

& I have filled 2 bin liners full of shredded paper!

However here's the genius bit

I have used the shreddings to pack out my boxes with, instead of scrunching up paper!

Ingenious I hear you say

Indeed it is!

I knew there was a point to saving all those bank statements!

Ta - Dah

Granny A Day 146

I apologise in advance for this very boring blog post of my Granny A Day 146

With a large house to pack up and move in 13 days time, I don't have as much spare time on my hands

However I did manage to make GAD 146

However if I am totally truthful, this square was started yesterday in Class 2 and LG my new Granny Mad student actually started a colour change on this square as practice, so I can't say that I made it all myself!

Granny A Day 145 & TWO crochet lessons later...

My First Crochet Class today was my last with the lovely lady LW.  She has been coming to classes here since October 2011 and she has become a very talented crocheter since her very first class when she learnt the basics.

She has crocheted granny squares, Cafetiere cosy's, Cushion Covers, Scarves, Beanie Hats and even Bears! 

It has been an absolute pleasure to teach her.

My Second Crochet Class today was with LG who started last week, on the understanding that I wouldn't be around for much longer, she wanted to go ahead as her main ambition is to Crochet Granny Squares.

Last week we covered the basics

This week she has produced this Granny Square and has even accomplished colour changes!!

WOW I hear you gasp and wow indeed - she's done extremely well.

I have one more lesson booked in with her next week and we are going to cover Joining As You Go and make a start on a Ripples Blanket!

Now for Granny A Day 145

I made this in Class 2 today, well apart from the join as you go row, which I did once my pupil left.

More tomorrow folks

Granny A Day 144 (12 x 12)

Granny A Day 144 is a rather special Granny Square

It means that another "SQUARE" is now complete, that is to say 12 granny squares by 12 granny squares!!

The blanket itself is now too large to take a photo of in my Crochet Room so I will have to find another large floor area in my house tomorrow (if I remember) to accommodate my need.

I have 2 crochet lessons tomorrow, amongst the packing boxes!

My pupils are chomping at the bit to get as many lessons in before I go, but I am going to have to make next week my last week as the week after that is the VERY long Bank Holiday weekend (Monday & Tuesday) then it's just the Wednesday left and I will be in Dorset on the Thursday!

I am going to have to start from scratch there and build up my clientele once again 

and

Get Dorset Crocheting ! 

GAD 143

My apologies if you popped here earlier and found a blank post

I will explain!

After not hearing any news about the house exchange yesterday, we did finally have so great news today!

Yes we have now exchanged contracts and we complete on the 7th June 2012

So 

www.gethookedoncrochet.co.uk

will be moving classes to Dorset 

Hooray!

I can hear the whole of Dorset cheering from here LOL

Despite all this excitement I still managed to concentrate for long enough to make GAD 143

As you can see it's one of my "join the scrap yarns" specials

I will need to use as many PROPER scraps as I can now as I will only end up taking them with me - well I will anyway if the are part of my GAD blanket but it's a better way to travel, don't you think?

So my Crochet Room is currently in the process of being boxed up, although I do have 4 more Crochet Lessons to take, possibly 5, before the big day in 15 days time.

Can you tell I am excited?

Dorset here I come!

Granny A Day 142 & Elephants!

I needed to take my mind of things today as we are waiting to hear if we have exchanged on our property transaction today, so I started off by having a little tidy up as I have a lesson later.  Whilst I was tidying around I found this lovely pattern in a magazine.

Although I swore that I would NOT start another project, I thought, well this is only small and it won't take long, so I started - naughty me!

Unfortunately the pattern was a bit strange, but there was a website link available

http://www.irenestrange.co.uk/patterns/

And on the website was an Errata page, and on this page it said:

Unfortunately, there wasn’t room to include all the drawings that go with Noodle (I do like to write rather wordy patterns, don’t I?..)  so if you find yourself a bit stuck when it comes to making the legs and trunk, drop me an email and I’ll send the missing diagrams to you!

So I emailed Irene and she emailed me straight back

With the full PDF pattern 

So Noodles was able to progress

And I am really pleased with the way she's turned out

She's a combination of Granny Square and Amigurumi

So you have to sew in a panel which you can just about see in the picture above and below, of scrap material, to stop the stuffing from coming out.

As I had the coloured yarns out already, I decided to use the same colours for today's Granny A Day 142

That way I will always remember what day I made Noodles on!

Granny A Day 141 & Twitter News!

Granny A Day 141 is this rather lovely "sunburst" framed with a black border

I love the way it has turned out and I am glad that I chose the rare black yarn rather than the more popular red for this square.

Now for Twitter News

Yesterday I got this tweet

I enjoy your crochet blog a lot!

From someone that I regard as the Queen of Crochet @crochetblogger 

who's website http://www.crochetconcupiscence.com/ is the most amazing Crochet Website that I have ever come across and I visit it often.

Then I got this tweet from another crochet tweeter @thegeologyshop

youre like a crochet encyclopedia, thank you!

As I helped her out with a crochet blocking question

How wonderful it is to get such lovely comments and recognition for my crochet passion

Thank you!

That's made my Sunday that has 

Another WIP finished & GAD 140

This wasn't exactly a WIP but I don't know how else to refer to it!!

My friend gave me a lot of crochet bits and bobs that his Mum used to use and in with these bits and bobs were loads of these little mini granny squares!

Some of them were badly stained and despite washing them, the staining didn't come out, so I salvaged 20 squares that I could use and decided to join them together

As you can see I have used the ladder method, well that's what I call it anyway.  It's when you join the squares at the little edges first (see above) and then you do the long lengths all the way across, darning in all the ends as you go, so save you from sewing them in (the most hated of all jobs of all crocheters!!) at the end

And after joining them all together, I made a Triple Crochet edging.

I will give this to my friend Calum, so that he can frame it

This way he can have something that his Mum made, forever!

Now for GAD 140

Well the intention of GAD 2012 Challenge was to use up all your left over wools and yarns, so this is putting it into practice 100% as I literally joined bits of yarn together and completed my GAD

Two WIP's now finished and GAD 139

 WIP #1

This Gorgeous Summer Top is made of 100% Cotton in Cream / Ivory

 so would go with any colour cami top warn underneath

This top is available FOR SALE for £80

(please contact me if you are interested or go to the For Sale Tab at the top of this page)

And will fit up to a size 14 / 34inch bust 

All lovingly hand made

And I am thrilled with how fantastic it looks!

WIP #2

This is my Cardigan A Long project

This fantastic Summer Cardigan is also made from 100% cotton 

Again it's made in Cream / Ivory

Sadly this is NOT for sale

As I want to wear it myself!

It's going to be well worn this Summer!

Now for Granny A Day 139

I pulled these yarns from my basket and put them on my desk

As I was going to delve deeper into the basket  

To pull out some colours from the bottom, but then I thought

Why not use these colours?

So I did and here is 

GAD 139

Only another 227 to go!