Afternoon granny square delight!!!

I thought it was about time I shared something crochet related, so I'm going to talk about my latest crochet project!  I have managed to be quite organised lately with regards to my ongoing projects.  It's quite unusual for me to only have one thing on the go at a time, maybe it's because of my already limited crochet time.  I can't afford to be doing too much at once.  I'm not sure how long it will stay that way though, my mind is already bussing with idea's for other projects!!  It my also be because my current project, as well as the one before, is very important to be.  A little while ago I suddenly realised that neither of my older two boy's own a single object that has been crocheted by me!!!  That must be some form of child neglect!  To have a mother who is an avid hooker and not own a single crochet item, it must be unheard of.  I mean, sure, as babies they had blankets and things, but those are all safely packed away in memory boxes!! 

I simply had to fix it, and my first thought was a blanket!  In my crochet history I have made a few blankets, mostly as gifts and a few for around the house in general, but the boys are always fighting over them.  So I thought it would be a good thing for them both to have one they can call their own!!  I thought it only right that the oldest get first, he had waited the longest after all! 

After trawling through pinterest in search of the perfect blanket I finally decided on this 'as we go stripy blanket' from 'not your average crochet'.  With money being a bit tight, and an ever growing wool supply, I thought it was about time I used up some odds and ends of wool that I already had!  It really didn't take as long to complete as I had expected, probably about six weeks or so, which is good going for me!!  Any way here is the finished result........

I'm pretty proud of it and more importantly BT loves it, it sits on his bed and is frequently used for T.V. days! 

 

With blanket number one finished it was time to move on to number two!!  I gave pinterest a bit of a break this time, as I remembered having seen a blanket I liked in one of the issues of Simply Crochet Magazine.  This Rainbow Brights blanket was my initial inspiration!

 

 

I loved the idea of the Rainbow colour scheme, but I knew NJ wouldn't like the pinks, so I changed the colour's slightly.  Taking out the pinks and adding in some extra green's and blue's seemed to work well.  This is the colour scheme I went with....

 

 

The pattern was a basic granny square, but I made the square's one round bigger than the pattern stated.  I love doing granny square's, it's just the type of pattern you can do without thinking too much about it, so they fly off the hook and before you know it your surrounded by little square's!  Very satisfying!!! 

 

 

Although the squares are quick enough to do, the blanket seems to be taking a long time.  Probably because the children are off school for the summer, the only crochet time I get is in the evening's when the little monsters are in bed and few snatched moments where I can throughout the day!  Like yesterday evening while dinner was cooking, the older two were out playing and baby was happy playing on the floor. 

 

 

The ring is now the safer option, when he doesn't have your full attention, from he learnt to roll it's amazing how far he can travel just rolling over and over!!  Between shouts from outside of 'mum BT's stuck up a tree' (he actually was), and scream's from the floor when Mr Elephant went out of reach, I actually managed to do a little crochet!

 

 

I'm trying to be really good this time and sew in all the ends as I'm going, like most people, it's the part I like least, so if I can do it as I go along it won't be so bad!

 





I'm trying to do the square's a colour at a time, so I do all the squares in one colour then join them into the main blanket while I'm crocheting the cream boarder, using Lucy's 'join as you go' technique!  It's coming together slowly, but surely! 

 



I'm really pleased with how it's turning out so far and I'm already starting to think about the boarder!  I want something really fun, I was thinking maybe pom-pom's attached around a simple treble boarder, or maybe a popcorn stitch boarder.  What do you think?



Here we go again!!!

I'm embarrassed to say it's been well over a year since I last posted, and while I hate to make excuses, I'm going to anyway!  I haven't been doing much on the crafting scene, over the past year I have mostly been focusing on my family!  Adding to it, would probably be more accurate. 

I am now the very proud mother of not two but three beautiful boys! 

Most Of my pregnancy with my last little darling was dreadful and I was completely unable to do anything else, let alone crafting.  Even my love of crochet had to take a back seat, for the entire nine months I was completely incapable of picking up a crochet hook, and believe me I tried!  For most people, expecting a new baby is the perfect excuse to crochet and create beautiful baby clothes, blankets and all sorts of gorgeous things!  In fact I actually taught myself to crochet while I was expecting my first baby, such was my intense desire to create some of these wonderful baby things!  But, for some reason during this pregnancy the very feel of the wool and hook in my hand made me incredibly nauseous! When I did manage to start something, the act of crochet gave me motion sickness.  It was not very pleasant!  After nine long months without any form of crafting I was anxious to get going again, but then of course I have my beautiful new baby boy to look after, as well as the two little handfuls of trouble I already have.  As you can imagine it's a very busy household! Eventually, we did manage to get back to some form of normality, our new baby fitting in like he had always been here, and I finally managed to pick up my hook.

It has taken me a little while to get my crochet mojo back, but I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere.

I have completed a few projects in the past few months, and while all I have time for at the minute is my family, with a little bit of crochet on the side, I hope that as time goes on I will get back to some of my other crafty notions as well!

 

 

 

WIPS

Anyone who know's me and my crafty ways will know that it is practically unheard of for me to have any less three projects on the go at any one time, and usually it's a lot more than three.  The projects can range from crochet to furniture restoration and back again to sewing.  Hence, the name of my blog 'crafty notions',  I follow whatever notion may take me and I run with it.  I also find it impossible to have idle hand's, you will virtually never see me doing 'nothing', even when sitting over a cup of tea or watching the television, my hand's have to be doing something.  This is usually crochet, because it is the thing which I am most practised at and can do without having to think about it too much.  I now even have a wee bag, just big enough to hold a ball of wool, my crochet hooks and a pair of scissors, this bag goes everywhere with me, just in case I have a few spare minutes to fill.  My other projects, such as sewing, furniture restoration and goodness knows what else, take a little more concentration on my part.  I usually try and fit these in between parenting and housekeeping duties.  Although in truth it's more like the parenting and housekeeping duties get 'fitted in' around the crafting most of the time.  Thankfully, I have a very supportive husband who fill's the gap when necessary.  

Quite often my mind is swimming with crafty idea's, most of the time I can't even make sense of them.  Occasionally something come's to the forefront and actually make's some sort of sense and can materialise into a completed project.

This is one such project that has materialised.  It's an adaptation of the owl hat and bag in this post, The owl bag is much the same, but I have made a headband/earwarmer instead of the hat for spring time.  You can't really see from the picture, but the pink has a little glittery shimmer going through it, making it really nice and girlie.  

I thought it would be quite useful for me to do a little round up of the projects I have on at the minute.

1) The Mystery Blanket

This blanket was part of a four part feature in Inside Crochet Magazine over the past four months.  It is done in aran weight wool, which isn't something I generally use, but I had inherited a lot of it from my Grandmother who passed away last year.  I really wanted to do something with it, but wasn't too sure what, until I saw this feature and knew it was perfect.  It didn't take me too long to get this far, this is part one, two and three completed, just to add part four now.  It was, however, really heavy going as the blanket started to grow.  I really like how it's turning out though and can't wait to see it all finished.

2) Crochet Chair

This is one project that I am beyond excited about.  About a year ago my brother gave me this kitchen chair, he and his wife had just moved into her grandparent's old house and inherited a few pieces of old furniture.  This was one of them, and knowing me pretty well, my brother knew I would see something more than a dirty old chair.  He was so right!!  It may not look like much, but as soon as I saw it I loved it!  I thought hard about what to do with it, Maybe re-upholster it and paint with a nice bright colour.  But for some reason that just didn't seen right.  So it has sat 'lonely' in the shed throughout the winter, but thankfully in the new light of Spring it came to me - YARN BOMBING!!!!  Perfect!  So I striped it down, sanded it all, re-upholstered the seat with lining fabric and got started.

It's a pretty slow process, with all the colour changing.  I decided to do the legs with popcorn stitch, which can take a long time too, but I'm in no rush with this one, I'm enjoying doing it and I want to do it right, so I'm taking my time.

3) Fabric, hand-bound notebook's 

I have made these for the upcoming craft fair in April, I sewed the fabric cover's in a few hour's, now I just have to make the page's for the inside and bind them.

4) Long Term projects.

I started this blanket about a year ago.  It's a large blanket for my brother, in the local football team colour's.  It's a really simple, easy pattern to work, but I find it too tedious to do too much of it at the one time.  So I tend to do a square every now and again, in between other projects.  Slowly, but surely, it is getting bigger, I'm just over half way now.  Thankfully, my brother, although he did ask for it, doesn't know I have started it yet.  So at least he won't be expecting it any time soon.

This is another one that is taking a looooong time.  I'm ashamed to say I started this blanket two years ago in May coming.  It's just over half way done, and again it's one that I can only do a little at a time.  I haven't done any of it in a long time, but I think it's more of a summer blanket, so perhaps I'll get the motivation to start it again this summer and it will be ready to brighten up the dark nights of next winter.

5) My Bunny

My bunny is a recent project, I started it just this week and it's almost finished so, hopefully I'll get it done in the next few day's.  I have made softies before following pattern's from Helen Phillips and Tilda,  but this is the first time I have drawn out a pattern of my own.  I have to say I'm not overly thrilled with it, I do like the patchwork look, but I'm not to sure about the pattern.  Maybe from now on I'll stick to the pre-made pattern's and put my own spin on it with the patchwork look.

6) Crochet disaster's

When I sew the doorstop camper van in issue 50 of Inside Crochet,  I instantly wanted to do it, and started straight away.  It wasn't difficult to do and quickly started to take shape.  However, I also quickly began to realise that my effort's bore little resemblance to the one in the magazine and I very quickly fell out with it.

Image from Inside Crochet

So for now I have set it aside, until such time's as I find the heart to finish it or bin it.

So that's it, everything I have ongoing at the minute, and no doubt I will add to it before too long.  Having done a list my mind is now a lot clearer, for a little while anyway.  Thanks for stopping by today, hope to speak to you again soon.

Granny Sitting and Crochet

We have had a pretty uneventful week spent in my Mum and Dad's house looking after my Granny.  Granny was largely independent until March this year, Mother's Day to be exact, when she had a really nasty fall down the stair's in her own house.  Leaving her with a good few broken bones and plenty of bumps and bruises.  She went to stay with Mum for a while and has just never really gotten well enough to go home again, although to be honest it's a bit of a relief to all of us that she is there, at least we don't have to worry about her being on her own quite so much.  This past week Mum and Dad have been on holiday in Benidorm (lucky them) so I was volunteered to move in, along with all of my clan, to look after Granny.  I absolutely love my Granny to bit's, I spent a lot of my childhood with her and my Grandad, who passed away when I was nine, and I have the greatest of respect for her and the older generation in general.  They have gone through more in their live's than we ever could, we have it so easy now and we don't even realize it.  All that aside, it really was a long hard week, I think Granny get's frustrated that she can't do all the thing's she used to and she hate's relying on other people to do thing's for her, so it was very hard work at time's.  It was nice, however, to spend some time with Granny, in this crazy life we now all live in everything just gets a bit hectic and thing's like spending and hour just listening to Granny's old stories doesn't happen as often as you would like.

I did spend my time wisely though, between school run's, cooking, cleaning, playing, etc. I did manage a bit of crochet. I think lately I have been sidetracked from my main crafting passion, crochet.  I do enjoy sewing as well, but i think because i'm still learning it can be stressful at time's, so this week i needed to relax and that's exactly what i did.  Although, as anyone out there who crochet's will know, you are constantly learning new stitches and technique's, crochet is just so comfortable for me, it's like my safe place.  When life get's stress full i pick up a hook!!  I thought I would try and get a little bit of stock together for the Christmas Craft Fair and so I spent the week doing small thing's that I think people will like.

This is the second owl bag I have made and i'm really loving them, I have a real 'thing' for owl's at the moment, and woodland thing's in general.  This bag and the other one I made have already been claimed by my sister-in-law for Christmas present's, so i'll have to make some more for the fair.  I'm debating whether to line them with material or not, i'm really not sure what i should charge for them either, is £10 too much?  If I line them should I charge more?  That's the part i'm not looking forward to at all, pricing the product's.  I want to make it worth my while, but I don't want to over charge and not sell anything.

The phone sock's are perhaps my favorite product of the week.  Again, it's the woodland thing.  I came up with the pattern for the ladybird as I went along and I made the owl one after seeing something similar on pintrest, but thankfully I did write the pattern's down so I will be able to make more.  Which is just as well really, because I've decided to keep Mr Owl for myself.

                                            

I got the pattern for the rose corsage via pintrest, here, and added some pretty button's to the middle, tidied up the back with felt and added a broach pin.  I did have a lovely orange one as well, but my sister swiped it, ah well, that's what family's for, or so she tell's me anyway.

I did the same with the triple layer flower's, added a button, felted the back and added a pin, I really do like these because the color combination's are endless and I am a girl who like's her color.  I will be making more of these as well, you can find the pattern here.

The little hair clip's are really simple, I used Lucy's pattern for Teeny Tiny Flower's, again added a button (everything is made better with a button) and sewed them onto a hair clip.  I also had more of these, but they seem to have disappeared as well.

Lastly, I tried my hand at a bit of felt sewing and made some Christmas decoration's.  I thought I really should do some as it is a Christmas fair.  My sister is usually the one to do the felt thing's, but her stuff is just so lovely, she inspired me to have a go and this is what I came up with.  I'm quite pleased with them and may just have to do some for my own tree this year.

So that's my week in crochet and felt,  I hope you like my little makes, thank's for dropping in, see you again soon.

What i'm about!

So today I thought I would show you what it is I'm all about.  Really it's hard to pin it down, because I like to try many different things and if I just see something that I like I will try to recreate it in the best way I can.  Most of the thing's I make are for myself and my house, but as I begin to get more confidence in my crafting abilities I have started to make thing's as gift's for family, and I am even contemplating going to a local Christmas craft fair this year to try selling some of my goods (more on that at another time).

Anyway, here are a few of the thing's I have made in the past few month's, I hope you like them, your feedback would be greatly appreciated!
 

 

This is the top half of my little wall unit in the kitchen, which I absolutely adore.  It has to be my favourite piece of furniture in the house.  I bought it from a local charity shop and painted it up myself.  I crocheted the bunting along the top, making up the pattern as I went along.  The little teddy in the left hand corner (Milo as we like to call him), I made from one of my current favourite sewing books by Tilda, Sew Pretty Homestyle, and the crocheted bird in the right hand corner I made by following the tutorial on Lucy's blog at Attic 24.   

 

 

The two item's in the picture's above I  made for my newly painted beach style bathroom, I  think this deserves a post all of it's very own, which I hope to do very soon.  I've also added a few of my crochet item's, the wash cloth's were also made for my new bathroom with a pattern from my own head. 

 

This little bunny is from last month's issue of Inside Crochet magazine, she is called Rosie, because of her rosy cheeks and was made for the upcoming craft fair, but I'm not sure I'll be able to part with her.

 

 

 

This little owl bag is my latest creation, and I have to say I'm really proud of it, even if I do say so myself.  I have seen a few similar ones on pinterest here and here and really liked the idea, so I decided to make my own and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

 

 

 

Last, but not least is this pretty little madam, called Sally.  I made her as a Christmas gift (it's never too early to start when your giving handmade gifts)  for my niece from a lovely little book of stuffed toys called Sew it, Stuff it.  I hope she likes it.

 

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed a little look into my crafting adventure's, I did warn you it was quite diverse, sometimes I even have trouble keeping up, so I hope your up for it.  Thanks for calling in today, hope to see you again soon!