As I have mentioned a number of times, my sister is getting married soon. In about 5 weeks, to be exact. This means two things - First, I am running out of time to finish the two Persian Tiles blankets I am working on. But secondly, HEN NIGHT!!!!!
My sister in fact had a hen weekend, and it was amazing. The first day and night was very much what you would expect from a standard hen - We went out for dinner, where I tried a catfish jambalaya for the first time, then we went to a cocktail bar where everyone around me drank a great number of cocktails, (I'm not a big drinker, and when I do drink I drink beer!), and we ended the night by hitting a nightclub. The nightclub in question was very impressive. Based in an old theatre, there were a number of cabaret and dance acts, cake eating competitions, free alcohol, the biggest disco ball I had ever seen, and the music was all 80's, 90's and 00's cheese - Our 'Guilty Pleasures'. Overall, the night was very enjoyable, even if my anti-social self did feel a bit out of my depth.
The second day was a LOT more my thing. After a slow breakfast, we headed out to 'Drink, Shop, Do' near Camden in London, where we had an English cream tea - sandwiches, scones and cakes galore! Om nom nom! After our tea, we had an organised activity - embroidering panties!!! Definitely a hen activity, but much more refined. I thoroughly enjoyed myself!
Having chosen our pants size, we were provided with a selection of templates - and it was a WIDE selection! There were sharks, unicorns, hearts, flowers, engagement rings, candy skulls, and a lot of tattoo style designs. Of course, there was also the obligatory selection of boobs and willies! Many of the girls chose the unicorns, but I was feeling very much like none of the designs really suited me. I mean, if you're going to have a design embroidered on your knickers, it really ought to be a reflection of yourself, right? Right!
After discarding the templates and taking a big drink of my glittery bellini, I set out to create my own design.
FOR THE HORDE!!!
This lovely symbol - which my sister assures me looks like both a willy and 'weird lady parts' - is the symbol for the faction I associate with in my game, World of Warcraft. I have been playing this game for 9 years now, it's how I met my partner, and how I met some of my now closest friends. I wouldn't be who I am today without World of Warcraft, as sad as that may make me seem. ^^ So when it came to choosing a design for my panties, there was really no other option!
Of course, choosing my own design left me at a bit of a disadvantage, as I was only just transferring my design to the pants while others were quite far into the actual embroidery. So of course I finished last. And at around £30, these pants are the most expensive pair of pants I own - even considering the fact that they are from Marks and Spencers....
They took me several hours, and an entire skein of red embroidery thread, but these are now officially my favourite pants.
I am always on the look out for crochet gifts that I can make for my friends. I have a to-do list that is about a mile long... Ok, maybe not a mile long, but certainly several years long! Every time I find I new pattern, I save it while in the back of my mind I am making a mental note of who the pattern would be perfect for. And I'm sure I'm not the only one!
So when I accidentally stumbled across My Victoria Rose, and the selection of gorgeous blankets on their site, I fell in love. The selection of superhero blankets on the store page are just so gorgeous. The colours are vibrant, the contrast is amazing, and the use of different stitches produces what look like simply sumptuous blankets. And I know so many people that would love the blankets on this website. I could buy every one of the patterns on here and it still wouldn't be enough.
The first three on my 'to do' list are Wonderwoman, Batman and Catwoman - One of my best friends and her two kids would absolutely adore these. But I want them all!!
These photos have been taken directly from the website, so you can see just how wonderful these blankets are. I intend to buy every one of these patterns over time. And they don't just have superheroes, either. There's a great NES controller blanket, a 1950's Barbie pattern blanket, and of course, you couldn't have superheroes without having the villains to match.
This website has definitely just become a permanent feature on my 'watch' list.
Hello!!! I am sorry for the lack of updates! Between trying to find a new job, getting the house ready for moving, and getting my son through his SATs, things have been pretty hectic around here. I haven't spent as much time crocheting as I would have liked. Which is a shame, because I am starting to worry about my sister's wedding gifts now.
Last time I posted I had made the decision to make two Persian Tile blankets - one for my sister and one for her fiancée. This was because the overall size of the blanket was smaller than I originally anticipated. It is a great size for one person to snuggle under for movies, but not two.
Progress has really picked up lately, and I do think I can get both done by the wedding if I really push it - They're not that big after all. But joining the motifs together and weaving in the ends? It's just so dull!!!. Here is my progress on the first so far:
The blanket is 4 by 4 octagonal motifs, so this is very nearly finished, and then there is an edging which won't take nearly as long! When I lay it flat I remember why I fell in love with it in the process. The colours are just so vibrant, and the squares offset the orange of the octagons so nicely. I really can't wait to gift them, and I am hoping to gift them a few days before the wedding if possible, as my sister recently asked me if I would be able to crochet a throw for the sofa in the hall where they are throwing their reception. With a bit of luck, although not fitting with black and white theme, these might be suitable for that too!
So, another project on my never-ending 'to-do' list - The singing sunflower!
Ok, so it doesn't actually sing. I found this pattern through Facebook, and when I saw it, I knew I had to make it. In fact, I have to make ten or twelve of them. In the game I play, World of Warcraft, there is a companion called the Singing Sunflower. It is acquired through an annoyingly difficult Plants versus Zombies style mini-game which tends to rely on luck rather than any kind of actual skill. Once (If!) you complete the game though, you are rewarded with this cute little sunflower pet, which does sing:
Daegore with his Singing Sunflower
So when I came across this free pattern by Ink and Stitches, I immediately noticed the resemblance to my annoying, sickly sweet, loyal little sunflower.
So, when I finally get some time in between projects with a deadline, I plan on making one of these sunflowers for each member of our guild's raiding team. Official Ænigma mascots! That's a lot of sunflowers though. Our raiding team is growing regularly - It started with about 8 people, and now we have 14-18 people regularly turn up on a Wednesday evening! That's a lot of crochet time!
My next yarn package has arrived!! Several weeks of not much crochet at all, and now I'm at a loss for what to do, with so many projects screaming for my attention at once! Not that I'm complaining, mind.
This is what my yarn club blanket looked like the last time I posted:
Colour-wise, we had received blue, purple, and then pink. I was predicting that we would next be receiving a package of red yarn, moving to orange, yellow, etc. I was wrong!
I am not sure what colour this is... It's not a pink, but it's not really an orange either. Peach? I'm not sure, but I know that I love it. I can't wait to get started on it and make more squares for my Club blanket! However, with my sister's wedding looming (and my crazy decision to do TWO Persian Tile blankets) I feel that I must really hold back. Once I have finished the wedding gifts, THEN I can focus on this package. Who knows - Maybe by then I will have two packages to keep me going?
I found my phone! Well, technically hubby found my phone, in the clean laundry I hadn't folded yet. Maybe if I'd actually folded the laundry instead of crocheting, I might have found it myself! But no matter...
This means that I can share photos of my squares! Whoot!
As I mentioned in previous posts, the square for March was a simple circle-within-a-square design. I created the circle using 20 (US) double crochets, and then created the border also using double crochets. They worked up pretty quickly. This is the same pattern that I am using to create the mini blanket using the scraps from my Truly Hooked yarn club.
My squares are limited in size, because the first designs I used came from a book, and all of the designs in the book were 11 stitches square. As such, I have been trying to keep my latest squares as close to that as possible, which has meant that occasionally I need to modify the designs a little. April's design was a smaller version of the Sweetest Baby Blanket on Moogly. To make it smaller I simply restricted the squares to three rounds and three colours each.
May is a new month, and as such I don't have many squares done yet! I am up to date with the 'square a day' concept, and so I am only doing a single square a day. This month I am using the Manghan square from Look At What I Made. My squares are a little looser than the ones in the tutorial, as I am mostly using DK weight yarn with a 6mm hook, to keep the same size and tension as my previous squares. I don't think the squares loose too much from this though, and it means that if I use some of my thicker yarns later on there is room for tightening up. Currently all of these 'Manghan' squares are single colours to use up ends of balls, but I don't plan on all of them being monotone. I would like to have some variety!
As always, all of my squares are unblocked because I'm a naughty crocheter! I simply don't have the cat-free space, or the time. Or actually, even the space - cat-free or not.....
It's been a while since I last updated here. There are two reasons for that - The first is that I was at first too busy with sewing the Bad Moon Rising shirts to do much crafting of any sort.
After I finished 81 shirts last week and sent them off, I was able to spend some time crocheting. I caught up on my 'Square-a-day' blanket - I finished all of the remaining squares for March, which were the two tone squares with the circle in the middle. Then I crocheted like crazy to complete the squares for April, before April ended! I chose to use this Sweetest Baby Blanket pattern from Moogly, cutting it short at three rounds to make the squares the same size as what I had already done. And I actually succeeded in finishing all 30 squares before April ended. I was rather pleased with this.
Now, you might notice that this is not actually my picture.... This is the second reason why I haven't updated in a while. When I came to take a photograph of the squares design I was using, I realised that I had lost my phone. My phone is my lifeline, and while I probably should invest in a proper camera, I do in fact use my phone for all of my photography. It has been almost a week now since I realised it was missing, and I still have not found it. As soon as I do I will, of course, post up to date photographs of my projects. But in the meantime text will have to do, and I really did not want to resort to that. I was hoping to find my phone before I posted...
For May's square, I am using the linen stitch Manghan square, from Look At What I Made. My squares have thus far been single colours, but I have a lot of ends to use up and this would be an excellent means to do that.
Again, not my photo.... *sad face*
In between my daily squares, I am working on my sister's wedding blanket. I have since decided that I want to do two blankets - His and Hers, as you will. However, I have less than two months to complete the two blankets, and I am only about 6/16 through the first one. And like a plonker I agreed to sew more Bad Moon shirts! This is the last batch though. I'm not going to take any more after these. I feel like I am losing control of my other deadlines! I clearly am not as good at multitasking as I thought I was...
It won't be long before I get the fourth package from my TH blanket club, either....
Now.....Where has that phone got to.....
