Hooray, I've finally finished Olivia's granny square afghan and will admit to feeling very chuffed about that :)
The sun has been shining recently, a very welcome change, so I took the opportunity to grab a couple of photos of it, artfully draped at the end of her sleigh bed .....
One hundred and twently granny squares. three centre colours and two rounds of cream to each one. Four extra rounds of grannying and topped off with two rounds of double crochet. Was unsure whether to add anything else to the border but the general concensus seems to be to leave it just as it is :)
I used about 14 balls or is the correct word skeins, I'm not sure ..... of Rowan double knit wool in Snow and the colours are from my stash of tapestry wools and some additional purchases of Rowan DK. I joined the squares as I went along which was really great for someone who is as impatient as I am plus it mean't that I could plan my colours right there and then.
To anyone who has been thinking of taking up crochet I would definitely say just go for it. If I can do it, so can you :) It does seem difficult at first, especially when trying to learn from a book, it would be much easier to have someone physically show you but it does suddenly all fall into place I assure you.
The fabulous Sarah London has a great Step by Step granny square tutorial on flickr - I'm so envious of her fabulous coloured yarns That is the one thing I have found, here in the UK we seem to be seriously lacking in the bright coloured yarn dept but maybe I need to search a little more. If anyone knows any great yarn sites then please do let me know. She also produces lots of tutorials and patterns to purchase for a couple of pounds apiece, all of which are really well written and easy for a beginner like me to understand.
Another good source of inspiration and knowledge is Lucy over at Attic24, Lucy has a really great teaching style and is very generous with her tutorials so it's not hard to see why she has such a huge following.
Not content with the blanket I decided to make a matching mini cushion:
The cushion is made up of 42 mini granny squares which I made with the sublime baby cashmerino from Debbie Bliss, really love that yarn, so lovely to work with. The cushion measures approximately 45 cm by 35 cm, I ordered a huge number of feather cushion pads in varying sizes, 150 to be precise, for my shop and they take up an inordinate amount of space in our flat so the more I can use quickly the better :) A few people have asked me to offer these cushions at London Mummy, but I need to work out some pricing first as they are not quick to make and the yarn is not cheap!
Right I'll sign off now as, this post has once again taken ages to produce thanks to my really slow broadband speed. Fingers crossed my ISP manages to finally sort this problem out after many many months of superslow speed and constant interruption of service, not great when your business is online :) Who know, I may even get to blog a bit more!
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