Vintage Crochet Blanket

Hello Lovelies,

I'm so excited today as I'm finally getting round to showing you something I've been meaning to blog about for a few weeks now.
Some of you will remember my post about my Nannas' knitted blanket .

Repairing this blanket prompted Mum and myself to remember other blankets we had at home when I was a little girl.
My absolute favourite was a crochet granny square blanket. I really thought it was long since lost as Mum has moved a couple of times since then, so imagine my delight when she showed up at my house with the very blanket . ...............

It was even more gorgeous than I remembered it .........

This blanket was made in the 1950's, as a lap blanket, for my paternal grandfather who was wheelchair bound due the arthritis.
It was made by a neighbour of my grandparents and my Mum and Dad inherited it when they passed away.

I'm totally blown away by the gorgeous colours in the the bright ,random squares, there are 180 and no two are the same.....

The lovely plum coloured border this talented lady used  really makes the colours stand out........

I love ,love love it.....

The really unique thing about this blanket... the thing that is hard to appreciate by looking at photos... is the scale. Here is a 4 round granny square made in double knitting yarn using a 4.5mm hook next to the tiny squares of this blanket.....

The whole blanket is only 33 inches long .....

and 26 inches wide .

The yarn and the hook must have been so fine...it will have taken so many ,many hours to complete. But here it is ,over 50 years later still looking fabulous. It was well used by my grandfather and also used in my pushchair , according to my Mum.
Here it is with my circle blanket..to give you an idea of scale...........

There is only a small amount of damage and the colours are still bright , in a vintage sort of way, after all these years......

So this, my lovelies, is what has inspired my next big blanket project or BBP. I'm making small 4 round granny squares ( not as small as the original ones !) and planning to edge them in plum ( when I can find the perfect colour ).

This is going to be a slow project , probably taking most of this year. I love having a big project on the go and always feel a little lost when I come to the end of one .I also love making lots of smaller projects when the fancy takes me . So don't expect a ta-dah any time soon.

I'm sure there will be quite a few progress reports though :0)
I'm up to 40 squares so far. Sewing in the ends as I go . Making sure I do a good job with this as I would like to think it might even last a long as the fabulous blanket that inspired it :0)
Here are a few of my squares ......

Still a loooong way to go , but that's just fine with me .

Thank you all so much for your well wishes regarding my Mums recent illness, I'm so glad to be able to tell you she is MUCH better :0)

Have a great weekend .
Jacquie x

January Nature Review

Hello Lovelies , hope you are well.

Unfortunately there has been some unwellness affecting us this week . My Mum has been in hospital,rather poorly and ,though things seem to be improving, it's always a worrying time.

So to take my mind off these things I've been baking ,and walking and now I'm talking to you lovely lot :0)

After my first Nature post , inspired by this lovely book.....

I've been paying more attention to the Countryside around these parts .I'm trying hard to find the beauty in drab old January and I'm pleased to say it seems to be working.

Back in the middle of the month, the 14th , I ventured to the other end of my village . The Sun was fairly watery but the long  shadows and misty distance were pretty nonetheless......

Can you see the ridges in the field ,in the foreground of this picture? ( you can click to enlarge).......

They are also in this field ........

 I'm pretty sure this is a legacy of Medieval farming, were the land around a village was "common land" and everybody could work a strip. Quite amazing to think that all these hundreds of years later these ridges are still apparent.

A couple of days later (the 16th) we had a frost . As soon as I dropped the boys off at school I headed out with my camera.
Up the road a little ,to my new favourite off road spot.......

I never really see anybody else here , which is great for playing about taking pictures without feeling daft. So over the style ( green with moss and icy with frost) I went.....

to be greeted with .....

WOW , It was even more beautiful in real life .......

What a magical , mystical morning . It was all gone within 30 minutes and I'm so glad I didn't miss it .

Close too , the frost on the Brambles and the moss was quite lovely....

All the while I was walking I could here a loud birdsong. I'm afraid I'm pretty rubbish at recognising birds from their lovely singing , but I want to try and get a little better at this, so I recorded the song using the video setting on my camera the used this site to identify the bird as Coal Tit .
Here's Edith's picture of this bird and its cousins ( painted in 1906)....

I think it's so comforting to realise that at least some of today's nature is pretty similar to Edith's time .


Today, despite it being rather dull and drizzly I headed back to this footpath .
Mr Coal Tit wasn't singing but the horses were friendly , hello guys, sorry I don't have a carrot !...

Looking down I was pleasantly surprised to see lots of green.....

I know these are weeds , but it was still great to see the signs of new growth, and one mans' weed is another mans' flower, don't you agree ?

Speaking of flowers , I spotted I my first Snowdrop on the way home....

Sorry for the rubbish picture but I had to include it .Snowdrops, Ahhh I really adore them. Another thing that made me smile was noticing the buds on the trees and hedges, this one even had the beginning of leaves emerging , yippee :0).......

I am enjoying finding natures beauty in winter,it can be truly stunning, but I'm still really looking forward to the spring :0)
Jacquie x
P.s. Mum's just phoned to say she can come home  :0)

Hearts in the Sun

Hello again :0)....I know , two posts in one day ! They're a bit like buses:0)

I've been playing around crocheting hearts this week . My favourite pattern of the moment is a cute little 3D version .

As the sun was shining so brightly this afternoon I couldn't resist taking this picture.........

Ohhh , just look at those sharp shadows and how different the yarn looks in such bright light, welcome back sun ! Never mind that it's actually freeeezing outside :0)

I found the pattern for these cuties via tangled happy ( what a great site ) . I'm so glad I found Taras lovely blog "EASY" . Do check it out , there are lots of great free patterns .

So, back to my hearts, what do you think ?......

The red and lilac ones are slightly bigger as the yarn is a little thicker and I used a 4.00mm hook. Then on Wednesday I found a 3.5mm hook ( been looking for one for ages ) . So I used this to make the yellow and green ones........

Next I had to decide what to do with them , don't you love getting creative ? My projects never seen to end up how I originally imagined them , but I love the way they evolve. I had an idea to hang these vertically and knew I wanted to add something else for interest , but what ??? Beads, great but I couldn't find many nice ones in my stash, Crochet flowers ? no ,too fussy.
I know, felt !............

Lovely felt, I have a good stash of this user friendly material. Oh ,and buttons are always good . These are just basic white ones rescued from the boys old school shirts, but I think they will be fine. So I play around . This really is playing :0) I had lots of fun ..........

That's O.K. this looks cheerful , little circles of felt made by cutting round a penny.......

In the end I even got my pinking shears out , yes I had lots of fun with those. Here's the finished result.....

Yipee, more colourful crochet and felt to adorn my wall.............

I think it looks very at home with my embroidery hoop pictures.
Here's a wider angle shot so you can see most of the crochet in this room together. Please note the side table disguised as a tumble dryer :0)

My crochet bunting is also in this conservatory , but I don't think I could get it in the same picture. Well certainly not without showing you a lot of clutter. Yes there's loads of boy type stuff in this room,which this week includes the whole rugby teams kit I've been washing!, but I just look at the nice bits and try not to stress about the rest.
Hope you have a great , stress free, weekend .
Jacquie x

Granny Spike Stitch

Hello Lovelies, is it Friday Already ?

Thank you all so much for your comments on my new cushion , you always make me smile :0)

So here is a quick tutorial , in case you fancied giving this stitch a try for yourself. As I mentioned in my previous post , the inspiration came from this lovely cushion by the super talented Sarah London.

To begin with you work 2 rounds of a standard granny square...I've done mine in one colour, but that's up to you,different colours would look good. They are the pink rounds in this image..........

The spikes begin on the third round and are worked on the straight edges only. To make a spike cluster work your first U.S. double crochet ( U.K.treble) as usual , into the space of the previous round....

Work the second D.C. into the top of the second D.C. of the round before last . You will end up with a long D.C. stitch that bridges the space so don't work it too tightly....

I've indicated where your hook goes with a needle in this picture....

finally work the third D.C. into the space of previous round....

There , you've done it , that was easy I hope.

When you get to the corners you work these as normal, you know , 3 D.C. chain 2 , 3 D.C. into the corner chain space of the previous round......

Footy note
Due to the spike clusters being "tied" to the stitches of the round before last I had an issue with the square becoming miss - shaped and the corners protruding, does this make sense ?
I think the best way to combat would be to work some , or all, corner clusters in Half Double crochet ( Half Treble Crochet - U.K. ) so they are not as tall.
I would recommend you experiment with this a bit to see what works best for you .

At this point I would like to credit the artist of the painting that appeared in this image....

A few of you mentioned it in your comments so I thought you might like to know it's an original, one off, painted my a very talented local Artist....my Mum :0)
Here's a closer view....

My home is full of her lovely paintings ...I'll do a post dedicated to them one day.

Have a great weekend , happy hooking :0)
Jacquie x

Latest Crochet Cushion

Hello Lovelies , thank you all so much for the kind and interesting comments you made on my last "nature" post. I'm glad to see there are other fans of these lovely books reading this blog :0)
Today it's back to a little crochet...the ta-dah post for those squares I showed you a little of last week.

So here we go ...


Ta- dah !.....

What do you think ?  I'm rather chuffed with this little project , the colours were so uplifting and fun to work on a miserable grey week............

It's made by making four squares , which I sewed together..

Then I added enough rows to fit my cushion...simples :0)

It's one of my "cheat" cushions .....just a front square attached to a ready made cushion . The green edging is part of the original cushion .

and here's the back......

Have you noticed it's made from a different stitch to a standard granny cluster? I got the idea from here.
I've just studied Sarah's image and done something similar...not sure what Sarah calls it ...I've gone with granny spike.

It's really easy to do and if you can do a granny cluster, you know, three U.S. double crochet ( U.K.trebles) you can do this :0)

I'm a little short on time tonight so I will do a tutorial, for those who would like one, next time .

I'm liking the slightly different  effect of this stitch and it's very practical for a cushion cover as it makes a less holey finish which hides the pad ( or in my case ,green cushion !) well.
Here it is with all it's co-ordinating friends, looking sweet on my sofa ....

Crochet cushions ......Ummmmmmmmmm....got to love them :0)

Have a great week Lovelies .
Jacquie x