Tuesday 19 July 2011

What's been on the hook?

Hardly an evening goes by when I'm not sitting on the sofa with Mr CA, hooking away, me, not him. I've generally got several crochet WIPs on the go and I like it like that as I can swap and change as I feel like it.  One of my ongoing projects this year will be 4" granny squares.  I also intend to knit some 4" squares.  Cath at Stitchin' Chicken has posted an appeal to help Stitch for Pleasure , Stitch for Charity to collect 4" squares that they can then sew up into clothing or blankets... oh, it doesn't say who for, I assume the homeless.  But anyway, it's a worthy cause, if someone needs to keep warm, who am I to turn down the chance to crochet up a load of grannies and even practice my knitting.


The deadline isn't until the 27th December, so please, if you can knit or crochet, pop over to Cath's post and get the full details.  A 4" square takes no time to whip up and it's a great way of practicing new stitches and using up yarn scraps, and doing your bit of course.  Above are my first two squares, taken from 200 Crochet Blocks.

I'm also joining in the Giant Granny Challenge with Angie from Le Monde de Sucrette.  Basically, you crochet a granny.  A giant one.  For no reason!  Here's my granny so far:


There's 20 rounds there so far, all in 5 different colours of a wool/silk/alpaca mix yarn that was on sale at £1.50 a ball.  Who could say no. I did these rounds quite quickly, but have stalled this week as I've been so busy.

So, does she ever finish anything?  I can hear you asking yourselves/the dog/the computer.  Oh yes!  I finished this little baby!



So now you're saying "what the bloody hell is it?!", well maybe if you're English.   I'm not sure that Welsh/Scottish/Irish/Canadian/American/Australian/New Zealandish (what is the adjective for New Zealand??)/German/Polish etc, etc, etc, people say bloody hell.  Do you?  And what about other English people?  Is it just me and my dad?  Am I tarring you all with the same brush?  I did think goobies was a real word until I hit about 26 and discovered my dad and Aunty Gwen had made it up years ago.  I think I've digressed a little...

It's a seat belt cosy!  No, I'm not nuts.  I'm very short.  I'm only 5 foot 1 and drive an old car so it doesn't have fancy adjustable seat belts.  I've endured the last 3 years of being able to drive, and more as a passenger, with the seatbelt digging into my neck.  A collar helps, I can tuck it under there, but I don't always have a collar.  When I found this tutorial on Martha Winger's blog I knew I had to make it.



Here it is all buttoned up, but not around the seat belt, I'm not crazy enough to take pictures of my seat belt cosy in-situ!  I used some supersoft Sublime Merino yarn in my favourite colour and finshed it off with a border in white sparkly yarn from my Round the Corner crochet borders book.  This is, quite frankly, one of the best things to have happened to me this year!  Mr CA of course is mortified about it and I often find it shoved in the back of the glove box when he's been driving, but he's 6 foot 2 so what does he know about seatbelt-digging-in-the-neck pain??



17 comments:

Fiona said...

Great post... all your crochet work is lovely...Yes, we do bloody hell here down under...
Hugz

My.Florentine said...

What a great idea! I remember driving in my old car and the seatbelt diggin into my neck. This would have been handy then. And yes, Aussies do say bloody hell!

Allie said...

Your granny square is looking great, the yarn sounds heavenly! Great job crocheting four inch blocks, and what a good cause. I LOVE your seat belt cozy - I'm 5'8 but the stupid seat belt still digs into my neck!

Sarah said...

Great crochet! I can't wait to see what your giant granny square ends up being used for (and how big it ends up being!). And yes we definitely say bloody hell in NZ :)

RobynLouise said...

Lol, 'bloody hell' you have a few Aussie followers! I'm 5'2" so I know where you're coming from with the seatbelt cosy but fortunately I had my own finances years ago and bought my own little 4 cyl car so I don't have to deal with mortified males...my car, my rules :D! I'll have to try making my own cosy next time though. Quilted patchwork comes to mind.
Cheers,
Robyn

Nancy Lee said...

Bloody hell that's brilliant! In the southern US, they refer to peanuts as goobers (which is disgusting in other parts of the world).I am able to lower the seat belt on the car, but it is a constant battle between the 6 foot husband. I think I will make a quilted version, given my aversion to all things made of yarn...Cheers!

Ginger@gingersnapcrafts.com said...

You're so talented. :)Following from Sumo‘s Sweet Stuff link party. Would love to have you link this up to my {wow me} wednesday link party going on right now over on my blog. Hope to see you there.

Ginger
gingersnapcrafts.blogspot.com

Marilyn said...

Bloody hell, thats a good idea.

Jill said...

Great idea for your seatbelt!!

Thanks for linking to the Creating Success Worldwide blog hop!! Hope you'll come back again next week!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

Jamie @ DIY Home Sweet Home said...

Lol. I', 5'2" so I know exactly how you feel. I would love for you to stop by http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/ on Monday to link up your project and any other projects you would like to share.

Janice said...

Your seatbelt cosy is adorable! And it's not just you with that problem: I'm 5'9" and have the seatbelt from hell, I think, because it rubs me with its synthetic edge right along my collar bone. A few years back I decided that I did not want to wear only shirts with collars while driving my car, so I made a seatbelt cosy from a piece of quilted material and velcro that I had.

Beth of The Linen Cat said...

Love the top granny squares (especially the green one) and fab idea for solving the seatbelt problem!

I say bloody hell rather too often, my youngest repeated it the other day and I nearly died! Bethx

Sandra :) said...

HAHA I'd love to see a photo of Mr. CA with your adorable seatbelt cozy snuggled up to his shoulder!!! :D

New Zealanders = Kiwis!

Martha Winger said...

Hurray, Wendy! Love your seatbelt cozy. And we say bloody hell since Harry Potter came into our lives. Another saying I love is "chuffed to bits." Cheers!

BarPurple said...

That seat belt cozy is a fab idea and looks very cool indeed.

BarPurple :)

Cuckoo said...

Love it!

Actually I wouldn't mind making two and wearing them as wrist cuffs to pock out from some of my jumpers that have short (shrunk) sleeves.

xxx

Unknown said...

Yadeela! Is what a Navajo person might say for bloody hell. I love the seat belt cozy idea because I have red marks on my neck from the bloody seat belt. Thank you for the great idea.