T'is done!

Today is a momentous day.  Well OK, it was one day last week actually that was momentous, but today is momentous as I'm telling you about it.  Nope, not on about my Broadband being fixed... it still isn't... I'm talking about the giant granny square blanket.  The one I started YEARS ago*.  The one I thought would never be finished.

*July 2011

It's finished!!

And it's not as big as I hoped/planned it would be.

I didn't stop because I was bored (I was bored of it in August 2011!), I stopped because I was nearly out of wool and had to save enough for the border.

Here it is stretched out on our double bed, looking a bit washed out, but I suppose the colours are a bit washed out.  Must remember not to wash it as it really IS wool.

For the border I chose #32 from Around the Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman.  I was planning on doing the whole thing in purple, but I realised I wasn't going to have enough, so did two sides blue and two sides purple.

This was my first time doing spike stitches.  Those purple Vs amongst the green are spike stitches and they're sort of outlining the puff/popcorn stitches.  It looked better in Edie's example.  It's also not supposed to be so frilly.  I was aware as I was working that I was adding stitches.  But you know what?  It's my blanket and if it wants to be frilly then that's fine with me!

I wish I'd used cream instead of beige for that 4th round...  Ah well, 'til done and I can safely say that crocheting a giant granny is one of the most boring activities known to man, it's only slightly less boring that knitting a scarf.

WIP #2 - done!

Workin' on it

Morning ladies.  I don't have anything completed to show you, so today I've got some shots of what I'm working on.  I'm afraid I snapped some of them this morning before work in the poor light.  You'll have to live with it!

Yep, it's a new project, but it's also part of Wipocalypse, this one is WIP #27.  All the stones are glued in place, I just need to add the grout.  I spent a couple of hours laying out the number and getting it right, then adding a few of the white tiles around it.  The borders were done in short bursts as I alternated between that and the computer.  I found this better to do as if the glue was not dry, I'd risk nudging them out of place.  I finished it off after dinner on Sunday waiting for Junior CA to finish her dinner (I swear that girl is the slowest eater in the world) so I could sit at the table with everyone but still have something to do.  Oh, it was from a kit I got for Christmas.  More details when it's finished.

 

This is a secret project and it may be a few months before I post about it.  This is really a sneak-peak for Jillayne.

 

This one is completely off the list and took me by surprise!  I randomly decided to have a go at the Mini Mystery hosted by Laura of the Two-Handed Stitcher.  I wanted to try needlepoint again, as my first attempt was quite paltry, containing only tent stitch.  Wow, this is really hard!  I think most of what you see there has be unpicked and restitched at least once!

And last, but not least, the giant granny is still being worked on.  I'm getting very close to the end on this!

 

I also have my stained glass window, but I'm going to class tonight so I'll post about that later, I have some pictures from this morning and I'll take some tonight so you can see the lack of progress.  I've got two beading classes tomorrow (day off work, yay!!) and will try to write another post tomorrow, depends how things go.  Bet you can barely contain your excitement.

The ever-growing to-do list

I realise I didn't show you my glass class progress last week, I remembered this morning as I was putting my glass box in my car.  The thing is... I only have 3 little leaves to show you.  I had also made another fused piece, but the lady at the studio accidentally slumped it!  I'm hoping to get it back, unslumped, tonight and I can show you that piece, the leaves and the stem which I finished last week and left to be fired.

Thinking about this rather large work-in-progress (my glass window... I'm not sure if that train of thought carried out of my brain onto the keyboard or if you'd all be sitting there wondering what I'm waffling about now) led me to think about all the other work in progresses hanging around.  I really need to get some of them done as they're stressing me out a bit.  I don't even know why.  Why should a half-finished doily bother me so much?

Anyway.  I decided to share.  I know you've all been going crazy wondering exactly what is on my WIP list and so I thought it was about time I put you out of your misery.  I know.  I'm good like that.

1. 5 more babygrows for Jacob out of my brother's t-shirts.  Not technically a WIP as I haven't started... but I said I'd do it and I have the pattern cut out.

My very talented graphic designer brother actually designed this one himself:

I'd better not much that one up!
2. The granny square bathroom curtain.  I'm going for 3 blocks of each of the 4 colours.  That makes 12.  I think I only need 9.  I have plans for the others if they're not needed.

3. These tea wallets have been languishing in my craft room, almost finished, since the day before Mother's Day.  They were to be Mother's Day presents, but I messed up the binding on one of them trying to sew it on by machine both front and back.  It has to come off and both bindings have to be hand sewn.  I knew I wouldn't get it done in time so it got shunted.

4. 5. 6. 7. Not technically WIPs again as I haven't started them, but they're at the top of my to-do list (meaning I'll get another 85 projects done before I get to these!).  The Joel Dewberry herringbone is for a pattern in the bottom book, dungarees for Jacob.  There's something I want to make from Pretty Little Projects, can't remember what it is right now.. a potholder?  Then there's a lunchbag tutorial I've printed out and I can see two marked projects in Sew and Stow.  Wonder what they are?!

8. My project for my Something Old, Something New competition.

9. I last mentioned my giant granny way back in September when I was on round 36.  I hadn't touched it since then until the weekend when I had it as my in-car project.  I've now completed round 45!  It's no where near finished though, it's too small!

10. Another crochet project I haven't mentioned in a while is my giant doily rug.  I got quite far, then put it aside to work on something else and when I came back to it I had no idea what I was doing!  The pattern I used was only for 10 rounds but I'd carried it on.  I intend to do the same things again.  Yes, I did have to rip it back to the very first round!

11. So far I've frogged and recrocheted every single round of this doily.  I'm not sure why it's still languishing as I love crocheting it.  When I look back on my evenings of the last month or so, I don't seem to have done much crafting at all.  I hate being too busy!

12. The one thing I have been working on is this cross stitch.  I showed you this a couple of weeks ago and asked if you could guess what it was.  You couldn't.  Or perhaps didn't want to.  That's fine!  I hope you can tell what it is now though?

It's a pattern I'm testing for Beverly who sells her amazing cross stitch patterns, though I can't find a link to her shop on her blog - Beverly!  I'm hoping to get it finished soon.  It's been worked on a lot as I've been getting home so late and I'm so tired that cross stitch is the only thing I can do.

12 WIPs isn't bad at all, is it?  Well, it wouldn't be but I actually have a lot more than that... they just managed to escape the camera this time!

I'm hoping to get back into regular crafting again very soon, and I've also got a selection of craft courses to look forward to.  I'll tell you all about them later this week.



Don't forget to enter my Something Old, Something New competition. The deadline is 31st July and there is a prize!