It’s been a busy week! I’m finally finding my feet again after Christmas and beginning to be a little more productive. I’ve been working on finishing my twin elephants, Eleanor and Elijah.
Here’s a little sneak peak at my elephant babies. The pattern will be out very soon, I just have to make the cover, give the whole thing a final check and it should be good to go.
Eleanor and Elijah turned out bigger than I had originally planned, they sort of grew and grew as they went along – rather like me over the Christmas break! I just love their cuddly rotundness though, they’re kind of cute in their overstretched pinafore and overalls!
This week I’ve also been working at a steady pace, stitch by vibrant stitch on my winter warmer Mexican Stripe blanket. It’s moving pretty quickly now due to the double crochets (or triples to my UK friends). That’s a stitch that is very easy on my poor overworked wrist and knuckles too. After all the tightly tensioned single crochets (UK doubles) used in my amigurumi, it’s good therapy to change stitches and loosen up for a while. Here’s my progress so far.
As you can see I’m concentrating on getting blocks of stripes crocheted and then joined together. I like to work in chunks like that. A row of Granny Squares then a block of Granny Stripes, alternating the tasks to get some variety as I work. It’s getting there but I’ve still got a long way left to go. I’m enjoying this project lots. It’s having the desired effect of cheering up my January, even if it has actually been much sunnier than expected so far. It’s still been cold and the days are still too short, though they have been unexpectedly sweet.
These sunbeams just make the blanket look even jollier! Oh, and I tidied my studio last weekend. What a huge task that was. I remember doing the same post Christmas purge on unnecessary clutter around this time last year and writing about it here. My tidy studio was a pleasure to behold for all of, well, around a fortnight or so! Let’s hope I can keep it nice for a bit longer this time. Like at least three weeks, or maybe even a month!! Too ambitious? We’ll see. I’ve even tidied up my Granny Square centres by skewering them onto knitting needles. Mmmm, yummy yarn Kebabs!
When I’m working on a project I’m a sucker for matching up my accessories the best I can. It’s not always possible to do this 100% just with what I already have lying about, but I reckon I got pretty close this time. Stash bag, pencil case, scissors… all gathered up together to keep this particular project organized, handy and ready to follow me on car journeys and bus trips of varying lengths, as needs be. A great grab-and-go ensemble! I’m loving all the hot pinks!
Now the missing must-have accessory for a Mexican Blanket is surely a Mexican Cactus to be my faithful sidekick and trusty pincushion. So I took a teensy break from the Granny Stripes to whip one up. Now I’m pleased to introduce Carlos the Cactus. Here he is lurking in amongst the yarn and crochetwork.
Look! He’s waving to you! What a happy chappy 🙂
Now to transfer the pins from the toadstool. Time for some Cactus acupuncture.
That’s better! He’s promised to be on hand to lend me pins every time I need to attach the squares to the stripes. You see this has turned out not to be an exact art. Even though I’ve been sure to match up the stitch count across the Granny Square stripes and the Granny Stripe stripes, the Granny Square stripes always end up a little longer than the Granny Stripe stripes (tongue twister time there!). I think the squares are just a bit more prone to stretching but all of that is put right with a bit of careful pinning and all squares and stripes match up beautifully in the end. Phew!
So January turned out to be pretty good after all. I’ve decided there are worse things than dark chilly evenings tucked up with crochet in a warm cosy home. I get the feeling that Minnie agrees with me too!
One blissed out cat, settling in for the night… and hogging all the yarn and blanket pieces while she’s at it!
Keep warm and cosy folks!
See you soon with an update on my new amigurumi designs!
January 30, 2015 at 6:33 pm
Ive made some cupcakes and owls just waiting for fine weather to open the church cafe again to sell them sliming cupcakes must go well .Our church was founded over 950 years ago by King Harold killed in 1066 .Love the mex blanket can see it as cusions regard ronnie
January 31, 2015 at 4:35 pm
Yes not many calories in one of those cupcakes, and I’m sure you must burn a few calories making them too! I hope they sell well, your church sounds really interesting and worth raising funds to keep the history and community! Well done!
January 30, 2015 at 7:34 pm
Elephants are magnificent. I love it. I will make sure.
One day maybe a giraffe model?
Coverage set a nice big work and great cactus.
The cat is installed in its basket.
Soon Mimi Belgium
January 31, 2015 at 4:33 pm
I’ll put giraffe on my list! I have some ideas and am working on a donkey next 🙂
January 31, 2015 at 1:50 am
Aren’t cats so helpful? Love those elephants and that blanket is coming along nicely.
January 31, 2015 at 4:37 pm
Yeah, my cats sure love to ‘help’ any time they get the chance! Going to list the elephants and make a few more granny stripes today. Too cold to go out!
January 31, 2015 at 5:53 pm
I can’t blame Minnie for enjoying the comfort of yarn – after all, we do, too 🙂
I really love your elephants, and can’t wait to see the pattern when you release it – I also love your cactus pincushion – is there a pattern for this, too? 🙂
February 2, 2015 at 6:16 pm
Little Minnie is very welcome to a fair share of the yarn stash! Elephants are out now in all my usual shops and the cactus will be debuting soon, hopefully with a cute donkey wearing mexican blanket to keep him company!
February 3, 2015 at 3:20 pm
Looking forward to both of those! 🙂