It's not exactly the turn of the year any more, but as I haven't posted any news since last October this feels like a new beginning to me.
In the last fortnight I have learnt to crochet, thanks to my friend Alison.
Alison has nearly finished crocheting a beautiful bright blanket for her granddaughter. It is an array of all my favourite bright colours making a patchwork of the tiniest of Granny squares. It has taken her an age to sew it all together, but she is now working on the edging and the end is in sight.
Having recently been given the honour of being godmother to my newest niece Kitty, I decided a good godmotherly thing to do, would be to crochet a blanket for her first birthday in May. So Alison showed me how to start with a basic chain, and how to make a standard Granny square, and then pointed me in the direction of the Attic 24 blog where, after undoing my work at least 6 times, I finally mastered the art of crocheting one of Lucy's Summer Garden Granny Squares. Then I couldn't wait to be off to Cromer to buy some yarn.
Oooh, what colours to use? I love mixing colours together, looking at all the options, what happens when you take this colour out, or add this unexpected colour in... I pulled a selection of balls off the shelf and laid them out on the floor side by side, mixing and matching different pinks and purples, trying reds and greens... It took me ages and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Here is the selection I ended up with.
I decided to use pink, magenta and purple as the main colours, but in order to give the blanket a bit of a vintage look, to mix in some grey, beige and green. I think this is what my sister-in-law Lucy would like – pink for a girl, but not too pink – I hope I am right.
And so I started on my squares...
I have set myself the rule that the middle two and the outer rounds are always in pink, magenta or purple, and the third and fourth rounds are always in grey, green or beige. This hopefully means that the brighter colours will dominate without the overall effect being too garish. I might change my mind and break the rules later on, but for now, this is how it is looking.
So far no two squares have the same colour combination – it is surprising how many variants are available within my rules. I think, if my maths is right, there should be 108 different variants. I am working my way systematically through the options, which is why there aren't many squares with purple middles in the photo above. I haven't got to them yet. It will change the overall balance once I have.
I am feeling very pleased with myself for already learning a new skill this year and being well on the way to completing a blanket which I hope my niece will treasure for a long time.
I have other projects planned for later in the year, so I hope I can soon get myself motivated to get started on some of them. You'll be the first to know!
I've been trying to do at least 2 or 3 squares a day. I want to get it finished so I can start other things...
Posted by: Claire | January 25, 2011 at 02:44 PM
Are you doing nothing but crocheting at the moment?
Posted by: Fiona | January 25, 2011 at 02:16 PM
I can't believe how quickly it's coming together. Love the colour combinations will you break your own rules I wonder? can't wait to see the final blanket and find out about these other projects.
Posted by: Alison | January 25, 2011 at 01:32 PM