Ready to turn those circles into hexagons

 I have finally completed the third row on all 140 circles for my hexagon blanket. Now all I have to do is make them all into hexagons and join them together. I plan to do these two jobs at the same time. Up to this point I have been very organised with my colour choices, no two circles are the same. But now I plan to hook in random so I threw them all on the floor in a great big pile and mixed them about a bit.

 Once I had the all jumbled up I up them into my lovely new hooky bag and have promised myself that I will join them in the order I pull them from the bag......... However my "inner-Monica" just might spring to life if I happen to pull two circles with a similar colour mix, we will just have to see!

I treated myself this afternoon to a few more yummy spotty mugs.

 

TFL

Px

Hooky blanket progress and a nice new bag

I have been busy busy hooking my new hexagon blankie, and I have managed to complete the second row on all 140 circles. 

 

Sorting them into groups for row three was a bit of a pig as I don't want any colour repeats but need to make sure I have an even amount of hexagons in each colour. Sam had to help me out with this as I was getting myself I a bit of a state. What with them all spread out on the floor and the dogs trying their hardest to pinch them I really wasn't getting anywhere quick so Sam came to my rescue :) And now I have eight neat little bundles all tied in the colour yarn I will use for their third row. the fourth row will be cream for all 140 Hexies so no sorting needed there. I'm just going to throw them all in the air and mix them up, then put them in my bag and pull them out at random, as I hook each fourth row I will join the hexagons together. Simples :)

 My mummy sent me some pennies this month as I had made her a few hats lately. I popped into the wool shop on my way out this morning and saw they had a new red spotty wool bag for sale, I had to have it of course :)  Isn't it beautiful!!!

Thank you Mummy!!! Do you want any more hats? ;)

Hexagon Blanket for Me!!

 last night I started on my new crochet project. I am planning to make myself a hexagon blanket to snuggle under with Gracie and Bella. I'm following Lucy's pattern over on Attic 24, she's done a lovely clear tutorial if you fancied having a go at this one yourself. Not sure we are going to let any of the others snuggle with us, depends how big I make this blanket ;) I had chosen six colours for the blanket five for the centres and cream for all the edges, just after I started making the centres I decided to boost my colour selection by adding a darker green, paler blue and a dark salmon (light red).

I sat last night and hooked all 140 centres. I'm starting the second row tonight working the hexagons in rounds and colours rather than completing a hexagon at a time. Once I have row three complete on all 140 hexagons then I will start the final row of each hexagon in cream joining them together as I go.

I'll keep you posted on how it grows. 

TLF 

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Blog Award

I have to admit to being a little tardy with posting the award I was given by Sam over at Luna In my self defence I haven't been about on blogland much over the past two weeks and when I have posted I've used my iPhone and trying the link blogs and paste photos from other blogs isn't the easiest thing to do with the blogger app. I'm on my PC this afternoon doing a little school work and thought I really ought get my butt in gear and if nothing else Thank the WONDERFUL Sami (who also happens to be my bestest friend) for this award. However I'm going to opt out of passing it on as I have been spending less and less time on blogs of late and only really visit a very small group of blogs or Pinterest these days. But if you have happened across my blog I can recommend you follow this link over to Luna and check out her amazing artwork. She really is super talented and I'm not just saying that coz I love her!!

Matching Granny wheel Cushion

I made some time this weekend to crack on with making a cushion cover to match the granny circle blanket I made last month for my friend Teresa. I had four squares left over from the blanket, so I just had to make four more squares and edge the whole thing. It was quite a quick project. I managed to complete it this afternoon and have already started on a new blanket, this time for me.

Ta-Darrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Teresa's Granny Wheel blanket is complete! 

I'm over the moon with this blanket! 

I have enjoyed hooking every stitch from working out the pattern for the first square, to the last single stitch in the lacy loopy trim :) Teresa chose this blanket from looking through my crochet board on pinterest. I'm really pleased she picked this one for me to make.

Sorry for all the photos I just had to post them all ;) 

I do hope Tee likes it!

TFL

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Almost at the final stage

I am working on the fourth round of the blankets boarder that the moment. I spent yesterday evening completing the first two rounds of the boarder, before sewing all the leftover ends in. This didn't seem to take as long as it normally does, maybe because I had some good TV to watch while I did it? I had this pretty little pile of nesting box ends to send to my dad, for the birds in his garden when I had completed my least favourite  task.

  

The second step for the boarder is to add a contrast colour I chose to use the blue (because I had a spare ball of this in my yarn basket). When I add boarders to blankets I always increase the stitches on the corners so that they don't curl. The first row of boarder (grey yarn) has two increases in the corner stitch, the second row ( grey#2) has two more increases, one in each of the two new stitches in the row below, and the third row (blue) has a further two increases again one increase placed in each of the new stitches in the row below.

 

The almost last stage is to work the foundation stitch for the final part of the boarder. I mulled over a few different boarder types for this blanket finally settling on a lacy loop, which I'm sure has a more technical name but I like to call it a "lacy loop". To do this you crochet a *chain 5,  and slip into the fourth stitch* this is repeated all the way around the edge of your blanket. don't worry if your blanket doesn't divide perfectly into fours one smaller or slightly larger loop won't show in the end. stage two should hopefully follow this evening. 

 

For now Diggory is watching over the blanket until I get home from work this afternoon.

TFL

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It's all getting a little edgy here!

I have finished crocheting all the squares together. I use a single crochet to do this, holding the two squares edges together (rough side in) and running a single crochet stitch through both stitches each of squares (so I'm going under four stitches each time). This forms a ridge stitch along each square. I like this look, it also it helps to add strength to the blanket. There's nothing that looks worse than a month old blanket that is pulling and stretching apart at the joins, because the maker has used a flat stitch and only hooked through one stitch of each square edge. I am now at the point where..... If Bella will let me I'm ready to start on the blankets edge.

 

 To start the edge I do a single row of crochet all the way around the blanket taking in any stray yarn ends (that way there are a few less to sew in later). I then plan to start the task I like the least.... Sewing in all those nasty yarn ends. I prefer to do this now rather than when the squares are all single, as I pick up as many as I can while making the squares and then while crocheting them all together. This way I should have about 100 ends to do rather than the 200 I would have if I did them at an earlier stage. 

  The blanket at this stage is looking quite nice! I think I may have to make one for myself using similar colours!

TFL

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