In the Crochet Groove

 I’ve recently gone down a crochet rabbit hole by discovering a crochet designer called Emyleah Newbery of Meema Makes.  Her pattern, The Yorkshire Crochet A Long (CAL) is a sampler of granny squares which started back in the summer and I’ve joined this rather late. I started week before last week with this square .

I got on with another

Last week a third block was made

Then a fourth

And a fifth is in progress.  My intention was to use up some Stylecraft Special DK from previous blanket makings, but I’m now limited in colour variations.  Being on holiday in Northumberland last week I added  some new colours by visiting he local yarn shop in Amble, called Amble Pincushion, a lovely shop packed with yarn, fabrics and haberdashery. A real Aladdin’s cave.

More about my holiday soon and a trip to Yarndale. We’re finishing our holiday and travelling back home tomorrow.

Loser!!

 I have lived with fluctuation of my weight for most of my adult life and as such I have been on diets to try and shift it. My latest diet is with my local Slimming World group as I need to have some encouragement to do this. 

I decided on this before going away on the river cruise holiday in April and joined afterwards. I had been diagnosed as pre-diabetic during lockdown and because of that I had the diabetic program online, which wasn’t the same as in person and my weight had slowly and steadily increased to a point where I wasn’t comfortable.

Anyway that said getting into the swing of the diet, which is described as Food Optimising.  In a few weeks I lost half a stone. I was really pleased.

By the end of June I had another certificate, this time 1 stone loss (14 pounds).

  The loss is slowing but last week I managed to reach a loss of 1.5 stone (21 pounds). Not only that I was Slimmer of the Week for consistent weight loss so I was well pleased 

I’m not big on exercise, but I do go for a daily walk.  It has helped that I’m focusing of eating more healthily, not that I ate too much of the wrong stuff and have mostly cut out alcohol.  We usually had at least one bottle of wine at the weekends, then it became two so feel better by cutting out completely.

My aim is to lose a total of just over 2 stone, so I’m doing quite well.  We’re due to go on holiday next week so see how it goes.  

September

 Tuesday 3 September 

Although I’m retired, somehow September seems like a new year.  Children return to school and there is an autumnal air which seems fresher, somehow.

A fresh start in our household comes in the shape of a new carpet in the dining and living room floors. We’ve had our old carpet for nearly 20 years and high time for a change.

I asked if we could have an inset coir mat so we didn’t have to deal with door mats that creep. It looks much better.

My car came in useful to take the old carpet and underlay to the tip.

Last Friday (although just in August) I went to the Creative Craft Show in Farnborough and it was also a chance to see some old friends while up that way.  It has a mixture of crafts - quilting, knitting, crochet, paper crafts - so a good variety of things to see.  The exhibition centre is part of what was once the Royal Aircraft Establishment, but now has an airport and business park as well as the exhibition centre.  

I took some photos of the quilts of a display by the Contemporary group of the Quilter’s Guild in the theme of Doversity.

As I kept out of the way of the carpet fitters this morning I decided to make a couple of cards.  I couldn’t  take part in the Zoom meeting to make I took the requirements and photo to suss out how they were made.

Saturday 7 September 

Friday was a miserable day, but a good day for getting on with some sewing. I had 3 small quilted pieces and made them into pouches.  The larger one with the orange zip will be for my friend but the others will be for a charity sale in October.  It was very quick to make up and takes these squares out of my UFO pile.

I then used some mainly blue strip blocks together with 2 cross blocks and made one more cross block and arranged these together.

I felt the quilt top needed to be a bit bigger so after going through stash looking for a largish blue piece I came across a fabric I’ve had for years with fish on it, which fitted the bill. So that’s another small quilt top with the backing fabric in the photo below and another UFO progressed.

Next I’ve had some fat quarters that have been in my stash for a few years so I decided to make these into rail fence blocks. They are really pretty and feminine with flowers and butterflies. Just look at the selvedges.  The fabrics were from an old Lewis and Irene range.

The blocks were arranged on my bed but I’ve only sewn to top row.  By this time it was getting on for 5pm and about time I thought about dinner!

It was really good to have a quality bit of sewing time.

End of August

It’s now 3rd September and I started this post last week …

It’s been a month of finishes this month so this post is a round up of what I’ve been up to.

First of all the purple/pink quilt that I completed in June now has a new home as my granddaughter chose this as a present for her 18th birthday. She loved it as soon as she saw it.  Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of her with it as she disappeared to her room straight away! 

Two Linus quilts were finished, one from a kit from the Dorchester group

Another from a UFO from my scrap box

I rescued another UFO from the scrap box and made this little quilt. It was a quilt as you go sample but I made it into a useable size by extending it (more about that here).

Lastly, for the sewing, I put a binding on this little wall hanging. I’ve yet to find a home.

Knitting and crochet finishes have been this Neat Ripple lap size blanket using up oddments of DK yarn from previous blanket makings.

Not sure of its destination yet,  but I’ve enjoyed making it.  Maybe I might make another as it was a relaxing  it of crochet.

And a pair of socks. These are the Fairground sock pattern by Kay Jones. 

And this week I started and finished a baby cardigan and hat for friends who will become grandparents for the first time in October. I can’t show the photos just yet, so it’ll have to wait,

Today, 3/9/2024

I made a start last week on a new project, which I’ve nicknamed ‘the school jumper!’.  I said to my granddaughter that I would knit her a new cardigan, but she wanted a jumper, what’s more a plain jumper and chose the school jumper pattern, but it has got colourful yarn. This is James C Brett Aurora, colour AU12 (that’s imaginative!). The back has been made and this week I’ve cast on the front.

My ATC swap I’ve made in August is themed ‘Under The Sea’.  I used watercolour for the background and cut out and glued fishes from fabric in my stash. With organza and glitter weed and scrim for the sea bed I was quite pleased with my efforts for this month.

September will see me digging out blocks to make scrap quilts, more on the school jumper and maybe a new bit of crochet.