Yay! Patrick’s scarf is finished.

Sorry the pictures are so bad but I was rushing this morning to take them before work as I remembered this morning that I needed to take photos (unfortunately didn’t occur to me last night!)

I love using thick wool – it knits up so quickly!  Thankfully this scarf is finished so this job can be crossed off the list, which I always love to do.  The scarf is very simple and is knit 2 rows, purl 1 row, repeat.  That gives the lovely ridges which I think gives a nice pattern to what otherwise would be quite a plain and boring scarf.  I’m not great at adding patterns and counting stitches, etc – I can do it but it requires more concentration and focus then I like to give my knitting.  I love to knit in front of the tv and as I tend to knit in the evenings I am also quite tired and my poor brain is slowly switching off.  It can handle simple knits but nothing too complicated.

Next to do is the 4^th blood drop and then finishing Fatties and Daisy’s pencil case.  George’s scarf will be the final project to be finished but hopefully it will be done on time.

1. Finish Fatty for Andy’s mum (18th Jan) 
2. Finish dog pencil case for Daisy (8th Feb)
3. Finish dragon scarf for George (8th Feb)
4. Finish Rebecca’s Fatty (8th Feb) 
5. Make 5 blood drops for NHS project (deadline 31st Jan) - 2 more needed
6. Make 12 crochet squares for the Children’s Society (deadline 25th Jan) - just sewing in needed
7. Finish Alzheimer blanket (18th Jan) 
8. Finish scarf for Patrick (8th Feb)
9. Knit a Christmas bauble REMOVED UNTIL FEBRUARY
10. Start Easter bunnies (Deadline April) REMOVED UNTIL FEBRUARY
11. Finish scarf for Nan (birthday 21st Jan) 
12. Make a spare scarf for Nan (birthday 21st Jan) 
13. Knit 3 charity chickens (Deadline Feb)  REMOVED UNTIL FEBRUARY

I am looking ahead to February already and am trying to think how I can fit in knitting my friend Sam a bag before her birthday on 13^th February – that doesn’t give me much time as the Ireland gifts are likely to run over until the 8^th February when we actually go and see them.  I am hoping that I can take it with me on the plane and it will be my project for when we are there.  We aren’t checking luggage so I have checked both our airport and the Irish airport to see what we can fly with – knitting needles are out but I have flown several times with my crochet hook without an issue.  The only problem I may have is that I will need to have a pair of scissors with me – hmm!  The Irish airport will allow scissors with a blade less than 3 cm – so I need to measure my snips and see how big they are.  I am hoping that they will be small enough to fly (although they are very sharp).  As a back up I may put a pair of nail scissors in my boyfriends hand luggage and see if they get through (ooh I could also see if a pair of nail clippers is strong enough to cut through my wool??)

I have my pattern which is a simple 10 granny square design – I am just struggling at the moment with what colour/colours to use.  The pattern used one colour which looks very effective.  I have some lovely grey cotton wool that has a sparkle through it but it may be too dressy and I want this to be an everyday bag; I have 10 balls of Stylecraft DK which I have bought for the baby blanket but wont need all of them which I could use; I also have a lilac 4ply wool which would be very pretty and some cream 4ply but not sure if this will give me the grown up everyday bag that I envisage; or I could buy some black and tan/gold DK which I think would look nice??????????? Decisions decisions!  I think I will check the grey wool that I have already and see if that would be suitable otherwise I think I like the black and gold/tan bag the best as a back up plan.

Yay – another item ticked off

I finished my crochet squares for The Children’s Society.  The deadline is this Saturday so hopefully they will arrive in time and will be useful.  They are different sizes and I tried to do a mix of girl and boy colours (harder than you think as I normally only knit for girls!)

The focus for the rest of this week will be to finish off Patrick’s scarf which I am hoping is just one more evening and then to do one more blood drop.  I really want to send 5 off but think 4 may be more realistic which is still better than nothing and it has been quite difficult to fit them in along with the hats, squares, chickens all of which have/had Jan and Feb deadlines.  Not including the Ireland gifts!

The outstanding list for January!

1. Finish Fatty for Andy’s mum (18th Jan) 
2. Finish Alzheimer blanket (18th Jan) 
3. Finish scarf for Patrick (8th Feb)
4. Finish dog pencil case for Daisy (8th Feb)
5. Finish dragon scarf for George (8th Feb)
6. Finish Rebecca’s Fatty (8th Feb) 
7. Make 12 crochet squares for the Children’s Society (deadline 25th Jan) - just sewing in needed
8. Make 5 blood drops for NHS project (deadline 31st Jan) - 2 more needed
9. Knit a Christmas bauble REMOVED UNTIL FEBRUARY
10. Start Easter bunnies (Deadline April) REMOVED UNTIL FEBRUARY
11. Finish scarf for Nan (birthday 21st Jan) 
12. Make a spare scarf for Nan (birthday 21st Jan) 
13. Knit 3 charity chickens (Deadline Feb)  REMOVED UNTIL FEBRUARY

But the list is reducing which is good (although its always annoying to have to move things on to another month but guess its better to be realistic and get things done well rather than rushing to meet self imposed deadlines)

February is going to be more sewing heavy I think especially if I want to complete another Alzheimer blanket for Sue and also start the charity blanket for the Hospital in Africa.  I have started the February list which looks like this at the moment:

1. Alzheimer blanket
2. Charity blanket for the Hospital
3. Start crochet blanket for Fiona's baby
4. 10 Chickens (28 Feb)
5. 2 (of 5) Easter bunnies
6. Bag or scarf for Sam's birthday (13 Feb)
7. Finish crochet car for George
8. 3 crochet hanging hearts for mothers day (30th March)

A smaller list at the moment but these are slightly more time consuming projects so I can't see it being any easier than January!  So much for starting Christmas gifts first thing in the year - nevermind still plenty of time.

I have been working out how much fabric I am going to need and how the pattern will work to ensure the measurements are fairly easy to do but still fit within the quite strict size constraints of 60 by 80.  I am going to have 8 squares by 6 squares which are 10 inches square but this means that my logs don't work out very well so I am going to have 2 fat and 1 skinny log in each section so they measure 5 inches exactly.  Scarily I also worked out how many logs I will need = 576!  384 fat 2 inches by 5 inches logs and 192 skinny logs.  That seems like an awful lot of cutting and sewing.  This may be my last patchwork blanket!

done!

Have signed up!  Eek!  Now there is an expectation that I will complete the project and I will be letting someone down if I don't so I definitely will do my hardest to fulfill this project now.  Oooh am super excited!

I have made a list of the fabric requirements and I think I have the blanket design - its a very simple log cabin (I think that is what it is called).  Hopefully it will be a simple blanket for a beginner to be able to put together and I will get to practise my sewing machine skills - which definitely need improving.

Oh no!  Pretty much after I sent off the form to say that I would complete a blanket for the Hospital - my little sister asked me to make the nieces (there are 3 of them!) a bean bag each.  Not difficult - although I don't think I have chosen the easiest pattern to follow which has 6 segments and velcro but we shall see.

I am going to do the charity blanket first and then worry about the bean bags.  Helen said to do them for their birthdays (2 are in April but 1 isnt until July) or for Easter.  So I think it will be Easter which at least gives me a couple of months to get them done.

This is my plan for the blanket - quite simple but hopefully effective.  It has to be blue and green so I'm planing on using a plain blue and green plus 4 patterned fabrics.  Although I quite like the effect this one has using only 3 colours so we shall see!  The blanket has to be 80 by 60 so I am trying to figure out the sizing of my blocks to ensure that I end up at this size.  We shall see!

Oh no! A familiar heading!

Hmm am seriously tempted to sign up to make a charity blanket - Lala Salama 100 Quilts.  It sounds like an amazing project and something that I could do.  The deadline is April which isnt too far away but should give me enough time to put something together.  I would have to get all new fabric as they want the blankets to be blue and green (but that wouldn't be too much of a hardship!  I could pop to the craft shop in Tiptree which I love).  I have googled how much fabric I would need as the blankets have to be a specified size of 80in by 60in and I would need 4 metres of fabric (for the blanket I have seen it would need to be of 6 different fabrics) plus 3.5 metres for the backing and some wadding.

hmmmmmmmmm!

Think I am going to do it.

Plus my bag kits arrived this morning - I only ordered them yesterday lunchtime - am super impressed!  Not sure when I am going to fit them in though!!  Especially now I want to do this blanket.................

Weekend catch up

Despite having lots to get done this weekend, I didnt achieve much which was a shame!  I did finish the Fatty for Andy’s mum but it’s eyes looked so wrong that Andy insisted I did them again.  I have decided that I am going to save myself a lot of hassle and buy some giant buttons to have as eyes – I just need to get to the great craft shop in Tiptree next weekend to buy them. 

I also got the Alzheimer blanket finished although not in time to give it to Andy’s mum on Sat which is really annoying.  But am happy that it is finished – am not entirely happy with it but as a first attempt I don’t think it’s too bad!  Plus I have remembered to take a photo so here it is!

Wohoo I have figured out how to turn the picture around - yay!  Am super happy although it is now easier to see that it is a terrible blanket and looks like it has been made by a small child!

I also got on with the scarf for Patrick – I find that when I first wake up in the morning that I need something super easy to get on with and apparently finishing off Fattys, the pencil case for Daisy or the scarf for George were not easy enough!  At least this is a project that needs to be completed although the children are slightly more important and will be less understanding about delays!  I’m confident (with less than 3 weeks to go) that I can get them done in time but we shall see!

The outstanding list for January!

1. Finish Fatty for Andy’s mum (18th Jan) 
2. Finish Alzheimer blanket (18th Jan) 
3. Finish scarf for Patrick (8th Feb)
4. Finish dog pencil case for Daisy (8th Feb)
5. Finish dragon scarf for George (8th Feb)
6. Finish Rebecca’s Fatty (8th Feb) 
7. Make 12 crochet squares for the Children’s Society (deadline 25th Jan) - just sewing in needed
8. Make 5 blood drops for NHS project (deadline 31st Jan) - 2 more needed
9. Knit a Christmas bauble REMOVED UNTIL FEBRUARY
10. Start Easter bunnies (Deadline April) REMOVED UNTIL FEBRUARY
11. Finish scarf for Nan (birthday 21st Jan) 
12. Make a spare scarf for Nan (birthday 21st Jan) 
13. Knit 3 charity chickens (Deadline Feb)  REMOVED UNTIL FEBRUARY

So there are 7 projects to finish off before the end of the month which means no new projects are allowed to be started until these are all done and dusted - scary!  

Worryingly I have also got plans to make another Alzheimer blanket (which is such a good cause) and I have ordered 2 make your own handbag kits - well I was looking for handles for the bag that I want to make my friend for birthday/Christmas (as her birthday is 13th Feb - I'm thinking this may be a Christmas gift!) and then I saw the bag kits and I loved them and I have gotten more into sewing so I thought ooh what a great idea!  Hmm!!!  Probably not such a great idea as I have no idea when I will fit them in but nevermind they have been ordered now!

An evening off

I don't have a huge evening once I get in from work as I get in at 8 (at the earliest but the latest is normally 8.30) and then I have to have my dinner and I go to bed early at 10 (I get up at 5.30 to go to work and I need my sleep!)  So on a good evening I have 2 hours at home to eat my dinner, relax, spend time with my boyfriend and get on with my knitting.  Its not often that I am content to lie on the sofa watching tv without doing my knitting but last night I really wanted to be lazy so I did nothing!

I know its crazy considering I am stressing myself out trying to get everything finished in time but sometimes you do need to have a break and take some time off.  I am hoping to more than make up for it this weekend although we do have to pop over to my family in the morning on Sat (they live 45mins away) and that will take a couple of hours and then we are off to his family in the evening (and they live an hour away) so that doesn't leave a huge amount of time to get on with knitting and sewing!

So the list at the moment looks as follows:

1. Finish Fatty for Andy’s mum (18th Jan) 
2. Finish Alzheimer blanket (18th Jan) 
3. Knit scarf for Patrick (8th Feb)
4. Finish dog pencil case for Daisy (8th Feb)
5. Finish dragon scarf for George (8th Feb)
6. Finish Rebecca’s Fatty (8th Feb) 
7. Make 12 crochet squares for the Children’s Society (deadline 25th Jan) - just sewing in needed
8. Make 5 blood drops for NHS project (deadline 31st Jan)
9. Knit a Christmas bauble 
10. Start Easter bunnies (Deadline April) 
11. Finish scarf for Nan (birthday 21st Jan) 
12. Make a spare scarf for Nan (birthday 21st Jan) 
13. Knit 3 charity chickens (Deadline Feb)  REMOVED UNTIL FEBRUARY

Stress!  I don't do well with knitting to deadlines so this is a super stressful time for me!  This weekend I will aim to get things finished the 2 Fattys, the blanket, the sewing in of the crochet squares and the pencil case and continue to work on George's scarf and maybe get 1/2 more blood drops done.

Oh no!

Well firstly I feel down the stairs last night and I think I have broken my big toe!  Not good as am in the middle of training for the Brighton marathon in April and have a 10 mile run to do this weekend!  hmm.....

Anyway I was all happy because I got another blood drop finished and think I will be able to send off 5 drops to support this fantastic service.  But then I realised this morning that as we are seeing Andy's mum Sue on Saturday not only do I need to get her Fatty finished (which still needs eyes and a beak and sewing up - should take 30 mins but in reality will probably take a couple of hours) but I also need to get the Alzheimer blanket finished.  Sue asked me to make an activity blanket to be used by patients with Alzheimer who like to keep their hands busy (think zips, buttons, different textures, etc).  This was my first blanket and I'm not 100% happy with it but hopefully it will be ok.  I don't have much left to do but I need to cut it down as I have made it too big (the story of my life!) and I need to sew the backing on.  Hopefully it wont take me too long on Saturday and I can get it done before we have to leave.

Its going to be a busy day now!  If I cant run then I will have to drive to the gym and workout there for 2 hours (which will add an extra 1 hour at least) and then I need to finish Fatty and the blanket.  Plus get on with everything else that needs to be done!!!