Little words of wisdom

 

Who needs a Plan B.....

.....not me, after all 😏 I had managed to persuade myself that I really wouldn't finish the "Orkney seascape" blanket in time for Christmas, so I went ahead and bought something for the recipient.  Of course, no sooner had I done so than I actually completed said blanket 😒  Oh well, the purchase has gone into my gift stash ~ yup, I have one of those too LOL    

The problem was that I was convinced I wouldn't have enough of the Cascade 220 yarn and would have to come up with a creative solution to make it the length in the pattern.  As it turned out, though, I did have enough to finish the body of the blanket but not to add a border ~ I always like to add a border to my blankets as I feel it adds the finishing touch.  I thought about ordering some more of the Cascade 220 but decided to have a rootle about in my stash first to see if I had anything suitable in there.  As luck would have it, I had some Stylecraft Special Aran in a shade called Denim which went very nicely with the other blues, so that's what I used for the border and why I managed to finish the blanket in good time before Christmas!

I'm very pleased with how it's turned out and hope that the recipient will like it, too.  I've made a start on the next chevron blanket project but I can take my time with this one.  I'm really enjoying using all those gorgeous art deco-ish colours and will share photos of my progress in due course 😊

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)          

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)          

Little words of wisdom

 

Mrs Organised!

 

image from Clipart Library

I have bemoaned the fact numerous times that I never think to make any pertinent notes for a project when I start working on it.....then get distracted and move on to something new.  Of course by the time I come back to finish the first project, I've usually forgotten who I was making it for, the hook size, etc, etc 😒

I finally decided enough was enough, and did some internet searching for suitable organising ideas.  I briefly considered cobbling something together myself but then came across these little beauties on Etsy.

Trying to be realistic for a change, I figured I probably wouldn't ever get round to making something suitable.....

and as these were just what I was looking for, I decided to treat myself.

I bought them from Stationery Geek Store and I'm now looking forward to having all the relevant information to hand with my future projects 😊

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)          

We will remember them...

image from All-free-download,com

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon

(10th August 1869 - 10th March 1943)

Focus, Sharon, focus!

I know, I know ~ perhaps Beverly is right and I do have a yarn addiction 😏  To be fair to myself, though, I'm planning another gift blanket and just don't have the right colours in my stash ~ no, honestly, I really don't!  My stash mostly contains colours that have caught my eye, so obviously they are shades that I really like and not necessarily ones that would-be recipients of my crocheted gifts would choose for themselves 😉 

And so it is with the next project I've got planned, hence my latest purchase from Wool Warehouse.  My favourite colour is blue, virtually all shades of blue, so these colours wouldn't normally call out to me but I must admit that they do look rather scrumptious all squished together in their organza bags 😊 

Same bags, just turned around ~ there's a lot of yarn there!  I'm planning yet another chevron blanket but about half as large again as the original pattern.  This isn't destined for Christmas but will be a (possibly early) birthday gift instead.  I expect it will take me some little while to make as it will be larger than most of the chevron blankets I make.

I'm still working away at the "Orkney seascape" blanket as I want to gift it for Christmas ~ so I'm really having to dig deep to focus on that, and try to put these new yarn goodies to the back of my mind 😄 

Little words of wisdom

 

Turning a UFO into a WIP!

I've mentioned previously that one of my (many 😄) bad habits is to start a project and make no accompanying notes whatsoever.  Then, of course, something new calls to me and whatever I was working on is put to one side to "finish later".  Trouble is when "later" finally turns up, nine times out of ten I can't remember who I was making the UFO for, what size hook I was using, how big I was going to make it, etc, etc 😏 So in an effort to get myself organised I have ordered some items from an Etsy seller that will hopefully keep me in order ~ they have apparently been dispatched so when they get here I'll take some photos of my new organisational helpers!

One of the UFOs languishing in the yarn stash was this granny stripe blanket.  It's folded in half here so I could fit it in the photo more easily.  I actually remembered who I was making this blanket for, but when I fished it out to get it finished it dawned on me that I really wasn't that keen on the design with these colours.....so I frogged it 🐸

I can't remember how long ago I actually bought this yarn but I suspect it may well have been prior to us moving up here ~ and we've lived here getting on for five years now!  Only one of the skeins had a label ~ goodness knows why I didn't keep any of the others! ~ so of course I don't know what the shades are now.  It's Cascade 220, an Aran-weight 100% wool yarn, which no doubt I would have bought from Wool Warehouse 😉

When I looked at the colours together it made me think of the sea, more specifically the Orkney seascape.  This is the order in which I'm using the yarn, starting from the grey on the right and simply repeating the colour sequence as I work through the pattern.....

.....which, of course, just had to be my favourite chevron design from The Gentle Art of Knitting by Jane Brocket ~ a book I've had for over 10 years now and I still haven't tired of that blanket pattern!

And this is where I'm at thus far.  It's a lovely yarn to work with and feels very much softer than the West Yorkshire Spinners yarn I used for Beverly's recent blanket.  As I've got such a sensitive skin, I still don't think I could wear a garment or scarf made with it though, but it's lovely in this blanket.

As an added bonus it's working up quite quickly too so hopefully it'll be done in time for Christmas and that will be another WIP finished 😄

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)          

Somewhat unsettling...

image from Clipart Library

A few days back I did something that I'm pretty sure most of us have done at some time, if we are honest: I looked up my ex-husband (extremely "ex", I might add ~ I left him 40 years ago!) on Facebook, for no good reason other than plain and simple idle curiosity.

Unlike mine, his profile is public and I saw that his relationship status said "widowed".  My immediate reaction on seeing this was that I felt very sad for him, and for his children too.  His wife who was, I believe, the same age as me passed away earlier this year.  It also appears that his brother has passed away fairly recently, too.

I confess that initially I was somewhat unsettled by my feelings of sadness when I found this out about his life.  Our separation and divorce was not amicable so at the very least I would have expected to feel indifference to his losses.  That perhaps sounds harsher than I mean it to; the deaths of two people still only in their early 60s, despite one being someone I didn't know at all and the other, because of his job, someone I had only met a handful of times, nevertheless is still sad.

As I say, without going into all the "gory" details, the ending of our marriage and the wider family fallout that followed, was unpleasant; I was left feeling hurt, angry and confused for many years in its wake.  Poor Adrian has had way more of my emotional baggage to contend with than he ever deserved; nevertheless we weathered the storms and over 40 years later our relationship is as strong and stable as ever.

So I guess the fact that I felt a wave of sadness for my ex is a good thing, so far as I personally am concerned; it has shown me that I have indeed moved on from an emotionally unpleasant part of my life.  Perhaps my idle curiosity was a nudge from ~ oh, I don't know, the universe perhaps?  At any rate from somewhere/someone that it was time to acknowledge that a lot of healing has taken place.  I know myself well enough by now to accept that I will never be able to fully let that experience go, however I am more at peace with that than I have ever been before. 

Giant economy size

Frankly I've got so many crochet books and individual patterns, methinks it would probably take waaay longer than 257 years to get through them all 😄  

I suppose "giant" is a slight exaggeration but The Royal Sisters original pattern for a grandma tree is somewhat smaller and daintier than my ultimate version of it 😉  I was so pleased with the little snowflakes I made to accompany this year's Christmas pudding gifts, I thought I'd do something similar for the other Christmas gifts and the original size is indeed perfect for that.

As I've still got lots of the James C Brett Baby Shimmer yarn I thought it would be perfect, doubled-up, to make some Christmas decorations.  It's a double knit yarn and I used a 6mm hook; was quite firm to work with but it has made the trees nice and stiff without having to use any kind of starch.  

Even if I do say so myself, they hang very nicely.

I was so chuffed with the trees that I decided to make some grandma twinkle stars, also from The Royal Sisters blog.  I didn't bother making a "test" star first, I just jumped straight in with the doubled-up yarn and 6mm hook.  The patterns don't say anything about a hanging hook; I simply attached a single strand of the yarn to the top, made twelve chain stitches using a 4mm hook and slip-stitched it together back at the starting spot to form a loop.

I'm really pleased with how these little decorations turned out and now have lots of ideas swirling around in my head for different variations I could make 😄

Little words of wisdom

 

A Make-A-Month 2022: October

 

Heavy-weight stash busting!

Soon be on their way...

Good grief...a WIP actually finished!