A tad annoying.....

...but absolutely typical for me 😒  We had some dry and sunny days last week when I could have got out into the garden.  Unfortunately for yours truly, though, I somehow managed to hurt my neck.....just by sleeping, it seems 😏  I woke up last Monday with a bit of an ache in my right collarbone, which by the next day had transformed into a very painful neck!  A regime of Nurofen, paracetamol, Deep Heat, heating pads, plus trying not to move my neck and shoulders too much (easier said than done, as I'm sure you can imagine 😳) over the next few days meant that the pain gradually subsided.  It does feel very much better than before, thankfully, albeit still a little bit "twingy".  I've therefore erred on the side of caution for a change, and not ventured out to do any work in the garden just yet. 

I wasn't totally idle, though, as I managed to get the scrap blanket finished that I mentioned previously.  Granted, it's not the prettiest blanket in the world but by 'eck it's warm and cosy 😊  I used two strands of yarn, and it's mostly Stylecraft Special double knit.  There were also some odds and ends of other yarns, such as Scheepjes double knit and some Aran-weight which I think was Cascade.  I tried using the latter by itself but it didn't seem quite thick enough, so I added a strand of a very lightweight yarn that I had in the stash ~ possibly a laceweight ~ which seemed to create a similar thickness to the two strands of double knit.  I also had some boucle-type yarn, which I was able to use by itself.  I can't say that I enjoy crocheting with this type of yarn as it's not always easy to see where the hook needs to go!

I finished off with three rounds of half-trebles (US half double-crochet) to make a border ~ and to use up a little more of the yarn, of course 😄  

I ended up going from this.....

to this, so I'm pretty pleased to have whittled down the oddments so well.  I shall just keep these to one side and add other odds and ends as they come along until I've got enough to make another scrap blanket 😄

I also finally got round to putting all the bits and pieces into the bathroom basin cabinet.  I told you that I had bought a couple of narrow wooden crates from Etsy, and they now have all the cleaning materials neatly stored in them on the left-hand side of the cabinet.  That's more or less what was stored in our old cabinet, apart from what was in the very small drawer, along with a few things that were kept in the cupboard in our little utility area. 

 Everything else is now neatly stored in the right-hand side of the cabinet, along with the remaining "bathroom" stuff from the cupboard in the utility area.  The bits and pieces on the top shelf are easily accessible, but I've put the things on the lower shelf in a basket to make them easier to access.  The only bathroom things left in the utility cupboard are the towels, as there just isn't enough space in the cabinet for them.  It means, though, that I now have more space for all the spare laundry liquids, etc, that were being stored in the cupboard in the kitchen lobby area.  All in all, I'm pretty pleased with all the rearranging that I've managed to get done 😊

I'm now busy working on Special Project One which I will be able to share with you at a later date.....if you get my drift 😜  I was going to get cracking on the dolls house but have decided to leave it now until the New Year.  I do have some other little projects that I'd like to do, though, which I'll be able to share as I work on them.

The next job, now that my neck is feeling less painful, is not craft-related at all so watch this space for this year's Larkin Christmas Pudding 😍

Tentative plans for 2026...

I've got a few ideas of things I'd like to make during this coming year but as you all know, my lovelies, I can be very easily knocked off-course into an entirely different direction!  So let's say that these are extremely tentative plans, just to be on the safe side 😉

I would definitely like to make more gifts during 2026 and, as I mentioned earlier in the week, I do have a few ideas percolating around in my little butterfly brain.  I've been meaning to make at least some of the gifts for Beverly's annual Christmas Every Day shenanigans virtually every year since I started the tradition ~ alas, I haven't managed to get myself organised to actually do so yet 😄 I would like to remedy that situation this year so will be hunting through my books for suitable things to make.  I'm certainly not aiming to make all 24 of the gifts, but nevertheless it would be nice to sprinkle in a handful of handmade items throughout December.  I do already have a few ideas of things I could make, and I'm sure looking through my craft books will throw up even more 😊

I've got four "big" projects planned for the year, two of which are blankets, and I've spent some time trying to decide how I want to make said blankets.  I have a specific "theme" and colour scheme for one of them (Special Project One) and the other is to be yet another stash-busting exercise!   I thought that I might as well use the same pattern for both, though, as they will end up looking totally different to each other because of the different colours I'll be using.

You have no idea, my lovelies, just how many motifs I pondered over until finally trying out these three 😳  I quite liked all three, especially the cute little hexagon at the bottom, but they all seemed just a tad too small ~ I really don't want to have to spend weeks and weeks making these blankets!  I used double knit yarn to make the samples but I really don't think they would have been large enough even if I'd used Aran-weight to be honest.

 The top hexagon is by Annie Design Crochet, whilst the square and tiny hexagon are both by Bunny Mummy.  They are all perfectly nice motifs but none of them really "called" to me.  Then I remembered that amongst the patterns in Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Knitting (where my favourite crochet chevron blanket pattern comes from), she has one called The Starburst Flower.  It's basically a granny square with a pretty flower centre comprising of puff and cluster stitches, with each round in a different colour.

Again, it's a lovely pattern but I found it just a little too fiddly for something that I really want to grow fairly quickly 😉 

In the end I mashed together aspects of some of the different motifs I had come across to make the one I've decided to go with.  Now, I'm definitely not claiming that this design is original as I've no doubt that someone, somewhere, will have had the same idea ~ it's just that, unfortunately for me, I didn't come across it when I was doing my humungous trawl of motifs!  I want both blankets to look like non-specific-flower flower gardens ~ if you see what I mean 😄  I used some Aran yarn from my stash with a 5.5mm crochet hook to make the sample, and it ended up about 5" square.  I used one colour to represent the centre of the flower, another for the two rounds of petals, and a third to turn it into a square.  The "petals" could be made in two different colours, which might look very pretty if they were two shades of the same colour ~ pale and deeper shades of pink, for example.

Anyhoo if you'd like to make these flower squares, here's the very simple instructions:

Round 1: chain five and join to make a circle.  Chain four, then make 15 double-trebles (US triple crochet) into the ring: 16 stitches in total.  Join in the top of the starting chain four and fasten off.

Round 2: join the "petal" colour between any of the double-trebles and chain three; make one treble (US double crochet) in the same space; chain one.  Make two-treble clusters, separated by chain one, between each of the remaining double-trebles.  Slip stitch across to the first chain one space.  16 two-treble clusters in total.  

Round 3:  chain three in the chain one space, and make a two-treble cluster in the same space; chain two.  Make three-treble clusters in all the remaining chain one spaces, separating these clusters with chain two between each.  Slip stitch into the first cluster and fasten off.  16 three-treble clusters in total.

Round 4: join a new colour in any chain two space.  Chain three and make two trebles (US double crochet) in the same space.  Make three trebles into the next space.  Make three double-trebles (US triple crochet), chain two, three double-trebles in the next space ~ this creates the first corner of the square.  Make three trebles into each of the next three chain one spaces, then make the second corner.  Continue the pattern round to create the square, and fasten off.

As you can see, I am definitely not a crochet designer ~ it took me a fair bit of trial-and-error to come up with a simple motif that I liked, and I don't think I'll be going "off piste" again anytime soon 😄    

It's hard to believe that we are halfway through January already, so I will have to get myself organised (😏) as I've got a lot to do this year!