Hexagon blanket and other FO's

Hi, hope you are all keeping warm in this snowy weather that we are experiencing here in the UK. Being forced to stay indoors gives me the opportunity to take photos of my latest finished projects. To be honest I finished some of these a while ago but neglected to blog about them. So bear with me as there are quite a few. 

            My major project of last year was my African flower blanket. I loved working on this blanket as the hexagons look so pretty but are very easy to do. The pattern can be found here. Once you have done a few you will be addicted like me.

I used Rowan handknit cotton and it's a dream to work with, and such a wide range of stunning colours. I used quite a lot of balls and dread to think of how much it cost but I think it's beautiful and worth it. It's huge and rather heavy. It was made to fit the double bed in the guest room but in the photo below it's on our kingsize and still fits ok, so it may get moved around from time to time.

 I joined my hexagons a row at a time as I went along, much easier and less of a headache than doing them all at the end. I think Hubby did get slightly sick of it spread out on the floor for months so I could work out the colour sequence. It was good to see it growing row by row. When I was in the mood I could probably do half a row a night, so it grew quite quickly. Hope you like it.

Other projects that I have finished now. While browsing round blogland I came across this gorgeous giant granny square and immediately wanted one of my own. I'm such a copycat. So this is my version and I love it.

 I used mostly Stylecraft special DK which comes in a huge range of colours and is inexpensive. It's a good quality acrylic yarn and great to work with. This is another blanket that gets moved around quite a bit. At the moment it's on our bed keeping us snuggly and warm.
 When I'd finished the hexagon blanket I wanted to make something else with the handknit cotton and I'd had my eye on Attic 24's blooming flower cushion for a while, as I imagine most people have. As always her pattern was easy to follow and it didn't take long to make. So now I have my own blooming flower cushion to admire.

I haven't neglected the knitting, I have been busy knitting myself some new socks. Now I've got the hang of the short row heel they are a doddle to make. Easy to knit whilst watching the tv as not much concentrating is needed until the toe grafting stage and then nobody is allowed to speak to me. If they do they get a loud -knit drop, purl stay, chanted back at them! Toe grafters will understand that. 

The green socks are made in Bergere de France sock wool, the purple ones are Regia angora merino, and the stripy ones are made with one of the balls I got for Xmas. It's Juno Fibre arts Buffy sock wool. It's Blue faced Leicester and hand dyed in Devon. This one is driftwood but I've also got Seaweed to look forward to as well as a skein of Madeline Tosh Blackcurrant sock wool.

I also had enough of the Bergere left to make a pair of fingerless gloves.

That's the end of the yarn based projects but a quick look at how the rag rug is progressing.

I've done a bit more since the last post and it's coming along nicely.

I love the way the ends all curl and swirl together. Anyway thanks for taking the time to visit, it's always appreciated.

New year, new storage

It's been such a long time since my last post but I'm back with renewed vigour. Our broadband speed has increased slightly so hopefully it won't be quite so frustrating trying to post on my blog, that was one of the reasons for my absence, it was just more effort than it was worth.

Anyway we have had a bit of a move round at home in order to create some more storage space for my crafting materials. Hubby has the study to himself and it's full of teeny tiny soldiers which take up a surprisingly large amount of space given their size.My wool and other bits have to make do with wherever I can hide them, but not any more, I now have a HUGE cupboard and it's all mine. 

  

It arrived yesterday from a local antiques centre and I love it. It's already on it's way to being full but I do have one spare shelf . Hmm might need a trip to a yarn shop.

It;s arrived just in time to store all the bits needed for my newest craft- rag rugging. I got a kit for xmas which included the hessian, rugging tool and cutting gauge. The idea is to recycle old clothes into something beautiful for the house, but I didn't have any so a trip into town yielded six xxl mens t-shirts from a cheap clothes shop in co-ordinating colours so I could crack on. Looking good so far don't you think? It's very easy and therapeutic.

But I've got a long way to go yet and I'm not sure the t-shirts that I bought will be enough may have to get some more.

Hopefully I will be back soon to show you some of my finished crochet projects. Bye for now.