Jellyfish, moving and a January lull

Apologies (again) for the delay in my post. I've been useless, attempting to get into the swing of things, and not really delving into anything. I think it's down to be a bit of wedding dress fever. As some of you know I'm getting married in November, and I'm going to (try to) make my wedding dress. I have plans, ideas, designs, colour choices et. al all floating around in my mind, but there's nothing I can do yet as I'm waiting for an important piece of the puzzle (can't give too much away). So I feel kind of guilty thinking about any other sewing projects, though I know there's nothing to be done I don't feel I 'should' do anything else!

However, I have joined in the Mathilde giveaway, as I have dreams of a black and large white spot New Look 6128 (I know, I'm obsessed, I also have plans (and fabric) for a black and red tartan one), paired with a black Mathilde blouse with white trimmings.

I got the Gertie book for Christmas, so I'm using my indecisive period to learn about special vintage techniques for my wedding dress, if a job's worth doing and all that.

We've also just moved into a house! A whole house with rooms, and my very own sewing room, so exciting :-) I'm still putting it all together but I'll be sure to let you know how it looks once it's a little bit more sorted. I'm thinking of getting the Expedit desk for sewing on, but not sure about how stable it will be during sewing, anyone had one/ got one/ got some suggestions?

These jellyfish were one of the first things to be put up when we moved in. They are the jellyfish crocheted in Kirsty's Handmade Home, the most recent series. What did everyone think of this series? Of course I love that there is a programme on about crafts, but I've usually found that I haven't ever really wanted to do anything on the programme before. Until now!

They were very easy to make, though you should be aware that in the instructions when it says 'thick' wool, it really means it, super chunky weight (like the light blue one) makes better spirals for the tentacles, and pushes the head into a proper dome, rather than laying flat. I'd love to see if anyone has also tried these jellyfish, and I'll show you some more of the house as we do it up!

Finishing my crocheted Granny (Greens) Blanket

I have been making a crocheted granny blanket for about two years now, making up a square every now and again when I don't have a project to take to Granny Greens (a local craft group I'm involved in). I've never especially counted them and worked out how many I need etc, (or if I have I don't remember any of the numbers). 

So now that I'm moving down South (and away from the lovely Greeners), I have started to crochet my blanket together. I'm not sure I'll have enough squares, but I need to feel like I'm progressing on this project or I'm likely never to pick it up again.

I chose navy to crochet the squares together, as I find black or white too harsh, and the blanket has so many bright colours that I thought the navy might offset this.

I asked GG's very talented Jen to show me how, and I have decribed below as well as I can the process. Feel free to add any hints or tips below if you're a crochet blanket supremo.

 
I'm assuming here that you have already made some granny squares and understand the basics of crochet. However, if you would like a tutorial on a granny square (I'm assuming Ill have to make hundreds more for this blanket), then please let me know by posting a comment below.

Finding the corner stitch: this is fairly simple, you need to find the right-hand (if you're right handed) corner hole of your square, and identify the stitch which is directly above this hole.

As you can see in these pictures, I have made this hole stick out a bit so you can see it more easily.

 

Start by creating a slip knot, then hold your two crochet squares together lining up the edges of each square (apparently there is a wrong and right side of a crochet square, but I don't know how to work this out and so have left this out).

You then put your crochet hook through the corner stitches of both squares (one after the other), and loop your wool over the end of these stitches (pic 2).

Now pull your crochet hook through both stitches, catching your new (navy) loop through as you go (pic 3).

Once you pull this through you should have two navy stitches on your crochet hook (pic 4).
Now loop the navy wool over your hook above these two stitches (pic 5) and pull through the two stitches on your hook as you did in pic 3.
You should now have one navy stitch on your hook (pic 6).

In this picture (to the left) I hope you can see where the next stitch is for you to go into. This can be tricky, especially when you use cheap wool like me. But don't worry! If you get the wrong stitch, or miss the odd one no one will ever know.

Good luck with crocheting your squares together, I'd love to see the finished effect.

Because I've been doing this on and off for so long, the size of my squares (and the quality) has varied wildly, and so I've had to be a bit off the cuff when choosing which stitch to stitch into (sometimes missing the odd one to make larger squares match smaller squares).

This probably will have an adverse effect on the neatness of the blanket, but if you like neatness chances are your crochet squares will all be the same size, and you won't have this problem.

The idea for my blanket however is to show my process of development, from the worst square to the best so I don't mind it being a little messy.

Do you have a treasured granny blanket at home? Or a project that shows your development as a stitcher? I'd love to see them!

P.S. Let me know if you'd like that granny square tutorial.

Deborah