Swap shopping and packing post

The date of the big move is inching ever closer, and so I'm afraid my blog posts will start to slow down a little while I try and get packed and sorted out.

This is also due to having to pack away my sewing machine, and paraphernalia including a massive amount of fabric and wool that I don't actually want or need. So the Granny's Swap Shop came along just in time. I went through all of my craft materials and packed a (shamefully) massive suitcase of stuff which I took along to work with me (donating some wool to work mates along the way), and then took over the Central Hall for some swapping fun!

You can see here the suitcase once it was empty, and the single ball of wool I took home with me, very proud of myself for not swapping my masses of stuff for more masses of stuff.


Everyone was super generous with all of their donations, with everyones gems from the back of the cupboard coming out of the woodwork, including vintage patterns, half finished socks, loads of wool and even some knitting needles!

I had a brilliant night and I feel like I've made my first step on the road to packing. I hope you can see from the pictures below, that I think the rest of the Granny Greens Gang had a great night too, thanks Andrea for organising this brilliant event!

Have you ever done a swap shop? Any hints and tips for finding a brilliant bargain? Or would you like to do one but just don't know where to start? Leave a message below and I'll get back to you.

Thanks, Deborah

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