Round and Round the Colour Wheel

Well hello again lovely readers - it's nice to see you here again and I hope that 'everything in your garden is lovely' - as the saying goes! Speaking of gardens, I have been really happy to see all the gorgeous spring pics of gardens and surrounding country walks and woodlands in some of the lovely posts coming from UK. Thank you so much for the sweet memories they awaken for me!

As I reached the end of my previous post you may remember the postie had just arrived with my parcels of Stylecraft Special DK yarn and I was all excited. That excitement increased considerably  as I tipped out those beautiful bundles of colour; well wouldn't you get a bit stirred up at such a sight?

I gazed at the mountain of colour; I squeezed and cuddled it, and patted and stroked it; and then I began to mix and match and arrange and re-arrange, all the time happily clicking the camera lens - these pics are only a few of the many I actually took!

Anyway, I had decided that when this yarn turned up, a largish portion of it would become my next hookie blanket - and so it is fast becoming a rainbow of colour and I'm loving it. What brightness - it's almost dazzling - and it's not only me who has a fondness for this new project - take a look at this: 

Our little Pika doesn't always co-operate when we need her to pose for pics so I apologise that these  are not very sharp and clear (and besides, the lighting was bad that day), but this is the only record I have of the work in progress at that stage!

With this blanket I really took time to work out my colours beforehand - even made swatches and recorded them in the sequence that I chose to use them, for a rainbow was high on my priority list. The lovely thing about organising this part carefully is that I could later decide on the colour-row-count as I progress, depending on how everything is shaping up - I like having that option! I also enjoy having the choice of whether to continue repeats as set in the first few rows or instead, reversing the colourways - again, when I see how the project is developing.

As you can see here, the blanket has grown a bit since Pika laid her cute little body on it, and I did decide to reverse colourways just after I had incorporated each of the chosen colours - see the purples, that's when I turned! You will also notice that I have not kept to the original colour-row-count. What a boring world it would be if we didn't have choices eh!

This is my second ripple blanket; I chose only five quite muted colours for the first and crocheted it in pure wool, whereas this one is acrylic, weighs in much lighter, and encompasses sixteen colours. I love them both. The pattern and inspiration once again comes from Lucy at Attic 24

Before this lovely yarn arrived I did begin another project - I can't not have something on the hook - so I'll give you a little peek at it. This pattern came from Simply Crochet magazine, issue 3, and they reference it back to Susan Ritchie at Mrs Moon www.mrsmoon.co.uk

I very much like this little blanket and am enjoying the change of colours: it will be a lap/knee size whereas the rainbow ripple is going to be rather a lot larger!

Also I really fell for a picture of some little baby shoes in the same issue of Simply Crochet and decided over the weekend to give them a try. It seems like the cotton yarn used in this pattern is slightly thicker than the one I am presently using from my stash, for the one shoe that I have completed is rather on the small size even for a baby, but will fit a dolls foot - somewhere down the line! Something else to think about? I may leave completion of this project until I see a doll crying out for a pair of shoes!

It is ever so sweet don't you think? It even has a double sole!

I'm going back in time a little now - just a few months or so - to show you a couple of cuties I made from 'The Gnome Craft Book' by Thomas and Petra Berger (pub: Floris Books).

The first pic is of  the Reading Gnome, and the second is the Grass Elf.

Then I put asidet felt and pipe cleaners and such like and took up the crochet hook. Like I keep saying, how dull if we couldn't make choices and 'ring the changes'.

A huge thanks to each of you who leave me such pleasing messages - I love reading them and appreciate the effort and time you take to do so - just as I love visiting your blogs and interacting with you all. I am so glad that I took the plunge and jumped into the blogging world for I've 'met' so many lovely people in the few weeks since I began!

Very best wishes to all of you!

❤Joy x