My Completed Ripple Blanket - at last!!

 I can finally give you an update on my second ever crochet blanket - it's finished!

This blanket has been weighing on my creative mind for a long time, I didn't feel like it would ever be finished! The actual design itself (found here on the fabulous blog Attic 24, an amazing source of crochet inspiration) is pretty simple and is great fun to do - I found crocheting this blanket very soothing and relaxing - but the problem was I didn't know when to stop! I used a repeat of six different colours, which I ended up repeating five times which created a pretty huge blanket (a lot of backstage crocheting hours went into this creation!). But at last it's finished, and just in time for the chilly weather :)

 The main purpose of this blanket at the moment is to help hide our uber-gross rental sofa, an off-cream leather monstrosity that taunts me with it's lack of style. The curse of renting a place means that no matter how much you long for a 1950s mad men-esque blue/green couch you are stuck with what you've been provided for at least a year, so you just have to suck it up and make it work. So until I have the time (and the funds!) to run up a cover for this sofa in some pretty fabric I will disguise it with soft wooly blankets!

Until we have room for a puppy of our own these pillows will have to suffice! I want a little pug baby so badly! 

Did I mention what my choice of a second dog would be...? :)

I really couldn't have finished this blanket at a better time, as it has already kept me and my Sweetheart warm on the sofa and nice and cosy in bed, it's certainly worth the time it took to make! I love it and it has definitely solidified my love of all things crochet, but I think it's time that I brought out my knitting needles for my next project, I have missed them.

Do you like my above-the-sofa print? I just love it!

Have a wonderful weekend my lovely readers!

Bye for now!

Katie xxx

A Little Bit About Crocheting...

Hello there my lovely readers!

As you've probably noticed I've been going a little crochet crazy over the past few weeks! What started out as a few granny squares has turned into a fully-fledged obsession, although I must admit I'm really missing my knitting needles - I've got a huge variety of autumn/winter knitting projects stored up in my head just waiting to be created! Anyways, after the big reveal of my much loved first ever crochet blanket I received quite a few questions about crochet, so I thought I'd answer everything in a post, my tips for fellow crochet beginners. So here goes!

My top tips for fellow crochet beginners!

My first and biggest tip is check out the Crochet School over at Crafty Minx. 

This online tutorial course is completely free and brilliant and will teach you everything you need to know and more about crochet, I have been trying to learn from books etc. for years, and it's only after taking part in the school that I finally got the hang of things!

Always sew in your ends as you go. 

I cannot stress this enough! ozzyblackbeard commented on my blanket that the thought of sewing in all those ends made them want to cry, and I couldn't agree more! The only way to make the process less annoying is to sew them in as soon as possible (for example, as soon as you finish a granny square sew those ends in!). I learnt this the hard way when I had completed all my granny squares and was ready to crochet them together, but I hadn't sewn in any of the ends, which I knew I would have to do before I could complete the blanket. Let me just say, that's a good few days that I'll never be getting back. So sew in those ends people!

Find a joining method that works for you.

When making my blanket I tried various ways of joining my squares together, I started off by working them together as a went along, then tried sewing them and finally I settled on crocheting them together in rows when the squares were all completed (all of these methods can once again be found at the crochet school!). The last way worked best for me, I love the raised texture of the lines of crochet joining each square, but you might like something better yourself. Experiment, try all the options and find one that you love :)

Get inspired!

Something that I've loved about starting to crochet is the new blogs it has introduced me to, there are some incredible crocheters out there in the blogosphere! I would throughly recommend the following blogs for some fabulous crochet inspiration: Coco Rose Diaries, Attic 24, Get Smitten, and the Robyn's Nest. Just have a browse through some of their crochet projects, I guarantee you'll be itching to get a crochet hook in your hands :)

And finally, enjoy!

Crochet is a fun, relaxing craft that will make you very happy if you can master the basics. I know from experience that at the start you can feel lost, but persevere, you will get there and the more you crochet the better you will be. So enjoy the process, learning a new skill is an amazing thing!

I hope that this post has answered some of your crochet questions, if you have any more then please let me know, I'd love to help if I can! Happy, happy crocheting my lovely readers, I'm sure I'll have another completed project to share with you soon.

Bye for now,

Katie xxx

All of my pictures are of my newest crochet project: the ripple blanket! The pattern is absolutely free (hurrah!) and can be found here if you fancy giving it a go yourselves :)

My First EVER Completed Crochet Project!

Hello there my lovely readers! Remember that time, not so long ago, when I was teaching myself to crochet? Well, now this has happened...

My newly completed Granny Square crochet blanket!!!!

Ahhh!!! Can you even believe it?!! My first ever completed crochet project! A giant blanket of crochet goodness! I'm still a little bit overwhelmed that I was able to create this beast, and yes it has taken a while but I'm so in love with it that the wait was definitely worth it :)

Pretty uniform squares all crocheted together, be still my beating heart :)

A lot of credit really has to go to the amazing Dana of Crafty Minx and her wonderful online crochet course (completely free and so easy to follow) which taught me everything I know about this addictive art. Seriously, if you are thinking of learning to crochet you couldn't ask for a better course or teacher, Dana is so clear and brilliant, I learnt so much and everything just flowed. The only problem is I'm now a hopeless crochet addict to go with my already being a hopeless sewing and knitting addict. Ah well :)

Look how nicely it fits on the end of my bed :)

I found the pattern for this blanket of joy here, and it's a lovely free online pattern (originally for a pillow but not hard at all to change into a blanket), so you can give it a go if you feel like it! It's actually a fairly simple pattern, as a beginner I didn't find it all that hard, and of course, the more squares you make the better you get at them :) Although you may not want to make as huge a blanket as I did for your first ever project! Once I got started I just couldn't stop!

It's just so snuggly I want to jump on it!

So there you have it, my first crochet blanket! And I've already started my next one...! I am totally in love with crochet, so expect lots my projects to be shared in the near future :)

Now, if you'll excuse me I'm off to snuggly under this a so cosy blanket!

Bye for now,

Katie xxx

What's on my sewing table... lots and lots of yarn!

Hello there my lovely readers! I hope you all had a great weekend, I certainly did :) I had a brilliant few days off, I'll tell you more about that tomorrow, but I've also managed to fill my time with wooly projects :) Let me share with you what I've been up to...

First up I have completed my first mini crochet project! You may remember my first ever granny squares, well here they are all seamed together and looking pretty.

Granny squares, you've got to love them!

I'm really loving crochet, I already have a few project lined up for when I'm a bit better at it, I've been scouring Ravelry for pretty patterns :) Hopefully it won't be too long before I start working on the crochet blanket of my dreams!

Secondly I have started another knitting UFO, I've had this one on the go for about three years, just sitting in a box unfinished and unloved, but I've finally decided it to finish it. The original pattern was in French (eek!) but I had it translated, although some of the instructions are still a bit hard to follow. It's made by Fifi Chanchnil, and it's a cute little crossover cardigan. It reminds me of the type of thing I used to wear for ballet as a child, I can't wait until it's finished! 

The pattern, isn't it cute? 

Lacy sleeve with fancy edging!

And yes, the yarn is just as soft and fluffy as it looks :)

Finally I have a bit of a confession to make, I may have been a bit naughty on my days off. I know that I'm supposed to be focusing on Stash Busting, but I may have been in the same area as Loop on Thursday and I may have been tempted into buying some hand-spun, hand-dyed gorgeously soft, silky yarn for a short sleeved cardigan that I have been dying to make from the best knitting book ever. I'm sure you'll forgive me when you see how gorgeous this project is going to be...

Is this not one of the most gorgeous patterns you have ever seen?!

I've already knitted up my little tension square, well I say square, it's not a square shape at all! And this yarn was just dreamy to work with, I can't wait to cast on this cardigan, I'm really looking forward to some detailed knitting work, it's been a while since I've worked on something this intricate.

My tension square, or rather my tension random-shape!

Dreamy, isn't it? :)

So as you can see I'm up to my eyeballs in yarn, and I couldn't be happier about it :) Are you knitting/crocheting anything at the moment? I'd love to know what you're working on!

I hope you have a great week full of wooly projects of your own, I'll be back tomorrow to share some more adventures.

Katie xxx

Adventures in Crochet

Well readers, it's happened, I think I can honestly say I've become a crochet addict. It's all come together over the last few days, and here's my progress so far...

Whilst creating the swatches of all of the stitches I had been working solely in rows, and the next exciting step was working in the round. And this was the point when the addiction really started to take hold, once you start making these pretty circles it's so hard to stop!

My first crocheted circle

And I think that looks pretty good don't you? My stitches are all pretty uniform now, so I end up with a nice flat and even circle. By the next step in the crochet school was a big one: The Granny Square. And these were the main reason I started crochet in the first place, so I wanted to be good at this stage! Well, here's my first attempt...

A rather wonky Granny Square!

It looks a bit sorry for itself, doesn't it? This particular square used lots of chain stitches in its design, that's what creates all those slightly uneven gaps, so I altered the pattern a bit in my second attempt (as suggested by the Crafty Minx) to make my second Granny Square a lot more compact:

A much neater Granny Square!

I much prefer the look of this smaller, neater and more compact Granny Square, and I think that for now, until I become more used to crocheting, this is going to be the style the works best for me. You can see how different the two square are in shape and size here:

Two little fresh Granny Squares!

I think you'll agree that the smaller of the two looks a lot prettier! So I went ahead yesterday and stitched up four of these cute little squares, and the more I work on them the more I want to make, they are just so simple and easy, a great portable project :)

My Granny Square Quartet :)

Now, for someone who couldn't crochet at all until a few days ago I think you'll agree that this is quite an achievement! The next step of the crochet school is learning how to seam these squares together, so they really will look like a mini blanket soon, it's all very exciting :)

I think I will probably soon have to develop some Stash Busting projects that involve crochet, I do have a huge stash of leftover wool so I definitely have the means to feed my crochet addiction... I'll keep you posted!

Katie xxx

What's on my sewing table (and some new skills too!)

Happy Monday everyone! I have had a really lovely weekend, mostly because I came home, which was lovely enough, but also the next venue of the tour is close enough to home for me to commute, so I'll be staying at home for the next two weeks! So so happy! I'm looking forward to lots of quality time with my beautiful family and my Sweetheart :)

This also means that I will be in pretty close proximity to my sewing machine for the next couple of weeks, so expect lots of projects coming up soon! But let me show you what I've been working on in my happy haze this weekend...

First up I have finally made some progress with my Bombshell Dress!

My Bombshell Dress Bodice Muslin, looking good, eh?

I completed my bodice muslin, using a whole bunch of fancy methods (seriously, a lot of time went into this, and it's only the mock up!), and I'm really happy with how it's come together. The bodice fits really well, but I will have to make a few bust adjustments as it seems I'm more well endowed in that area than I initially thought (well, I'm not complaining!). I'll keep you updated on the progress of this dress and share some proper photos (i.e. not instagram ones!) as soon as I have something really good to show you, like when I cut into my pretty fabric... :)

And in other news, during a fit of insomnia last week I decided to tackle another item on my 24 before 25 list and started to teach myself to crochet. I used the crochet school created by the fabulous Crafty Minx and so far I have stitched up two swatches:

Crochet! And I have to say, I'm pretty proud of my neat and uniform stitches :)

I'm about half way through the crochet school course, and I'm sorry to say I'm starting to feel a little bit addicted. I never thought that I would be able to get the hang of crochet, as a knitter the idea of only using one needle left me very confused and, to be honest, a little freaked out, but it's so much simpler than I thought it would be. It's very relaxing and I love the texture of the stitches, it's really pleasing :) I have always wanted to crochet myself a couple of blanket, and hopefully after this course I will be able to. I'll keep you posted n the crochet front too!

I'm so looking forward to this week, what with these fun projects to work on and I have some great adventures planned, including a trip to London and finally getting to see Florence + the Machine in concert! I cannot wait!

I hope you have a great week too, do you have anything fun planned?

Katie xxx