Crazy Blanket Progress

It's not all mosaics at Creating Trouble HQ at the moment; there is a totally different project on the go as well.

A few years ago I made my sister a 'Crazy Blankie' - it started off as a project that was going to hang on the wall but somehow grew into a full double-bed sized blanket. It's pretty impressive - basically it's a kind of patchwork but made out of yarn. Every square was different - made out of different yarns, different colours and different styles. Some was crocheted, some knitted. Some were plain, some were textured. Various types of wool got nicknames: there was a really fluffy green wool which became known as the monster feet wool.

I don't know why I don't seem to have any photos of the crazy blankie - my sister and her husband use it all the time usually, although as they presently live in the Cayman Islands I'm guessing it must be in storage somewhere awaiting their return.

A few months ago I started making some granny squares - I didn't really have a project in mind, I was just experimenting with crochet as I only really know some basic stitches really. But I remembered that I already had some smaller crochet squares left over from a blanket I made years ago. And I've got loads of scrap bits of wool left over from the original crazy blanket so... I've started making a new crazy blanket!

At present I think it lacks colour - I've just bought some brighter wools a few days ago in the hope of brightening it up a little so obviously it will change quite a lot over the next few months. I'm not expecting this to be finished soon - it took me the better part of a year last time I made one and I haven't had much time to spend on it recently. But anyway, what do you think of Crazy Blankie 2?

A Bit of Blog Lovin'

This month's Blog Lovin' goes to Baban Cat - a fellow Etsian who I discovered through the British Sellers on Etsy team. I've been following her blog since she started her July 'Take One a Day' challenge: every day Cat made a new creative item for her Etsy and Folksy storefronts and I was seriously impressed with her dedication - especially as she makes such pretty things! This month Cat has been looking at Pantone colours and has produced some beautiful treasuries and blog posts using different colours as her themes. I love that idea and may have to steal it! I like the clean, fresh look of her blog and I'm sure you will enjoy finding out more about her and her work. Oh and she also nominated me for a Versatile Blogger award so I am very grateful for her support! Go and check out BabanCat's blog!

Granny Mad...part deux

What have you been up to recently? I've been working mostly on the quilt project, but will show you more of that soon... (just trying to keep you all on your toes!) Today's post though is dedicated to Grannies. Well granny crochet squares that is. You can dedicate this post to your granny as well if you like, but it's not obligatory. 

I've said before I'm not sure what I'm making with these grannies - I think I'm just playing around and seeing if I can make interesting designs. I'm definitely not being very speedy with them! The pattern for these could be really easy but I'm not good at following patterns and I got this one wrong about a million times over! But anyway - these are the grannies I made this week.

The pattern was designed by Chris Simon from Yarn Crazy and you can find it here. I love the flowers! I think they have turned out really prettily in the end - so lots of hard work but definitely worth it!

Granny Mad!

While I would never attempt the 'granny-a-day' that many fellow bloggers have been doing (look at Craftyminx's blog for inspiration!) I thought that as I am now able to do some crafty things I would start making some granny squares in different designs. Not sure what they will end up being - or even if I will stick to similar colours but this week I have been using SmoothFox's Lemony Lime Citrus Square pattern - it's free if you click on the link. Here's what they look like:

So over a week I have managed to make three squares...fellow crocheters will be shocked at how slowly I work! In my defense I'm going to state that I rarely follow patterns and am finding it quite hard to do so - especially as you have to work out whether you are using British or American crochet terms - I went with assuming they were British and think I did it all correctly. I also had to unpick a few times when I made a mistake... the nice thing about crochet is that you CAN do that and not have issues, unlike knitting. And also I'm still having to rest a lot along the way when my shoulder aches... and generally life gets in the way doesn't it?  I'm going to try a new pattern this week - and probably some new colours too. As I said, I'm not sure quite what I'm making at present, but I'll keep you up-to-date with progress!!