WIP's............

Hello Ladies,

I think autumn is finally here in Kent. I see the trees turning from green to reds and oranges. The grass still needs to be cut, but is quite wet in the morning from the heavy dew. My small veggie plot has given up the last of its summer supplies and my flowers are coming to an end. At the weekend I went and bought some winter pansies and some such gorgeous coloured cyclamens. They reminded me of coconut ice.

It seems to soon to have to give up my evening after dinner in the garden, even with the chimnia going to keep the chill away, it's getting to dark to read or crochet. But I do like this time of year, I like to watch the changes as we go from one season to another. I especially like when we have cold frosty mornings, but the sun is out and warm by lunchtime. My Nan always called that Hopping weather, as it would be this time of year they would start bringing the Hops in.

And I finally relented yesterday and wore my boots after dragging them out from the back of the cupboard.  I haven't put my Flip Flops away yet, but I don't think they will see any sunny days now till we go on our Hols.

So with the chilly evenings coming my crochet seems to have turned to winter warmers and maybe a few Christmas presents.

The only problem being I have a few too many projects on the go and my "To Do" list is getting longer. 

It doesn't help when I browse other blogs and see such wonderful work " I need that in my life", I say to myself, "Or I know someone that would".

So I rake around in my yarn stash, to see if I have enough yarn, to make what I've seen and more often or not I haven't so I have to go get or order it. And my stash is getting bigger :)

So, so far I have on the go at the moment, this blanket that I started at the end of August.  I wanted something warm and soft to cuddle up with while I was crocheting all the marvellous Christmas presents everyone is going to get.

I'm probably only about a quarter of the way through it, but it is such a lovely pattern and so nice to do of an evening. I used a yarn that I read a fair few ladies were using called "Stylecraft Life DK" and I wasn't disappointed, it feels lovely and is a dream to crochet with.

Then I saw a blog called "My Rose Valley"  by Annette and she had a lovely motif that I thought would make a perfect lap blanket for my Mum for her birthday. 

I love making these they don't take long and they are so easy. They are called "The Maybelle Flower" motif. I think I'm over half way on this one. I did contact Annette, to ask her preferred method of joining as I tried Join as you Go and it didn't look right. She sent me a lovely email, explaining that she used the Double Crochet method and how to do it. It was wonderful, it was like a mini tutorial. Extremely grateful I was as I had never used this before and now it's something else I've learnt.  Hopefully I'll have it ready for her birthday.

Then while blog browsing I found another lovely blanket being made by Barbara Smith of "Made in K-town". The colours she uses are so yummy. They reminded me of a fresh fruit salad.

I'm a tad rubbish when it comes to picking colours, I always seem to stick to the same ones. Yet when I see other peoples work I always admire their colour choices and wonder why I never think to put those colours together.

She calls it "Dots and Dashes Crochet Throw" and she got it as a free download from Red Heart.

This is a stitch I've never used before, so again it was something new I learnt. I love the texture and the affect you get from using the different colour yarns.

Maybe I should put my Christmas gifts on hold for the moment and concentrate on getting at least one Blankie finished and maybe I should just make note of projects I like and love, instead of trying to do them all.

Take care everyone

Sally xxx