Killing Time

At the moment thats what I feel like I am doing!

When the shop flooded and I was looking for the positives in the big fat mess it caused, the list of things I would be doing during my unwanted time off was endless!

I was going to sew everyday, I would get up to date with my accounts, I would make sure I had a full and up to date stock take, I would visit friends and family, I would help in school, I would have a tidy house.....

Not one of these has been scrubbed off the list.

Its been hard to motivate to be honest, its hard to keep a neat house when half the bloody shop is in your lounge/dining room/bedroom/landing, its hard to muster up enthusiasm for work when the people in control of getting you opened again are dragging their heels.

But this week was a turning point. Finally, buttons have been pressed and papers signed so works will start very soon.

So I celebrated by starting a(nother) new project.

The granny stripe blanket by Lucy of Attic 24 .

Unless you are new to blogland you will have heard of Attic 24. I have read her blog for..working out in my head as I write..5 or 6 years! But have never made anything from one of her amazing tutorials.

Until now.

The tutorial uses more colours than I am, and is for a bigger blanket than I am making. 

Reasons behind this decision: I had 6 balls of this gorgeous cotton yarn at home. And I knew where in storage to get my paws on another couple of balls of each too. Secondly, I hate doing chain stitch to start a project. I crochet a lot in the round, chain 6, thank you, lovely, that will do me ;)

So the Attic 24 pattern starts with a chain of 240 for a double bed, I want this for the caravan so I chained 120. To be honest I do wish I had the stomach for the 240 this would have looked amazing in double bed size!

You then double crochet into the chain ( I did trebles as I forgot to do doubles...by the time I realised I wasnt frogging it for nobody!) then the next row you make a treble cluster in every 3rd stitch. But obviously if you are going to make one you will go over and follow Lucys instruction not mine ;)

After you have done the first 3, quite frankly, tedious stages, this is the most satisfying crochet I have ever done !Its tedious for me because of the counting..counting chain stitches (yawn) 120 double crochets (yawn) and treble clusters counting stitches (made my brain hurt).

And this is me at day 3. I haven't sat watching trashy tv every day crocheting (except Thursday) and I am pleased with my progress, It looks like I will get 4 stripes out of each ball so I will keep granny striping until I have used the 3 balls of each colour I got from storage.

Granny Stripe Week 1

And you know what...I am going to finish this...it is making me so happy, the DMC Natura Cotton is divine once made up, I toyed with adding more colours into it but glad I didnt as I love how it looks too.

If you haven't learnt to crochet yet then Patch still have places on the beginners crochet full day workshop in May.

Once you have the basics the (crochet) world is your oyster!