Boos Mummy

 As usual time has flown by here in Yorkshire. One minute we're gearing up for Christmas and before I know it Easter half term has arrived and the kids are at home. Since January I've been busy with different crafting projects. One thing I wanted to make myself was a book cover for a notebook that I could use for all my craft projects and ideas.  My husband bought me the Charles Dickens kit from Bothy Threads for Christmas so I couldn't resist starting that on New Years. It didn't take me long to do at all in the long winter evenings.  I had so much fun stitching this even if I had to use the aida that came in the kit as none of my favourite fabrics were the right size (I couldn't be bothered to wait for some to arrive as I wanted to start it straight away!) I also took part in an online workshop with Ellie Hipkin who is an amazing textile mixed media artist. After spending a lot of time walking up and down our local fields I wanted to capture some of it on fabric. ...

 I've been keeping up with my TAST, not faithfully I must admit and a couple of the weeks had to be done in one sitting. I've enjoyed it though, some weeks I've done the Beyond Tast stitches as I've loved the look of them and others just the basic one due to other commitments.  Next year for the first time since 2012 when I started doing the TAST challenges I'm going to have a break and try something new. I'm going to put 2021 in the centre and give it a wash to get rid of the guiding lines but here are some pictures of my TAST pie.   TAST 2021

 Take a Stitch Tuesday this month has some well known stitches in it. I've used some of them over the years as border stitches and over joins on crazy quilting. The weather in March has been very unusual. We started off the month with dreary skies and heavy winds before it suddenly changed to wonderful blue skies, the sun shining and the flowers starting to pop through the ground. Yesterday on the last day in March we even hit 21° it felt absolutely wonderful...of course today being the 1st April and a bank holiday weekend here in the UK we're back to grey skies and drizzle 🙄 So here is my slice of pie for March.... Week 9 - Couching Week 10 - Chevron Stitch Week 11 - French Knots Week 12 - Cretan Stitch

 Can you believe we're at the end of the crochet along? This colours were all the beautiful muted pastels that I have totally fell in love with for the last few weeks. I'm making a note of the colours of my favourites so that I can buy them again for something else...although the scraps from this blanket will go towards my Stashbuster .  The end of Part 6 and my blanket has all the stripes done. Next was Part 7 - the borde r, this usually takes me ages to do but as I was on a deadline I made a concerted effort to not pick up anything else until it was done. I wanted to get the blanket all finished, washed and posted down to my wonderful Mother-in-law as a surprise for her birthday which was very near Mothers day.  I've really enjoyed crocheting this blanket, the pattern looks great and is deceptively easy once you get into the rhythm. I posted it down to my Mother-in-law and she loved it..phew! If you fancy making your own Meadow Blanket Lucy at Attic24 keeps the pattern...

 The stitches for this months Take a Stitch Tuesday had a couple of my old favourites... Feather Stitch and Herringbone.  The herringbone I've used a lot over the years in things like leaves, it just fits so well into the shapes and contours. Feather stitch is great for crazy quilting, it goes over the 2 pieces of fabric amazingly and also looks wonderful as greenery in scenic pieces or as seaweed, sea grass in ocean projects. However the weather for February has definitely been either very wet or snow and ice. To put that into my TAST I wanted colours that represented the mud, the snow, the wet fields and paths that I've trodden as I take my allowed daily walk whilst in lockdown. After coming home one morning and taking off my very muddy wellington boots I dug out my threads. Seeing the tracks from the tractor and peoples footprints in the very muddy field had given me an idea for the Feather Stitch.  I decided that I had to have a representation of that for this month. ...

 Another year means another Take a Stitch Tuesday which is run by Sharon Boggon over at Pintangle. I'll admit here and now that last year my TAST totally fell apart, with everything that went on from March I just didn't have the time or the incentive. Having 3 teenagers suddenly doing schoolwork from home and then a husband being furloughed and being off work for weeks wasn't exactly helpful for relaxing needlecraft! This year I thought I'd do something different, I wanted something that wasn't exactly a picture as I've done previously but something that I could just do a few stitches each week and it would be a journey through the year. In the crochet world people have been doing a lot of temperature blankets and I thought something similar but on a much much smaller scale would be just the thing. I decided that each month would be done in colours relating to the weather here in Yorkshire during that month. January has been easy as it's been chilly, grey, r...

 Lucy over at Attic24 announced at the end of 2020 that she had a new crochet-a-long starting in January...how could I resist?   I ordered the pack from Wool Warehouse quick before they ran out of stock, Lucy has called this blanket Meadow and the colours are wonderful. Again they're all Stylecraft Special DK so easy to get hold of and great to crochet with. It seemed a long time from getting the wool to the actual CAL starting, I'm so impatient when I want to start something new!  Friday 8th January part 1 came out, kids all sat doing schoolwork via Microsoft Teams so I happily started my blanket.  Once I got the hang of the pattern (not hard and very fulfilling) I was away. I've now got into a routine so I don't fall behind as this blanket is for my mother-in-law and her birthday is 2 weeks after the last part of the CAL comes out...eek!  Mon-Fri I work on my stitching or knitting but the weekends are my crochet blanket time. I quite enjoy sitting watc...

 I recently bought a mystery box from The Knitting Network , inside were lots of new wools that I'd never tried before. As some were only 50g balls I decided to knit something small to see how they knitted up.  What's better than a tea cosy for using those odd bits and as we're coming into the cooler weather it'll keep my teapot lovely and warm. Here are the photos of the tea cosies that I've already made... My favourite is the one in the centre. The wool is Hayfield Baby Blossom Chunky and is so soft and squishy, it knits up so well I'm going to make our daughter a winter bobble hat and fingerless gloves with it.

 My Spice of Life is growing fast now and the leftover wool going down. Must admit I love this pattern, its varied enough not to get boring and it feels lovely and soft.  If you want to make your own Spice of Life blanket, pop over to Sandra Paul's blog aka Cherry Heart  https://www.cherryheart.co.uk/ My blanket is being crocheted using Stylecraft Special DK wool, all bought from Wool Warehouse

After my last 2 blankets I have quite a bit of leftover wool. Normally I'd give it to our daughter who either uses it for French Knitting or makes bracelets out of it. As there's quite a bit left I've decided to make a stash-buster blanket. After a bit of pc spring cleaning I found a pattern that I'd downloaded a while ago. The Spice of Life blanket from Black Sheep Wools by Sandra Paul from Cherry Heart . Sandra originally did this as a CAL (crochet along) so there are lots of photos of the completed blanket around.   Here's my start using the remnants... As you can see there are plenty of different stitches for you to use. Each section is separated by a few rows of trebles. The pattern is well written and there are photographs in case you come across a row of stitches you've not tried before. It's a great learning tool for crocheters.  

As the schools are still closed here in the UK and I finished my Moorland Stripe blanket from Attic 24 I figured I'd do another one.  I only did 2 colours on the border this time as I didn't feel it needed anymore. Took a bit more counting to get into the rhythm of this pattern but once I got into it the blanket grew fast. Eldest son very happy he now has his own blanket for his bed.  I used the  Moorland colour pack from Wool Warehouse to make the Woodland blanket from Lucy at Attic 24 . Look at those delicious colours! It's an easy repeating pattern if you fancy making yourself one. I would recommend using some crochet stitch counters if you're new to crocheting. Again Lucy's instructions are well written and have illustrations so don't be put off.

The kids finished school and the country is in lockdown so I thought it's a good time to crochet another blanket ready for winter. I've used the Dune colour pack from Wool Warehouse  (it's Stylecraft Special DK) and the Moorland Stripe blanket pattern from Lucy at Attic 24 . One blanket all completed, when you're stuck in the house for weeks it's great to see something good come out of it. Once you get into the rhythm of the waves it's a very relaxing pattern to sit and work. The colours together in this blanket look amazing all finished. Must admit it's one of my favourite colour packs so far as I'm a fan of pastel shades. If you've never tried one of Lucy's patterns from Attic 24 I highly recommend them. They're well written and have photo illustrations for the beginner or nervous crocheter.

Whoo hoo, my first finish of 2020 😃  My Sweet Pea blanket is all done and being used as well.  It's been a joy to crochet this blanket during the cold and wet weather we've had.  It's the first Attic24 blanket I've done but will definitely not be the last. All done and in use by DH who's recovering from an operation Parts 1-6, just the border to do now Parts 1-5 Loving the feel of the wool and my new crochet hook Parts 1-4 Look at those colours, so cheerful in this dull and wet winter Parts 1-3 Parts 1 & 2 Part 1 - colours don't look as vibrant as in real life Just starting - couldn't find my stitch markers so safety pins from the first aid box had to do All my Sweet Pea blanket wools in a lovely bag from the Wool Warehouse