Every dog needs a blanket..

a few weeks ago we where visiting my mom. Abby wanted to be as close to us as possible and setteled on a diningroom chair for a nap.. But without a pillow or blanket she just couldn't get comfortable. The end-result was a very annoying little dog because she didn't get enough sleep.
** yes dogs are really just like children..

So we made a mental note to bring a blanket for her next time.
Now we do have some blankets around. Fleece ones, woven ones.. but the are all quite big and cumbersome to take with us.
Offcourse I could have gone out and buy something for her.
But with a big stash of yarn .. why not make one?

After a bit of rummaging through my stash I found 5 colors in the same yarn that worked well together. ** I used cheap yarn from Action; 1 euro per ball. I had to buy an extra gray one because there was only a small amount left in my stash

I really didn't know how big the blanket would get so for the pattern I decided to do one big Granny Square. I was planning to use up all of the yarn and just see how big it would become. The whole blanket took me about 2 weeks to make. I am a slow crocheter and if you really put yourself into it you will probably finish it sooner.

Despite the fact that there were some not so pretty yarn-joins in the balls Abby loves her blanket. And I am quite happy with how it turned out. It is big enough for her to snuggle under and small enough for us to easily take with us. 

So everybody is happy! 

Innocent Smoothie Hats

When I was at the trainstation last year one of my Innocent Smoothies came with a little knitted hat.
It was so cute!
After some googling I learned that it was a thing to raise money for the elderly fund here in Holland.
I was to late to send in some of my own, and I can't knit but I was determined to send some in this year.

I still can't knit so I had to figure out how to crochet something like that.
Now I have never crocheted a hat before so I wasn't quite shure how to start.
And then by chance I found some little hats on Instagram.
The maker was kind enough to share the pattern so I was good to go.

It really was ridiculously easy!

If you're in the mood to make some little hats here we go:

The things you need: a 4,5 mm crochethook and some colorfull matching yarn (DK size)

1. ch3, 9dc into 1st ch. Slip stitch to join.
2. ch3 , 2dc in each dc around (18dc)
3. ch3, 1 dc in each dc around
4. repeat round 3
5. repeat round 3
6. chain 2, 1 half dc in each dc around

( the pattern is in US terms. The ch3 at the start of each round does not count as a stitch. You should slip stitch to the first dc at the start of that round to join)

Pattern credit: @purlrose

With the little hat finished you can add some embellishments.  My favorite is the cream one with the bright pink pompom ( I wanted to make more pompoms but may have had a small nervous breakdown making more pompoms so I scrapped that plan )

For more information on the whole project visit the Innocent website.
Here in Holland hats must be sent in by the 1st of December but check the page for your country for rules applying to you.

Moodblanket update

It is the 6th week of this project and so far I am doing an excellent job of keeping on track.

I usually do my square on thursday evening. I have the house to myself and snuggle myself with a drink on the couch. A perfect time to crochet my weekly square.

 At the moment it still looks nothing like a blanket. I "just" have a row of 5 granny squares.

In the small journal I keep track of the color I choose for that specific week and write a bit on why I choose that color.

Choosing a color is not always easy. As the colors are linked to a specific mood, and I have more than one mood a week, I try to choose the most prominent feeling of the week. 

As you can see, I've had 2 "turquoise" aka happy weeks. And have not used my dark blue (sad)  or bright green (stressed). But it's only February so who know what is yet to come.

I'm glad I went with one square a week and not a daily one. Eventhough it means I don't have anything that resembles a blanket yet. But it does allow me to keep on track and up to date. And leaves me time to do all of my other to-do's.

Doing a daily square would mean I would already be behind and once I get behind I often abandon a project alltogether. But I do get a bit jealous when I see all the daily-square-blankets in the Facebook-Group.. All the different corlor-scheme's, different patterns. Amazing!
But I'm sticking to the plan. Eventhough it will mean I have more of a mood-scarf  instead of a blanket for a while..


About the yarn: I chose Drops Paris mainly because I fell in love with the colors. I had never worked with it before.
It is quite thick and does take a moment to get used to handeling. Also, one square seems to need quite a bit of yarn so for a whole year it might have not been the most economical choice. It would probably also be cheaper to order it from internet but I rather support a local independent store. And I love brouwsing that shop. All those yarns in a rainbow of colors. It just makes my soul happy.

Also helping me keep on track is the fact that I have all my supplies all togehter in a smal basket. The yarn, my notebook; for notes and the mood-colorchart, the crochethook for this project and a decent pen.
That way I don't spend any time looking for things. It means I can finish a square in about 20 minutes. Wich measn that not having enough time isn't an excuse not to make a square.
And not having any excuse is just what I need.

And how about you? Are you joining us in making a mood-blanket? Or are you documenting your year in a different way? How is that going?

Mood Blanket ; week 1

One of my big projects for this year is making a Mood Blanket.
I came across this idea on Instagram.
It's an idea from Mummy_stacey. Basicly you crochet (or knit) a square a day or week in a color that matches your mood that week/day.
I chose to crochet one granny square a week. Mainly because with my fybromyalgia I'm not able to crochet everyday. And I know myself well enough to know that some days I'm just to busy to create.

So first up , in preperation for this project, was a trip to my local yarn shop. I could have just as easily orderd my yarn online. But I wanted to feel the yarn and see in person how the colors matched. Also I love buying things in a actual shop.
Now I always get a bit greedy when I'm in that shop. There is so much nice stuff!

After a bit of looking around I settled on the Paris Drops yarn. It's a quite thick yarn, I've never worked with that before, but I've heard it's lovely to work with. My biggest reason to go for this was that the colors really spoke to me. 

 

I tried to make a good mix of happy colors for good moods and to include some darker shades for darker moods.

When I got home and started assigning moods to colors I realised I was one color short. I really love these colors together and don't really want to add another one so I deceided to leave it. 

To keep track of which color represents which mood I made a small color-mood-chart in a little notebook. 

I'm also planning to write a little bit about each week. About why I chose that color for that week. 

With all the preperations done it was time to start my first square!!

For this first week I went with the pink. Because I am so excited for 2014 and all the possibilities it gives.

The yarn did take some getting used to. I am very much in love with the color though! It took me about 20 minutes to finish the square. I have since added another row because was scared I would end up with a small blanket. 

I am really into crocheting right now. It's something that doesn't require much space and that I can do on the coucht while watching tv. My heart wants to crochet more squares. But my head ( and hands) tell me to take it easy.

I can't wait for the blanket to take shape =).

I'll keep you posted on the progress!

  

Crochet

I have always wanted to learn how to crochet.
My mom tried to teach me but that wasn't a succes.. She moved way to fast and I couldn't keep up.
I've tried several different tutorials on Youtube.
Read different books about crocheting..
Without succes..

So I had somewhat given up on crocheting..
But then I went to a scrapbooking fair.
I can hear you think: "What does a scrabooking fair have to do with crocheting?"
Well there was a stand where you could crochet "granny squares" for charity.
They had some beautifull things there so I took some time to think that maybe I could learn someday....
The lady in the booth invited me to join them but I explained to her I couldn't crochet.
She told me if I left my project there (for charity) she could teach me!
How could I say no?

So I sat down, was handed a huge crochethook and some zpagetti and in the next half hour her 12 year old daughter taught me how to make a granny square.
And it turned out.. it wasn't actually that hard...
That afternoon I made 2 granny squares and was inspired to make some more at home.

So back home I took my cheap crochethook and some yarn I had lying around and made some more "granny squares".

I had a lot of trouble with the cheap crochethook. It was to small for me to hold and made my fingers hurt.

(A small note I have to make is that I have Fybromyalgia. It is a chronic disease that makes my joints sore. So maybe crocheting isn't a very good thing to do.. )

So I had to take a small shopping trip to the local craftstore.
And there I found a very nice, Clover crochethook.
I had seen then on Intstagram so it seemde like an excellent choice.

I also bought some cheap yarn in some fun colors.

More "granny squares"are in the making:

 

I really love my new crochethook!!

I also went on the hunt for another pattern to make.

On My rose valley blog I found a really cute flower.

The patteren was in English so I had to transfer it to dutch..

And had to figure out what it all meant.

Thankfull I had some help from an Instagramm friend =)
She also recommend a very helpfull crochet-for-beginners website.

So after a bit of work I could start on the "maybelle Flower Crochet" pattern.
It was harder as I expected and I had to start over several times.
But at the end of the night I had 2 flowers:

                                      

I am not 100% happy with them yet.

But crocheting for almost the whole afternoon and evening wasn't a very good idea.

Both my hands are very sore so I'm on a crochet-break until they're better.

And after that.. well.. I'll have to set myself a time-limit..