Grannie square blanket

Maria and Cathy have crocheted grannie square blankets and you can see how cheerful they are. Colour choices make a difference and an impact. Grannie squares can be big or small and all of that changes the look of the blanket. Maria’s is a wool blanket. Cathy’s is acrylic yarn . What you use depends of whether you or the recipient of the blanket is prepared to hand wash it. Machine washables are better if there is not much opportunity for handwashing. Wool is warmer and heavier. Your choice of yarn makes a difference to the weight of the blanket so you can make them for different weather conditions.

Maria’s is an African flower grannie square. You can find the instructions on cuteandcozycrochet. Cathy’s is the more traditional grannie square pattern but the centres of some of the squares were altered to give a different visual effect. You can find lots of free patterns for grannie square blankets on crochet kingdom. It also gives you a chance to see how different colour choices play out.

Show and tell

Lovely sunny day at the beach front today and so much to see and appreciate on the show and tell table. The colours were great and the colour combinations were inspirational. Everyone is buy and happy with their projects. Last week’s day trip went well and it was good to hear about it.

Show and tell

Karin: Blue beret, orange tones beret and spectacular Fair Isle beret from a pattern from an American designer in 11 different colours – golds, pinks, greens.

Cathy: Ginny’s hat from the Tanis Grey knitting book in fawn and peach threaded with corespun yarn. Crochet blanket in white, pink and blue grannie squares.

Maxine: Two knitted  jackets and a jumper for her great great nephew! Hooded one in blue, one in autumn colours, one in green. Attractive buttons.

Margaret: Cable jumper in natural colours in mohair and wool.

Marjorie: Grey double ribbed beanie, two green ocean colours beanies in overdyed wool.

Dagmar: Cowl in natural coloured , spun wool with two flower trims.

Alexis: Crocheted , felted bag in green and pink speckled colours .Two Fair Isle beanies in nature colours.

Maria: So many lovely beanies both crocheted and knitted in greens, maroons bright colours, white, Most had stripes. African flower blanket in bright colours. Knitted child’s jumper in blue, red and yellow.

Show and tell

Show and tell is brought to you today by Mickey Mouse and isn’t he going to be just wonderful? He is full of life and character. Today people worked on their projects. It was a warm , summer’s day and it means we have had a chance to enjoy summer’s benefits , like solar dyeing. Far right is Karin’s solar dyed , homespun alpaca fleece. Lovely autumn colours created in a jar in the summer sun. Far left is Karin’s yarn. She had ordered the Bendigo Woollen Mills blue which comes ready to spin and plied it with “Jewel ” from Kathy’s Fibres. She also made another beautiful Fair Isle hat from Sunspun yarns. Such lovely projects and Mickey did a good job of showing them off.

If you are interested in things Mickey Mouse, there is a free amigurumi Mickey Mouse crochet pattern on Free Amigurumi Crochet . There are lots of Mickey Mouse ideas , patterns and graphs on Knitting Patterns.

Beanie love

Beanies are beautiful. You can see a selection of ours from this year and each year there are more which are all different. They can be stylish, dainty, fun, thick, chunky, Fair Isle. They can be made from thick or thin wool, depending on the effect you want. Some people live or work in very cold , windy climates. A thick, warm beanie makes all the difference. Some want a beanie to dress up a winter outfit. Some just want to have fun. Our beanies are a mix of commercial wool beanies and home spun beanies. We also have a mix of knitted and crochet beanies. Crochet beanies are quick. Always good to know a couple of straight forward crochet beanie patterns. The yarns and how you use them, add visual effects. Crochetme has a selection of crocheted beanies. Below is a video tutorial of the Greta beanie made in thick wool so it is a quick knit and an easy pattern if you are wanting to learn colour work.