Hobbies, new and old

All blooms are complete...

The edges are sewn together...

And i'm extending the envelope close...

It's all coming together, it just needs those blooms to decorate the edges...

We of course indulged on Shrove Tuesday...

And we tried out a new past time. Geocaching...

We failed on our first attempt, mainly due to the weather conditions, so just ended up wet, cold and stressed. But the following day armed with the correct coordinates, renewed enthusiasm and the rain keeping at bay, we had success. After finding our first one, this filled us with excitement and eagerness to continue. We found 5 in total, and felt very pleased with ourselves. I think we're hooked, which is positive as it will encourage us to venture outdoors more. It adds a whole new depth to going for a walk, and I don't think i'll ever look at a lamppost the same way again!!

I had a couple of days off work which enabled me to catch up with my floral mood blanket

7 weeks now completed...

Blooming Love...

Short and sweet this week, as another season came upon us, so work became the main focus.

The floral blooms have slowly but surely been growing off the hook,

I have a great little bundle of pink flowers now but still a few more to make to be able to fill the edges of the cushion...

The mood flowers are still continuing. I delve into my huge bin bag of mixed yarns and pick out what takes my fancy or epitomises my mood that day.

I'm getting quite used to mixing up three different colours that I wouldn't normally put together, or picking colours that I don't really like, because the overall effect of a complete mixture of colours is just a beautiful sea of tones that blend together with no one colour that jumps out, nothing seems to clash, just colours fusing together...

I'm a little bit behind but hoping to catch up this week.

Didn't get much time to celebrate Valentines, but grabbed a couple of hours together in the evening. We ordered a take away,

and hubby completely spoilt me by getting tickets to see Cats in London. So excited. It's not really his cup of tea, which makes his efforts even more special...

Love him to bits....

monochrome cushion

So last week I teased you with a little taster of my latest project, my new floral cushion...

This was inspired after I saw images of the Spring/Summer fashion collection from Chanel, so many floral delights I was in my element!

It was this specific outfit, that led me to do a monochrome cushion.

I adore colour, so it would not naturally occur to me to use only one!

As there wasnt going to be a mix of shades for impact, then I needed some texture. So, having tried a square of c2c (corner to corner) in my mood blanket, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to use it again.

I followed the pattern on crochet spot. The instructions are so easy to follow and its such a lovely flowing pattern that other than looking at the start of the increase and the decrease I was just able to follow the natural rhythm. I enjoyed making these squares, and they worked up pretty quickly.

I finished off the squares with single crochet stitches, but only working into the back of the stitch, which gives it a more horizontal slant.

Then it was time for the embellishments. I worked six petals into the centre circle.

I then picked up stitches from the back and worked another six petals underneath. Just a few more blooms need to be made to carry on round the edges.

In complete contrast ive completed another set of seven multi-coloured blooms for this years mood blanket.

Its been mighty cold this week, and we did have a surprise flurry of snow, although we can't compete with the proper snow up north of course.

But I'm wishing for a bit of Spring...

Blanket Glory...

So. as promised this week its time for my Crochet Mood blanket 2014, to have its moment of glory...

55 weeks of colourful squares

plus mini squares that filled out the irregular lengths

At 47" x 23", its not the biggest. But will be a great little lap blanket whilst snuggled on the sofa

Or to keep the tootsies warm in bed

It's certainly the biggest item i've made

from January 

through to December

This will certainly be a blanket to treasure for many years

As a little teaser, I have been working on the new corner to corner cushion

The two squares are complete and i've started the edging, so i'm hoping to get started on the decorative flowers this week. But more on this little one next week...

Of course the flowers have been growing each day

The first month of the year is through already

Thankfully its not been too bad a start.....