Wednesday 10 September 2014

Beautiful September Days and some new things in the making

Welcome back! 

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my recent makes and a warm welcome to my new readers! I also want to thank each and every one of you for inspiring me with your makes, your friendship, your strength of character and also your sense of humour! I'm eager to read what has been happening in your world and I want to contribute!

I thought this time I will show you a few other things, apart from my crochet! On Monday night there was a beautiful clear full moon (whilst I was waiting for a bus home after my evening class), sadly I cannot show you a picture because I didn't have my camera with me. So the next day I carried it with me on my travels out and about. This is what the weather looked like on Tuesday lunchtime:

Beautiful sunshine in September!

Schelle


The Church in Schelle

These are pictures from my neighbourhood where I live (Schelle). The Church is a landmark and can be seen from afar.

After my knitting/crocheting group on Tuesday afternoon I took a tram ride across town to Mortsel which is part of Antwerp. Here I managed to track down some wool I needed! As you can see it was still a nice day, but in the afternoon it went more cloudy. Often you can see pretty flower displays in public places.

A Flower Display in Mortsel, Antwerpen

And here for some updates on the crochet front! First of all, I have started making some more granny squares, just for the fun of it. I love using that Veritas Laura yarn, nice and chunky, it is fun to work with.

Furthermore you can see the scarf I have been knitting, it was finished on Monday.

Sunday evening I had started with a matching hat. (This is for my son's birthday, pssst!)
Monday: Mystery Granny Squares and WIP: Scarf and Hat


By this morning I had turned the remaining 3 smaller squares into big ones! (If in doubt, crochet a granny square!!!)

Wednesday: And then there were 8!


To give you a better idea of their size: Each square measures about 15 cm across (6" for my English friends!)
Just look at these whoppers!!!

Tuesday: Hat and Scarf finished - Ta-dah!
Here is the finished Hat and Scarf Set (it's going to be soft and warm to wear!) - which I am going to hand over in person this Saturday (because we are going to visit my Son for his birthday, yay!!)

Mystery WIP - 3 balls of yarn
The Mystery WIP has also grown enormously! Luckily I managed to find some more of this yarn on Monday, phew! Still debating the possibilities as I got several ideas for this.


Cleo is keeping an eye on things here!


Today I got very busy with yarn!!! No, not crocheting, but winding! Cleo, my cat kept me company and watched the proceedings!

First you take a lot of yarn (by which I mean 21 balls of 100g!) which look super pretty in their little bags. Then you wind as hard as you can, for as long as you can, until you think your arm is going to drop off, or that you could not possibly unknot yet another 23 knots in one ball of yarn alone, or that you have to go back to the kitchen for yet another cup of coffee to sustain you! You don't even pause and carry on winding whilst having phone conversations (time is running out!!!) And most of all, you don't even ask yourself what possessed you to buy such a bumper crop of yarn in the first place!

My Stylecraft Stash (from Loveknitting)

In the end, it was all worth it, just to see them next to each other like this:

After much winding - some lovely yarn cakes! Yumm!!!
Well, to be precise: I wound about half of each ball so that my project would be portable! (I try not to think about the other half yet!). So what am I going to do with this rainbow of yarn? I am going to make a blanket! This evening I went to another craft group and I had a go with doing some test crochet squares!
This rose started flowering again with the warmer weather recently


Just a couple of pictures from my 'garden', I mean balcony garden! One of the roses has produced new flowers which are very pretty. And I am eagerly watching my sunflowers as they get bigger and start to open up slowly!!

I got 3 tall sunflowers which are starting to flower
Well, by now you are starting to get to know me better, you already know how much I love colour! And seeing these yarn cakes together like that makes me happy, plain and simple!

Hope your week has been a good one! Leave me a comment or two, let me know what's been happening or what you think, I'd love to hear from you! I'll try to answer when I can (but I will be in England this weekend, to which I am looking forward a lot! I might be visiting the odd tea room or two!)

20 comments:

  1. Just look at all those cakes of yarn! I'd love to stick my face in it. Haha. So pretty. Those are some nice scarves you've got going too. You are busy, busy, busy Im still working on my granny blanket.

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    1. Hi Pammy Sue! Keep up the good work with your blanket! I'd love to catch a glimpse of it's current state! (I'm hoping you might do a quick update soon!) :) Thanks for your nice comments! xx

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  2. Beautiful pictures! It looks a lot more like summer there and the wet autuum-y weather we have here in Germany...

    The yarn cakes are so lovely! I adore the colours! What kind of blanket are you going to make? Some month ago I made a rainbow blanket with the Stylecraft Special DK (pics on my blog): A lot of fun! I got another big order of the Stylecraft Special DK yarn last week and will make a blanket for my granny (for christmas). Colours are pomgranate and creme...

    Take care
    Anne
    http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.de

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    1. Hi Anne! Really, has the weather turned again in Germany?! It was quite nice still only a week ago when I went for a visit! As long as you get to have a bit of sunshine every day!!! Here it is quite warm and pleasant right now.

      Heheh, I love those yarn cakes too! And it was so hard to decide which colours to choose (always more tricky online than in person, I think!)

      Your corner to corner rainbow blanket looks gorgeous!!!! :)

      Well, I'm still working on practising some stitches before I decide for sure! Last night I had a go but something went awry! I will write about it once I have sorted out all the practicalities! One thing I know already: it is going to be a big blanket!!! At least I got enough colours! :) xx

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  3. What a beautiful place to live. Some stunning yarn colours and amazing projects. I am a great fan of an afternoon tea, a tea room always has such character hope you enjoyed it.

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    1. Hello! Thanks for all your kind comments, much appreciated! I'm really looking forward to our weekend trip! Needless to say, I will take some projects along with me to keep me going! xx

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  4. Your pictures are great - it's nice to see other places. Love all your yarn and I'm sure your son is going to be so pleased with his new hat and scarf. Just to let you know - I've ordered a 3' peg loom from Jenny (you sent me the Facebook page). I can't wait for it to arrive and start using it.

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    1. Hi Gillian! Yes, I thought I must take a camera along more often, so that I can share a few places I have been to!
      Yes, I'm hoping he will be happy with his present - he pointed the yarn out when he was visiting here this summer. (Yes, he is a nice guy, he even goes to wool shops with his mum!!) ;)
      I'm so thrilled that you are going to get that peg loom!!! And also happy that you found that link useful. Initially I wasn't sure whether that shop was still going since I moved away.
      Have fun when it arrives! :) xx

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  5. Beautiful pictures!
    Fabulous creations!!!
    Hugs.:*

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  6. Dear Ingrid, I love your pictures, thanks for sharing! And your new wool - such colourful yarn brightens up your day, doesn't it? I am curious about your new blanket. As soon as you have started and taken some pictures, you will hopefully share them with us. Hugs, Viola

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    1. Thanks, Viola. I can tell you that I have started on the blanket this afternoon, after various tests! I will try to take some pictures to post tomorrow before I go! (Fingers crossed!)
      Hope your blanket is going well, too! :) xx

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  7. Your yarn looks so beautiful all ready to crochet up into a beautiful blanket. The anticipation of a new project is so thrilling.

    Love your granny squares.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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    1. Hello Meredith! Well, I ordered the yarn a little while ago (there was a good offer on!) with the idea of making a blanket. I'm sure you might know the blog of Lucy from Attic 24? If you didn't before, I am convinced that you will love it:!!
      http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/
      I had been admiring Lucy's many colourful works and I thought I would love having a colourful blanket. (Btw, Viola, in the comments above, is currently making a ripple blanket inspired by Lucy).
      However, at that time I got the yarn, I was still labouring with the baby blanket I made.
      Meanwhile, I feel now is a good time to finally get going on my blanket. And I'm looking forward to it! :) xx
      PS: Those grannies are bigger than Belgian waffles, hehehe!!

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  8. What lovely pictures Ingrid-it was like taking a little trip around your area, so lovely. The flower arrangements are so beautiful there!
    The hat and scarf are gorgeous! I am delighted to see you have some of the colourful Stylecraft yarn! You are so patient with all that winding, They look fabulous and I'm sure you will make up a gorgeous blanket!
    I do hope you will enjoy your trip to England and seeing your son. Hope there is plenty of time for tea and cake and still lots of September sunshine for you!
    Alison xx

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    1. Hi Alison! Thanks for your nice wishes and compliments!!! Oh, that winding! I thought it would never end, haha!! But I knew from experience that I would end up having regrets if I hadn't bothered to wind it, so that was my motivation to do it! Nothing is more annoying than being in the middle of crocheting and then ending up in a total mess of yarn while people on the bus are watching you, grrrr!!! Also I must say that up until this year I have generally avoided knitting with acrylic yarn. Then the big crochet wave happened to me this spring/summer and I was more open to the idea of using other yarns. I think a wool/acrylic mix such as the Bravo (for the hat and scarf) or Veritas Laura which I used for the recent ochre coloured cowls and the big granny squares here, is actually a pleasure to work with and still has that woolly squishiness that I love! And for the recipients it is easier to wash, so that is something to consider. I guess there is a yarn for every purpose... xx

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  9. I'm kind of obsessed with winding yarn, so I totally get it. My daughter is starting to show signs of the disorder too. We can spend hours at it, I wind and she helps me stack the balls in a bin. :)

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    1. Hi Jennifer! You say that as if it is a bad thing, haha!! ;)
      No, it is one of the things you feel better about for having done it, and you got some nice yarn cakes to show for it at the end! It's lovely when your daughter helps, how precious to spend the time together. One time I had my (18 year old) daughter and her friend both helping me together and we had a lot of laughs!!! I got a lot of yarn wound that afternoon! :) xx

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  10. You were exclaiming about undoing knots. Was this particular brand of yarn full of knotted joins in the skeins, or did they just knot up because of over-enthusiastic winding causing them to tangle?

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  11. Hi Jodie! Well it was more about the yarn getting tangled (which is the whole reason I try to wind it so it is easier to use). I must say so far I have been lucky that overall I have not encountered too many knots in the variety of yarn I got. I find it most annoying in the colour changing yarn, as the colour of the new strand does not match (this happend maybe on 2 occasions which is not a lot really (maybe out of 20-30 skeins). I hope you have not had any problems with knots?! xx

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