Friday 26 December 2014

A New Blanket

What a strange few days it's been. After a lovely family party last Sunday night, half the people there got struck down with what looks like Norovirus a day later, including my poor other half Ed. He spent Tuesday in bed being sick bless him. Having spent three months of my life being sick through morning sickness, and having experienced Norovirus a year ago, I had every sympathy, but couldn't help him too much as I had to keep me and little J away from the germs as much as possible - definitely wanted to avoid coming down with it on Christmas Day! He does appear to be on the mend now fortunately.

Christmas was a wonderful experience with a two year old this year - I had been buying him presents since August and imagining how he would react on the day. Ed showed him the space station moving across the sky on Christmas Eve and told him it was Father Christmas on his sleigh, and they sprinkled oats and glitter in the garden to guide the reindeer in. Then we left a mince pie, Baileys and a stick of celery for the reindeer (we had run out of carrots!). J also insisted on leaving a full bottle of lemonade from the drinks cupboard for Father Christmas - he lugged it into the living room himself and then remembered it in the morning, so Ed had to fish around in the recycling bin for an empty bottle to replace it with before we could take J downstairs.

The moment he saw all his presents was priceless, and we had a lovely morning opening them all. We have already watched the video of the moment several times since. Dinner was eaten at the inlaws - a lovely spread, but slightly subdued due to so many people recovering from Norovirus. Ed only managed half of his, poor thing! Then there was even more present opening and some festive TV for the kids.

So what have I been getting up to craft wise?

Me and Jake spent a fair bit of time recently watching films and cartoons on the sofa, wrapped up in his Stripey Blanket which I made him some time ago. This blanket has been one of the most used items I've ever made, so I decided to embark on a new one - a bigger one this time, for even more snuggling.

For this blanket, I've decided to use the Neat Ripple pattern from Lucy at Attic24 - it's so easy to follow, practically foolproof. Although I'm not an expert crocheter, I ignored advice and didn't do a practice run - I launched straight into the blanket itself, a single bed size one. I chose a range of Stylecraft shades from the local yarn shop - Parchment, Pale Rose, Grape, Mocha, Walnut and Lime. I had them laid out on the floor in the shop until I was sure I was happy with them.

The first few rows of colour have gone well, I plan on doing more rows of Parchment than the other colours, and to follow a stripe sequence as I prefer a bit of order rather than too many random stripes.

I find crocheting blankets quite relaxing as it is quite repetitive and easy and builds up far quicker than knitting. I hope I might have finished this one before the new baby arrives - that gives me 4-5 months, which is doable I think!

 

No comments:

Post a Comment