All the crafting

Hello! Thanks for your tips and advice on housework. I am going to do a proper round up type post soon, because it's one of those funny subjects which seems really dull at first glance but which people (myself included) quite like talking about and especially finding out how other households tick and make it work. Thanks to those who recommended the TOMM method. I am familiar with it and have had a good look at her website and videos, and like a lot of what I see, although having said all that I don't know if it's for us as a family and household. 

It's suddenly turned a lot cooler here and there are WIPs everywhere, and I know that the seasons are definitely turning as I plan more and more projects for the colder months. But, if I'm honest, I'm just not feeling it. I'm too tired, too busy, too distracted. Between the new job and new routine and the chaos that is the downstairs of our house, I am not feeling remotely inspired. Please don't tell me that all crafting will stop until October half term, I will definitely go mad. Some nights even the thought of getting out my crochet basket is too exhausting to think about but, like exercise, I always feel better afterwards. My malaise is not helped by the fact that I spent all day yesterday sewing the Merchant and Mills Camber dress and while 90% of it is good, better than good actually, the darts around the bust are all wrong and I feel like screwing it up in a ball and throwing it into the spare room until I am calm enough to sort it out. 

Anyway. Moving on.

I don't know if I ever showed you a photo of this blanket I made for my friend and colleague Donna, who left us to move to New Zealand. She asked for grey and heather tones, and it was a pleasure to make something in colours that I wouldn't usually choose. Actually, this is the kind of project I feel like working on at the moment; something solid, cosy, easy. No decisions to make. 

For those who might like to know details, I used the standard ripple pattern in treble crochet and it measures 90 x 120 cm. The Yarn is Drops Eskimo (five balls of white #01, four of grey #53, four of dark grey #14, four of camel #13 and four of heather #65) and an 8mm hook. Using such chunky yarn, I discovered that it is - just - possible to crochet two colleagues blankets in three weeks right at the end of the summer term, but I wouldn't advise doing so in a heatwave.

The hexagons are growing nicely. I reckon I've done about a hundred and twenty by now, although nothing since the holidays.

I usually cut out three sheets of 3 inch hexagon templates at a time, and then choose the fabric and cut pieces roughly to size using a 4 inch hexagon. I try to cut my paper hexagon templates as carefully as possible, as the lady in the yarn shop said the accuracy was really important when sewing them all together. Then I hand baste in batches of ten or so, and iron them flat whenever I happen to have the ironing board out. I know that I will never use up all my fabric scraps with this quilt so I am prioritising the ones I like best, like the Liberty print and the Nani Iro, and choosing the colours and patterns which I really love. I want a lot of white in this quilt too to offset all that colour and pattern, so I am using plain white cotton for quite a lot of the hexies too. Those ones are really boring to make.

I started a new blanket on holiday. I found myself with a lot of aran weight cotton yarn (Drops Paris) left over from a project earlier in the year, a baby blanket for which I kept ordering pink yarn until I found the right shade, but couldn't face returning all the yarn. I have a very distinct picture in my head of how this blanket is going to look and I have to trust myself here as I don't have a pattern and it's join as you go, so no chance to lay out all those squares of colour before crocheting or sewing them together.

My squares are all on the diagonal, and there will be waves of colour that gradually move through the grid but not in a rainbow way, much more random than that. I know this corner is very pink but that's because that's all I had on holiday. The subsequent two rows are much more grey, white and beige, and I have all these colours here too:

I can't really tell how this blanket is going to turn out and go through phases of loving it and hating it. 

I also have plans to make this jumper, in time for the cooler weather hopefully. 

The pattern is from here and I decided to make it in the colour featured as I don't have anything in this rusty orange colour, and it seemed perfectly autumnal.

I bought this book from Foyles in London during the holidays and am now determined to get out the as-yet-unused loom I bought about a year ago. 

Part of the appeal is that is seems the perfect way to use up odd amounts of yarn which have long since lost their labels, and I am planning a small wall hanging for our hallway, when it is ever finished. October maybe?

In the meantime I am very inspired by the designs in the book and have lots of ideas about the colours I want. 

This is the autumn I finally get to grips with weaving! Oh, and juggling work and family life, sorting out the living room and hall (John is laying the flooring this weekend), working on all my WIPs, remembering to feed the children and dog, not fall asleep on the sofa every night at 9pm....not much then.