Crochet a little happiness: Granny squares for blanket

red and orange granny square

As you may recall, I have been asked to crochet a blanket for a wheelchair user.  I decided that the quickest and easiest way of completing such a big task would be to make several granny squares and stitch them together afterwards.

I am using the same colours I used in the rainbow poncho for Elise (that was the request).  I have got a comprehensive guide for which colours are going to be used, but no firm decisions as to how I am going to arrange them all yet.

red and white granny square

I was thinking about starting with red in the middle, then doing squares with all the colours of the rainbow, then joining them together and doing a red border around those squares, then doing the same thing through all the other colours.  This would mean for every 6 squares I made they would be formed into a mini-blanket which would then eventually be made up into one full size blanket.

This idea is good in theory, excpet I would be left with all the colours of the rainbow with white, and I wouldn’t have the one central colour to join them all together.  So will need to think about this little dilema.  There’s plenty of time to think about it though, as got a lot more squares to make yet.

A Rainbow of Things to do with your Children

Rainbow reminder of things to do with your children

Red:  Reading – anything and everything

Orange: Origami or other paper crafts

Yellow: Yawn – get active together, sports, exercise

Green: Great outdoors exploring – enjoy nature

Blue:  Blow bubbles or other water play 

Indigo: Independence skills – cooking, baking, washing (anything that promotes their independence)  

Violet: Vision games (I Spy with my little eye something beginning with… or describing what you can see and getting them to guess what the object is)

There are 7 colours and 7 days of the week -why not choose a colour a day and have a rainbow week 🙂

30 Things About Me:

https://jdaviesx.wordpress.com/about/30-things-about-me/

This was a Twitter trend and I decided to write this up on a page instead of writing it all in a blog entry

Crochet a little happiness (3): Rainbow poncho

Wearing the rainbow

Elise proudly wearing the rainbow poncho I finished today. This is the only smile she has given today as she is not feeling well; she has a nasty cough that sounds like it could be an asthmatic cough, she sounds exactly like her brother Martyn did when he was her age.

 

Anyway, Elise and I took a trip to our local craft shop on Tuesday and she loved the chance to look at all the wool. She was so excited to be able to choose the colours (although we did have a disagreement about whether pink was in the rainbow or not).

 

Normally when we go into shops I ask her what the rules are, and she’ll reply “don’t touch and don’t run off” well on this trip she was allowed to touch, after all she had to know how soft it would be as she would be wearing the finished product – she was so excited!

 

I’m not too happy with the shade of orange, it seems a bit too yellow, and the yellow isn’t particularly bright, but on reflection I think it looks ok – and she’s happy so that’s all that matters. I have loads of the wool left, so the next task is a big rainbow blanket. I don’t know whether I am going to do a big ‘granny square’ or if I’ll do it as a circle, I guess I won’t know that until she tells me what she wants.

 

Unfortunately I am running out of time to crochet things nows, the next module of my law degree starts on the 4th February, so will soon have my head back in the books. It will be good to study again, but I’m going to miss the creativeness and happiness-giving crochet time.

 

I have been keeping a note of some Twitter trends that I particularly like and when I have some more time to concentrate, without having ‘tired-mummy-brain’ I will update my blog with them. I will also get on with the book reviews (when I can remember what the books were about) and I’m feeling fresher and more able to concentrate. I haven’t forgotten.

 

Anyway, I am going to wish everyone a good night and try to get some sleep before the coughing wakes Elise up again – it’s been a rough few days/nights! We have a follow-up appointment with our family doctor a week tomorrow so hopefully we shall get some answers and a plan for managing her coughing.

Crochet a little happiness (2)

I caught Elise with the wet wipes, a pull-up and her doll laying on a cushion.  Apparently the doll need it’s nappy changing!!  Not having much of this wool left, I asked her if she would like a bag and some ‘wet wipes’ she was really eager, so out came the hooks!

Ok so I know granny squares have holes in them but they are so quick to make up, (and we are only pretending here) so Elise now has a pile of wet wipes and this little bag to keep them in.

Her doll’s have stayed fresh and I’m not picking wet wipes off the floor to throw them away – smiles all round 🙂

The only thing I have to do now is some triangular ‘nappies’ as her brothers’ just couldn’t keep their mouths shut!

Crochet a little happiness

Elise’s wonderful and caring eldest brother, Ryan, bought this doll for her at his school fayre, unfortunately it didn’t have any clothes to wear.  For about a year this doll has been able to wear Elise’s baby clothes, however, although the clothes fitted the doll in the length, they were too big for it.  Elise got annoyed that they kept falling off.

After seeing me crochet some little bits for a friend’s baby, and after doing some hats for Elise, she asked if I could make her doll something.

We went off to the shops and I let her choose which wool she would like, and I set about creating these trousers and top for her doll.  Elise is over the moon at her doll’s clothes and is busy telling me her list of what she wants next.  Guess the crochet hooks won’t be going away for some time.

Something so quick, easy and cheap and yet the ‘payment’ or reward of having a happy smiling child is worth more than all the money in the world.

(Elise doesn’t look particularly happy in this picture, she had just finished dinner and didn’t want to pose for a picture, being more eager to get off and play)

Time with my youngest

Whilst the boys were at school, I spent a lovely morning with my 2.5 year old daughter, Elise, in the garden.  It was pretty cold, but the fresh air did her the world of good.  We got the pastels out and drew all over the concrete.

She asked me to draw a rainbow, and then asked questions about why there had to be a sun and a cloud with rain.

“You can’t have a rainbow without the rain” – Dolly Parton

Whilst carrying the box of pastels back up to the house, Elise dropped them (independence of a 2.5 year old :s), and they shattered.  (Yes I really should have been using harder chalk) Between us we picked up as many as we could, but most were in tiny pieces that couldn’t be saved.  Rather than dwelling on what had broken, we turned it into a fun extra piece of art work.  Stamping, shuffling and riding over the little bits with her scooter, we created a ‘firework display’ to be proud of.