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.

Update

The second year of my law degree officially starts in 2 days time (ok technically it starts tomorrow seeing as it is past midnight).  I have been busy preparing for the course to start and checking that all the forums, software and databases are working.

I have also been asked to crochet a blanket for a wheelchair user (in the same colours as the rainbow poncho)  I’ve been inspired by ChrissyFresh: A Granny A Day Project and have decided that I am going to crochet enough granny squares to make this blanket – I have a plan and know exactly what colours I’m using for each square, I just have to find the time to get the hooks out.  I currently have 3 squares for the blanket (pics up soon) and I am also doing a rainbow blanket for Elise.

My eldest son, Ryan, has been unwell this week, I received a phone call from his school on Monday morning and I had to pick him up.  We got half way home and he decided he was going to vomit all over the inside of my car and down the windows too as he tried to get his head out the window – poor kid was so upset and kept apologising to me because he had made a mess.

In between being a ‘nurse’ to Ryan I have been taking in an engagement party dress – I have been horrified at the construction of this dress and, although it does look absolutely beautiful from the outside, the stitching quality and fabric placement has been just awful.  I did a fitting tonight after band practise and just need to do a couple of minor adjustments for a final fitting on Sunday, which should also be the time I hand it back and think myself lucky I won’t have to see it again (here’s hoping).

Talking of band practise, the little girl I’m teaching to play cornet is making me so proud, and is now on a planned introduction to the band rehearsal, she should hopefully be playing out with them in 5 weeks time when the band is next responsible for providing the music in our morning Church service.

I will hopefully get the book reviews out the way tomorrow (or should that be later today?) I haven’t slept yet so it’s still today (Thursday).  Will have to arm myself with Twitter and my Kindle so I can refresh my mind on the books and get the reviews done.  I honestly haven’t forgotten that I have a back-log, it’s just someone has hidden the life-remote-control and life is currently running on fast-forward.  I wish someone would return the life-remote-control so I can press pause for a few minutes and get some peace.

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 🙂

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.

Promises

Thursday 19th January 2012:  The view from outside my kitchen door.

“When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and I will remember the agreement that continues for ever between me and every living thing  on the earth.”  Genesis 9 v 16

This got me thinking; God isn’t the only person to make promises, and this is by no means the only promise God has ever made to us.  However, it really got me thinking about the promises I have made, and I’m going to take this as a sign to revisit every promise I have made and see if I have kept them – if I haven’t?  Well, I’ll need to make my own sign to remind myself.

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.