MOONSTITCHES

62, foldable...

... starting to feel like a real blanket to be...

 

Supposed to be after 41 more hexagons but... maybe... stopping then just might be a bit early... but that, you know, is an issue I have to deal with everyday... just one more, just one...

Let me repeat: Don't start crocheting in the first place, it might be producing a pretty blanket which even now, in this early state of blanket-ness makes me sometimes hold on and do something similar like Sarah is doing here at exactly 3:43  - no kidding, this growing thing is pure bliss -  but it is starting to dawn on me that in the end this very blanket will have to take on the burden of leaving me in total isolation because I simply can't make myself choosing writing to you over doing just one more... this afghan has got to be damn good in comforting me when I know no one else but my good old #5 hook and that ever so soft Hamanaka merino yarn...

This sounds like I am joking about this whole addicted to crocheting matter... which I am, joking I mean... (actually both that is) because basically there is no serious stuff to be read on MOONSTITCHES so I have to keep this topic on the light hearted side... but I must say I should be happy crochet is my chosen drug... could be worse.

Besides these a bit mixed feelings about the whole hexagon project  let me THANK YOU so, so much for all your granny love. Your nice and incentive comments have been immensely motivating and helped me a lot to embrace the cerebral emptiness of that mechanically crocheting entity I have become.

Hope (!) we still know each other when the hook is eventually put down, some day.

Katrin, I am beginning to share your feelings about loose ends... 496 of those appear to have some effect even on me...

Take care!

happiness in emptiness (?)

Finally.
Empty. I did wash everything.
Most pleasing.

Now I officially may have some fun with my hooks... crocheting hexagon grannies for a little blanket.

For some time I thought I was through with granny blankets... making my apron (instead of a blanket) last year was pretty healing and I thought that was it. Well, time went on, granny mania broke out, me, sheep, went weak, wanted to have a blanket again... could suppress this urge for a while but was caught by surprise while watching Nanny McPhee with Dagny a couple of weeks ago... *gosh* those quilts and especially the granny square blanket!!! Has anybody seen them? They are fabulous. Especially those granny squares... I said that.

So this is how I came to eventually work on a granny square blanket. Kind of... it's hexagons, wanted to try something new.
I am following a pattern from this book, though I do not aim for my finished piece to resemble the one from the book in any way since I am using much more colour in order to deplete my stash and hopefully end up with something at least a little Nanny McPhee-ish.

It's pretty sure the blanket will look overly colourful which partly is due to grouping colours like these and declaring them as lime green in terms of the pattern. Or those which shall be coral orange in the course of the pattern. I did so because I really did not want to buy much yarn in addition to that I already had . About 200g more wool was needed but my stash already consisted of twice as much different colours than the blanket's pattern asked for... so I came up with these  groups of colours. Sticking to the colour scheme of the pattern grants I will not run out of contrasting yarn half way through, which is a fairly good prospect.

One thing I just love about this blanket: The blocks are crocheted together while they are made - this way in the end there are only a gazillion of loose ends to be woven in (no sewing!) and that's something I don't mind.

And speaking of mind... this project feels a bit dull. The only challenge that it is offering me is to keep track of the different lime greens and oranges to alternate them evenly... after 31 blocks I made during the last seven days I feel like a crochet machine... hm, might be actual challenge... overcoming the discomforting cerebral emptiness of a mechanically crocheting entity...

Maybe I should pull the plug and do something else. Or head for the girls over at the Granny Along... they might feel just the same ;-)

Hope you all have a good week!

Edit: I have added new pictures of all 31 blocks here!

Call from the Kitchen Sink, another one...

... or: What was first, hen or egg?

Doing the never ending dish washing this week I was just thinking about  a title for my next post  and the phrase "Call from the Kitchen Sink" came to my mind... stop, haven't we been there before? And might I just have found the explanation why there is too little time for too many dirty dishes to be washed because of crocheting? Do I after all when things get busy here not squeeze in crocheting (for reasons of compensation) whenever there's a small window of time but have the habit of making windows for crocheting, rather great ones, and neglect anything else because crocheting is so much more fun than doing my work in the kitchen?!

If you haven't touched it yet, don't. Let that damn crochet hook ruin somebody else's beautiful home. Once the crocheting began  the rest is going down. Believe me.

I have been working on a new doily,  jumping on the granny blanket  wagon (photos of my first blocks wouldn't go with the purple colour scheme of this post, so no pictures of that project today) and making these four coasters, celebrating hydrangea which is, together with shobu, currently making Japan looking particularly beautiful.

By the way, the Japanese name for hydrangea is ajisai... so happy my sewing machine is knowing that, too ;-)

And, besides being addicted to crocheting and turning MOONSTITCHES into the boring crochet blog (no offence in case you have one, too, but I just was being told by a friend there had been more exciting times here around), I actually was busy with all sorts of things and one day I was even a little sick.

Oh well, I am now fully obsessed with the idea of knitting myself a beautiful lace shawl (just the right thing for a Japanese summer...), already decided on the Heartland Lace Shawl, have the charted pattern here but absolutely no clue of how to begin... but there are about a hundred blocks for my blanket to be made first... focus!

Take care!

Wallflower #3

This doily held a pretty impressing surprise for me.

When I finished it around Thursday one week ago I blocked it, right away in the middle of the night (night owl, nightiest night owl ever, did I ever mention that?)... the blocking took me longer (awful lot of pins needed, AWFUL lot!) than I expected and so I was happy once it was done... even I like to go to bed some time...

I then discovered a major mistake I had been making in the third from last round... quite an amount of stitches before pulling the thread through the final loop... and with not even the slightest doubt or hesitation I removed all pins and ripped three days of crocheting. Without any anger or discontent. And then I went to bed, all square, knowing tomorrow will be another day.

Either I am getting really old and sapless here (normally I use to be quite short-tempered) or making doilies has indeed some amazingly soothing effect on me... in that case I should stay on this trail...

The pattern is from that vintage German craft book again. This photo wasn't too appealing to me, the satin cushions look terribly tacky in their loud coloured shininess, but some of the featured patterns seem to be rather pretty. The finished doily is about 32 cm in diameter and four stitches away from the proper amount of stitches. Having crocheted the last round three times because I kept catching mistakes I declared it as sufficiently done at some point. After the blocking the mistakes aren't  too obvious and I am fine with that.

Since I became interested in crocheting lace I discovered overwhelmingly beautiful books here in the local book stores, you all know how pretty Japanese craft books are, but I was brave and took none of them home with me. Making lace seems to be very popular in Japan, I figured and in fact I found some patterns in my old craft books as well. And then I only made two doilies from my Burda Handarbeitsbuch...

Here are more, larger photos of the doily, this one is my favourite.

Once I read about MOONSTITCHES being a crochet blog... well, I wouldn't go so far, but given all that crocheting since I first conquered a crochet flower last year (always grateful for your fabulous instruction, Katrin!) I think I officially may call myself a crocheter now and according to that created a new set over at Flickr (... and she never touched a hook again... well, we'll see what is coming next!).

Hope you all have a nice day!

seven random fabrics

... and seven random facts about me.

Jessica, rani and Janet Clare have been tagging me some time ago and I will try to finally set an end to that muteness I have been suffering from lately, break the silence and get back to posting here on MOONSTITCHES.

I do love my brown corduroys... barely wearing any other pants, even in the midst of hot and humid summers.

The boy who kissed me first was called Thomas. We were in second grade and according to that it was a quite brief second grade on the lips kiss.

I love Scottish English.

I never read Harry Potter (or saw a movie).

I will always remember listening to John Peel's show on BFBS late at night (although I had to go to school next morning) and am thankful that he has been there to introduce me to all that weird and lovely music from all over the world. Sad he had to go so soon. Listen to Peeling Back the Years here.

As a child I watched a strange movie that kept on haunting me forever. Only some time ago I found out about the movie's title and thought watching the scene which scared me most (wish I could find a clip with the original audio!) would help me getting over  it but honestly, I now not only have a clearer picture of those frightening images, I do fear them even more.

Almost every weekend  for about  1 1/2  years we  are having lunch at a Chinese restaurant and  I almost always have been eating  one and the same dish. I also watch movies countless times and read the same books over and over. I guess it has something to do with creating situations of being at home...

Have a good day!