I Love You Sophie!

I have designated this month, the month I finish off all my outstanding works-in-progress.  There weren't that many, but I have a number of new projects I'm itching to start and I know that if I cast on for them I will start to feel somewhat overwhelmed.

I'm making excellent progress.  I have the carrot of new projects dangling in front of me, urging me on.  I'll show you what I've completed over the course of the next few posts, but rather than saving the best 'til last, I'm going with my favourite first.

The Sophie's Universe crochet-along has now sadly finished.  I have loved every minute of the journey making this blanket.  After many weeks of interesting and addictive crochet, here is the finished blanket.

Isn't she a beauty?

I started out with no definite plans for colours.  I just wanted to use up as much of my stash of acrylic double knitting weight yarn as I possibly could.  By the time I got to the end of the blanket I was running short of colours that would make it the whole way round the border.  There was no way I could do the bobble flowers in the border rows (there are 300 of them!) in one colour, so rather than start a completely new colour, I use up the odds and ends and made the bobble flowers in random colours all the way round.

I think this fits in with the general random-ness of the blanket.

You can see details of this project on my Ravelry page, here.

There are a couple of new mystery crochet-alongs starting up in the next few months that I've signed up for, but I can't believe they will be able to beat the Sophie's Universe CAL for pure pleasure.  I may just have to start another one!

Just Lovely

Thank you so much for the lovely comments I received about my last blog post.  It is wonderful to read such supportive words.

I had a beautiful day on Friday.  The celebrations were low-key but it was more about taking time to ponder and relax.

The first thing I did was wander down to the beach, take off my sandals and enjoy the feel of the (not very warm) sand on my feet.

The sea is full of little jellyfish at the moment but I had a little paddle, the first this year but hopefully not the last.

It was seven thirty in the morning and I had the beach to myself, apart from the ever-present iron men statues.

Someone had put a dress on this one (number 37), and added a seaweed wig.

All of the 100 statues have a numbered bracelet.

Back at home, I baked a cake and then put my feet up to enjoy a day of quiet reflection and knitting.

As I said, it was low-key but very enjoyable.

Life continues, there's always something to be done, but it was good to pause a while, be grateful for what I have and just enjoy being me.

Today I Am...

...celebrating.

It's not a birthday or a recognizable anniversary, but today, for me, this day is significant.

We tend to define ourselves in relation to others, I am a wife and a mother.  I don't have an outside job, so I can't define myself in terms of an occupation - and I hate the term "housewife".  In using these definitions, it is all too easy to forget to look at who we really are.

I'm 54 years old, and today it is exactly twelve months since my last period.  According to the medical professionals, I have now been through the menopause.

I am a post-menopausal woman.

It hasn't been easy, I have good days and some bad days.  I recognize that this is a time of transition and change and I try to embrace this.  I am also aware that, just because I have passed the twelve months milestone, it doesn't mean that things will settle down yet.  I'm still having hot flushes, anxiety attacks and weepy sessions (Damn those hormones).

But today, I want to celebrate this.  I want to celebrate being a woman.  I'm changing, blossoming and looking forward to a long and happy post-menopausal life.

So I'm off to bake a cake, then put my feet up and knit.  I think I've earned the right to make time to look after myself.

Wherever you are and what ever you are doing, I hope you get a chance to celebrate your own womanhood and take good care of yourselves.

A Pretty Package Tied Up With Lace

Oh look!  An exciting package arrived in the post for me today.  Beautifully wrapped up with some lace.

I am the lucky winner of the Giveaway organised by Lorraine from Mama's Mercantile.  I love reading about her crafts, her family, her garden and her car boot treasures on her blog.  And here are the lovely goodies I have received.

Look at these beautiful buttons.  Such gorgeous colours.  And all beautifully presented.

I only have a small collection of buttons, so these will be a welcome addition.

I also received this cute needle-case made from lovely Harris Tweed.

And these greeting cards, also decorated with Harris Tweed.

It's a lovely feeling to win something.  It makes me feel special.  So thank you to Lorraine for organising her giveaway, it has made a lovely highlight to my week.

June Squares

Another Month, another set of crochet squares as part of the Block-a-month crochet-a-long.
 

The main square this month was this one.

It's called Rachel's block and it was a very enjoyable piece to crochet.  The colours are not as purple as the picture would suggest.

The small square was not to my liking this month, so I substituted this one instead.

It's called Daisy Granny Square.  A nice easy but very pretty square.  As usual I made four of these to be the equivalent size of the bigger squares.

Finally, my favourite one this month.  This is the filler square that won the votes this month.

Isn't it a beautifully designed square?  It's called Fountain of Roses.  It really was a delight to make this one.  It's just so pretty.

As usual all the patterns are free on Ravelry.

I now have the equivalent of 18 large squares.  If I continue for the whole year, I will have 36 squares which would make a very large blanket (each square is 10 inches wide).  So I may only carry on for a few more months.  We'll see how it goes.  For now that's another completed work-in-progress ticked off for this month.  I'm definitely on a roll.

Rosie Posie Granny Bag - Finished

I'm hoping that June will be a month that sees me catching up with all my works-in-progress.  I've got a provisional timetable to help me get things completed. Which I think is not too unrealistic.  So it was with a great sense of satisfaction that I was able to tick the first one off the list this afternoon.

Here is my lovely, bright and beautiful Rosie Posie Granny Bag.

The motif, of which I made 44, is the Rosie Posie Grannie Square by Sandra Paul of the Cherry Heart blog.

I originally started this project back in March.  All keen and excited but I never got much further than the 7 squares I had originally done.  The project has been lying around for ages, with the occasional square completed.  When we visited Grace, last weekend, I wanted a portable crochet project to take with me, so picked up this one.  And do you know, I was amazed at how quickly I completed the remaining squares over the course of that weekend.  I left Grace's with only four squares to complete.

This week I have joined them all and crocheted a small stripey border along the top of the bag.

For the lining I have copied the idea I saw on Daffy Suburbia's blog, The Suburban Daffodil, for using a bought bag as the lining.  I bought a cheap cotton tote bag from Primark with a lovely flower print on it.

I already had handles I wanted to use, bought years and years ago but still lying around waiting to be employed.  I turned the Primark bag inside out and used the original handles from the bag as loops to attach the new handles.

I'm very pleased with this project.  It'll be great to use in the summer for days out.  And it would also make an excellent yarn-holding bag!

One project ticked off the list, several more to go!  Have a good weekend.

Some Ends

The beginning of a new month is always a fun time because I get to cast on for a new pair of socks and crochet up the latest square patterns in the Block-a-month CAL.  I'm also conscious that I have a significant number of works-in-progress and I need to stay on top of things otherwise it can get a bit overwhelming.

So, whilst starting something new is exciting, it's also good to be able to say that I've got some finished objects.

First of all, there's the Funky Grandpa cardigan that I've enjoyed knitting.

It only took two and a half weeks to make, despite being 4 ply weight yarn.

I love the colourful stripes that the pink variegated yarn creates.

The cardigan was a top-down knit but was basically the reverse of how I would normally knit a cardigan.  If I was doing this pattern again (which is a distinct possibility)  I'd knit it bottom-up instead.  The stitches for the sleeves were supposed to be picked up around the armhole and then knitted top-down.  I don't like this method, so I knitted mine bottom-up instead, which allowed me to shape the sleeve head better.  Full details of this project on Ravelry, here.

It's a very comfortable cardigan, just perfect to wear with jeans (I'm more of a skirts and dresses girl, so this is a nice change for me).

Last weekend we stayed over in Sheffield with Grace.  I needed a portable project to work on over the weekend, so I cast on for some fingerless mittens.

The yarn is a gorgeous soft alpaca that Grace had given me.  The colour is a lovely deep purple.

The pattern is called Susie Rogers' Reading Mitts and is a free Ravelry download.  You can see full details of this project on my Ravelry page, here.  A perfect weekend project.

Now I'm back to the socks and the squares, and I still have my (now very enormous) Sophie's Universe blanket to finish off.  Bye for now.

Beginnings...

A new crochet project just started...

One of life's little treats.

(There are some ends as well as beginnings, I just haven't got around to photographing them yet!)