Autumn Throws (two for the price of one)

Firstly thank you for all your get well wishes.  I am feeling much better and less like a zombie.  Its not often I take to my bed and if anything it bought it home to me that I am not as young as I was and that these days although I don't seem to acquire many viruses and things when I do they completely take the wind out of my sails and I can't bounce back the way I used to. Even though I have a flu jab every year I definitely would have said this was a flu type virus. Thankfully nobody else in the house seem to pick it up.  The bearded one had a lesser version but managed to ward it off.

Now I know we're in the midst of winter but it has to be said that autumn is my favourite of all the seasons with all the smells and the colours, I just love it.  With this in mind I decided that we needed a new throw for the farmhouse ready for the colder months, which is laughable in itself as I have attempted to make several throws for the house over the years only for it to be gifted to a family member or a friend for birthdays or Christmas.  But this one I was definitely going to keep for those long winter nights. And as the furry paws kept commandeering it to sit on whilst putting it together I think they too were in total agreement that it was about time they had something comfy to snuggle on or under. 

My Forever Autumn throw, named after the beautiful Justin Haywood  song from the musical War of the Worlds, is made with Stylecraft Special DK using my favourite  3.5m size hook and there are 90 squares (6 of each colour), one for each day of autumn, using Jan Eaton's Willow Block pattern in 15 gorgeous autumnal colours.

If you fancy having a go at this one the colours I used are:-

1004 Dark Brown                                       

1027 Khaki
1029 Copper
1035 Burgundy
1054 Walnut
1064 Mocha
1065 Meadow
1081 Saffron
1123 Claret
1246 Lipstick
1709 Gold
1711 Spice
1712 Lime
1723 Tomato
1823 Mustard

You will require one of each colour except for the colour you are going to join everything together with and for that I used 1004 Dark Brown and you will require two balls of yarn for this. As always I joined all the squares together using double crochet and the border was a nice simple slip stitch for 3 rounds. The cost of the wool works out to be approximately £32 or $40.

What do you do with the leftovers from making a throw especially if there is quite a bit left?  Well I decided to make another throw of course. As the title would imply with these throws you get two for the price of one, well almost in addition to the colours listed above you  will need to buy 300g 1710 Stone and 300g 1011 Midnight to complete each square so for an additional £12 or $15 you can make a second throw.   My Autumn Mist throw, so called because as a child I loved the song Puff the magic dragon , who lived by the sea and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honahlee. Using my solid granny square I made 90 squares with  the left overs from the Forever Autumn blanket by crocheting  rounds 1-2 in the colours listed above followed by rounds 3-5 in 1710 Stone and the 6th with a final round in 1011 Midnight, so a total of 6 rounds in all.  I  joined  this one together  with 1011 Midnight in the same way as I did for Forever Autumn but this time I finished off with a picot edge, which does give it a nice cosy feel.  Both throws measure approximately 170cm x 200cm so plenty of room to snuggle under. Autumn Mist was gifted to my son and his partner for Christmas and it was lovely to see their faces when they opened it.  It is so nice when you gift something and straight away you can see how much your efforts are appreciated but I must admit I did love this one and it was hard giving it away so I think I may just have to make another one for me. Well we do have two sofa's in the lounge and therefore the two throws would complement each other wouldn't they?  Best put it on the to do list to join the queue of all the crafty projects I have planned for this year.

Anybody else already filled their calendar of craft projects for the year?

With more cold weather if not snow due keep warm and safe one & all. 

Mx

Belated happy New Year to all

Oh goodness me it seems a long time since I have visited my little blog space.  I do hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year. So here we are 2019 and what will this year have in store for us all I wonder.   Last year was not a particularly good year for us so we were rather hoping that 2019 would fare better.  Unfortunately it's not been the best start with me being laid up in bed with the flu.  Days came and went including my birthday. I can honestly say I have not felt that poorly for a very long time and I'd had the jab. So here we are the third week into the New Year already and hopefully things will only get better from now on.

Like most of us I have already been plotting and planning what craftiness I would like to get up to this year and like most of us just how much of this will actually be achievable will remain to be seen.

You know when you're truly poorly if not one stitch has stitched or one page of a book turned for over a week. When it comes to reading, not much has taken place in the last few weeks, I seemed to loose my zest for reading. I couldn't quite decide if it was the books I had picked to read or just a slump.

I was then given Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine to read, by a colleague from the office who said I wouldn't be able to put it down.  Well that wasn't quite how it went but yes I could see why everyone has been raving about this debut novel and why it has won such high praise and why it won book of the year. 

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work everyday, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.  Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled existence. Except, sometimes, everything ................  

Eleanor Oliphant  is certainly a very complex young lady who has had a lot to deal with in her 30 years and may not conform to everyone else's norm but who is to say how someone should go about their daily lives.  Life would be very boring if we were all the same. If you've not already picked up a copy to read I would recommend you do.

Fortunately it would seem that my slump or choice in books has improved. This may have been helped by one of my favourite Christmas presents this year. It was given to me by a lovely friend who is also my Yarndale buddy.  She is a demon with a sewing machine and has made me some beautiful things over the years I have known her.   This years Christmas present was a cushion with a difference.   'If I could crochet and read at the same time my life would be perfect'.  Well that's about the strength of it for anyone else who enjoys both reading and hooking or any sort of crafting that requires your full attention really.  It has been suggested that I could go for audio books but I don't think they would hold  my attention the same way as a good book to hold does.  Now the best part about my cushion is that it has this little pouch at the front where you can store your book or kindle maybe the odd ball of wool and a hook and possibly even hide the odd bar of chocolate so no one else will find it and what you can also see peeping out of the top were Christmas presents from the bearded one.  He had asked me what I would like and as I hadn't yet purchased the next two novels by Amanda Prowse I asked if he would get me a copy of Anna and Theo. I have heard great things about these novels and  I have long been a fan of Ms Prowse writing skills.  Some of her novels are better than others but having started Anna this weekend I can tell you I am already three quarters of the way through and not been disappointed in it. Theo is the sequel to Anna and  both books are described as being the two sides of a love story. You know things are not going to run smoothly for this couple but you just hope that some how they will work things out. There is another book to this trilogy titled How to fall in love again - Kitty's Story but from reading the blurb on the back this is someway into the future when Kitty meets up with her old flame Theo in their twilight years.  There aren't any spoilers at this point as there is no mention as to what has happened between Anna and Theo but I get the impression that a lot of tissues as well as a plentiful supply  of chocolate may well be required whilst reading these three.

Now for anyone who knows the bearded one and I as a couple they will tell you we are polls apart when it comes to our likes and dislikes but just occasionally we will end up buying each other the same gift.  Twenty years ago it was almost identical valentines gifts,  this year it was Noel Fitzpatrick Being the Supervet which we had both bought with the intention that when the other one had finished reading it we would then read it too. As I had bought him several books and he didn't have a burning desire for another one so it was decided that I would swap my copy and as Kate Morton, another one of my favourite authors, has a new novel out it was really a no brainer and so Noel was swiftly swapped for The clockmaker's Daughter which at 592 pages will keep me busy for a while, in fact I may just have enough books to get this little dormouse through her winter slumbers and into Spring.

Mx