Granny Triangle Shawl

This is my new shawl. It's a granny triangle mainly in dark green with
stripes of soft yellow, blue, beige, pink, white and green colours.

The dark green yarn are Rowan merino wool and cotton mix that I picked for our

wedding anniversary this year. We celebrated our seventh last August and wool is

supposedly the traditional gift for this anniversary year. To make it easier for my

husband I said I'd be happy to receive some nice new yarn and to help him further,

I chose the yarn and colour myself. I'm not one for big, flashy presents and neither

is my other half, so this suited us perfectly. But I really was pleased and excited.

I wanted to create with my new yarn something that's a lovely reminder of the day

 that was also useful and not just decorative. This shawl, I feel, fits the bill just right.

My Rowan wool were not enough, though. Once again, my stash of leftover
yarn came in handy, adding colour as well as size to my shawl.

And it is a good size. The base is about 63 inches wide and wraps around my
shoulders easily. All that merino yarn makes it cosy and snuggly and it's wonderful
to wear on cold days like today. The granny triangle is a simple pattern and I made
progress quickly, finishing it off with a row of double crochet stitches. It's a treat
to have and in my book, a really brilliant present.

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend. We're off for a walk soon and I'll be
making more of my orangey chocolate cookies when we get back. Then the
Strictly results show after dinner, and Planet Earth II. My kind of Sunday.

See you soon!

Honeycomb Lace Shawl (part two)

Hello. I hope you're all having a great weekend. I'm back here
 today with another finished project to show you: my second
Honeycomb Lace Shawl. I made my first one  back in spring and
I loved it so much I decided to make another one. But this is not for
me though. It's for a lovely lady who's been very kind to our family
and we'd like to give this to her to say thanks.

 I worked on this throughout the summer holidays, finishing the last
rows this week. I really hope she'll like it. I've made it extra special
 by using Drops Cotton Merino wool. It's the softest yarn and the
 nicest to work with and I've really enjoyed crocheting with it. I've also
 made this shawl much wider than mine with 264 foundation chains instead of the original 222. Hopefully it will be lovely to wrap round
the shoulders and it will feel nice and warm for her to wear on
very cold days. The pattern is from issue 65 of Inside Crochet and
 I used five and a half of 50gram balls of yarn for the whole project.

I'll be back soon with our latest baking (mis)adventures, and
maybe even with another finished crochet project - I'm hooking
a rug!  Enjoy your Sunday!

Not just yet

Here we are on the last day of the summer holidays. I couldn't
quite believe that the entire six weeks of the holidays have gone
already and tomorrow Markie will be back at school and it wil be the
start of a new school year. On Monday Lulu will start nursery, an
entirely new experience both for her and for me. There are so many changes and so many things to learn and adjust to again. I don't
 feel I'm ready to face them yet. The girls are excited but I'd quite
 happily have a few more weeks of these quiet, easy days at home
 that I've enjoyed so much these past six weeks. And if summer
can stay around for a bit longer, I'd take that as well. I'm no fan of
 busy days and colder months as you can probably tell. But ready
or not, school will start and Autumn will come *sigh* I just need
to get my head round it all and I'm sure that will come soon.
For now, I'll try and enjoy this last day for as long as I can. I had
a lie-in this morning and then after a late breakfast, took the girls
to our favourite tea room and then the playground. This afternoon
we're at home just taking it easy. The girls are watching Despicable
Me. I might read a bit or crochet.

I've been thinking of how good this summer has been. It's
 probably part of the reason why I'm reluctant to let it go just yet.
 Plus, of course, there's Lulu, our baby, going off to nursery.
 I know it's only for two days a week but it will still be quite a change
 for both of us.  She'll love it, I'm sure, and I'll finally have time
 on my own to spend as I please. As a lovely old lady said on the
 bus today 'The world will be your oyster'. And it will be,
 between 9 and 3 on Mondays and Fridays. It's actually all going
to be good. It doesn't feel quite that way at the moment but
I'm sure it will be. And we might still have an Indian Summer,
after all. That's a nice thing to hope for- I'll be keeping my
 fingers crossed.

Honeycomb Lace Shawl

Hello. I hope you're having a lovely day. I have a finished project
to share with you today: my crocheted shawl. It was actually finished a couple of weeks ago but it was only yesterday that I got around to taking photos of it.

This shawl is designed by Sally Shepherd and is in issue 65 of
Inside Crochet. I started off with another pattern that I found online
 but halfway through the project I decided I wasn't happy with it and
unravelled my work. I was looking round this website and saw the
Honeycomb Lace Shawl. I thought I'll give it a go and I'm very glad
 that I did!

The pattern, which is a repetition of three rows with decreases as you
go along, is simple and easy to follow. I really like the lace-like design
it creates. Simple but very effective.

This really is a shawl for summer but because I used a slightly heavier yarn (Drop Merino Extra Fine in pistachio) than the recommended
cotton, it feels heavier and cosier which was what I wanted. I want
to wear this all year long and I think I'll be able to.

If there's one thing I'd like to change, I think I'd like it to be a few inches

wider. The base is about 50 inches wide, wide enough to wrap around

the shoulders comfortably but if I'll make another shawl- and I'm 

planning to- I'd want it to be even bigger and wider so it's even more
snugly and cosier. That's in my to-make list now, but first I have

teachers' presents to make.

And if you're wondering, I used five 50gram balls of yarn for this shawl.
It's been a great pleasure to make and fun too.

Thanks for stopping here. Enjoy your week whatever you're up to.
See you soon!