Scrappy Rainbow Ripple!

I started this back in February. Do you remember? At last! It's finished! Done! Complete! As I got near the finish line I encountered a few tiny issues. One was straightening the ripple top & bottom and the other was the border. I ran out of yarn! I honestly didn't expect that to happen seeing as how it's meant to be a ripple from 'scraps' but somehow even scrap projects always seem to result in the purchase of more yarn!

I honestly didn't know how this would turn out. I always keep stocked up on all Stylecraft Special DK yarn so I had a great selection of colours available. There were a lot of leftovers from previous projects but this was also about using colours I'd never tried before.

There were only 3 or 4 colours that I'd never used. Pale Rose, Pomegranate, Denim and Raspberry (I've used it once but never liked it). All the others are frequently in my stash. I also went for a different & maybe slightly unusual colour sequence and because of the inter-locking it worked. The border is pretty basic but it works nicely. I used a 3.5mm hook because I wanted the stitches to be tighter and my tension tends to be very loose.

Moe (who has had his eye on it since I started the ripple) didn't take long to claim it! He's very happy with his blanket. As mentioned in my previous post, he has been a little unwell and this week he's had a bit of a cold so the blanket has brought him a lot of comfort. He loves to snuggle into any/all of the crochet blankets (we have at least 8 out in various places regularly).

He wasn't overly happy about sharing it with Tabby (who has also had his eye on it)! There was a bit of a slapping match. Even though there are so many blankets in the house, a recently finished one is always the most popular. Even his brother, Vinnie, has tried the blanket out a few times!

We were so lucky to have a beautiful sunny day when I photographed the blanket. The sun added so much warmth to every photo which made me so happy. It's not a very big blanket. It's about 1.7m long and 1m wide but it's perfect for it's new home.

And here it is, in it's new home! It really adds so much colour, warmth & happiness to the lounge and to the chair that it will be covering. My rainbow granny square is on the sofa opposite it & together I know they'll bring me so much joy in winter! I've not listed all the colours I used but if anyone would like me to just let me know. ☺

Hope you've enjoyed my colourful post! I'll be posting my regular, weekly blog post tomorrow so hopefully I'll see you back here then!

Thank you for reading!
♥

*The pattern I used for my scrappy rainbow ripple can be found on the lovely Attic24 blog.

Life, always keeping us on our toes!

This little boy hasn't been very well this week. Yes, poor Moe had a (very expensive but he's worth it) trip to the vets on Tuesday. He gave us a rather nasty fright when we woke up and so our morning started with a mad panic. We were rushing around trying to sort out a cage and find out if the vet was even open (thank goodness it was). I'll spare you the gory details and just tell you that he is ok now. He's back to his usual naughty self. He has colitis (he's always had some issues) so we'll have to be careful what he eats in future otherwise it will be another expensive trip. ♥

These are a few things that made me happy this week. 

1. Blue skies! We had a few of them for a change. It was lovely and when it started to rain towards the end of the week, it was actually more relaxing than annoying. I love the smell of rain, especially after a week of warm weather.
2. The jewelry type thing on the right is an angel. I was given it last week by a lovely lady that stopped in where I volunteer. She said that all of life's heroes need an angel to watch over them. I was having a tough day & it really made me smile. ♥
3. I found some leaves in our garden in the shape of hearts. They are from our little rose bush that was grown from the stem of a shop bought rose that was given to me by my fiance a few years ago. We get about 2 or 3 roses a year from it. I'm keeping a close eye on it!
4. And lastly...I sneakily took a photo of my fiance. He was having some much needed rest. It's been a tough week (more so for my dad who worked two 14hr shifts with only 5hrs of sleep in between) but we've struggled through & there have been many happy moments to help. Our weeks are busy and sometimes it feels like our weekends are even busier. We're trying to find the balance but it's an uphill battle.

Drops Extra Fine Merino

Say hello to my new yarn stash! I couldn't resist. My order even arrived with a free gift from the lovely people at Wool Warehouse. I've been buying yarn from them for nearly a year now & they've never let me down. I honestly can't recommend them enough! I've had a lovely stash of DROPS Paris for a few years (bought when the label was black) but never used it because at the time it wasn't easy to purchase in the UK so I was waiting for the right project. I love DROPS yarn. They have a lovely range of yarns and at a decent price so I was overjoyed when I realised that my favourite shop (Wool Warehouse) were selling it. I've had my eye on the DROPS Extra Fine Merino for a long time so when it went on sale I knew I was going to purchase some as soon as I'd saved up enough money. I ordered one of every colour late Wednesday night, order arrived Friday afternoon, checked to see how they go together & then quickly ordered a second lot (with a few extras that I'll photograph next week) which arrived Saturday morning! See how fast they are? It's all going to be used to make a warm, snugly winter blanket.

(The blur on the left is Moe about to burrow into the blanket while I'm trying to photograph it)

The rainbow scrappy ripple is finally done! It would've been finished on Thursday if I hadn't run out of yarn halfway through the border. Thank goodness Wool Warehouse are so reliable otherwise I'd still be sitting here with an unfinished ripple! The colour I needed arrived with my DROPS order on Saturday morning. Isn't it funny how we almost always end up buying new yarn when making something from leftover scraps? 

I had planned on doing a separate post for the ripple earlier in the week but hit a few road blocks along the way (straightening a ripple is not easy & running out of yarn is not helpful either) so now it's going to have to be sometime this week. Maybe Monday?

Have you seen the neck warmer pattern over at Attic24? I've been itching to try it! Sunday was a lovely relaxed day so I sat down and gave it a go. It really is an easy pattern and keeps you lovely and warm but I think I'll put it away till winter. I'm planning to make another one with chunky yarn, using a different pattern I found. It can also be used as a hood. I will provide a link to the pattern when I post about it.

Friday was the best day of this week. I baked, relaxed, read a bit, had a cappuccino & started a new project. I am totally in love with this pattern at the moment! It's very popular right now & has been tempting me for a while. I found some King Cole Riot yarn in my stash and decided that this would be the perfect project for it!

At first it seemed really hard & I've never made anything like this before so a bit scary but once I got going it was easy! If I can do it, anyone can! I think I'll be spending my week working on this. Not sure how I'm going to block it but I'll figure that out when I get to that stage!

The birds are still very busy in our garden! Currently we have crows, the occasional ring-necked dove & a magpie visiting us. There are a few little birds as well but I can't remember what they're called. They've been enjoying bits of bread & seeded crackers. Can you see how close they are? I got some great photos this week. They sit right on the shed roof which is outside the kitchen window. The magpie likes to taunt me. He/she will sit on the shed roof and just stare so I'll grab my camera and as I go to take a photo, it flies off! If it had happened once I'd think it just got scared by movement but this happens regularly! Cheeky bird!

Moe & Vinnie....members of Bird Watchers Anonymous! Moe spends most of the day talking to them and Vinnie just watches. Can you see the photo of Vinnie scowling? I'm not sure why he was in such a bad mood! It couldn't possible be because of my camera ;) 

I'm not to sure why Moe's tongue is out....maybe he was thinking about having bird for dinner?

And because they all need their 5 minutes of fame...here is a collage of all of them & what they've been up to this week! The only one I didn't get a photo of this week was Bella so I'll have to make up for it next time.

So, this has been a very long blog post but thank you for reading (or just looking at the photos). I hope you've had a lovely week and I wish you all the best for the week ahead. Please stop by again in the week to see my Scrappy Rainbow Ripple post!

Take care

♥