Monday 15 June 2015

Block a day #21 and #22

"Gypsy Wheel"
Pattern No 106 pg 97

Second of the three I'd planned to finish over the Queen's Birthday weekend, another one that came up really nicely. I love the pop of pink in the border.

Finished 12th June.





"Margarita"

Pattern No 191 pg 159

I mentioned in the previous post that I was going back to "Gentle Waves".  I think I'm giving up on that one.  It just doesn't seem to sit right with me.  After frogging back my second attempt on Gentle Waves I switched to Margarita, and here it is.  The frilly border is a lot simpler than it looks.  Finished this one on Friday night (12th June) during a double header of Phryne Fisher (last week and this week's episodes of Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries).




I've now got three spreadsheets going, one keeping track of the sort of details I'm posting here, including start and finishing dates, as they don't all get finished the same day they are started, one with the page, star and colour numbers of blocks I'd like to do, and one that's keeping track of linear blocks vs in the round, single colour blocks, common colour combinations, etc.

I'm starting to get some ideas for how I plan to put them all together, and that's meaning that I'm being a little more deliberate in how I choose blocks and colours.

Saturday 13 June 2015

Block a day #19 and #20

 "Double Granny"
Pattern 43, pg 55

I do end up doing more blocks in the round rather than in rows, partially because the tension seems to a lot easier (and more consistent).  But I like how this one has come up, and I'm very pleased with my colour choices.

"Granny's Round"
Pattern 104, pg 96

Another one I really like.  This is one of the three I was planning to do on our weekend away, but I don't think I started it until the day we got home.  These were the four colours I took with me, so you'll see these colours again in the next couple (one of which is finished, and one of which is...




...one of the two current blocks I currently have half done, and would love to finish tonight (while M watches the new season of Orange is the New Black).  But right now I'm planning to try another one entirely: the first pattern I tried, "Gentle Waves", which I frogged back fairly quickly.  But that was using one of my variegated yarns, and we know what happened to those blocks...

Friday 12 June 2015

Block a day - #17 and #18

So, the posting schedule broke down a little.  We were away in Sydney for a friend's wedding, and although I took yarn with me to keep up with doing at least one block a day, I managed half of one in the four days...

"Kaleidoscope"
Pattern 332, pg 263

I love how this one came up.  It's got two colours that I don't want to overuse - the hot pink and the black - but just want to sprinkle through the project as a little bit of spice.








"Spinningfields"
Pattern 281, pg 224

Although it doesn't look that great in this photo, I really love this block.  It's one I may well use again in the future for other projects.

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Currently - 10th June

Watching - what I can find on YouTube of Everest: Beyond the Limit; Masterchef AU.

Reading - "Buried in the Sky: the extraordinary story of the Sherpa climbers on K2's deadliest day" by Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan; "Into Thin Air", by Jon Krakauer (re-read); "Cranky Ladies of History" (still).  For more, see my Wednesday Reads over at the other blog

Listening - DAAS "Warsong", the Lazy Doctor Who podcast, and I've caught up completely on the Audio Guide to B5.

Making: yet more block-a-day blocks.  Must catch up on blogging them.  Also, tea.  Lovely hot lemongrass and ginger while I blog.

Feeling: sort of relaxed and sort of really not.

Planning: what to do at my first ever scrapbooking crop tonight.

Loving: that I got to see a good friend and her husband and toddler today, even if it was only for 15 minutes because I couldn't get away from work to have lunch with them.

Wednesday 3 June 2015

Block a Day - #15 and #16






"Winter Daisy"
Pattern No 258, pg 208

This is listed as a 1-star pattern, but believe me, it is NOT.  Also the pattern was hard to follow, with no indication of what was meant by "sl-st behind top of next dtr3tog".

Not a favourite.

Finished 31 May.









"Sugared Almonds"
Pattern No 336, pg 267


Going with some similar colourschemes here.  (Just wait until the weekend, when we're going away and I'll need to plan my squares for three days ahead!)

I like this one - in the photo you can't really see the effects of the front-post trebles (which are every second row, just about).  Serviceable rather than pretty, but very serviceable.

Finished 1 June

Monday 1 June 2015

Block a day - #13 and #14

Note to self: choose a font and stick to it.

 "Greek Cross"
Pattern 105, pg 96

There is one mistake in this one, but I was too lazy to go back and fix it.

I'm now saving the variegated yarn for single round borders, as I did previously with Tangerine Dream.  It's about the only way I think it will work in this project, which means one of these days I'll frog back those first three blocks.

Finished 30 May

"St Tropez"
Pattern 239, pg 194

As I said on Instagram, this is a version of the St Tropez pattern.  The pattern in the book involved right sides and wrong sides and made no sense to me whatsoever.  So I ended up just doing a very straight granny in htr, following the initial round pattern, but without all the turning.  I mostly like the look of it, and to me it looks like the photo in the book, but I sure didn't follow the written pattern.

Finished 31 May