Oops!

Naughty me! I have rather neglected my blog for the last month. There are a couple of reasons for that but whilst I'm having a quiet day I am hopefully going to schedule a few posts to show you what I have been up to crochet wise.

First up, an update of my mood blanket. I can't believe how big it is getting. I love adding each square on and now it is large enough to see the effect of my random moods I am loving the patchwork effect it has!

Here are the squares I've added over the weekend -

Friday 25th April - grey: tired, feeling a bit meh
Saturday 26th April - green: quiet day
Sunday 27th April - pink: family, content

 And here it is in all it's glory! It's very difficult to get a picture of all it now. I think next time I will spread it over my bed. I guess that way I'll also be able to see how much it is growing each time. I'm so pleased with it.

 

You'll notice on the 6th row, near the middle there are a lot of dark colours (navy, grey and fawn) this is because I have injured my ankle (torn the ligament) and these darker colours represent the first few days afterwards.Unfortunately two weeks later I am still in quite a bit of pain and have to see a physio but I am coping better with the discomfort and boredom now so I can go back to more varied colours.

Third Row Complete

  

Last week I completed the third row of my mood blanket. It had to be yellow to complete the row as the sunshine was making a rare appearance (not that it lasted long!)

I am still thoroughly enjoying this project and the bigger it grows the more I love my blanket. I am embracing the patchwork effect that it is giving and look forward to the end of year when I can see how it will look finished.

I will post my diary pages later in the week detailing the colours I used for what days and my mood (or in some cases what I cooked for dinner - yes, really!) 

Now on to March. I can't believe we are in the third month already and how quick this year seems to be going. 

One Down...Eleven to go!

The first month of the #crochetmoodblanket2014 is complete! I know I'm a little bit late considering we are already a week into February but I thought I'd post the pages of my diary which document the colours I've used and why.

 

Please excuse my weird looking fingers!! I'm very happy with how this month has gone and I am growing to love the randomness of the colours I've used so far. The only colour I've vowed not to use is black. I do have a very dark navy and purple though. 

I'll hopefully post some progress pictures of the blanket later in the week. I'm very happy that I started the third row yesterday - I love seeing this project grow! 

I hope everyone elses blankets are continuing to grow and are going well! 

Progress

It's been a couple of weeks since my last update and my, oh my, how my blanket has grown since then!

You can't even see the other end of it in this picture! As I think I said before it is going to be 19x19 squares big with three rows of border. Having reached the end of my first row of 19 squares I can see that it is easily going to be big enough to cover my double bed. Lovely!

It's so exciting to see it grow. I also love doing just  one square a day. Something I have managed to stick to so far. It is very tempting to do more than one square a day but I love the idea of choosing one wool to match that day and then waiting until the next day to see how I feel. I am sure at some point I will end up having to catch up on a couple of days at once. Hopefully if that happens I'll still manage to write the colour I want to use for that day in my diary and come back to it when I have the time.

At first I thought that I'd struggle with the randomness of the colours (I love a pattern!) however the bigger it grows the more I am enjoying the random patterns I can see this beginning to make. One thing I haven't done yet is joined two squares of the same colour together. I seem to be avoiding it but I know it is going to happen at some point - I need to get over that particular fear!

It was also very pleasing when on the 20th January I got to start my second row. Only because now I feel it is more of a blanket than just a huge snake of granny squares! I'm also very pleased that I've chosen to join as I go and sew in ends every day. It's going to save so much time at the end of the year.

The bottom row in this photo shows the last three days. White (22nd), meadow green (23rd) and mid-pink (24th).

I'm glad that I changed my mind and went with simple granny squares. I know that compared to some of the other amazing and beautiful blankets that I've seen from others participants that my finished blanket may look simple in comparison but I know it is a blanket that I will want to use at the end of the year when it is finished and that is my main point. There is no point putting time and effort into this if you aren't going to love it and feel proud at the end of 2014.

2014 is here!

Happy new year one and all! 2014 sounds like something from the future...why don't we have flying cars??! :( 

I'm going to try and blog more regularly this year. This is NOT a resolution it's just that I'm starting a new project that I want to blog about to keep track of it. It's a year long crochet project so this seems like a brilliant way to document my progress. 

The project is called #crochetmoodblanket2014 and was thought up by some clever lady on Instagram. So far hundreds of people have joined in! The idea is very simple - you crochet a granny square a day or a square a week (depending on what you feel like) and the colour depends on how you feel that particular day/week. At the end of it you are left with a big and beautiful blanket.

I have decided to go for one square a day. My blanket will be 19 x 19 squares big meaning I will do four border rows to take me up to 365. I am so excited to see what my blanket will look like this time next year.

Here is my first square: