Triage

Today is a public holiday in the UK. This means it pours with rain, the sky is grey and overcast and it feels unseasonably cold just in case anyone wants to go out and do anything summery. Today has been no exception so apart from ferrying my son into Oxford and collecting him again there have been no competing calls to lure me away from translating some of that jumble of ideas in my last post into reality. So never mind the weather, today has seen: Lights..., Camera...., Hooky! Well actually Lights, Hooky, Camera but you know what I mean!!

I am so grateful to all of you who so kindly commented on my "Too Many Ideas" post - you have so helped me sort what was quite a chaotic jumble into A Plan Of Action! Triage at its best! Thank you all so much.

So what is on the hook / needles as a result?

Well, in addition to the Summer Has Come From The Sunny Land Granny Squares, of which I have now completed two thirds, and the Very Simple Scarf which is rapidly heading for the finishing line, two new projects are under way.

One is the Granny Square Sampler afghan featured by Crochetbug. I have managed to obtain a second-hand copy of "Better Homes and Gardens Knitting and Crochet", which contains the pattern and instructions in it, for the princely sum of £2.92 (+ postage) and have been having a nostalgic rifle through its 1970s pages.

All that 1970s brown and beige - what were we thinking of?! After an initial false start using some of the yarn left over from my recent knitted cushion which had to be abandoned because the colours were not only "Not Popping" but were "Positively Droopy & Sad-looking", I have dug out my stash of Rico Creative Cotton left over from three previous blanket projects and have managed, so far, to make 4 squares. The basic Granny Squares are nice and easy, the star one I had more trouble with (you can say that again!) and to be honest it could probably do with being re-done. I'll see how I go with the next star one though before my twitchy fingers unravel it! May not be able to do any better.

Here's progress so far:

This project has my name all over it because very few squares are the same pattern and I can go to town with colour permutations to make a picnic blanket that will be a happy riot of colour. I've used a 4.5 mm hook for these instead of my usual 4 mm. This works fine with the Rico Creative Cotton and the squares come out a nice generous size. I'm not going to hurry this. A square a day is too ambitious (all right, Mr Jackson!) but I'll probably add one or two a week and by the time we get any sun in the UK it might be finished!

The design has a rather appealing lack of symmetry in it and the squares are not designed to sit evenly alongside one another. I have't quite decided whether I will follow this or adjust it to look slightly more conventionally aligned. Crochetbug's version looks great but being a rather less skilled crocheter than Leslie, I fear mine might just look like a mistake. 

The second project now under way, heavily influenced by the encouragement and suggestions of all of you kind commenters, is the Blooming Flower Cushion to replace my has-been patchwork one, following Attic 24's brilliant pattern. I started this in a hurry yesterday, between other things - always bad news and of course I made two bad mistakes: I skim-read the pattern and my counting went awry. (Numbers and I always have, shall we say, an interesting relationship!) The result was not immediately apparent but after a few rounds I began to have misgivings and indeed on investigation discovered again the truth of that maxim "more haste, less speed". I don't know why I don't seem able to take this on board properly but I get caught out by it time and again. 

Anyway after a certain amount, quite a lot, of frogging in the wee small hours, I am back on track and it's looking quite promising. I'm using the same yarn as for my Summer Has Come From The Sunny Land Granny Squares because I will have quite a bit left over from them and I think there is enough for both if I combine it in the cushion with a bit of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino left over from some projects last autumn - fingers crossed I have not miscalculated! Which knowing me, I probably have! Never mind!

Here's what I've done so far (twice, if you count doing it once, unravelling it and re-doing it!):

This too is a project that "I Must Not Rush" especially as each round is getting bigger and therefore mistakes that are only discovered at the end of a round will necessitate undoing more and more work. After the painful process of undoing that began as the church clock down the road struck midnight last night I am more mindful of this than this time yesterday!

But it's such fun to do and now that I am taking it more slowly it's incredibly satisfying to find that all the counting works out just as it ought to. Here's hoping I haven't made any other mistakes that I haven't spotted yet!

So even though the Bank Holiday has been pretty grey, wet and miserable just as British Bank Holidays traditionally are, in here it's been sunny and colourful and a lot of fun. 

I hope you too have had a good day with some crafty colour and may be even some sunshine in it too even if it isn't a holiday day where you are. And if you have seen the sun - say hello to him from me and tell him to ship himself over to this part of the world - I am longing for some hot summery sunshine outside as well as in!

PS A coda from Mrs Tittlemouse to Mr Jackson in the light of his somewhat prosaic attempts to dampen her excessive plans in my last post - "Just so as you know, those projects that are not yet off their starting blocks have not been discarded, they are just waiting in the queue!"