Ta da! The mitred granny square blanket is complete

I finished the border and so I can now post a photo of the completed mitred granny square blanket. I'm really pleased with how it's come out and it's lovely and warm around my knees when I settle down in the evening to watch TV. :)

And now this is finished, I just have to crack on with the two rainbow ripples that are for Christmas presents and then I can take stock and decide what my next WIP will be. I still want to make a corner-to-corner blanket for myself, but I also want to try making a cardigan. Ooooh... Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Meanwhile, here is the completed blanket.

Another blanket nearly finished

I intended this blanket as part of the decor for staging my Dad's bungalow for sale. It looks like it won't be needed for that after all, so it will be my blanket sooner than I thought.

Anyway, all the squares are joined together, most of the ends have been woven in and I'm busy crocheting the border.

I used a join as you go method of attaching the squares together which is similar to this one. I actually did it as part of the final granny cluster border, rather than as a separate joining round, but I think it makes a really firm join with no gaps. As the blanket is going to be an every day snuggling on the sofa blanket, I wanted something robust. It does create a slight ridge, but I decided that I liked the effect -- a feature rather than a bug. :) I would definitely use this method again as it's less tedious than sewing. The only downside is that you need to know the arrangement of the squares in advance. It won't work with the sort of project where you want to find the best arrangement for the squares once they're all complete.

Something I'll be making for me!

I have made several small blankets for other people recently, so I thought it was about time I made one for me. I've unravelled a couple of items that I made with a view to selling, but which no one bought. I also visited my lovely local wool shop to add a few more colours to the mix.

I plan to start crocheting a corner-to-corner blanket some time this week using this James C. Brett Marble Chunky. It's acrylic, so it will be very practical for an everyday snuggling blanket, but it's very soft too and comes in a variety of wonderful colours.

I seem to have another WIP!

I am trying not to start new projects willy nilly and instead have a strict, 'one out, one in' policy, but I did finish the gloves and quite a few of my other big projects are at the 90% completion point, so I thought I could sneak in another smaller and quicker one.

I'm making this pattern up, based on an idea inspired by a photo posted to the Facebook crochet group I belong to. Basically, it will be a border of Japanese flower motifs around a rectangle of filet crochet. I've never done filet crochet before, so I hope it turns out easy to do.

So far I have just one completed flower (to make sure they looked OK) and six centres. The yarn is James C Brett's Cotton On, which is nice to work with and comes in many pretty colours.

This will be a table runner for Dad’s dining room table while the bungalow is being viewed by potential buyers. After that, I’ll find a home for it in our house, perhaps on the TV table?

Ta da! Fingerless gloves are finished

Even with my limited crochet time, these simple fingerless gloves only took a few days. They made a nice little project that was both easy to do and quick to finish. It gave me a sense of achievement in the midst of several big projects. It used up some yarn left over from making a couple of blankets and they should keep my hands nice and warm too. A big win all round. :) And now I must toddle into town to the Spar to buy milk, a jar of curry sauce and some sort of cake or pie for desert. I didn't feel like doing a proper shop today and I had some beef in the freezer which will work nicely in a curry. Another working week starts tomorrow. I've still not quite got used to being constrained to a fixed schedule after 5 years of being able to work more or less as and when suited me, but it's beginning to feel more natural. After all, I've worked outside the home for long enough in the past.

After finishing two blankets in fairly quick succession -- certainly quick for me! -- I have sneaked in a quick little project in the form of Attic24's Striped Wristlets.

The weather is getting colder, but normal gloves are awkward when it comes to using mobile phones and cameras. I do have a pair of fingerless gloves I bought a year or so ago, but they shrank when I threw them in the washing machine. I bought them in Accessorise and thought they were acrylic, but then ended up child-size!

So here is my latest WIP. I almost finished one glove yesterday, just crocheting in short breaks between brushing up my knowledge of CSS to teach to my students. Colour choice is due to me using up yarn from the blanket I made for my Dad.

As I think I've mentioned here before, until a few weeks ago, I thought I was more or less retired and had started lots of crochet projects to keep myself occupied. I then uttered the fateful words, (in relation to clearing and decorating Dad's bungalow so we can put it on the market), "I'm not working now. I don't have anything particular to do. I can take it on as my project." Unfortunately for all my free time, the universe was listening and totally out of the blue, found a teaching job for me. Though it's part-time, with just 10 hours of teaching a week, because I haven't taught any of the courses before, it's taking hours each week to get up to speed with the topics, prepare lesson plans and prepare presentations and handouts. I was determined not to abandon the crochet, however, because I find it very soothing, though obviously progress slowed right down and I've had to re-think all the things I wanted to make for Christmas presents. I will still make them, but I'll forget about deadlines and do them as random gifts throughout the year instead. Anyway, here is the latest completed project, which is a lap blanket for my Dad.