The Blanket

I promised you a while ago that I'd be back with pictures of the large granny blanket I finished recently. It's taken a while, but here for your viewing pleasure is the blanket in all its stripey, granny-stitched glory. Enjoy!

And all made out of scraps and leftovers (well, okay, so I bought one ball of mid-blue to stop it getting too green and brown...).

Stars

Possibly the most exciting thing about Rico producing a line of 10 count cotton in an ace selection of colours is that the star-in-an-embroidery-hoop Christmas decoration that I used to stock in white comes in a veritable rainbow of choices this year!

It makes me very happy to see these hanging in the shop!

Painting

Ugh.  Painting.  It's one of those jobs that in the abstract seems like a fun and exciting thing to do. In the actual, it's a load of faff with masking tape and undercoats and by the time you finally get to sloshing on the colour you want, you're sick of the sight of the paint roller.  Well, you are if you're me.

So far, the minty green kitchen has been transformed into a fabulous mediterranean blue and the living room is no longer pale plum with sludge brown accents, and is instead a lovely crisp green.

These were the easy rooms to decide.  There was no arguing.  Once I'd told The Beloved that magnolia was not an option, green and blue were easy to agree on.  I'm not a fan of magnolia.  He is.  As it happens, he's upstairs right now painting the bathroom magnolia because we have no choice - the tiles won't go with anything else and right now, we have enough to be getting on with without retiling the bathroom.

Anyway, I digress... so the colours for the main rooms in the house were easy to decide.  What I'm struggling with is the sewing room.  It's currently a sort of pinkish grey, which I don't really like. It's one of those colours that's neither pink nor grey and I just want it to be something, you know? Occasionally, it even looks purple. Its saving grace is that it's a good background for stock photos. I did try to look to the furnishings for inspiration, but there's too much going on.  This is what's behind me as I type...

I would really like to paint the room white and have one smack-you-in-the-face orange wall, however I just can't find an orange that I like.  They all seem either brown-ish, or peach-ish and not straight-off-the-satsuma-ish at all, which is what I'd like.  So taking it all down a tone (and bearing in mind how useful the grey-ish walls are, I'm now thinking grey with a strong (slightly mustard-y?) yellow for the wall behind my desk.

I know.  Grey.  Question is, how dark/light?  I've asked Sean, but he's not been very forthcoming.

It's currently between light rain (top left) and grey hints (top right).  I already know what shade of yellow (I just haven't got a tester to show you) and it will go with either.

What do you think?

Summer lovin'

Blue skies, bright colours and flowers.  It's supposed to be a bit grey this weekend, so I thought I'd post a splash of spring/summer to keep things upbeat.

Chequerboard love

Sometimes, it's the simplest designs that make me smile.  A while ago I ordered some lovely bamboo yarn from Rico which comes in only a few colours, but all of them quite strong.  None of the yarn has made it into the shop yet, because I can't stop playing with it. I'm currently a bit in love with simple chequerboard-style blankets.

Bright, strong, punchy colours that make me think of summer. Perfect for picnics, caravans and snuggling round campfires of an evening.

I'm making them in two sizes: small, like the cot-sized one above, and large, like the one below which is so nearly finished:

As well as the bold blue and summery coral, there's a rich grass-green in my yarn pile which will be heading for Blanketland too.

Problem is, every time I try do a bit more work on one of them, someone steals my seat...

Streeeeeeeeeeetch!

There's been a spot of in-the-garden crochet, but it's a bit too easy to snooze in the sun and that, although enjoyable, isn't really productive.  Much better to tempt cat #1 out to sunbathe...

Does anyone else's cat refuse to sit outside if the door is closed behind them?  Thankfully I live on a quiet lane in a quiet place, so leaving the door open is pretty safe but as much as she likes the front door step, as soon as I close the door she starts wailing until I open it.

Have you been out enjoying the sun?  Got any summer projects planned?  Or maybe you've got a contrary cat too?

Spring!

After a week of glorious weather and blossom bursting forth on every tree, it really does feel like Spring has sprung.  In light of this, today's orders are going out in some lovely spring-coloured wrapping.

And of course, springtime means spring cleaning.  It also means a new financial year and the time when companies review budgets and set pricing.  I'm sure you've already heard that postage will be increasing from the end of April.  Consequently, my own postage charges will also increase to reflect this.  Best to buy your spring cleaning supplies from Scrubbitty now before the postage goes up!

Colour

I should start by explaining that I recently bought myself a new toy, a tablet. It's okay, this not going to be a techy post: I love gadgetry, but I'm not remotely qualified to discuss it in detail. This is about colour. I downloaded an app called Wet Paint, which is not unlike the Paint programme which comes as part of the MS Office package on a regular 'puter. However, a touchscreen makes it very fun to use and I've been indulging in a spot of fingerpainting.

I know, they won't be gracing the walls of the Tate any time soon... That's fine by me. I just like playing with colour and seeing how different colors 'fit' together. I'm hoping that some of these daubings might form the basis of a blanket or two further down the line - I particularly like the third one down. It does mean that at some point I'll have to go into a yarn shop and try match up a suitable yarn to these scribblings though. 

I'd love to hear about your favourite colour combinations in the comments below.