I probably should have called my stitching series something different; I can’t remember my last free Sunday where I could blog to my heart’s content. *Edit: you know, I’m going to rename my Sunday Stitches series as Soothing Stitches. If nothing else, I’ll get lots of hits for post operative skin remedies!*
Ah well.
Fran’s 18th birthday blanket is coming along, after a bit of a hiccup where I decided the originally planned granny hexagon mosaic wasn’t what I wanted to give her. So it has been put aside for now. I do like it, but it isn’t the right thing for the moment.
Instead I went for a simple granny square pattern with a round centre in a whole heap of colours in the same Stylecraft Special Aran, with a few LionBrand Vanna thrown in. It’s a bit frustrating that there is so much less of a colour range in the Stylecraft Aran but the Vanna fills in the gaps nicely; it’s a nicer yarn actually, but twice the price so I’m not so keen to only use it and not the Stylecraft too.
I’ve recently been diagnosed with a form of OCD (the version that means you think obsessively on one thing rather than the version which more conveniently might keep my house clean and tidy) and I’m noticing more and more of the odd quirks I have when making things. I had to really work past an overwhelming desire to use each colour the same number of times on each round, so much so that it impaired the colour blends of the first set I did. I’ve had a word with myself and got over that now and my colour choices are improving with each group. I’m not that confident with colour in general so this is a fairly big deal for me.
I’ve hit on a system of using little pegs to plan out colours that will work together (I say hit on, but it wasn’t my idea, I think I picked it up at Attic 24) and I enjoy creating my next little batch of circle combos. I’m also being very good and sewing in my ends now I’ve got roughly 50% of the way though the square creation. Yet again I’m spotting OCD tendencies in terms of how much I control processes like this; I sort them into balanced batches and do a certain number of sew ins between sets of round making or square completion. Of course this makes perfect sense in lots of ways – no one likes a boring job – but I’ve had to really push myself not to obsess over it. (I’m doing CBT at the moment and lots of this involves challenging you own behaviours in small ways to learn to deal with bigger issues better. (I would however like to point out the rows of colours to the left where done by my mini-me Josie, not actually me!)
Despite the planning, there is nothing nicer than the way a combo can just present itself to you in the yarn basket or on the coffee table. I’ve got a few more projects lined up just because of coincidental presentations of beauty like this.
Day off will include crochet, home ed, tea, a modicum of work and a lot of tractors. I love how those colours just showed themselves to me together.
Since Fran’s birthday isn’t till May, I think I can probably relax a bit now and take some time off square making; I’ll keep the next batch to my side so I can sewing in a few more ends when I have a spare 20 minutes and I’m going to take a break and make some shopping bags. You never know, that might make me more likely to take them with me instead of having to spend 5p all the time!
