Making a difference

I want to share a blog post by Sue from UK  @ SIBOL - Sunshine International Blankets Of Love.

She does some lovely work over there
and it keeps her very busy.  She uses
the butterfly as her symbol and has
had such a fantastic response from
crafty people all over the world &
 they are so talented. They have
made close to 300 blankets in a
relatively short time. She has been
mentioned in several magazines,
some  have given a free pattern &
the address for SIBOL.
The response has been so huge
that Sue now has volunteers to
help join the squares into blankets
& has also started to accept blankets as well as squares.
 I dedicated my free stained glass butterfly pattern to her group and sent squares too.
 I thought you might be interested in reading about the reactions of some elderly people receiving some charity blankets. I worked in a Nursing home for 5 years and saw how these blankets really brightened their day. Not only are they a source of warmth and a security blanket, they are a great topic of discussion and assist with providing interaction.
The photo above is not one of their blankets, just a picture of a pattern.
 I belong to K4C & I gifted the butterfly pattern to them, they are an online yahoo group here in Australia who donate to lots of different groups,  one project that we have at the moment is making blankets for the Quakers Hill Nursing home that had a devastating fire
Go to http://knit4charities.webs.com/ if you would like to help out.
 It is run by Pam and since 2006 over 117,000 items have been donated to charity.
As they say "many hands make light work".
Congratulations for making a difference to so many Sue.& Pam
http://sunshineinternationalblanketsoflove.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/i-love-sibol-delivery-days.html

Blanket Design

I am so happy with the blanket I've just finished, it looks like it was planned from the start. 
I find that a lot of my blankets evolve & change so much during construction.
I thought I would show how this one started & the end result. It started when my mother 
casually asked if I had a finished blanket she could have. I rarely hold onto my finished
blankets, I don't always have someone in mind when i start, but I find often that as it draws
to completion, someone is either in need of a pick me up, birthday or I receive a request. 
The photo above is what I started with, 8 stained glass butterfly sqs, 2 Re-Joyce-ing sqs
which were leftover from older projects & also 2  3D flowers I've been playing with.

These 2 photos above show where I am deciding the development.

Do I go checkerboard? Do I add new patterns? You can see I'm looking at the placement 

of the red squares, in the photo on the right I'm contemplating making another 3 squares

using Debi's Wiggle squares and placing them in the empty spots.

 In these you can see that I'm contemplating the wiggle square in the centre and I'm
thinking about the 3D flower squares around it or 4 of the Re-Joyce-ing squares.

The photos above show that I've chosen to use 4 wiggle squares & I'm just looking at
the placement of the red squares. Taking photos is a great help in designing & especially
helpful if they get jumbled by the cat/dog or DH/DK's. I also remember someone once
saying they used a door peep to look at their work to get a different perspective.

Ta Da..... here is the final blanket completed with scalloped edging. 
I'm really happy with the finished result.
Like I said, it looks like it was planned that way.
Now I'm planning my "16 days of summer blanket"
ready for the Olympics just around the corner.
Does anyone else have plans for Olympic crafting?

Show and tell week 27

Last week I mentioned that I was making a jumper for DH
that I'm keen to get finished.
It would be nice for hubby to wear it this winter.
So this week I have a finished back and a half finished front
to show you.
This week I  also made 5 Stained glass butterfly squares.
I start making the squares when my hands are cramping from
the knitting. I am using  a pure wool made in New Zealand
Shepherd Classic 8ply the colour is Natural Kemp.
The band states machine washable, but I will wash by hand.

Show and tell week 26

This weeks Show and Tell is more
Stained glass butterfly squares.
I hope you aren't sick of seeing them
as I'm not sick of making them!
I'm late this week as I was having
a lovely day swanning around with
crafty friends. Denise, Di and myself
went to the Kogarah branch of the
Knitters Guild meeting.
Then I spent the afternoon knitting,
planning the next butterfly blanket,
I even squeezed in a visit to Lincraft
for their sale. This week is #26,
so it's halfway through the year.
I've been thinking whether to continue
with the (Show & Tell) square a day.
I think after 6 months I have proven to myself that I can do it. I have a jumper for hubby
that he is keen (so am I) to see off the needles and on his back.
A friend is having  new baby that I would love to knit for too.
I'm wondering if I can achieve the knitting goals as well as crocheting a square a day.
Although I think the knitting Show and tell would show lots of slow progress as I'm not a fast knitter.
Watching a mans jumper growing by inches could be like watching paint dry?

Show and tell week 25

Show and Tell this week is
7 Stained glass butterfly squares
This week was a busy one,
my mother came to stay
and we both went to the
Sydney craft and quilt show at
Darling Harbour. Saw some lovely quilts
and the weather was lovely too.
I've  had a few connection problems,
hopefully they have gone.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow
I have some crafty friends coming over

Show and tell week 24

This weeks SATurday (Show And Tell day) is more 
Stained glass butterfly squares. I've decided to make a
stained glass butterfly blanket like this for a friend.
So I will make some butterfly squares first,
then ask her to choose which ones she wants included in
her blanket before moving onto the stained glass strips.
We had a lovely sunny morning yesterday and have
woken to the same today.
Hope your weekend is a lovely one.

Show and tell week 23

As I mentioned in my previous post I gave myself the week off  for my square a day due to
K4C travels. I still did plenty of crocheting, but more of the finishing off variety.
I finished the last of my 6 pressies the day before leaving.
I gave 2 round ripple rugs to the lovely Dorothy for
the Northside Womens Support Group in Canberra
 I finished the pink one the morning I left.
details of the pattern and my changes are here

Round Ripples

I gave 2 blankets to Kerry from  .http://www.busyhandswarmhearts.bravehost.com/

one was the group effort Re-Joyce-ing blanket that I finished that morning

Re-Joyce-ing blanket for BHWH

BHWH blanket

I finished and posted off a  Stained glass butterfly blanket to the K4C charity of the month
St Giles in Tasmania.

St Giles blanket

So I was still kept busy. This weeks Show and tell is 6 Stained glass butterfly squares
and the K4C Knitalong.  hope you enjoy the pics

show and tell week 23

K4C KAL

Show and tell week 21

This weeks SAT is more
Stained glass butterfly squares
I finished my square this morning and I
have actually finished sewing together
squares in rows of  4X6. Next is to sew
a round of black, then I will do a border.
Next week I am going to a
K4C (knit 4 charity) weekend confab
in Woolgoolga (Northern NSW)
So I have made an executive decision
that for the next week I will not be doing
a square a day. What I hope to do is
have show and tell of my stash instead,
it just depends on my computer access.

Show and tell week 20

Week 20......I got distracted today &
the last square was finished after 5pm.
The photo was a hurried snap taken
as the sun was sinking and the light
was quickly fading. I must admit
I was starting to panic and I was
thinking about postponing
Show And Tell S.A.T.urday
But not to worry, this weeks
Show And Tell is 7 more
Stained Glass Butterfly Squares
Don't for a moment think that I
only do 1 square a day, I do my
square, then I move onto other crochet.
Since yesterdays post I have done a row of teal around the whole blanket
and finished another round in another colour. That was one of my distractions today,
I just wanted to keep going and didn't want to put it down. Do you ever feel like that?

Show and tell week 19

Show and tell this week is  

1 “Re-Joyce-ing” square and 

6 Stained Glass Butterfly squares

I took advantage while it was sunny &

slightly warmer to take the photo outside

This week I have also done the border

round on some  “Re-Joyce-ing” squares.

I have 26 finished now, so it won’t be

long before they are ready to sew 

together. 

As you can see I am using Panda Magnum Soft  8ply in a lovely teal shade.

1 ball of 100g/189m completes approx 20 squares of round 9.

The band states made in Turkey and the wool is very soft, 

but I feel that the slipperiness causes tension problems.

Has anyone else had tension problems with slippery yarn?

The Show Blanket

Here are pics of the blanket I
entered at the show I spoke
about here. 
It is a variation of my charity
Stained Glass Butterfly Square

After I was made redundant last
November I travelled north to visit family. 5 hours by rail to my Mums,
then another 8 1/2 hour train trip
to Queensland to visit my Aunt
and sister. 
So I had a lot of spare time for my
crocheting. 
I was away for 4 weeks
and spent my time making this.
I took it with me when I visited
the lovely ladies at the Beenleigh
Knit N Natter meeting.
They were so welcoming and I
had never met any of them, 
I "knew" a few of them via emails
and the yahoo group K4C.
When they saw it, it was in pieces.

The blanket was made with 3
long continuous strips of
 "stained glass" then the
butterfly squares were sewn
into 2 strips then joined together. 
It certainly shows my love of 
variegated wool, I used 
31different colours.

Here it is on display at the show.
They have the craft items 
displayed behind chicken wire, probably to stop people touching.

SATurday week 3

 Firstly I'd like to say welcome to the new followers. 
I thought I had this weeks show and tell sorted, until I went to take the photos and the camera battery was flat, then I realised I hadn't done the embroidery.  

So here are the 7 squares for this week, 
they are all from my
 stained glass butterfly pattern. 
I also managed to finish a UFO as well,
but that is another secret project.
I was excited to received my first
Competition Square from Lisa,
it is so lovely, I have some more on 
their way and I will post them together.
I have also been working on some
tea cosies this week using firework wool.

I'm not sure how I will go with my 

show and tell next week as  I have a job interview this week and I need  to go and get some new clothes for it. 
It's my first in 5 years so I'm  a bit nervous.
It should be a good week, 
if not interesting,
I'm looking forward to it. 
I hope you have a good week too.

Stained Glass Butterfly Square

STAINED GLASS  BUTTERFLY SQUARE
© 2010 Jane Griffiths www.papillongold.blogspot.com

Materials required 
(Amounts are approximate)
8ply wool: 
40m or 13 grams colour A (something bright)
6.5m or 3 grams of cream or white – (Colour B)
22m or 8 grams of Black – (Colour C) is 

70cm black (extra ) for body 
(or 120cm for 2 bodies), 
4mm crochet hook and wool needle.

Final size of the square is approx 20cm (8") square.
Tension is 3 rows or 4 trebles to 2.5cm (1")
Use the size hook you need to get the required size.

.
Embroidery for Butterfly Body
see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwWeMiZPSRA for an embroidery tutorial
Point A: top right hand corner stitch of row 2 - the middle white/cream treble on Left side
Point B: top right hand corner stitch of row 2 - the middle white/cream treble on Right side
Point C: underneath the top right hand corner stitch of row 2 (1st cream/white Corner)
Point D:bottom left hand corner stitch of row 2 - space in middle of the corner
.
Using black wool,
Come up at Point A, leaving a 7cm tail at the back,
Put the needle down at Point B and come up at Point C catching the loop between
A and B, pull the thread through and down towards you to form a V.
Put the needle down at Point D and come up at Point C, pull the thread through
and repeat
Put the needle down at Point D and come up at Left side of centre ring, go down
on the right side of centre ring.
Fasten off and weave in ends.
© 2010 Jane Griffiths www.papillongold.blogspot.com