Block of the Month - July

This month is the well known African Flower hexagon that has been altered to a square.
 There are plenty of images on the internet, here is the graphic African Flower Square
4mm Hook 8ply wool in yellow, favourite colour, green and cream
 UK/AUS terms

Round 1
using yellow, ch3 and join, ch3, 1tr, (ch1, 2tr) x 7, ch1, join to top of ch3

Round 2
using favourite colour join to ch1 space,( ch3, 1tr, ch1, 2tr)
*(2tr, ch1, 2tr)  in next ch1 space
repeat from *6 times, join to top of  beg ch3, slip stitch to next ch1 space

Round 3
ch3, 6tr in ch sp, 7 tr in each ch1 space 7 times, join to top of beg ch3

Round 4
Using green, dc into each tr, long tr into the round below between the shell groups
Repeat to end

Round 5
Using Cream join to middle (4th) dc, ch 3, *tr  into next 7 stitches, (tr ch1 tr) into next stitch
Repeat from* finish with tr, ch1 and join for last section

Round 6
Using green
join to ch space, *dc in ch space and each tr to next ch space. (11dc)
(3dt, ch3, 3dtr) into 5th tr repeat from * join

Round 7
Using favourite colour, tr in each stitch, (2tr, ch2, 2tr) in each corner

Repeat Round 7 for Round 8 & 9

Show and Tell Week 29

No squares this week,
I finished DHs jumper,
I now have a callous on my left thumb
I also started (and finished) a little
round yoke baby matinee jacket
(and I now also have a split on
both my index fingers)
It is in 4 ply on 3.25 mm needles
The body is knitted all in one to
the armholes then sleeves added
and the yoke is then completed.
The only sewing is the sleeve seams
and I just have to get some buttons.
This pattern is the same as a jacket
I was given when my son was born
almost 21 years ago.
Just over a week until his birthday, obviously his was a nice shade of blue.

Show and Tell Week 28

No squares this week, it has been
cold here so I have been working
overtime trying to finish DH jumper.
I finished the front and 1 sleeve
then started on the 2nd sleeve.
I hope to have a finished jumper
to show you next week. I have
been worrying about the neckline,
I have done v necks before, but
this time I decided to change the
pattern from 1x1 rib to 2x2 rib.
I'm not sure how this will affect
the pattern, I might do a bit of
research before I go ahead.
Any advice would be welcome.

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?

Show and tell week 18

This weeks SATurday
(Show And Tell day)
is more "Re-Joyce-ing Squares"
I'm actually quite happy with the colours
in this photo, they are quite true.
Thanks to Nicole for naming this square.
Here is her reaction when she won.

"Oh how exciting!!! 

I did enjoy making the squares, 

and I have to tell you that the family

helped with the names and every time 

we came up with another name I had to make another square! 

Then I ran out of different colour varigated, so had to stop there. 

As soon as I made "Re-Joyce-ing", that was my favourite.

( I am biased, purple is my favourite colour.  I had walked past that ball of wool so many times 

wanting it and thought no I will behave myself!!!) And then I thought why not.!!!! 

It would be perfect for your competition. Carnival Wool is wonderful with the different colours

 they have. We don't get too much choice up here.

Thank you for the competition.

Thank you for the book

I am going to LOVE looking through and making the squares also.

Take Care

Nicole

yipeee yahooo!!!!

I will go and make some Re-Joyce-ing Squares to send to Kerry for her COTM blanket for knit4charity

So you can see Nicole was happy with her  win and she has emailed to say the book has arrived.

This week I started to put a border colour around each of the "Re-Joyce-ing Squares" 

More about that next week

Show and Tell week 17

This has been a BIG week with the
Royal wedding and other things,
so alas this post is a day late.
Oh well better late than never I say.
Today was a lovely sunny day,
the first for a while,  so I spent
quite some time in the garden.
This weeks Show And Tell is some
Re-Joyce-ing squares.
It's great not to have to call them
Competition squares anymore.
I've just counted them and I now
have 34 Re-Joyce-ing squares

Show and Tell week 16

This weeks show and tell is some Competition squares 
in various colours, all from variegated wool, of course!
 I quickly snapped a photo while the weather was nice. 
The competition ends in 
a weeks time, so I have 
this week to make a 
decision who the winner is.

Show and Tell week 15

This is the 10th and final week of 
squares for Sarah London and the
 "Crochet a rainbow"  cause.
I  made 70  in total and filled the
500 gram postpac so full that I 
had to get my son to help close
the parcel. This week I used 
Carnival Effects fair isle in lovely
shades of blue. I took this photo
when I was weighing them and
it wasn't until after I had posted 
them that I realised I had 
forgotten to take a picture of this
weeks squares. You can see them,
they are the squares on the top 
of the pile on the right side.

Show and Tell week 14

This is the 9th week of squares
for Sarah London and the
 "Crochet a rainbow"  cause.
One more week and I will 
have enough to fill the 
500 gram postpac.
I used Carnival Effects fair isle
in lovely shades of green.
I must say that I am looking
forward to finishing these
squares and posting them off.
It did save time by not having
to put too much thinking time
into what squares I would do
for the weeks show and tell,
therefore creating more crochet 
time. I think the moss on our driveway goes so well with these squares

Show and Tell week 13

The beginning of this year I decided to make a square a day,

this is week 13 and by my calculations that makes it 1/4 way through the year. 

Show and tell this week is more "Crochet a rainbow"  squares for Sarah London.

I used Carnival wool again, in lovely green, blue and purple hues.

I'm still not overly happy with the cameras performance,

so I took a photo on my mobile to see if there was a difference. 

Picture on the left is the camera and on the right is the mobile.

What do you think?

Show and Tell week 12

Show and tell this week is more
"Crochet a rainbow"  squares
for Sarah London.
Yes, using more Carnival wool.
Lovely dark blue with hot pink.
I played with the white balance
setting on my camera and I think
the colour is better in this photo.
The photo isn't too good as it was
wild and windy here and I took 
it in a hurry. Does it look like I was
being "artistic"?

Show and Tell week 11

This weeks show and tell is more
"Crochet a rainbow"  squares
for Sarah London.
This is the 6th set of squares
so far, I weighed them all today
and they are about 300gm,
so another 200gm to go.
These are also made using
my favourite Carnival wool.
I just have to weave those
pesky tails in.
I hate using the wool needle
as I'm allergic to metal,
so I try to do only a little at a time,
today my hands aren't faring well, 
so I will leave it for another day.

Show and Tell week 10

More "Crochet a rainbow"  
squares for Sarah London for this 
weeks Show and tell. 

I used Carnival Effects Stripes

again, only this time with 2 rows 

of pink & 3 rows in burgundy hues. 

I really like all the colourways in this yarn.

Unfortunately my camera doesn't

seem to be depicting colours 

true to life. Maybe it's the person

behind the camera that's the

problem?