Block a day #21 and #22

"Gypsy Wheel"
Pattern No 106 pg 97

Second of the three I'd planned to finish over the Queen's Birthday weekend, another one that came up really nicely. I love the pop of pink in the border.

Finished 12th June.

"Margarita"

Pattern No 191 pg 159

I mentioned in the previous post that I was going back to "Gentle Waves".  I think I'm giving up on that one.  It just doesn't seem to sit right with me.  After frogging back my second attempt on Gentle Waves I switched to Margarita, and here it is.  The frilly border is a lot simpler than it looks.  Finished this one on Friday night (12th June) during a double header of Phryne Fisher (last week and this week's episodes of Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries).

I've now got three spreadsheets going, one keeping track of the sort of details I'm posting here, including start and finishing dates, as they don't all get finished the same day they are started, one with the page, star and colour numbers of blocks I'd like to do, and one that's keeping track of linear blocks vs in the round, single colour blocks, common colour combinations, etc.

I'm starting to get some ideas for how I plan to put them all together, and that's meaning that I'm being a little more deliberate in how I choose blocks and colours.

Block a day #19 and #20

 "Double Granny"
Pattern 43, pg 55

I do end up doing more blocks in the round rather than in rows, partially because the tension seems to a lot easier (and more consistent).  But I like how this one has come up, and I'm very pleased with my colour choices.

"Granny's Round"
Pattern 104, pg 96

Another one I really like.  This is one of the three I was planning to do on our weekend away, but I don't think I started it until the day we got home.  These were the four colours I took with me, so you'll see these colours again in the next couple (one of which is finished, and one of which is...




...one of the two current blocks I currently have half done, and would love to finish tonight (while M watches the new season of Orange is the New Black).  But right now I'm planning to try another one entirely: the first pattern I tried, "Gentle Waves", which I frogged back fairly quickly.  But that was using one of my variegated yarns, and we know what happened to those blocks...

Block a day - #17 and #18

So, the posting schedule broke down a little.  We were away in Sydney for a friend's wedding, and although I took yarn with me to keep up with doing at least one block a day, I managed half of one in the four days...

"Kaleidoscope"
Pattern 332, pg 263

I love how this one came up.  It's got two colours that I don't want to overuse - the hot pink and the black - but just want to sprinkle through the project as a little bit of spice.








"Spinningfields"
Pattern 281, pg 224

Although it doesn't look that great in this photo, I really love this block.  It's one I may well use again in the future for other projects.

Block a Day - #15 and #16

"Winter Daisy"
Pattern No 258, pg 208

This is listed as a 1-star pattern, but believe me, it is NOT.  Also the pattern was hard to follow, with no indication of what was meant by "sl-st behind top of next dtr3tog".

Not a favourite.

Finished 31 May.









"Sugared Almonds"
Pattern No 336, pg 267


Going with some similar colourschemes here.  (Just wait until the weekend, when we're going away and I'll need to plan my squares for three days ahead!)

I like this one - in the photo you can't really see the effects of the front-post trebles (which are every second row, just about).  Serviceable rather than pretty, but very serviceable.

Finished 1 June

Block a day - #13 and #14

Note to self: choose a font and stick to it.

 "Greek Cross"
Pattern 105, pg 96

There is one mistake in this one, but I was too lazy to go back and fix it.

I'm now saving the variegated yarn for single round borders, as I did previously with Tangerine Dream.  It's about the only way I think it will work in this project, which means one of these days I'll frog back those first three blocks.

Finished 30 May

"St Tropez"
Pattern 239, pg 194

As I said on Instagram, this is a version of the St Tropez pattern.  The pattern in the book involved right sides and wrong sides and made no sense to me whatsoever.  So I ended up just doing a very straight granny in htr, following the initial round pattern, but without all the turning.  I mostly like the look of it, and to me it looks like the photo in the book, but I sure didn't follow the written pattern.

Finished 31 May

Block a day - blocks #11 and #12

"Fans"
Pattern #84, p 83

This was the square that I spilled wine over last Sunday.  This isn't using the same yarn, but it's close to the same colour yarn, and it's a really pretty block once it's worked up.  I quite like it.

Finished 29 May.

"Millefeuille"
Pattern #111, pg 100

Why, why, why I decided to do this just after I did "Ripple", with all its multiple ends to tie off, I do not know. I really like it in close colours, although Shell thought it needed more contrast so that she could tell that there were different colours.

Finished 29 May

Block a Day, blocks #9 and #10

Block #9
"Rose Garden"
Pattern 139, pg 121

I got my counting wrong and so the first green round is a little cobbled-together, but it worked out, I think.  The green "granny" style section is done with 2-tr instead of 3-tr, which constantly confused me

Block #10
"Ripple"
Pattern 180, pg 152

Looks great, but incredibly difficult (I challenge the one star rating) and fiddly. Also, we'll have to see what blocking does to it.  I also instagrammed my frustration with the number tails you end up with in ripple patterns

Block a day project - blocks #7 and #8

Block #7
"Rosa"
Pattern 145, p 125

 A bad photograph of the "Rosa" block.  I had to start again after the first round of green, because I'd only done seven petals instead of eight (argh, I can't count).

That said, it's another lovely block that I'm likely to use again.

Finished the morning of 26th May, although the bulk was made during the 25th of May.

Block #8
"Tangerine Dream"
Pattern 92, pg 88

As I've said previously, I'm not entirely sure about my previous variegated yarn blocks, but I can totally cope with variegated final rounds, and I'm really pleased with this block.  Looking at the photo, I suspect the top right hand corner shows where I was accidentally doing 2-ch corners instead of 4-ch (oops!)

The 4-ch, by the way, felt very odd as I was working the square, but the block itself seems to have turned out okay.

Block a Day - blocks #5 and #6

Block #5
"Hove"
Pattern 141, pg 122
Clearly, this block needs blocking.

Even then, I don't know that it will actually work - I rather envisage taking the final round off and doing a different setting for the hexagon.

Finished: 22nd May 2015

Block #6
"Modern Mesh"
Pattern 210, pg  172

Another one that I really like, and can see using in other projects.  There's a somewhat similar pattern, "Spinningfields", that I expect I'll try soon.

I don't know how the corners turned out quite so pointy and twisted, though...

Finished 25 May 2015.

Block a day, blocks #3 and #4 (and an un-numbered block)

Block #3
"Simple Stripe"
Pattern 78, p 78

 The photo in the book shows the block upside down from the way the pattern is written, which drove me nuts.  It's all in dc/sc, and has curled in a little from the tension, and thus definitely needs blocking out.

Finished 23 May, while watching the Eurovision semi-final 2 and drinking...

 Block #4
"Granny's Not Square"
Pattern 284, p 226

I really love the circle offset inside the square, and it was nice and simple to make.  This was a replacement for the one I'll discuss below, and I really needed something straight-forward and uncomplicated.

Finished 25 May 2015, although the bulk was done on the evening of the 24th.

And then there was this...

So, I was at least halfway through "Fans" (pattern 84, p 83) when I noticed a mistake in the third row (see above re crocheting during Eurovision).  So I started to frog it back... and then I knocked over my glass of red wine, right on top of my frogged yarn.  In the photo the yarn is sitting on a paper towel, and if you look closely you can see the wine that has soaked into the paper towel.

I haven't yet washed it out - need to do that tonight - but I'll probably do "Fans" at some point in the project, just not necessarily straight away, and probably with a different yarn.

Block a day, blocks 1 and 2*

The first three blocks I made for this project were in variegated yarn, and they just don't work all that well.  I haven't yet decided whether to a) keep them in the project, b) only use the variegated yarn for border rounds, or c) not use that yarn at all. 

Because I'm not yet so sure of this, I won't be sharing those blocks with you here - which means the numbering as compared to what I've put on Instagram will be all stuffed up. 

I will probably either stop mentioning numbers on Instagram, or instead renumber once I've blogged all the already-completed blocks.

Block 1

"Juliette"

Pattern #20, p 40

 This block is so pretty.  I misread the pattern for round one (in part because of mistakes in previous patterns,) but I picked up the mistake pretty quickly.  I will certainly be keeping this one in mind for other projects because, did I mention, it's pretty!

Finished 22 May 2015

Block #2
"Full Moon"
Pattern #185, p 155

Having "finished" this one, I found that it was nowhere near the size of the other completed squares, so I added one more round in the dark purple.  Again it's a lovely looking block, and I'm pleased with the colour choice.  This one I mostly work on Saturday afternoon in between helping with cooking dinner for the evening, and then sitting outside on our patio in the afternoon sun.

Finished 23 May 2015

Introducing the "Block a Day" project

If you happen to follow me on Instagram (chez_stutters), you'll have seen me mention a new crochet project I'm calling "A Block a Day".

For Christmas last year, M. got me Tracey Lords "A Square a Day", and she's been very keen on the idea of me making a crochet sampler.

This past week was incredibly stressful.  Just for starters, the ceiling fell in on my workplace - and I'm not speaking metaphorically.  And after that, other stuff happened.

In what I can only see as a subconscious attempt at stress relief, I started picking a pattern and working on it in an attempt to complete at least one 15 in crochet square per day.

It works out not too badly in part because there is just so much Masterchef on TV at the moment (five days a week), and I can get a fair bit done during an episode as long as the pattern isn't too difficult.

Since Wednesday, therefore, I've made nine blocks, all of them from scraps in my stash.  Today I went out to Spotlight and bought a number of new 100g balls of yarn in the basic colours that I've started off using, so that I can keep going when I run out of stash.

Please note that none of these blocks have been blocked yet.

Finally, I've also set up a little "station" in my craftroom for yarn (in the top basket) and my completed squares in the bottom basket.  (The ball in the bottom left corner is pinker than it looks in this photo.)