A Sigh of Relief :)

I think we’re allowed a little sigh of relief right now…

The removal lorry came this morning, and took all of our stuff that will be going into storage. It had seemed like a never-ending task to get everything ready for this move – I really do hope that I manage to get better at life stuff and never end up quite so cluttered and disorganised ever again!!

Somehow we have managed it though, and it seems that everything that was intended for the storage unit has been sent off on its way. My mother-in-law will come again tomorrow with her little van to take back more stuff that will be staying with us for the next 6 months, and then we just need to thoroughly clean the house ready to hand back. We already sorted out most of the garden, and we have booked to hire a carpet cleaner to go round and shampoo all the carpets, so I’m hoping all will be well when they do the inspection and we won’t get fined for anything!

A big empty room...(except for plants, which can't really go into a big dark storage unit...)

Right now though, we are too tired to do any more work for the rest of the day. Instead, we popped out to the supermarket to get a few things – some food for later, some DVDs to chill out with as we no longer have a TV here – in fact, we don’t have a sofa either, so we will have to watch the DVDs at the dining room table! (We don’t own a table and chairs, so we rented these and therefore they are still in the house). I also want to make some more circles for the Glastonbury Blanket.

I managed to tear myself away from my Cuddly Hexagons a few days ago, and after sewing in all of the ends on my existing Glastonbury squares, I began again crocheting circles. I would crochet in the evening to unwind, and then during breaks and stolen moments in the daytime I would sew in the ends – trying to get back into good crochet habits! I really got back into this sweet pattern, I think it’s a lovely modern twist on a Granny, especially with nice bright colours. It’s been making me happy in amongst the misery of packing to move house.

The last couple of evenings I have crocheted several more circles. I kind of like the way the appearance of the colours changes when I add the turquoise final rounds, so I decided I would make a pile of circles and then admire them before and after the turquoise goes on… it’s amazing the thoughts that pop into your head when you’re trying to avoid another, more daunting task!

Because the colours for this blanket weren’t planned very well – I simply bought everything purple, plus lots of pinks, and the one green – then there are lots of different tones in the mix. They don’t necessarily all go with each other well, but it think that when mixed up in the circles and with the turquoise in between then they will all be ok… These different tones do mean that vague colour schemes kind of arise as I collect more finished circles (more obvious in real life than in the photos!):

I’m not good at colour, I see so many blogs where people are amazing at colour, and I look at all their pictures and just want to dive in there… I know that some people have said that they have studied colour at art school, while others seem to have a natural ability that they hone with their work. I have neither of these I’m afraid! I know things I like when I see them, but I don’t know how best to achieve these different looks (and if I achieved all of them then I would have the most eclectic and clashing set of things imaginable!! I definitely like too many different things…) Anyway, my point was supposed to be that I really am learning about colour as I go along, making mistakes and questioning why I think things do or don’t work, and why things do or don’t look how I was aiming for… Watching how these colourful circles come into being, how their appearance changes with each new colour round, and then changes again with the final turquoise rounds, it really is quite fascinating for me :)

It’s hard to remember that for so long, whilst really getting the Mumbles Ripple underway, the Glastonbury Blanket used to have only these 5 lonely squares…

Then there were more – 9 more to be precise, making 14 in all...

And now there are 22 finished squares, with all the ends sewn in and everything… 7 new circles with all their ends sewn in, just waiting for a nice turquoise border (as per the last update)… 

PLUS a whopping 17 brand new circles!!! (sadly still with their 102 ends to sew in…) 

You can really start to get an idea of how this lovely blankie will look when it’s finished, and I’m really enjoying working on it. 

I can’t wait till there’s no more moving work to do and I can focus even more :)