3 Things

I have gotten over myself following my little internal strop about the Glastonbury blanket and not wanting to make any more squares. I realised that I was just being impatient to see it in full, and that this really wasn’t good enough!!

The blanket is really begging to be square, and not a half-hearted rectangle, so as much as I want to play with edging and my new projects, the Glastonbury (and my Aunt!) deserve better, so I have been hooking up the final 16 circles, ready to turn into squares, ready to turn into the last 2 rows of blanket. 

The Glastonbury Blanket, begging me to make it square!

The edging is puzzling me, when I started planning this blanket I had visualised a couple of extra Turquoise granny rounds around the whole thing, to neaten up the edges and to give a better proportion between the motifs inside and the edging outside. The edging I had pictured to be quite lacy and in a fabulous purple, making a real statement to finish off the blanket nicely.

I still love this idea, and I have found a pattern I loooooove for this plan, but the mounds of excess colourful yarn in my basket have a different idea. They are calling out to me to be turned into a border of granny rows in a fabulous fiesta of colour…

I don’t like the idea of lots of different coloured granny rows topped off with the lacy edge, as I feel it wouldn’t do justice to either plan – to my mind the lacy edge needs simplicity and boldness of colour, while the fiesta of colour needs a simplicity and boldness of pattern… However, I do have a little idea emerging of how to combine these competing ideas without spoiling either one, so I’m keeping it a secret for now until I can see if it will work!

This sheep is called Ginny, and she has hearts on her knees. How absolutely adorable is she?????

And the grand finale...

I received a little parcel today – I had been expecting it, and was quite excited to see it waiting for me when I got back from the gym today!

Inside was a card with a lovely message…

…and a little bag to keep its contents protected… can you see what is peeking out through the clear parts of the bag?

If you were thinking that it looks like yarny hooky goodness, then you’d have been correct! Just look at those lovely vibrant colours: 

Then turn it over, and see more lovely colours, and a fantastic pattern begging to be enjoyed!

To do justice to this lovely creation, I decided to take it outside into much better light for photos. I seem to not be very good at photographing round things, but I did my best to not have the perspective looking all strange.

And here it is, all that yarny-hooky-coloured goodness!

That’s right, it’s a stunning crochet mandala, hooked up in lovely purples pinks and greens in such a way that it shows off that lovely pattern to perfection. Its journey through the mail has left it a little rumpled at the edges so I will block it again to return to its full glory, but it is no less gorgeous for its travels!

So where would such a wonderful package come from? Why, the lovely Sharon at Perfect Days :)  We only met recently through blogland when I restarted my blog at this new address, and Sharon has been very lovely to me ever since we ‘hooked up’. Then a couple of days ago, I saw an email from her, asking if I would like this lovely thing to take with me to Australia – well that question was only going to have one answer!!!!! And now here it is, in the flesh (or in the yarn at least!) and it’s even lovelier than it was when I saw it in Sharon’s photos! What a wonderful, lovely, thoughtful and kind thing to have done – to offer something made by hand and with love as a gift to another person. I feel very privileged indeed to be the recipient of something so wonderful!

Thank you very much to Sharon, and to everyone else, please do pop by to Perfect Days and see this lovely mandala's journey into existence!