Crochet Challenge Commences!

Lots of words in my last post - lots of pictures today (and lots of words too probably!)

Firstly I have to tell you about my BIG tea mug. I do love tea, and sometimes I need a huge tea, so out comes the BIG tea mug. Delicious! As well as being an awesome drinking vessel for a tea addict, it always reminds me of my adventures as a traveller many moons ago (16 years ago to be exact!). When my husband and I did our big OE together we found these mugs on sale - they were only $1NZ each and I loved the deep blue colour; we bought one each and carried them round in our backpacks for a few months until we returned home to the UK. And we still have them! What nutters!

Anyway I digress - on to the CROCHET!! Firstly I have to thank Sally at virtu for putting me onto the granny square challenge, which you can sign up for too at this link. It's really captured my imagination and yesterday I made 3 squares!! As you can see from the photo I had a granny square bag felting kit in my collection, which I started yesterday, hoping to felt today. The kit was on sale at Spotlight - they may have a few left! The wool is lovely and soft, but be careful not to twist it too much as you crochet as it goes very tight and thin (lots of untwisting happening last evening!) My very first square of the challenge was made from a pattern I'd ripped out of a magazine when I was about 14, although I didn't learn to crochet until I was away at uni a few years later - see even crochet brings back memories! The square is in my most favourite creating colours of purple and orange.

When I woke yesterday morning the first thoughts to pop into my head rather than 'what shall I have for breakfast' were 'ooh, what sort of squares shall I crochet and what will I make out of the squares'. Here's a little list:

1. pink and grey squares (sounds revolting, but honestly looks quite pleasant)
2. really bright squares
3. blocks of 9 squares, each with a colour theme, to be joined into one big blanket
4. cushion covers
5. use up my stash of acrylic 8 ply to make a random patterned afghan blanket
6. crochet with pure wool to make a lovely soft blanket, possibly in natural colours
7. alternate traditional lacy designs with 'solid' crochet squares
8. find as many different squares as I can and make them all!

Most probably I am going to do number 8 as I cannot resist trying somthing new, and if I find anything really interesting, I'll share it with you here! To start here are a couple of websites to start you down the track: try out Bev's Country Cottage for lots of afghan squares, including hearts and flowers; also this site has lots of links to different patterns with intriguing names such as cluster flower afghan square, puff flower and popcorn flower - I'm going to try them all!

I think this project is so inviting because it's small and portable and a great way to get some creativity into your day - it's also very quick, you'll be able to find a pocket of time somewhere in your day. It allows you to be creative with colour and design. Personally I think the traditional granny square is just lovely in it's simplicity and gives lots of range for colour choice.

Well, I'm off now to sit under the air-con and make another square, then I'll make start on my new blog banner. And off you go to crochet ... join the challenge!