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song-bird1To make this 15cm blanket square you will need

1 x 4mm (USA ‘g’) crochet hook & 1 x embroidery needle

1 x 50g Debbie Bliss cotton DK in shades Ecru / Cream shade 02 (or similar)

A small amount of soft brown cotton DK for the bird itself, an oddment of orange for the beak & a small amount of green cotton DK for the musical notes

The cream 15cm x 15cm dc base square

Foundation row    24ch, 1dc into 2nd ch from hook, dc to end, turn. (23sts)
Rows 1 - 24          1ch, dc to end, turn. (23 sts)
Row 25                 1ch, dc to end, fasten off. (23sts)

NB. If your finished square is not 15cm square you can adjust the size by using either a hook size up or down depending on whether your square is too small or large.

The songbird - worked in rounds & then embroidered

Foundation ring    Using your soft brown cotton DK make a magic adjustable ring, 6dc into ring, pull tail of ring tight, do not turn, place stitch marker if wanted. (6sts)
1st round             2dc in each of the 6 dc’s of previous round, move stitch marker, do not turn. (12sts)
Final round           [1dc,3tr,1dc] into 1st stitch of this round, 4dc, [1dc,4ch,5dtr,4ch,1dc] into next stitch, 9dc, [1dc,3htr,1dc] into next stitch, 1dc, slip stitch across next 4dc’s, then to form a wing shape… slip stitch into the previous rounds dc’s with another 7 or so slip stitches curving firstly downwards and then back across to the right, finishing just below and to the right of your magic adjustable ring, pull last loop through to back of work, fasten off.

Use a single strand of your brown DK & small stitches to stitch the lower/outer loops of your completed bird shape to the bottom left hand corner of the cream square. Then using a single strand of the brown DK embroider 2 birds legs in back stitch, start at the birds body… work few stitches downwards and then work the last stitch across horizontally to form a foot at the end of each leg. Using a single strand of cream work a french knot for the birds eye. Lastly using a single strand of bright orange DK work a tiny triangular shaped satin stitch area for the birds beak.

The musical notes

Using a single strand of green DK work each musical note one at a time. Start each musical note with a bullion stitch circle wrapping the yarn around the needle 12 times before pulling the needle through and pulling it tight. Finally work the vertical stem of each note with 2 x chain stitches. Do as many musical notes around the square as you like!

NB. The pattern for this square is written in UK crochet terms ie.

1 DC= 1 x UK double crochet/USA Single crochet (SC)

1HTR= 1 x UK Half treble/USA half double crochet (HDC)

1 TR= 1 x UK Treble/USA double crochet (DC)

1 DTR= 1 x UK double treble/USA triple crochet (TRC)

Have fun & if you have any queries just let me know :)

To make all 4 of the 15cm blanket squares as shown in my previous post I used…

1 each x 50g Debbie Bliss cotton DK in shades Ecru / Cream shade 02 & Bright Orange shade 42

1 x 100g Katia 100% cotton DK in Jamaica (multi col… red, green, yellow & soft brown).

( I still have a small amount of each yarn left to use up too)

1 x 4mm crochet hook.

Flower Square

flower-square

If you are using the Katia Multi colour cotton DK… find the start of the red colour in the ball and make 8ch, join with a sl st to form a ring. This square is a modified version of the one found in the Harmony Guide ‘300 crochet stitches’ book.

1st round    1ch, 18dc into ring, sl st to first dc, (18sts).

2nd round   1ch, beginning into same st as 1ch (1dc, 3ch, miss 2 sts) x 6, sl st in first dc.

3rd round    1ch, work a petal of (1dc, 3ch, 5tr, 3ch, 1dc) into each of the next 6 3ch arches, sl st to first dc.

4th round    1ch, (1dc between 2dc, 5ch behind petal of 3rd round) x 6, change to the green part of the Katia ball and sl st to first dc.

5th round    1ch, work a petal of (1dc, 3ch, 7tr, 3ch, 1dc) into each of next 6 5ch arches, sl st to first dc. Fasten off.

6th round    Using the cream/ecru join yarn between 2dc, 1ch, (1dc between 2dc, 6ch behind green petal) x 6, sl st to first dc.

7th round    Sl st into next ch, 3ch (count as 1tr), *(4tr, 2ch, 1tr) all into same arch, 6tr into next arch, (2tr, 2ch, 4tr) all into next arch**, 1tr into next arch, repeat from * to **, sl st to top of 3ch.

8th round    3ch (count as 1tr), 1tr into each tr of previous round & work (3tr, 2ch, 3tr) into each 2ch space, change to green of katia ball again & sl st to top of 3ch.

9th round   3ch (count as 1tr), 1tr into each tr of previous round & work (3tr, 1ch, 3tr) into each 2ch space, sl st to top of 3ch, fasten off.

NB. The pattern for this square is written in UK crochet terms ie.

1 DC= 1 x UK double crochet/USA Single crochet (SC)

1 TR= 1 x UK Treble/USA double crochet (DC)

Have fun & if you have any queries just let me know :)

The 4 squares together


The 4 squares together

Originally uploaded by fiona-kelly

I managed to rattle off a couple more squares in addition to finishing the songbird one. I’ll write up the patterns longhand tonight as they’re going off in the post tomorrow.

As soon as I can I’ll pop patterns for all 4 in the free patterns page so you can have a go at them too if you want :) They’re all 15cms square and made with 100% Cotton DK… so nice and quick!

Blanket squares

I’m taking a short holiday from Haggis the Highland cow… with a few blanket squares for a joint blanket with some fellow ravelers. This is my songbird square… just a few musical notes are needed, which I should get done tonight & I’ll post a photo of the finished square.

My tangerine dreams square turned out more like multi-colour dreams, i’ve been deliberating whether to add more orange embellishment? I haven’t quite decided on that one… what do you think?

I’m still here… baby #2 on the way

You may have been wondering where I’ve been for the last 2 months! Well there are a variety of reasons for my absence but it’s time for me to fess up! The main one can be seen in the pictures below :)

For the last 2 months I have been suffering really badly with morning sickness or my version of it which is basically 24hrs a day nausea. I was like this when I was pregnant with Finn. Even wearing travel sickness acupressure bands haven’t stopped it completely, but they have made enough of a difference for me to cope with the nausea and keep Finn going to his usual activities. By the time it’s got to the evening I’ve been totally shattered and have been in bed shortly after Finn to snuggle under the duvet for the majority of nights!

As of today I’m 12wks and 3days and supposed to be heading into the time when all pregnant women get that glow… no sign of that with me yet though! If this pregnancy goes like Finn’s I’ve only got about 2wks of nausea to go… fingers crossed.

One of the things that have been different this time are my cravings. Last time I went chocoholic and tomato soup mad… which was very strange as I loathe tomato soup and i’m not usually that fussed about chocolate. I also went off fish and avocados which I normally love. This time my cravings have been for apples, avocados, egg mayonaise sandwiches, potatoes & mature cheddar cheese… and i’ve gone off meats like chicken/beef/turkey etc unless they’re hidden in casseroles and soups! Weird :)

I had to fish out my maternity clothes at 9wks as my tummy decided to expand very quickly… I think when you’ve done it before it always shows quicker. At least I didn’t go through a stage of looking like I’d been eating too many cream cakes…  thankfully just straight from looking not pregnant to she’s definitely pregnant. We told a few people early as there was no way I could hide it. So there’s still a long time to go but i’m sure it’ll be may 15th before we know it!

Guess my new theme


Guess my new theme

Originally uploaded by fiona-kelly

I’m still taking my Ravelry project photographs… but thought I’d upload a job lot in one go for a change!

Can you guess what my new theme is?

Glass headed pins 25/365


Glass headed pins 25/365

Originally uploaded by fiona-kelly

My last glass themed photo…. The new theme starts tomorrow…

Glass photos 22, 23 & 24/365

Bet you thought I’d forgotten to do my 365 project?! Well it’s getting hard to think of more glass shots but still have a few ideas left… I’ve just not had a chance to upload for the last few days…

Stained glass 21/365


Finn was back to our church play group today.. a lovely place to go for a fun packed morning and great cups of tea for me… apologies it’s a bit blurry :)

We drove down to Taunton last Saturday to collect it from Bredons as it was ready from being serviced… so the time had come to get all it’s accessories together and list it on ebay. When Finn was playing with daddy sunday afternoon & while the light was still good I managed to take lots of pictures… although I realised the next day I’d forgotten to photograph a whole lot of assorted feet I had that don’t fit in the standard tool box! Oh well :)

It took the best part of sunday evening to crop the photos, upload them to ebay and write the blurb about it. Who would have thought explaining what the bernina 1260QPE does and what mine has with it would take so long! Click here If you want to see my finished blurb.

I’m still having palpatations at the thought of it actually selling… there are no bids just yet but a few watchers. Unfortunately I really have no choice as since Finn took over what was our dining room and his old small room has become our new dining room our storage capabilities have been severly reduced. Those of you who know me know how much crafting and sewing stuff I have… in addition to the collection of machines and there is no way we can physically fit it all in the small room. Even if the Bernina 1260QPE sells I will still have my other Bernina (the Artista200E) with embroidery attachment & my Babylock eclipse overlocker so I can’t really complain.

During the clear out I have recycled some old incomplete dressmaking patterns, given away my patchwork fabric stash, sent my unused non-feltable stashed yarns to a fellow Raveller in need in the USA with the postage paid by another Raveller as a gift.

Even with all this sorting and clearing I’ve been doing I’ve still got more to sort through…. but for this week I’ll call it a halt & hope my special Bernina baby finds a loving good home…. sigh.

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