I live on the Wirral peninsular which is on the north west coast of England sandwiched between Wales and Liverpool. If we look east we can see the amazing Liverpool skyline
This picture was taken the weekend the three 'Queens' came to Liverpool. This huge cruise liner makes the Liver building look tiny!
If we look west across the Dee Estuary we can see North Wales and on a clear day Snowdon.
Having a dog makes you go out whatever the weather and we love to look for little hidden gems in our local countryside.
We have picturesque sandstone villages,
shady woodland pathways,
peaceful patchworks of farm land
and of course beautiful sea views.
My creative projects are often inspired by my surroundings. For my latest crochet piece I have decided to use these soft heathery shades and work them into a hexagon design blanket
When planning colour schemes for my crochet projects I play around with my colour swatch squares. I made these after being given the idea from my friend Heather from The Patchwork Heart. I have hours of fun just choosing and rearranging different colour combinations.
Every time I buy yarn (I always use Stylecraft Special DK) I make a colour swatch square before I do anything else and tie its name tag to the corner so I know what shade it is. I've accumulated quite a few squares so far!
Anyway, back to my colour choice. It didn't take me long at all...I'm usually such a ditherer, but this time they seemed to be all my very favourite colours. My cosy living room is painted pale meadow green and the room has ascents of dark red (which is my all time favourite colour) on my patchwork cushions. I also love the blend of the misty, soft pinky purples in contrast to the zingy lime.
When I went to photograph the swatches on my favourite old quilt that I keep folded over the arm of my sofa, I realised that many of the tones in the quilt are the same as my swatches. This was when I knew I had made the right choice!
I've made several blankets based on squares and circles but I've never tried hexagons before. After seeing what some of my online 'crafty friends' have done and doing some research I decided to go with this simple little hexie I found on Revelry
First I made a batch of circles in all the different colours for the first round. They look proper messy but hang on they will soon start to take shape in the next round!
For round two I made sets of each colour with different centres to try to mix up the colours evenly. I keep my colour swatches handy to remind me to use all the colours equally. I have used this basket to store them in, this way they are quite portable for crocheting in the garden on a nice day or on a long car journey (as a passenger I fall asleep unless I have something to do!).
This is the stage I am at now. I'm making the little two ring circles into hexagons joining as I go. This is the best bit as the colours really start to jumble along together!
I never tire of looking at different areas where different colours meet.
I'm not sure how big this blanket will end up being, I'm just going to keep going until I feel like stopping! This is such a therapeutic pastime... I can just go with the flow!!!!!!
I'll let you know when its finished but this beauty is definitely for me!
Judith xxx
