Granny stripe blanket growing..

Summer is here (sort of, not really, today it has rained all day, yesterday it rained all day etc)
I have been spending my spare time outside not sitting in front of the TV with my hooks and yarn. However, I have been 'casually' making some progress on my granny stripe blanket. It is getting quite big now!

Be warned, it does get boring so I might move on to something else at any time. Still on target for completion by the end of forever though.

Oh and just a quick photo of my helper:

I am fairly concerned that she thinks it is hers!

STARS

Writing about a colourful project completed a few weeks ago to brighten up this very wet and miserable day we've had..

So my house has stairs that curve and at one point as you are walking down the main part you are faced with a plain beige wall with a view of the full height of the building. I couldn't decide what to do with this wall as I was quite keen for the stairway to stay beige as it has no window so I wanted to keep it as light as possible, but I didn't want it to be dull! And then I created the hombre stars bunting below and I instantly knew it would hang perfectly from top to bottom of this wall!

One of each colour as they were being made -

The pattern is from an issue of Simply Crochet and I used the yarn recommended in the pattern - Drops Paris . This is my first use of 100% cotton yarn and it was magical!  I will most definitely use Drops yarn again. I bought one ball of each colour and there is a little left from each.

This is the stack of them all before they were strung together. Reminded me so much of a pile of coasters, I am tempted to make another lot and stiffen them!
Normally I would block things like this but as they were being hung on the wall I thought there would be little point as they would stretch a bit anyway when they were hung up.

And the Ta Daaaaa moment:

I had to ask the other half to help me hang this and due to the weight I had to put a few tacks in the wall every few stars to prevent the top ones being stretched too much. 

Thanks for reading, hope you love them as much as me and might be a little inspired ?!?!?! 

Mandala Madness

I've been taking advantage of the bank holiday weekend to get some crochet time in! As I have mentioned before I follow blog Attic24 which i love love love because of all the inspiration and easy to understand instructions. It is so clear that Lucy loves what she does so much and wants everyone else to love it too!
Anyway I am taking part in making mandalas - mandalas for yarndale and this is my creation!

It is so colourful and happy and it makes me smile! I would love to cover a little wall with them.

They are really quite simple to make if you aren't too worried about doing colour changes and they are so effective. There are a few different types of stitch here and as I was making this I was thinking it would make a nice showcase for a beginner to do as you could say "look I can do single crochet, double crochet, some chaining and a bit of treble crochet!"  Or is that a bit much for a beginner?  Either way it was fun and a much welcome break from the monotony of blanket production!