Frida's Flower Blanket part 4

Part 4 of the Frida flower blanket looked as scary as part 3, until I looked more closely and realised that quite a lot of it was the same.  It's really the central motive which is different.

I do really love these colourful squares, even if they are a little more complexed than the first couple I made.  And the black just sets all the colours off.  Janie Crow obviously know's what she is doing!

As I sat there adding the black to the first of 4 squares it suddenly occurred to me that this square reminds me of the beautiful paint work often found on narrowboats in the UK.  It has the same flower motive and colours set against black that these boats often have.

And as I add each square and my blanket grows, the more excited I get.  I can't wait to see the thing finished, but am also aware that once it is I'll have to find another project to work on.  And while that won't be a problem, I have a massive list of possible next projects, I'll be sad to see this project end.

Basingstoke 5K

Today I ran the Basingstoke 5k for the 4th time.  But its actually my first race in a year, having been hampered by injury and illness, then stopping running for a bit as I started to commute up to London.  
At Easter my company moved offices to just far enough away from Waterloo to create a 2 mile run there and back most days which got me in to pretty good shape for the race.  
And so I came in at 26:26 which matches my other 3 attempts pretty well and shows if I do some more training I can probably knock some time off.
It's good to know the effort I've been putting in has been worth it.

Frida's Flower Blanket part 3

Every time I go to download the next pattern for the Janie Crow Frida Flower Blanket I get all excited.  Each pattern has been so pretty and I love that I can join them as I go, so I can see it grow.

This weeks was no exception, but once downloaded it was a bit scary too.  The third pattern is really pretty, but looks much more complicated than the first two, possibly due to the amount of colour in it.

Janie suggest you make all 4 squares at the same time, so complete a ring on each square before moving on.  This worked really well for me.
So although they look complicated, they were actually really quite straight forward to make and when attached to the other squares look really impressive. 
  

I am so pleased with how the project is progressing, and how well I'm keeping up.  I was worried I'd feel pressure to finish on time each week, but I haven't.  I've still got two to complete as I write this but that's ok.
It's a lovely project to come home to each evening and helps me to unwind.

Crochet cactus

In between making squares for the Frida Blanket I've also been having a go at creating a cactus.  There are two reasons for this. 1. We've just moved into a new office at work and there is a distinct lack of plants or people interested in watering them.  And 2. I wanted something to do while I waited for the next Frida pattern to be released.  

There are 5 cactus to choose from and I think this is my favourite, although that might change when I make the others.  I think its the tiny pink flowers that I love, although they were very fiddly to make.

As you can see below, the thread for creating flowers is much thinner than for the rest of it and while the cactus itself used a 4mm hook, the flowers took a 1.75mm hook!  But although fiddly I am really pleased with the end result.  I'm not sure if anyone at work has worked out it's not real yet.

Frida's Flower Blanket part 2

This week I was working on the second set of squares for Janie Crow's Frida blanket.  A little more complicated than the first square, as expected, so I learnt a couple of new stitches, but that's kind of the point of doing this.

This weeks flower involved learning how to popcorn!  Very straight forward once you know how.  While the pattern needed me to increase and decrease stitches.

But the most exciting thing was starting to join squares together.  Suddenly you can see that they are more than just a square.  You start to get a feeling for how they will sit together.  I am really looking forward to adding more.