I can’t believe it has been over 2 weeks since I last blogged, but I have been busy so blogging has been neglected – perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised. However, sometimes even best laid plans go wrong and this blog post is several hours late!!

When I started typing this I was listening to some party music blasting away from the field behind our house. The sheep that have enjoyed the lush grass in the large field behind us (very lush recently owing to the warm wet weather we have been having) were being sheared and the sheep shearer obviously likes his music loud as he works!  But that was several hours ago, because we had a power cut and have been without electricity for over 3 hours!

Hey, that is a short power cut and didn’t stop me eating or drinking. OK, confession – the eating was some lovely potatoes just lifted and boiled on our (gas) hob for less than 10 minutes.  Oh my. They were so good.  This was my potatoes patch only 3 weeks ago:

It’s hard to believe that it produces some lovely spuds so soon!

Somehow being in the midst of a power cut makes me want to eat more, possibly I feel worried that I may not be able to have a hot meal for hours (but why should I worry about that, so many people in the world don’t even know where their next meal will come from).   It’s sort of inbuilt, a need to know when/where your next meal comes from, and I am so lucky that for me it is never too far way (even if we have no power!).

What have I been doing since my last blog?   This week saw my usual monthly Cheshire Crochet Club meeting – we worked on samplers, using all sorts of variations of the most common stitches.   It certainly kept all my crochet club members quieter than usual, you could feel the concentration in the air as we worked!   And then I followed with a much smaller crochet club at my home, 3 ladies who wanted to move from beginner to accomplished crocheters.  We worked on granny squares and I developed a lovely variable cushion cover for them – using different variations of granny squares and granny stitches.   It was a great success – 3 perfect squares left my house after only 2 hours.  They have lots of homework, but when we meet again they should see a cushion developing. Here’s a sneak peek at the cushion:

I enjoyed putting this together and I plan a few kits of the variable design for the Cheshire Fibre Festival on 1^st October.

I’ve also been working on my preparation for CFF. I now have some lovely flower bunting kits ready and packed (the first of about 8 kits I plan).  The kit and design for this bunting has been tested (thank you Julie!), and the chart has been made very colourful (thank you Amanda!). When I designed this floral bunting I didn’t realise just how much work would be needed – because each kit has 6 small skeins of yarn and each had to be wound.   My niddynoddy was well used, and I am determined not to produce kits with such small skeins ever again!  The few I’ve made will be rare!  Sorry, I’m not sharing photos yet – I’m saving them until the month before the event.

I have finished a ‘scrap’ blanket. I decided the 2 designs I produced for the Friends Around the World CAL needed to be used, so I made a lap blanket using them plus a couple more – the Agathi square from my Winter Blanket CAL adapted to be larger and a square from my Blog Blanket CAL also adapted to be larger.

In all I used 16 squares (4 of each design), joined them then added a simple edging. I was very pleased with the result and the fact that I could make 2 or 3 large squares in one evening – it really was a case of big squares make quick blankets!

Finally, I can reveal I have been asked to do a crochet workshop at Goosfest this year, so my lovely granny cushion design will be used there also! More deatls to follow.

Meanwhile, happy crocheting xx