Eight-by-Six

Goodbye August a colourful and surprising productive month. I finished a crochet shawl, Amma granny square top and started s new one, started a new stripe knitted jumper, finished my cactus tea cosy pattern and started my Macmillan granny square coffee morning granny square blanket 🌸

I hatched an idea yesterday, like you do when you have an extra day off! And it involves yarn and crochet, my two most favourite things.  Normally I bake for Macmillan coffee morning, this year I am holding an alternative coffee morning via my Just Giving Page here  My blanket journey started 5 years ago when my dad was first diagnosed with cancer and I’d learnt to crochet. I started with a granny stripe blanket taking it along to my dads hospital appointments. I was amazed at how many people stopped to look at me crocheting all the bright colours, it wasn’t a gloomy visit, far from it. At the end of my dads treatment I gave him the blanket which he still uses today. I decided that rather than bake this year I’d crochet instead - one of my Orla Kiely 1970s inspired blankets, big and cosy for autumn nights in front of the tv.  Its so easy, I'm doing all the hard work, all you need to do is pledge £2 to be in the draw to win my blanket. And live in U.K. (due to high postage co

August, summer, mmm not so sure. After the heatwave we had that last for a month here in the UK, today's weather resembles Autumn! Definetely a blanket cosy on the sofa day if I wasn't working. Oh well just have to snuggle underneath one when I get home, I think it will be my Orla Kiely one, its my top favourite at the moment. Granny blanket stack Saying that I do have one blanket on the go, like it when the weather turns chilly and I can watch TV and snuggle under it keeping me warm whilst i add more rows. my new Orla Kiely inspired granny square blanket I think I will make another one of my rainbow blankets next, tempted to start one tonight. Optical illusion my favourite rainbow granny square blanket

Granny Square Day is an international online celebration on Instagram, which began back in 2014 by Susan Regalia ( @suregal27   on Instagram). Susan had just learned to crochet and was enamoured with the cheerful little granny square, and the idea of having a Grannysquare Day was born. Making it should be a public holiday too, now wouldn't that be fabulous. I plan to crochet a few more traditional granny squares in my lunch break and tonight too. Preparation for Granny Square Day 2018 Anyone can get inbolved. The rules for Grannysquare Day are simple: on  Wednesday 15th August , take a photo of a granny square (a 4-round traditional granny works best but feel free to be as creative as you want) and crop it so that the single square fills the entire screen of your post. Be sure to include the hashtag  #grannysquareday2018  in your post, so that everyone can see all the different types of squares! my little stack of granny squares One of the best things about Gra

Yeah my new cactus tea cosy pattern is now live you can buy it here at  Love Knitting . I've knitted mine in Debbie Bliss yarn but you can use any DK weight held double. This weekend I'll be adding my Cactus giveaway over on my Instagram account. Happy Knitting. Amanda x