Saturday 15 January 2011

daisies and distractions...

I woke up this morning with 'An Idea'...just a little one, I think prompted by a couple of things...firstly, one of the stylecraft colours was jumping out of the bag of yarn at me and although I love it as a colour (bright, buttercup yellow-gold - in fact, my kitchen is painted this colour), it just felt 'not quite right' for my big ripple blanket.


It doesn't show very well in this photo, the light has been so dull and grey here again today, but believe me this is one bright yellow and I already have one quite zingy yellow in there.

Plus...I realise I have the concentration span of a two year old, and where I can happily sit and ripple a few rows of an evening after work as kind of rhythmic 'therapy', being confined to barracks and pretty much stuck on the sofa with my dodgy leg up has meant that I could legitimately sit and crochet for several hours. Great! (I thought) but much as I like the satisfying row by row progress of the ripple, I got b-o-r-e-d, to the point at which I kept making stupid mistakes in the counting and having to frog and redo bits yesterday.

So, this morning I decided to activate my brain cells and try to work out a pattern for a daisy - I already had the bright yellow-gold for the centre, and found a bit of white yarn lurking in the bottom of my bag. I think this yarn was baby yarn that I knitted a bobbly hat which all three of my boys wore as newborns so must have been lurking for 22 years or so (I am a terrible hoarder...).

The end result was a daisy circle!


I am ridiculously pleased with myself for this little circle! What do you think?! 

I have faithfully copied other people's patterns before and worked out designs from photos but this is my first stab at working something out for myself and it was surprisingly gratifying to do!

I didn't get what I wanted straight off...


I tried a simple granny square first, but although the colours were right, it didn't feel like a daisy to me - wrong shaped petals and just Not Right. Several attempts with different numbers of stitches ensued and I had Not Quite Flat, Not Quite a Circle (twice!) before getting to just what I had in mind. This feels a cheerful little circle to me - I love most flowers but particularly like the simplicity of things like daffodils, primroses, daisies - all those natural, unpretentious blooms that just brighten things up without needing to be nurtured. I love the daisies in the grass in the summer - a view not quite shared by himself, who has that peculiar male obsession with the grass being just Green.

Anyway, 17 and 20 year old sons (T & S) humoured me by dutifully agreeing that my final attempt was the most daisy-like and I happily proceeded to work a little pile of daisies.


This little pile was very quick to work and worked their brightening magic on me. I don't quite know what to do with them yet...I will certainly do a few more and thought about making them into squares all edged in the same colour (maybe blue?), perhaps for a cushion, perhaps another blanket? The boys tell me we don't need any more cushions or blankets...but I hardly think thats the point! I'm sure I can find a home for something somewhere. If anyone is reading this, let me know what you think...I'd love to know if you like the daisies as much as I do!

The daisies did provide considerable distraction today - I have been going a bit stir crazy the last few days - it has been sooo grey I have had to keep the lights on all day (hence the photos on the windowsill!). I am really not very good at prolonged inactivity and am torn between wanting to do as I'm told and just rest the leg in the hope that it heals quickly, or just seeing what I can manage! 

As another reprieve from the boredom, S took me to the coast today! I did feel a bit like the elderly granny being taken out for an airing - we parked as close as possible to the sea and I walked all of about 20 yards (and had to concede that the leg is not ready for slopes yet!). Very frustrating not to be able to walk along the beach but it was good to be out in the fresh air just for a short while, even if it was a bit blowy and bleak.


I do love the seaside at all times of year, but especially in the winter when the power of the waves is really evident. Much of this section of the beach is covered in broken sea defences which are pounded constantly by the crashing waves. Not pretty, but definitely dramatic.

I should say thanks to The Quince Tree for helpful hint about using BigHugeLabs.com for putting together the photo samplers - I have been having fun playing with their 'toys'! (I haven't yet worked out how to add a link from here - sorry!).

One more thing I must just show you - the finished wrist-warmers for my friend P:


I hope she likes them!

And I have been better friends with my big ripple again today, which for the record now has 17 rows! Will post progress pics at some point.

So, enough for today...it has got very late and I should really be getting some sleep!

Sx







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