Something new...

So... I tried something new today! Can you guess what I made???

I made salt dough!!

I used the basic recipe: 1 cup plain flour, 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup warm water.

I kneeded it for 5 mins - DEFFO worth persevering with it, I wasn't going to bother but I kept at it and the texture changed!! It goes from quite gritty and stiff to feeling like playdoh. MUCH better for making stuff with.

Good ol Pinterest had some FAB ideas for inspiration, here's some that caught my eye...

I used star and heart cookie cutters that I already had and experimented with stamping letters and patterns. I think I need more practice with how hard to stamp but I liked the overall look.

After I had got as many shapes as I could from the dough I popped them in the oven to bake. Just another few hours to wait!! 

A few more lines on the blanket...

Progress on the blanket!

 

A few hours here and there and the blanket is growing steadily!!!

 

I am loving how the colours all pop against each other! I was originally a little worried about how I was going to make sure no colours were duplicated in surrounding squares (I’m a little OCD with things like this!) but I quickly found it nearly impossible to make sure no square had the same colour as any of the squares next to it. As you can see in the picture, even when the same colour appears in 2 adjacent squares it looks great!!

A new line takes a little planning just to make sure the outer row isn’t the same as any outer rows touching it but the colour combos created through doing this are FAB!!!

 

I can’t wait to see it grow some more and REALLY can’t wait to see it finished!

 

A project to ease the pain...

At the beginning of Febuary my gran passed away. It's the first time I have ever felt a pain this big, a grief so deep, a loss so huge. I didn't really know what to do with myself, I spent a lot of time with her and suddenly my days were empty. So I picked a project to keep me busy and to give me something to focus on.

I had bought this book a few weeks before from the book club at work - only £5!!! There are some gorgeous patterns in there and I picked a lovely blanket to crochet.

I went and bought my wools (and a useful box to keep them in...

And started making little circles.... 168 of them... (You can see them all around the edge)

Each circle then got a 2nd row of a different colour....

And then each double row circle gets joined onto the next with a 3rd round that makes it square...

The blanket is going to be 12x14 squares big. It's going to be a crib blanket.

I'm really happy with it and I'm pleased to say (unlike my black/red/white granny square blanket that I started 2 years ago) it makes up really fast! 

I think my kitty thinks it's for her!

It's a lovely project that has certainly helped me through a very tough time. Gotta love the power of crafting.

️XxX