Circles vs Stripe

Just a swift fly by to show my new yarn.

It Rico Creative Cotton that I saw, like sooooo many other blogsters, at Lucy's and decided I'd give it a whirl too.  I ordered a stash of the stuff but had to wait two months for it to arrive due to stock issues (plus the snow) and a further 2 weeks for the final two balls of that stunning emerald green (second in from the left)  The plus side to having an unexpectedly looooong wait was that I had to go to my LYS and buy supplies for an alterntive blanket, the bobble blanket that is so near finished and waiting for a reveal AND introduction.  Any who, I digress, the yarn arrived and I could wait no more, I thought I'd just roll the yarn into balls....

Hmmmm, such yummy colours, I'll just have a tiny hooky play.  I didn't know what style blanket I'd do, stripey, granny, ripple.  So many options.  Then I thought I'd just have a go at making the circles to go inside a granny square.  Of course one led to another, oh the colours go together so nicely, how could I stop at one when I just needed to see how another pair of colours would work up?

Somewhere in my memory bank was an image of a blanket made up of the inner circles of a granny square all joined together, I decided to trial it, see if that was the way to go.  And I loved those circles, although I realise I should have joined them together in brick format not in straight rows.  When I remember or stumble across the image I have in my head I'll link to it.  So apologies in the mean time if I've managed to totally copy somebody out right, I vaguely remember where I saw it, I think, I'll have a poke around blog world at some stage.  

Yes I love those circles, love the colours, love how they look.  Do not love making them.  That yarn is bitchy splitty.  I think I'll save that kind of blanket for a non splitty yarn, in the mean time I intend to knock out a super speedy vintage stripe.  Tutorial found here. But I'll do irregular colour rows.  Just pick out a random colour and do as many rows as I fancy before a colour change.

I've made a little nifty crochet hook roll because I was losing and finding my hooks all over the place and I know I can't blame my little boys for this all the time, I'm soooo untidy!

I couldn't remember where I first saw the idea (terrible memory) so I googled it and found this.  I used it as a guide, I didn't follow the measurements at all, or the instructions as I was too impatient and wanted to throw myself at it.  On reflection it would have been a good idea to have followed a tutorial.  

Happily it was one of those rare things that I managed to start and finish in one sitting while The Cuckoo's were at school/prescool.  I was chuffed.  Then I remembered where I'd seen the idea first and where the tutorial was.  Wish I'd remembered sooner as I'd have been able to make a much better one.  You Go Girl, that's the tutorial I WILL follow next time.

In other news, the sun shone today and I noticed the world smells differently, the seasons are changing, I feel different.  

xxx