Crochet along -part 2

I could easily have spent the whole of last week like this...

Sadly I had to go to work for three days!  but I did have the joy of two INSET days to stay at home and be just mum for a while.

Being at home has meant getting to evening crochet that little bit quicker and consequently doing a little bit more each evening so I feel I've made really good progress this week...

I've got enough rows done that it is deep enough to look like the beginnings of a blanket rather than a chunky scarf....

Now my original plan was to work the first 15 or so rows in the sequence advised by Lucy with the original pattern, but I'm increasingly intrigued by the way the colours are working together.  I simply wouldn't put them together in this order.  Its not that I don't like it  - I love it! but left to my own devices I'm not sure I'd be putting the colours together his way.

My usual method of colour planning is to save a length tied onto the label from the ball of yarn...

Then I lay them out and see if they sit well together, which is increasingly hard from these skinny little scraps...

and its not a whole load easier from lying the balls out in the advised colour sequence...

I'm going to need a considerably bigger dining table to work out the colour sequence this way!

So now I'm questioning all my assumptions about colour mixing and positioning - what a good job I've got some ends to sew in to distract me for an evening!

Its back to work as normal for me all next week so probably won't make such good progress next week.  Better get on and make the most of this evening  - byeee!

Crochet-a-long 1

Its a bit miserable having nothing to craft on a dark winter's evening... just a little something, quick to pick up and easy to put down if interrupted by the need to help with homework, so I was delighted to spot this on one of my favourite blogs....

It looked so squishy and lovely and cheerful and cosy...and I've never been part of a CAL (crochet-a-long) before..... it was just too tempting...there was even a kit so I didn't have to think too hard about colour choices....

What could possibly go wrong.....

I was in....I really don't think I could have been any more excited to hear that this had arrived at 'im indoors work address....

..except that the post office tried to deliver it at 7am before the office was open (doh!) so I had to wait a whole 48 hours for them to try again when somebody was in!!  That's a whole 2 evenings of valuable crocheting time.....

Anyway second time lucky and it was safely in my hands...

Look at all that squishy yarn fabulously squelched into an exquisite organza bag....

I was sorely tempted ot leave it be for another evening - just to look at it...but no it had to be opened and squished and stroked and laid out to appreciate all the colour...

Now maybe its the green carpet in the back ground...but something about the colours was a little disappointing. I checked back into Lucy's blog, somehow the colours of her blanket popped and fizzed out of the page .....maybe I'd accidentally got the grunge selection?

I put off starting till the weekend...

Then I had another bright idea! (sometimes I need to stop myself I really do!) I decided as this growing CAL community was an online thing I would try to avoid printing the pattern and I'd be brave and oh so 21st century and simply follow the pattern on line - after all its about time I got to grips with the tablet I'd bought nearly a year ago....

It wasn't to be (you knew that already right?) 

Our internet -wifi gadget-box-thingy decided to throw a hissy fit and only allow one gadget at a time to be connected to the outside world.  I had to form an orderly queue behind those that needed to do homework. Grrrrrr.

I F-I-N-A-L-L-Y got a copy paste of the instructions and first 15 rows of colour pattern off the internet onto a simple word document. Thank you Lucy! So I could get started...

So , first things first....120cm of a "casting on" chain....

Oops.....I'm about 3cm short..

..mmmm do I want to unpick all this and try again? or am I just determined to get going?

Yup ..you guessed it...off and running - after all what's 3cm between friends? 

So need to get my head round this pattern.  Alternating rows of solid trebles and granny clusters, two rows of each colour....just need to concentrate and count to three...better keep a mug of tea to hand...it always aids the concentration...

Its amazing just how much you can get done when you don't get distracted....

...and what a difference photographing it on wooden floor rather than green carpet makes!

I confess I'm fascinated by the colours..they are really zingy- even more so than this photograph suggests.  So here I am at the end of my week 1, with 19 rows done. This morning rows 46 - 60 were published. 

I can't dilly dally round here I've got some crochet to catch up with......

Poppy picking

Just like the rest of London, I've been fascinated by this display of poppies as it has developed over the course of  the summer, in time for November 11th and the commemoration of the start of world war I.

Despite having seen it in its early days, I wasn't quick enough to volunteer to help put the display together.  So it seemed to me the next best thing would be to offer to help to tidy up. So Saturday 15th November found me initially reminiscing at how impressive Waterloo can be ...when there is no one in the way to spoil the view of the clock!

London was being very autumny outside....rather too many of the tall bits kept disappearing....

 




I needed to hot foot it along the river as my poppy picking shift was due to start with a briefing at 8:45am. Thankfully I was early so I got to spend a little time walking around the tower and appreciating the poppies that hadn't already been picked....

 

 

 

Every nook and cranny of the moat really had been crammed to get all 888,246 poppies in...

And even at 8:30 on a fairly miserable Saturday morning I wasn't the only person who'd come to see them...

 

I'm not sure if I was the only one thinking that there was a fair dose of irony in ensuring the poppies also decorated traitors gate.....

 

 




As other landmarks drifted in and out of view...

 

I realised that "the management" had already started work....

 

 

and that there were pallet trucks and tractors loading yesterday's pickings into trucks to be taken away for cleaning and packing... three trucks loaded whilst I watched, kind of focuses the mind on the scale of the operation....

 

No time to dilly dally watching others work... 8:45 and its time for the safety briefing and instructions for the morning work....
Here's my crew with Tom in charge....

Simpy pick the poppy... and separate the petals from the metal stem, washers and spacers....

 

Easy, peasy...  except for the sheer volume, the mud and the rust.....

 

 

 

Of course the glory job is picking and packing the poppies...

 

But everyone was very nice to each other and we all took turns at all the jobs... I became quite a dab hand at separating the spacers from their rusty rods.

But picking the poppies was definitely the best bit.  Up close, you realise that each one is really hand crafted and completely different from its neighbours...

 

 

 

You also realise how many shades of red there are amongst them, not just because they come from different batches, but also because some have clearly been out for longer than others and are showing signs of wear and tear...

 

Anyway no time to dilly dally there is work to be done here....

... we decided among ourselves that we were going to clear a patch to the wall of the actual tower,  in no time at all we were down to the last two...

 

and then the patch was clear..

Though I have to feel sorry for all the tourists who were still flocking to see the display... I do wonder how many of them have my bottom on their photos?

 

Three hours passed quickly enough, and with 4,000 poppies cleared by the team I was in we did feel we'd done our stint...or at least that is  what my back and thighs were telling me!
So we slowly dispersed...walking around the outside of the moat, pausing for a few last photos....

 

 

 

I wondered, as I journeyed home, all of this to commemorate the start of the war, what will do to mark the end?