Lerato's baby blanket

Last week on Ons Hekel, at least two baby blankets were finished. 

I completed this one in V-stitch:

A blankie for Lerato's baby girl

...and a hooky friend completed a beautiful, light pastel hexagon blanket for her daughter's baby shower.

I started mine in great haste, next to the swimming pool where my boys have lessons:

http://haak-en-stekie.blogspot.com/2014/10/of-beanies-and-baby-blankets.html

...and then worked on it on our way towards the Garden Route:

http://haak-en-stekie.blogspot.com/2014/10/hookin-on-road-trip-and-new-coffee-spot.html

...worked away the edges over coffee with a friend:

(Hate this part...and I always leave it to the last).

And then finished over another:

A fello Pure-fan recognised the carefully disguised menu!

I edged the blanket with one row of SC, and then a couple of rows in HDC.  In retrospect I think linen stitch would have been neater.  

As for yarns, I used

Vinnis Nikkim Natural (the white colour)

Vinnis Bambi Peach (not shown below - a cotton/bamboo blend with lovely texture)

and

I Love Yarn Imagine in Guava, Antique Rose and Burned Butter

Angie's V-stitch graph here

My V-stitch blankie was delivered on Friday!

All done

The hexagon blanket - it was sent overseas by courier last week...but over the weekend we learnt that a baby girl was stillborn.

37 weeks.

While I'm happy about Lerato's little baby girl that's still on her way, I'm mourning with a hooky/book friend who lost her grandchild.

Into every blanket, we crochet our joy, hope, love.   

Sometimes that must comfort as well.

When we crocheted in Morocco

No.  

We couldn't look on while they prepared for their Cool Crochet workshop in Marrakech.  We wanted go come along!

It's just a bit...far.  And at least one long haul and another connecting flight away. 

No, we had to make a plan and join in.

So we went to Morocco!  In Pretoria :-)

Thanks to Moroccan House, we could.   

A group of hooking friends crossed out last Friday in our diaries, and escaped to a place of colour and texture, aromas and tastes, and will definitely go back for more of the same.  

We enjoyed:

We walked through the showroom and wondered what we could get for the house...

We hooked and chatted and met new friends from Holland and Mauritius and locally and caught up with each other's work:

We're already planning a next visit.

But first...we're going to Holland!

(And maybe to the real Marrakech one day)

Read the beautiful post Hilda wrote after this morning

Hookin' on a road trip, and a new coffee spot

Off we went on a road trip, and I was armed with my hooky project for the next two days.  This baby blanket was going to be finished before the end of the weekend.

As I said, I am not totally in love with the V-stitch, but it does work up very quickly...

Pit stop at a favourite farm stall outside Aberdeen

...so quickly, that just after this pit stop, I ran out of Antique Rose...and I didn't think of bringing another ball :-(

(am using double rows of Antique Rose compared to the other colours)

Oh well, I enjoyed the scenery.

In George, I busied myself with building inspection and last-week-details that needed to be done for our new house AND, coffee pot that I am, I found a new spot, where I know I will spend many mornings crocheting away, systematically working my way through the delicious menu and one cappo after the other...

Mmm...

My sis, on a quick visit from Ireland, alerted me, so looking The Bench was on my list of Things To Be Done In Four Days.  She was totally right, it has my name stamped all over it.

A large table inside...for a group of hookers

Or a pozzie for me:

Or, if you want to stretch your legs after all the eating and crocheting:

Swings!
(My builder has been alerted - there has to be one like this on my stoep)

After one horribly hot day with berg wind conditions and 42ºC outside, the next day I had to borrow a scarf from my MIL to brace the onset on a cold front with quick, icy rain!  I actually knitted this for my FIL many years ago, a simple scarf in moss stitch, in this brown woollen-acrylic mix.

I almost stole it back

Love the browns

After being stopped in my tracks with the baby blanket, luckily, just-in-case, I had extra yarn with me to start work on a summer scarf.

It went well with the vanilla cupcake :-)

I'm struggling a bit with the pattern.
(One shouldn't do this one while chattering away, as I usually do, so it's now been relegated strictly to home, when it's quiet, which is usually never).

I decided therefor to go for three at once, doing it round by round, making sure I'm getting the round right, making my notes, hopefully getting back to this by the weekend.  

Three quarter Summer Scarves sitting in a row

Back to the baby blanket first!

Of beanies and baby blankets

I had to make a quick change to the helmet beanie my littlest gave his friend - first he wanted a nose bridge thingey (didn't work out), then I convinced him of a visor/mouthguard combo, which was happily accepted:

Little Boy S is armed and ready

I used a lovely mottled grey pure merino DK from I Love Yarn, used a basic beanie pattern and improvised the front, the back, the guard...most everything!

And then there was another birthday, a Dr Seuss-party and a two year-old, who got a Cat in the Hat hat lopsided beanie. I had an evening and wasn't going to sit up all night, so almost immediately abandoned my plans of a tall, slouchy beanie-hat, and it became... a cone.  But he loved it!

Ginger E almost went to sleep with this one on

So I was ready to take up the heritage Blanket again, that's been thrust to the back of the cupboard for too long...and then got diverted by a friend's pregnancy, and oooh, a favourite waitress also has a baby coming...what the heck.  Let me do baby blankets then!

Here's the first one, and I should complete it soon as there's a 1600 km road trip waiting today and tomorrow.  Lots of hooky time on the N1 South!

Starter pack

I'm using Vinnis Nikkim, Vinnis Bambi and I Love Yarn Imagine

One swimming lesson's production (I sit outside on the grass, in the shade, while the boys are splashing away)

I'm not that crazy about the V-stitch, but it has to go quick, grow fast, be cool (summer in Pretoria) (which is also why I decided on the cotton/bamboo yarns).

Off I go, the yarn is packed but nothing else!