A Crocheted Life

I like to fill my days with crochet, whether it is for my stall or my home, and I am usually working on several projects at once. I always seem to be drawn to making blankets, there is something so homely about them, and I love to cosy up with my cats in the winter months. At the moment, during unusually warm weather in the UK, I am sticking to smaller projects that I can finish quickly - I can't seem to concentrate for long in the heat. I do love to look back on finished projects though, the ones that make it out of the "Work In Progress" pile and into use in my home...

Top 

- My granny stripe blanket in retro colours, all made from rescued yarn

- My "Granny A Day" finished blanket from Spring 2012, all of the square patterns are from the gorgeous "200 Crochet Blocks" book

- A Teacosy made for a friend from this fabulous pattern

Middle 

- My Sunburst blanket

- A crochet bowl 

- A large Granny Square blanket

Bottom 

- Granny Stripe tealight jars

- A recent Granny Square Blanket

- And the project that started my love of crochet, my original granny square blanket, made from 160 squares, all done during my second and third year of university (and almost solely responsible for keeping me sane) 

I still think, after years of making, that there is nothing better than the feeling that comes with saying "I made it myself".

In Search of Giants

I've had many strange and whimsical journeys, but this was one of the most magical of all...

The Giants were charming and absolutely delightful, it was surreal and wonderful. 

Granny Rectangle Cushions

I'm working on cushion covers at the moment. They're quite a quick project, so I thought I would share how I'm making them...

I started with some pillows, which I cut in half (and stitched up the open edge) to get a nice size for the cushions. Using this fantastic pattern (be aware that it's a US pattern and so double crochet stitches need to be changed to trebles if you're in the UK) I made the fourteen-round granny rectangles using seven nice summery colours(they're for my garden chairs)in Double Knit acrylic yarn with a 4.5mm hook. When the fronts were done I made another rectangle (in one of the colours from the front) for a nice plain back. I then joined them together using double crochet stitches through both pieces, leaving the last side open to pop in the cushion before joining completely, and then did a nice frill edge. 

It's a really straightforward edge - (from the join of the row before)

*skip 2 stitches, treble 5 into next stitch,

skip 2 stitches, slip stitch into next stitch* 

repeat from *to* until you have a frill all the way around. 

I've only made the four so far, so I still have two to make so all six chairs have one. My favourite part is choosing the colour combinations!

A Week Full of Adventures!

Taking a quiet moment to look back on the last week. 

Sunday - Jon Ronson at Llangollen Fringe Festival
Monday - crochet and cake in one of my favourite teashops with one of my favourite ladies
Tuesday - passed my driving theory test and celebrated with a very large piece of cake, before going to see Victoria Coren-Mitchell at the Llangollen Fringe Festival
Wednesday - Allo Darlin' at the Lexington in London
Thursday - The "Comics Unmasked - art and anarchy in the UK" exhibition at the National Library in the morning and the matinee of "Richard  III" at the Trafalgar theatre in the afternoon.

Welcome

Well, hello there! I guess the best place for me to start is with introductions. My name is Gemma, and I am a full-time crafty-maker. My alter-ego is gemmipop, of gemmipop designs, the name of my little crafty business, which is based in Oswestry Market. But this is a home for some of my other adventures - a little nook for me to share my love of making and visiting nice places and doing interesting things, usually involving tea, and probably cake. 

The boundaries between work-craftiness and personal-craftiness are often rather blurry, because I really do just love making things. It started when I was quite young - I was always working on some little project, mostly made from cardboard and paper (for example, I made a zoo and an aquarium...) but my favourite thing was knitting, only row after row of garter stitch but it felt like the world. My gran taught me to knit, I was about seven years old at the time, and I had little green knitting needles with apples on the tops, and stripey-rainbow yarn. 

These days I crochet more than knit (although I always have socks on the needles!), and I love making blankets and pretty things to hang around the house. I live with my husband, as well as three cats, two Budgies and two chickens, and we have a pretty cosy little life.
When I'm not making things, I like to read - Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test" has been my favourite book of the year so far although I usually go for fiction. I love to visit art galleries and museums, and try to go to new places whenever I can! I also enjoy mooching around Charity shops for crafty materials, kitsch ornaments and vintage toys - a vice of mine that I don't think I'll ever grow out of!
So, that's me - Hello!