It's all coming together rather nicely.....

Yes my Retro Flowers Softfun blanket is coming along well! I had planned on joining squares in the evening last week...well best laid plans and all that! Work was a little busier than anticipated so by evening came along all I wanted to do was sit and stare at the TV!!!!
So this weekend I made a concerted effort to get those squares hooked together!

And the Scheepjes Softfun love continues! I'm loving how this is turning out :-)

Being the obsessive Virgo that I am, I join in stages....little squares joined into strips...and then hooked together. Obviously I couldn't resist having a little play and lining up the rolls of squares!

Like woolly Swiss Rolls!!!

Ah, this blanket is giving me much much joy! I'm finished joining now and onto the border. Im hooking quickly as I can't wait to show you all what it looks like...and, of course, share how I made it in a step by step tutorial!

I received a rather yummy parcel in the mail this week! Some new yarn!!! Ah nothing better than receiving yarny goodness in the post! Especially when it looks like this!

Check out that glorious blue! Now doesn't that remind you of summer blue skies??? This is Icelandic yarn from a company called Istex (English version!). It's the lace weight version called Lopi Einband (German version!). They have a delightful range of colours in the lace. If you remember, I made my bag from this yarn! Well this bundle of Summer Sky goodness is destined to be made into a lacy scarf/stole. This colour is called Vivid Blue. I'm using this pattern :

It's by a very talented crochet designer. Her patterns are easy to understand and hook up nicely. They look very complex but are, in actual fact, pretty straightforward! 

This yarn has amazing stitch definition! A 50g ball gives approx. 250 metres. The recommended hook size is dependent on the finished size you're after! When I made my bag I used a 3mm hook and then washed the squares to felt them. This time I'm using a 4mm hook as I want a lovely lacy look to the finished scarf. I would recommend making some swatches and seeing which size hook fits with your project and desired effect. Because this is pure Icelandic wool, it does feel a little rougher to the touch until it has been rinsed and blocked, but once that has been done, it's much softer :-) Oh and I should mention....gentle 30 degree hand wash!!! NO AGITATION...or else this little beauty will felt!

As you can see, I've made good progress already! This weekend has been a hooky frenzy!!! Now to concentrate on finishing off the Retro Flowers border. I think a glass of wine might be in order to help the process along.... ;-)

Til next time

Mx