Frida's Flowers, at last!!

I'm so excited! It's ridiculous really. I mean at my age ( and after the life I've lead! ) I should be roundly bitter and twisted, jaded and cynical and/or miserable and grumpy. But no, I still get flutters of excitement in my stomach! Just this morning I was up at 4am peeking out the window to try and catch a glimpse of a rather elusive little bird. I call him The Secret Songster. For years, he and his descendants have lived out of full view in the dense honeysuckle hedge on the other side of our little front lane ( darn Cats, as much as I love them! ) and every morning , without fail, rain or shine, this little fellow runs through an impressive repertoire of tweets, trills, and warbles. I tried to count them once but gave up after thirty. That's thirty or more different bird tweets! I had a thought that it might be a Cape Robin because they live well hidden from view and are very territorial.On further investigation ( Google, you beaut! ) I discovered that yes, it was! I've always been an avid bird-watcher and my Book of South African Birds, is filled with pencilled in the margin remarks like " yay, have just seen this bird!" Look, I've wandered off course again! Hahaha!

What I wanted to say was... I am FINALLY doing Jane Crowfoot's beautiful Frida's Flowers blanket!! So excited, and loving this beautiful project! As I crochet more, I'm definitely developing a crochet-slant, meaning a lean towards certain patterns and colours, over others. I'm attracted to crochet that incorporates lacy aspects. flowers, petals and leaf motifs. More geometric designs don't appeal to me. Also, I do prefer squares to rounds. So a flower, in the round, then squared off, is my thing. Mandalas leave me cold. Maybe one day I'll warm up to them.

I first played around with some pastel colour variations. I'm not partial to Black. I own two pairs of black panties. That's it! The FF CAL uses quite a bit of Black.

 Anyhow, I'm far behind with Frida's Flowers but working furiously to catch up!

I think I could end up doing a few of these blankets using different colour recipes. :D

Crochet fascinates me! Who could ever be bored discovery the myriad styles and patterns of crochet?
Also, I'm brushing up on my Arithmetic times tables again!

Before I forget, I did want to share these youtube FF CAL tutorials. These are done by a delightful Danish lady called Henna!

I also wanted to share my blocking method. I pin the pieces to a sturdy block of foam, then lightly spray them with Rosewater and leave to dry. Works beautifully and your work smells DIVINE!

Luckily I am naturally quite organised, and this spills over into running our home. It takes some discipline but my reward is CROCHET! And that makes all the household "drudgery" much easier to bear. I might be organised but I still detest housework! Here in South Africa, it's still quite normal for an average income family to employ a Domestic Helper, but since I was a child I've felt uncomfortable with other people cleaning up after me. I once had a Domestic Helper called Betty. I was a homeschooling Mom then and overwhelmed with the workload of  housework, teaching three boys at different grade levels, doing all the extra-mural taxi-duties, as well as everything else that falls under the label "Stay At Home Mom". Weirdly, working Moms have no problem dropping their kids off  at Stay At Home Moms because, you know we're sitting around at home, just watching TV and doing our nails? No. Anyhow, about Betty. My husband insisted, so very reluctantly I  agreed. Betty lasted a month. I used to tidy up before she got to the house! We got along so well that most days you'd find us drinking coffee at the kitchen table and chatting up a storm. It didn't work. Both of us got nothing done! I found her a "proper" Domestic Helper position, with a working Mom. On the subject of organisation, this post is being typed out at 5am. By 7am when my husband is out the door I'll have washed up the morning's dishes, popped a load of washing in the machine, fed and watered the dogs and cats and made the bed. After which, I'll hop in the shower, put on a pot of coffee, make two slices of seed loaf toast and then it's just me and Frida's Flowers! Yay!!!!!

I'd be happy living in a one -roomed hut, filled with all my crochet paraphernalia (but with wi-fi. And a well-stocked Deli close by).

Happy hooking and remember, keep your loved ones close but your crochet even closer! :D

Love, always,