Wool on Sunday...

Joining in with Rainbow Hare’s blog and Janine’s monthly feature, Wool on Sunday. https://rainbowhare.com/category/wool-on-sundays/

So what yarny things did I get up to in May? Most of what I did was for the charity I belong to...especially after I read these posts from the founder of K4BN on the group’s Facebook page. 

And...

But what about this post? This sort of thing breaks my heart...

So firstly some items I’ve made from donated squares;-

A baby blanket made with squares from Cheryl E

A large blanket mainly made with squares from Susan W



I had 5 of Susan’s squares left over...

So I’ve spent a week or so crocheting the 25 granny squares needed to make up 30. So I’ve crocheted in the car and at Trivia night at the RSL club as well as in front of the telly or sitting in the sun on the verandah 😉

And I’ve now got a bundle of 25 to make another blanket! 

And I thought I’d share some photos of a K4BN Knit and Natter...

 

This is at the Zillmere Community Centre and here are some of the May donations...it’s amazing what this group contributes to make life a little better for those in need.

So while we watch the first State of Origin match for 2019 with DH yelling at the TV ( coaching points maybe?) I’ll calmly keep on crocheting 🧶😆. 

Wool on Sundays...

Once again I'm linking up with the Rainbow Hare's, Wool on Sunday. And I'm going to share photos of some items made for K4BN by some lovely people whom I affectionately refer to, as my 'outworkers'. These generous people usually ring/email me on a regular basis asking me to collect items they have made for the group.

I've collected these over the past fortnight...

From Rob; crocheted knee rugs, beanies, booties and a sweater...

A closer look at the adult sized sweater that Rob knitted...

Knitted beanies made by by schoolmate, Irene...

And some calming mitts (aka twiddle muffs), toiletries, toys, knitted squares from Cheryl...

I've written about the Twiddle Muffs before...they are used in nursing homes for calming dementia patients. The interesting textures, buttons, beads, ribbons of the muffs get the attention of the patients when a hand is placed in the muff, and it calms them as they begin to 'fiddle'. And now Education Units with students who have Autism are requesting the muffs for their students, as the muffs have been found to calm the students too. 

And now an update on my current main project...

It has grown a bit since last week and with this sudden cold snap here in SE Queensland, the rug is keeping me warm as I knit. 😊

Twiddle muffs?

What are these you may ask? Well they are another clever solution to help calm dementia patients. Some are sewn, others are crocheted and some are knitted. Basically the design is a lined 'tube' and attached securely on both the inside and outside of the muff, are objects such as buttons, beads and loops/bows. The dementia patients 'twiddle' with these attached objects and apparently this action is very calming for them. 

Recently, Cheryl, a member of K4BN made some twiddle muffs for the group to distribute to nursing homes for use with their dementia patients. 

At last Monday's Scarborough Knit and Natter, the ladies had fun trying out Cheryl's handiwork. 

Here's Karen, the founder of K4BN modelling one for us. 

Great job Cheryl! 

There are a number of websites that offer a pattern for the twiddle muffs. Here is just one of many. But they are all fairly similar to each other. 

http://www.repod.org.uk/downloads/Twiddlemuffs_Instructions_24-01-15.pdf

It took a while but finally a finish!

Earlier this year a friend dropped over some bags of yarn and squares that had been donated to a group that she belonged to. But as this group tends to concentrate on sewing quilts etc for those in need, yarn and squares were of little use to the group, so K4BN  got them. 

There were lots and lots of these smallish granny squares and I decided to join them as is, rather than crochet more rounds to make them 25 CM as I normally do. Then I joined them into groups of four...

Then I  joined these blocks into rows.

The project just got worked on intermittently over recent months. But finally, last week, I finished! 

I used a total of 192 of the squares with some 'leftovers'; 11 blocks of 4 squares each, left to start another project sometime in the future. Whew! Lol

I'm pleased with the final result even though there were LOTS of little ends to sew in. 

I think the squares were crocheted over a fair bit of time with the unknown crocheter's technique improving as the time went by. The yarn is wool which makes the blanket a little heavy...but not too much! Because it is wool and in paler colours, it will not go to a homeless person...more likely to a DV women's refuge or somewhere similar. 

I edged the blanket with a simple shell edging, using some soft, cream  coloured wool yarn. I wonder what plans the crocheter had for all their squares???

FNSI...

It was the third Friday night of the month here last night, and that means Friday Night Sew In.

I worked on a secret Easter project...

I used some of these lovely charm squares...

Some of this yardage...

I used some of this 'grass' fabric...

There was some hand stitching involved...

I may have used this template a week ago...

All will be revealed just before Easter.

A lot of the scraps from this project are triangular shaped, so I'm saving all those for Miss Lucy as I'm sure she will have ideas of what to make with the shapes.

Also last night,I did some simple crocheting.

My knitting group often gets bags of crocheted squares donation...many of these are quite small...

So I crochet more rows to make them 10" or 25cm size, so that 30 or 36 squares make a decent size blanket. So it was enlarging some of these squares that I worked on for a while last night.

Thank you to Wendy over at Sugarlane Quilts for organising FNSI once again...why not follow the link to Wendy's sign up page and check out some of the other FNSI ers' blogs?

FNSI...

Naturally I packed some crafts when DH and I went away this past week, so I was ready for Friday Night Sew In.
Last night I started to sew the squares in the long hexie Christmas runner that I've been working on for a while. But I'm afraid that sewing without my Daylight (and magnifier too for those tiny stitches) proved to be a bit of a challenge. I persevered for a while and managed to stitch 2 in place and 2 sides of a third one, but then had to admit defeat.

So then I got out some crocheting that I had brought along and worked on that. (Just some squares which I work on every now and then and which will eventually become a blanket for K4BN)

There were 52 FNSI ers last night, why not go and visit some, or all! :-)
Here is the link to Wendy's blog, and many thanks to Wendy again for organising FNSI.