Colour Swatches

Spring Cloud Palette

Ordering art and craft supplies online is convenient, but choosing colours can be very tricky. I thought I'd show you the difference between the online swatches and my own colour swatches for the spring cloud blanket. Obviously, part of the issue is that all monitors are slightly different, but I found the colours much more vibrant in real life. (I couldn't find nice swatches online for a few of the colours, so I used my photos in both palettes for those ones).


Spring Cloud Palette (Accurate Colours)

In fact, even my "accurate" photos still look paler than the yarn looks to my eye. And who knows what they'll look like on anyone else's monitor. But I thought it was interesting to compare and I know when I was picking out colours, it was nice to see various people's photos of the yarn to try to get a better idea. The blanket continues along stripe-ily. A long ways yet to go, but I've been averaging a stripe a day recently.

Edited to add: The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK and the colours I have are: Aspen 1422, Aster 1003, Bluebell 1082, Clematis 1390, Cloud Blue 1019, Fondant 1241, Lavender 1188, Magenta 1084, Meadow 1065, Pale Rose 1080, Sherbet 1034, Silver 1203, Spring Green 1316, Turquoise 1068, Violet 1277, Wisteria 1432.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A jaunt to Haarlem

Haarlem
It was misting rain, of the sort that is so light you barely feel it, but you get quite sopping, but it was such a picturesque place. We went to see some friends rather than for sight-seeing, which is just as well given the weather. I can see us returning for an afternoon sometime (when it's sunny), as it's only about 20 minutes by train from Amsterdam.


Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Half-birthday Headband

Headband Flower

We're going to a little half-birthday celebration tomorrow for another wee lass, so I wanted to take along a small prezzie. The idea for making a headband occurred to me and I found a simple pattern on Ravelry. I love how fast crochet whips together; I spent at most an hour making this (and that includes ripping part of the flower out when I realised that I had made a silly mistake). I can see myself making the flower again for other purposes too. It does seem rather large around, but I stuck with the 6-9 month size because better too big than too small.

For more details, see the project on ravelry.


Headband

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Thrifting treasure: silk scarf

silk scarf

I went thrifting the other day and found a silk scarf for 1.50€!

I've used it as a nice,lightweight nursing cover-up on a picnic but I originally bought it with the idea of using it as a headband scarf. I've seen some cute ideas on the web but whenever I try these styles, the scarf just wants to slide back and ends up falling off eventually. Are secret bobbypins involved in making these looks work? If you know the secret, please share it. I frequently have rather messy "mom-hair", quickly put in a ponytail, and I'd love to distract from it with a pretty scarf!

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Spring Cloud Stripes

Stripes in Progress

A quick in-progress photo of the Spring Cloud blanket. I snapped this with my smartphone camera, so the colours aren't very accurate, but you can see I'm a few more stripes along now (compare to earlier). Part of the recent progress is because I finally figured out how to institute morning and afternoon naps reliably! Any other first-time mamas will know what a triumph that is. Now if only we could figure out how to get more than 5 hours in a row at night...


Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A new home

Out the bedroom window

Just to make our lives extra busy, we moved recently. We are now amongst boxes and partially assembled ikea furniture. The Wee Lass keeps us plenty busy on her own so I suspect the settling in phase will happen at a snail's pace. We love our new space though and the Wee Lass will even get her own wee room ... As soon as we have unpacked a bit more.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A little update

I've been busy looking after the Wee Lass and her cute toes. But I have managed to get about 2 more stripes of her Spring Cloud blanket done since she was born. When there's something more to show on the blanket, I'll take a progress photo.

Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.