Early August (2nd) brought the arrival of my new step-grand daughter, Mara Valentina. She was a bit impatient to get here as she was supposed to be born two weeks later. Nevertheless, I was still way behind with this project for her.
When the two step-grandsons were born I made them both a blanket, the first one had blue elephants, and the second one had a celtic knot design, so I promised I'd make one for this wee one too.
I used super wash Falkland fibre (from Wingham Wool Work) for this so it can be washed more easily without felting, and spun it into a 2-ply. One of the skeins was divided into three, and two of them were dyed in green and lilac.
Then came the job of devising a pattern. The good thing with being so behind with this project is that by the time I started drawing something out, she had a name - Mara Valentina. I decided to keep it simple and chose green for the "Mara" and lilac for the inside of the heart, which is going to be edged with bobbles. I may add a little colour at the edge when I've finished, but not sure yet. I avoided pink as I know that Mum doesn't like it, but she does like green so hopefully this will be OK.
I'm wondering whether to add a little accent of something in the top right hand corner. I thought about a spider on a thread, but I don't want to give the poor girl a phobia! Thinking cap is still on for this one!
I've pinned the edge of this down to take the photograph because it's curling up otherwise. I'm hoping that if I crochet an edge all round it may lie flat. Also, not sure whether to define the edges of the letters afterwards with a running stitch in green. Hubby thinks I should edge it in the lilac, but I think that may be a bit too much.
We're going over to Scotland next month, October, for our first visit, so I need to get my skates on with this. I was going to post it, but think I'd prefer to hand deliver. I'll keep you posted on the progress.
