Yesterday's square of my crochet blanket

Ok so, I know I said that the squares of my "mood" blanket were to be random - this is mostly the case but occasionally I do feel that some things should be added that mean something.

Yesterday was my Gran's funeral.

So in her memory I added a special square to my blanket.

This one is knitted again as the one a few weeks ago was and again in white for the same reason, however yesterday was a time to remember all of the happy times that everyone had spent with Gran. One of my biggest memories of her from when I was a small child was her baking. As well as knitting, she was a fabulous traditional cook and her cakes were some of the best that I have ever tasted. My favourite's were always her butterfly cakes.

If you're not too sure and my wonderful knitted attempt to replicate it isn't self explanatory enough then these are cup cakes where after they are cooked, the top is cut from the top of the cake. This little bit that is removed is then cut in half, whipped cream and jam added to the top of the cake and the two little pieces of sponge stuck back in to form wings on the top of the cake.

I started off knitting my cake with a pattern that I found on Ravelry. This worked for the cupcake case and the start of the sponge but then unfortunately I was on my own for the rest of the pattern. I wasn't too sure where to go from there so I just sort of made it up as I went along - I tried to keep the cake part the right shape and then added a blob of cream and finally a blob of jam to the top. I knitted up a couple of "wings" separately and then sewed these to the back as if they had been squidged into the cream.

It's perhaps not the most perfect little cake in the world - the real thing made by my gran would have tasted much nicer! - but as this is the first time I have ever tried to make up my own knitting pattern then I am quite proud of this one.

Here's another update of how my blanket is looking at the minute

It's starting to look ever so slightly more like a blanket and less like a scarf than it was doing.

My Mum brought this over for me a few days ago - it was one of the few remaining possessions that my Gran had in her nursing home room at the end. Her knitting bag. It's nice to see that my Gran's love of knitting never really ended even when she wasn't capable of picking up her needles. A lovely bag, with her knitting pattern file and a folder full of needles in there too.

 Some of the patterns are really old fashioned and I don't really remember anyone wearing these. My Mum said that she can remember some of them though.

 There are also a few in here that I know I was made as a child. I definitely remember this one and there being a picture of little me on Gran's wall for years of me wearing it.

 And this is the pattern for the ballet cardigan that I had as well. I don't think that this one will ever go out of date!

I love looking through all of these kinds of things. It's amazing what memories can be gained from a folder of old knitting patterns!

I really love this and feel truly privileged to have been given this to look after. It's something that I think I will always keep and will be treasured in my craft room forever.