Sunday 29 March 2009

Newly Single

Well what can I say. I have now been single for just over 24 hours. It's a strange feeling after such a long time. (11 years one boyfriend, straight into 7 and a bit years boyfriend). An uncomfortable but amicable break down, no real dramas, just dawning reality I s'pose.

I am sort of relieved, sort of excited, sort of lonely and quite scared! 18 years ago I'm sure dating was different. Being a little old fashioned in my ways when it comes to these kinds of things everything seems to move so quickly, I'm hoping romance does still exist, especially that white knight in his shining armour!!! I do believe people have a soul mate and are meant to share their lives, so lets hope eh!

My crochet isn't growing very quickly as my mind keeps wandering. The blanket was for SM's cousin. How does that work now?? So my enthusiasm has waned a little - and only 11 hexes to go, bum! I think flowers are the way to go for the time being, masses of them! Just have to work out how to turn them into posie brooches. How do I stop them being floppy?? How do I attach them to felt??!

Am going off now to seek brooch finishing hints - first stop Attic24!! Happy days are on the way! Yay!

Tuesday 24 March 2009

My First Flowers


Today has been a Flowery day for me. 7 o'clock this morning I was trying some crochet flowers, my first attempt and even I'm impressed!!!! Hopefully more pictures tomorrow as I'm rushing off to make more!! Patterns courtesy of Lucy at Attic24 and 201 Crochet blah.


L2 came back from her hols in the Maldives last night and is still sporting a delicious glowing tan (much to my pasty disappointment!) today. She brought me a beautiful bunch of red tulips which are proudly displayed on my mantelpiece. I keep looking at them, can't help myself!!


So apart from the compulsory housework and car cleaning - today has been a happy, sunny one!


Right, I'm off. Flower making has become urgent!!!


Thursday 19 March 2009

New Books!




Oooo, I love buying wool at the moment! I can't stop.......

The added bonus of all this wonderful stash is that you have to plan projects a long way ahead. So just incase I run out of ideas from my head I thought I would have no choice but to invest in a couple of books. Some of you would class this as a lovely treat, a way to dream when you don't have enough hands to crochet every beautiful blankie, cushion, flower etc running through your mind. No, these are necessary, important, colourful, beautiful, inspiring, drool-covered books!!


Oooo, I love them!! Sitting here I have nobody to go 'Oooo, ah, wow, I love that one' with. Nobody to get excited with. Nobody to go 'Ooo that would love fab as a....' with. SM and Tigs don't have the same enthusiasm for yarn crafts as I do, although Tigs does show his appreciation by sitting on any finished square/hex/triangle that I try to photograph, which is better than nothing I s'pose!

The second piccie is four of the blocks from 200 Crochet Blocks. Although they look quite stark in the photo they are actually brown, cream and cherry. I decided to have a go at EVERY block in the book using the same three colours so I can make one giant blankie. Although number 189 must be beyond me cos I can't do it (Argh!) and they don't all come out EXACTLY the same size as it says it the book. But hey ho, I still love it.


The second book 201 Crochet blah, blah, I only got today. I shouldn't have really because now it is my absolute favourite!! I want to make EVERY motif in the book. Obviously having three crochet WIP's, plus the 200 Blocks (4 done) and now 201 new things my hook will have smoke coming off it!! I wish I could crochet whilst sleeping, whilst bathing, whilst eating, whilst driving, whilst working - all these hours I could be creating wee individual items of hooky beauty!


Off now to look at more delicious pictures when I should be finishing my hexes blankie (baby due in 3 weeks!), but I can't help myself!

Thursday 12 March 2009

Stash Busting Scarf


Here is my latest contribution to the Shoebox Appeal. This scarf is knitted on 10mm needles, big fatties, and the yarn is used double throughout. I used a discontinued bargain ball of Patons Festival in blue and about 25grams of Patons FAB DK in cream. Cast on 15 sts and garter stitch until the Festival runs out! Ta-Daa! It ends up 120cm long and beautifully soft and thick. Hopefully some little person will love it!

Crochet Hexagon - Part 4

The Hexes are still growing! I think another row of 2 white and another of 3 white will make this about the right size. I know there's a few ends to weave in, I got a bit carried away and forgot to catch them in as I went along, and a humungus (Hmm, real word??) edging to do yet - but you can tell it's a blankie now! I'm going to edge in white, thought twice about it getting grubby, but if you squint your eyes it needs more white!! (That is actually a proper technique for getting tonal values REALLY!!)

I'm still thoroughly enjoying making it and have even bought the yarn for making blues version! I know a gorgeous little boy who would look even more gorgeous on a delicious blankie!

As I can't seem to add pictures inbetween my text there is 3 separate ones, sorry!

Crochet Triangles

Finally.... I told you all to prepare yourselves to be blown away by gorgeousness!!!!

What do you think of these then? Crochet Triangles!! What shall I call them? Crangles? Tries doesn't read right, if you know what I mean! I have to thank our local genius, Aquarius, for encouraging me to do something new before finishing other stuff. A very bad influence me thinks!! The ideas for the Crangles are whirring through my head, hopefully plans will be made by the end of next week!

Enough from me tonight, I'm off to see what everyone else has been up to today! xxx




Wednesday 11 March 2009

Ravelry Invite

I was meant to be adding all sorts tonight but got my Ravelry invite through!!

So as you can imagine I have been lost in the realms of knitting heaven (apparently). It's great, but confusing. Tags, tabs, and 500 drop down menus - all needing information I would have to be sadly well organized to have at hand! So will be returning every night to get the hang of it.

Tomorrow you can look forward to bits and bobs as normal and a wonderful new thing - prepare to be amazed!!!

Friday 6 March 2009

A Jolly Tough Day

Ooo today has been a toughie. Along with a couple of real grumbly customers, whom I'm sure just come out to upset people - staff and other customers, I've had a personally distressing moment!! (Slight exaggeration, you'll see!)

As you know I'm happy knitting my little bits for charity. I thoroughly enjoy it, it uses up a wee bit of my stash and gives me an excuse to buy lots more lovely yarns. Today a lady picked up one of my little hats, admittingly in Lime Green, and said "what poor child will have to wear that?"!! I promptly piped up "I knitted that!" Ouch!

I've always thought that a child who has nothing (and I mean these children have NOTHING. Some are living rough on the edge of rubbish dumps, it's heartbreaking) would love something cheery that was theirs to keep. Maybe I'm wrong? Do they think 'yuk, I hate green'?

It has made me think.... although I have now decided that I do 'my bit' for the right reasons, it made me feel quite uneasy for a bit. I don't know why.

That was the 'tough' bit, now for the JOLLY! As always my Hexes are constantly at my side and I showed three people today who were completely in awe (I reckon!) of my blankie. They were positively gushing over the beauty and wonder of the little hexes all joined together in harmony!! ( I may be exaggerating again?!) This obviously made La-la-land and the world happy and shiny again. Ahh, that's much better!

No more pictures for a minute. After looking at Lucy's (Attic24) beautiful photos I feel I really ought to bond with my camera and daylight! Her photographs are stunning, they seem to make you feel like you are looking at things in real life, so much detail and colour. I'm not saying I'll be producing this quality any time soon, but I aim to improve!

I'm off to love my hexes now....

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Hats & Hexes


Good Evening! I've been a busy bee in the last few days, trying to reduce the number of WIP's definitely a priority. Excuse the quality of the photograph, I leave it too late in the day for taking piccies so they are all lit by low energy bulbs!!

As you can see the Hexes are coming along, I still love them, every single one!! I reckon it has to be a third of the intended size already... a pram blanket was my thinking - so I can start on my next crochet project!

I actually managed to finish 5 hats and a finger puppet that have been sitting in my WIP bag, all destined for the Shoebox Appeal. [Update 2/3/09 we have sold 234 booklets and collected 714 items since 8/11/08. People are so very, very generous with their time, skills and money.]

Two of the hats have been knitted with 'new to me' yarns. Patons FAB Spray in the brown and Patons Baby FAB Spray in the pink. They actually feel softer than the standard Patons FAB, which I use mostly for my charity knits, but I'm not sure how that can be - both are 100% Acrylic DK yarns. Well I'm pretty happy with them, so will be adding a 'few' more balls to my stash this week!!

Congratulations to Keldykelds for completing two crochet squares!!! If you can master these you can crochet anything..... apparently!