Happy (belated) Easter

What a LOVELY weekend we've had! The Easter bank holiday weather exceeded all expectations and didn't let us down :-) I went down to London to see my folks and home friends, it was nice and chilled and I had a fab time, apart from getting stuck in London for THREE hours on the way down because the Blackwall Tunnel was closed. Our Satnav diverted us away and all was good until it said "After 200 yards, take the ferry." Other half and I looked at each other; "Ferry?!" I'm still amazed that in our Capital we've not got enough bridges or tunnels on my end of the Thames but an old car ferry!

So onto happier things! My mum always gets me cool things for Easter so I now have a hen mug and plate to go with the plate I bought last year (Matalan if you live in the UK)







We visited a lovely town called Tenterden which has the cutest little shops ever! Lots of little homeware places, coffee shops and an old steam train which my Dad loved! To be fair I enjoyed myself too, we had an old carriage to ourselves and it was a nice trip through the countryside.

I bought this pretty little milk jug and some little forks for cake eating, a very important activity in this house!




It now sits in my cupboard of pretty kitchen things :-)




Hope you've enjoyed your Easter break, enjoy the Royal Wedding tomorrow if you're watching!

x x x x

Knit one purl one...

Hello there! I'm sorry I haven't been a very attentive blogger, life has been very busy lately and it doesn't look set to stop - between now and June 4th I'm away every weekend :-o Nearly everyone I know has decided to get married this year and I'm off to Italy in a few weeks so could do with a rest before this all kicks off :-)

I've been knitting (yes I know!) and I'm really enjoying it :-D I've always said "I don't like knitting" and this is really a terrible lie - I just haven't been very good at it. Now I've put my mind to it (and discovered tutorials on youtube) I'm getting a bit more adventurous!

So... I started off with a scarf :-) Nice and easy huh? And yes I know it's the hottest April on record since records began, how was I supposed to know this!





Here it is before I blocked it. I hadn't learnt to knit the end of the purl rows to stop it from curling...





This is me! But I cut my head off because I was pulling a stupid face... ;-)

What this is all leading upto however is Alice's Spring Explosion Tea Cosie on her blog. Since I started reading Crochet with Raymond I've wanted to knit everything! So she has definitely insprired me and was also a huge help when I got stuck on bits! So Alice, this ones for you, ta!!

First things first, casting on and then knitting one side... I'm using a stitch holder!!! Things are getting technical!!!






And then all of a sudden (after a few k2togs)...





:-D





Tea pot bottom shot.





Now I need to make some pretty flowers and leaves for the top. Something for the Easter weekend me thinks...

Thats all for now, I might see you in a bit if I survive the chaos that will be May! Happy Easter!

x x x

Baby Granny Stripe is.... Finished!!!

It's finally time to reveal my finished baby blanket. Yay!!!

This has probably been my favourite thing to work on, it hasn't taken me a hideous number of months to complete and I couldn't put it down! I am so pleased with the edging too, usually I get so bored of my projects I hurry to finish, but not this time.

So here we go... Drum roll...

Yay!





Ohh I know I shouldn't be this pleased but really I am thrilled to bits, I hope my friend loves it too and that it keeps their baby snuggly and warm!

I think the edge it my favourite part actually. Remember how I said the blanket looked quite "girly" before and my friends might be having a boy, well I really think this has toned the pink down a lot!





I did treble clusters around the edge and into that single trebles into each st and 6 into the corners. I wish I'd taken a photo before doing the shells because it was lovely and round! The scallop or shell eddging was a little improvised. I looked at some tutorials and ended up using a mix of a few.

Now if I remember rightly it was sl st, 1 dc in next st, 2 hdc in next st, 1 dc in next st, sl st









I can't wait until this little one is born and I can finally give the blanket away. I'm going to be very sad to see it go so I might just have to make another.....!

x x x x

April showers

What a miserable day it's turned out to be! This morning it was gloriously sunny, I was quite excited about getting outside on the balcony and doing some gardening. The seeds in the greenhouse all seem to be pretty well compared to previous attempts at seed growing.

However the sun didn't last and it's rained on and off all day. Boo! We went out for lunch this afternoon but failed to get a sunday roast - literally no where near where we live make sunday dinners anymore. This should be a crime! So I got a burrito and the Mr-non-crochet got a steak.




As it's so dull I can't really take any pictures of what I've been working on but I can tell you that thanks to Alice @ Crochet with Raymond I have been knitting!!

Nevermind, what I can do is show you some cards I've been making for the million weddings I'm going to this year (not a sniff at an invite to the Royal Wedding, think my invite got lost in the post). The pattern is the Sweet Heart Crochet from Bella Dia, the small one is just a slightly smaller modified version and they're just hand stitched onto card.




And even more excitingly I can show you this!!



Ikea have these reduced to a mere £20! My Local Yarn Shop Purl City Yarns has these in the larger size, and obviously with their collection of millions of amazing colours they look fab! I might only have enough yarn to fill one square but I love it :-D And it's freed up some other shelves for J's fish keeping equipment...

I will leave you with some nice photos I took in March, before it started raining... I'm off to knit! x x x