Knock knock, Who's there?

Thank you all for you lovely comments on my Bright Stripes, I'm still very much loving this project and I'm really happy with the colours, even if I've been leaning towards blues.  The blanket itself is still leaning but hey ho it's fine.

I'm very excited to share with you the finally finished Dr Who!  Don't get me wrong because I'm definitely a fan of science fiction but I'm really not into Dr Who.  I do feel like a bit of an expert on Matt Smiths hair now however!

I actually quite enjoyed making him but I probably won't be doing another any time soon.  My Uncle is pretty knit worthy (yeah, I know it's crocheted, it just doesn't work!) so I was happy to oblige his rather random and specific request for a "raggy doll Dr Who, the one played by Matt Smith"

He was rather fiddly being made of different pieces sewn together, which isn't something I particularly enjoy, and I did the legs so many times!  One set were ridiculously long, the other were different lengths, in fact these aren't quite right which is why he's wonky!

His little jacket is detachable and so is the Fez but it probably needs sewing on, I think my Aunt is going to sort that out.

Now lets talk about his hair...  I LOVED this part

I am blubberingly proud of the fact that his hair actually looks like hair.  His head's a bit tilted back so it doesn't look quite right but it's not bad.  You start out with a sort of wig (just a brown crochet circle really) and then sew the hair into place.  Dr Who number eleven has a side parting which is fine when you look at him from the front, but what on earth does the back look like? 

 Awesome!!  I realised J also has a side parting so he became my muse, and now thinks this looks like him.  Erm... yes.

The pattern was $6 from  Allison Hoffman on Ravelry which only worked out at a couple of pounds, for the detail I think it's quite good value really.

Here he is atop a camel, because all Uncles have living rooms full of camels right? 

The drive to see my Uncle and Aunt was as spectacular as ever, it usually is but I think it looks even better with snow, even just a little bit.  I remember my first drive over the Snake Pass being really magic.  I'd set off early in the morning to avoid the inevitable traffic in Glossop.  It was cold and frosty and mist was coming off the lake (reservoir?) and light was beaming through the pine trees.  I just remember thinking 'this is amazing!' 

This weekends journey wasn't quite as magical but it was still nice, and we nearly got caught in a blizzard on the way home, which was exciting but perhaps not so nice.

It snowed the tiniest amount here on Sunday and didn't settle so I was really disappointed.  It says it might snow tonight but I'm in a hump with the weather and I don't believe it.  If it's cold I want my monies worth and I want snow.

Much love

x x x x

All of what's been going on

I feel a bit like I've lost my blogging-mojo and I want to find it.  I've been really busy when it comes to making things but when I look at my photos I'm not feeling inspired...  I'm just going to give it a go.

I've finished my Solstice cardigan but I haven't managed to take any photos of it yet, although it's been in almost constant wear since casting off.  I think these were the last photos I took but it shows you something I guess...

I had to do the sleeve again because my needles were a size smaller than the pattern said so it was too tight, but I'm really glad I did and I'm very happy with the fit.

I made some rather cute baby mittens for a friend and I forgot to photograph them.  I'm one hand into making some mittens of my own and I've only got a WIP photo to post ,but lets have it anyway

Lets see...  Oh yeah, my Uncle wanted a rag-doll style Dr Who so this is something else I've been hooking

He is meant to be the Eleventh Dr Who, although obviously he shouldn't be bald and hopefully at some point he'll have a mouth and a fez.

Christmas decorating began in earnest on the 1st, I've heard a lot of people say the start of December is still too early to think about Christmas but I want to make the most of it, so there ♥

I also wanted to see whether the cats would destroy the tree so for the first week I only put a few Ikea baubles on, but low and behold we have ANOTHER cat success story and that is they're not remotely interesting in destroying my tree.  Huzzah!

I've even managed to bake some mince pies (and I remember to do them in cases instead of straight into the tin...)

And I've been enjoying hot chocolate in my varying festive mugs.

And as with most years since discovering them I've been enjoying the Christmas Markets in town, made even better by the fact that I only work down the road now...

And a couple of weeks ago I got reaquainted with my sewing machine and made a cushion from an lovely off cut of fabric I found in John Lewis.

I realise that's a bit of an info overload but I think I needed it!

x x x x

Weather mobile

I'm very happy to finally announce that my friend did indeed have her baby, a healthy little boy weighing 7lb 6oz, which was pretty amazing considering she didn't look anymore than three months pregnant.  I'm a bit late in posting, but I'm going with the ethos 'better late than never'.

Unfortunately baby decided he wanted to be born exactly when I didn't want him to be born (while I was visiting The South!) so I haven't managed to see them yet, but I've had photos though and he is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to meet him.

 After finishing the blanket I couldn't help make something else...

I've had this adorable pattered saved for ages in my Ravelry queue (two years!!) it's the Happy Day Mobile by Amy Gaines.  I used a lots of random yarns from my stash, some Bergere de France, Bravo, Zeeman Super Soft... Basically anything bright and cheery!

J pointed out that the cheeks on the sunshine were too low...  Only he would notice such things!

I improvised the rainbow because it was meant to be crocheted flat but I didn't think it would stay straight to hold the raindrops, and all the other pieces were stuffed so it felt a shame to leave him out!  He's kind of a rainbow burrito.

The raindrops might be my favourite, they are definitely very cheeky looking!! 

 

I loved this project, it only took a few days to finish.  I'm not a great fan of all the fiddly bits like the mouths and eyes etc but I'm good when working to a deadline, ironically finishing before little O was born but not managing to see him! ♥

Have you been making anything nice for someone else?  Especially something you secretly wanted to keep!

x x x x

The only way is up!

Oh dear. I'm feeling very sorry for myself indeed! Friday at work I felt 100%. Friday evening at home I started to feel a bit off. Saturday morning major meltdown! I've gone into full swing "feverish-cold" (apparantly a 'cold' isn't ill enough but I'm not sure this is the flu!) I'm off work today but hoping (!) to be back tomorrow...

But wait! There's more!

None of this was helped by venturing out on Saturday evening to pick up J from town. Stopped at a set of lights, car shakes and then turns off. I'm out of petrol. This is a TOTAL disaster! I'm sick, I'm tired, in 5 mins I would have been in town, J smiling and driving home to look after me. Instead I'm stuck in the middle of a busy junction!

I had to ask some nice men in a nearby pub to push me into a side street. Horray for chivalry! Boo to the embarassment of being pushed past the large glass windows of said pub with the the chivalrous men's friends cheering them on...

Queue massive breakdown on my part (a lot of tears!) An hour later and one tram ride, one round trip in a taxi to buy a bloody expensive petrol can & petrol, one trip in now working car to get petrol and two promises (from both of us) to never ignore the petrol light again.

Anyway... You didn't come here to hear tales of my woeful automobile filling inadequacy did you! No :-) I'm going to cheer myself up by sharing with you some crochet goodness that I have been working on before feverish-cold struck-me-down.

First up what could be happier than two smiling amigurumi mugs of tea?



Now I know the pattern's called Cafe con Leche (coffee with milk that is!) but when I make it it's tea. Yorkshire to be exact. The pattern is on Ana Paula's blog here and is also in her book Amigurumi World. I've made a few of these before (see my Ravatar!) but I think these are the first two that I've made properly, they're certainly different to #1!

I haven't decided wether to sell these at my friends craft fair tomorrow (if I make it!) keep them (but I can make more) or what else I don't know!

Second up are snowflakes! These are going to help decorate a very special ward where babies and their families will be spending Christmas Day



If you want to get involved please visit the Ravelry topic here - they're very quick & easy to make and would help a lot!

Last but not least I've made some good ripple progress!



I think some sort of magic might be involved, this blanket just seems to work itself out of nowhere! I hardly feel like I've spent any time on it at all. This calls for more baby ripples (two more little ones due next year from friends).

Right, I've just about exhausted myself and I think I need a lie down. I'm serious! Don't mock me ;-) Take care!

z z z z

P.S if you visit Lucy in the Sky's blog here she has a fantastic yarny giveaway!!

Swapsies!

I'm a little bit addicted to Ravelry, a website for people into knitting and crocheting. People like me. The only group I've joined is "We love Lucy" which is anyone who likes the Blog Attic 24 although it's a pretty random bunch; some knitters, some crocheters, some who just like talking to nice like minded people.

Anyway I'd seen that a few people got together a while back and had a swap - you know, pairing up, sending yarn over seas - and it seemed quite exciting! When the next one was suggested I thought I'd give it a go. Why not!

I am so glad I did, I was proper thrilled to bits with all the things my partner Nanita sent me! She's from Belgium, sadly she hasn't got a blog but I wish she did because she makes awesome amigurumi! My design tech teacher always used to say "a picture is worth 1000 words" so here's the proof!






LOOK how much yarn!!! Look at the colours!!! Boyfriend said "send it back!" haha! He thinks I have too much already...


This is quite possibly my most favourite thing - A BEE!!!! He is bloody awesome isn't he? I love him! Look at his antennae! :-D


These chickens are also amazing, I need to take some photos of their bums, they have really cool feathers at the back!


And look, a really funky tin for all my random things :-D I really like this because I've got loads of "objects with faces" on and it's just really me!

My partner did a great job and I'm biased of course but I think I got the best partner ever :-D She took so much time finding out what I liked, making me a bee... I can't really say how amazed I was - actually a little speechless (yes I know...) when I opened it. I can only hope she liked her parcel just as much! As soon as she gets it I'll put some pics up that I took before it went on it's journey.

That's all for now, I've got some hexagons to crochet...!

x x x

P.S Nanita received my parcel and took a lovely photo, here's what I sent her!

I need to stop cooking the tea towels

And I need to blog a bit more! I shut a tea-towel in the oven door (apparantly) but it's ok! I haven't blogged in 33 days and that's not ok! But you know how life is, everything suddenly happens all at once instead of spreading itself out across the year. I mean there are 365 days in which for things to happen, but in the last 33 days I have been to 2 weddings, a funeral, London, Yorkshire, Scotland, London, Tuscany, London and then London. Somewhere between all that I managed to keep on hooking and participate in a crochet swap on Ravelry, yay!

This is me, enjoying a glass of Vino Rosso on holiday, look I'm crocheting!






I found some fab yarn in Florence (Firenze) and started making a stripy cushion cover straight away because I couldn't wait to use it. Tuscany was very beautiful, we had gorgeous weather, a fabulous villa and pool, great company... I'm not sure what more you could have asked for really!





Most of my projects recently have been little things, like the monster and flowers I made my friends kids when we went over for their wedding (#1!) The Pattern for the monster is from EssHaych and I thought I'd given his face a twist of my own, but then I was looking on Rebecca Danger's blog which I've visited lots but not recently and saw that most of hers are like him, so it was obviously stored somewhere in my subconscious!






The flowers went down well too, especially at the tea party.













For Wedding #2 I made another crochet card but this one had an extra little touch because they got engaged in Paris and I had just the button!









I've been making more hexagons too but I think I'd better save that for another time (soon though!) because I don't want to bore you too much information all at once. I'm also really excited to share with you the swap I was in! All that needs much more photography and time, time I don't seem to have but I am trying :-) I'm not sure how parents manage to blog, I seriously think they must be a breed all of their own! Better go, the supermarket is calling to me...

x x x x