In the month of March

Things making me happy

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I ordered a book called Knitted Animal Hats by Fiona Goble from the interwebs and after a few days of waiting (in which I whinged every day about why it hadn't arrived, much to J's dismay) it finally came. I've got a thing for knitted hats, especially animal ones.


Even though I made a cat/mouse hat last year I've embarked on this one already because I think it's adorable and it should help me to practice and hone some more knitting skills :)

I spent a few hours this afternoon with people who live nearby clearing a little plot of land that the Council has leant us to turn into a community garden which we're calling Phoenix Gardens :)

You can see how much we got done from the before & after photos!

Back breaking work and I'm feeling it already!

♥

I've been making a snood for my friends mum and while it's terribly terribly tedious I'm happy because I'm now on the second ball of yarn. Although I still have about 90g of the 100g to go I feel like I might be on the home stretch...

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Joining the WI which I have completely forgotten to mention, it's a new one set up by two knitting friends. The butterflies in the photo above are on a top I got in last weeks clothes swap for 50p :)

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Being restless with my blog at the moment and changing the theme every week it seems. I might settle eventually :)

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Finding all the good happy things in life at the moment has been very comforting and remind me to try and live life to the full and not to take anything for granted - ok I know that sounds incredibly cliché but bear with me...

Very very very horribly sadly a friend who I've known since starting my job has lost his year long battle to cancer and died on Mothers Day :( I think I had just over a week to come to terms with the fact that he was going to die before he did, and that hit me hard. I've never known anyone who was going to die and I didn't know how to deal with that. Not well as it happens, I just felt full of sadness.

His death came a lot sooner than anyone expected but in some ways I feel some relief that he's not in pain any more and can be at peace. My heart goes out to his partner and their 7 year old daughter who I've thought about a lot these last few weeks. I don't know how they will manage and cope without the love of their life and Dad. It's just so so sad. Much love goes to them x

So take it from me, don't leave anything until it's too late. If there's someone you love or miss then tell them, because I sure as hell wish I'd been in contact more. Now go and read something crafty & cheery because I fear I might have made you a little sad and I don't want to do that, I just needed to share xXx

x x x x

Ripple blanket: Finished!

Who'd have thought so many of you had already tried Rumchocolate?! I'm really loving this :-) If you haven't then give it a go.

I've had another busy weekend down in London visiting J. I'm not sure if I ever said that he's been living there since January, if not then now you know! It means seeing a lot more of my family and 'home friends' and that is no bad thing.

It also gives me plenty of time on the train to knit and crochet although admittedly I get quite travel sick so I can't always manage it. When I do, I ignore the funny looks, stick my headphones on and away I go!

Something I have enjoyed finishing on the train is this...

I'm so sad to have finished but also so pleased with the result! I really hope little EP will be cosy in it!

Not the most amazing photo in the world but here goes for my 'ta-dah'!

:-D

The yarn I've used is Stylecraft Special DK, the same as my forgotten about Hexagon Blanket and finished Granny Stripe.

I'll list the colours from bottom to top as some are in the "Lucy Pack" and some aren't!

Lipstick 1246
Pomegranate 1083
Shrimp 1132
Sunshine 1114
Saffron 1081
Lemon 1020
Spring Green 1316
Aspen 1422
Turquoise 1068
Cloud Blue 1019
Lavender 1188
Wisteria 1432
Magenta 1084
Plum 1061
Cream 1005

The cream stripes have really made a difference to this blanket compared to the Granny Stripe which was solid blocks and I love it! It's a single row of trebles instead of two. I get my Stylecraft from Deramores and quite often they have a sale on so keep your eyes peeled...

I've been busy with new projects since completing my Bubble Gum Ripple (no this isn't another ripple)

And I finally got out onto the balcony to do some planting. I'll leave you with the fruits of my labour! Good night x

Going to try not to kill my herbs quite so quickly this year

x x x x

October

Hello!!! I thought it was about time I posted on a day that isn't Tuesday although truth betold I've got a lot of WIPs and not a lot of FOs to show you but we'll see how we get on :-)

Two weeks ago we were mostly having torrential rain and hurricane type winds but this week has been pretty lovely, the weather could even be described as beautiful!



The light is just stunning (but not very good for taking photos of crocheting!)


I've had a big garden tidy, the sweetpeas are gone along with a few other plants that haven't survived the battering. It looks much neater now, it wouldn't surprise me if we had snow again soon!




Enough of the weather now, how British! I'm really excited to share this with you... A few months ago I posted on Ravelry asking if anyone knew where I could buy coloured knitted needles from as mine are all grey. I've seen lovely hooks on eBay but no needles.




My absolute new best friend EVER Donna in Canada replied saying she did and before I knew it had been to her local Michael's Store (a brilliant craftshop in North America / Canada) and bought me some needles! Needless to say I was flipping over the moon!

Due to a bit of a postal strike (!!) and possibly a boat trip (?) the needles spent 52 days travelling but they are finally here! If I thought I was excited a few months ago this was nothing compared to how I felt this morning when the postman came! I had sort of given up hope of seeing them and thought they were missing across the Atlantic but they are here!!!





Aren't they wonderful!!

The most amazing thing about all of this is Donna paid for everything and just said I could pass on the good karma by doing another person a good deed :-o Well I certainly will be, I have one massive big deed to owe (or lots of little ones!!)




Donna even sent me two balls of Vannas Choice yarn which is much talked about across the pond. The red will make some lovely Christmas decorations I think and the black will be so good for amigurumi because I always need darker colours for that :-)





You might notice some other needles at the bottom too!




A couple of weeks ago when I went down to London to visit my family we visited to a town called Rochester and look what I scavenged from a charity shop!




More knitting needles that aren't grey!! I'm having a bit of a needle overdose aren't I!

After the DPN fiasco I decided I needed to learn cables instead, well let me tell you this was a MUCH more pleasant experience. I love cables! They are so easy, you don't even really need a cable needle (a DPN will do, horray a use for them!) so I made a fab little coffee mug cosie for a friend at work:




The pattern is on a blog called His Glory Hand Knits and it was very simple to follow.




Here it is doing it's job on a coffee plunger. Apparantly it's actually very useful which is of course a bonus!




Time to do some housework / laundry now I think. Booo! See you soon

x x x x

In rainbows

Hello! Happy Wednesday afternoon :-) The weather is absolutely lovely here, it feels like we might have a proper summer afterall! It's a shame it wasn't like this on Friday because my mum took me to the RHS Hampton Court flower show (and you know how I love gardening!) and it rained quite a lot. Nothing was going to stop us from enjoying ourselves and getting down to some serious plant buying; we just hid in the Rose tent while the rain did it's thing :-)

I present to you the product of two women and a garden show! Thank goodness my brother came, I don't know how we'd have carried everything. He took many many more photos (I took 4...) so as soon as he gets them online I'll pick out a few good ones to show you.

So onto more crafty things then. You may remember back here I said I'd been part of a Ravelrly swap and got sent loads of amazing yarn, well I finally put some of it to very good use!



I've made a little phone pouch for my android incase I drop it, which I have a habit of doing! It's a very simple design, just rounds of trebles, slip stitched at the end so there's no seam.



I found a cute button in my button stash (from an old top) and made a little chain ring to fasten.



It was a really quick project which is something you need from time to time isn't it? I have so many long term projects on the go (I actually have 4 WIPs on the go now...!) so it's nice to see something finished for once.

Although improvised the general gist of this pattern is from Lucys jar jackets (I call them jar cosies!) over on Attic 24, so you can pick up how to make it properly over there. I just stopped doing rounds when I reached the top of the phone and did stripes for a flap.

Right I'd better be off because I have a million and one things to do, but I've lots of posts to share so hopefully I'll be back very soon :-)

x x x x

P.S I have 38 followers!!! I'm on the slow count up to 40 when I'll be having a little celebration :-D Thanks guys x

P.P.S! I knew I'd seen inspiration for the pouch and I just stumbled upon it! Sahm Saritha at Rainbow Bunting made a very lovely pouch for a friend and although the colours are very different it definitely made me want to make one!

Getting ready for Spring

Hello! Welcome back :-) Today has been such a beautiful day it would be a shame not to give it some credit! We've been warned that the sun won't last so I'm making the very most of it.

This is the view from our flat, it's not very pretty (not like some of these views, and these) but a lot goes on down there and I find it very interesting to watch the canal boats, trams, trains and rowers on the river.



This is Salford, our neighbourly city.

The weather up here (we're on the 7th floor) is pretty kind to my plants so most escape all the ground frost.



My bulbs have started to come up nicely so we'll have lots of colour soon!





It's so nice when everything starts growing again! After Christmas I really just want winter to be over :-)



Before & after!

I decided to get busy this afternoon by sowing some seeds while J was sorting out the millions of CDs we have in boxes!



I got to put into action my new scieve which makes me feel like I'm looking for gold!



Fingers crossed this little lot will make it, I've not always had much luck with sowing seeds (apart from sweet pea and nasturtiums which I think must be the easiest thing in the world to grow!)



I think I took too many photos to show them all so I've made a little mosaic to summarise :-)

1) Some tiny sempervivum "chicks" that I found in the compost, they'd rooted themselves so now they're in this little dish :-)
2) A plant I found in the green house, it has such lovely colours!
3) A hand carved muchroom from the Manchester Christmas Markets
4) My lovely polka dot watering can, I tried not to use it to keep it nice but it's got a great pouring action!
5) Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Flags from Glastonbury Festival
6) My hard work!
7) Hyacinth from Wythenshawe Market
8) The other end of the balcony
9) My £1.99 peony!

I'm off to watch Wonders of the Universe now with the lovely Professor Cox, byee!

x x x x

My herb garden

For ages I've wanted a herb garden, I don't know why exactly as I don't often cook with herbs but I think I just liked the idea you know? So I had chives before, and creeping pennyroyal (smells like pepper mint) rosemary, thyme and a couple of others. Guess what! They're all dead. I don't know what I've been doing wrong so I hope this time I do a bit better.

My pots are stackable so I can move them around easily, they've got lots of crocking in the bottom and I drilled holes for drainage. The gravel apart from looking good should also help with drainage so fingers crossed to a better herb year.




Oregano


Sage


Chives


Creeping Pennyroyal


Thyme


Oregano

Bees come to Manchester

Really pleased about the article I've just read on www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

"There's going to be a real buzz about Manchester this summer - as the city joins the fight to save the honeybee.

The Plan Bee project is installing bee hives in gardens and allotments in inner city areas.

Residents are being encouraged to keep into keeping apiaries – a collection of hives – and encourage a growth in the bee population."

We really need bees, bees are good.

Happy Valentines Day

I'm not sure why I've chosen to write about Valentines Day as I'm not really one for celebrating it (an agreement that my other half is probably quite pleased about) but these hearts had been lying around since our anniversary, so if you do celebrate today, this is for you :-)

I've been busy in the garden (technically balcony) again and can't believe how fast a year has gone. I learnt a lot last year about what-not-to-do when sewing seeds and I've cut back on how many I'm sewing because it's a real pain to be honest! I don't feel like sun flowers this year but I am looking forward to the nasturtiums coming back (the bees like them!)

This is the cushion I've been making for a friends 30th birthday in a few weeks and I'm really pleased, I just hope she likes it. J commented how much faster I am at making squares now which is a bloody good thing in my opinion as I've been doing it almost solidly for a year now!

After a busy day of pottering there is nothing better than a good cup of Yorkshire Tea, and what cup of tea would be complete without cake or a donut?

I'm getting really into a little crochet thing called Amigurumi and have been following a great little tutorial to make a cup of tea from Ana Paula's blog, check it out because there are some adorable tutorials and even I seem able to make them. Maybe I'll upload some photos next time if I ever finish Mr Brew.