The end and a start

I can't quite believe that it's January, but I feel that 2014 has been packed full & I'm happy to say that I don't have many regrets.  We finished decorating our bedroom in February which I never thought we'd see the end of.

We also put up blinds and curtains in our living room, painted our bathroom (put up another blind) painted the outside window sills, painted the yard and made a planter

I personally had a brilliant time at Glastonbury and couldn't have wished for a better week.  Ok there's one regret, we haven't (yet) managed to get tickets for 2015!

We had a lovely family holiday to Italy in the Summer, our lesson learnt will be to print maps as well as use a satnav...

We adopted Diz and Mogs ♥

And this happened...  But we got through the first few weeks and we have a well adjusted cat, Mogs was always perfect hehe

I made a lot of stuff!

And as a Christmas / Birthday present to me I've ordered a dressmakers dummy (which should be here by now) so I can get down to some proper sewing, I can't wait!  

I've got a blanket or two lined up for 2015 and I need to finish Dr Who, but mostly I plan to sew if possible and get builders in to rid me of my 70s fireplace...

I hope 2014 saw you right and that 2015 sees you even better

x x x x

"Little Woollie" Inspired Cushion

I've taken the day off to keep J company who's had to phone in sick :( I suspect it's a 24/48 hour man flu but TLC had definitely been on the menu. I'm glad of the day off though as it's given me more time to do thing things I didn't get to do on Saturday when I went off rock climbing to Windgather Rocks in Derbyshire.

I haven't been outdoor rock climbing much, mostly due to the weather and other commitments from our two more experienced climbers. The weather was fantastic but absolutely freezing, and if it hadn't been for Milo I think my hands might have dropped off.

Milo has been our climbing companion several times now, even if he can be a pain in the arse!  He nearly tripped up some poor man who's day might have been severely ruined!

So today between supplying J with food an drink I've been busy knitting up a hat, but as I don't have any photos to show you I thought I'd share my Little Woollie inspired Cushion progress instead.

The stripes have taken a bit of a hiatus since getting the knitting bug again, but here's where we are:

 

The first several rows are basic Double Crochet (US Single Crochet) which I really love.  I was going to do the whole thing like this but changed my mind.  The 6th row from the top (pink/ Stylecraft Shade Fondant) is a row of Treble Crochet.

 

This stitch I think is a Double Crochet Cluster?  I'm not sure but all the patterns are on  Little Woollies blog which is where I'd be heading if I were you :)  There are also loads more patterns / stitches that I haven't used yet and probably won't as this is such a small project.

 

Now this stitch is one of my all time favourites now.  I absolutely love it!  It's called Bobble Stitch but I think I've also heard it with another name.  It's so easy to do but looks so cute!

 

Lastly are some chevrons which aren't quite finished.  I think there should be another row like the pink to square it off.  Then I'm probably going back to some regular Double Crochet for a good while.

 

Here we go!  I've realised just how wonky my granny square is but I'm not too fussed.  I did see a great tutorial (afterwards...) about how to stop this - if I could remember where from I'd share the link, but I think the idea was you didn't start a new round in the corners, start along the sides in complete randomness :)

 

 I'm going to get back to hat knitting now.  I'm absolutely bursting to finish it and share with you.  Lets just hope I don't have another "Goldilocks" moment.  I'll give you a clue: Too big, too small, just right?

Night!

x x x x

The City that never sleeps

YaWn! I am SO tired right now, something to do with having returned from this amazing city a few days ago :)


We didn't get up til 1pm today and 2pm yesterday - shocking!! I feel very jet lagged but all is good. While we were away J & I got a new camera which has a tilt-shift setting that I absolutely love. It makes things look like little miniature models! I won't bore you with hundreds of photos you'll already have seen before, so hopefully these are a little different.

Time Square! Apparently a little seedy back in the 70s, it's now the place where everyone seems to converge of an evening. I loved walking here most nights when we came in 2008 (we stayed literally a couple of blocks away), this year we stayed out in Queens but we managed a good few trips here :)

Our trusty number 7 train in and out of Manhattan

Cony Island

We went in May last time and the amusements were closed! It was quite eerie and I was the only person on the beach but at least the aquarium was open. A very different story this time.

The Staten Island Ferry

Probably the best free way to see the Statue of Liberty!

I came back with American Candy - I love the packaging!  Milk Duds are very yummy and we scoffed at least two boxes of pancake mix while we were away, they're so much fluffier than the ones we make in the UK.

And a modest purchase from Michaels craft store which is quite simply the most brilliant place ever :D

I've got a nice shiney set of colourful crochet hooks now that are crying out for some new handles... I even got something for another giveaway... More on that another time!

Being New York I didn't have much time to be bored, and I seem to be getting more and more motion sick, so despite taking supplies for the flight I didn't crochet a whole lot but I've made a start on a Little Woollie inspired cushion - I've just seen that she's doing a crochet-a-long for my most favourite blanket ever and I'm gutted I've missed it but I might try and catch up, or just save the pattern. Anywho :)

The colours are Stylecraft again - lets be honest I have so much I think very little of what I make's going to be anything else :-p I'm using Pomegranate, Fondant, Clematis, Meadow, Cloud Blue, Sherbet & Cream at random. I think the back may have to be stripes :)

I need to go and do all that fun post holiday stuff now, washing, getting ready for work tomorrow... What fun! Hope you've all had a good week or two, I'll be back soon with more hooky fun!

x x x x

Thank you :-)

Hello! Give away time is over (whoops is it Wednesday already?) and I had a lot of fun reading all your comments. I hadn't anticipated how drained I'd feel coming back from climbing and I am SO glad I asked for something to make me laugh - it really cheered me up so thank you :-)

Climbing incidentally went very well - I did my first outdoor climb & multi-pitch (where you do several climbs in succession to get to the top!) and some terrific walks for hours up hill - not so fun!

That right there I climbed.

But I digress! To the giveaway at hand :-) I popped everyones names into a hat (actually it was a bowl!) and I can reveal that the winner of my little cactus is...



Hippywitch!

Congratulations :-D  Thank you again to all who entered x

Bye bye little cactus!

x x x x

A grand day out

Hello, good evening! It's Friday here but because I've been off work today I keep thinking it's Saturday. Isn't that a lovely feeling when you realise you have more weekend left than you thought??


Today has been fab, my folks are up from London so we took them on a little jaunt to Ramsbottom via Bury on a steam train on the East Lancs Railway! My Dad loves me so much right now. I've been to Bury before but never the old station - what a surprise it was!







When we arrvied what should be the first thing I see, but Clark Craft right outside the station! This shop was seriously amazing, I could have spent a fortune and all day looking around; there was nothing they didn't have!


My favourite purchase was these vintage looking (aka old) knitting needles in imperial sizes (I think they're about a UK 2) for 90p!


I just LOVE the colour!

We headed off to the town centre, found a lovely little tea shop, wandered some more and eventually I found this absolute bargain of a book in one of the charity shops.


£1.50!!!


It's about an inch thick or more and is packed full of sewing information!! Much more than my head will ever comprehend but hopefully it will help with the skirt I've started making; more on that another day :-)


This pattern has got to be the best though, Derek the Dinosaur!!!


Closely followed by the cuddly crocodile...!

Hope you're all having a great weekend too, much love!

x x x x

Worthy Farm, Shepton Mallet, England.

This.



This is what makes every year so special. I love no place on earth more than I do Glastonbury Festival. Not my own home, my parents home, my garden, not even my local yarn shop. I love Glastonbury Festival and I cannot begin to even explain how happy that makes me. It sounds utterly ridiculous but it's amazing.

I'm on a bit of a Glastonbury come down at the moment, which means I've been very tired and I'm quite grumpy! I really don't want to be back in reality and this time it's going to last until 2013 :-(

I wanted to share a few photos with you although nothing can come close to being there. If you ever have the opportunity to go, do it.

Above was taken from The Park.

Tibetan prayer flags in the Greenfields


Greg. I took him to Glastonbury in 2009 and on the way home asked the campsite crew to look after him. They have ever since.


Shangri-La. One of the great things about Glastonbury is you can be whoever you want to be.


The Unfairground.


The locals!


Greenpeace, a very important charity to me


Hurrah! Some bunting craftyness in the craft fields!


Elbow on the Pyramid Stage, Saturday.


It's all over* :-( Beyonce closes the festival, Sunday.


*well not quite. We stayed up til 4am in an underground Piano Bar singing along with Irish folk. Only at Glastonbury eh?!

You know what, I'm feeling a lot better for this little reminisce. I'm going to go now and apologise to all who I've snapped at today! Bye!

x x x x