Booky goodness

Reading Mariannes post yesterday about crochet books got me really inspired, I had to wait until this morning to take photographs and I'm so glad it's another sunny day.  Warning; this is book photo heavy!

I couldn't think of my absolute favourite book, I suppose they all have something I love, which makes them different from the rest.  I definitely prefer books over magazines, in my (limited) experience of buying magazines I just get annoyed by all the advertising and lack of actual content!  Maybe I've yet to find the right ones.

Crochet

I don't have too many crochet books, which is surprising as I started to crochet properly well before getting into knitting.

Super Cute Amigurumi is exactly what it says on the tin.  Ridiculously cute little animals!

♥

I know this book is very popular in blog land and when I bought it I knew why!  It's beautifully photographed and the projects are all really calming and peaceful.  Does that make sense?  They remind me of blogs like Lady Bird Diaries, Sew Sweet Violet, Cherry Heart and Coco Rose Diaries

♥

A friend bought me this really cool book fore helping her at work, which is silly because it's my job & I'm paid to help, but it was lovely that she appreciated this much!  It's got so many different patterns from stars and snowflakes to leaves and triangles, and it shows you how to tesselate them and make blankets.

Knitting

This book was a Christmas present from J so it's very new.  I have to say I've been really impressed with his book buying choices (you'll see more later).  Along with your essential knitting instructions there's some more advanced techniques, some I've never seen before which is nice.

I really want to make these welly socks and this shawl/scarf/snood looks beautiful.  One day when I don't have a zillion WIPs on the go...

♥

You'll know this book is a favourite if you've visited my blog for a while.  I've make this hat twice and a couple of others.  I might be nearly 30, but I love animal hats.

♥

Knitted Toy Tales was recommended to me by Alice at Crochet with Raymond who sadly no longer blogs.  Her monsters which are some of my absolute favourite things ever are adaptations of patterns in this book.

I started the owl below but it's probably been a couple of years since I pick it up.  It looks much bigger than I expected so I think I'm going to frog it and start again on smaller needles.  I also know how to do intarsia better now so that will help.

♥

This book is just really well written and very witty.  It's got great drawn instructions and a couple of lovely projects, but it's more about "how to" than giving you things to make.

♥

This books just simply ridiculous and I love it.  It was a present from Js parents because we're 'cat people' now.  I do like some of them (others are mad!)

I think I'm going to make Js mum this doorstop.

Sewing

These were also bought by J for Christmas and my Birthday 2 weeks ago.  See what I mean about impressive?  He didn't know I follow Tillys blog either so I think he was rather pleased!  I can't wait to get cracking now my dress makers dummy has arrived.

♥

Tillys book really gets into the detail of making things which is where I often struggle when making clothes so this should really help.

Love love love this dress x

Well if you've made it to the end then well done!  I hope you've enjoyed, maybe been inspired?  Maybe you can recommend me some magazines?  Maybe you have some of these books and have already made some lovely things and want to share?  I'd love to hear! 

x x x x

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

Not bad for a morning!

I'm definitely not what one would call a morning person, but since having the cats I've forced myself out of bed at least once a weekend to feed them, resisting the temptation to lie in.  I even fed them last Saturday while nursing a nice hangover!  If I get up, I usually stay up, so this morning between 8.30 and 10am I got down to some knitting...

They're knitted up from a lovely simple pattern on a blog called Flowerpot. I've made them in the 3 and 3-6 month sizes but I wanted something in between so I cast on 20 stitches and improvised the decreases.  The yarn is Cygnet Kiddies Couture Aran.

These were for Nephew#3 but I've made two sizes for one of my best friends babies and as they're super quick to knit I can see more on the horizon...

I've finished my Christmas wrapping, apart from one thing that I'm still waiting to arrive.  Hmmm.

One of my presents to a friend is the Death Star, in all it's crochet glory!  Kinda appropriate as there's a trailer out for a new film.

My friend asked for one but I don't think he thinks I've made it (confused?) so I'm hoping it's a bit of a surprise.

I just have to say that I'm laughing at I type this, I've been feeding Moggie her favourite Dreamies and she's licking my fingers clean. And then she typed this to you all (I think it means hello)

C47 X9000DFR

She also has the last laugh as J dressed her brother up like this...

Merry Christmas if I don't post before Thursday! 

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

Woodside arm warmers

One of my recent knitty projects are these arm warmers.  I had a pair in khaki green when I was at University, but someone stole my coat at a party and they were lost forever!  My mum called them my Fagin gloves.  Well Fagin wouldn't have been wearing a pair like these now would he.

They're loosely based on a Lion Brand pattern called Constellation although I realised my yarn was a different side so I did some customising and decreased to my wrists and played around with the increases to make it fit perfectly.

They're incredibly cosy and I've been wearing them at work although it hasn't been exactly necessary, but winter is coming and I'll be able to knit in these too!

I love the stripes the yarn has produced and that the main colour's the deep purple which is lovely.



The yarn isLoops & Threads Impeccable Ombre and the colour is Folklore; I bought it a few years ago when I went to New York, from Michaels.  I still have most of the ball left and two more, so I'll have to see what to do with those.  I'd quite like to knit more monsters...

I reckon I'm getting the hang of using DPNs too, which is good because I need to use them for the sleeves of my cardigan.  I don't like casting on because I've twisted my stitches several times, and I don't like starting out with a few stitches and having to decrease, but these weren't so bad.

Moggie decided she wanted to be part of my photography shoot too.  It's a shame she's not in focus but she was very curious about what was going on!

I made up three cushions today and I've almost finished some painting (only a door frame) so I feel pretty accomplished.  I just wish it wasn't Sunday and I wish I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow!

I had a go at making short bread, using the recipe that Lucy posted on Attic 24, although I ended up adding quite a bit more flour because it was too sticky to roll out.  I had good fun cutting out my shapes and make little stars to stick on top!

Right, dinner time for all of us.  Have you had a nice weekend with any craftiness?

x x x x