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

Japanese flowers

I should really be getting on with my work-in-progress things (baby granny stripe, hexagons, oh well...!) but have been totally inspired to start making some of these gorgeous little flowers!

First saw them on Attic 24 (where else?) and since then they've popped up everywhere!

They're from a Japanese book called Motif Book Vol 4 (I've linked to the etsy seller when Lucy in the Attic got hers) and it's been translated into French on this blog here where there are also crochet diagrams if you are able to reach such things, see:

Tuto réalisation d’une fleur (one flower)
Tuto assemblage des fleurs (assembling two flowers (join as you go))
Ou les 2 tutos en version pdf (a pdf (adobe reader file) which seems to work better than the other links)

Anyway I'm babbling, this is all on Attic 24 - go there! All I really want to do is say "hey look, I managed to make one too, yay!!!"









I've make a few more since, but unlike our lovely Lucy I have no idea what I'm going to do with them! Will I make a scarf, will I hang them up somewhere? Who knows! I certainly don't!

About bit:
The yarns Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (tis lovely lovely stuff) and I think I got it from Hejhog which is a lovely website indeed :-)

A weekend in the Lakes

I don't usually get the chance to put up lovely photos of the countryside like a lot of other blogs I read because I live in the centre of Manchester, but lucky lucky me went on a hen-do this weekend to the Lake District and I had a very lovely time indeed.

Now I'll spare you all of the photos I took, some are probably not best put on a nice safe blog about crocheting!!! However, the little enormous cottage we stayed in was absolutely gorgeous and I can't believe the owners don't want to live there all the time :-o



This was Fell Gate Farm where we stayed, unfortunately we never made it to the Fell but I'm sure it was lovely, the views we had certainly were!







So, in through this beautiful wooden door...



Into the cosy sitting room with this amazing fireplace, and look!! Heart bunting. Ooooooooh :-)



Through to the kitchen with it's lovely Aga!



The owner had even put some pretty tulips in a vase!



Bulbs in the garden were just starting to come out



And we found a little pond with a duck house!



We visited Lake Windemere on Saturday and even though I took several photos, I think this one is my favourite (even though it's also out of focus!)



We had a very posh afternoon tea with champagne which was verrrrrrrrrrrrrry nice, and spent a lot of time enjoying our lovely house and having a very silly time!



Now I'm very very tired but looking forward to sharing some crochet updates soon :-)

Baby Granny Stripe Progress

Ahhh now time for a little update. I'm not too much further on yet but we're 28 and a bit rows in now! Looking good isn't it? I'm liking it very much, I can see why so many others have also made Granny Stripes using Styleraft (see here!)

I tell you this yarn is so lovely to work with, it's so soft for an acrylic! Much better than any of the yarns I used in my Granny Squares (a project which is finished by the way, despite the lack of a tah-dah post which I only just noticed I never wrote...)

Here's a little close up. Mmmmm stripy goodness!

Have a lovely weekend! x

Granny Squares Tah-Dah!

Anyone who knows me reading this will be wondering "what on Earth is all this about?" The truth is I realised it my last post that I never wrote anything about finishing my Granny Squares blanket. You know, the mammouth year and a half project, 324 squares, two person effort that consumed me during '09 and '10!

Well yes it's finished! Poor thing, it's not that I wasn't pleased to finish it, relieved might be a good word to use! I think it was really too big to embark on as a first project and I lost heart in the middle of making all the squares, then putting them together felt like walking Route 66 (no end in sight?)

Here is a little reminder...






And here (finally) Tah-Dah!!!






A big thankyou has to be said to my friend J.J who helped with a lot of these little buggers and who without, I doubt I would ever have finished!

Baby Granny Stripe Blanket

I'm really very excited about starting this next project as it's the first big thing I will have made to give away. Shocking I know! I read about all these generous people whipping up blankets for friends and loved ones and here's me surrounded by my own creations, hoarding them for myself! That's probably why I like reading Lucy's blog because she has no problem making herself lovely things and keeping them - and so she should!

I made a granny stripe (see here!) before using Drops Paris, and although I'm happy with the result now I wasn't at the time and admittedly I hated the yarn! It was too splitty and my fingers hurt the whole time I was making it, BUT! It has lovely colours and my friend thought so too because she's creating a child in her womb and has asked me to make her a granny stripe! I was thrilled, chuffed to bits; someone liked something I made enough to wrap their own child in it? Amazing!!

I've dropped the Drops though (haha) and instead opted to use the Stylecraft I've been making my (abandoned) hexagons* out of because it's going to be a lot softer and snugglier for a small person. I also love using it!
*Hexagons not abandoned, just postponed!

So here we go!

I hadn't planned to start so soon but got a little carried away, and the light wasn't good (and still isn't here) so I'd already finished 11 rows before getting my first picture. I hope you like it, I hope they like it and I hope they don't see it before its finished! I also hope that annoying little blue stripe between the green and yellow doesn't annoy anyone else as much as it annoys me!

Bye bye bye x

What I mostly wordle about

I found this Wordle thing over on The Quince Tree which was also on Shanti's blog who saw it on Tecrin Tries! All good crochet blogs you should check out (plus all the others I follow to the right >>> )

This is a little summary of words on my blog. I'm surprised actually that Christmas came out as the most used word (I do love it though, and by saying the word I've just added to the stats!) and believe it or not I can't even see the word crochet at all! Prize to whoever points it out ;-)



Check out Wordle.net to create your own :-)

Hi There 2011

The problem with making christmas cards and presents for other people is being able to a) give them away and b) restrain from blogging about them until after they've been received! I so wanted to share these before but couldn't be sure they wouldn't be spotted by my friends and family!

Now I admit I didn't make all the fancy little things on the cards, some were from Hobbycraft and Abakhans and a lot were bits and bobs from old christmas cards and things I've hoarded but I did have great fun putting them together.

So yes even though it's January (oh yes, Happy New Year!!!) here we are!



















After 9 I ran out of steam a little so this was all I managed but hey, I'd be very greatful of any Christmas card. Now if they could all please be sent back to me that would be great as it was very hard parting with them... ;-)

All you need:

• Some card & envelopes (I got mine in Fred Aldous, Manchester)
• Sticky foam pads / double sided tape
• Ribbon
• Christmas motifs, old cards, wrapping paper
• Felt / foam
• Festive cheer / mulled wine
• Scissors (very important!)
• Anything else you can stick onto a card and part with

Perhaps some Easter card making might be on the horizon!

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and a fab 2011!

Getting ready for Christmas

I love Christmas more than any other time of the year! I love the lights, seeing friends and family, presents (buying, wrapping, giving and receiving!) the mulled wine, Christmas markets... Need I go on? But the thing I love most is decorating! So I've been quite busy over the last month making little felt decorations for my tree.



These are ever so easy to make, all you need is a bit of felt, some buttons, ribbon and teddybear stuffing, a pair of scissors, pinking shears if you have some, tapestry thread, needles, and a mince pie. The design is from a flyer I picked up in Hobbycraft but you can also view it online here!

The edge has been finished with a blanket stitch; I got this from my Cath Kidstone Sew book but you can find simple instructions all over the internet.



This is my favourite with all the little heart shaped buttons which were only 99p for a bag which made another heart and may even make one more. Bargain! A little tip for the ribbon is if you don't have any, raid your wardrobe. What you say? Raid your wardrobe? Yes! So many of my tops have these ribbons inside to use on hangers but 9 times out of 10 I never use them for this purpose, and they always get in the way don't they? Chop them off and save for a project! Some people might call it cheap, I call it thrift.





The baubles and lights are just jewellery and crimping beads which I had in a tin for years! The snowflake shapes above I got from a shop in America called Michaels and they have sticky backs which is great for attaching while you sew; I'm sure most LCSs (local craft stores?) will have something similar.

All for now, have a lovely weekend :-)