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

Tuesdays tallies: 7

Hellooooo! Hope you're all doing well, I have been a VERY busy bee lately, not so much with my one a day but with life in general. Did I tell you I passed my exam I had a few weeks ago? I was SO surprised I can't tell you. I even got sent a certificate and a badge in the post; a badge!!! :-D hahaha

Tomorrow I have to go for an interview for my job, it really sucks because I want to stay on my team! I know I complained last week about wanting more time to crochet but seriously when faced with that prospect I am very greatful to have my work!

So to the One a Day... I haven't taken any photos of the new hexagons I've made but I thought I'd share a little "progress so far" photo!












I still have no idea how big this is going to get but it's definitely at a decent size now where I can snuggle under it as I join!

If you're in the One A Day or just want to see how everyone else is doing click the One A Day banner at the top to see this weeks post by Carole :-) Thanks for stopping by!

x x x x

Tuesdays tallies: 6

Guess what!! I haven't dropped off the face of the universe and I haven't left blog land :-) I'm actually writing this post a day early and lets be honest I've only had two weeks to get something sorted to show you...!

Two weeks back my excuses were presents for other people - you guys were loving CJ and the iPhone pouch, thank youuu!!! Both were happily received :-)

Last week I had no excuse, I just hid and didn't post about my second week without hexagons...!  Life just seemed to get in the way of living, every second I spend working I wish I was making stuff but if I leave then I can't afford the nice things I like, so I guess I'll stick at it :-)

This week I promised to make it up to myself and all the other One a Day participants. Would you believe if I said I've nearly caught up on all the days I missed? You wouldn't?! I'll have to prove it then!

HuRRaY!

I almost managed two of every colour, that's a lot of sewing in to do!

Stackable goodness

THERE! I am totally guilt free now and back on target! I can't tell you how lovely that feels :-)  I'm going to try and catch up now on reading everyone elses blog because I'm really missing this part of my crochet / knitting life!

Much love to you all :-)

x x x x

Tuesdays not so tallies. It's not even Tuesday!

Wow! I've just been so busy making hexagons I didn't have time to post my third Tuesdays tallies.

Do you want to see all my hard work? Here it is!


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Um... Oh wait... I haven't actually made any hexagons whatsoever this week. FAIL! I really do feel like a terrible failure - not even one! Not even the middle circle of one. Nothing :-(



But... In my defence I have been really busy! I have a few finished projects now and repetative strain injury of my middle left hand finger (it's the yarn tension) so I'm in serious need of knitting/crochet rehab. No more til next Tues when I'm back from London.

Sorry!!

Do you want to see CJ though? I love him, I don't really want to part from him.....!!


...



TA-DAH!!!!!!



I love his vacant expression. He looks very confused! The funny thing about him is I spent ages making his front stripes stop half way across so he'd have a pink belly but then I put the pouch on and you can't even see!

See how he's a bit of a Danger monster and a bit not? The face is the same as Rebecca Dangers monsters and I used her pattern for the pouch but the patterns from Quilty's Corner which is a fab blog and looks to have some other very neat patterns I want to try!



I found a video demo for how to knit in the round with a circular needle instead of DPNs and I've made a start on a Daphne leg so we'll see if I manage this a little more successfully! ALittleBitSheepish also gave me a good tip for working in a small round in the comments bit of my last post which I'll try if circulars don't work either so thanks very much!



I also had a bit of a yarn de-stash but only a little one!

This is some of the leftover Drops Paris from my first granny stripe blanket. I may complain about it's splittyness but I really love the vibrant colours!



I decided to use this for a phone pouch for another friends birthday because I think it will be really durable and won't start to bobble like mine has!







I hope it's the right size, it's for an iPhone but I don't have one so I made a cardboard one which was so rubbish!

Ugh I need to pack now because I'm going to London tomorrow. I love going to London but I hate packing and always procrastinate until the last minute!

Take care all your knitty crochety bloggy people!

x x x x

Friday feeling

Horray it's F-R-I-D-A-Y! That means no work for two days and a lie in tomorrow! I have had serious wake up issues this week I just can't get myself out of bed :-( I'm looking forward to a glass of wine later but only later because I can't knit with wine because I can't see or think straight with wine...!

I'm working on a new project for my friends birthday next week - it's ok there's no chance of her reading this!

I was really hoping to make a Danger Craft monster so I bought the Daphne and Delilah pattern but after opening the PDF and trying for two hours I just couldn't do it!

The first step is to Cast On 6 sts onto DPNs which is 2 sts on each needle, just too fiddly for me even though I made a jar cosie with DPNs a few weeks ago *Sigh*

So I got a lovely free and easy pattern on Ravelry that you can see here! I am definitely giving it a Danger style face though :-)




Haha it looks like a pair of pants doesn't it! I'm pretty sure it will work out though, I just hope she likes it because it's put One A Day on hold til it's done! The colours look a bit weird here (they look a different weird in real life!) but that's all quite monstery isn't it?

I still can't stop knitting this though...




I LOVE this wool!!

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to a day in town while J is at work. Horray for me time!

Have a lovely weekend all!

x x x x