This week I...

Cast on my new hat



And finished it :-)



Flicked through my growing collection of crafty books for some inspiration



Drank a lot of tea from a mug my mum bought me



Was really bad and cast on a new project, a cushion cover to replace the one that I frogged to make the mouse hat



(this is sort of okay because it's taken me only a few hours to do all of this)



Started the other side in Ribboned Stockinette, which is what I'd been knitting the other cushion cover in. It's an interesting stitch and was working better in a less chunky yarn but I'm going to stick with it



And today I made* us pancakes and waffles for breakfast in bed, cleaned the shower, had a shower, fished out a dead fish, took photos, had a cuppa, went for a sunday lunch, tried to feed the ducks or geese but there weren't any, came home cold, knitted more, blogged, thought about eating more, had some chocolate.

*okay toasted out of packets, who's complaining?

♥

Big thank you to all the kind comments last weekend, I was very touched by everyone's thoughts and they certainly helped, especially my little brother who put a rather soppy message on Facebook, arrh! My friends funeral went as well as one can go I guess! It was a lovely service, many laughs & many tears. Seeing his kid running around though after with her friends was quite reassuring :)

x x x x

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!

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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

Little squares throw - ta dah!

I've struggled with a name for this thing I've made because it's not really a throw and crochet-chair-headrest-cover sounded a bit long and boring! Well, whatever it is I've finished... :)


I love love love the small squares I'm itching to make more in a rainbow of colours! I love that they start out like little circles and I think they're a lot easier to make than ones that start as squares. I've already made more middles although I've no idea what I'm planning to make!

We went to visit my family for the weekend and I got it finished while we were there, one of the reasons I'm behind on my blog reading! Sadly all my photos are pretty rubbish - don't you just hate it when you spend ages on a project but you don't shoot it properly at the end?


Normally I don't bother blocking things because blankets get scrunched up I've never really had any need, but these little squares were getting a bit bunched up so I gave it a go and I'm very glad I did. My mum might not be now that her cork bath mat is full of little holes...


The border is something I'm particularly happy with because I've never gone to any real effort before so this was different. And partly because I made it up although I did take my inspiration from one of Attic 24's recent blankies :) It was very easy, just a round of double crochet in cream followed by a round of red double crochets and trebles in the middle.


I've made a list of all the tutorials I've used, just cos I'm nice like that :p

Tutorials:
Granny Squares
Joining
Round 1 of the border

I'm so glad the sun is shining again, it's lifted my spirits immensely & I hope you're also getting some nice weather and sunny cheer :)

x x x x

Joining Granny Squares & Sewing :-)

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Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post, things have picked up a lot since then, J had just lost his job but amazing luck & a lot of applications sees him starting something new tomorrow. I can't tell you how relieved we both are!

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My knitting / crochet updates might be a little slow, in the run up to Christmas I did too much & I think I've put strain on my hands so my fingers had been aching quite a bit. I've tried to bed sensible & cut right down (which is killing me!) & I found a great set of exercises on Knit Freedom which I'd recommend looking at & trying, even if you're not in any pain. It can't hurt ;-)


I've been making slow & steady progress on the granny squares for my Nan's throw & they're almost all joined now. I've used Lucy's tutorial for crocheting them together, I don't know how I've not used it before because I love the result, so neat & no need for a border :)

I taught a couple of ladies how to crochet & make granny squares last week at my local WI! I joined in January & Wednesday was our first craft club, it was so much fun!


I have to say, photographing 'red' seems to be particularly difficult! The first few photos I took seemed to merge all the shades. I've dropped my exposure down to about -1 & the ISO down as well which seems to have worked - hopefully you can see the three reds, if not... Oh well :)

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I spent most of yesterday upcycling this rather unexciting bag...

Before...

After...

I've used up a lot of off cuts of fabric (I knew I was keeping them for something!) & the buttons are from my Local Craft Store.


The owl is just a copy of the one I made and blogged about here two years ago. Wow, was it that long ago?

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Time to get back to a little bit of crochet now :-) Thanks for stopping by and for all your lovely comments, they really did cheer me up & I appreciate the time you all take cos I know how busy you all are with life & crafting!



x x x x

Monsters

I'd like to introduce you to a new friend...


I've been a big fan of both blogs by Alice, Crochet with Raymond and Hook, Spin, Knit (which has been taken down) for a very long time. Alice started out as a crocheter, much like me I guess, but then turned her hands to knitting and it was her knitted tea cosies that inspired me to get my needles back out and learn to knit properly.

Since then I've pretty much loved everything Alice has made, like some crazy besotted knitter, but her monsters really did it for me and I was in love. See here and here to find out what I'm on about!

It became very clear in my mind that I *had* to make my own and so Bernie was born. Ok created :)


This is Bernie, hanging out, looking gorgeous.


She has the most awesome pixie feet...


And round hands on super long arms which are great for hugging.


She's looking a bit sad in these pictures, but her mouth has been re-glued and she's definitely looking a lot happier, and dare I say mischievous?


Bernie was very much a trial and error monster. I don't have the book that Alice has (I think it's called Knitted Toy Tales) but I think she worked out pretty well. I've got a better idea for doing the next one but that will have to wait. I'm trying to cut down my yarny time because I've been getting achy hands and I'm sure that's not a good thing.

Here are some work in progress shots of Bernies bum :p


I wasn't sure whether to mention but it seems a bit false to pretend that everything in my world is 'happy go lucky'. Me & J are having some down right rotten luck at the moment. It's nothing serious i.e. nothing health related, but you know when things have just been going wrong, it gets a bit brighter and then all starts going wrong again? Well that's us.

I nearly didn't blog at tall tonight, I just haven't felt like it and I don't think I've put nearly as much enthusiasm in sharing Bernie with you as I would have a couple of weeks ago, but something inside said 'do it, do it!' so I have.


We went out on our bikes today, this is Mavis my new set of wheels. Everything's going to be just fine :)

x x x x

Knitpro needles

This post wasn't meant to end up being a review but I got a little carried away! Who know, this might be useful to someone :) I haven't mentioned (I don't think!) the awesome knitting needles I got for Christmas. I say "got for Christmas", really I got them for myself, let my little brother wrap them up and give them back to me... They are flipping brilliant!


Anyone who knows me knows I'm a colourful person and I've managed to replace most of my old grey needles and hooks with lovely colourful ones :)


I've wanted interchangeable Knitpro circular needles ever since I saw then on Crochet with Raymond and I nearly got the pink set but then by complete chance (and because I was trying to avoid buying from Amazon, tax dodging cheats) I came across a rainbow set. Swoooooon!


Mine are the Trendz set which come with four cables (60cm/24', 2 x 80cm/32' & 100cm/40') end tags so you can take the needles off but keep the knitting on the cable, 8 needles (my 4.5mm are being used right now!) and a case for them all which is quite handy. You can find loads of different types on their website.


The size markings look like the might be rubbing off which isn't great but I think I can manage to work out which is which. Alternatively my dad has one of those little drill things that you can etch with so I might try doing that... Might!


I was a bit worried about the needles coming loose from the cable but once screwed on (and there's a little tool for tightening) they're great! I've been knitting up a snood and haven't had any problems so far, yay!


This is the case with added Ham sticker :p I cut out the size guide from the packaging so I know what's what. I wish the needles were metal like my regular needles and hooks, sometimes I find acrylic needles a bit sticky, but once I've started to knit I've noticed they smooth up so it's not a big problem. Just hoping being plastic and quite thin that they don't end up snapping one day :o


I was going to share with you the first project I made with them but I've written so much about the needles themselves I've sort of run out of steam now! I'll get back to a proper post about knitty things very soon, and I may even share my new bike. Oooooooooooh!!!

x x x x

Paper

I've re-written the start of this post about 12 times, I don't know what's wrong with my brain!  What it's trying to say through the medium of blogging is I went to the Manchester Art Gallery on Sunday with J.  He's not really into art and I'm also not interested in portraits or pottery or anything like that, but they had a very nice (free) exhibition on called The First Cut, which is a collection of work from artists who use paper as their medium, not painting or drawing on paper, but actually using the paper as the piece itself.


Some of the hand cut pieces are simply incredible, they must have taken hours upon hours upon hours to finish which is one of the reasons they are by far my favourite pieces, there's always something new to spot with all the detail involved.


I thought this was very clever, a map of the world according to the currency they use.  Nothing political or religious about it, just straightforward fact.  You also get a sense of quite how massive Russia actually is, in case you'd forgotten!


There were some nice trees you could wander about in, and some paper wreaths - ok not actually wreaths, but would look very cool on my door!


Some more cut birds, shoddily photographed on my phone.


And then this cool little thing with bunting!  I really love the little pencils and tulips, I notice something new every time I have a look.

So while I don't have the time or patients to be quite as creative as these clever people, telling you about our trip does lead nicely into showing you some of the paper crafting I did over Christmas :)


Now alas I have quite bad pictures, but I can't seem to get them any better so you'll have to bear with...  My mum & dad got me a big book of scrap booking type paper when we were over in New York so I made some tiny bunting that now adorns the shelves.

Notice the empty picture frame, I got that as a present last last Christmas......


It was nice to have something to put up after Christmas, probably why I haven't felt so dull or glum this January! 

They're pretty easy to make, it's a folded piece of paper so there's no back so to speak.  My mums got these weird little punch things; you roll it across the paper (with a foam board underneath) and it punches holes in different patterns.  Amazing!  I opted for a simple line so I could do running stitch, I've since discovered she's got one that makes holes for blanket stitch...


I also dug out one of my mums crafting books and found an origami tutorial to make lanterns.  Unfortunately they didn't work with my paper (and it meant cutting it into squares) so I had to drag everyone to Hobbycraft, which was a real shame.


Origami paper in hand, I made lanterns. Ta-dah!


I have more to make, and then they'll go on some battery fairy lights o brighten the place because that's what we need J, more stuff!!

I've made some decent progress on my Nan's chair throw but still need to photograph that, and I've started a new snood for a friends mum, so lots of things to come soon hopefully, and to show you the needles I got for Christmas :o  They are to die for!!!

Thanks for stopping by, as always your reading, comments or whatever you do gives me that nice warm fuzzy feeling.

Much love from me

x x x x

P.S I was right last time, we did end up at the LFS...  Meet Bandit!