The Crafty Swap

You may remember that once upon a time I mentioned a craft swap I'm doing with Maddy of From Twelve to Two Fifteen... well the time is almost upon us to complete the task and swap creations. Tomorrow is the day, I'll venture over to see her whilst she is back in the UK and present her with what has been a mammoth project over the last few months... the giant granny square blanket.
Firstly I was building up piles and piles of brightly coloured granny squares made from lovely yarn - Mostly Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran with some RICO Essentials Soft Merino Aran thrown in to complete the colour palette.
This...

Became this...

which have eventually become this...

I have to admit I love it, and this picture doesn't really do it justice at all. There are 100 granny squares (made using Attic 24's Summer Garden Granny Square pattern) and they are all joined in one continuous motion using this method  by Babylove Brand which I found very easy to follow! It actually all joined together quicker than I thought, and I will definitely be joining future granny square blankets in this way. Revelation. I have really enjoyed this project, and will miss it somewhat. I've had endless evenings of crocheting random colour squares and then the privilege of combining them to make a blanket which I hope will be greatly received. I have already had a preview of the quilt made for Little P, as Maddy finished a while back and posted about it here... I have 'borrowed' a pic off her blog to show it off, but will no doubt take more photos when we receive it tomorrow!

Isn't it super lovely? Sewing is really not a craft I know a lot about, so I can't even imagine the work that went into this, but I know it will be huge amounts since it has been dubbed 'the forever quilt'! I know Little Lady will love it and spend many hours using it in her games and snuggling under it... as will I.

Here's a few more pics of the blanket, before I part with it... I think it deserved a montage...

and another full-body shot...

and a little look at it all packaged up...

and a close-up of that super little detail...

Yep, personalised wooden buttons bought for me by my trusty friend Curly Girl Coop... the perfect detailing to finish it off!

So there was an enormous cavern left where the blanket once filled my evenings... but not for long. It seems it's baby time again... it always seems to come in gluts, 3 babies due close together, then none for months! So I'll be back on baby crafting for a bit, and see what else takes my fancy. I also still have the 'As We Go Stripy Blanket' which I started work on months ago but it went on the back-burner when the BIG granny blanket came along. I did find time last weekend to figure out and type up a pattern for a square I created last year (or maybe actually the year before that) as I have been asked a couple of times recently for a pattern for it. I have titled it 'The Popcorn Flower Square' and it can be found from a link at the top of the page or by simply clicking here.

I've also been enjoying the glorious sunshine over the last week, and have had lots of lovely days with my Little P, including trips to the park and beach. We took a day trip to Southwold earlier this week, which was great fun. Always such a lovely place to visit. I particularly love the shot of Little Lady wandering along the pier...

I've had great fun also playing with my camera, and trying to snap some nice shots of the nature around me. There are plenty of flowers in the garden to practice on, since I went overboard on my daylily collection a few years back! They are great plants, the flowers may only last a day but there are so many of them, staggered throughout the summer months. Here are a few of my faves...

I also found myself a teeny weeny baby cactus from a local exotic plant nursey, and look forward to watching him grow!

My cacti and succulent collection is coming along nicely... Now I realise I do have a few collections going on... ooops.

I also made it out into the countryside again with the Little One and spotted a few more of those Six-Spotted Burnet moths I took a photo of before. I managed to get close up this time and I am pretty proud of the photo I got...

Look at him drinking! I love it!

Right, got to go, I'm continuing on a new project and having a well deserved cup of tea. I shall update you all on the craft swap in due course! So until next time...

Priorities

When I embarked on this journey into Blogland, I had great ambitions. I would blog weekly. I would have lots of photos. I would design lots of new things and share them with the world. I would give anyone who took time to read my blog a little insight into the life of me. Weekly became fortnightly. Fortnightly became monthly, and now it is just when I get the chance to sit and organise myself.
Blogging is something I very much enjoy, and think about a lot. I am always thinking of what I'll write, taking pictures and organising them. But actually taking the time to down write has fallen down my priorities list somewhat - until now, when I find myself waiting for the super-late England match to kick off!
Anyone with a high-maintenance 3 year old will know that they will take up most of your time, and energy. Often when I finally get her to bed, I'm ready to hit the sack too. It's not just physical exhaustion, it's the mental too. Questions all day long, good ones too. Why is asked for everything. Why do apples float? Why why why... by the end of the day I have run out of answers!
Of course, I am happy she is inquisitive and asks questions. She's growing up so fast and most of the time is a pleasure (she is very much still a nightmare at other times!) and I love being her Mum and am privileged to spend all the time I do with her.
Spare time gets split between 'boring' household chores and routines and my little bubble of 'being me'. I have been indulging in what makes me happy and what I'm interested in over the last couple of years. Crochet fills a great deal of my creative time... and rubber stamp carving. And lots of other little things I love - music, art, plants, nature, rocks etc... When I sit back and look at my life and the things I have surrounded myself with, I realise I am very happy right now. I love my life - my girl, my family and friends, my hobbies and interests. One interest I have 'indulged' in recently is rocks and minerals... I have always been fascinated by rocks and minerals, the colours, patterns and forms they take on. I love opal... natural opal, not lab created stuff. I love my opal ring, and my Australian boulder opal pendant. I also have a small collection of stones and crystals which I am now able to display on a super shelf!

It is very much inspired by Stone and Violet but made by a friend who takes old wooden pallets and fashions them into furniture. I wondered if he could make smaller items so I dropped him a line and a day later he made the most beautiful mountain shelf! Any local people to me check out Joe's Pallet Wood Furniture Facebook page!
Nature has also been filling my time. Spring is a super time of year, and last year you may remember I was preoccupied with nesting blackbirds in our garden... well this year it has been the turn of the goldfinch. Yep, such a beautiful little bird nested in a small tree outside our lounge window. Great viewpoint! The Little Lady and I spent many an hour sitting at the window chatting and spotting the birds as they were to and fro from the nest. I love her taking an interest too. I even tried some stealth photography to try and capture one of the babies who was peeping out of the nest...

Ahh baby goldfinch and a proud parent. I didn't see them fledge however. They were suddenly gone, but there are quite a few goldfinches about here at the moment so I hope they are doing OK. Last time I spied them, they were sitting right up on the edge of the nest and looked pretty big.
I have been out and about with the camera snapping the beauty that is nature. Here are a couple of my faves:
A single Allium flower opening

A trip to see some wild orchids at a local wildlife reserve was fruitful... there was a field littered with these amazing flowers...

And some strange moths I have never seen before... No idea how I spotted these on a blade of grass in a meadow, but I'm glad I did. I since researched and discovered that they are Six-spot Burnet moths. Who knew?

Obviously crafting has been filling my time. The main project is the ongoing blanket for the craft swap with Maddy (see her lovely blog FromTwelveToTwoFifteen) The granny squares have been piling up...

And today I reached the 100 mark! Then came the laying out and colour planning, and then learning to continuously join the whole lot! I used this tutorial to help me along my way. So far I have 2 rows of 10 joined, and I really like the continuous process... it's easier than I thought it would be so far! More pictures to follow...
I also made a couple of gifts for a little man who entered the world a few weeks ago... It's a friend of my Mum's, so she asked me to make some bunting with his name on, and I made a cute little giraffe toy for him too.

Pattern is that of I Love Buttons by Emma and yarn is a mixture of Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo and King Cole Bamboo Cotton. I love this pattern - it's super easy and it's great fun to use loads of colours, even if the changes are a bind.

And there is the bunting, looking good against the blue sky. I like this bunting -  a very simple pattern by Pink Milk adapted slightly to add a border to it. Finished off with felt letters, as I find they look neater than crocheted ones.

Yarn is Rico Creative Cotton Aran in a variety of colours  - my favourite for making bunting.

Last year I, like hundreds of others, partook in making bunting triangles for Yarndale. I loved being part of a community project, thinking my tiny contribution helped to make an awesome spectacle of bunting strung up around Yarndale. So naturally, when the Yarndale team called for mandala makers, I was of course intrigued. Firtsly, I love the cause - even though I won't be able to make it this year - and secondly, I love mandalas. I have made a few previously and admit that they are totally addictive. I love playing with colour and texture... and just winging it round by round. I turned to my stash of Lily Sugar 'n' Cream, a lovely stiff cotton in amazing bright colours and set to work. Previously my mandalas had been a riot of colour, but this time I fancied sticking to a colour scheme, so I just picked 3 colours that I liked together...

I'm not sure exactly how I made it as I followed a rough pattern but adapted it a fair amount. I am pleased with it, and rather like limiting my colour use sometimes - I think it shows the pattern off a bit more in this case.
I also decided to decorate the packaging up a bit, and to keep it in my style I decided to carve up a couple of mandala stamps. I researched simple mandala patterns and tweaked them to make them suitable for stamp carving. I used jet black StazOn ink and was super pleased with the overall effect...

I also stamped up the back with some Yarndale bunting...

I mounted one of the stamps up and sent it off to Lucy as a little extra gift, as I was quite proud of it!

So that brings me nearly to kick-off time... can I manage to actually stay awake for the match now? I'm not so sure about that! I will try and pop in and post when I can, but blogging is taking very much a backseat at the moment like I said, but it is always at the forefront of my thoughts! So until next time, however long that may be...

Birthday Preparations

Once again, things have been busy around these parts. There has been much crafting (mainly crochet) in the evenings when the Little Lady is asleep. There has also been preparation for the Little Lady's third birthday next week - agh can't believe I will have a 3 year old! She's having a little party with her friends and I'm currently in the process of (trying) to make a cake for her. I've never done the whole party cake thing, where you cover it in roll-out icing and make it look all pretty, so I'm excited to have a go at that. The tricky part is the actual cake, as Little P has food allergies - dairy and egg - pretty standard in a cake mix! I've made cakes before for her, but they always turn out pretty flat, but there was one Victoria sponge type thing I made once which was great... only trouble is I didn't bookmark the recipe and I am trawling the net trying to re-find it! If it all goes to plan and the cake works, I will show it off here, if it's a complete failure I'll just let the vaults of time swallow it up and forget about it. One 'trial' cake is already out on the lawn for the birds... it was definitely not the recipe I tried before!
Little P is super excited about her birthday this year, finally old enough to appreciate it and understand. It's all about princesses with her at the moment - completely the opposite of me and how I was as a child. She's so imaginative as keeps playing with her imaginary princess friends in the house - this morning they were all at a Royal Ball, and it was so busy we had to queue to get a ticket!
So needless to say, I have a few princess related presents for her birthday - not that I'm trying to fuel the obsession! I also thought it would be nice to make her a little something, as I don't seem to have made her a toy for quite some time. Princess? no... she has enough of them... but maybe a Tinkerbell? I had a look for some patterns on Ravelry and decided to give this one a go as I thought it was sweet (not necessarily the most Tink-like but super cuddly)

I used Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo, which is still one of my favourites for toy making as it's soft and has a very neat finish. I changed the pattern slightly - firstly the skirt 'leaves' weren't working out for me so I adapted it to make my own skirt. Also the wings seemed too 'floppy' and I fancied something a bit more decorative, so I searched for a pattern for some small wings and found these.

I'm quite happy with her, she is cute and I'm sure Little P will love her. I personally am not a big fan of the 'fringe' and if I were to do it again I'd definitely do her hair slightly different, but this is a great little pattern and it's super-easy.

I have also made another softie for Little P's friend, who had his second birthday last week. The Little Man loves Monsters University, especially Mike Wazowski, so I thought I'd give one of them a go...

This little chap was fun to make (although his fingers and toes tool a while to work!) and I'm pleased with him - he's probably one of the more intricate amigurumis I have made - he even has surface stitches for lips and an eyelid! And felt detailing for mouth and eye. He even has pipe cleaners in his legs so they can bend nicely. I like this little chap and was sad to see him leave my table - although I have been informed that he was well received by the Birthday Boy! yay!

In my last post I mentioned a 'blog swap' with Maddy of From Twelve To Two Fifteen, and showed off my stash of yarn I ordered especially for it.... well there has been progress, in the form of a small pile of granny squares. I love this pattern (Summer Garden Granny by Attic24) and it works up so quickly. I am also loving the yarn and the colours and can't wait to make the pile grow and grow!

You may also remember my empty frames waiting for prints to arrive.... well shortly after that post they turned up. Both on the same day too, to make it doubly exciting. Both were bought through Etsy from artists which I very much admire.
First up is a little 5x5 print from an artist called Geninne Zlatkis - I have a couple of her books and love her stamping, so it's great to have one of her watercolour prints up on my wall. It came all the way from Mexico (a country I love) and features cacti (which I very much love) so needless to say I do indeed love it. I also kind of want to frame the packaging it came in - the outer envelope and inner paper bag are both hand-stamped with some of those famous Geninne stamps which are so beautiful...

Love it! The second one was from an artist called RiverLuna from San Francisco (another place I love) and is another watercolour print. It's so pretty, I love it up on my wall, and my little collection is looking good.

I have my old California licence plate up too, and hope to get a picture sometime soon, when light is better. A little bit of 'me' space full of things I love.

I'm now going to head off and maybe crochet some more squares, and I can confirm the cake attempt no.2 is out of the oven and looks good, phew! So until next time...

Keeping on Top of Things

Nobody needs reminding that Christmas is just around the bend. I installed an app on my phone to create Christmas lists, and each day it reminds me how many days to go until the Big Day... today it is just 25!
I am rather excited again this year about Christmas - since having Little P I seemed to have regained a lot of the festive excitement I had as a child - but it also means there a lot of things to do. Especially this year as I have decided to make my cards, and gift tags, and even some wrapping paper. It did seem like a great idea back in October! I am really enjoying making them though, it's just the time factor as usual, and having a very helpful Little P who wants to join in with everything!
I've had a go at lino printing again. Very simple stuff, but very effective too. I've carved a few 'trial' stamps and blocks and have had mixed results. The ones that have worked though I'm very happy with, and I am learning more about carving lino with each attempt. The cards are still mostly a work in progress but I have a sneak preview...

I made these with a simple triangle and snowflake stamp, and some block printing inks...

I plan to do some more tomorrow when I have some spare time, and have a new block to try printing with... exciting! I really like the simple, yet colourful effect of these cards, and am chuffed with them... they looked great all lined up when they were drying off!

I have also finished the Christmas bunting that my Mum asked me to whip up. Tomorrow will be decorating day, and I will hang it then but light in the lounge is notoriously bad, so I'm not expecting the photos to be great. I took a couple of sneak previews in the little light I could find by the back door...

I love a pile of bunting triangles! It's made using RICO Design Creative Cotton Aran in 3 colours - Cherry, Pistachio and Natural. It's based on the Simple Bunting Tutorial by Pink Milk although I've tweaked it a little bit to suit my needs. There are 11 triangles - 2 with holly on, and the rest spell 'Christmas' using matching felt letters. I'm very pleased with it and can't wait to see it hanging up!

It will also be time to hang the star garland on the fireplace, so I'll try and get a picture of that too! I really hope it stays and little hands don't pull on it too much...
I also have the little felt decorations I made to hang on the tree...

I'm also very busy trying to crochet some gifts too... I have had a little Santa production line going on in the evenings when Little Lady is tucked up in bed...

Ho Ho Ho! I do like these little chaps!

Me and the Little Lady have also been making pom poms. The idea is to stick them around a paper plate wreath, although she has claimed them as her 'fluffy balls' to go in her 'special box' and I am not allowed them. She loves picking the colours for me and choosing which size pom pom maker to use for each one. I just do the donkey work and wind the things! I'm just using up some scraps of Stylecraft Special DK, but I love all the colours!

With all the gifts for everyone else, I felt I needed to treat myself just a little bit. Those of you who follow the Attic24 blog, will have seen the giveaway she is hosting with Fig1 to giveaway a load of RiceDK goodies...
I had my first glimpse of RiceDK wares several years ago and really liked it then. Over the last 18 months of following Lucy's blog - who often makes reference to Rice products - I have been sorely tempted to order something. Somehow I resisted... until there was a 10% discount code on her blog to buy from the Fig1 online shop. Sorted. Now just to choose what I want...
That was the hard part. The range of melamine products are to die for. Over the last year I have been collecting a few oddments of melamine, the plan being to one day to have a cupboard full of mismatching colourful melamine cups, bowls and plates. I have previously bought some from John Lewis...

The top ones are by a company called Anorak. The bowl and plate in the bottom picture are John Lewis' own (I think the range was called Pioneer) and the cup is an Orla Kiely. And no I have 3 more items, from Rice! Yay the collection is growing slowly!

I love, love, love these. The colours are great. The patterns are beautiful. And they are nice and sturdy too (and very bouncy thank goodness!) Little P instantly claimed these for a pretend picnic on the lounge floor, and she had to use all 3, so I didn't get to study them for a while!
I love how the insides are coloured too. So pretty.

What a happy treat to myself!

Now I must go, time is of the essence and I need to go and make some more gift tags whilst I have 5 minutes! So, until next time (when Christmas will probably be pretty much on top of us!)...

The Delights of Yarndale pt. 2

A whole week has now passed since Yarndale. I'm still kind of in a daze about it - it was just that good. I returned home to a happy Little P, who was very cuddly and clingy for a while (which was just what I wanted too!) and then it was straight back into the swing of things. We've had a fairly busy week, going to groups and doing all the normal stuff that needs to be done, but I do feel sad that Yarndale has now passed. It was always a glimmer of excitement on the horizon, and now we've swept right past it, but at least I can say I've had a great experience there and I'm already looking forward to next year!
I also have a small 'haul' I brought back from the North, which I get to play with and drool over. I carefully took it outside into the garden to photograph - you have to make the most of the natural light now Autumn is firmly upon us! I had my little helper with me, and she was very helpful indeed. It was pretty difficult to take a photo before the subject matter had disappeared of was covered by her face, but we got there in the end, although you may see lots of Little P's wellies and hands in the pictures!
The haul in it's entirety with Little P looming...

I was particularly nervous about the delicate yarn bowl I bought from the Willofibres stall. I don't much fancy it's chances around a toddler, although the kind lady on the stall advised me 'if anything were to happen - Araldite!' It's a rather beautiful bowl, and I had my eyes on it before I even left home, as I had spied it on the Yarndale Facebook page. I do love it...

No haul would be complete for me without buttons. I think I was quite restrained in the button department this time, coming away with 9. I treated myself to some lovely wooden log ones, which I've always liked, and some rather pretty enamelled coconut ones too. See, I did good, as there were so many wonderful buttons there in a whole host of materials and forms, including some lovely ceramic ones.

Obviously, one of the main things I wanted to drool over at Yarndale, was yarn. There were thousands of skeins or hanks or whatever form they took all over the auction mart. What was good was that it wasn't just full of ones you could pick up down your local High Street, but rather lots of hand-dyed and spun ones from local producers. This meant a lot of it was pricier, but I think it's totally justifiable as it's not an 'everyday yarn'. And also after the 'Dyeing to have fun' workshop I took part in, I really appreciate the amazing skeins these people produce. I didn't actually purchase any such yarn at Yarndale as I had no project in mind for it, but I wish I did, as I'm sure I could have found something to make! There's always internet shopping... I did have a good look at lots though, and some of my favourite colourways were on A Stash Addict's stall. When I get some of my current makes out of the way I may just have a good look at those again!
I obviously did buy yarn though. One project I had to buy for was some adorable hedgehog mittens I want to make for Little Lady. It called for 4-ply yarn and I have no such thing! I waded through the stalls and found some Drops Alpaca yarn. It was remarkably soft, I imagined alpaca to be a bit 'scratchy' like some other wools, but it wasn't at all. I should have known really after stroking some live alpaca earlier that day! The yarn was also pretty cheap, so I picked some up and checked another thing off my shopping list.
There was also an abundance of lovely bags on show about the place. I had thought I needed a small project bag, one I can chuck all the bits I need in and take out with me, but nothing too big. Luckily, I found just the thing, and my friend Leah found an awesome sheep one amongst them all for me.

As you can see in the bottom right picture, I treated myself to some ribbon. I thought the buttons were pretty apt!
The other yarn I bought came in the shape of this super-soft Drops Baby Merino. Right up my street - bright colours and very reasonably priced too. I haven't figured out what to make with it, but I do love it and am excited to use it! I also topped up my stash of merino tops for needle felting. There were many stalls with delicious colours to choose from, so I restrained myself to just 6, and picked them out whilst Leah joined the snaking queue for lunch. Oh the colours...

You may be able to see in first picture, I also treated myself to a new needle felting tool - it's a bit more advanced than the single needle I had previously been using. I plan to do more needle felting, and make a hanging decoration (see my friend Curly Girl Coop's great tutorial). Another Tulip Etimo hook may have made it's way into my shopping too, well you can't have too many of those can you?! And what trip would be complete without a souvenir? I had to treat myself to this little Yarndale pin badge!

I also took a couple of little things for Little P. I bought her a postcard from Skipton, and a couple of fluffy things from Yarndale. First up, a little rabbit keyring from the Bigwigs Angora stall. Unfortunately, said rabbit was unable to make the photo shoot as he was busy playing with Little P! Mr Alpaca however did manage to get papped. I love love love this furry little thing. I got him from the Toft Alpacas stall, which was packed with lovely stuff. They even had some teddy bears, which were insanely soft, and plenty of amigurumi which were very cute.

I think that rounds up what I bought, but I also came away with stuff I made. Well, dyed anyway. The 'Dyeing to have fun' workshop ran for 2 hours in the auditorium. It was great fun, and broke up the shopping nicely. I thoroughly recommend the workshops to anyone going in future, as they give you a chance to learn or do something you wouldn't usually do. I certainly haven't thought of dyeing my own yarn, but I found this basic introduction very interesting and great fun. We each arrived at the table to find a brown paper bag, filled with different types of undyed wool, and some clearing up materials to soak up spills! It was interesting to see how different types of wool took up the acid dyes differently. My particular favourite was the 'straight off the sheep' piece. The little curly bits were great, and took up the colour really well!

My other favourite was the merino wool we used (below, left) as it too took up the colour really well and is super soft. I could actually use it for needle felting. We also dyed some wool roving, spun yarn and a knitted piece, just to see how they all came out and to experiment with colour. Here's my efforts...

Curly Girl Coop also had some nice bits to take away, my personal fave was her 'spotty' piece (see her Yarndale write-up here)

All in all, a great time was had. It was a great weekend with great company, and I just can't wait to go again. I would like to say a big well done and thank you to anyone involved in the planning and running of the event, and to all the exhibitors who made it such a great day out!

Now I must go, gifts to make! I will be back soon with some pictures of what I've been making recently in the near future, but until then...