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...

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...

The Delights of Yarndale pt 1

Well, the little glimmer of excitement that I could just about see in the far off distance, kind of speedily crept up on me the last few weeks. That excitement being Yarndale... for anyone who has not heard of this, it was the first year of this woolly craft show held in Skipton, North Yorkshire and run by a team of local crafters including the infamous Lucy of the Attic24 blog. I was just a little bit excited! A whole weekend away (my first since having Little P) and going to a festival of woolly goodness ran by my biggest inspiration in the crochet world - what a lot to look forward too!
Friday morning was somewhat hectic. I had to pack both me and Little P up for our holidays, and as usual she was a little bit too helpful! It's so hard to get anything done in a hurry with my little sidekick, but we managed it just in the nick of time. Then at 1pm, my ride promptly arrived. My good friend Curly Girl Coop had offered to drive to 200-odd mile trip 'up North' and I sorted out the accommodation in return. It was a long journey... 6 and a half hours roughly, as we encountered a bit of Friday afternoon traffic and the roads aren't that great either, a lot of single carriageway.
Gradually the countryside became more hilly and green as we left the arable farmland of the East behind. It is a really beautiful part of the country, I don't think I would ever get bored of those views! Seeing more and more sheep reminded me just where we were going and why! Yarndale!
We arrived at the Craven Heifer Inn at Kelbrook (just outside Skipton) just in time for dinner, which I had luckily pre-booked, as it was packed. I can see why, the food was excellent - especially the Eton Mess I had for pudding. With a long and exciting day ahead of us, Leah and I returned to our very comfortable and spacious room and relaxed before catching an early night!

The day was finally upon us. We needed no alarm to wake us up, the thought of Yarndale made us jump out of bed and get ready. After a hearty Yorkshire breakfast we drove to Skipton Autcion Mart - the venue for Yarndale. It's used to being filled with cattle and sheep to be auctioned off, but today was full of creativity and colour. And wool too of course. We arrived at 9.30am, half an hour before it was due to open. The car park was already filling, but it was fairly quiet around the front of the building. There was a nip in the air and a gentle mist rolling in from the Yorkshire Dales, but you could see the Sun was trying to break through to shine down on Yarndale. The trees outside had been yarnbombed by the Yarndale team, and the granny bunting that had arrived from all over the world was strung up. I had a quick scout about but couldn't see any of mine! It was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack, as they received over 6000 triangles! We began to queue and already the place was coming to life. People were arriving thick and fast, and the queue soon snaked across the car park. We were lucky as we were about 11th in the queue. The doors opened a little before the scheduled 10am and in we all rushed, just like the sheep and cattle who usually frequent this place I suppose!

Once inside, we were greeted by the entrance foyer decorated with hundreds on bunting triangles strung up on the ceiling. It looked awesome. It also made me think I had no hope in finding one I made.

The venue was very open and airy and very agricultural. I had no problem with this, in fact I think it added to the character of the event, and it didn't get too hot or stuffy which was great. The exhibitors stalls were all situated in animal pens, which I first found quite funny, but then realised it was actually a very practical way to do it! We raced about to get the bits and bobs we really wanted before it got crazily busy. Leah had surprised me by booking us on to a yarn dyeing workshop for a couple of hours, so we did a bit of shopping before heading to the auditorium for the class.

This was our dyeing fun! It was great to do something I wouldn't usually do at home or have the resources to do so. We spent a couple of hours trying out hand at dyeing different wool (from straight off the sheep to knitted pieces) and seeing how each one took up the dye differently. It was great fun experimenting with colours and I'd definitely recommend this course for anyone going another year.
It also broke up the day nicely. The auction mart was now brimming with people, it was hard to get about down the aisles, so sitting down for a couple of hours was actually a treat.
There was quite a number of stalls selling all sorts of fibre related items including plenty of hanks of hand-dyed wool. I now appreciate just how difficult it is to produce those beautiful hanks after attempting to dye yarn myself!

Some of the highlights for me were seeing the alpaca a couple of exhibitors had brought in. I love these animals, they have such character and are so sweet, and apparently make great wool too!

There was also a stall selling angora rabbit wool, and they too had brought some of their animals in! I love this super-hairy ball of fluff!
We shopped around the stalls for a bit before joining the long queue for lunch. It seems a lot of people weren't happy with the food facilities, but I was of the impression that when you get a lot of people in one place, you have to expect to queue, unless you cater for yourself and bring a packed lunch! The caterers were working their socks off to keep the queue moving, and the pork and apple burgers we had for lunch were really quite tasty! Lunch Yarndale style...

We sat on a pavement outside, and it was lovely to have a break from the hubbub and sit in the glorious Skipton sunshine. We then went back and finished out shopping before deciding to walk into the town centre along the Yarn Walk. The walk was about 25 mins and it took us through a beautiful park and along a canal, all of which had been yarnbombed for the festival.

The picturesque surroundings of Yarndale...

And the yarnbombing...

 

 

 

I love the little duckies made by Lucy! I'd seen her make some of these things on her blog, so it was great to see them in real life! We spent a little while walking around Skipton town centre, and even sat down and had a drink in the lovely sunshine before walking back to the auction mart. Skipton really seemed like a lovely little town, we didn't get to explore it much, but I'd love to go back in the future, maybe take Little P up there with me!

 



The Yarndale bus...

One of the biggest highlights for me, and I am sure many others, was meeting the wonderful Lucy of Attic24 in person. When I first got into crochet, 18 months or so ago, I was only interested in making toys. I loved this so much, but had no incentive to make blankets or cushions or anything as it all seemed so drab, that was until I discovered her blog. The colour and patterns just blew me away. This is what I wanted to make... the colour and style just summed up what I wanted to do. I started by making a couple of her patterns, but soon found that most things I liked got linked back to her blog, so have been a fan ever since. She was hanging out in the knit and natter lounge all day, and had displayed a little bit of Attic24 in the corner.
There was a small queue of people who wanted to speak to her, so we joined it. She was really nice and patient with everyone, as she had a constant stream of people all day. It's hard to constantly make happy chit-chat with people you don't know, so I take my hat off to her for standing there all day and letting all her fans say hello. It must have been exhausting for her! She was super-nice though, and genuinely seemed overwhelmed by the love and support for her and the Yarndale team at what they had pulled off. I think they knew it was going to be big, but maybe not this huge! We had just a little chat, I declared my appreciation for Yarndale and kind of told her she was my hero and then I asked if she would have a photo with me, and she kindly did :)

That is genuine happiness on my face I can tell you! And after we said bye to Lucy, we ventured behind her to the collection of bunting triangles laid out on a table (covered in her gorgeous ripple blanket!) and there was MY GOAT BUNTING! I couldn't believe it! I had found one of my bunting, and it was sitting central on the table behind Lucy, double bonus!

The corner was filled with Lucy's creations, and it was great to see them in real life. And touch them. Those lovely looking blankets really did feel as good as they look in the pictures! The lampshade that Lucy recently yarnbombed stood there next to her famous crochet chair. It was great to see such a feast of colour in such a small corner. It has inspired me to make more blankets and use some nicer (cashmerino type stuff) yarn to really set it off.
So all in all, a great day was had by both myself and Leah. I couldn't fault the experience and it lived up to the high expectations I had for it. If only it wasn't so far away! The next morning came and we had another hearty breakfast and then set off on the long road home, although it was considerably quicker with a lot less traffic! I would also like to personally thank Leah's sat nav, which we named Cora due to her Irish accent. She was faultless and kept us on the right path throughout!
I'm still in a kind of post-Yarndale comedown, but Little P is certainly worth coming home too, how I missed her! I also have returned with a few bits and bobs from Yarndale. I will take some pictures of my haul and show it off soon, so until next time...

11 Days and Counting!

Until Yarndale! I am beside myself with excitement. I keep having dreams where I forget to pack important things - not the usual toothbrush etc, but my crochet hook and yarn! It has taken over my brain entirely. I'm lucky enough to be going up next Friday with my good friend Curly Girl Coop, and staying a couple of nights 'oop North' near Skipton. Just going away is exciting enough for me (I don't get out much these days, and this is my first 'break' since the Little P arrived 2 and a half years ago!) so going to a festival of yarn is something else! I am a little apprehensive about leaving my Little Lady for 2 whole days - it's the longest we've ever been apart (The other time was when I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at the Ally Pally, so you can see how my priorities lie!) but she is in very capable hands, and will probably have a whale of a time, her own little holiday! And maybe we'll even appreciate each other more when we reunite, as she's been running me ragged this week!

Casting my excitement to one side for the moment, I'll show you a couple of things I've made recently. You'll have to forgive the lower standard of photography, but I left it too late in the day and the light had disappeared - leaving ghastly colour photos, not true to life at all! A little computer magic and they look a bit better, but still not as good as daylight - come back sunshine!

My recent makes have all been made from the wonderful Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton. I know I rave about it, but I love it, and it is my favourite yarn. I think. It's just so bright and cheery and nice to work with. First up was a couple of coasters for the desk I'm sort of borrowing from my Brother (I was under strict instructions not to mark the surface of it, so better not put hot mugs of tea on there!) I just wanted a simple little pattern, free of course, but not a circle. After looking through Ravelry, I found this one by ChirpinBirdie. Perfect. And it was also made using Sugar 'n Cream, bonus!
I love the little coasters, so quick to make, endless colour combo's and they do the job well, and protect the desk. I hooked up 3 whilst watching some crime drama on the telly box!

I also whizzed up yet another Made in K-Town Mandala, just incase I needed a bigger coaster, and well, cos it looks nice!

That's before I blocked them, but there would have been even less light if I had waited any longer to take pictures!

A while back, I received a message on Ravelry from a member, asking if she could translate my Monty Moo pattern into Danish, so it could be used for her Facebook group's 'animal of the month CAL'. Of course I was only happy for Monty to go Danish! I had a snoop at the Facebook group the other day, and was pleased to see a fair few Danish Montys taking over the world, or at least a few homes in Denmark. Some people have also adapted him in various ways to turn him into a baby snuggler, how cute! I'm so proud of Monty for going global! I have no idea what is being said about him as it's all in Danish, but there are several smiley faces and hearts, so I think they like him, and this makes me very happy! Go Monty!

Due to high demand (well, 2) I've adapted the laptop cozy into an iPad cozy. The first I made exactly the same way as the laptop cozy. Only problem was the drifting seam. On the laptop one, which is thicker, it was disguised more easily, but the iPad one, with it's thin sides, was proving a problem. I'm not sure how many times I frogged it, and how many round-joining techniques I tried before I got it to a standard I was happy with. I wasn't obviously overly happy still, as I've gone on to improve it... with the moss stitch. What else? I loved using the stitch on my bolster cushion and was looking for an opportunity to use it again. It turned out much better too, the joins are pretty much invisible, it looks nicer, all round winner really. I WILL write up the tutorial soon and it will appear here in the near future. So here it is...

Of course it's made from Lily Sugar 'n Cream. Here's a close look at that moss-iness...

I received some exciting post last Friday too... I treated myself to a jewellery tree as I'm sick of my necklaces getting all tangled, and wanted to display them nicely. I've seen a few in shops but nothing stood out - they all looked like glorified mug trees. I had a bit of a look around the internet and came across this Baobab Jewellery Tree sold by Out of Africa Gifts - they have an Etsy and eBay site. I have to admit, it was bigger than I imagined, but it's perfect. It's different, a beautiful, functional item which is a centrepiece in it's own right. It's handmade in Kenya with wood bound tightly with banana leaf, and wired branches so you can bend them for your every need. It's also fairtrade, and a portion of the sale goes to a Christian aid charity in Nairobi. So not only do you have a beautiful jewellery tree, you feel good about buying it too!

Now I must go, Little P is tucked up in bed, the football is on, and I'm going to crochet whilst I watch it, so until next time...

The Laptop is Encased

Since I got my new laptop a while back, I've been wanting to make it a little cozy to keep the dust off. I have been toiling over what sort of fancy stitches to use for a few weeks, and then the other night, it hit me. The answer was obvious really, the humble single crochet would suffice. Just rounds and rounds of single crochet, creating a neat little jacket for the laptop to live in. I would let the colour do the talking, instead of the fancy stitchwork. One colour wouldn't be enough. Nor two, or three, but my whole collection of Lily Sugar 'n Cream yarn would be involved.
It looks so wonderful siting in it's box - so many bright cheery colours side by side - but what good is it in it's box? I'm a bit protective over this yarn, not because it's expensive or anything, but it comes all the way from America, so I don't buy it very often and use it only for the right kind of projects, It's 100% cotton, which I love, but is not super-soft like some others. It has a certain strength to it and is great for things that need to keep their shape (like the mandalas I made). I realised though, that if I use it up, I will just have to make another order won't I?!
There was no master plan, I just started with an oval shape and made it the right size to snuggle the laptop, and then just went round and round. I used joined rounds as I think these look neater with colour changes, The seam has a tendency to wander to the side, so I kept starting a few stitches back again in order to keep the seam on one side of the sleeve.
I love, love, love all the colours and how they look together. I finished it off with a little button fastening, and did a final round of reverse crochet to give a nice edge effect. It's a funny stitch - not natural at all, but it does work out in the end if you keep going! Here she is, avec laptop...

And a closer look at the colours and edging...

 I posted a picture up on Facebook when I finished it, and have already racked up two orders for iPad sleeves in this style! Wahoo! I'm rather chuffed other people like it as much as I do, and I'm sure my laptop is a much happier machine now it has it too. Looks like I will be making another order for this yarn!

In other news, I've just realised it is one month until Yarndale! And I know this month will absolutely fly by... I'm so excited! I shall be there on the Saturday with my good friend Curly Girl Coop, and we plan to fill her (small) car with as much yarn and things as possible. I do have a thing about buttons, so plenty of those!

Now, I'm going to get back to my to-do list and put the laptop back in it's little home. And then I'm off out for a meal with my family - good times! Until next time...

The Big Blanket

Something happened the other day, something that hasn't happened for a long time. I was projectless. Not for long, I will quickly add, but for a brief window in my life, I was projectless.
A couple of my larger projects have been finished and sent to their new homes, including one very large one. Introducing the massively enormous patchwork blanket, a present for my Auntie and Uncle on their silver wedding anniversary.

I started this just after I finished Little P's mini patchwork blanket, so maybe back in March I think, and finished it a few days before the day it was due - so it was a mammoth project, 5 months in the making! It was more of an 'evening project', one for when Little P had gone to bed and I could watch TV and crochet square after square, joining as I went along.
I based it on Attic24's Patchwork Granny Blanket. It is made up of 144 six-round granny squares (my calculation told me that was nearly 20000 double crochet stitches alone!) and then finished off with a calming border - 7 rounds of 'grannying' and then a round of moss stitch (in purple to give 'dotted' effect) before finishing with a round of bobble shells (see Attic24 tutorial).

I forgot to measure if, but it must be at least 180cm x 180cm. It consumed an enormous amount of yarn - Stylecraft Special DK - in loads of colours! I machine washed it before giving it to my Auntie and Uncle, and was so nervous hoping it would come out in one piece, and not just a jumble of wool! It was greatly received and I was a bit sad to see it leave, as it had been a labour of love for so long! I guess I'll just have to start another blanket, as I feel a bit lost without one on the go! Just look at that feast of colour...

Yesterday was the 3rd Birthday of my little niece, so of course I had to make a little something for her. Just like her cousin, Little P, she is all girly and pink and fluffy, so I thought I would make something pink. I decided on a monkey, using the 'Monkey Girl' pattern by Lilleliis. I changed it a bit to fit with my colour scheme, and adapted the face a bit, but the general shape followed that pattern. I used Rico Creative Cotton Aran as it's super soft and bright - great for chunkier toys...

 

 

Here she is having a photo shoot in the garden (ignore the weeds! No time for weeding at the moment!)

 



Whilst making her, I had an idea for my own design monkey - and more animals, maybe a series - so watch this space for a new creation!

After finishing the monkey, and catching up with a couple of other bits, I actually had to think of something to crochet. I had an empty list of my phone to-do app - first time in a long, long, time. I had caught up after all the babies, birthdays and anniversaries. What to do?
It didn't take long before I rediscovered the bag of Hooplayarn I had picked up at last Autumn's Knitting and Stitching Show at the Ally Pally (read my post here). I had bought loads of odds and ends in a variety of colours, with the plan of making a rug. I had visions of a small, round rug, but never really got on with it. Now was the perfect time to start, and with my recent love of mandalas, it seemed like a great opportunity to make a really big one.
I started my research, but it didn't take long to find inspiration. I wanted to keep the pattern fairly simple, and let the colours do the work - although I didn't want just round after round of double crochets. I discovered that one of my fave bloggers, A Creative Being, had in fact designed just what I was looking for, and had a free pattern - brilliant!
I set to work with my Hooplayarn and a 15mm hook. It was a struggle at first, but I soon got into the rhythm of working with such massive yarn.

It worked up fairly quickly, but I soon realised my odds and ends wouldn't go that far. In fact, I've now ground to a halt, and have ordered some more Hooplayarn to get me going again. Hooplayarn are exhibiting at Yarndale in a few weeks time, and I'm hoping I can get some more odds and ends then! I love it so far though...

mmm.... colour...I hope the new bobbins hurry up and arrive so I can continue with it!
Now I'm a bit stuck again for projects... maybe I will have a play with that monkey design?! Until net time...