Oh my! I really need to get back to my bloggedy blog. I am so sorry I have been away for so long folks. Lots of life stuff etc etc... Tons of crochet and also a little stitching to boot. Be back soon. Promise. xxxxx

Birthday Treats

I celebrated my birthday this last week. I am now 38 and nearing that great crossroads of the big 4 0. It's a bit of a strange feeling. My mum was pregnant with me at this age. How times have changed. Part of me feels like my life hasn't even begun yet and there's so much to do and yet time is ebbing away, year by year. It makes me think a bit, you know. Anyways, it was a nice day considering I had to work and husband was away. The kids surprised me in the morning with some sweet gifts which made it a nice start to the day. One of the pupils at school made me a huge chocolate cake which was delicious! Wonderful friends bought me some lovely items including the Bavarian crochet book from Tracy. I've made a start on it which I will show you further down the post.

One treat was a getaway to Wales in the half term break. We had a mixture of weather but some glorious, sunshiny days. For those that read about it, yes we were right in the epicentre of the earthquake that happened there. Our apartment shook in the middle of the night and woke us up but no damage was done. Just a nice bit of drama to talk about the following day.

Kids did loads of activities including: target shooting, archery, sword fighting, roller blading and when the weather was nice we took ourselves off to the beach, or to Criccieth castle or to Mount Snowdon which looked spectacular. I have been up this mountain twice and can't wait for the youngest to get a bit bigger so we can all go up as a family.

Husband's gift to me is a night away in a lovely spa hotel which I have been to before. He has even managed to lend out our cuties for the night as well so we will be kid free. This is welcomed indeed as I really do need a break. So this is something to look forward to when he returns home.

So..... Crochet??? I have been doing bits and bobs since the finish of my Bumbleberry pie afghan. One thing that caught my eye was the Jan Eaton Willow pattern done in white and made into a cushion on Pinterest. So I had a little go at it on the car journey to Wales - which surprised me as I normally get travel sickness if I look down for too long in the car. This is the result. I think it would look amazing in cotton. Another idea to add to the never ending list of to dos.

And being the serial starter I am, I couldn't help but start the Bavarian crochet that Tracy bought me the pattern book for. Here is the pattern book:

This was my first attempt.

But... I couldn't help hankering after that gorgeous one I'd seen on Pinterest- yes that Pinterest is at it again! The only problem was that this lady used yarn from the US and also didn't provide a colour code. I loved this soft rainbow blend so much that I started to wonder if I could replicate it using my trusty stylecraft. I played around with some colours I had turning away the "too brights" for softer shades and this is the result. I created a colour wheel!!!

I am so impressed with myself because , as you know, I am not very confident with my colour choices. But I think I have actually cracked it! Yes! Like I have decoded some mystery or something. Ha ha. It makes me so happy. Here are the colours in sequential order:

All are Stylecraft Special Dk

Lemon

SaffronM

Shrimp

Pomegranate

Fondant

Clematis

Wisteria

Sherbet

Cloud blue

Bluebell

Aspen

Spring green

And here is my start.......

This was taken last evening. I took this one today so it shows the colours differently as they are in daylight. Ooooh I have also added another round as well.

Oh I love this sooooooo much. I am truly enjoying every little stitch. Now, about the stitches. In US terms there are some tricksy ones in there, like the back post, treble clusters but once you get the hang of them, you're away. The pattern is worked in rounds - two rounds of every colour and so once you get the hang of the pattern, you will find it is worked in just two rounds. Simples. It is also known as the Yarn/Wool eater blanket and I can vouch for this. It is definitely a yarn eater which is another great reason to do it in a cheaper yarn. There are some You Tube tutorials for the pattern although I am not sure they will be the exact same pattern as I am doing. There is one here. So, if anyone fancies joining me in this let me know and we can crochet along together.

So that's me for now. Thought I would leave you with a pic of Misty as I very rarely get a good shot of her and husband took this one and sent it to me. Have a good week all.

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Bumbleberry pie blanket

Hello all. Thanks for visiting me. I am on half term break so thought an update was due. 

Now you may remember the Bumbleberry Pie afghan blanket I started in my last post?? Well, I am pleased to announce that I have indeed finished it! Yes! It was a super quick and super enjoyable project and I would highly recommend it. 

I used Mikey's Bumbleberry pattern for it which you can find here. I love Youtube for crochet videos and this guy is great. In fact, he is the guy that taught me to crochet so I owe a lot to him. I have realised just how much of a kinaesthetic learner I am. I need to be shown what to do. In fact, my neighbour helped me the other day by making me a Weekend in Stockholm square but that is another story, my friend, and since then I have found a Youtube video for that too which I have pinned to my Pinterest board. Oh what joy there is in crochet. I have a list as long as time of patterns I want to make but I am running out of room in my house for blankets! Can we ever have too many blankets?? My neighbour suggests I should make them and sell them. Well, maybe one day when I can bear to part with them. Anyway, back to the blanket in question....

I used Mikey's pattern for the squares but I joined them as I went instead of joining at the end. It was a bit confusing to do at first as they lie on a diagonal and actually you need to do them in blocks of two rows at a time as one row has seven squares and the next row has eight. You need to remember this when nearing the finish. I had enough wool to make my last two rows and a final edge with picots on each point. There are 128 squares in total. For the last round I used the granny zigzag pattern which you can find links to on the right of my blog. The wool I used was Drops Big Delight in Berry Muffin which is an aran weight 100% wool in variegated shades. I love the look of this and it was quite difficult to get pictures of the colour so I have taken a few close ups of it. I hope you like it!

Here are some close ups and of course a folded picture. Must have a folded blanket pic.

Here's a little tiny picot example:

Please click on images for close ups to see the colours better.

Well, that's it from me folks. Till next time....

Happy Stitching and Crocheting! By the way, has anyone seen my stitching mojo???

Nasty Nasty fall

Hello everyone. How are you doing? Well, it's been a while and I figured it was time for a quick update. I have lots of time to do one as I am laid up in bed after having yet another nasty fall last night. I have torn the same ligament in my arm again along with multiple bruising on my body in other parts. I am very sore and fed up. 

So I managed to take a few pics of things I  have been making of late. Here's a quick perusal....

I have made my mum a blanket for her birthday. I decided to use Tillie Tulip's design of daisies. It looks wonderful. 

Colours used were:

cream

meadow

khaki

saffron

All from the Stylecraft Special range.

The edging was one I used from the Crochet Borders book. Very simple but I like it. 

I loved making this blanket so much that I decided I would do another one in whites and blues. This green one was 9x6 squares so 54 squares altogether. Just the right size. 

A few weeks ago I won some very pretty Tilda yarn from Annette at My Rose Valley blog. She had made some beautiful little flowers into a garland so I decided to do the same thing and hung them in my bathroom. They are very easy to do and don't take but a few minutes to make one. You can find the link to the pattern here. 

Not a great pic but you get the idea. 

Next up is a blanket inspired by Mikey's Bumble Berry blanket which you can find the pattern to here. 

I really liked the simplicity of it and the mixture of colours but the Bernat yarn was hard to find and expensive over here in the UK. I decided since Drops were having  a sale, I would try out their Big Delight in Berry Muffin shade. Now I have taken soem pictures but the light and the colours is hard to capture. There are a lot more colours in this yarn than is shown. Reds, oranges, greens, blues, purples and pinks. It is gorgeous and I am loving making it. The only difference is that I am joining them as I go instead of joining them at the end. Joining this blanket as you go is a bit different than normal as it is in a diamond pattern so you need to give a little more thought about where to place them. Anyway, here are the pics so far. 

I think  the pattern is so simple and quick that this will be finished in no time. Hopefully, we will have better weather and I will be able to take it outside to get a better look at the colours. The yarn is an aran weight and I am using a 5mm hook. I purchased the yarn from here. I love this company and recommend then most highly.

So, that's me for now. I am sorry I have been so quiet. Husband has been away for a month and comes back tomorrow and it has been a case of getting my head down and getting on with it. Tis the only way I can cope. 

Thanks for reading and I will be back soon with more pictures to share. 

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Hacked again

What a pain. Just a quick note to apologise to anyone if they had a dodgy email from me - DON'T open it. It wasn't from me. I have had a few from other people recently so no doubt it is all part of the same throng of hackers. Anyways, all sorted now.

I'll be back soon with a proper update.

xx

Eventually......

Well, hello there! It has been a while hasn't it? I am afraid life is just getting in the way of blogging right now. I'm still working and loving my new job. I feel like I am meant to be there; that the job was created just for me. It is hard work but I don't begrudge it. I have even started a little crochet group. I asked a couple of members of staff if they wanted to learn and also a year 10 girl. I figured if I could teach them first then I could invite some of the younger peeps. So all is going well and I have 8 more girls waiting to join the group after Easter and learn the craft. So, I am very happy. 

Husband is away on tour again but it is his last tour. He has resigned and will be finished with touring after May. Hoorah hoorah! So, whilst busying myself with watching Lost on Netflix (what a fab series that was), I continued with my hook to make and create so I thought I would post what I have done before yet another month passes. Unfortunately, I have little to show as far as stitching goes although I have had a couple more pictures framed. Once they are up on my "sampler wall", I will take a snap of them all. My wall is looking rather neat at the moment. I think stitching projects will be reserved for the holidays for now as I am really enjoying the relative "quick" finishes of crochet. 

Here is my finished "Blooming Flower" cushion. You can find the pattern here. I used the same colours in my CK stripe blanket minus the cream. It turned out really lovely except I had to fudge the back a bit as it trned out slightly bigger than I had anticipated although the stitch count was right. Go figure. 

Next up is an idea I had whilst looking at a Rowan pattern for a blanket. It was this one that caught my eye. Now this pattern is one that I was already working on for my Drops blanket here and also is the same pattern on the front of my book 200 crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton. Weird hey. So I felt that this blanket was really calling to me. I had to decide on yarn and I wanted something quick to work up. I found that I had a ball of Stylecraft Nature's Way in chunky which is an undyed virgin 100% wool so I trialed it and really liked the fireside look it gave. I ordered more balls in a variety of shades and set to work. It didn't take long to make at all and Love the chunky, squishy feel it gives. So, here it is... My Fireside Throw...

Next up, is a quickie project that I made for dd this morning. I found this on Mikey's channel on Youtube "The Crochet Crowd" when I was browsing last night. He is he guy that taught me to crochet and he has some great patterns. DD has not taken this off all day. She says it is nice and soft and not itchy. 

I suppose all that is left is to say what awful weather we have been having here in the UK. We have been hit quite badly - hence the picture at the top of this post. That was me driving to work yesterday. Today it is even worse! So now, I will retire with one of these:

and watch "Jesus of Nazareth" with my kids - an Easter tradition I think. I wish you all a blessed Easter season. Thanks for staying with me during my busy season. 

Lots of love,

A perfectly delightful Saturday

We broke up for half term holibobs on Friday and a welcome relief it was too. I decided that on Saturday I wouldn't do very much at all. I would stay in bed and do a little crochet or whatever took my fancy and just RELAX as relaxation was very much needed. Children were quite happy to watch films on Netflix in their den, which they built themselves, I might add. So this is what I did and because I am still off, I thought it might be nice to spend a leisurely Monday morning in bed, catching up on blogging too. 

I began with this....

Little "Saturday morning project", I call it. You know, the ones that are easy, no brainers. This was destined to be a cowl/snood type thing and I found the pattern from here. Yvestown's shop. She sells the wool and has the pattern for free underneath. Well, I remembered I had some similar looking cottons in one of my many yarn bags. James Brett dk cotton I think it was. And so, the project began. Such an easy, hooky project. Just round and round in doubles. The colours just seemed to work. I followed the pattern in that I chose a colour and worked 4 rows then 2 rows, 2 rows, 2 rows and then 4 rows. I just kept to this and it resembled something similar to the one in the shop. This was the finished outcome after I hooked all day till the midnight hours!

Taking this opportunity, I thought I would show you my other new hooky project. You might remember my last Elmer blanket project from last year. I made it for my friend's new baby boy. I wanted to do one with the special Stylecraft pack of 17 colours which I made my Granny Stripe out of. I was inspired by this one and this one and just really wanted to make a big one. I originally asked daughter if she would like to design it on squared paper and she agreed but then couldn't be bothered so I am doing it ad-lib. This is where I am up to with it now.

It is growing so quickly, I can tell you. Such a pleasure to create this colourful blanket of fun. 

So, back to Saturday. There I was, hooking away quite pleasurably, kids in their den:

.... when there was a knock on the door. The postlady!!! What should she deliver but my very recent order of Drops Delight. Must tell you.... it is on sale at the moment... only till end of Feb. My order came from Wool Warehouse who I cannot compliment enough. They have a superb service. Things get delivered very quickly and they have a great range of wools in stock. They also sent me some very useful wool needles - how did they know??? Thanks so much Wool Warehouse. 

Anyway, onto the Drops. This is what came...

...and this is what I am going to make with it....

This hat.

These wristwarmers.

This blanket. 

Both are free patterns which you can get from the Garnstudio website.

I can't tell you how happy this made me. My Saturday was going well. Even the sun started to peep out the clouds.

So, I decided to take a break from hooking my cowl and march the kids up the hill behind my house. We took a flask of hot chocolate, some juice and snacks which son carried up in his backpack.It's not a big walk but I was breathless by the time I got to the top. I am so unfit! This was our view:

Happy day. Hope yours was too.