Saturday, January 30, 2010

Dearest readers and followers...

Please note... you are all very welcome to join in my giveaway for the One World One Heart thing below. You don't need to be a ticket holder yourself to enter ie you don't have to offer a giveaway yourself. I am a little dismayed that very few of my regulars don't want to enter my giveaway :-( So here's me giving you the heads up and saying PLEASE enter if you would like to win. :-)


Friday, January 29, 2010

A winner and some stash!

And the winner of my magazine giveaway is....

IMG_0071

Arlette! I'll be in touch soon to get your address. Thanks for participating.

I decided to go on a stash enhancement trip last week and ended up buying a few charts to add to my ever growing collection. I ordered several beauties from Carol Ridyard from istitch blog. Can't wait to stitch these up and I also got the following which didn't take long to get over here at all. I was very surprised!

Two from The Sampler Girl:

IMG_0083

and three from Heartstring Primitives (now Heartstring Samplings):

IMG_0084

I got these from Beth's etsy shop as she is selling them at a reduced price as they are old inventory stock. Lovely samplers!!

My dh went away today for the BIG tour. Eeek. Sooo... lots of stitchy time for me.

Thank you so much for all your lovely compliments about my Baktus scarf. I have decided to join in the fun on the One World One Heart event and am going to knit one in blue for the giveaway. See seperate post. Feel free to add your name to the list on THAT post if you'd like to win it.

Happy stitching everyone. x


One World One Heart event!

Photo

Lisa Swifka created this blog in 2007. "The original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way."

If you click on the link you can see what it is all about and you can be still be involved as the deadline for entering is 8th Feb.

So the idea is to give something away so I got to thinking....

Remember this:

IMG_0063

IMG_0059

IMG_0064

The Baktus scarf - Pattern found on Ravelry here. See post below for more pictures!

and remember this wool:

IMG_0046

100% Blue Faced Leicester Wool
Hand dyed by Skeins.

For the giveaway I will knit a Baktus scarf in this wool for one lucky reader. I can tell you I have not had my Baktus off since I have finished it - it is very warm and snuggly and just right for this cold weather.

This giveaway is open to active bloggers only ie you must have a blog! So if you want to be entered just leave a comment below and make sure you leave your email address so I can email you if you are the winner if you don't already have it linked on your blog. If you don't get back to me within three days I will draw another winner. The draw will take place on the 15th Feb! So check back here then.


Friday, January 22, 2010

Woohoo Baktus!!!!!

IMG_0059

IMG_0064

IMG_0065

Yarn - Skeins hand dyed yarn
50% Merino 50% superfine alpaca
100g 220mtrs
Pictures say it all. I love my baktus!!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Givaway, thank yous and a new me!

Wow! Thank you all so much for your caring and sensitive comments. I have decided that this year is going to be a good one for us. I am not going to spend time thinking about or dwelling on people or events that have hurt us. I am going to think about all the good plans I am making for this year. I want you to know that I appreciate every single one of your comments from the bottom of my heart. I have never known such a wonderful community of people. We are all different in so many ways, I grant that, and we probably all deal with our problems in different ways as well but the love and affection spoken to me through comments and emails have provided healing and relief in these dark days.

Hence the new look blog! Do you like it? I finally worked out how to put a banner up. The pictures are so very me - esp the cakes (ahem). I love the soft muted colours and the country/victoriana feel of it. I think I'll be keeping it like this for a bit. I'd quite like my house to look like this actually. Hmmm... more plans for this year.

My dh went away to work yesterday. He is working for a band called The Lost Prophets. Their album went straight to no. 2 in the UK charts today. I think they are better known in the US than the UK even though they are a UK band. So he has gone away till Friday, then home for a few days, then away till end February. Then home for a couple of weeks and then back off till the end of April! That's a lot of going away. Thank goodness the snow has finally cleared off. That would have really been bad - coping in that on my own. It is predicting more snow for Wednesday but I am hoping it will not be much and will just disappear.

Sooooo...... lonely nights means...... more stitching. And more knitting. Woop! I found this great new shop in my town called Skeins which sells her own hand dyed yarns. I went and bought a couple of her lovely skeins:

IMG_0045

IMG_0046

The blue one is for Lily. Her choice!

After seeing Staci's Baktus scarf, I ran right over to Ravelry and got the pattern. So with yarn in hand and pattern, this is what I have done so far. A very easy knit.

IMG_0050
Yarn 50% Merino, 50% superfine alpaca

No, I haven't finished it but I don't think it will take too long, even with two children driving me crazy in tow! The lady at Skeins was very friendly and has offered to help me if I get stuck on anything. Just so happens.. haha. I also mentioned to her I was wanting to learn to knit socks (yes, Staci's influence again) and she told me she is doing a workshop on socks in March!!! Woop Woop!! So I am planning on going there when Rick is around.

Stitchwise, I have been busy busy. I made this for Rachael who won the draw over on the Beatrix Potter SAL.

Needlebook and fob set for Rachael Jan 10

Paula Sibbald was already giving away a lovely prize of some of her products but I wanted to make something as well. I stitched Rachael a needlebook and a scissor fob using some motifs from the design and Victorian Motto threads.

I also got this pretty ornie from Ranae which I won in her RAK giveaway. I love it! It will be going on my stitching tree next year for sure.

rak gift from Ranae - jan 10

I have been working on "Stitch red for heart" exchange so can't show pictures of that yet and also the "Stitch and pass on" exchange so no pics there either. I have done a little on Cirque de Cirque but not much to show. And, here's where I am up to on my Just Nan.

Jan progress

I am loving this! I have too many nice projects on the go that it is hard to decide what to work on next.

Okay and finally I am starting to have a clear out of some unwanted magazines. These may or may not appeal to you but it's a free mag to read right?? So here are three up for grabs. If you would like to win them please say so in your comment. You must say so or you won't be entered. Open to anyone but it would be nice if you are a follower/regular commenter. I will be putting more up for grabs in the near future so keep your eyes peeled. I will leave it up till a week on Friday. That's the 29th Jan.

IMG_0053

Needlecraft mag Jan 1999 (includes free kit)

IMG_0054

Celebrations in Cross stitch May 1999

IMG_0055

Cross stitch Quick Issue 1 June 2003

Right, off to put kids to bed and then it's online chat night with Tracy and stitching. See you soon. xx