Category Archives: Crochet

Drippy, soggy weather…

…hasn’t helped the general mood. Is it the same where you are? I have been cheered however by setting the laptop wallpaper to show a slide show of my blog photos. I didn’t really think when I started blogging what a bonus to general life it would be. I record so much more than I would have done without it, and my photography has improved enormously. Watching the changing display on the screen brings back lots of little moments I would otherwise have forgotten about. I know I really ought to get to grips with Flickr, but after a little tussle over passwords and things this morning I’m afraid I decided to do something more rewarding…Ironing, anyone? Mmmm, perhaps not!

Also, having a blog focuses the mind on getting on with things, and I have been beavering away at a tutorial today, for the white cotton Christmas Bunting which I hope to publish very soon.

Higgins doesn’t like this weather AT ALL and even though we’ve got the fleecy jacket out again, he just feels silly.

It actually makes a huge difference being able to wash the jacket rather than bath Higgins after every walk, but I haven’t convinced him yet!

Oh, and I’d like to share this with you. I’ve noticed on other blogs other pampered pets have gorgeous little knitted, crochet or even patchwork blankets. And you’ve probably noticed that my own pampered pooch doesn’t. This is why…

This was once a cushion cover…

I’m going to end with a couple of cheery pictures, little unexpected bits of flowery happiness, just the thing for a dark, wet and windy evening.

Who would expect to find something as beautiful as this in a Little Chef car park?

And this jolly pansy graced a table in the couryard of a St Leonards coffee shop…

Hmmm…I think I need to change my coffee brand…

Frogging…

When I mentioned ‘frogging’ to a friend the other day I was met by a blank stare. However, when I then said ‘Rippit, Rippit’ the blank stare turned to enlightenment, and sympathy.

There’s been a lot of ripping involved with my latest cushion. It’s not that I haven’t knitted fair isle before, but I’ve not had a palette of seventeen colours, and I wasn’t changing the background colours as well as the pattern colours. I’m blaming Kaffe Fassett and his book Pattern Library. I think he has a special sort of brain that doesn’t get boggled, because boggled my own brain certainly became.

The crochet cushions are the same back and front, but I didn’t think my sanity would last long enough to knit both sides, so I dug out some needlecord in a really pretty blue and some gorgeous red wooden buttons which I think work well.

Too late I noticed I’ve got the nap of the needlecord running both ways which makes one side darker than the other, but I’ve decided it’s a design feature!

So, would you like to see it? Here’s a little hint…

…and another…

This is the reverse side!

…and that’s quite pretty too, but here is the finished article…

I have two more little cushion pads left so I’m having a ponder about what I do next. There are the lovely grandala ideas over on Crochet with Raymond, I could do Lucy’s granny stripe, zigzags might be fun…

In the mean time I have been resting my eyes from all that colour with some pristine white cotton crochet, another bunting experiment. I have resisted so far because I’ve seen lots of other versions of crochet bunting but I deliberately didn’t look too closely at anyone else’s so I could invent my own take on it. So far, I’m liking it…

Well it must be time to finish blogging, if only because Henry the cat has come to sit on the keyboard and I can only access some of the keys. Have a lovely weekend…x

All Better Now…

Thanks you all so much for all the lovely messages of concern about Higgins when he wasn’t well. He really enjoyed all the kisses and cuddles I had to pass on and it seemed to work. He’s finished all the pills, and is back on form, full of bounce and mischief. As you can see…

He really isn’t supposed to sit on the studio sofa, given that he’s eaten all the corners off the indoor cushions, but somehow, using that ‘bottom that’s made out springs’, he gets there.

After a big walk this morning I tucked him up in bed so I could sneak off to Norwich for lunch, a gallery and a little retail therapy. The King of Hearts is a lovely destination for all of those things and it’s such a shame that due to lack of funds it’s due to close very soon. After a bowl of warm and spicy soup we had a look round the Twenty by Twenty Exhibition, an eclectic mix of East Anglian talent covering print, sculpture, textiles and mixed media.

The retail therapy came courtesy of some of the little independent shops which are popping up in Norwich which is making it more amd more exciting, interesting and dangerous to the purse! Mrs Bobobun wrote about this one a little while ago but I only got there today. It’s lovely!

It’s full of all the stuff I love. I limited myself to a present for my daughter, and as it was so prettily wrapped up in tissue I can’t show you what it is yet!

Can you guess?

And I also indulged my wrapping paper fetish. I’m always falling in love with gorgeous paper, and then can’t bring myself to use it! This is double sided, so twice as nice…

Then there is The Book Hive…

..an extremely dangerous place for me since it’s full of books!

And you know what I’m like around books. I bought this one….

I’ve dipped into it , there’s another blog post in my head already!

I had to drop in to see the lovely wool lady on Norwich Market… Really. I had to. I found two more lovely colourways in the wool I used for the fingerless gloves in this post…

and some lovely bright sock wool.

I really need to knit myself some new socks. All my old faithfuls have started to go into holes, possibly helped by having my toes chewed…need I say more?

But I mustn’t start anything else until I’ve finished my latest cushion. I’ve done the granny squares…

…but the latest one has been a bit more ambitious, and has required a degree of ‘frogging’ to get it right. It be all ready for my next post.

Oh dear, there’s a beeping from the kitchen. Time to remove the Blogger hat and put on the Chef’s apron. I’ll leave you with the rose I rescued from the garden before the last bout of nasty weather…

Compensations of the Season

Last year the Virginia Creeper was a solitary, spindly strand struggling to stay clinging to the wall. I was a little brutal and trimmed it back to door height during the winter and it’s done so well over the summer, despite being torn off in the wind several times. Now it is truly glorious, and I have high hopes of it spreading really well next year, and hiding the join between the old house wall and the extension.

I was a bit premature in a previous post when I said how well the sunflowers had withstood the wind and went outside to find one drooping miserably over the fence. Never mind, it’s all looking pretty good in a vase.

I’ve been playing around with my basket of Stylecraft Special DK and working on a cushion assortment to compliment the crochet blanket. Ikea came up trumps – again – on my last visit with small cushions, 30cms, for a ridiculous price, something like 79p a piece! I managed to hold back though and only got six.

My first two have been a colour experiment. A cool one…

…and a warm one.

I’m happy with how they look…

…and the quality controller is testing them as I write!

There’s another cushion in the making but for now I’ve got to persuade Higgins it’s time for walkies, just as he’s decided it’s time to get comfy…

Fairy Cakes and Bunting

Where has the week gone? I do seem to have been dashing around, hither and yon, but even so I managed a little hooking and knitting as I went. I’m still loving my new knitting book and have been going a little mad on teeny weeny socks. They’re all packed up now and winging their way as I type to keep tiny toes warm but I’m sure it’s ok to give you a little peek…

Aren’t they cute? And I love the yarn which is merino wool, cashmere and silk, lovely to work with…

I’ve also made a scarf from this pattern…

Which is incredibly cosy and warm, and very quick to knit.

I’ve also done a spot of baking. It was the first birthday of our very swish Eco built village hall and everyone was invited to the party. It seemed a fairy cake sort of occasion and I’d found some polka dot bun cases…

…and some gorgeous little mini smartie decorations I was longing to use…

They did show up rather well on the cake table!

It was a lovely excuse to meet up with friends for a cuppa and something sweet and sticky (I’ll get back on the Weightwatchers regime tomorrow- honest!)

As I said, I have been hooking too, but with all the little socks I’m not quite ready to show you what I’ve been up to just yet, so I’m going to talk about bunting again. This bunting…

Lots of lovely people have been leaving nice comments about the pompom bunting I made with my leftover wool and Vanessa over at Do You Mind If I Knit was kind enough to mention it and link to Planet Penny. It made me think I’d like to do something a bit special for all of you who have been visiting over the last months so I have decided to do a …

GRAND POMPOM BUNTING GIVEAWAY!

Would you like to join in? All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, and to be in with more of a chance if you put a link from your blog to Planet Penny I will put your name into the hat twice! The bunting is several metres long so will make a really pretty decoration, and being multi-coloured it will match most colour schemes. I’ll make the draw on Saturday 2nd of October so there’s plenty of time to enter the draw.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you all…enjoy your weekend x

P.S.I’ve just realised this post is enough to give you spots before your eyes!

A Sunny Sunday and Using Up Leftovers

No lie-in allowed this morning! Last night’s weather forecast promised us we’d lose the sunshine in the afternoon and the beach was calling. We were there by nine o’clock, bright sun, an incoming tide and a stiffish breeze. Very bracing. Only two other cars in the lane ( the beauty of our favourite beach is that there is no car park, no tearoom!) so once we came over the top of the dune the beach was nearly deserted. Higgins is now reliable enough to run off the lead, although he really misses having someone young enough to run with him.

Considering his reluctance to set foot outside when it’s raining and puddly he’s quite intrepid when it comes to the interesting pools forming as the tide raced in…

He hasn’t quite found a deep enough bit to actually have to swim yet so I hope I have the camera to hand when he does.

While Higgins sleeps off all that exercise I’m sorting out my leftover yarn.

I have a bit of an obsessive thing about winding wool. I have a lovely gadget for doing the big balls, but these little bits get wound very carefully by hand so they look pretty. (Yes, OK! I know it’s weird but it makes me happy…)

And it’s something to do while I decide what I else I can make.

I’ve lost my diary. It’s slim, anonymous, dark blue. Perfect for slipping in between books and magazines and losing forever. Well at least long enough to be madly inconvenient. So I decided to get something more substantial, an academic one so I can start it now.

But it’s not really me, is it? But, with a little application of brightly coloured yarn it can be made much harder to lose…

Although Tim has pointed out that I’m going to lose it as soon as I put it down on the blanket….

I’m also suffering from rapidly cooling coffee, but not any more…

… there are STILL bits of wool left, but I have a plan! Bunting! Well, everyone loves bunting. In fact, it would be quite nice to think of a new slant on bunting….

….Pompoms!

I’m very happy with the pompoms…and I still love all those colours. I also have lots of cushions just waiting for covers…and a new sofa which needs cushions.

Which is why I went back to the market on Friday…

…for fresh supplies!