Category Archives: Crochet

Cue Drum Roll…

…Fanfare? …or just a plain old Da-daa?  It’s a show and tell moment. Blanket time!  I’m feeling very happy about my blanket.  As someone who has been known to struggle with finishing something (that butterfly mind thing where I find a new project before the end of WIP) I’m feeling just a little smug…

And it’s a happy blanket. Lovely summery colours which are going to be very cheering as we go into gloomy old winter.

It’s a good size too.  The right size for a single bed or a throw over the sofa and also perfect for curling up in front of the fire.  I used 17 different colours, 100grams of each and it was almost exactly the right amount.  I then bought a couple of extra balls to do the edging and I really liked the greek fishing boat blue shades.

I thought I’d do a bit of an arty shot in the garden, but I had a slight problem with my photographic assistant…

He didn’t quite ‘get’ what I was trying to do…and then got very tired…

I thought it might look rather nice in the studio…

Ahem,  excuse me, can I just get past please…? Thank you…

So if you are ready..here we are…

And also, on the bed…

I’m almost, almost but not quite looking forward to cooler weather now!Ii’m still in love with the colours so I’m very tempted to buy another batch and have a bit of fun with matching cushions.

But now I have one or two other little projects on the go so I can’t rest on my laurels.  I’ll tell you about those next time…

Four and Twenty Blackberries…

…to bake in a pie!  That seems to be all I can find.  Just enough berries to colour an apple pie prettily pink.  Certainly not enough for jam or jelly.  I know they are late this year but an awful lot appear to have shrivelled and died before even ripening. Higgins doesn’t like blackberry picking.  HE likes to decide when we stop and start on a walk, and he’s not going to climb into prickly places  with HIS short legs, Oh no!

Still, I might just make the most of these by making Blackberry and Apple Crumble Icecream.  I’ll report back on that later so bear with me.

I’m happy to be able to show you the latest baby gift before it goes off to my great nephew. ( Why does being a Great Aunt feel so much more aging than a Granny?)

I’ve also tried one of the patterns from my new knitting book. (You didn’t think I could wait ’till I’d finished everything else did you?)  Remember these?

Being an American book I had to find alternative yarn, but I was more than happy with what I got.

Cashmere….Merino wool….Silk…Machine Washable! It’s lovely, really soft and cuddly…

It is Sublime baby cashmere merino silk DK which I bought in Norwich for £4.50 for 50gms  but I’ve since ordered some other colours online from Shadow’s Discount Wools at £3.90 a ball.  I’ve had a sock thing for ages, as you might recall, so these are perfect to add to my repetoire for present giving.

Finally, there’s the blanket.  I’m SO near to finishing.   Remember this?

Well, this is all I have left…

Just three more rows of edging to go and I’ll be ready to show it off, Hooray!

Something for the Nature Table

Did you have a nature table at Primary school?  If I am ever transported that far back in my mind, it’s usually something to do with Autumn that does it.  Golden  leaves, acorns and nuts, strange fungi (usually popped  into a jam jar for safe keeping) an old discarded birds nest… Well, I know we are not there yet. Heavens, it is still August, just.  However the weather doesn’t seem to think so and when Higgins and I went for that walk the other wild and windy afternoon my nature table contribution slapped me round the head!  I think I was lucky that it wasn’t the whole branch! 

I’m really, really not ready for Autumn shades yet, are you?  I’ve been popping in and out of other blogs I’ve just discovered and there’s a lot of crochet going on in gorgeous colours which is cheering me up no end.( Have a look here and here to see what I mean)   I’m SO close to finishing my blanket now, just one last square to go. I’ve got a bit of a handicap tho’…

…Henry thinks it’s ready to use NOW!

So I’m going to pop off now and get that last square finished before I try wriggling the rest of it out from under Henry to finish sewing up…

Now where did Tim put the leather gauntlets?…

Accelerated Aging

 

I’ve just had a birthday so I don’t need any more help towards wrinkles and grey hair. Higgins however is doing his best.

I’ve been a little lax on the blogging front lately, mainly due to a lack of photography rather than a lack of material so I decided to have a little photoshoot this afternoon.  I have to confess to a lack of originality for my latest project as I have been drawn back a number of times to Lucy’s technicolour blanket.  The colours are just SO scrummy!  I copied the list and left it at my favourite wool shop, and when a week later I had a call to say all the shades were in I dropped everything to go into Norwich to pick up my rainbow in a bag and came home to drool over the bright sugariness of the colours.

I toyed with another zigzag stripe but I’ve just made two in quick succession  and I know my boredom levels are low.  I decided on squares, not granny squares, too much stopping and starting and ends.  Big squares, using all seventeen colours, but in a different order ever time. 

 This way, hopefully, all the colours will run down at about the same rate and I can experiment with different combinations and be inspired for future projects.  I used my lovely blue studio sofa bed as a back drop, but despite being higher than our main sofa, Higgins’  ‘Zebedee’ springs meant that he went ‘boing’, and joined in.

It was afterwards, when I was downloading the pictures on to the computer that I heard suspicious noises from under the sofa bed. (If Higgins is behind or under something, there is always something illegal going on) There he was right at the back and out of reach, with a 2” long needle hanging out of one side of his mouth like a cigarette which meant he’d probably already swallowed the yarn threaded through it. Panic stations…my only hope was to lure him out with a bribe, but by the time I got back with the doggie treats, the needle had gone.

PANIC STATIONS! Ring the vet.  It’s Sunday. Listen to the recorded message telling me the opening hours.  That there is an emergency service.  Where the emergency is situated.  And then at last, the emergency service number.  Ring the number.  Recorded message explaining the function of the emergency service.  That it costs £80.  Eighty Pounds! That it’s for emergencies only.  At last, Gemma, the vet.  I’ve usefully spent the time on the phone so far hyperventilating and crying and trying to control same.  Managed to explain what happened coherently. Gemma says get here as soon as possible. Right. Fine. Oh God!  Can’t find the map.  Can’t SEE Google maps.
I sort of know where to go, but it’s about 15 miles away, the other side of Norwich, I’m a wet mess and Tim is in the middle of the North Sea.  Oblivious. 

Deep breaths.  I can do this.  Higgins strapped into the car next to me looking bemused.  Set off. I CAN do this. A hundred yards down the road, look at Higgins.  Higgins looks at me.  Spits out the needle…

It’s bent, the thread has gone and the eye has broken.  I turn round, go home and call the vet again.  She’s very pleased, we have gone from ‘Dire Emergency’ to ‘Keeping An Eye on Him’ and ‘Checking Out His Poos’.

And so here we are.  On the sofa.  Higgins, exhausted by my histrionics, snoring…

…and me, trying to regain my composure with a glass of wine…and another crochet square…

Presents, and keeping out of mischief…

Anyone reading my blog would think that all I do is shopping, a bit of gardening and running round after Higgins. Actually I do a lot of running round after Higgins, but despite that I have managed to fit in a bit of making . (Only today I was remaking the garden hose after someone – I wonder who? – bit twenty metres off the end. The hosepipe ban monitors are recruiting early it seems.)

 Before I went to visit the family in France I had my usual panic when I realised that the thing I had been planning in my head for months has still not actually been made. At Christmas I had come home with a little cross stitch kit which had been given to my daughter-in-law. I’m afraid it flummoxed me completely, and having got to the ‘throw-it-on-the-floor-and-stamp-on-it stage I took it round to my mum, who took one look and polished it off in a couple of days. (Looking at this I now realise there will be any number of people baffled by my ineptitude but there were three different reds and life is too short…)

I really wanted to turn it into something useful for Celia, rather than something that sits and gathers dust and decided it could make a great replacement for the Yellow Plastic Bag. (The Yellow Plastic Bag has been the home of Celia’s sewing kit for quite some time and is where I rummage for needles and threads when I lose my own when on holiday – don’t ask…) Anyway, I had a big plan and all of a sudden I realised that that was all it was, a plan, and I had better get on with it. And eventually, this was it… (Spotty tablecloth courtesy of Celia) Meanwhile, Rose, Celia’s mum and the other half of the Belle Mere Mafia had already announced that on retirement she intended to knit socks so obviously a knitting bag was needed… Sewing completed, I also needed a little something to keep my hands occupied while travelling. I’ve been following Lucy at Attic 24 and her efforts to find a reasonably priced acrylic yarn with a good range of colours and she is now making a blanket in Stylecraft Special DK, priced at £1.60 a ball. I was triumphant when I found that the nice lady on Norwich Market not only carries ALL the colours in the range, but she only charges £1.49 a ball, for 100grams! What a bargain! I recently finished a UFO which had been languishing in a bag for too long, so long in fact I’ve lost the ball bands so I can’t tell you what the yarn is. It is also acrylic, beautifully soft though, but I do remember the colour range was quite limited. I really like the colours I used though, and love the zigzags so I thought I’d go for a bigger version of a snuggly blankie for winter evenings. After a happy half hour at the wool stall gathering various combinations of colours together, I eventually ended up with this… …selection of colours. I started the blanket off in the car as we travelled through the Channel Tunnel, it kept me company watching DVDs with the grandsons, and chatting in the evenings with a glass of wine (or two!) It’s coming along nicely, I’ve got to the point where it’s just about square, so I’ll have judge when the proportions are just right. The zigzag effect is so easy, and I love the slightly Missoni feel to it. If you’d like a tutorial do let me know. I haven’t written one yet but I’m happy to if it would help. It’s certainly a good project for a beginner because you don’t have all the colour changes involved with granny squares which can be a bit distracting. Crochet can be so relaxing when it just flows…
Excerpt

Off to the Fair…

…the Norwich Bead and Textile Fair that is. A lovely Sunday morning treat. Having said that, I ALWAYS get a headache when I go to these things, I get so overwhelmed with colour, and texture, and wanting to try new things and talking myself out of it … Anyway, we did our usual circuit to check out what was on offer, a coffee to calm down and then spent some money.
I couldn’t resist this fabric…

I seem to have a ‘tea’ thing in my head at the moment,because there was also this button…

                                      

(which is much much smaller than that!)

I’ve been wanting to try printing some fabric for a project for ages so I was very happy to find Crafty Notions stand, a range of textile paints called Colourful Thoughts and a nice lady demonstrating exactly how they work so I bought these…

And then, to keep myself occupied in odd moments with a ball of wool, I HAD to have this…

Natural Dye Studio ‘Angel’ baby Alpaca, Cashmere and Silk lace weight.  It is SO soft, and came with a free scarf pattern…


It was nice to meet up with old friends, and make new ones.  Fellow students from courses at Broadland Art Centre, a bloggy friend, Teena of Kitschen Pink, and Bridget of feltbybridget.com with her lovely felty, woolly stall.  Bridget even went home and started her own blog!

Outside in the fresh and rather damp air, were some lovely pieces of floral inspiration.  Don’t you just love the colour of these pansies?

I feel a patchwork quilt coming on…

…and in the strange rather stormy overcast light, the euphorbia was almost Dayglo green…

And we found a little bed where the planting was straight off a nineteen thirties printed cotton frock…

And now it’s time to get some work done.  I’m still working my way through sorting stuff out of boxes, but I now have a work surface and lots of things to get on with…

Back soon!

P.S. My 100th post is coming up very soon, watch out for another giveaway…!

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