Rollin'

Me, an upended footstool, twelve balls of cotton, a chip basket for yarn ends and a large glass of cold white wine:

Next comes the fun part...x

Chevron lace cardi

This has been finished for a while now, but I cannot for the life of me get a nice picture of me wearing it. I look like a moose in all of them. So, for now, here it it is on a hanger. This photo does it no justice- it is a not great photo, but it is a lovely cardi, looks really nice on and I have had loads of compliments when wearing it. Even the scary ladies in my LYS asked me if I had made it and what pattern it was because it was so nice- SHOCKER!!!!

My Summer Breeze is coming along nicely too- it is Very Pink:

x

Peace...

Yesterday afternoon, after a mammoth weekend of cleaning, I settled down with this:

And a slice of this:

...Later I frogged all I had done, because, despite swatching, the back of the cardi was coming up three inches too big.

Ah well. Another slice of cake and another peaceful afternoon and who knows- I might get it right next time.

x

Sorting...

So I spread out the 12-round squares for my 70s blanket... Wow...it's going to be a big blanket! I've got 21 eight-round squares and 121 four-round squares in progress too... I think this is going to be ENORMOUS!

And edging...

It was very pleasing laying it all out. I've never made a big blanket before- no staying power. But I think this has given me the oomph to keep going.

And goodness, it really is splendidly brown and, well, 70s.
Love it!x

Quick hooky

I made this skull. Actually I have made quite a few now- I'm thinking bunting for the boy's room. The pattern is Day of the Dead crochet Skull from Ravelry.
FHB has requested some modifications on the next few, like eye patches and hats. There is a fab photo on Rav for inspiration.
Makes a change from squares!
X

Lovely Lion

My smallest nephew has his first birthday this week so I made him this:

This is the Sleepy Lion by Irene Strange. It took me AGES to make because the mane was so fiddly. In the end I did a major nine hour stint, followed by three hours the next night and got it finished. I am REALLY pleased with the result- I just hope my scrumptious nephew likes him.

*****

Unrelated:

Today W, Miss T and I went on another bike ride- twenty miles! Along to the nature reserve, then back the other way, aaall the way to the other end of the seafront, stopping on the way for a ginger beer and a packet of peanuts at the pub. Hurrah!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend...x

A windy airfield and my Mushy Peas cardi

Hello, Hope all is well in your world today. I still have a shocking cold and feel yuck, but I went with W and the bears today to see Toot and Papa go gliding. It was brill! I would LOVE to have a go one day too!

The airfield was Very Windy indeed and the bears all gathered in the boot of Papa and Toot's car to eat Polos and Pom-bears and watch the gliders. (FHB: Cor, not everyone's granny flies a plane!)

I wore my Mushy Peas Cardi, so I finally got W to take a photo of it- which is why the photo is quite so dreadful. (Forgive the sad face- I don't feel well and my nose is red red red. Also, I do not actually have a toucan's beak growing out of my head...)

The pattern is from The Crochet Closet by Lisa Gentry. Not sure about the rest of the book, but it was worth it for this pattern on its own- I Love It!

Three things to add:

1- I am not a tiny person, but the sizes on this pattern are so generous that I made the smallest one. And actually, I could probably have made it a bit smaller. A little bit of me is quite pleased about this.

2- As I put my cardi on at work the other day, one of the girls said 'Ooh, what a lovely cardigan', allowing me to have a most enjoyable Thank You I Made It Myself moment, which made me even more pleased indeed.

3- Some bright spark who runs the hospital has decided to paint the walls the same colour they are on the map. Which means that the walls outside my department are pea green and I look as if I am camouflage in my lovely cardi. Which makes me not quite so pleased after all. Especially because, on the walls, this colour looks like it should be in a bad public toilet.

Anyway, I am a happy girl and am putting this right back in my Ravelry queue to make another one. Perhaps avoiding a toilet palette next time!

x

Busy Bee

In among the lovely things we did with the bears this weekend, I managed to get a few hours at my sewing machine and with my hooks. Bliss!

I made the Trapeze Dress from this book, with a charity shop duvet cover:

I made a little pillowcase tunic for Miss T, from this excellent book by Soulemama. Though next time I would make it a lot longer and put in much chunkier box pleats as Miss T is such a slight little thing.

(Rubbish photo I know- She's two and won't stand still).

And I made another slightly tweaked pillowcase dress for Mouse, with the proviso that it is for beach and height of Summer wear only. So naturally she will prance around in it on windy, rainy days as she is incapable of dressing appropriately. I shall tell her off whilst being ever so pleased that she likes it. That is how it works!

I am really pleased with my weekend makes, especially my dress as I have never made anything that complicated before. And W says I do NOT look like a bag lady dressed in a duvet cover in it. So I think that is a success.

Hooky-wise, I finished my pouffe! Turned out I only had another couple of rounds to do on it. Typical. so have lopped the buttons off the pouffe and made a mental note to acquire some duct tape for a little rudimentary repair work, then I ran some elastic through the bottom of the cover and knotted it really tightly underneath the pouffe.

And there you have it:

Easy peasy! Though I think I will probably make a fleecy jacket to go under the crochet cover. We'll see- much depends on how destructive my dear children are feeling.

So I end the weekend with the happy feeling of having Finished something, and the promise of being able to wear something I have made.

And I have finished the first sleeve of my green cardi too! Very Pleasing Indeed.

x

Crochet catch-up

Hello there! My house is in a right old mess at the moment, but instead of doing the boring stuff, I thought I would start with all those half finished WIPs.

There is this:

Still hanging around. Must get cracking on it as I would really like to wear it this Spring.

Then there is the giant's beret (pouffe cover). Still waiting for its last few inches and a liner. It is getting urgent too as the bears have finally split all the seam of the pouffe and popped the buttons off.

And my carry along WIP:

This is going to be a blanket inspired by this one. It is acrylic for ease of washing and drying, and will be about 1.4m x 1.8m. It was going to be a lot bigger, but I really don't have that much staying power!

There are so many things I want to start too, like the Summer Breeze  cardi, and something involving Japanese flowers, like this from Attic 24. Then there are two small person's birthdays coming up, Mother's day, a lion, a shrug, a cardi for Miss T, a zippy hoody for the FHB before he goes and grows again, some skull bunting which is just ace, not to mention all the non-crochet stuff I'd like to make too, like some dresses for my girls, another blossom blouse, a dress for me, some cotton pyjama bottoms for the boys in my life, some new cushion covers (always ongoing), a boy quilt that is cut but not pieced, a bag....

Must dash, I need to get cracking...x

Cold crochet catch-up

Wow it is cold here today! Miss T and I have done our out-and-about jobs in record time and are now hunkering down in the living room wih CBeebies (her) and a good book (me), some raisins and biscuits (her) and some chocolate (me- it's early, I know, but needs must). We have hot milk, hot coffee (lashings of) a warm cat and a new blanket to snuggle under:

I also have a pile of crochet to be getting on with. My pouffe cover is growing (a collection of words I never thught I'd string together!)

My cardi is about a third done:

And I have started whipping up granny squares in the hope of making a blanket. I do not know if I have the staying power...

I will leave you with a photo of Custard being a multicultural storm trooper. I am looking forward to this afternoon's dressing up ensembles, as a large and very promising parcel has just arrived for Custard from my sister-in-law. x

Hooked! The Accidental Cardigan

Yesterday...

Hello! Today has been a mixed bag of a day. Wild and bored children on a grey, wet day that is a bit too far away from pay day. Hmm. What to do?

Well, I visited my friend and her new baby this morning. The bunting went down well and I brought home with me a birthday present for Custard. So this afternoon we have made glove puppets (well, we have coloured them in. Tomorrow there will be glue involved) and we have wrecked another of his presents too- a play doh burger maker. Custy and Mouse had an awful lot of fun with that, but little Miss T just ate their burgers, much to Mousey's horror. I wait with baited breath to see what colour her nappies are going to be tomorrow (the burgers were red and green).

I have been messing around with wool again today, trying to decide what to make next. This is a strategy I have developed in order to ignore the fact that my house is filthy, the floors crunch, there is play doh squished into the soft furnishings, the boys have swung off my living room curtains and the track has fallen off the wall and they have spent quite some time beating each other over the head with a four pint milk bottle full of shaky things/a 2 litre drinks bottle full of crinkly things that Mouse made at school to celebrate Chinese new year. I should have stopped them but you know what I did? I hid. Anyway, I digress. I have been starting and frogging things all day, so I am thinking my creative streak is ebbing somewhat, I suspect I used it all up making this:

After I finished My Big Jumper I had a lot of wool left over and a free afternoon, so I made the Bebop Cardi for Mouse. It took five hours to make and entirely satisfied my Monday creativity requirements. I think my niece may be getting one for her birthday too as it was such a fab pattern. It is Accidental in that I had only intended to swatch it and before I knew it it was three hours later and there did not seem to be much point stopping!

Still do not know what to make next though so I guess this evening will be spent exploring Ravelry...x

Today...

I am sooooo tired I could cry. Our next doors neighbours are being Very Noisy and I am getting little sleep. And becoming progressively more grumpy. I have been whiling away the hours when I should have been cleaning by studying my new book- Sasha Kagan's Crochet Inspirations. I have been meaning to buy it for ages and finally got around to it- and I am not disappointed. It is full of inspiring swatches, patterns and textures, but possibly my favourite thing in the whole book is this page:

Aren't these jumpers just scrummy? No patterns for these sadly, so my little brain is whirring away trying to work out a pattern to make these for Miss T (Granny style) and Custard (stripes).

Oh, and I came up with something to make for me too, but more of that another day.

On a totally unrelated subject: As we were getting in the car today I was accosted by the friendly local alcoholic who informed me that I look much better in my glasses as my face is much too round and they make me look in proportion. Mind you (he says) you're not doing too badly anyway 'cos, you know, ladies who have had loads of children always have loads of chins too, like they've gone overboard in the chin shop, but, you know, you've only got one. (Thinks) Well, maybe one and half, but definately not two.

So there you go. Happy Wednesday to you, from me and my chin and a half...x

Hooked! The Big Jumper

I feel as if I have taken forever to make this, but actually this has only taken about six weeks of not-very-intensive-at-all crocheting.

Look...

I LOVE it! There is about 1400 metres of aran wool in it and it is So Warm! I lengthened the sleeves quite a bit from the original pattern- I love a jumper you can tuck your hands up inside. The pattern is this one and is soooo easy. I do think there might be another one of these in my future. But not quite yet.

x

Still smiling...

It is Wednesday and, yes, still smiling. A little forced perhaps, but even so. Thinking Happy makes me feel a lot better about things. This was helped by a good stint in the park after school yesterday, getting some Sunshine and a bit of excercise:

Here are a few of my charity shop buys yesterday:

 I have realised that, much as I would like to love pretty pastels and zingy brights, I am clearly drawn most towards sludge colours. I wonder what that says about me?

Spent yesterday evening doing a few more rows of the pouffe. I have reached that stage where the shine has worn off a new project, but I am not close enough to finishing to feel enthusiastic about going round and round...Back to the jumper tonight maybe.

I did finish a new baby project- and I blocked it! This was a first for me, I detest blocking and generally I look like a mess in anything I wear, so I do not usually worry even for clothes. But these little triangles looked a bit sad until I starched them:

And now they are So Pointy! Just need my friend's baby to arrive now...x

Happy Tuesday too!

Hello! My Monday smile is still there, made a little brighter still by the splendid morning I have just spent in the charity shops. I have bought birthday presents, pillowcases, a tablecloth, two cups and saucers, a jug and a biscuit barrel. I'll take some pics of them later. I have spent the grand total of £7! Miss T and I have come home to finish up the flapjacks and drink red berry smoothies. It is a beautiful sunny day, though still cold enough to see your breath. I think I am more seasonally affected than I thought because I FEEL GREAT for some Sunshine!

Yesterday afternoon I felt quite crafty indeed and as my sewing machine was sitting on the table I thought I may as well use it. I had a rummage around the scraps box and found some material to play with, so now Mouse has another skirt, I have a new coin purse and I have cut the squares for two new lap quilts for the bears to nest under. I'll take some pics of all of that too today, so expect a bumper photo album tomorrow. In the meantime I thought I would show you what I've been doing lately with a hook:

My grey jumper is not quite in hibernation, but I have definately lost any impetus to finish it. Still a sleeve and a half to go. To combat the boredom I have started to make this:

Looks rather like a giant's beret doesn't it? It is going to be cover for our pouffe. We inherited a small pleather footstool from W's Grandad which is losing its buttons and is sadly mistreated by our children, so I thought it was about time it was given a little TLC. It is made in the finest washable acrylic- Stylecraft Special DK that I originally bought to make some bunting. This picture does not quite capture the acidity of the colours- it is very bright and just right for our home.  Can't wait to finish it!

x

Miss T is 2!

Hello friends,

Last week was a long, not entirely enjoyable one, that has left W and myself feeling a little wrung out. The weekend however, brought Miss T's 2nd birthday, which was something to feel very happy about indeed! For the unmpteenth time I had that 'this time two years ago...' feeling (I wonder if I'll still get that when they are all in their forties?) and the bittersweet realisation that, with no bear younger than two now, our baby days are well and truly over. In time for her birthday, Miss T has learnt to say 'Don't talk' (to Toot and I when she wanted to go to bed), 'Dog-poo-face' (at FHB when he is at his grumpy worst) and 'My Lamp!' (after a showing of Disney's Aladdin. She shouts this whilst hugging a princess teapot. My heart does little flips).

This is Miss T's Gnome Home and its occupants. I meant to make a badger and some toadstools too, but ran out of time. She loves it: My House! Cat! EEEow!

x

Hooked!

Well, today has started with the same crapness yesterday finished with, so I am turning my thoughts to things that make me happy...

Mouse's bedroom has some fairly ill fitting laminate in it, and for years we have been meaning to carpet it, or at least put down a decent rug. After seven years it has become apparent that we will never get around to doing this. So, I have been squirreling away all our stained and holey t-shirts for a few months in order to make her this:

I am pretty pleased with it. I knew I would never have the patience (or abillity) to make a proper braided rug, so I did it this way:

Cut the body of each t-shirt up in a 2" wide spiral from the base to the armpits. You can use each sleeve as well- as long as the fabric is tubular, you can cut it like this. I must say here that I was not particular how I did this- it was not neat and not always 2" wide. Speed, not perfection was what I was aiming for. I roughly knotted all the lengths together then got hooking.

US terminology:

I started with a magic ring and a 15mm hook. Then:

Row 1: 6sc into ring (do not join round, you will work in a spiral. Place stitch marker in last stitch and move up round by round)

Row 2: 2sc into each sc

Row 3: *2sc in next sc, sc into next sc. Repeat from * around

Row 4: *2sc in next sc, sc in next 2 sc. Repeat from * around

Row 5: *2sc in next sc, sc in next 3 sc. Repeat from * around

Continue adding an extra sc inbetween increases on every round. If the rug starts to look a bit floppy and open, just work a round with no increases, then continue increasing as before on the next round.

Notes
:: When I ran out of yarn I fastened off, but i do intend adding to this rug as more t-shirts become available to me!
::I left all the knots visible and raggedy as Mouse liked it that way, but you could crochet over them as you go for a really neat look, or simply pull them through to the other side.
::I like this rug best upside down. So that's how it is. After being walked on for a day or two the curve of the rug flattened out nicely and it is now thick, flat and comfy for play.
::Not to mention machine washable.
::This is a forgiving material to work with as it is so thick. If you drop the odd increase or shift them along the round a bit, it is fine. In fact, if you shift the increases along each round you avoid that slightly hexagonal look that crocheted circles can get- and half of my rug appears to have acquired.

Hope you like it. x

Rainy day

Good afternoon to you on this disgustingly grey and rainy day. As a result of the afore mentioned weather, Miss T and I holed up for the morning while the others were at school. Hot chocolate (her), vanilla latte (me), and a pleasant morning spent grabbing what daylight we could in the bay window, doing a bit of this:

This is the side-to-side cowl (found on Ravelry). I am trying to get it finished quickly so I can wear it before Spring!

You may notice I am sporting a fetching pink swatch on my feet. This was going to be a jumper for Mouse, but I did not like it. It has, however, proved to be a good doll blanket and Miss T was very pleased with herself for keeping my toes warm with it. Much squealing and 'Look! MAM! Feet!'

As I sat hooking I had a great view of our dining room table. It is making smile every time I look at it, covered as it is with a week's worth of lego and pirate activity:

And then, just as we were about to head out on the school run in the (grey, disgusting) rain, there was a knock on the door and the postman presented me with a rather soggy jiffy bag. It proved to contain this:

which, though grey, considerably brightened my day! I bought myself this pretty little brooch from Acorn and Will and I am thrilled with it. I may well have to order another one. Or two!

**I have just been assaulted by a small cross person with a pink shopping basket. Must dash.

x

Crochet catch up

So I have been a busy hooker lately, much has been created, most things have been photographed. Want to see?

Beanie for our favourite teacher

Robyn Chachula cardi for Miss T. I did age 2-3 and got the gauge right, but I think she'll be wearing it when she's seven- it's enormous! She really likes it anyhow.

Beanie for my Niece-who-has-no-plan. I simply did not have enough time to make a cardi, so a pink hat like Mouse's was a quick solution.

A cardi for my other niece, Tink.  A remake-in-a-bigger-size of one I made for her last year. A Sue Whiting pattern. It hooks up beautifully, but I chose a yarn so dark that I could only do it if I sat in the bay window at midday. It took a while!

Earflap hat for Papa in merino wool. He and Toot are in the arctic currently, so I thought this would be useful. From Crochet Today.

I also made another two jumpers, which I then forgot to photograph (I was in a bit of a flap by then), and another hat. Then there were all the other makes that did not involve a hook:

Mouse ripped her new gloves after about a week, so I made her a pair of mittens from an old Ikea blanket...

and she decorated them with fabric paint. Aren't they beautiful?

A towel for my Dad with an embroidered trim designed by FHB and Mouse. In the foreground are a pile of bookmarks made from the brim of the sombrero that saved W's life when he was a kid. (The brim stopped him falling down an open manhole in Spain!)

Amongst all the other stuff I realised that our cushions were quite repellent indeed, so I made a set of new covers from the bottom of some curtains, an offcut of corduroy jumper, an thrifted pillow case and table runner and a scarf.

A selection of stuff from Papa's stocking, including two etched whisky glasses (designed by FHB and Mouse), and a Fimo sign for Papa's painting shed, made from old fimo he and Toot found when they cleared out their study.

I had a load of fun making things this year, I just wish I had photographed more of it!

And now here we are, standing right on the edge of another year. I have a list of things whizzing around my head already that I want to make, places to visit, things to do, goals to achieve, jobs to be done, books to be read...
My children are growing up, slowly but steadily, and time seems to going faster and faster. I am looking forward to making the most of 2011 with them.

Hope you have a happy year ahead of you. x