Week One!

Hello

Well I have survived "Week One" back at work, just about! 

It was far busier than I was hoping: we had two members of staff off sick

 all week and given that we are a small unit this has a huge impact on our workload. 

I have to admit that I woke up on Tuesday morning (just "Day Two" of "Week One") and 

checked with my husband that it was only Tuesday - oh boy, I was convinced/hoping it 

was Thursday - it certainly felt like it. 

But somehow I seemed to pick up as the week progressed and in the end I had quite a

 busy and productive home and social life.

Baking and cooking has occurred aplenty. Mince pies ...

 millionaire short bread (note the small piece top left, this is where I tried

 to be good and cut myself "just half")...

 (I never seem to be able to make 'pretty' millionaire shortbread, my 

pieces always end up different sizes and crumby)

 and son and I preparing fajitas for dinner.

I sent a very belated Christmas present to my friend overseas so decided to make

 it a Happy New Year present instead and trimmed my gift with a crochet flower and ribbon.

On other matters, I am always quite happy to take the Christmas decorations down and restore some sort of order to our house but you may remember I blogged at the beginning of December and January about a couple of little decorations I had made...

in particular the snowman on the right above...

 

and the little sheep in his scarf and hat!

I was reluctant to pack these away and decided they weren't so Christmassy that they 

needed to go away until next Christmas, but thought they probably need another decoration to 

keep them company - two isn't many is it?

So I decided to go with a distinctively winter theme for a third decoration!

I had seen this gorgeous little decoration on the blog of Le Chalet des Pérelles.

Isn't it delightful? But as I wanted a smaller decoration I decided to adapt it a little

 to cross stitch just the white tree and snowman. 

 This was an easy pattern as there were no half stitches or outlining to stitch...

 

so I made good progress during the week. 

And I finished the cross stitching this afternoon. I just need now to get my sewing 

machine out and complete the decoration ... as you can see below, backing fabric, 

ribbon and buttons have been chosen!

I can't wait to complete it!

 

 And on a completely different topic...

 - son's shoes - which as you can see were filthy! 

They needed plenty of elbow grease and shoe cream to restore them to something 

wearable and in order to give me an incentive to continue with the task and to 

help me realise quite what a good job I'd done with them, I concentrated on 

one shoe only to begin with - here's my 'before and after' comparison - looking 

at the photo I reckon I have done a pretty good job so far! 

One down, one to go!

And much of this home activity was undertaken in front of 

our stove.

We had this multifuel stove installed this summer and absolutely LOVE IT! 

It makes the room so warm and cosy and throws out a lovely golden glow. 

It encourages us all to sit together in the lounge while doing our various activities. 

NOTE: we also love the light shed by the fairy lights so decided not to put them 

away after Christmas. 

 Good job I'm not superstitious!

Have a good week

xXx 

P.S. And daughter's football team won their match today 3-2, onwards in the cup competition!

A geographical miscellany!

Hello

Thank you for the lovely comments you left on my last post - I appreciate you taking the time to leave comments and I do enjoy reading them.

Today I am joining in with Ginny's yarn along. My yarn along this week has a distinctive geographical flavour. 

Firstly, I am re-reading Alexander McCall Smith's '44 Scotland Street', based in Edinburgh. The first time of reading I didn't enjoy this book as much as his The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency but I thought I would give it another go. 

And as for my knitting, well I recently purchased Nordic Knits written by Martin Storey, which has some beautiful projects in it, many using my favourite yarn of the moment, Rowan felted tweed dk. 

And so on my needles I have just started knitting the Snowflake Runner using the colours 

Seasalter (a light denim blue) and Clay. 

It does feel a bit strange to be making another table runner when I have only just finished a Christmas table runner but I think the snowflake is not so 'snow flakey' that it means I can only use it over Chritmas - I think this will be adorning our dining table for a few months of the year!

What have you currently on your needles? Are you desperately trying to finish off Christmas presents? Have a good week!

xXx

A seaside cottage....

Hello,

One of my dreams is to own a little cottage either by the sea or in an isolated location perhaps in the Peak District or on the west coast of Scotland, ideally with stunning views. 

This is just one of my many daydreams! 

So I got very excited recently when I am across a kit on the internet for knitting my own seaside cottage. This kit is sold by 'The Little Knit Kit Company' and what is great news, is that the kit is currently available to purchase in the sale. So it didn't take me to long to decided to order the kit and it arrived about two weeks, and what a delightful package! 

The kit is presented in a brown bag which in turn arrived wrapped in pink tissue paper with cute stickers on the outer packing. 

And inside the brown bag there is wool, needles, pattern, stuffing, felt, sewing thread, buttons and beads - in fact everything you need to complete the cottage!

 Here are some close up photos of how the cottage will look when complete. 

Look at the cute beads, as flowers, around the door - I think this will be trickiest bit of the kit. 

 So it wasn't long after the package arrived before I had the needles out and I started on my cottage.  

 This is the first wall under construction. The kit is easy to complete with knitting in garter stitch  and only simple shaping and sewing up to undertake. 

 Here we are a couple of weeks later with all four walls and the roof knitted, and the 

base is underway. 

 

This is a lovely kit - an enjoyable, easy knitting project.  

And with the Bank Holiday weekend here, it may not be too long before my own little dream cottage is complete!

Have a good weekend

xXx

Two thirds of 84

Hello,

Yes, I am pleased to announce that I am TWO THIRDS of the way through my 84 stripes of double crochet!!

 

I am using 7 different colours of Patons 100% cotton DK, each separated by stripes of limestone so that makes 14 stripes, which when double crocheted using a 3.5 hook measures about 12 inches/30 cm in length.

 

So I am planning to crochet these 14 rows 6 times which makes a total of 84 different coloured stripes to crochet and I have completed 4 lots of 14 stripes (56 stripes) so I am two thirds of the way through 84 stripes - YIPPEE!

This is the blanket that I started some time ago, probably September 2013, and which I have posted about here. Much of the crochet has been done while travelling to and from cross country races and football matches - sadly the season for both sports is now finished so I'll have to find time elsewhere..... ummmm, I'm sure that dusting and hoovering can wait while I crochet a few rows.
   

Unfortunately, as I said in my previous post, I realise that the blanket is going to be narrower than I intended so I am considering what I can do once I have finished the stripes to widen the blanket, possibly a wide, single colour border.

 

 

So even when I have completed the 84 stripes I will still have some serious crocheting to do before the blanket is finally finished.

 

 

  

So please hang on in there - it may be some time before I reveal the finished article. 

Have you a major crafting project on the go at the moment? Do you prefer smaller projects that be completed relatively quickly?

Wishing you a good week

xXx

Craft books

I treated myself to THREE craft books recently - how extravagant is that! But in truth, they cost £21 in total and given that one is hardback I thought that wasn't a bad price - especially when you consider that magazines are often £5 each and I haven't bought a craft magazine for several months now. Have I justified my purchases enough now? Maybe just about.

So what did I buy? Well, as I have now ventured into the world of  patchworking and jelly rolls I thought I liked the look of the two jelly roll books, and the knitting book I've borrowed from the library for months so I thought maybe it is time I buy my own copy. 

So, what do I think of these books? Well, probably my favourite of the three is "The Knitted Home" by Ruth Cross.

As knitting books go, this is rather different. While the book does include patterns, it also explains how the patterns can be adjusted to suit your own needs and wishes. And the patterns are just so ...... organic? Just look at the throw below. Ruth suggests that this is a major project and not for the faint hearted but wouldn't it look fantastic when finished?

 

I love all the colours Ruth uses in her projects and the styling of her projects is simple but very effective. The photo below shows the throw above, a second throw and a foot stool.

The table runners below look relatively straightforward to knit but look stunning as a simple table setting. 

And this is a wall hanging! I love it and although I'm not sure how it would look in our house, Ruth gives you the confidence to feel you could adjust the pattern to suit your own style.

And just look at the ripples in the sea inspired wall hanging below. What a statement that makes!

Umm, I admit I don't make many projects from my craft books but I do enjoy browsing through them for inspiration and I am so glad I now have my own copy of this book.

Hope you are enjoying a lovely Easter Sunday. 

xXx

(PS. This is my own personal review of the book, no commission received)

Forgotten holiday project!

Hello,

Yesterday I wrote a post about the 4 craft projects I have brought away with me for my short break in the Peak District - but I suddenly realised last night that I'd forgotten one of the projects I have with me. Obviously too many WIPs and too easy to forget one!

But here it is....

Yes, it is presently just a collection of embroidery silks, evenweave, buttons and ribbon - my plan is to make a small padded hanger stitched with some sentiment such as "Home sweet home".  I love the colours - they loosely coordinate with our bedroom which is predominantly grey and white with accents of bright green, pink and purple. You can see how the colours above coordinate with my much posted stripey blanket, shown yet again below (please skip this photo if tired of my blanket love).

Yesterday I was reading this post on Lucy''s blog (of Attic24 fame) and from there linked to The Homemakery website. While browsing their website (which I agree with Lucy has some wonderful items for sale) I came across this page and just LOVED the colour combinations of this Very Berry Rowan handknit cotton DK yarn pack. 

Then I realised why I was drawn to this - it is more of that wonderful, deep colour combination that I love!  I can even feel a Lucy wreath, crocheted in this colour palette, coming on! Just need to add a few leaves of bright lime green - they would make it ZING! 

But time to get on with those holiday projects first!

xXx

Paper treats

Hello

Are you an avid magazine reader? Do you have a subscription to a magazine? Is there one magazine that finds you searching out your local newsagents as soon as the latest issue is released?

I have to admit to liking magazines - I see them as a treat to me! I guess, as with most people, I have my favourites and one that I have been buying for quite a few years is Cross Stitcher.

In fact I think I first starting buying a cross stitch magazine about 20 years ago - how can it be so long ago?? I love the design of the cowboy shown on the front of the February issue above - it is exactly the project I would have undertaken a few years ago for my younger son. I stitched knights and footballers for him but never a cowboy. I really like the wooden floral keyring free gift too - although I have as yet to start this one.

Another crafty magazine I enjoy is Simply Crochet. I have talked about Simply Crochet before in this post. I have been crocheting summer blooms for some joyful bunting.

 

The other genre of magazines I indulge in from time to time are home style magazines such as Country Homes and Interiors and Country Living.

 

The homes and style ideas in these magazines appeal to me and in fact it was in this recent post that I showed a photo taken from the Country Living magazine - I loved the stripey blanket.

I'm lucky in that we have a market stall trader who sells out of date magazines for £1 each - I consider that a bit of a bargain! Unfortunately, whereas he used to regularly sell Cross Stitcher and some knitting magazines, he rarely does now - but he always has a good stock of home style magazines so I purchase most of mine for £1. However, I don't buy any magazine without a quick perusal of the pages first - if there is nothing that is of interest or nothing that appeals to my crafty side I don't buy it. This caution by me ensures that I am not swamped at home by magazines, as I do find it hard to throw magazines out. And it also makes it feel that my occasional magazine purchase (as opposed to a regular purchase) is a treat. And I often look back at old issues for inspiration and project ideas.

Are you a magazine hoarder?

Happy browsing!