Autumn just wizzed past me!

Good grief where has the time gone!! It's like there's a big hole in a bucket labeled 2013! It's been a busy busy couple of months. Since I last blogged I've been busy in my work life. I've enrolled at college to do some computer courses and update my computer skills so that I can maybe, fingers crossed, get a new job in the new year. Exciting changes are afoot in Somerset! In my crafty life I've been quite busy too. My wool stash is completely out of hand and I really must organise it at some point. I've for several WIPs on the go which I will photograph and list later. I got a couple of commissions for a hippo and an elephant for Christmas which were delivered on time (relief). I have another to be ready for February. 

One of the most exciting things that has happened, was in November I went to Iceland (no, not the frozen food shop). It was fab from a hooky point of view. They have a Handknitters guild there and produce the most gorgeous pure wool jumpers. 

Just stunning!

I found myself in a wool shop called Allafoss just outside of Reykjavik on the last day of my stay. They were very nice and let me take phots. So as a thank you I though it was only polite to buy  half a suitcase  of wool!! Not Yarn mind, proper pure Iclandic wool!!!! Unbelievably cheap. Came home and wished I'd gotten more to be honest, but hey-Ho, it's another excuse to go back!!

Yarn porn!

 More yarn porn. 

Not a ball of acrylic in sight! All pure wool.

Look at the size of that! They sell them like that lol. 

It was a lovely visit and my brother bought himself an Icelandic jumper.  I wish I'd bought one now as they are absolutely stunning. But after buying my balls if wool I couldn't justify the expense. The nice thing that I liked is that there's a little label on it telling you the name of the person who kitted your jumper. Anyhow here's  a photo of the one he bought.

Cost a lot, I can tell you but it'll last forever. I bought myself a little wool bundle as I mentioned earlier. 

I haven't decided what to do with it yet, but the one thing I must do first it sort through all my WIPs. It's getting out of hand! Tx 

Finally finished

It's been a while I know. Things have been a little difficult and the blog has had to take a back seat for a month or two. But I have been busy with the hook. I have finally finished the 400! Woo hoo. 

I've also been busy with a little pal for the Hippo. She will be have her debut today as well I think. 

So the glorious summer of 2013 is over and we have now entered the rainy season again. Wasn't it fab while it lasted. My veggie garden has done really well and I picked my first runner beans last weekend. I've been eating spinach out of the garden for a while, so satisfying when you know you've grown it yourself. Feeling very smug! Lol 😄 

So back to the 400. I nearly lost the will to live putting it together and to be fair I got so bored with it I had to put it down for a while and work on something else after I'd finished it. Well nearly finished it, I decided to put and edging around it as it looked a bit....well sort of not right. So I edged it with a scolloped edging from Atiic 24. 

It's a very pretty little lap blanket and I'm very pleased with it. Here's a little peek at all the bits I had to trim of once a finished it. This alone took me 2 hours!! Still it's done now. Never to be repeated. 

 Here's what happened after I took the Ta-Dah photo

My furry girls dived on in! 

So I said there was going to be another debut. So I made a little companion for my Hippo, initially named Huw but now rechristened Hywel Happypottamus. So I introduce to you, another Heidi Bears design ( I'm such a fan of hers). This one is Enfys Ellephant (Enfys means Rainbow in Welsh).

 

She was surprisingly easier to do than the hippo, or maybe my skills are a little better, possibly. She's cute, but not a cute as the hippos according to the family (miserable lot!) Here's another of Enfys

So now I've got to find something else to do, and I'm going on holiday to Philadelphia next week. Must get it sorted out, got 6 hours on a plane to fill!!! 

Ooo I nearly forgot. I made my #2 teenager a little surprise summer holiday pressie. All over Facebook people/friends have been changing heir profile picture to minions and sending out little things about the film Despicable Me 2. So I copied a couple of designs I saw on The Creative Crochet Crew Facebook Page and made her a little something. 

Here she is modelling it, she was very pleased, my #1 teenager tried to steal it of her a couple of time but she held onto it pretty tight lol

Happy Summer Tx

Oh Frogg!

Question. Why is it called frogging? Frogging what eh? I'd never heard the term before either but apparently that's what the action of undoing all your work is called. Funny really.

When I first started to crochet, way way back last summer, well last August (not sure it can be classed as summer really the weather was so appalling) I bought a magazine in Tescos. You know the sort, they come complete with wool pack and a crochet hook. So this was my little foray in crochet. I started to make a teddy bear. It was a lovely striped teddy bear, done in the round (amugrami) and I took that thing apart so many times until I got it right. Any way, I subscribed to said magazine and so every month I have received a new wool pack. They're some lovely colours these wool pack, always coordinated. But the projects in the magazines left a lot to be desired (the crochet clock was a particular low IMO). So I have accrued a lot of 'magazine' wool over the last 10 months. But what to do with it? They are only 25g balls. Granny stripes was the answer!

Yes I know very pretty. Trouble is the wool is acrylic and not at all soft so it feels quiet stiff. And it's not decent quality will either, it keeps splitting and although not difficult to use it is not without it's frustrations. Here's another pic, as it it very pretty. We've taken to calling it my Gay Pride Rainbow blanket (lol)

But I started it as a beginner not really following a pattern, not knowing what I was doing. I didn't really know how to turn properly when I first started it. So because of this the edges of the blanket are really uneven. It no where near finished, only roughly 25 balls used on it. My sister told to just put an edging on it and it would be fine, but ever the perfectionist, I would know that it was wrong. And as I had just crochet on a 25g ball at a time, there were some rows of 2, some rows of 2 1/2, others of less than two. It was all a bit uneven. Not uniform and equal as I like things (I'm ex military, can you tell?) so I decided to unravel it, or 'frog' it as I've discovered it called. Where does that term come from??

So I googled it! It's quite sweet actually. When you undo your work you literally 'rip it'. So you 'rip it, rip it'...get it?? That's where frogging came from. Thought it was funny. There also another knitters term of undoing your work called 'tinking'. This one was genius, it's basically knit backwards, 'knit-tink', lol. Love it. 

Here's how my granny strip look now. Pretty pretty balls of colour. Tx

Chuffed to bits

Oh my goodness, I'm so so so happy with my latest little project. Do you want to see??

How beautiful is that?? Can't tell you how pleased I am with him. So easy to make, making it up is hard but very rewarding when it starts to take shape. I want to make another now straight away. He needs company. Hubby wants to turn it into a door stop, which is a good idea but I objected on the grounds that I wanted to keep it clean. And he also needs a name. Thinking of Huw Happypotamus? Suggestions on a postcard please. 

Oh go on have another picture, just for luck! Lol Tx

It's been a while....

It most certainly had been a while since my last blogg. I've been pre occupied with various family 'things'. Both daughters have been sitting their exams in school. It hasn't been going well!! Lots of work in the 'Mum's taxi' department too! 

We've had some fab weather here in Somerset about a fortnight ago and I planted out a veggie patch, I've been titivating and generally getting down in the ground with that.

 Looking neat and tidy eh?

And the other thing is that I've returned to the gym last week after quite a long six week hiatus due to a poorly back. (Silly me tried lifting a 90kg boxed trampoline by myself, ouch). Sooo good to be back in the gym, managed a 5k run yesterday and oh spin classes I have missed you. Kettle bells tonight!! Woohoo

Elder daughter has decided to 'make some bunting for my room' which I initially thought was a 'mum could you...', but no she wanted to do it for herself. She bought her materials and fabrics, measured out her triangles with the precision of an A level maths student (OCD) and set her self up cutting away.

She's done very well, except for the small hiccup of the sewing machine breaking down after sewing only two triangles. She's been hand sewing since and doing a really good job.  She wants to come to the next crafting bee at the end of the month, AND she went out yesterday and bought the British sewing bee book! Gob smacked!! For years I've tried to get my girls into 'making'. 

Think I need a new sewing machine though. Oh poo, I've had that machine 10 years! 

So my crafty projects have had a little bit of a back seat this last two weeks, but there has been some progress. 

The 400 is doing well, it's about a third of the way put together now, reckon another week should break the back of it. However I've run out of cream stylecraft and my local wool shop in Cheddar have stopped selling stylecraft wool. Changed the whole range to Patons!! So now I've got to go and hunt down some stylecraft elsewhere, probably in Burnham-on-sea, there's 3 really good wool shops there. 

So I started a new project and I'm oh oh oh so excited! It going to take about a week. Here's a little sneaky peek.

Oooo what could it possible be???? Tx

2nd Crafting Bee event

We all had such fun on Saturday at the crafting bee that the next one is already booked! Hope to have more guests from local crafty business's and I will let you know who will be attending closer to the event. I look forward to seeing some of you very soon at the 2nd crafting bee!

The Crafty Cwtchers get together!

So yesterday (Saturday) we held a little get together in Pips local community centre in Pontnewynedd. We had a lovely kid free afternoon chatting about our various crafty like and crafty histories. But the absolute best thing was the sharing of skill!! Pip had five of us simultaneously making a heart. Something I've never been able to grasp until yesterday. There's clearly something wrong with me (twp in the head!)  as she made it so easy!!

And then Andrea from Black Mountain Fabrics, who came along to show us her 'fat quarters' took the time to show me how to make a fab raised flower square. Ever so slightly chuffed with my result! 

I did that!!!

So excited to learn something new (twice). Well the afternoon was a lovely success and Pip is going to repeat it again at the end of June. It was a gloriously sunny afternoon yesterday so maybe next time we could do it outside?? (Yeah right, this is Wales, rain for 40 day and 40 nights is considered the best summer ever!!!) Tx

Pip the teacher!

The lovely Gemma and Tracey xx

Nearly there, but here comes the hard bit!

Hmmm 432 square and round 3 complete!!! Wizzed through round 3! All my little squares look so cute all staked up in groups! Now comes the hard bit. I've got to start making it up, which I've only ever done using a needle. This pattern calls for it to be made up using a Double crochet to join the squares.....uncharted territory for me. I'm a bit nervous to say the least.....

400 Progress Report

It's going well, well I think it's going OK. I take my crochet bag with me to work or if I have to pick up the girls anywhere, cram in a quick bit of hooking here or there. It's a nice easy project. I started by doing one stack of colours at a time. But have done realised they it probably easier to do them in stages. Yesterday I did loads of the centre colour. When the bowl is full I'll add the second round in cream.

Think I need a bigger bowl. 2 more colours to add yet.

Well since I took this photo which was before I went on holiday there has been some significant progress with the 400. I added another two colours to the centre, a nice mellow yellow and a kind of purple grape colour. The bowl was piled high and looked fab and I forgot to take a photo, do'h. so Iv'e now started on round 2, which is putting the second colour on the centres to make them square. This is quite quick and  I'm probably about 2/3rds of the way through doing that now. My 2nd bowl is already full to overflowing so i'm definatley going to have to rethink my filing system shortly. Tx

OOOOO so pretty!

Back in March for Mothers Day my daughters went of to Wells to do some stealthy Mothers Day shopping. We don't go to Wells very often, why I have no idea as its a very nice quaint place, with a cobbled market square and individual shops, not so many chains. My elder daughter surprised me with a little button box from a shop there called Sew Vintage. Both my girls kept gushing on about how cute it was and that there were bowls and bowls of buttons everywhere. so one day about a fortnight ago I made the effort and drove the whole long 9 miles to Wells. (that was a little bit of sarcasm, in case you missed it).

It is a gorgeous shop and the lady there was lovely
 and very graciously let me take some photos to put on the blog. its a mixture of haberdashery, quilters paradise, some very nice rowan wools and buttons, buttons buttons galore!! I think my favourite thing though was the way they have lots and lots of old singer manual sewing machines everywhere. My Mam had one when we were little and she taught me to sew on it.





Post holiday blues

I've been on holiday recently, been to catch some sun and warmth in better climes than the UK. It's been so cold here for so long now, it's nearly a year since we had that minor heat wave. So my better half and I jetted of for some much needed vitmain D! and to recharge our batteries. It was our wedding anniversary while we were away as well and because of that we decided it would be our first holiday with out the girls, who were left in the capable hand of Nanna!

Nanna got a bit bored whilst she was 'babysitting' so she helped herself (with my blessing) to my 'lets get crafty magazine and wool pack that had come through the post. My Mam is a pretty handy crafty lady mind you, she's quite the seamstress having worked in various factories over the years, including a shoe factory when she was a teenager lol, and she passed that on to me as I'm pretty whizzy with a sewing machine. she's also always knitted and crochet and tried to teach me to knit when I was young with very limited success.  I have always been handy with needle and thread and have done loads of embroidery and cross stitch over the years which no one else in the family has tried. Mam is really chuffed that Pip and I are crocheting now though and she likes seeing what we're working on. Anyhow Nanna was looking after my girls whilst I was away and was armed with a pattern and wool and freebie bamboo needles and got clicking away....

How cool is that! Thank you Nanna xx

The thing with going on holiday though is that I didn't take my crochet with me, a complete break was needed as I tend to let things become an obsession and then that will be all I do...literally. It was a silly thing I know as my sister was surprised, but I think my husband had visions of me crocheting by the pool and was a bit embarrassed by it (and to be fair I did ban him from taking his blackberry!). I did look into whether  if I could get a crochet hook on a plane, apparently you can as long as it is a wooden one. Well now I'm back and can get stuck back in to my 400 blanket again, woohoo...Tx

Mini granny square purse

After the success of my granny square sunnies case I made yesterday (my friend wants me to make her one too), today I decided to use up some more of my stash of mini squares.
I just so happened to have a purse clasp lying around, I think it was a freebie from a magazine awhile ago, so set about making a purse from 8 mini granny squares.

I stitched four of them together using double crochet and then treble crocheted around all four of them to make it slightly larger to fit the purse frame better.

I did this twice then slip stiched the two sides together. I lined them with some pink felt by just placing the folded over felt with stitched up sides into the two granny square sides.

Next this was a tricky job I stiched the felt and crochet sides into the frame, this is tricky as you have to push the both fabrics into the gap in the frame and get the needle at the right angle to pass through the hole in the frame and go through the two layers of material at the same time. It took me a while to do this and I pricked my fingers a few times (didn't bleed to much over the project thankfully) but it is now finished and looks fantastic! I'm really pleased, what do you think? Pipx

Granny square glasses case.

My new crochet magazine landed today!   Both my children were out enjoying the sunshine, the housework was already done, well downstairs anyway, where it matters lol! (done by my early rising husband <3), so I decided it was a crochet day! lucky me :)

I read an article about using granny squares for smaller projects other than blankets, and had a think to myself about the basket full of granny squares that I have crammed in one of my ever expanding crafty cwtches! Would I ever realistically make a blanket with those squares? The answer was a big fat NO, I really do not like large projects I love to finish something within a day or two or even less, a few hours even better! I love the satisfaction of seeing something finished and although I know I would absolutely love to be able to finish a large project like a granny square blanket, I just know I would get bored and never finish, this being the reason I have a basket full of granny squares!


So today I was inspired to make a sunglasses case out of 4 pretty little squares I had. It was quite simple, quick and very satisfying.

I simply joined 2 squares together twice, using any stitch you enjoy will do, I used double.

Then I simply layed them on top of each other and treble crocheted all around making sure I left one of the narrow sides open for the top.

Once I had done this I treble crocheted around the top to give it a better finish, them sewed on a button crocheted a small chain making sure it was long enough to go go around the button and ta dah! It was done!

Ta Dah!

So if you have any granny squares hanging around you just know are not going to be used as intended this is as good a use as any and an ideal quick gift for someone. Post any photos of your granny square uses for me to see I would love some more ideas! P.x

Thumb Twiddling is boring!

With two big projects on the go I try and cram in as much hooking as I can. I even take it to work with me..... Usually. I find myself at loose end this morning as I left the house in a rush, knowing I didn't have any gaps in my Clinic (I'm an Allied Health Professional) so I left my hook and bag at home. My first client didn't turn up so I find myself twiddling my thumbs for half an hour....grrrr so frustrating. I'm going on holiday next week too so I need to cram in as much as I can to stay on schedule with the square count. Obsessed much????

Magazine Day woohoo!

My new copy of Simply Crochet landed this morning. So nice to come home and see it waiting there in its little plasticc wrapper, calling out for an accompanying cuppa and a biscuit (or three). Lovely mmmm. I just know though that my last 2 project have come from this and there's bound to be something tempting in this one too. I'm thinking of saving it until I go on holiday next week so I will have something to read on the flight ( yes I'm of to sunnier climates for a fortnight) but another part of me thinks 'ooo10 hour flight, lots of hooky time and no interruptions'. Question: can you take a crochet hook on an airplane? Hmmm, best google that sometime this week....Tx

Yeah, I couldn't wait a whole week to open it!

Doubly foolish!!

I've been crocheting since August 2012, I'm entirely self taught via the Internet and magazines, so when I make a mistake it's frustrating as I have no one to ask. I can ask Pip if she's here with me or I'm over at hers, but that's never been the case so far. So here's what's happened....

I was happily working away on my 400 squares( I'd managed 6 by this time) I was glancing through simply crochet magazine to see if there was a better or neater way of fastening of, when I started to look at the teaching guides at the back, you know the 'how to crochet' with pictures. Like being smacked in the face with a wet fish I realised for the past few months I'd been double crocheting all wrong!!! Completely wrong. I'd been adding an extra 'yarn over hook' on the middle. Bizarre my sister called it!

I've had to redo the outside edge for all of my new squares for the 400, but most importantly I've unravelled the squares from the 56 and started to redo them and it appears that my dodgy doubles were the fault!!

I think the thing I'm trying to get across today is no matter how long you've been doing something it doesn't hurt to check your doing the basics right every now and again. Yeah that's not very eloquently put is it?

Katies Cardi

A little while ago, my nearly 15 year old teacup sized Yorkie had a haircut at the groomers. The weathers been really cold in the UK this winter and the poor little thing was shivering like crazy. So one Saturday morning I took action and in two hours had made her a little doggy cardi. I can't remember the pattern as I just made it up as I was going along and was measuring it up against her as I went. I remember a starting chain of 25 and just decreased and increased as I went along. But it's a nice little coat for her and she has worn it practically non stop since I made it.

Tx

Jar Covers

I've been to Aldi this week where they were selling bunches of Daffodils for 95p!! Great, so I bought 4 bunches and brought them home. Problem was when I got home I realised I only had one small vase to fit one bunch. So I emptied out the IKEA pasta jar and put the rest in that. When those flowers opened the looked fab.

Then I went to Lidl on the weekend and they were selling Daffs for the same price, so greedy me bought another 2 bunches. This time I had to empty the coffee jar!!

They're just plain glass jars though, albeit rather large ones. They were in need of a bit of prettying up a bit, so I thought I'd make up a couple of jar covers so, out came my hook and a packet of yarn form a magazine.

so heres some abbreviations first
ch = chain stitch
st =stich
ss = slip stich
dc = double crochet (UK)
tr  = triple crochet (UK)
yoh = yarn over hook

ok then lets have a bash at pattern writing (gulp)

make a starting chain that goes all the way round the jar but not to loose and also not to tight! I worked in a triple crochet so don't forget that you need an extra 3 chain stitches on the end to count as your first stitch....so for example chain 25 then and extra 3 chain, tr in the 4chain from the end, then tr all the way to the other end.

when you come to the end of a row 3ch and turn or turn and the 3ch whichever is your preference.

I worked a 2 row stripe until I ran out of wool. I would have liked it a little taller but 'thems the breaks!'

Then I just joined the two edges together, simples. But it looked a little unfinished and flat (and I forgot to take a photo do'h) so I had a think for a day or to on how to prettify...scollops!!!

So here I used a scollop pattern form Attic24 that Lucy used on a bag. Its dead easy and really effective. I used some other wool I had so its not an exact colour match, but as close as i could get it from my stash.

cast on with a ss in your chosen colour. miss 2st then 7tr in the same stitch.
miss 2 st then ss in the next, miss next 2 st then 7tr again and so on until you come to the end. ss to finish and fasten off.

Lovely scollopy prettiness!

 Ooo thats a bit prettier but not enough yet, need some embellishments. I didn't want flowers as they're in the jar....

Hearts! like on a Valentines card. So I very quickly made up a little tr square.
But I have never made a heart, honest! My sister does them all the time, she could probably knock one out with her eyes shut, but I tired and it went wrong and I threw my hands up in frustration! Time to give it another go. Googled heart pattern on the internet and decided to go for this one
http://crocknit.blogspot.ca/2011/02/perfect-hearts-filling-you-with-love.html

Got it right after a few tries.

Attached the heart to the square, attached that to the cover, added a few wooden buttons and I was finished!

Ta dah!

So that was Jar no1, now I need to do Jar no 2...... Tx

Slow Progress

Flipping Heck! I've bitten of more than I can chew here,  and I think I'm going to have to admit defeat straight away. There is no way I can produce one square a day!! I'm not even sure I'm doing them right. The count is right all the way round and they look right but....they damn things won't lie flat!! And I don't know why. I've made two so far. I've even gone to the extreme of making another with a larger hook size to see if thats the problem but it made no difference....I'm flummoxed, completely.

So I sent Simply Crochet a little message to see if there was anything that was left off or omitted from the pattern and I'm waiting for them to reply before I do anymore. I'd rather not waste anymore time and effort doing something that I may well have to unravel.

So I need to do something else whilst I wait for a reply. Its  bold choice as its going to be a long slog, but I'm going to go for ...... the blanket that is made up of 400 squares!!!! lol. Yes quiet an undertaking I'm sure and the making up is going to be a complete bitch! but here goes nothing.... Tx