Monthly Archives: February 2012

A PINK parcel!

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So exciting to come home to a large PINK PARCEL!

I opened it in a rush and quickly photographed it in the placky bag as I had to be somewhere fast, but here is my new cotton stash! I’ve never bought any yarn in bulk and now look at me, with my yarnalicious rows of DK below and now 13 balls of cotton!

Penny’s blog – Planet Penny – is listed in links somewhere to the right of this page, click if you too would be interested in buying a pack. I obviously can’t vouch for the cotton, yet, but the delivery was super fast! ( I think I only paid for this on Saturday.)

I’ll show some pics of what I create with the super bundle of bright cotton as I go along….

Having a ‘stash’ (this does sound very American to me, but I can’t think what else works so well in one neat word!) does mean that you can try any pattern out there and then, rather than wait to buy a ball of something.

I also am a bit excited about this….

I didn’t even know this magazine existed. The shops I tend to go to for a rummage around amongst their craft magazines don’t stock Mollie Makes. I’m looking forward to a good look at it tonight.

Can you recommend any other crochet / crafty mags?

!!!!!!!!!

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I’m tootling about online after my chocolate eating, crocheting, sunny Saturday afternoon and I check in to Twitterland to see this tweet and photo:

“Mr Scrappy dries his eyes after England lose to Wales at Twickenham.”

Well!!!

I didn’t realise I’d created an emotional sports fan when I crocheted Mr Scrappy…

… .or that he would be such supportive company to the 6 foot, beer drinking, peanut eating rugby watcher downstairs!

Powered by Cadbury’s

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I’ve had a lovely hour or two this afternoon….

A little bit of sweetness with a few rows of wave

“Ta-dah! Here I am!”

Mr Scrappy is finally finished.

Want to make your own Mr Scrappy? Click here for the free pattern

Next it was nice to do a few more rows of granny stripes for the rainbow blanket…

Soooo relaxing. It’s getting cosy as it grows and keeps my legs warm as I work.

I hope you’re having a good weekend too? After a busy week I think there’s nothing better than sunshine streaming through the windows, a little bit of chocolate (or whatever makes you feel like you’re having a treat) and something relaxing to make or do.

Lovely!

Brightness!

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It’s growing very fast, I find that I can’t do fewer than 2 stripes at a sitting, even if time is pressing and I need to do just half a row….addictive or what?!

I think the next bit is going to go into bluey greens and I’ll try the yacky green out too; but if it fails the audition it’s OUT!

I’m enjoying the trebling but wanted to try something new. I find that I can’t just concentrate on one project, I have to try a few alongside each other. It’s like me and books. I usually have a poem anthology, a non-fiction, a fiction and maybe something else I’m dipping in and out of. Variety is the spice of life, and all that. :-)

I’m using Nicki Trench’s pattern for the wave cushion (see link at the side for the book.) I suspect this is what everyone else is calling ripple pattern. It’s great. I enjoyed it last night, but if you’re wondering why I stopped in the middle…there was a bombshell in the middle of Roger and Val have just got in that required me to stop! and talk! Then it was time for bed Zebedee…

If, unlike me, you’re a crochet expert and notice a flaw in my waves tell me please. Gently!

PS: Sorry that the pics are a bit fuzzy but I wanted to show you how I’m getting on. The flash had to do the job as the sun is in bed now, and it’s never as good as natural sunlight.

Getting zingy!

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My instinct is to work through the colours gradually but this is not going to happen. I’m challenging my sense of colour comfort!

Sunday Crochet

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It’s growing!

I finished this beanie yesterday, it just needed a couple more rounds.

It’s mostly wool in this chunky yarn and feels really warm on the ears. Goodo, ready for any more icy weather we’re going to get.

I learnt what frogging means, in the crochet sense, yesters. The hat below was made last autumn from frogging a scarf I knitted a few years ago, but had never worn…

But when I asked for an honest opinion….”There’s just too much of it” T said on its first outing. I got a second opinion from B: ‘There’s a lot at the top” and so the big gathered hat was frogged too to make my beanie. I’m happy with it.

This wool is staying as it is now!

Rainy Saturday

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Today’s the perfect day for a bit of lounging on the sofa with my granny stripe blanket to keep me occupied.

Not that it resembles a blanket at all yet, I am a tiny bit tempted to make some edging and turn it into a scarf, it’s looking just like one I saw in M&S after Christmas. :-)

This is SO relaxing; it’s just simple repetitive trebles with a few chains thrown in, very very satisfying to make. Choosing the colours and watch it turn into a stripey colourful textile makes it really fun to make.

Recently I’ve made lots of small thingys which have meant following patterns and counting all the time. This Granny Stripe is refreshing crochet. No counting, no following a complex pattern (complex for me a novice, or intermediate, crocheter anyway.)

I’m a bit wary of when the time comes to add in the red (one of my favourite colours) with the PiNk! You can’t put pink and red together, it’s the LAW. I’ve grown up with this rule. I’m going to break the law. FOR THE FIRST TIME….

Then to make it worse there will also be BriGhT yellow and orange and that yacky green I showed you here…….it’s really going to challenge my sense of colour comfort.

BUT inspired by Lucy’s GS blanket (see Attic24) I’m going to use all the colours in the Stylecraft pack, in my own way. I’m not copying Lucy’s colour combinations, this is MY blanket though of course the colours are the same because they are unofficially called ‘The Lucy pack’ I’m told.

If you want the same pack click here or Google ‘Stylecraft special DK’. It’s lovely to work with and feels unepxectedly soft for 100% man-made yarn (or 100% people-made if we want to be 21st century about it.)

Back to the sofa where a cheeky bottle of English cider and a few snacks are waiting for my company. The GS might go a bit wiggly!

Happy weekend,

Rachel

Sunny morning hooky

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Lovely bright morning for a bit of hooky.

I’m experimenting with this word hooky; it does have overtones of dodgyness to my sweet innocent mind. Hooky though seems to be what the happening crochet kids on the block are saying, so if I wanna be kool I’ll give it a whirl…

The plan was to make wristwarmers now I’ve got the yarnalicious stash, but then I began wondering if I really, really wanted to wear rainbow coloured wristwarmers when I’ve got around four pairs of gloves already.

Let’s get Crafting magazine did a twitter poll the other day asking their “Question of the Week: do you still buy #knitted & #crocheted garments from shops or do you prefer to make everything yourself? #craft”

…and my reply was:  “I’m not that talented and actually some machine made knitted items look far better than handmade. #honestopinion” and that really is how I feel about lots of home-made do-dahs.

Controversial?

So, I’ve decided to start a Granny stripe blanket for the little girls I love to be Aunty Rachel to. They apparently like to snuggle under a fleecy blanket sometimes to watch tv, but I think a GS snuggly soft (reliably machine washable I’m told) Stylecraft yarn blanket is the way forward for them. :-D

Deciding which colour comes next is the challenge at the moment. I’ve completed two colour stripes now and do I go purpley again or change to pink? Dark or light? I’m off to ponder one of life’s happier and easier choices.

PS: it’s been flowerarama this week so a pint glass had to suffice for my second bunch of daffs!

Made

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I couldn’t wait to get started using some of my new stash of wool yarn last night!

After I’d moved the scallop edging to the bottom of the jar I preferred it far more.

I hope Naomi likes it. I know crochet and hand-made isn’t everyone’s cup-of-tea and for some it’s all a bit hokey…but I wanted to make her something to say THANKYOU.

The Stylecraft yarn is really nice to work with, yes I’d prefer Rowan and Debbie Bliss with no acrylic at all but it’s far too ££££ for playing around with. Until I win the lottery!

Yarnalicious!

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Oooh look what just arrived…

A big sack of yarn (I hate saying yarn, I grew up with a Mum who said wool as in ‘We’re going to walk to the wool shop’ and ‘Can you help wind my wool please?’ but there’s nothing of it in this huge parcel that’s ever seen a sheep, let alone come from one!)

It’s like a game of pass the parcel!

I can’t wait to see what’s inside! I’ve never bought more than 2 balls of yarn by mail before!

Wow! Looks good and feels very soft. Far softer than I imagined 100% acrylic would feel.

There’s one colour  I really didn’t like when I saw it pictured in the online shop but it’s a pack so you take the urgh with the lovely colours! Can you tell which one it is?!

They’ve sold out of the pack I think as I type because it’s not on the page when I went there for the url thingy, but I know they’ll be putting more together, such is the power of Lucy of Attic24! This pack is exactly the same colours she used for one of her projects; the Granny Stripe blanket for her caravan.

Now I don’t know exactly what I’m going to make with this, apart from the jar cover for a very lovely friend Naomi. She’s been really helpful and, well, so lovely that I wanted to make her something useful. She can keep all her pens in it at school.

I originally ordered the pack so I could have a stash to use for all manner of little projects, but I am tempted to make a blanket. The little girls might like a blanket to snuggle under….I might like a blanket to snuggle under…..

All these exciting possibilities….

 

PS: S said when he saw the yucky green that “It looks like the dial has been turned to 11 for that one!” Spot on I reckon!!

 

Crochet news

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Yesterday I made myself not start any new projects until I’d a) darned in the ends on the dolls blanket b) sewed up Mr Scrappy c) ordered eyes for Mr S  and d) sorted out the Hilton crochet

a) Done. Tick!

It’s finished, all ends darned in and ready to go to two little girls. I thought one blanket between the two of them for their dollies was a bit mean.

This is the other one when it was a WIP. I saw it being used in dolly covering mode last weekend….

Mr Scrappy being assembled

b) Done. Tick!

c) Done. Tick! Eyes ordered from a seller on ebay

and ummmm d) didn’t get done but I did start a new hat based on Stacey Trock’s FREE pattern available on Ravelry.

Stacey’s patterns are very clear and easy to follow. I can’t recommend her enough. Mr Scrappy is another of her free patterns on her great website ‘Fresh Stitches’

Happy Valentine’s Day! xx

Amsterdam

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Flying over snowy Holland, from snowy England for a long weekend away

I loved seeing people skating along some of the canals, they were preparing for skating races and putting up start and finish signs.

Other people walked on the ice, alongside the skaters, just because they could I suspect.

I wish I’d been fast enough to take a picture of a youngish guy with vintage wooden skates on, they looked superb.

I really enjoyed seeing ‘Pimp my Bike’ before and after photos in a local magazine. These were a few I saw on our wanderings.

I love this photo!

There were heart shaped balloons all along a row of shops and resturants, this one must have made a bid for freedom!

No visit is complete without buying aged gouda, oh and truly delish honey mustard!

Tulip bulbs were purchased too, but too much energy went into choosing colours and tulip variety to take a pic of the flower market…

All too soon the lovely mini-break was at an end. The plane was de-iced, I sipped my champagne and we were off to tropical England (A heady 5 degrees! It actually felt warm!)

London, Bookcrossing, Snow & Crochet

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It was a beautiful start to Saturday for a day in London with friends

We enjoyed a bit of bookswapping, chat, drinks and a nice lunch

When we left the next pub, where we had another quick drink, half of the books we’d left on the Boris bikes had gone.

Eeek!

Home for a warming cider, the last slice of tea-loaf and some crochet before bed.

Rock and Roll!

Winter cooking & reading

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I’ve never been one for chick-lit, but the cover and title of this book appealed to me last week, so I ordered a used copy through Amazon and started it last night…

…the main character bakes something yummy every day and it got my taste buds going; which is why I was measuring out various dried fruits and dark brown sugar at 11pm! I made a strong brew of earl grey tea, then left the sugar and fruit soaking overnight for a tea-loaf….

The oven was on by 8:00 and by 9:00 the kitchen smelled gorgeous with the scent of ground cloves.

As the oven was on it seemed sensible to roast some vegetables to go with couscous, a bit of bacon and a little creme fraiche for lunch…

Then, because it really was cosy in the kitchen with the radio playing and me sipping my new blossum earl grey (lovely orangey flavours) I made a casserole with the contents of my fridge: beef, aubergine, carrots, onions, red pepper, tomatoes and some herbs….

Now all this cosy kitchen stuff has to stop because I’ve got to do the not-so fun stuff on my list this afternoon, but I will look forward to a nice warming slice of tea-loaf!