French Knots

End of term feeling

And breathe.....! The pell mell rush to the end of term is over, school fete went well ( it rained on us from 8am till 3pm but people still came) leavers disco, Year 6 production, Infant production, Infant sports day, two birthday parties, two birthday teas, visiting the new secondary school.......all we need now is the sun to return so we can relax and enjoy the hols. The day they imposed a hose pipe ban it started raining and hasn't stopped in the intervening three weeks.

This little rascal is growing fast, has just moved on from open mouth style kisses to squeezed and pursed lips, happily delivering kisses left right and centre. Of course you can never have too many snuggly buggly kisses.

He is sitting on my £2 charity shop find

Random flower shot, wonderful colour and papery petals.

Pre rain I grabbed a few minutes with wine and crochet in the garden, enjoying the table that Mr FK renovated. The top was a bit warped and wonky so he replaced it with an old school bench which, cut in half, was the perfect fit.

So now the summer hols stretch before us, no mad morning rush to find pe kits or a recorder, no school pick up or homework. We are off to Cornwall, near Looe, where I hope we will find some sunshine. Or at least no rain. It's about 25 years since we holidayed in Cornwall, I'm not sure why as it is such a wonderful part of the world and I'm really looking forward to it. I've made miles of bunting to decorate the caravan awning and got the picnic blanket at the ready! Happy summer!   

Sunny stripes

Isn't this lovely weather amazing, eating outside,playing in the pool, lollies and 99s, rubbing suntan lotion into little necks and still warm strawberries fresh from the plant. It so good to wake up to sunny skies day after day.

My stripey cushion is finished and backed with another felted jumper in a cheerful cherry red, I'm going to learn how to do a little picot edging next time to give the cushions a nice finished look.

Once the cushion was done I couldn't wait to start something else.....

fiddling about with the balls of colour is half the fun isn't it, deciding what looks right together.The colours are a bit bleached out in this picture for some reason but it's a pleasing autum collection to make one of Dottie Angel's ordinarily extraordinary blankets, squares crocheted in strips and joined with a pretty lacy effect stitch.

I think that it will take me a while to do as I'm using DK but by the time it's finished it will be autumn and the colours will be just right.

I enjoy simple crochet like this as it is so easy to pick up and put down, do a little when time allows and find a few minutes peace in a busy whirlwind day. A perfect way to soothe a frazzled Mama with a little creativity. Even better when sitting in the sunshine.  

Summer time

This was how I spent the journey home from Norfolk, using Bella Dia's Vintage Vertical Stripe Pattern

just whizzing back and forth in pinky blue hues, eventually it will be a long, narrow scarf , a project that I can pick up and put down.

Isn't the arrival of summer wonderful, life has a happier feel, people smile more and meals eaten outdoors seem more enjoyable.

 The first crop from the allotment! Luckily the slugs didn't spot the strawberries! Some goosberries and pea tops, delish! I'm struggling to get down there often enough to water but am happy to accept some losses and smaller onions than my neighbours! There are only so many hours in the day and I want to enjoy my visits there rather than it becoming a chore.

Hope your weekend takes you somewhere wonderful! 

Lovely things

I managed to find time while we were away to visit Vintage Home and Garden a wonderful duck egg blue shop full of delights.

Lovely picnic rugs, ribbons,cards, candles and smellies are complemented by vintage fabrics, wooden rulers and a host of temptation calling 'take me home'!

I abandoned the family, well left them to look at the farm shop, and had a lovely mooch. Seeing some of

Snapdragon's  work was like spotting a celebrity! Wonderful applique in such perfect colours. Do call in if you are passing.

I managed to get a couple of crochet cushions made to make the caravan more cosy

Mega grannies, backed with felted jumpers in some cheapo acrylic so it doesn't matter if they get a bit grassy.

Very pleased with them and have started a stripey cushion too, oh yes addicted to my new love!

Sunny Spring

The garden and allotment are bursting into wonderful spring life, sunny days and rain showers are encouraging everything to grown like mad.

Poppies ready to burst open with vibrant blooms

 
Oh yes, the weeds are romping along too! But very pretty and photogenic!

I've squeezed in a little sewing, recycled jeans become a little birthday present backpack, just right for summer.

And now it's half term so of course it's raining! Hopefully the sun will come out later so we can try out the new play equipement in the park. We are off to North Norfolk soon in the caravan staying on the Sandringham Estate, I'm really looking forward to some relaxing days and tasty BBQs. It's not an area we've been to before so please let me know which villages are the prettiest,which beaches are good for paddling or which shops I should visit with my holiday spends! Amanda Makes says we mustn't miss Wiveton Farm Cafe and having looked at their website I can't wait to visit.

I'm risking another dose of crochet finger! Grannies are so quick and easy to do I couldn't resist creating some squishy cushions for the caravan and next I want to try Attic 24s Granny Stripes. I bought some cheapo acrylic yarn in some wonderful colours and will be able to granny along to my hearts content. Hopefully it will grow as quickly as my weeds! 

Typical!

A whisper from the end, well about 10 inches,

Very last row of the border, very last row of the blanket.

Pah!

At least the aching little finger will get a rest, but still...Pah! 

Busy days

The Baby Brother is on his fourth cough and cold combo of the year and getting teeth number 7 and 8 as well, poor little lovie. Roll on germ free summer days!

I have sustained a craft related injury - crochet finger. As I've been working like a dervish on the ice cream blanket my little finger has stiffened up, I've been using it to control the tension and it seems to have been too much work for such an underused part of my body. Not that the rest of it gets much exercise!

 The Granny squares have been joined to make larger squares with a border of three colours round them

and I'm just finishing of a border round the whole blanket, one row in each of the six colours. It's lovely and cosy having it on my knee while working on it. Once the border is finished I'll just have seven hundred thousand loose ends to sew in! I'm really pleased with how it has worked out, my first crochet blankie.

I've squeezed in a bit of sewing too, some coasters for a present

some old french ticking that I got at a textile fair years ago and have been saving....for what I'm not sure but as coasters don't take up too much fabric I still have plenty left so didn't come out in too much of a cold sweat when cutting into it!

My Little Helper had us in stitches the other day, The Big Sister is a huge JLS fan and he delighted in telling her it stood for Just Losers Singing! The fact that we all chuckled just made her even more annoyed!

Lovely sunny day again here, while The Baby Brother is napping I'm going to tidy up the garden a bit and enjoy the smell of spring in the air.  
 

More crochet....

I ordered more wool for the ice cream granny square blanket from Colourway as they had all the colours I needed in stock. Delivery was really quick so I got hooking again, joinng the squares to make larger squares

 with a border round each. I'm not sure how quickly the new wool will get used up with joining and edging so the plan is to join and edge the squares I have made so far and then make extra grannys to form new blocks of 4. So the finished size will be decided by how far the wool goes. I love the colour mix, so cheerful and bright.

 My tension is improving I think and most of the grannys are more or less the same size. Will blocking work as they are knitted out of cotton rather than wool? I tried just catching the ends in under the sets of trebles but some have come loose so I'm going to sew them in instead, after all this work I want it to last. I've got half an eye on my next project, have you seen the James Brett Kool cotton? It's only £1.50 per ball and comes in a good selection of colours and would make one of Vanessa's amazing Little Squares Scarf.  

It's a lovely way to spend the evenings; woodburner crackling, hook in hand, watching the Winter Olympics.  Skeleton, bob sleigh,ice dance, curling and the cool snowboarders doing actobatics I'm enjoying it all!

My new love

Ah crochet, how I love you! To have taken so long to discover your hooky goodness, how many years wasted!

My first project, the ice cream granny square blanket is on hold as I've run out of wool, luckily the jumble sale came up trumps with a carrier bag lurking at the bottom of a box - inside were 5 balls of wool, 50p well spent I think.

 There was just enough cream to edge each square and I used some spare cream from my stash to join the squares together using  the  Attic 24  joining tutorial which gives a lovely flat finish.

 I love the way it grows so quickly, I took it with me this week to the garage while my car was being fixed ( long time readers will remember I now have a Scenic, not a pale blue soft top Beetle anymore, and it is a functional rather than a loved car) as the dashboard broke! Digital display, here one minute gone the next! Apparently it is a fault with them, oh well that's ok then, silly me expecting the dashboard to last the lifetime of the car! Anyway I sat in the waiting area grannying along, which passed the time quite nicely.

 

So - addictive, portable, fast growing, colour combination playing - crochet I love you!

ps. Is anyone else having trouble with Bloglines? Some blogs don't update, then 4 posts update together. I've emailed them but of course they haven't replied. Uusually when a feed isn't working properly it gets a little red ! but none of them have this time.

By George....she's got it!

I have been thinking of learning to crochet for ages and this week the stars aligned

Pip over at Meet me at Mikes has spent ages putting a set of lessons together so even a total beginner can learn how to do a granny square, there are detailed written instructions and videos to follow so you can't go wrong! So I've been grannying like mad!

   These are my ice cream grannies using some cotton handknit that I bought ages ago, it's nice to use but some of them are a bit wonky and the ' holes' seem quite big. I might use a smaller hook than suggested next time to see if that helps and hopefully my tension will improve as I make more of them.

  So THANK YOU Pip!! That's one of my goals for 2010 underway and it's not even the end of January yet, the other goals of improving my health and fitness - well I've still got 11 months to work on those!