January Blues

This week has plodded along nicely, the weather has been unsurprisingly cold and wet!  A few 'to do' jobs have been ticked off & we got new carpets in the bedrooms, staircases and hallway, oh I do love the smell of new carpets!

The triangle blanket is coming along brilliantly, as I suspected, once I had a few rows under my belt, I no longer had to concentrate intently on what I was doing to make sure I got it right, I can literally let my hands get on with the work while I watch tv or have a conversation!

One thing that I discovered, not so much to my surprise is that attempting to squeeze a spot of crocheting in while trying to entertain my wee girl, who this week has managed to catch a cold & is especially in need of extra cuddles & lots of comforting feeds from mummy is almost impossible! But when she takes a nap & I have managed to rush round the house tidying up like a mad woman, I can sit for a short time and enjoy a moment of crocheting.

This week, because of the awful weather, I took some time out to crochet up a few gifts for a friends daughters birthday. I thought I would first of all make a few hair accessories using butterflies and flowers which I could then attach to hair slides or toggles. 

Because they are so small it takes literally minutes to run up these flowers and butterflies and additionally they are an ideal project to use up all my odds and ends of wool I have left over.

The butterflies were especially easy to make, its simply a 4 petal flower with a length of yarn wrapped in the middle to make the body and voila, a butterfly.

I've been trying to sneak in a little crocheting when ever I can and set up camp on the living room floor

But, it's no easy feat when I have a budding assistant eager to get her hands on all my balls of wool. 

Anyway, I eventually managed to make a small handful of flowers and butterflies and glued them to some hair slides. 

I also managed to quickly make up this dollies blanket as well. It's just a granny square that I just continued on going round and round and round till it reached the desired sized. Should be just the right size for a dolly. 

In a bid to try to inject a spot of colour into life, I have brought some tulips and potted a few primulas. This time of year always feels so glum and bare. I'm longing for the evenings to stay lighter for longer and be able to take off a few layers and expose a bit of flesh!!!

Oh well, mustn't wish my life away. 

Be back soon xx

Back in the Land of Yarn!!

Well I say back in the land, more a fleeting visit, a brief excursion, the smallest of stops back into a place I love and enjoy! Of course the reason for my short visit comes in the shape of daughter number 2, who, like her sister before her is apt at fighting this thing I once called sleep!! Now sleep is something I visit even less frequently than I do an afternoon with hook & yarn but, dare I say it, even whisper it, I think we've turned a corner, shhhhhh!!!

At the tender age of only 7 months, daughter number 2 has scaled down her nightly wake ups from a staggering 6+ to a more manageable 1!!!! This, after only these few short months feels like a mini miracle, I literally skip into her bedroom when she wakes for a feed sometime around 4am, telling myself I feel as fresh as a daisy for having the pleasure of sleeping a whole 5 hours uninterrupted and if I can get her fed & back to sleep in half an hour, I might even get another 2, that's 7 hours in total, like a normal person!

Now because I feel slightly more 'with it' and can manage a conversation with my husband past the hour of 8pm that doesn't include the words 'is it bedtime yet', I have started back enjoying a few hours of crocheting - YAY!!!

I've started a project that can be done a little at a time, a blanket made up of triangles! I got the idea from a blog called Get Hooked on Crochet and I intend to make a least one triangle a day. I am using the join as you go method and until I get a few rows under my belt, following how to do this involves a lot of concentration from me!! 

For a change, I'm using a cotton yarn.

 I like trying different types, my favourite to date has been using the Rooster wool I used for making my first baby blanket but a cheaper alternative that I find easy to use and comes in a great range of colours is Stylecraft DK which I used for my eldest daughter blanket.

Rooster Wool

Stylecraft DK

Fortunately, this cotton yarn was very reasonable, in fact, it was given to me by someone who just couldn't get on with it. It is made up of several strands and it has a tendency to split apart easily so very often the hook doesn't pick it all up and your work can develop loops of missed strands if you are not careful. 

Apart from that, I love the colours and fancied making up this blanket to see how it turns out.

I'm only a couple of rows in but still managing to make more than one triangle a night.  The intention is to make the blanket over the course of a year so I will report back regularly on its progress. 

The beauty of knowing that I can take my time with this project is that I can fit in doing other pieces as well. I've so many ideas in my head right now of things I want to get started on that I don't know where to begin!!! 

I shall be back soon with an update on my blanket & other stuff too.

xx

Welcome 2014!

What a year I've had, I have neglected this blog some what and hope to rectify that this year. In all honesty, 2013 has been a busy one, having my second daughter and moving house all within a short space of time has exhausted me, simple things like crocheting or reading a book have all been put aside in a bid to try and catch up on much needed sleep and trying to get the new house in order.

I thought though, to inspire me to get back some 'me' time, I would take a look at what I have achieved in 2013!

Theres has been a bit of hooky love!

Lots and lots of baking!

And enjoying the great outdoors, whatever the weather!

All in all, it's been an great year, busy, tiring, emotional, daunting and hard work at times, but also it's been wonderful and enjoyable to see my family grow.

Wishing everyone and great 2014 and I promise to be back soon.

Yarndale 2013

Yarndale, what can I say other than I loved it loved it loved it! At the sight of all the long queues to get there, I knew it was going to be great. In fact, when I finally got to the front of the line of traffic I was met with an exhausted car park attendant who looked fraught to say the least. Sadly he informed me that the car park was now full and I would have to find an alternative parking place!  Anyway, apart from the slow start, I finally arrived and it was worth the parking hassle. There was colour everywhere, a complete transformation from the usual Cattle Market. Strings of crochet bunting strung from everywhere, it was crazy!!!

An absolute riot of colour and yarn everywhere you looked! It was on the walls, hanging from the ceilings, in every conceivable nook and cranny, crochet, wool, pompoms, tassels, beads, buttons, flowers, the lot! And of course, the lovely Betty the Sheep, the mascot for Yarndale itself. 

Each stall was an Aladdin's Cave filled to bursting with such incredible displays of colourful skeins of yarn, I just wanted to touch them all, they were all sooooo soft. Row after row of stalls all offering something different. Everyone had put so much though and effort into their displays and everyone was so helpful and happy to spend time chatting about their products. 

I spotted these Attic24 crocheted houses and thought they were lovely. They were created by the talented 'hooker' at Little Tin Bird.  Her blog goes into detail about how she created these houses, I think they would be great as wall art, I know my daughter would love it in her bedroom.

Aside from all the lovely wool for sale, there was also the kind donators of some of this wool, including angora rabbits (soooo adorable and surprisingly MASSIVE!!) and also very cute alpaca's 

My daughter even managed to get her mitts on one of the baby bunnies, it was so soft and really snuggly, well, so she tells me, she wasn't letting go and so I didn't get to hold it for myself!

The alpaca's were incredibly gorgeous!

And the buttons, wow, I love buttons and there was a huge assortment of different types. I especially loved the ceramic ones and the bone ones. 

Right in the heart of all the stalls was the Knit & Natter Lounge, this is based on the cafe Lucy at Attic24 visits to drink frothy coffee's and crochet with like minded friends, I think every town should have one!!

Inside it was adorned with all the wonderful and colourful pieces created by Lucy at Attic24 and the lampshade from one of her recent posts was also there. I couldn't help feeling that her house must really be feeling a little less colourful without all her pieces of hooky magic brightening the place up!

Such inspiration everywhere I looked. These 3 blankets had to be some of my favourites, I couldn't even begin to imagine the length of time it must have taken to finish each piece. 

Aren't they incredible?

I wish I had the skill and patience to complete such a mammoth blanket, one day maybe!

I loved loved loved the colours, very close to nature I thought, almost autumnal don't you think?

All in all, it was a lovely day. There were so many people there and so many things to look at and try. My daughter enjoyed the kiddies corner and made herself a pompom monster! The hall with all the bunting looked amazing and the 'market stalls' with it's crocheted wares were brilliant, there are some really talented people out there. I can't wait for next year and hope it is blessed with such lovely weather as well. One thing I will remember to do though, will be to take the train!!