Wooly Brained

I've some crochet to show today. I have absolutely bombed through the Granny Stripe blanket and have only 6 more coloured stripes to do, and then its just blocking (will have to read up on that, I think its just washing and pulling into shape?) and the border to do.

But I just couldn't resist having a start at my next project - a hexagon blanket pattern here Its great fun to start something new and a nice easy pattern too, although I must admit to being a bit apprehensive about all the joining I am going to have to do, last time I tried that it looked a holey mess!

Here are my lovely hexagons lying on top of the almost complete granny stripe, pretty!

And finally my rolled up Granny, wish I could take better photos!

Back to Routine

God I love Christmas I really do, I love socialising and seeing family and friends, I love our annual Boxing Day afternoon in the pub, seeing all our mates and going back to someones for food. I love Christmas food, all those little snacky things and dips and everything. But I am so ready for some routine today, no visiting, no snacky foods, proper routine and proper food again.
Today is the first time I have done something crafty in days and the first time I have scrapbooked in about 2 weeks, let me tell you that itch needed scratching!!! From about the 27th I started to get the urge and yesterday I was almost squirming in my chair to get my paper and scissors going!

You would think wouldn't you that after all that I would knock out a page naturally, no such luck it seems my mojo is still firmly living it up in full party mode at someone elses house!! All my new crafty things to play with and nothing doing! But I am not to be beat and so I finally made a page that I am happy with (All about the knitted going ons at our woods - see post below!) Unfortunaltey my camera does not like this page and I could not get a decent photo but here it is in all its not true to life glory.!

Loads of misting and painting going on, love the messy look to it!! I got so much new paper for crimbo and was dying to get stuck in but that wasn't working for me this time, so paints and mists it was!

If you go down to the woods today

You're sure for a big surprise!



Our local woodlands have been yarnbombed



Little piggie boots!




A snail on our big old fossil




Stars in the trees

My favourite bit of all - the Nativity Scene, very impressed that this is still all here!

There was many more that I could not take photos of as my memory card was full, but the gate leading out of the woods had a lovely knitted jacket on that had a tag with a website address http://www.socialknitworking.co.uk/winterwonderland which explains all about it.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve late afternoon walk trying to find all the items on the trail.

Merry Christmas

Poor Bruno, he's obviously dog tired after all the shopping and wrapping he has had to do recently. Father Christmas had to work around him!




Have a Happy Day everyone!

Gingerbread House

Yay its Christmas Eve - I think I love Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day, I love the magical feel to it, tracking Santa, visiting people locally, the hustle and bustle all about, hanging up stockings and leaving out treats for Santa.



I love Christmas Eve tea, party food, ham, dips and a nice port and lemon (although I have been partaking of these most of this week!)

I still get excited and can't sleep, its not about what I am getting its about the kids and their excitment and also its about seeing family and the lovely get together we always have on Christmas Day.





Yesterday Jessica and I (Joe was not interestered) made a gingerbread house from a kit, something that we've not done before. OMG that thing was tricky, like trying to make a house of cards, the blumming thing fell down so many times I was really getting my hair off with it! Eventually I managed to constuct the blummin thing and handed it over to Jess for the decorating, she spent about 30 mins on it and is very proud of her house.

I want to say MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my readers and followers and thank you for all the comments you leave (I love to read comments!), hope you have all got where you need to be, are in good health and enjoy this festive season.

P.S There is something strange going on in my local woodlands, but more on that next time.

Learning to Crochet

Ughhh the weather is not nice at the moment, cold and rainy. I took the dog out for a walk at 8.15am this morning and it was so dark outside, it was really eerie and wierd feeling.



I scrapped again today, using Decembers Scrapagogo kit, its not coming naturally to me at the moment, but I have to get back into it so I forced myself to sit in my cold kitchen (its not cold but it is the coldest room in the house) and just get on with it





And here we have it! Jessica has been eager to learn how to crochet and she aint half bad, its very sweet watching her concentrate. And now I am off to do some more on my blanket it is currently 30 colours or 60 rows long, its really coming along!

Va Va Voom

So the party season is upon is and in full swing, My Christmas meal is on Saturday, the pub lot are all going out for a meal and a band and although organising it has literally been hell on earth (there have been tears) I am now really looking forward to it! After all the crap I have been through with this night out, it had better be good!

I bought myself a glam top a few weeks ago but eeeek it is a little on the tight side, so today Jason took me to town so I could have a look for a dress. Dresses are hard things to buy don't you find? I need it bigger up top and smaller down bottom, however I have got my dress and its v glam and sexy and mega flattering, makes me look slim and everything so I am well pleased. Here it is on the moody model (I will try to smile) Its also golder on top IRL not silver like it is in this pic (would have prefered it to be silvery I think)



Scrapping wise I have not done much as I am still using most spare moments crocheting my granny stripe, however my lovely Scrapagogo kit arrived on Monday and so I spent a quick 90mins whipping up this, its not photographed in the best light but hey ho!

A Blankety Taaaadaaaa and a new beginning

Morning everyone - hope your weekends were fabby?

I actually finished my ripple on Friday afternoon, after a couple of weeks of fairly intensive daily crocheting. Jessica LOVES it and is very pleased with it.

Here are some stats:

I used about 7 1/2 balls of wool so around 750g

There are 42 Coloured stripes or 84 rows of crochet

Each coloured strip took between 1.5-2 hours to complete

I've been in such a rush to get this finished for 2 reasons, I really wanted Jess to have it for Christmas and whilst it was still cold weather - the rate I was going it was going to be spring before it was done!

And most importantly I was DYING to get started on a granny stripe blanket, so first thing Saturday morning I was down the wool shop (and the pound shop, which are excellant for cheap acrylic wool) for lots of different coloured wool and I have spent pretty much ALL of the weekend granny striping away using this fabby pattern Attic 24 Granny Stripe

Its a fantastic rhythmic pattern, once you are past the first couple of rows you are away and you really can happily hook whilst watching the telly and just let it flow



I do struggle with the randomness of the colours, I like co-ordinating shades or colours that repeat often so going all random is hard for me, but the bigger it gets the easier and the better it looks!

This lovely blanket crochets up so quickly its around an hour for each coloured stripe, so its really easy to say 'just one more'

The dark purple row is bothering me, but I think once I repeat it once or twice it will look like it belongs more and will hopefully 'pop' out in a good way - we will see.

We wish you a merry christmas

Isn't this christmas tree cut file the cutest? Fiddly as anything though! My Craft Robo is still after almost 2 years on its first blade and so with the intricate details on this it struggled a bit, which meant I have spent far to long this morning brandishing a craft knift to cut out bits here and there!

I'm off out tonight for a drink with Mandy, not been out midweek for ages so it will be a nice break for me. It does mean that I have to stop fart arsing about with Christmas cards and get my 2 rows of crochet done because I won't get it done tonight unless I take it to the pub with me and I think that may earn me some funny looks!

I love Noel

The word that is!



For some reason I always choose Noel as the greeting on my cards, its just so much easier than a long greeting to fit on the card.





I knocked these up today, I am definately going to stick to a more graphic style of card, its just much more 'me' and I am really pleased with these. They took a while to construct mainly because I've had a couple of arguments with electrical items this week and have ripped my thumb nails off in the process so getting the back off the foam pads was a Loooonng job!

ETA: I just showed them to Jason and he looked at them and said "Who's Noel?" and then "are these for the people you don't like" to which I replied "yeah thats why you're getting all four of them!"