Dish Cloth Swap

Back in June I signed up for a dish cloth swap over on Kimberley's blog Creative Chaos.

I was partnered with Louana from NZ Green Buttons.

Here is what I received from Louana

A bright and colourful tea towel

A beautifully made dishcloth.

Some handy kitchen gadgets.

And here is what I sent to Louana, I added a few extras as I a little (a lot) late sending out my parcel.

I wanted to make a stripy dishcloth in bright colours and after getting into a bit of a tizz with my original dishcloth pattern, it just didn't seem to like my cotton yarn, I decided to use one of my favourite stitches to make this stripy dishcloth. Oops, it seems in my rush to send my parcel I didn't actually take a picture of my dishcloth but I used this pattern to make a bobble/popcorn stitch dishcloth. Hopefully loan too a photo and will post it on her blog. 

I also made some flower coasters,

using this pattern, in the same colours as the dishcloth. These were really easy to make up and I even managed to make some whilst watching Tomas' swimming lesson.

And finally I made use of some vintage patterns I had in my studio and used them to wrap all the gifts in my parcel.

Thank you to Louana for being a wonderfully patient swap partner and to Kimberley for organising another super dishcloth/mug rug swap.

The Tale of the Lost Duckling

A little while ago my daughter Rachel asked me to make something duck themed for a friends little boy's first birthday. After lots of searching on Pinterest and Ravelry I found this sweet Just Duckie Lovey by Lisa van Klaveren and set about making the duck.

 I haven't made any 3D figures before so this little fella was a baptism of fire and once I got my head around the pattern terminology he didn't take long to finish. I popped him on top of the TV cabinet and made a start on the blanket part.

I just couldn't get to grips with the ripple stitch in this pattern so I replaced it with Attic 24's ripple pattern which crochets up beautifully and quickly. 

In order to get the present finished (I was behind schedule as we were renovating the garage at the same time) I took it with me to Tomas' swimming lesson one Sunday morning and as happens when you crochet/sew or knit in public I was soon deep in conversation with one of the other mum's about crochet and crafting in general. Cue the end of the lesson, I grabbed my crochet hook, wool and half finished blanket and popped them in my oh so lovely plastic carrier bag, (note to self - make a pretty project bag as plastic bags just don't cut it!) and made my way to the changing rooms to meet Tomas. Later that evening when I was finishing off the last rows of the blanket I took a look in the bag for the duckling to find that he WASN"T THERE! A frantic search of the living room began, was he hiding behind the sofa cushions, had I put him in my stash box, where on earth could he have disappeared to??? 

I honestly can't remember taking him to the swimming pool with me but that was my last resort so I messaged the swimming teacher and began my message with "I know this is going to seem strange BUT, you didn't happen to find a small crochet duckling beside the pool did you?" The swimming teacher replied without the hint of a snigger or laugh (although it is hard to tell in a text message) "No, sorry I didn't", and because it was a Sunday there wouldn't be anyone at the school where the swimming lessons take place so I had to wait until the Monday to find out if I had left him there. I rang the school office first thing on the Monday morning and asked for the caretaker who kindly said he would take a look for me and didn't seem at all phased by my question "Please can you have a look and see if there is a small yellow crocheted duckling in the pool?"
An hour later the phone rang and the caretaker was back on the line, YES he was there and none the worse for his little overnight adventure. Would I like to collect him from the school office he asked, "Yes please", I said, "I'll come straight away, thank you so much". Apparently finding my little yellow crocheted duckling made him smile that day and perhaps he will tell his family of the mad woman who crochets whilst her son swims and forgets to take her projects home. Next time though I WILL double check that I haven't left anything behind.
And as for the duckling, he was finally sewn onto his blue ripple lovey and belatedly given to the birthday boy!

A giveaway win....

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my bargain charity shop find hexagon quilt. It was interesting to hear that some of you recognised fabrics from dresses that you wore in the 70's and the memories behind the girl guide badges. How amazing that a quilt an evoke so many memories and hopefully after its been cleaned and repaired it will continue to give memories to our family too.

I hope you are all keeping well during this horrible weather, I'm am still very much in hibernation mode and as much as the rain is awful we have been very lucky in this part of the country with very minimal flooding and my heart goes out to those badly effected by the floods.

We have seen the sun several times in the past week and boy has it made a difference and although it is still pretty nippy out there we did manage to venture out in the garden to clean the car.

The snowdrops 

and the daffodils (standing like soldiers)

seem to think that spring is just around the corner - I do hope so!

So do you want to see my giveaway win??

Back at the beginning of January PJ over at The Snail Garden celebrated her 6th blogiversary and decided to hold a giveaway, I was lucky enough to be picked out as the winner.

On friday my giveaway win parcel arrived and this is what I found inside.

How cute is this teddy bear label.

and lovely neat handwriting too!

and inside was this beautiful and delicate crocheted doily.

 Isn't it beautiful,

intricate

and stunning!

PJ also included some very delicious all butter shortbread biscuits and some tasty twinings tea.

Thank you so much PJ I have now found just the spot for the doily and will share a photo of it very soon.

Mini Tote Swap & Crochet

Thanks for all your embarrassing parent stories I'm glad that it's not only me who is embarrassing their kids!

This week has been a painful one as I trapped a nerve in my back and is been giving me a lot of gip!!! I had lots of plans of trying to blog daily in December but because of my back I haven't really felt like sitting in front of the computer too much.

But with Paul playing nursemaid and dishing out the painkillers and anti inflammatories I'm feeling much better. Today here is Chelmsford is has been a snow day with both schools closed so we have stayed wrapped up warm indoors. we did venture out for a short while but brrr it was nippy out there!

Now I've started writing  I feel that I have so much to say that this could be a very long blog post, so I think I might have to blog again tomorrow...anyhow...

A little while ago I signed up to Quirky Hannah's Mini Tote Swap. I was partnered with Claire who tweet's under the name of Claire E Poppin's over on Twitter. The idea was to find out your partner's likes and dislikes and send a mini tote to them, well Claire really spoilt me as she not only sent me a lovely biggish mini tote but I also received some gorgeous fabric, a pretty necklace and some very tasty Mr Broon's (which i initially thought were toffee but they turned out to be delicious fudge (nom! nom!)

a close up of the wonderful quilted panel

and the inside which is lined is a beautiful green and blue fabric.

Thanks Claire for being a brilliant swap partner I love my new bag and all my extra goodies too.

I completely forget to take a photo of the bag that I made for Claire so hopefully she will take a pic or two and I will be able to show you but I went with her love of all things Chihuahua!

I've decided to use this bag for my latest crochet project....

which take me nicely on to my next subject

Mum (I love the fact that that when she leaves comments on my blog is says Mum - i had to check first to make sure it wasn't my Mum!!!) over at Mum's Simply Living Blog mentioned at the end of November that she was going to be doing a crochet Christmas advent countdown, with the idea of crocheting Christmas trees (last year it was snowflakes) each day to make a lovely garland to hang up on Christmas eve. Now I always up for a challenge even if I am very busy but i thought it would be nice to crochet them in the evening in front of the TV. Well I have to confess that I haven't quite managed one a day, BUT i have managed ONE!!! (don't laugh I will try and catch up) I haven't even got a photo to show you yet but hopefully I will take a couple of pics tomorrow and show you if I have made any progress.

If you would like to join in then pop over to Mum's blog where there is a lovely pattern to follow, they are quick and easy to do, I just need to be a bit quicker!!!

Okay having said all that there is probably just enough time tonight to make another tree so I'm off to find something to watch on TV and to get busy with my hook.

Tomas' Blanket....

As promised here is the wool that Tomas chose for his ripple blanket

and here is the cardigan that inspired his choice!!!

and I've just realised that I haven't got any yellow wool, I can't remember whether we (the shop lady and I that is not Tomas) decided that the yellows were not quite the right shade and so we opted for more cream or if i just forgot???? - I feel another trip to the wool shop coming on!!!!


Anyone have any tips on random crochet?????

February Makes

I obviously didn't give myself a hard enough kick up the bum as its been over a week since my last post so its time to get the steel toe capped boots out!!

Although I haven't been blogging I have been busy making, some of which I can show you and some of it I can't as it is for swaps which haven't been received yet.....

Half term for us last week was a quite affair lots of lazy days, staying snuggly and warm inside, with the occasional day out. Rachel had the busiest week with a trip to the zoo and a meal out for a friends birthday and this is what I made as presents for the birthday girl...

A drawstring wash bag

A make up pouch with showerproof lining

 I was really pleased with how this turned out as I made it up as I went along using the very last bits of this fabric that I have..

 Rachel and her friend have a bit of a joke thing going on with Iggle Piggle so I made this lavender hanger with some In The Night Garden curtain fabric that I have, it's kind of cute isn't it...

I'm going to put these in for the February Makes on Annie's Monthly Make Challenge and must remember to add them to the flickr page this months makes are being hosted by Natalie over at the Hungry Hippie

I've also been getting on with my crochet, which needed another trip to the wool shop so that I can finish Rachel's ripple blanket and also to start another one for Tomas. It was Tomas (aged nearly 4) who on the second day of half term asked if we could go to the wool shop so that he could choose the wool for his blanket, so off we trundled on the park and ride bus and into the wool shop we went where we picked up the extra supplies for Rachel's blanket and bought lots of lovely wool in blues, greens, browns, creams, a little berry red, a little tangerine and a little yellow. He choose these colours because he has a favourite cardigan which is cream, blue, green, orange and beige, so I'm hoping that the other colours will brighten it a little, it all sounds a bit gaudy in the list but I will take a photo tomorrow to show you all. I am also going to try random stripes (says the person who doesn't do random!!) we shall see how that goes or doesn't go as the case may be....

We left the shop much with a huge bag of wool and he even let me go into two charity shops before getting completely bored and saying "you go in and I'll wait out here" that's men and shopping for you, needless to say we left the charity shops rather sharpish and headed for the bus stop taking the long journey home for added bus riding excitement!!

Sunday was by far the sunniest day of the half term holidays and we enjoyed a day in the garden (sorry no photos as I was far too busy) clearing leaves, branches and twigs which Paul put on the bonfire, what is it with men and bonfires, ours seems to be permanently alight. The garden is now looking a lot tidier but there's still lots to do now that the weather is starting to get a bit nicer.

So far this week I have been able to spend some quality time sewing and I have been busy making for swaps so once they have been received I will post some pictures.

Okay I think that's enough for tonight if you have managed to get this far then thank you and enjoy the rest of you week.

Crochet Ta Dah!!!

I was supposed to post this at the weekend but better late than never eh!!!
I've finished my first crochet blanket, I used the ripple pattern from over at Attic 24. This is my first completed crochet project and I finally finished it on Saturday night whilst watching Big Brother, I then left it on the sofa for Jack to snuggle under whilst watching Wales play Fiji at 6am!!
 
It was obviously a good omen as Wales triumphed with a big win!!!

I used some Bonus Dk as this was my first project and I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I am a project hopper so I didn't want lots of expensive wool sitting in bag for years (I would never do that!!!). The wool was lovely to crochet with and is surprisingly soft, so now it's onto the next project a blanket for Rachel - more ripple or a granny ripple I can't quite decide?? but I do have the wool already.....

Thank You

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone that left a comment about my learning to crochet and yes lots of you are so right, I do think it is something I will need to practice before attempting a big project. So it's going to be little and often with the hook and yarn for me....before I jump in at the deep end to make one of these..

This lovely blanket was made by Red Gingham and if, like me, you find that a busy life, husbands, kids, dreams and desires mixed with blogging sometimes makes for a hectic life then pop over and have a quick read. I think it sums us all up at sometime or another - the general juggling of life and how to handle all your balls at once!!! and with all the pangs of guilt that comes from being a wife and mother!!!

hope you all have a great day

P.S Justine - yes I have found attic 24's blog but i wasn't sure how to follow it as it is a typepad one - any advice as to how i do this would be greatly received!!!! and then I can sit back and swoon over her lovely creations!!!

I can crochet!!!!

I seem to have been AWOL again this week, I always seem to be busy but not necessarily in a crafty way!!! Tompom has dropped his daytime nap so that means daytime crafting has dropped to zilch although i have managed to do a small amount of crafting on my swaps in the evening. Bex and El over at Stuffed Nonsense are being ever so patient as I am terribly behind with my A Little Bit Greener swap. I'm also on the PTA committee at school and its coming up for the summer fayre so I've been busy selling advertising spaces for our flyers!
It hasn't been all work and no play though as on Wednesday though I had a fab day learning how to crochet. I attended a beginners crochet course at Franklins, met some lovely people and brushed up on my skills. I had only ever been able to do chain stitch as a child and lately have been coveting all your blogs on granny squares and flowers, so when I saw this one day course I thought I would grab the chance to learn some new stitches. The picture below is not what I made (I wish) but what we should be able to make once we have acquired our new skills.

Sandy our teacher for the day took us through the basics of holding the yarn correctly, and initially I couldn't decide whether to crochet left or right handed, but finally settled on holding the yarn with my leading left and the crochet hook with my right hand. We then practised our chain stitches before progressing onto double and treble chain stitch.

Above is one of the lovely ladies that I met on the course and hopefully we will all be back in July for the next course to learn more stitches and catch up on what we have been crocheting..

Here's just a couple of shots at my first attempts, I really used the day for practising my new skills and perfecting the tension in my stitches as I found that the first row was the most difficult to get right. I chose a lovely shade of green for my wool but can't decide whether to make a bag or a scarf, think I need a bit more practise first as I my work keeps decreasing at the end so I think I'm not crocheting the last stitch...

I did find a beautiful crochet book as some inspiration for the future and it's on my Christmas wish list, although I may just have to borrow it from the library first , just for research - obviously!!!!