Just a quicky...

Oops, almost forgot to put this little lady up! My little girl has started flicking through my crochet books whilst I'm working and making requests. Some are on the backburner- "for Birthday/Christmas darling"- but this one I started in our caravan and finished last week.
She sat waving, waiting for Madame to come back from school and wasn't she a nice surprise! The excitement lasted about two minutes before requests came for more.....sigh.

Potty about Pots- Part 2!

Oh what a saga these pots have been! They were supposed to be for my Dad's 60th birthday in July last year... A tad late I know.

I had booked into three separate day courses to make, trim and glaze the special gift (as my parents have been collecting stoneware for as long as I can remember). The first day went swimmingly with three beautiful pots made. The second day a month later was cancelled and the third day, a month after that, I had to pull out of. Thankfully, the lovely Jane from Sidcup Adults College rang to say she would happily find a spare work surface during one of her weekly courses and show me how to glaze the pots. So after holidays, illnesses and trying to find childcare...I got back into the studio today!

I spent a relaxing hour dipping my pots into the glaze (which is ground up glass) and cleaned off the bottoms and edges so that they wouldn't stick in the kiln. Jane will try to get them fired before next week but they may have to wait until the next set of courses.........in JUNE.

So Dad, you may be getting your pot in time for your 61st but don't hold your breath!

Back from the wilderness!

Hello Peeps! Did anyone out there miss me?? I've just come back from a 2 week break in the Forest- of-Dean (pronounced "Far-rist" mostly) and, boy, did I miss my Wi-Fi. There was no signal for phone or internet in our little caravan which made catching up with friends and family particularly tricky. I had to use a pay phone- it's surprising how strange that felt...


Anyway, I took a whole bag of wool and patterns to work through but got very little done I must admit as, by the time the girls were down and we had eaten, it was way past 9pm and we were only good for a short read before turning our sofas into a bed again.




The joy of a teeny caravan! There's a certain Ballet that needs to be performed for every little task where both of you are looking after bouncy bundles of energy and trying to move around a small space. It normally involves one doing baby care whilst other is standing doing washing up and cooking and entertaining big sister with lots of swapping around. So getting out and about was definitely the key!



One of my highlights was accidentally coming across a craft group on the one evening we had a drink in the pub. I must admit that I gate-crashed these lovely ladies in "The Fountain" in Parkend and probably looked a bit crazed as I was having hook withdrawal symptoms. They politely listened to my wittering and I came away refreshed and eager to get my hooks out when we got back and settled for the night. Thank you Ladies! I'll be back in the Summer if it would be alright to say hello again?




I did manage to make these two little dears as gifts for my friend and her little girl- A Snail finger puppet and an owl from my lovely "Fa La La Felt" book which I'm really pleased with. Hope everyone had a lovely Easter break x

Waste not, Want not!

I made 2 little baby cardi's when I was pregnant in the summer which ended up as gifts to others as my little cutie was too big to fit into newborn sizes! This was my first attempt at the pattern after a 6 month break from crocheting.

I used the English Double crochet stitch instead of realising that, as it was an American pattern, the stitches needed to be changed! It ended up too long, too airy and not wide enough to do up. It almost got unraveled but instead I tucked it away.

I pulled it out the other day and realised that size-wise it would fit my little girl now and only needed a few changes to make a light Spring cardi.

I used my leftover Sirdar Snuggly to lengthen the sleeves and add enough width for the cardi to do up.

The buttons were on sale at John Lewis and are so sparkly and sweet.

The tiny flowers are just:

1-Chain 4 and SS into a ring

2-x6 SC into ring and join with SS

3-Chain 3 and SS into next stitch 6 times

4-Fasten off

When my little angel wakes up, we'll try it on!

Week 8 Decoration- Felty chains again!

I've finished!! I know it's Wednesday but I couldn't post it uncompleted when I was almost there. I LOVE it and it was sooooo worth the effort. I must say, I'm a dab hand at blanket stitch now. You kind of have to after almost 2 weeks of work.

I loved stitching each chain by hand although I would consider using my sewing machine for a quicker gift one next time. I might come back to this another day...

Week 7 Decoration- Felty Chains!

Wow! It's Thursday already and I'm late, late, late darn it! I only started this project on Saturday and was holding off until Tuesday evening to get a bit more done when my laptop decided to develop a glitch. No Internet for 2 days was surprisingly stressful which is very sad really. I didn't realise just how much I pop on to check up little things. My iphone is even worse as I constantly have to answer those pointless questions that pop up every day.
Like: Who's the voice behind Sally from "Nightmare before Christmas?" (It's Maureen O'Hara who was the stepmother in Beetlejuice who did the possessed crazy dance at dinner!) Oh, and Danny Elfman -who seems to write music for everything- wrote the score for the film and

sang the part of Jack Skeleton... You see, pointless really.

Back to the project now. This felty paper chain was an idea I found on

http://paper-and-string.blogspot.com/p/tutorials_01.html

I've been eying it up for a while and decided to make it a two-week project. My husband looked at all the strips I cut ready and promptly declared that it would take me forever. But, as usual, just by doing a little bit each night the chain is growing nicely. I think sometimes people see these projects as too much hard work, but all crafters know that spending your time doing something you love where you end up with something to treasure is so worth the effort and time.

I'm loving it so far, especially using contrasting colours for the blanket stitch. It means my blanket stitch is really improving as wonky stitches look a little naff. I'm not aiming to decorate an entire room but make a length to go along the top of my dresser. I can't wait to see how it will look next week!

Am I stock-piling too much??

I've just looked back at my Blog to date and realised how much I have made since January! This is a GOOD thing except that I seem to be stock-piling. Under my bed is a growing number of boxes gradually being filled with gifts for the future- it's becoming an obsession.

You see, I'm going back to work in June and I know that time will be pretty much filled with everything else. So my boxes are my way of getting my crafty projects ready for when they are needed.

1- Christmas box

2- Birthday box

3- Baby box (there are 3 due in my extended family this year....sigh)

This was enough but now I'm adding a fourth! Katie's birthday in the Summer term always seems to sneak up on me. Frantic buying and baking always leave me flustered and, as Katie wants a few friends from school this time, I thought I would start making bits for pretty party bags. I know I will never have the time later in the year and I want these gifts to be unique, valued (and cheap- I plan to make the bags as well!)

So, number one for the bag is:

I like to stick to the "rule" of children's age= how many children to invite. So, there are six sweet cupcakes- Five for her guests and one for herself as she has been eying these up for a week now! I wonder which one she will pick?

This pattern is available on Ravelry free from Hannah Kaminsky

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/quick-cupcake