Late Summer Sun

Isn't the weather in the UK lovely? I'm sure I mentioned it didn't look like we were going to get an indian summer but it seems I was wrong. The weather is glorious and we are making the very most of it and spending lots of time outdooors.
We are also eagerly awaiting the laying of this lady's babies. She's an amber coloured garden spider who has taken up home in the ferns. She's big, beautiful and judging by the size of her abdomen she's nearly ready to pop!
I hope you have a happy, sunny day where you are!

One a Day Project - Tuesday's Tallies

I feel like I've made lots of progress this week on my Sunny Spread, but really all I have done is another seven squares and I've joined the first 16 squares together. I think I needed to join that first block together to get a feeling for how the finished blanket will look and also to give me an idea of how many of the 'blocks' I need to do. Originally I estimated nine but I think 16 might be the magic number. I also wanted to see how far one ball of the off white yarn would go and one ball does one complete block of 16 with a little bit left over.
I'm looking forward to seeing all your progress today and I hope everyone is still feeling motivated. We now have 302 members on the Ravelry group and if you haven't joined yet, please do!

So time for the fun bit! If you would like to participate in 'Tuesday's Tallies' please add your details below, remembering to use your the link for your post rather than your blog. You don't have to leave a comment (although it's very lovely when you do!) and it would be great if you could visit some of the links too. If you are participating please could you link back to this post :)

FO Friday!

What a busy, tiring few days it's been. The two little ones came down with colds on Tuesday, which led to not much sleeping on Tuesday night, followed by a nightshift on Wednesday night. I needed something fun and quick to do yesterday to help keep me awake :) so out came the needles and I made a little bunny, using this pattern from Rebecca Danger. He's tiny, teeny tiny! I used brads for his eyes and nose - not ideal but they work and Imogen, my eldest daughter, has adopted him!
The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug and I used 2.5mm needles.

Please do go and have a look at some more FO Friday posts, which you can find on Tami's Blog :)

New Yarn

I am seriously addicted to buying new yarn. I have loads of it tucked away in various cupboards and baskets and yet still the lure of new yarn is always strong. This week's new yarn is Annell Rapido from the wonderful Yvestown. I ordered 20 balls and a few were relagated to the 'not quite so keen on the colur in real life' pile and this was what was left from the 20.
I have absolutely no idea what this little selection will be used for - maybe another granny stripe or perhaps a round ripple? If you have any ideas I would love to know :)

The postman has just been with another little parcel of mini skeins but I shall share those with you another time...........

One a Day Project - Tuesday's Tallies

It's Tuesday again! And I'm rather embarrassed that I haven't blogged since last Tuesday. It's been a funny week here. Settling back into the school routine is taking longer than I thought and three school runs a day and working has really eaten into my hooky time this week.

I fell behind with my One a Day squares last week, but managed to catch up by the end of the week and now thanks to work and tiredness I have fallen a little behind again. I had 11 squares done last week, so really I should have 18 to share today, instead I have 16. So my plans for today are to catch up with the squares and also to join together the first 16 into one big square.

So time for the fun bit! If you would like to participate in 'Tuesday's Tallies' please add your details below, remembering to use your the link for your post rather than your blog. You don't have to leave a comment (although it's very lovely when you do!) and it would be great if you could visit some of the links too. If you are participating please could you link back to this post :)

One a Day Project - Tuesday's Tallies

Another week has flown by and it's time for Tuesday's Tallies again! Firstly, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone of you who took part. I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed (in a very lovely way) by the enthusiasm of you all. For a little moment, I was worried I would be here on my own and I'm so glad I wasn't. I had great fun whizzing around every one's links - I hope you did too.

I'm keeping it short and sweet today. 11 blocks done, many more to go!
So time for the fun bit! If you would like to participate in 'Tuesday's Tallies' please add your details below, remembering to use your the link for your post rather than your blog. You don't have to leave a comment (although it's very lovely when you do!) and it would be great if you could visit some of the links too. If you are participating please could you link back to this post :)

Decisions and Babies

I've been pondering over this post for a few days now, trying to decide where to go with the Year of Projects. I'm not really sure that 'committing' myself to set projects for a whole year suits the way that I am. I quite like to dip my toes in and out of projects and I'm finding 'The List' is playing on my mind a little more than I would like it too. So, I think the best thing for me to do is carry on as I was before 'The List' and relieve myself of the stress it's causing me. Phew, there I've done it - and already I feel so much better :)

On a similar note, I've also tidied up my Ravelry Projects Page and removed a few things here and there. It's all feeling very cathartic here I tell you!

The One a Day Project is going well, early days I know, but so far I've produced one block a day and I'm still enjoying the pattern which is good! I treated myself yesterday and as I had completed my block AND another stripe on the Ripple, I cast on a Honey Cowl. I'm using Debbie Bliss Andes and so far, so good, no eye flair up. BUT, here's the exciting bit. I have finally found a hexagon pattern I love. I've tried the Hexagon Tutorial from Attic24 and I tried The Apairy Puff but neither really got me all excited. You, know, that all consuming must do more excitement you get when you have found the right project, surely it's not just me that gets that? So here are my Baby Hexagons......

Oh they are so cute! So quick too - 10 minutes from start to end, including sewing in the ends. Perfect. The pattern is from Bunny Mummy and you can find her little tutorial here. I'm using Rowan Belle Organic DK, which is just the most lovely yarn and a 4mm hook. I'm going to be whip stitching them together and I'll just keep going until I've used up all seven balls.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I hope we don't all get blown away!

FO Friday! My Saroyan Ta-Dah!

So, here it is, my Saroyan Ta-Dah! I've loved working this pattern, so simple yet so effective with the leaves at one edge. The yarn, well, what can I say - it's beautiful, the colour is divine with it's gentle and subtle hues, it's soft and an absolute dream to knit with - but oh boy has it caused me no end of trouble. After much thought and discussion, I think I can safely say I am sensitive to lanolin.

So would you like to see? I thought you might! Here it is in a scenic garden shot! I say that tongue in cheek, due to the lopsided lamp, the chicken coop and the parasol in the background of the shot! I didn't plan that one very well did I? Try to ignore the distractions and you can see Saroyan in all it's glory, end to end......
Now, I did try very hard to get an action shot, but the current eye troubles mean I'm not a pretty sight and make up is banned until they return to normal so the best I can provide is this......
I would just like to take a moment to sing the praises of blocking. When I finished this it was a curly wurly heap of yarn, yes it was pretty, but oh so curly wurly. Blocking has relaxed the curly wurly fibres and left me with smooth silky stocking stitch and leaves that are just crisp enough in the definition. I know most people know the benefits of blocking but seriously if you haven't done it before, don't be frightened of it, just do it.

For those of you that visited yesterday and were slightly bemused by the Patons sign. Shall I explain a little. The Patons bollard is part of a collection of little art works all relating to the town where we live. For years the Patons factory was here in Darlington, I think from 1947 to 1978, hence the 'tribute' in my local park. It is ripe for yarn bombing isn't it?

ETA - I've had a couple of questions about my Saroyan, firstly the yarn is Madelinetosh Sock in shade 'Isadora' and I did 10 increase/decrease repeats and 15 straight repeats on 3.25mm needles. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can wear it without the eye flair up. xXx

Look what I found..........

You can't begin to imagine how excited I was when I spotted this on the way to school!!!! It's a bollard that appeared over the summer holidays in our very local park...........

One a Day Project - Tuesday's Tallies

So, here we go, the first blog post for the One a Day Project. I'll be blogging about the One a Day Project every Tuesday and hosting a 'Mr Linky' so that anyone else joining in with the project and blogging about it too can join in the fun! I am keeping my fingers very tightly crossed that it works!

The original idea of the One a Day Project was to pick a larger project and work just one element of it everyday until it's finished. There was such a lot of interest in the idea of 'One a Day' that I started a Ravelry group which you can find here. I'm loving that because it's not a tradition KAL/CAL people are using the group to work on all kinds of projects and it's so much fun seeing what everyone is choosing to use the group for. I'm really delighted that we have 220 members is just over a week too. Please come and join in if you haven't already!

So onto my project, I'm sure you all know what my project is but as this is the first of the 'Tuesday's Tallies' I thought I would just give you all the details again. The project I have chosen is Sunny Spread and my goal is to make a blanket large enough for our king size bed. From today I will work one of the individual squares everyday. Once I have four squares, I will join them together so I have groups of four. I'm using King Cole bamboo cotton yarn in lots of different colours to make the circles and then using off white to edge them all.
I have one more ball to add to this selection, which should be here soon. The very pale one on the left is actually a really nice shade of pale blue, which obviously doesn't photograph so well!

I know my 'official' start date is today, but I've been busy working up one group of four so I could see how it looked. Would you like to see?
It's square in real life I promise! I've joined the squares together with a slip stitch join and then done a row of double crochet around all four blocks. I've blocked it very lightly, by pinning it so it's square and popping a damp cloth on the top.

So time for the fun bit! If you would like to participate in 'Tuesday's Tallies' please add your details below, remembering to use your the link for your post rather than your blog. You don't have to leave a comment (although it's very lovely when you do!) and it would be great if you could visit some of the links too. If you are participating please could you link back to this post :)

Sometimes.......

Being three and a few months is very hardwork and sometimes it's impossible not to grab a blanket from the settee, lie on the floor and go to sleep.

New Things

I mentioned on my last post that I was taking all of the children shopping for new shoes, it wasn't as bad as I thought. The children were well behaved and there were no real tantrums over the choices, although Imogen was very close when George almost got a pair with toys in the heels! The older two got boring but practical black school shoes but I couldn't resist these red ones for the younger two. Pippa has grown lots since her last pair and this gorgeous red pair are her first with proper soles. Obviously she won't be walking outside much at the moment as she is still so little but it's always such a milestone when they get their first pair of 'proper' shoes. Katherine went to bed in her shoes! I was at work and Rich said he went up not once but twice to remove them and when I came home in the morning she greeted me in her PJ's and her shoes!

My eyes are still bothering me, so I think I can probably exclude the Madelintosh yarn as being the cause of my troubles as I haven't been working on it much recently. I visited the chemist the other day for some eye drops or some cream or something to help ease them but he refused to help and said I needed to go to the opticians and the Dr's. I went to the opticians yesterday and I am now waiting for the lens for my new specs. They are only for driving and watching the TV so I got the cheapest pair I could and fortunately they had smaller frames as I have such a tiny face/head glasses often make me look like a bug of some kind! IF I can get a photograph of me wearing them that I am comfortable with sharing with the world, I will let you see them 'in action' when they arrive!

So the next stop is the Dr's, which I will do sometime next week. I'm feeling generally 'yuck' at the moment anyway so I guess I can discuss that too. I was anaemic during my last pregnancy and I've also had problems with my thyroid levels before so I think they both need checking out again.

Finally, before I go I tried my hand at The Apiary Puff, which is the crochet version of the Hexapuff for the Beekeepers Quilt. It took me at least two hours to make so I've named it The Forever Puffle, because it's going to take me forever to make a quilt with them!

Have a happy weekend xXx

August

August has whizzed by in a flash and here we are in September already. I haven't done as much crochet or knitting as I thought I would get done and I still have lots of WIP to finish. We've had lots of fun this month, with trips to Harrogate for the Sky Family Fun day and Lightwater Valley for rides on the roller coasters. And yes for once, I've included a photograph of me in my monthly mosaic. That's me on the bottom right after having my face painted, I promise I don't look like that on a day to day basis!!!