On the hook.

So I just thought I'd show you what's on my hook at the moment.

I decided to have a go at a tote bag. I've never made anything like this before and I'm really enjoying it, but I think I would prefer a larger one really.
So I'm using a totally in your face (colour wise) chunky yarn. It's blue with spots of colour all over.
I've completed the bag part which consists of a mesh like bag with single crochet (US terms) at the top.

So I still have to make handles for it and sew it up.  I tried to get a close up of the mesh and top parts, but my phone camera doesn't do macro very well, so it's a bit blurry I'm afraid.

The thing that made me smile with this a bit though, is that it's out of a british book, using UK terms and here's me from the UK, converting it to US terms to work it! haha. 

The other thing on my hook at the moment is a cowel type scarf, to go round the neck twice hopefully!

It's a lovely pattern, although I have no idea of the proper terms for the stitch pattern as it was from a youtube tutorial and the girl doesn't know stitches etc.

Anyhow, I'm really enjoying this pattern alot.  If anyone knows what it is, please can you tell me?  It's a double crochet stitch, but you go either in front or behind the the DC stitch in the row below.

Again I tried for a close up of it, but my phone doesn't have a great camera really.

I'm really enjoying both these right now and with using the larger hooks it seems to come together alot quicker than usual.

I can't wait to pick these up again and get going on them, but sadly the ironing is calling me right now. SIGH!

Hope to have more updates soon.

Take care everyone.

:)



Finished or frog it?

So the ripple is slowly growing.  I added a lilac and a burgandy after the green yarn.  I wanted to do 2 rounds of the burgandy and got almost to the end of the second one, but there just wasn't enough.
I guess that's the thing with just using your odd balls up, you can't be sure of whether there's enough for what you want to do or not.

Anyhow, I frogged the last round and have now added a black lurex chenille to finish the ripple. I quite like it.  I wasn't sure there'd be enough for two rounds of that either, but I JUST did it with only a tiny bit of yarn to spare.

Now I quite like the black chenille on there, Steve doesn't.  He thinks it all looks too dark now and that I needed to lighten it up a bit and keep things bright, colourful and cheery looking.

So here's where you come in. I would really appreciate HONEST opinions. 

I don't mind if you think it looks awful, I just want to know.  I don't get many comments generally, but I would really like it if you would please take the time to let me know your opinion on this.

Actually thinking back to not quite having enough of things, well that's been the story of my life today. I made a shepherds pie and a lasagne and it was so annoying.
I had got these two larger dishes than I normally use, to make them in for todays meals, but totally forgot this meant I had to make more than usual to fill them!  OOPS!

So the poor lasagne was somewhat lacking on the topping sauce and the poor shepherds pie didn't have the depth of mince it would usually.
Thankfully they taste ok ... But GRRR, how typical of me! 

 

Lasagne.

Looking a bit sparse in the sauce dept!

Shepherds pie.

 

So thin! Could have made double the depth if I'd only thought about what I was doing.

Ah well, at least I won't be making that mistake again.  Hoping to either do some more on the pink thread doily tonight, or I might even start something new ... unless of course I'm sat here frogging the chenille off the ripple!

:)

Clashtastic!

Back on with my ripple again at last!  It still seems to need encouragement to flatten, but once flattened it stays in shape.  I'm wondering if it's the yarn.  It's all double knit wool oddments but I noticed some are crepe. So maybe that's why?

Anyhow, here it is again.  I've put on a really bright sort of aqua green against the purple rows ... talk about CLASH'tastic! LOL. I must try to get a proper picture colourwise so you can see just how clashy it really is.  It's almost like that it's SOOO bad, I just love it! But anyhow, it all adds to the interest (I hope!).

And with my WIP basket on top

I'm not sure yet how many more rounds to do. I don't want it too long on there, but as I said before, I do want it draped over, so a bit of a way to go yet, but not too much more probably.

I'm itching to get back to making some granny squares though, I just love working them.

I made a little more progress with my thread doily again. I'm on either the last or next to last round of that, but I had to leave it as my mum is prodding me to finish her round dishcloth pronto, as I told her she can only have them once I made both and they're a 'set'.  I love making these cloths!

I found my car scraped in the car park. I was pleased no dents at least! Anyhow, I managed to polish most of the scrapes out and get off the black residue. Just one small chip left that I touched in with my paint stick.



I only thought to take a picture half way through getting the scuffs off, but it gives you an idea.

All polished up and painted ... feeling much better at last!

Can you just make out the tiny painted chip on the rim?



Also, I got a picture of my mum's tapestry, which I thought I could maybe show you updates on every now and again.





I rotated the picture so you can make it out, but now the room looks the wrong way round behind it! haha. My photography skills are SOOOOO bad!

Anyhow, I'm off for a quick browse round your blogs while I eat my lunch. So I can catch up with all your doings!

Have a good day everyone.

:)



Quick update

Another dishcloth!  This one is made from sugar and cream twists cotton yarn.  It was nice to work with, but I think I prefer the peaches & creme, which is a shame as they're no longer in business.
Anyhow, I made a ribbed, thick dishcloth, that should last well, hopefully. I am going to make a round shaped one to match and give this set to my mum.   Here it is folded in half.

I've done a little more on my pink thread doily.  It is VERY ruffled looking and I just hope that it will block into the shape it's meant to be!
Anyhow, here's where I'm at with it so far.  I'm just starting round 9. There are 11 rounds to this pattern.

I don't have an update on my ripple, I've not really picked that up these last few days.  I must get back to it though. I really want to see it completed.

I found a 100g ball of crochet thread in the charity shop today for 49p, so I was very pleased with that.
It's a nice green shade (the flash has lightened it a bit) and should be useful either on it's own or for use with flowers/leaves type work.

Hope things are good with all of you. We have some sad times here right now.

Take care everyone!

Playing hooky!

Well I'm meant to be working and doing chores around the home but somehow I find myself playing 'hooky' and updating my blog instead.  Ooops!!

So last night I tried the ripple over my box for size ...

It's 28 inches point to point and although I don't want it completely covering the box, I do want it draped over it somewhat!  So I still have a way to go yet with it.  It seems to be puckering up a bit in the middle until I flatten it out though, so I don't know if that's normal for this type of blanket or if I'm doing something wrong?
From reading others blogs I've realised this is a 'scrap' ripple, because I'm just using up my wool oddments.
I like this ripple pattern though and I've now seen it in thought out colour schemes as well and it looks amazing, rather than thrown together like my little offering.
I'll have to show you all the lovely wool I now have in that box as well, it's like a little treasure trove!

I also started another thread doily last night. It's a little rippled as well, haha, but at least these do flatten out nicely.  I must try to block it this time as well.

Size 10 thread and 1.75mm hook.  It's a bit bigger than the hook I used last time, but it seems to be coming up nice still.

My mum has got back to tapestry after putting it aside and just having no interest for well over a year. She has a big picture of the Mallard, so she has started working on that. I'll show you how she's doing with it when I get chance to take a photo.

Anyhow, hope all is good with all of you!

:)

Obssessions.

Isn't it funny how in the world of crafting we get obssessed with things and then onto something else. At the moment, incase you haven't guessed, I've become obssessed with crochet!  I think because I'm so shocked I can actually do it now.

Within this obssession for the last few days has been an obssession to make dishcloths! Yes, I really did say that ... DISHCLOTHS!
I had no idea you could get yarn to use for dishcloths and also the shapes you can use as well! I have become educated on these things and have churned a couple out which are doing pretty good for me right now.

This is the first one I did. Like a peach and a cream varigated 100% cotton yarn.

Then I tried the doily shaped type. I just couldn't get my head round the thoughts of this being a dishcloth. To me, dishcloths are oblong/rectangular ... that's all I've ever known a dishcloth to be.

I'm now educated into knowing that the doily shape works equally as well as a dishcloth!  :)

The two together to show you the sizes.  They are both made with 100% cotton yarn.  I like working with it. It stitches up nicely.

The obssession continues .... Another dishcloth I've made. This one has a ruffled edging.

Then I added a doily to this to make a matching set. I've given this one to my friend who gave me all the yarn. She loves it thankfully. :)

Oh and on the bargain front. We had to pop out on Saturday and a quick dash into the charity shop got me these, £3 for the lot!

Crochet yarns, assorted beads in a box and a cross stitch spectacle case kit.  :)  

My round ripple is growing, albeit slowly at the moment.  I can't wait to finish this though and get it over the box, I really hope it will look good.

Please excuse my mum's tapestry wools! She was sitting working on her tapestry while I was crocheting my ripple. It's growing. I forgot to measure it point to point, but I'll measure it next time.

Hope all is well with all of you.  I am hoping to catch up on my blog reading tonight so I can see what you've all been busy with.

Take care!

:)

Stash overload!!!

I popped up to my friends today to take her some sewing threads.  She has alot of wool stash (along with her other crafting stash ...haha aren't we all as bad as each other with our love of all these lovely crafts) and so she generously said she had some I was welcome to.
So while I was there she produced two carrier bags full! I wasn't expecting anything like as much as this!

First some crochet thread, as she has decided she isn't keen on thread crochet.

Then all this yarn!

The orange one is so soft!  But they all feel nice.

I don't know if the colour is right for you, it looks a bit navy blue on my screen but the large ball is a deep purple.  See in the bag, the lighter green varigated ... it's a 50% cotton, 50% acrylic.  The darker varigated is baby yarn and really soft!

This is the weirdest yarn! It's called fur and is all 'hairy'.  I think it would look good as a scarf maybe? But please feel free to make suggestions as I've never used anything like this before.

What an amazing gift to give ... she said she has ALOT more yarn stashed away, but how lovely of her to think of me and just give it to me like that!

I'm just totally overwhelmed by her kindness and can't stop looking at it all.

:)

Round ripple!

Life has got in the way of blogging and doing alot craft wise this week. My mum isn't so well, I'm running Tom around alot. Joe has had a portion of the bible he needed to practice for a reading and we have a friend (in his 70's) who lives down south but has decided he wants to move up near us. This means we are then all near and can  look after him etc if needed, but for now can all spend more time with him.   So we are trying to look round for properties that might suit his needs.

So I haven't got round to kitting up the stitching I intended to, but I have been crocheting still.

I'm making a round ripple blanket type thing, to go over the box I keep my yarn scraps in.  It's just oddments of yarn as it's bits I've been given or picked up in the charity shops. I don't have yarns I bought for specific projects at the moment.

I'm really enjoying doing this, I can't wait until it's big enough to thrown over the box. What do you think of it so far?

At the moment it measures appx 21 1/2 inches, point to point, but I think it's going to have to grow a fair bit yet still!
The two blues on it are different colours, the one nearest the bright pink I'm working on at the moment is more of a greyish blue. 
I still can't quite believe I'm able to crochet now, it's so much fun!!

:)

Doilies and a sabbatical.

We had 28 friends in the end on Saturday, it was a busy but really good day. We had a buffet and everything went well. Felt absolutely shattered after, but a happy kind of shattered.  :)

So as well, recently, I've been changing things round a bit in the house and cleaning. It makes you feel a bit 'new' almost when you change things or have a clear out don't you think?
One bookcase in the hallway upstairs now has ornaments and doilies and feels much more me!

Speaking of doilies I made a couple more.

This one should have another round on it, but I liked it like this.

It's only a small one. Didn't take too long to make either.

Then as an experiment, I got a skein of varigated thread. It's a bit thick for cross stitch. I have divided it up and used it, but it doesn't stitch up well, so I decided to try and crochet with it.

Of course, in fairness, neither of these have been blocked, so they aren't looking at their best. But anyhow, I showed Steve and he said it looks very nice, or would ... in someone else's house! LOL

Well, I guess it's pretty weird looking really.

I have been looking to store my crochet hooks and came up with the ideal spot, right next to my chair.  I'll have to show you my little corner soon.  At the moment I only have these pictures, showing how I have my hooks nice and handy to me.



Can you spot them, in the little vase type thing?  It's on a little unit, next to my chair.

Nice and handy for me, but I'll get some pictures to show you my little cosy corner soon.


You might have noticed (or not) that I haven't posted my weekly weigh in.  My head just isn't in the zone right now and I'm just mucking around and not getting on with it, so I've decided to take a sabbatical from dieting for a bit and try and get remotivated.  I'm only talking a little break, or else I just won't get back on it. It's just a chance to regroup myself and get ready to tackle the issue again.

I'm really enjoying crocheting as you can probably tell, but I've got a couple of stitching patterns I want to do as well, so I hope to get kitted up and start on them and hopefully even have something to show you soon-ish.

Well, that's all from me at the moment, hope all is well with whoever reads this,

Take care

:)