She loved it!!!!

 So last night I took the neck warmer up to my friend and she loved it!!
I was so pleased I'd made it for her.
She is into knitting and crochet, sewing and card making, so in short, she loves to craft BUT she said because of that no one ever makes her anything, so she was thrilled to get this.
She loved the basket weave chunkiness of it and said it was lovely and neat.
So all is good!!

Here's something I wanted to ask others who knit and crochet ... do you check your gauge?
Now I have to admit that's something I NEVER do!!!
Not for anything. So I'm curious as to whether anyone else does. And if you do, do you think it's worth it? Does it make any difference??

I now have a lovely pair of chunky warm fingerless gloves. I'm so pleased with these and I love the little strap and button detail to make them look pretty still, even though they're so chunky!!
I used a glass button with rainbow colour's in it and I think it sets the dark purple off beautifully.


Button detail

So I'm currently working on a scarf or cowl.  It's not definite what it's going to be actually as I've unravelled it three times already!! 
I just start something and then decide it's not quite what I want ... hope I get it finished soon as I have other things I'm itching to get on with.

Take care
:)

Neck Warmer

One of my friends has throat problems and she often has to wear a scarf indoors in the winter months even. So I decided to make her a neck warmer in the hopes it would be a nice change for her.
I made it in a 50/50 cotton/acrylic mix, so that it won't make her neck sweat but also did it in a chunky basket weave stitch, to make it cosy.
I hope she likes it.

I'm now working on a pair of chunky warm fingerless gloves. Lovely and warm, so hope to have those finished soon.
:)

Never been so pleased....

... to see the back of something!!!
haha.
Yes the dreaded grey jumper is at last finished!!!!!

Here it is on my eldest, fresh off the needles. Steve tried it on when he got home from work and he was well pleased with it, so that was nice.
I've been undecided whether to continue the neck warmer or not. So now I can think about if I want to continue with it or unravel and start something different, BUT at least I'll no longer have that grey jumper staring accusingly at me from my work basket.  I'm free!!!!!!

Can you tell how happy I am about it?

:)

Catch up time.

 So I've been pretty busy since I last blogged.

Steve has been getting moved about and didn't know what was going on at work half the time.  He finally decided to go for another job, which meant he would lose everything, benefits, years of service, the lot, but would at least be in a job he liked.  So he had an interview and is waiting to hear, should hear late December I think.  Meantime, he get's moved again to a position they want him to stay at and finally he feels happy in it!!!
So we'll have to see what happens now.

It was our 25th Wedding anniversary in September and Steve and I had a long weekend away, just the two of us.  It's the first time we've been away on our own for 20 years, so it was a real treat.  We went to North Yorkshire in a cottage and it was lovely!!! :)

We then had a family week away as well in October, as we had some Tesco vouchers that we had to use or lose, so we booked a caravan for the family.
It was our first break away for 4 years and we really enjoyed just being together with no other pressures.

Craft wise, I've been working on the dreaded grey jumper and am now at the point of doing the neck and then sewing it up... pictures to follow!!

I was given a heap of very pink wool. Very pink!!   What to do with it?  I decided to have a go at crocheting a sort of small throw thing for the chairs and sofa.  I have completed the sofa one but Steve says it's too pink for him and too busy with the cushions as well .... what's your opinions??? Be as brutal as you like, lol.

I'm holding off on the chair backs now as we are seeing whether we can live with this one or not.
The photo doesn't do the pinkness of it justice, it's REALLY pink!!!  LOL

I've been disappointed with the dishcloths I made.  They hold up beautifully, but the colour faded on the first wash.  I used peaches & creme, beautiful shades and very difficult to get hold of over here, so I was pretty fed up how the colour just went, as that was the point of buying it, the beautiful shades it comes in.

Anyhow, I read and read until I came across someone else who had found this a problem and they suggested setting the colour with a mix of vinegar and water.  So I have crocheted some new dishcloths and this time set the colour (hopefully!!!) by means of this method.   I'll let you know if it works or not!!

I made the first one in a shell and post pattern, the plain yellow is a basket weave and the bottom one is in a half double crochet pattern.

Well blogger insisted on putting all the pictures in a heap at the top of this post, so I've been busy copying and pasting as it wouldn't allow me to move them!!  I'm obviously doing something wrong, but for now, hopefully they'll stay where I've put them.

I'm now working on a neck warmer, but I can't decide if I like it or not, so that might be getting unravelled today, we'll see.
I hope to be back soon with the finished jumper to show you, but meantime, I'm going to have a look and see what you've all been up to. Take care!!

:)

Feels like forever!!!!

Is there anyone still out there?

It feels like forever since I last got on here and such a lot has gone on and is still going on with my life.  I feel like it's never going to be normal and settled again, so I decided to just come on and at least blog now and then when I can.

Brief version ....

The house saga continued for some time ... but at last we are in the process of getting the front room put back to normal. We got held up though as we are mid way in the process of moving our friend up from Devon.  We went down and stayed at his and packed all his home up, then brought him back up with us.  This weekend we hopefully complete on his new place up here and can move him in.
It will take time to get him in, unpacked and sorted.
We took him out to buy some things ready for his move, but he's naturally impatient for it to happen.

At home, we are halfway to having a front room again as I said. We still have most things packed up round the house, but once we have Dave in and settled I look forward to getting back to this house!!We have been doing some work outside and have 3/4 of a patio laid and also been getting on with the decorating.  I now have carpet in the front room, hall, stairs and landing. Such luxury!!! It's been 16 years since I last had a carpet, so you can imagine how I'm loving it!! haha.
Steve and I had to sell our cars and now are sharing one between us, I can see it's going to be his car though, as he really enjoys his car ... it's his hobby really.

Steve's job has been really stressful and to the point that he is now having problems when really under stress with his sight!  He has to see a specialist as he seems to have floaters, but strangely they get worse when the stress gets bad.
I don't know what will happen workwise with him, but he is getting in a bad way with it.

My eldest son has been suffering health problems and is under the DR. That's on going and is a worry at the moment.

All my craft things are still packed up but I hope to get out something and make a doily or something for Dave's new home. So hopefully I will have at least a little something to show soon!!

Enough of me now though ... I'm going to try and catch up on some of your doings ....

Take care everyone

:)

Anybody out there?

Hello! Anyone remember me?

It's over a month now since I've been on here. I'm wondering if there's anyone out there still or am I talking to myself! haha.

Nothing happening on the craft front at the moment as we're still plodding on getting the house sorted.
The insulation is OUT! but what a mess it caused. It took two days but at least it's done.
The house looks like it's got measles ... on two sides. Here's a view of one side.

So not only have we got the inside to sort out, but all the outside has to be patched/ replastered and the repainted on both sides.

So then we had the bright idea that while we're in a mess anyway, let's just get a few rooms done at once.   So now we are working in three rooms! The front room, the kitchen and the hall, stairs and landing.

It's just like we have no home at the moment and that's why I'm not able to sit and do anything nice to show you.

So far we have decorated the hall, stairs and landing and are arranging to get the builders back to finish the work in the front room so that we can then get that decorated and the kitchen will hopefully be started soon as well.

There's been other things taking our time up as well recently, some good, some not so good ... but I'm HOPING that we can get things sorted asap, and get a home back and get back to normal!

If anyone's still with me, thanks for your patience and hope to get back to 'properly' blogging very soon.  Hope things are good with all of you and hope to catch up with all the lovely things you've no doubt been making as well, as soon as I can.

Take care!

:)

This and that. *picture heavy*

Heard back from the insulation company. They have agreed to come and remove it from two walls of the house, which means making holes in the walls outside and sucking it out or something like that.

They're coming on the 18th January, as they say can't come before.

They won't pay anything towards the work we are having done inside, even though we are having it done to repair the damp, but nothing back from the manufacturing tests yet, so can't argue the point too much until we know the outcome of that.

So for now we're just stuck as we are, all upside down with no comfy place to sit and worst of all .... my yarn and craft things are all packed AWAY, so as not to get messed up while the work was going on. *cries*
It was all meant to be over and finished by this week and ready to decorate, but now of course the builders are on hold as well until the insulation company is sorted. 

So I haven't been able to do much craft wise, so I thought I'd show you my lovely pets instead.

First up is our dog. We got her from the breed rescue when she was 18months old and when we took her to get spayed the vet discovered she has a very serious heart defect, which she would have been born with.  She wasn't expected to get much past age 3 at best. I'm happy to say she is now 6 much to their shock! She's a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and is mad but lovely!

We also have my mum's dog here with us most days as well, so it's a bit like we have two dogs really!

She's a cavalier king charles spaniel, who thinks she's a princess!

Then we have our hamster 'Jenkins'.

She's a dwarf hamster, winter white.

We also have a chinese hamster called 'Kevin'.

He's very sweet.

Sadly we recently lost two of our pets.

A roborovski hamster called 'Trevor'

And my beautiful budgie called 'Captain Jack Budgie'.

'Jack'

I'm going to get another budgie early next year once all the building work has been sorted out. I miss his lovely little voice and cheerful cheeps!

And although these weren't really pets as such, I thought it would be nice to show the butterflies we 'grew' from capterpillars.

They were fabulous and even when we set them free in the garden they stayed around and we could even get them back to our hands. It was a lovely experience.

Also ...

I have managed to do a little on the dreaded jumper. about another two rows of squares. I need to measure it, hopefully I'll be started on the V neck part soon!

Today though I was 'helping' Joe make a model. I'm not sure I was much help really but we muddled through and then his Dad sorted out some things we couldn't work out ourselves when he got home  tonight, so Joe can now carry on with it tomorrow.

It's a bit like meccano, but a cheap version of it. It's chinese and has no instructions, just a picture on the box and the parts numbered. It's a bit of a challenge for me unless I get step by step instructions. I'm not very mechanical really.

Anyhow, not the most interesting of posts I guess, but I wanted to at least blog about something while I'm waiting to reclaim my stash!!!

Take care everyone!

:)

The last ten days.

Ten days since I last blogged, but again I've had no internet and phone for about 6 days of that and some other annoying things added into the equation!

So last Friday I was on the phone when it suddenly went completely dead and all the internet went off.
Of course at first we thought it was talktalk again, but this time everyone was off.
Turns out to have been caused by thieves cutting through a fibre optic cable, thinking it was copper they could sell for scrap!

Thing is that around 8,000 phones went down due to this, but as annoying as it was to us, at least we still had mobile phones. The worry was people like pensioners who had nothing ... what if there was an emergency for them?
We don't know if it was a problem for anyone like that, but even so, it wasn't good!

Most people had their service restored by Sunday, but ours was still playing up and not working correctly. In the end we had an engineer out and they discovered the line into our house was corroded and had to be replaced.  Pure coincidence to have the problem at the same time, but meant a longer 'off' time for us.
We were back on properly by yesterday.

Mind you, things have been upside down here anyway.

Damp causing paint work to blister etc.

For awhile we have suffered damp in our front room. We suspected it was caused by the door and window, but couldn't afford to get it done.
It got so bad though that we knew we HAD to get it done. Got the builders in and they ordered us a nice sealed unit window, to replace the door and window as we suspected that might be a problem but once they started work, the true problem showed itself. 

The cavity wall insulation, which according to the company website will NOT allow water to to pass through and cause damp, was doing just that! Infact, it's completely soaked and can be wrung out in your hand! 
So now we are at the stage where the cavity wall people have taken some away to test, they say it's a manufacturing fault, but that they know already that no way will they accept responsibility and will come back with excuses. They are saying we should have let them check the insulation before getting the builders in. Our argument being, that if you are guarenteed that something WILL NOT cause damp but will in fact protect the walls and that even if water does get in, won't allow it to penetrate but will cause it to drain down the outer cavity, well then, how are we expected to have suspected that to be the culprit?

On tests it shows the problem is even worse further up the house in the boys bedroom but is draining down and so is only actually showing damage in the lounge.

So now we are left with only half the job done while the cavity wall people are deciding exactly what to do and unless they can pull some strings quickly, which they say they most likely can't ... we will be left like this until some time in January!

The builders can't plaster as the wall is too damp still.  BUT, on the bright side, at least we're watertight and the new window is in!

I have nothing nice to show with my yarn sadly, just an upside down house with no where comfy to sit right now!  :(

Fun  times!  Haha.

:)

Stash and other things!

Joe and I did some baking in our lessons yesterday. I made cinnamon apple crumble and he made flapjack, which I then put a white chocolate and yogurt topping on. To be honest it's made it a little too sweet for my taste and it could have done with a thinner layer!

I didn't think to get a picture of the crumble, but here's Joe's flapjack, or what's left of it anyhow.

We've each had some and we cut some off to give away as well. A small piece is lovely, but you don't want too much at a time, unless you really love sweet things.

Usually on a Monday we get together with another home schooled friend of his and we bake and do projects together. His friend is away this week though but we still wanted to bake! Last week we went to their house and the boys made cookies, some sultana and some marshmellow, they were yummy if slightly misshappen!

I also wanted to show you some stash I had bought for me. My mum bought herself some yarn on sale and got some for me as well. Wasn't that kind of her! :)  It's like 'fashion' type yarn I guess, so I don't know if it will crochet up well or not. Anyone else tried these before?

Sirdar fresco and Sirdar dune. I'm a bit doubtful of the dune, the fresco might be better. Anyhow, if you have used it, I'd love to hear about it.

Then I was out with my mum getting some yarn for my shawl (the one I previously showed you) and some for Steve, plus some purple yarn that looks chunky and warm, when she grabbed it off me, rushed off to pay for it and said she was under instructions from Tom, my eldest to pay for my yarn from him! I didn't know what to say, it was totally unexpected and so thoughtful of him. I phoned right then in the shop to thank him. :)

This is it, less 3 balls of the chunky varigated that I used for my shawl.

My shawl yarn. I have two left, not sure what I'll do with these now.

Bought this to do another jumper for Steve, it's cream with flecks of brown, light brown and green in it. After the grey, I feel he deserves a nicer colour!

Warm chunky purple!

I can't wait to get started with it all now though. I have a couple of ideas of some things I want to make but not really anything definite yet.

For now though, it's time for tea. :)

Oh and incidently, the tea cosy is now a perfect fit! It was a bit snug to start off with but now it comes on and off fine, without being all loose looking, so I'm really pleased with it.

:)





I'm back.

My laptop is back with me, new keyboard, motherboard (? some sort of board anyhow) and we're good to go! It's wonderful to be able to get back on with things and I'm thankful nothing was lost off it either as I hadn't backed it up. (oops)  Lesson learned ... it's now all backed up.

I've been pretty busy though while it's been gone. Life in general has been really manic recently, but in among it all, I'm happy to say I'm finding time to sit with my yarn and do bits still.

Remember the purple scarf I started?  I got this far before I suddenly realised that way, way back I had 'lost' a stitch and it was alot narrower than when I started!  *CRIES*

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I did try and think ways of disguising it before I realised I wouldn't be happy unless I frogged and redone it properly.  SIGH!

I felt much happier once I knew it was right. I had alot of the darker purple left, but hardly any of the light, so the tassles are all dark with only touches of the light, but I actually liked it like that once it was done.
I gifted this to a friend who is going through a hard time right now and am happy to say she seemed to be really pleased with it.


I made myself a warm shawl. It was a free pattern I found on ravelry. Williston Shawl I used a chunky varigated yarn. It's red, dark blue and light blue. I really like it and it wasn't hard to do.

Finished!!  The edging is slightly different to the original pattern. Whereas they had shells either side of each corner, I wanted a shell on the actual corner, so I sort of altered it a little.

It's lovely and snuggly warm. The yarn I used is really cosy. I'd use it again anytime. This is the best picture I could find to show what it's like.

Another thing I've started is a funky fur cowl for another friend. It's a nightmare to crochet with it though. Or at least, I'm finding it a nightmare!

It's nice yarn, I like it, but it's hard to see where the stiches are half the time.  Very pretty though.

And of course, we can't possibly forget Steve's GREY jumper (sweater) now can we? I'm getting on a bit more with the front now, even if I am breaking off and rushing back to my hooks any chance I get.

I keep telling myself the more I get done on it, the quicker it's going to be FINISHED! So I think it's motivating me to press on.

I have some yarn to show you as well, but no pictures of that yet. A good excuse to do another post again soon though.

Hope all is going well with all of you. I see you've all been VERY busy. I'm not sure I'll be able to catch up with your blogs too easily, but we'll see.

:)