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Friday 29 November 2013

I Blame The Teaspoon Fairies

The teaspoons in my house keep going missing. As my fella swears he isn't hiding them, and seems to be as baffled as me, I can only assume that Fairies or Borrowers are taking them. This also happens in my Mum's house. We actually had a half hour conversation last week trying to guess what they might use them for. We came up with oars for little boats, shovels and my favourite, putting tiny pizzas in their tiny pizza ovens.

Anyway, as I am always in need of more spoons and Lucy from Attic 24 had a 10% discount code for Rice DK products from fig1 I thought it was a sign from the cutlery gods and bought myself some beautiful blue and green ones.




They're so pretty! If any of these go missing I'll be really sad. Hopefully, as they're so bright and cheerful looking they'll be easy to spot and may last a bit longer than their metal brethren. 

I'm a sucker for a sale though and couldn't help myself from snapping these lovely storage tins up as well. I'm using them for storing my tea bags and coffee. 



Looking at my lovely pretty teaspoons in my horrible messy cutlery drawer (see Crochet Can Solve Any Problem) is making me want to crack on with making my little baskets. The teaspoons have made me decide to make them from t-shirt yarn as I have a lot of lovely blue and green little balls already and opening the drawer and seeing both perfect order and a beautiful colour palette will make my OCD heart happy.

Does anyone else have this problem with teaspoons in their house or any other item for that matter? Please let me know as any assurances that I'm not going mad would be greatly appreciated. 

Sunday 24 November 2013

Crochet Can Solve Any Problem!


As I get older I'm becoming slightly obsessed with tidying and organising. A place for everything, and everything in it's place! As much as I worry this is the first stop on the train to OCD, I also get extremely happy each time my kitchen cupboards become slightly more regimented .


We moved house when I was eight months pregnant and all of our belongings were hurriedly put anywhere 'for now', then my baby arrived and the idea of having a day to re-order the kitchen drawers was laughable. Now he's approaching three months I'm starting to think about it again and the first thing that needs sorting is my cutlery drawer. Yes, I am the coolest person you will ever meet. 

Witness the horrible jumble.



I like my cutlery tray, but it doesn't have enough compartments. I don't like the soup, serving and desert spoons all jumbled up. And then there's all the other bits and bobs. So I've had the idea of making a series of crocheted boxes/baskets that will perfectly fill the space and divide everything up. 

What should i use to make them though? Hessian twine maybe? Or t-shirt yarn? A combination of the two? Something a bit like this picture on the right perhaps?




This is going to be a January project, but I enjoy planning the next project almost as much as seeing them completed. Is anyone else as bothered by the state of their kitchen drawers, and if so, how do you organise them?

Thursday 21 November 2013

Yarn Bowls and Holders

I've been considering getting a yarn bowl on and off for ages.




This one  I found on Ebay, here. It's pretty and my favourite of what I can find. There are quite a few similar ones on Etsy as well. You can also get cheap and cheerful ones like the one below which also happens to be from Ebay and can be found here.






They seem like such a good idea. I do get fed up of my balls of wool skittering away from me, or dragging on things when I'm pulling out more. Do I really need one though? And do they actually work, or does your yarn end up escaping? 

If anyone has one please let me know what you think of it and whether they're worth buying, or if I'll just end up with a nibbles bowl with a hole in it.

What I really want is one like this:


Yarn Holder Gadget in wood

I found the image on a lovely website, Yarn Classes by Irene Lundgaard Anyone who has one like this seems to have bought it offline though. Does anyone know where I can buy one similar online?

Wednesday 20 November 2013

I Lasted a Day

I couldn't help it, the adorable mini balls of yarn were calling to me. I wasn't supposed to touch them until I'd finished the Christmas Crochet Chains but they were just too tempting. I've started the rug for my bedroom. There, I've said it. 'I'm Sarah, and I'm addicted to starting crochet projects'

The rug is actually for my fella's side of the bed, that way I can work out any kinks as I'm getting used to not using wool, and mine will be nicer. I'm lovely like that.

I know I want sort of a long runner type affair. As all the nice rug patterns I can find are all for circular rugs, I'm making my own. 





Normally when I make something myself I don't bother writing a pattern for it. As I want the second one to look similar to the first though, it seems a good idea. Exhaustion has rendered my memory useless at the moment . I can't let myself get drawn in any further than to the end of this row, because I'll forget stitch numbers as well as because the Christmas Crochet Chains need finishing.

I always follow written patterns myself as crochet diagrams look soooo complicated. I imagine they're easier to write as you're going along though. I only know two other crocheters in real life and they both follow written patterns too. Does anyone on the tinterweb prefer the diagrams? Is it worth learning how to read/write them?

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Christmas Crochet 'Paper' Chains

I've wanted to make crochet 'paper' chains for a while and as this is my first Christmas living with my partner I thought I should start as I mean to go on, woolly! 

I had a mooch about the tinterweb as I was sure some fellow crafters would already have had a go. All the pictures I found were of bright chains. I do like a bit of colour, but for me Christmas is all about red and green. I'm getting steadily more traditional as I get older, I'm actually looking at those tacky 80's shiny decorations fondly. Remember these?
.

Don't worry, I won't go this far. I am ruling out any jazzy colour choices though and sticking with green, cream and red for my woolly chains. I've opted for bog-standard Hayfield Bonus DK from my local knitting shop, mostly because as it's 100% acrylic there's not much give in it when it's made up. I don't want my loops looking stretched out under their own weight once they're on display. 





So far I have ten. I need about seventy and also to find my camera as the flash on my phone is useless! I'll crochet a few more whenever my baby is having a nap and I don't have to do something more pressing, like have a wash or eat something. Hopefully, I'll have enough done in time for Christmas and can take some proper pictures of them.

Losing My T-shirt Yarn Virginity


I finally succumbed and bought some of the lovely t-shirt yarn I'd been eye-balling on The Chunky Hooker. They were very lovely and made me up some of their triangle packs in the blue, green and grey colours I was looking for. 




I also bought some Hoopla and Trapillo yarn to go along with them as I plan on making a rectangular rug for the side of my bed. I'm extremely excited to try this out as I haven't used t-shirt yarn before. I don't know why using materials other than wool hadn't really occurred to me before, but now it has I've got ideas for projects with fabric, plarn and garden twine. 

I'm probably only a quarter of the way through all the crocheting I need to do for Christmas and I'm itching to get started with these, but I'm going to be good and actually finish a project before I start another one!