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Sunday 30 November 2014

A Little Bit of Everything

This week I've been hopping from project to project. The table next to where I sit on the sofa has pretty much looked like the photo on the left the whole time. 
I worked a very little on the infinity scarf for my sisters Christmas present which is the maroon chunky wool, then I decided that I can spend my time doing the that once the decorations are all put up next weekend, so I switched to working on my crochet wreath. 

The green wool is for that.I started off leaving my tails with the intention of sewing them all in at the end. I think I'd just got into the habit of leaving them. Before starting my Christmas crocheting I was working on a scarf in the moss stitch and I'd been leaving them to make a fringe. Then I remembered how much I HATE sewing in ends and started working over them. I'm just going to leave one really long one at the end and use it stitch everything together at the end. Much less faffing about.

As I'm going to put the tree and decorations up next weekend that gives me a week to finish my wreath. Once I've done all my stripes I plan to do a few leaves of holly with some berries and then I should be done. Fingers crossed I finish in time.
I really want all the decorations to be as home made as possible this year, so I plan on making paper chains as well as snowflakes and little houses for the window. I just think Christmas and home-made go really well together.


When I got a quiet hour after my big Sunday tidy I decided to start on making my paper snowflakes. To have enough to cover my entire dining room window will take some time so I'll be squeezing a few snowflakes in here and there as well as making stripes in the week.

I've always loved making random cuts and seeing what unfolds . It reminds of how much I loved making them as a child, and how exciting Christmas was then. My little boy will be fifteen months by Christmas time and although he won't remember this year when he's older, I will. I feel like I'm on the edge of making happy traditions for my own family. Perhaps in future years we can make snowflakes together.



Knowing that he's going to have so much fun tearing wrapping paper, playing with new toys and getting fussed by family is making me feel excited on his behalf. I can't wait until he comes home after his visit to his Great Nan's next week and see's the tree all sparkly and paper chains everywhere. If I finish everything in time....



Sunday 23 November 2014

Sunday Funday








Normally on a Sunday my other half takes himself off to his Nan's house with my little boy for a Sunday dinner. They leave around eleven, come back around five, and I spend almost the entire time cleaning. 

As much as my twenty year old self would have laughed you out of the room if you suggested that the day would come when I would be genuinely thrilled that I would get to spend uninterrupted hours putting away a mountain of clean clothes that had gathered on the tumble dryer throughout the week, it's true! 

I love Sundays. I spend all day headphones on, dancing about in my pyjamas, hoovering, changing sheets and putting washing away. I seem to need at least an hour to put all the things in the wrong place, back where they belong.

After I've done all my housework I have a deliciously quiet bath, where I read, and nobody shouts for me to come and do something else. I should probably worry that I enjoy this so much.

However, with all of my crocheting reminding me that Christmas is sneaking ever closer, I decided it would probably be wise to practice doing a roast myself as it's now so infrequent that I do. I tried my hardest throughout the week to put the clean washing back as soon as it was out of the tumble dryer, and I mostly succeeded.

This meant that there was a moment today when my little boy and his Dad were having a nap upstairs, the roast was in the oven and there was nothing more for me to do, so for forty minutes I curled up on the sofa and crocheted. Still wearing some jazzy flannelette mind you.

I'm currently working on two projects at once, always a wise decision I know! A maroon infinity scarf for my sisters Christmas present and a woolly wreath. She asked me to make it, so it doesn't matter if she sees this . I want as many decorations as I can manage yarn bombed this year.



I started off with a simple shell stitch, then I frogged it and last night switched to Claire from bobwilson123's lazy cluster scarf pattern. I just amended it slightly so that every fourth row I'm doing a cluster, chain one and skipping a stitch. So far I'm happier. That's it above, in case you couldn't tell from my appalling picture taking.

For the wooly wreath I'm just doing different sized stripes of single crochet(US)/double crochet(UK) in different shades of green. I'm soooooo impatient to finish it. Is anyone else working on more than one thing at once? Usually I'm pretty restrained, but Christmas makes me giddy. 

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Christmas Crochet Baubles

It's almost a year since I last wrote. I'm in a new house now, I have a new job, and my little boy is 14 months old, which I can hardly believe. Day to day life hasn't had much time for crocheting, but I'm always thinking of ideas.

Ten minutes here and there on Pinterest and The Crochet Crowd Facebook has given me bags full of inspiration, but until last month I haven't had the time or energy to pick up my hook. I think the change in the weather perked me up. Being incredibly ginger, Autumn and Winter have always been my favourite seasons. Far less chance of getting sunburn and the colour palette is just much more me. 

As soon as I realised I was now getting a whole hour of free time for myself of an evening, I started on some crochet baubles. I've wanted wooly ones for soooo long!




My last big red one has just had its ends sewn in. There are twelve of those and they're my favourites. Perhaps because they came out like I imagined them in my head, which is one of the reasons I love crochet. I wish I could draw, but my hands never translate what is in my brain on to the paper. With crochet it usually comes out like I was hoping. 






I used the remainder of the red wool from last years crochet 'paper' chains. I ended up with about thirty and this year as we are in a new house I thought I would put them on the tree so hopefully having the red baubles in the same wool will look like I meant that to happen!





It doesn't show up too well with my dodgy photo taking, but I found this lovely wool with a gold silk thread and gold sequins running through when I was mooching about the wool shop so I decided to make some little baubles too. I ended up with twenty four little ones. They were probably the most fun as they worked up so quickly. 



And finally I made two of these green, sparkly monstrosities. I had a packet of sparkly pipe cleaners in my craft box that kept shimmering at me, so I experimented. They look very ropy and home made, but I sort of like that. Not enough to make more than two though! I think they look like something that Mrs Weasley might decorate The Burrow with. 

My next task is a wooly crochet wreath, but my delivery of lots of lovely shades of green wool is not due for another few days so I thought I'd use tonight's hour of free time to re-join the online craft community. 

How is everyone else doing with their Christmas making? I love this time of year for idea swapping. Winter really is the best season.

Christmas Crochet Baubles



It's almost a year since I last wrote. I'm in a new house now, I have a new job, and my little boy is 14 months old, which I can hardly believe. Day to day life hasn't had much time for crocheting, but I'm always thinking of ideas.

Ten minutes here and there on Pinterest and The Crochet Crowd Facebook has given me bags full of inspiration, but until last month I haven't had the time or energy to pick up my hook. I think the change in the weather perked me up. Being incredibly ginger, Autumn and Winter have always been my favourite seasons. Far less chance of getting sunburn and the colour palette is just much more me. 

As soon as I realised I was now getting a whole hour of free time for myself of an evening, I started on some crochet baubles. I've wanted wooly ones for soooo long!




My last big red one has just had its ends sewn in. There are twelve of those and they're my favourites. Perhaps because they came out like I imagined them in my head, which is one of the reasons I love crochet. I wish I could draw, but my hands never translate what is in my brain on to the paper. With crochet it usually comes out like I was hoping. 





I used the remainder of the red wool from last years crochet 'paper' chains. I ended up with about thirty and this year as we are in a new house I thought I would put them on the tree so hopefully having the red baubles in the same wool will look like I meant that to happen!




It doesn't show up too well with my dodgy photo taking, but I found this lovely wool with a gold silk thread and gold sequins running through when I was mooching about the wool shop so I decided to make some little baubles too. I ended up with twenty four little ones. They were probably the most fun as they worked up so quickly. 



And finally I made two of these green, sparkly monstrosities. I had a packet of sparkly pipe cleaners in my craft box that kept shimmering at me, so I experimented. They look very ropy and home made, but I sort of like that. Not enough to make more than two though! I think they look like something that Mrs Weasley might decorate The Burrow with. 

My next task is a wooly crochet wreath, but my delivery of lots of lovely shades of green wool is not due for another few days so I thought I'd use tonight's hour of free time to re-join the online craft community. 

How is everyone else doing with their Christmas making? I love this time of year for idea swapping. Winter really is the best season.