Sunday 30 September 2012

A favour ...

I was asked recently if I could do a favour for someone special, 'Of course!' I replied. I was then passed a box containing a Craft Collectables 'Sew a Cat'. I began feeling a little nervous, I don't do that much sewing, and I was concerned about how it would look at the end ... its that image that pops inot your head before something is tried ... and mine of the 'Sew a Cat' was of ears, noses and paws all in the wrong places.

At first I was filled with trepidation ... I was faced with many pieces a paper pattern and instructions, as well as buttons, orange thread and white cotton ... gulp! Yet when I got going I really enjoyed it ... the first sewing session was one Saturday morning while still in pyjamas and a couple of hours disappeared before I knew it! So, it continued and then finally last night was the moment I could finally put the parts of the cat together to produce the finished cat.


It seems so wrong seeing the cat in bits and so I spent last night sewing together the cat.
 
Slowly but surely the cat came together ...
 
 

 
And I just love Cat!
 
And I am proud of me too!
 
May I wish the reciepient loves Cat just as much as I do, I think they will!
 
xxx

Thursday 27 September 2012

A change of seasons ...

... as autumn approaches I am beginning to see the fruit in the hedgerows and the leaves on the trees are beginning to turn to the beautiful hues of reds and oranges. I do love the changes autumn brings and can't wait to go out into the woods to pick the sloes and blackberries ready to make those yummy gins and vodkas ... hic!



The nights are drawing in to, which will hopefully mean more crochet time! Its a busy time of year at work which always means a little more crochet get done to relieve the stress during the day ... !

I have had my last submissions back from Pauline for the International Diploma in Crochet ... and I have passed another four samples ... yippppeeeeeeeeee. Although I do have two to resubmit the quadruple treble and the triangle in treble (again!) ... I have had a 'Eureka!!' moment thanks to Paulines feedback and now I know what I should be doing, I hope. May I boast a little about my submissions ... on the feedback for the quadruple trebles Pauline did say that I had 'produced one of the better submissions' ... so now I just have do the correction and make it as good as the last one ... oh my!

My thoughts are starting to think about Christmas and making gifts, for the last few years I have made gifts for friends and family which I have loved to do. These have included crocheted bags and scarves, breakfast sets consisting of tray clothes and egg cosies. So to this coming Christmas ... I wanted to make everyone a snowflake decoration as part of the wrapping of their pressies, so that will continue ... but I suppose any more than that I can't say as friends or family may read about it here!! So I will say to them ... let me know if there is anything you'd like made for this Christmas before I decide!!

I am about to begin another crochet project, I have brought and recieved 10 balls of DMC Natura in Bourgone to make myself the Grace Shrug from Issue 32 of Inside Crochet ... and I am so excited!! The wool feels lovely and soft and is such an amazing colour!



And the Granny Stripe Blanket continues to grow ... slowly but surely ... ! I am not very good at being random with colours so it is repeating the same colours again and again until I think it will be enough ... at the moment I am thinking four of each colour. Then its the big decision about the edging colours and which ones to use, I will probably decide on my favourites and hope I have enough left. I still want to make some granny square cushions.



Oh thinking about Granny Square Cushions I don't think I have ever shown you these. As I have no dount told you my Nan taught me the art of crochet and to learn the technique these are what I made;




And one I was working on when I was eight (!) was a large cushion size Granny Square ...

 

The colours are a bit garish, but I still have the wool as you can see ... so perhaps I should finish it off. It would have only taken about thirty years to complete not bad for a work in progress!!

And now to a more recent project, although I think its going to take as long (!) my Granny Square Shrug. It has only grown a little since my last blog, but at least it is growing!! I am thinking about starting to join it together although with my obsession about how random things look ... not quite the objective of being random ... I am concerned about having two like squares next to each other at the end as this would annoy me. How do I get over that!!??



And of course I can't forget another tiny bunnies movement random act of kindess. We have had a new tea room open called Clemetines so of course I though it polite to pop in and have a coffee. And what a pure delight it was too, it seemed quite apt to leave Engelbert for the next visitor ...

 
Englebert watching me enjoy my coffee ...


The view from the patio area of the coffee shop ... there is something about roofs I love ...



I hope he found a new home and creates lots of smiles!!

Well that has been a truly crochet blog!!

Oh ... but when I am not crocheting I have been painting chairs ...


This has only got the undercoat on at the mo, but they will be painted white ... I'm really not sure what I will do with these chairs once they are done ... or where they will go, but while I decide I am thinking of adding a few crochet embellishments (any excuse!!!).

Enjoy the weekend, bye bye for now!!

xxx