May

May's been a funny month - the weather has been awful but the skies are bright blue again today thankfully. It's been a itty bitty month as far as crochet goes. Lots of WIP and very little FO's. Hopefully June will see a glut of FO as a couple of projects are heading for completion very soon.

June also sees me heading back to work and Katherine starts nursery, leaving me and Pippa at home in peace for a couple of hours a day!

Enjoy your last day of May!

Albert!

I'd quite like to be a cat. I'd especially like to be Albert. He's big and beautiful and full of charm. He eats when he wants, comes and goes as the mood takes him, but mostly he sleeps. His favourite spot, at the moment, is on the bed in the spare bedroom which is at the back of the house. It gets alot of sunshine and it's his favourite sunny sleeping spot. This is him this evening, curled around one of the washing baskets looking every so sweet..........
And this is him letting me just how tired he is.........

Hitchhiker Ta-Dah!

I tried so hard to get this finished in time for FO Friday but it just didn't happen. Well it was off the needles late last night but it needed blocking and by the time I had pinned it, it was very late.

So, the details! The pattern is Hitchhiker by Martina Behm and I used Pure Alchemy 100% pure merino yarn from Yarnsmith.co.uk I used 3.25mm needles but I wish I had used bigger ones now it's finished as it's not draping as well as I had hoped and it could have done with being slightly longer. I used just under one skein of yarn as I had made a teeny baby hat from this last year. So here it is...........
I will try and persuade Rich to take some action shots of it when he comes home from work! Overall I am pleased with it and it's been really nice to finish something as all my other projects seem to be big ones!

I received some lovely new yarn yesterday, ready to cast on a manly shawl for Rich but I am determined to get my bag finished before I start. I'm going to order the fabric today, I've decided to get a metre of one of the samples that came because I just can't find anything else I like and I know that the cotton duck is strong/thick enough to help support the bag. I'm also going to have a browse around my local department store to see if I can come up with a solution to keeping the bottom firm. I've seen cotton canvas used, so that's an option but I also was to have a look at the stiffeners.

Well, I'm off to town today so best go and get organised, I hope you all have a lovely weekend xXx

Work in Progress Wednesday

Honestly, I don't know what's got into me this week. I'm sure I have been doing lots of knitting and crochet but I don't feel like I have got much to share with you all. After last week's WIPW I felt inspired to knit and started a Hitchhiker. The first few 'teeth' developed really quickly but as the stitch count got longer the teeth making got slower and slower. I don't have enough yarn to do the full number of teeth but I'm hoping to get to 30. The yarn is one of those magic balls of yarn - I sat and knitted 12 rows last night (I'm a very, very slow knitter) and I swear the ball did not decrease in size one bit.
Work on the epic bag continues - the fabric samples arrived and I didn't fall in love with either of them so it was back to searching the web for something else. I think I have found it now but I'm pondering my choice for a few days just to be absolutely sure!

Thanks for dropping by and why not head off to Tami's blog to see what all the other WIPWer's are getting upto too!

Introducing...........

Swirly Snake! Isn't he cute? I needed a quick crochet fix and he fitted the bill perfectly. He's made with Patons Fairytale DK and a 3 mm hook and the pattern is here
I've been feeling a bit under the weather the last few days but I think I've turned the corner today. I could do with a good long sleep tonight and I'm sure I will be right as rain tomorrow.

I've been shopping and have lots of goodies to share with you but I'm going to save that for another day! There are bargains galore and a few yarny treats too.

Ooops!

Does anyone else find that WIPW gets your creative juices flowing a little? I love scooting about the web seeing what everyone else is getting upto and how much progress people have made on their projects but the inevitable happened yesterday and someone shared a WIP which I love. I just couldn't help myself and before I knew it I had started a Hitchhiker. I really can't remember who it was that posted theirs but I sahll try and remember! I started my Hitchhiker with some bamboo sock yarn I bought a while ago but it was too fine and too slippy and I kept dropping my needle on the floor when trying to do the increases. So I dithered about what yarn to use - some sock yarn that I am not mad about, so garish 4ply or some pretty DK that was for something else? Eventually I settled on some Yarnsmith Pure Alchemy that I bought to knit a baby hat with for Pippa. I don't know that I will get the full number of 'teeth' down the side but aslong as it's long enough to go round my neck I don't mind.

It's a great pattern - I finally memorised the repeat and although the stitch count gets longer all the time I can still get a few repeats done during the day.

So here it is - 15 'teeth' done so far....
The colourway is Sugared Almond and it gently flows from the palest pink to off white. See, while I love colour I don't wear colour or patterns so this subtle yarn is perfect for me. It feels a bit naughty though as I still have four other projects that are 'WIP' and I just can't stop returning to this!

I remembered - it was Miffy!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Firstly, apologies for the photographs this week, I had two 'helpers' today!

Work continues on my bag, but it's way bigger than I had planned and despite my best intentions progress is slow. I keep meaning to do a stitch count and to measure it to give you an idea of just how huge this bag is but I keep forgetting so instead I decided to photograph the bag with something to give you an idea of scale! This is where one of my 'helpers' came into their own. Pippa is nine months now and fits in the bag beautifully don't you think?

This photograph shows the shape better though, it's getting there, slowly..........
Finally, I know it's something everybody knows but I've been caught out on this one. Dye lots! The turquoise I've used is very bright and I have another ball of the same 'colour' but a different dye lot and the difference between the two is very apparent - not so much in the photo but in real life they look like completely different colours.
I'm still waiting for my fabric samples to arrive, so there is no way this will be finished this week as planned, fingers crossed for next week though!

Please head over to Tami's Blog to see what everyone else is upto and thanks for stopping by!

Brightness

You would think having four children that potty training would be a doddle really but Katherine is proving hardwork on this score. To say I am feeling a little exasperated would be an understatement and what's even harder is not to show her that exasperation. I know she'll get there but when you are up to your eyeballs in wet clothes it can be a little tricky to keep the end goal in sight.

Moving on to more interesting and exciting things, I've decided to use wooden handles for my bag. This bag is epic, I tell you! It's huge, which is fine, as a huge stash bag is not a bad thing but it's taking alot of time. I'm not sure what my stitch count is right now but it takes me half an hour to do a round. I have a couple of fabric samples heading this way for the lining and I'm hoping to get that ordered next week as I really think I could have this completed this time next week.
My beautiful twig display has been looking very sorry for itself this week and today I finally gave in and removed my two little hearts and laid the twigs to rest. I'm not really sure what to do with this little hearts now, maybe they will just end up on my pinboard along with all the other bits and pieces I don't know what to do with!
A few weeks ago I mentioned things had been a little topsy turvy in the Gingerbread House. Well, one of the things that was causing the topsy turviness was decided whether to sell this house and move somewhere else. We moved here in 2004 and if I'm really honest it's never really felt like home. We've done bits and pieces to the place but never really spent the time and energy to really make it ours. There are some things we can't change, like the downstairs layout and we can't change the fact the area we live is not that nice but we can make this place a little sanctuary. We've decided to put the decision making on moving on hold for a little while and instead concentrate our energies into making our home more homely. The bathroom is the first room to get a makeover and I'm am sure to share you some photographs when it's done.

Well, Pippa is chomping on my leg - literally so I think it's time for me to go! But before I do please enjoy this photograph of one of the Gerbera's I bought today. I wasn't feeling the love for my new camera a few days ago but after lots of button pressing and manual reading I think I might just be getting the hang of it!

Freedom!

So, what happens when you take one 35 year old and one 40 year old and set them free without their brood of children for a couple of hours? Did we dress up in our gladrags and hit the town, consume large quantities of alcohol and dance the night away? About 10 years ago we probably would have but our life is alot more sedate now and our few hours of freedom saw us whizzing at high speed to our local retail centre for a browse around the shops and some rather silly behaviour...............



There was much giggling while we were doing this I can tell you! I hope it put a smile on someone's face - it certainly made us smile and giggle and snort and chortle!

We did end the evening in a local pub and we enjoyed a lovely meal, no washing up, no children, just us for a change - I just really hope it's not another few years before we can do it all again.........

Work in Progress Wednesday

I missed last week's WIPW as I had been at work the night before and I was just too tired. Any spare moments of my day, in between looking after the younger children were spent resting. I crawled my way to bed at 8.30pm and slept like a log until the next morning.

This week I have lots of projects to share but also I've made a decision and I have decided I am struggling having so many projects on the go at once. I currently have four and while that's not alot compared to some people I think it is just a little too many for me to concentrate on.

So here's my projects..........

Imogen's Bold Ripple
I got lots done the week before but nothing for a good few days now.
Yarn - Stylecraft Special DK Lucy Pack
Hook - 4mm
Pattern - Neat Ripple Pattern from Attic24

Rainbow Socks
Got loads done on these but then started my bag so progress has stopped!
Yarn - Opal Surprise
Needle - 2.5mm DPN's
Pattern - Silver's Sock Class

Hexagon Blanket
Love this project but again it's been neglected while I work on my bag.
Yarn - Stylecraft Cotton Classique
Hook - 3.5mm
Pattern - Hexagon How to from Attic24

Stash Bag Mark 2
This is turning into a bag of epic proportions! I using the 'invisible join' method and changing where I start each round which means I have managed to get rid of the obvious starting point I had on the previous two bags I have done. I have taken lots of photographs of this bag but this one below finally captures the colours as they really are.
Yarn - Drops Safran held double
Hook - 3.5mm
Pattern - Crochet Bag from Attic24

So now you have seen (and enjoyed hopefully) my projects maybe you might like to hop over to Tami's Blog to see what everyone else is upto! Thanks for visiting and taking the time to see what I am upto, please feel free to pop back!



ETA - Friday the 13th!
I'm sure most people are aware that Blogger has been having a bad day and it seems 10 comments some lovely visitors had left me have disappeared. I'm hoping they come back but just so you know I had read them. I really appreciate people taking the time to comment on my blog and I would hate for anyone to think I had removed a comment they had left for me. I hope everyone else out there who has lost content on their blog gets it returned soon, I know some people have lost whole posts which must be very frustrating. Carole xx

Celebrations!

It's our 11th Wedding Anniversary today. We were married on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus at St Andrew's Church 11 years ago! We are having an Indian meal tonight, at home, thanks to MIL and tomorrow we are going to go out to have a meal On Our Own!!! It's been a very long time since we went out On Our Own so I'm looking forward to it alot.

All my other crochet projects have been cast aside for now while I work on my bag. The colours are working really well together and I think I have even found the perfect fabric to line the bag with. In the end I decided it didn't need a double base and I have started to work my way up the sides of the bag. I want to add some decreases to the top and I'm trying to think of a way to reinforce the handles, which I'll be working the same way I did Katherine's Pretty in Pink bag. If I manage to do anything remotely successful I am sure to share it with you all.

Sleepy Saturdays

There's not a huge lot going on at home today. There was lots of business this morning catching up on housework and laundry and some DIY to mend a broken stairgate after the older two kicked it and it fell apart. 'It was a game' was the excuse and I have, so far, failed to understand what kind of game involves breaking expensive items in the home but then I'm not 7 or 8 I guess!!!!

Katherine, Pippa and I headed off out yesterday for a walk and a scoot to some of the local shops. Much as I am not very keen on the Town I live in it is very handy having good shops within walking distance. So, we ended up wandering around Iceland in search of a joint of ham for tea, but none was to be found and instead we tried Lidl which is just next door. We found cheap Crocs, Fairy dressing up books, huge spears of asparagus and a huge punnet of strawberries aswell as the ham. Now, I've been wearing Crocs for years - long before they become 'fashionable' and my original pair are proper Crocs, plain black and very, very well worn. So worn they have no tread left on the sole of the foot and are very, very slippy when it's wet! I never thought I would buy anything other than real Crocs but when I say these bright red ones in Lidl I just couldn't resist! I wore them with pride on the school run yesterday afternoon I can tell you!

My red Crocs sneaked into this photo of my Lucy Bag mark 2. I'm a bit disappointed with the photo, it's taken in sunshine and the colours looked very washed out but you get the idea. The sun went in and we found the Vivid button on the new camera so have added a new photo! The yarn is Drops Safran which I got from Scandinavian Knitting Design, the yarn is held double and I'm using a 3.5mm hook and half trebles to get a really solid bag after the very stretchy Lucy Bag Mark 1 I may still do a double base like I did on the Pretty in Pink Shopping Bag but I don't think it will need any plastic sandwiching between the two bases. All other projects are now on hold while I get this done!Before I go and crank up the oven ready for our Saturday night pizza's I thought I show you another photo of the hexagons now I've added one more with the bright blue yarn. It's horrible yarn, I thought Rico was splitty but this is even worse, it's also a little bit shiny compared to the Stylecraft but hopefully that won't be too obvious in the grand scheme of things.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend and for those of you in the UK I hope your gardens enjoy the rain!

Overwhelming..........

I really wanted to take part in Work in Progress Wednesday yesterday but I was just so overwhelmingly tired after my nightshift that I couldn't produce a coherant post! Thankfully, after a very early night last night normal service has been resumed here.

I've been busy, busy, busy knitting my socks. I've reached the foot part on one of them - I turned the heel and managed the gussets with very little in the way of swearing and apart from a loose stitch which appeared after I picked up the stitches along the heel they are looking mighty fine. Even my SSK stitches look good, not as neat as the K2Tog on the other side but good enough for me! I must take an upto date photograph of them so I can share my progress.

I mentioned a new project in my last post and as I didn't take part in WIPW I haven't shared it here yet. So here it is..........
The pattern is Lucy's Hexagon How to and the yarn is all Stylecraft Cotton, although I have now got some bright turquoise blue to add aswell. I'm very excited about this, I love the results so far and I am dreaming of a blanket to fit our bed. I may well get bored of it before it's big enough but that's the aim!

April

I love seeing 'Monthly Mosaics' and the idea of rounding up your month in photographs. These are a few of my favourite images from the month of April. It's been quite a busy month, the sun has been shining aLot and I have also done aLot of crochet. I'm hoping May is going to be just as sunny and just as productive. May is also my last full month of freedom from constraints of work as my maternity leave officially finishes at the end of June. I've done three shifts back so far under the Keeping in Touch Scheme at work and if I am honest, I've quite enjoyed being back.

I finally came to a decision about my Flowers in the Snow and it is now back in the cupboard, hibernating. I like the pattern but I just can't get excited about the project. I've started something new in it's place though, and I LoVe it! I'll be introducing it on WIPW, if you want to come back and see what I'm upto!