And......... relax!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I hope that your Christmas celebrations were everything you hoped they would be.

We spent they day at my mum's with my brother and sister. My hubby and I cooked most of the dinner, it was the first time we'd done it as we dont have the space to host here, and was quite a surprising success.

Needless to say we've spent today and yesterday vegging out on the sofa, feeling sorry for ourselves after massively over indulging. Will we ever learn???

I've just spent a happy hour or so on Amazon, surfing around looking at knitting books. One of the children in my class gave me a £15 Amazon voucher for Christmas (how super generous?!?!?) so I thought I'd treat myself.

I found this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1579653340/ref=ox_ya_os_product





and then this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861086709/ref=ox_ya_os_product



and also this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1844009459/ref=ox_ya_os_product





As much as I love the ease of internet shopping and hate all the battles getting into the carparks and then the shops, as soon as I've chosen the stuff I want to buy, I want it instantly and can't bear the wait til the items arrive through the post.

I can't wait to get started on knitting some snuggly lovely baby items.

What are your knitting plans for the new year?

xxx

Snowflake scrumminess

I think I've finally learnt something about my crochet and knitting habits. I need small projects (preferably with a lot of repetition) or I get bored/lose concentration/get distracted. My attention span is shamefully short for a fully grown adult.

So my Christmas projects have been perfect.

I planned to make an advent stocking garland using a pattern from the Jean Greenhow Christmas Special booklet which of course means making 24 of them. I'm getting there. 6 down 18 to go.

But as I mentioned before, I got distracted by this snowflake tutorial and then distracted from making them by this tutorial. Seriously, shamefully short! But I highly recommend both patterns. I dont have a lot of crochet experience and have to youtube each stitch at the beginning of each project because I can never remember the difference between a HDC, a DC or US and UK terminology. So for me to be able to follow a pattern, it needs to be pretty simple and have clear photos. Both these tutorials fulfill these criteria! :)

So I set about making enough of each so that I could make a snowflake garland for our living room window.  We have a fab window, it's 4.5, wide and looks out across the valley. Sounds fab eh? but half of it is overlooked by the neighbours so half the curtains are shut permanently. Anyway, I wanted a snowflake garland to span the whole window.

I ended up with 10 of Matt's snowflakes and 10 of Lucy's small snowflakes, topped off with 5 of Lucy's full sized snowflakes and worked out that I needed about 18 cm or a chain of 30 between each flake and set about collating them.

 

 

I cant get a photo of the whole window, silly Christmas tree is in the way, but you get the idea.

Have a fantastic Christmas everyone. We're off to my mum's for the day then with the inlaws on the 29th.

Christmas Crazy

As a primary school teacher this time of year is great fun but SO exhausting. There are parties and films, music coming from classrooms at all times of the day, glitter in places from where it will never return and smiles on the childrens faces that make it all worthwhile.

But the children are overly tired, the staff are overly tired, the children are overly excited, the staff are overly stressed.

I feel like I have carol concerts and parties coming out of my ears. Sweets, outfits, cards, glitter, Christmas films the list is endless. I feel like I bumble from one day to the next with no time to think about tomorrow.

I havent finished my secret Santa present yet. I dont know what I'm going to wear to the staff 'do' on Thursday because hardly anything fits anymore. I havent bought presents for my Teaching Assistants or job share partner yet. I havent bought presents for the children or written their Christmas cards yet.
I feel like I'm drowning. :( And I'm exhausted.

I'm sure this isn't what Christmas is meant to be about.

Handmade Monday

Oh I am LOVING my Christmas projects.

As much as I'm really excited to get them made and finished off, I'm glad they are taking a while so I can enjoy the whole process of making them.

Is that kind of crazy???

If you've visited before you may have seen that I had the amazing idea of making a garland of 24 little stockings to make into an advent calendar. Needless to say it wasn't ready before Advent started. It probably wont be finished before Christmas but hey, I'm having fun.

The stocking count is currently at 5.5.

In my last post on Wednesday I said that I'd been distracted by making the gorgeous little crocheted snowflakes from the tutorial on According to Matt. They only take about 5 minutes to make up and mine still need to be blocked and starched but they are so much fun and SO gorgeous. I have 10 of them so far.

But that was before I found this pattern for cocheted snowflakes on Attic 24. So my garland is now going to consist of a mixture of 3 different snowflakes. But I like that. I think it will look great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a slow process for me. I dont get a lot of crafting time during a normal week and this week I've had a streaming cold. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in bed (which did mean that I got all my Christmas presents ordered online so it wasn't all bad) but it really takes me a while to get anything finished off.

Oh, and in other news, him indoors, otherwise known as Scrooge, has finally shown an interest in the Christmas tree (it's only been there a week!!!). He asked if there was any chocolate on it.
There wasn't and therefore the interest soon ended. But there hasn't been chocolate on the Christmas tree in any of the 6 years we've lived together so who knows what he was thinking of.

I'm hooking up with Handmade Monday again, and Make Something Monday when the link is up.
I hope the last week of school productions, carol services and shopping go swimmingly for everyone. xxx

WIP Wednesday #32

So Christmas is in full flow now. Life is crazy.

Cupcake decorating with the Guides, Carol service rehearsals, Christmas bazaars, ordering presents, time off work ill, decorating trees, School discos, staff nights out, (I'm due my 3rd Christmas dinner next week) etc etc etc

And as usual, I've managed to find myself half way through SEVERAL projects. Only a few of which face any realistic chances of actually getting finished anywhere near this side of Christmas.

But I'm enjoying them so does it really matter? Who will even notice? I know him indoors would rather I didnt finish some of my decoration projects. He'd be glad if there were no more woolen or felt decorations. But that doesn't stop me. :)

The stocking advent calendar is making SLOW progress:

I've been distracted by this AMAZING tutorial for gorgeous itsy bitsy snowflakes. They are SO quick and easy to put together. I've decided that our front window needs a garland of them all the way across it with the snowflakes hanging down at different lengths from the garland.

But these are the cupcakes I made with my guide unit on Monday at Stanley's Store. I've mentioned this aladin's cave of wonder before as Sarah has stocked some of my bracelets and earrings. Arent they fab? The Guides LOVED it. It was their Christmas treat.

 

 

 

 

 

I've been busy busy. But pop over to Tami's ,  Kristine's or Ginny's to see some other WIPs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Handmade Monday

I am definitely gearing up for Christmas over here.

I couldnt find any more of the red I'd made those lovely little stockings out of so I had to grab a new ball of bright red DK. I just couldnt face getting halfway through my little project and running out.

So I had to finish Mrs Frosty's body to get her off my needles so that I could start on the stockings.
However, this means that she looks quite pathetic at the moment. :(

We've spent the weekend doing DIY. Who'd have thought that painting was SOOO boring.


So I've only got this far with the stocking advent calendar. :(
I think this little project isnt going to make it to FO status til next Christmas.

The first stocking is off the needles but it needs to be sewn up. 1 and a bit down, 22 and a lot to go. :(

 

Is anyone else makine Christmas decorations? Last year I made a garland of red stars using this tutorial. I can not recommend it highly enough and will definitely be making some more in the future.

I'm linking up up with Handmade Monday and I'll link up with Make Something Monday tomorrow when the link is up.

In the Christmas spirit

After Friday's little spark of creativity I felt inspired to make some more knitted Christmas decorations.

Last year I'd made some little stockings to hang on my tree.....

The patterns came from this GORGEOUS little booklet.

And I decided I really fancied making these:

 

So I hooked out the white DK and got started.

In fact I got this far........

before it seemed really familiar. So I had a root through the stash of DK and found this......

OOOPS!!! what a fool!

(Can you see all the glitter on the floor from the bauble fun on Friday- housework is not my forte!)

But now I guess I'm halfway towards Mr & Mrs Frosty!

How exciting.

The only problem is that it's all on size 11 needles so it takes AGES to knit up.

I cant wait to get this bit off the needles tho because I've decided to make up 22 more of the little red stockings (as long as I can find enough of the same red to carry on with, that might be a bit of a problem. Slightly different reds would drive me INSANE!)  and put them onto a string of bunting to make into an advent garland. Then I figure I can fill it with chocolate that I like instead of the yucky chocolate you get in advent calendars!!!! :) method to my 22 stocking madness.

I wonder if I'll ever make one project from start to finish without being distracted by something suddenly far more interesting!


I'm hooking up with Handmade Monday today so pop over and see what everyone else is up to.

What Christmas crafting are you getting up to???
xxx

FO Friday.

I have ANOTHER FO!!!

I know, it's amazing.

But this was a really quick little project I whipped up.

I've made a Christmas bauble wreath.

I was inspired by some pictures I found on the web last year and decided I wanted to make one too late to get any cheap baubles so I shelved the idea.

I'd share the blog I found last year if only I could find it again now. But a quick google search brings up hundreds of pictures of both handmade and comercial wreaths. Homebase are selling them for £15!

My cousin's super creative girlfriend posted a photo on Facebook of the rag wreath she'd made earlier this week and it reminded me of my shelved idea.

Anyway, I popped to Tesco on the way home from work and their Christmas decorations were out already. They had big boxes of mixed size baubles for £2.50!!!!!!! I couldnt resist all the sparkly goodness so I grabbed one box of red and one box of silver and rang mum whilst still at the checkout to get her to hook me out a wire coathanger.

I bent the coat hanger into a circle but wasnt sure whether I was going to have enough to fill it so I just chucked the baubles on. The wire needs to feed thro the little plastic loops on the baubles so I cut all the strings off. The first time, I realised I was left with too many of the large baubles at the end so I had to unwind all the baubles off the coat hanger over the spirally bit at the top and re-thread them. But this time I'm much happier.

And this is the result!

 

 

 

 

It needs the yucky hook covered up somehow.

 

 

And perhaps a little re-shaping......


But I'm pretty pleased with it.

Now I just need to store it somewhere til Christmas. Perhaps I should have thought of that. Hmmmmm......

I'm linking up with Tami again this week. Pop over.

FO Friday!!

I have an FO!!!! wooohoooooo!!!!!

I am so pleased with myself. I have an FO.

It's been half term and I am taking it EASY so I've spent a LOT of time hooking my ripple blanket and I'm pretty happy with the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love it. There are some colours in there that I wouldnt have chosen if I were to do it again but I figured that as I'd bought the yarn I should use it, and of course, not including the colours would have made it a few lines shorter.

 

I'm not sure if it needs an edge or not. What do you think??? If it does I need to buy some more yarn as I dont have enough of any one colour to go all the way round.

 

It's amazingly soft. It's made from sublime bamboo & pearls dk and is just delicious. It's the first crochet blanket I've made and I'm so proud of it. I just want to keep stroking it.

 

I have a plan for the blanket but you'll have to check back in a few weeks to find out what that is.

 

I guess I need to go finish my Wingspan now.

 

I'm linking up with Tami to share my FO. Pop over to see what everyone else has finished this week.

xxx

 

 

 

 



 

 

WIP Wednesday #31

So, after last week's little reflection on the bounty of WIPs I seemed to have amassed, I've made quite a bit of progress this week on one of them.

 

The photo of it last week was upside down so it's not really easy to compare but I've worked from the thick yellow up. I'm quite impressed with myself. It's Sublime Bamboo & Pearls DK which feels amazing. But it's very strandy (is that a word?!?!) so if I dont hold the hook at exactly the right angle it snags lots and drives me slightly insane but I need to keep trying to remember that it will be worth it in the end because the blanket feels amazing.

 

I think that it will end up being about double this size so should be quite a nice size for a child's blanket.

 

I'm linking up with Tami, Ginny and Kristine again this week, pop over to see some other WIPs.

 

As part of Ginny's linky party, she also shares what she's reading at the moment. As my course is finished I'm free to do a bit of reading for fun again now so really should get Jubilee finished. It's written by a mum from school and every time I see her I feel bad that I haven't finished it and can't make intelligent conversation about her amazing first novel.

 

There's some other stuff I'm reading too at the moment but it's pretty dull and I'll fill you in soon.

 

Have a good week. I'm determined to get more blogging done. Watch this space.......

 

 

 

 

WIP Wednesday #30

I was thinking about my WIPs. and I seemed to keep thinking..... and keep thinking.

I realised there are quite a few of them.

There's this.......

 

And this......

And also this......

 

 

Notice a pattern???

I think it can be classed as an obsession.

But there is also this......

 

 

And I hate to think about all the other little projects buried away in boxes and bags.........socks, mug hugs, tea cozies......oh well.

In fairness, theres been a little work on the Wingspan but not so much on the ripples. Work is crazy busy at the moment so progress is rather slow.

But I love the ripple blankets. I need to get at least one of them finished so I can use it and admire it.


I'm linking up with Tami and Kristine, pop over to have a look at all the other WIPs.
xxx