Wafflings (For Want Of A Better Title!!)....

I have a spare 15 minutes so thought I would do a quick blog post, I really must try and post more regularly.

So, what have I been up to?

Last week I went to visit my dear friend Ashley from Country Rose to meet her gorgeous new baby:

How gorgeous is he? Made me very broody!!

I too the opportunity to take few little gifts over:

After a few false starts I settled on this little stripey cardigan, which is the first ever garment I have knitted that I am happy with!!

The colour way was inspired by the movie Labyrinth - the baby in that wears a lovely red and white striped babygro:

When my boys were little I wanted a babygro like this for them but could never find one....

Of course I couldn't leave Ashley's daughter Rose out and so I made her a little rabbit following a pattern from Mary Janes Tearoom:

I highly recommend these patterns, they are so easy to follow - in fact one of these rabbits was the first pattern I followed after learning to knit.

I made Ashley a little vintage style felt brooch among other things:

I've also found time to knit Milo a festive jumper:

I have been working on my first ever paid embroidery "commission":

And of course there is always time for cake!!:

I always find December tricky, on the one hand I love Christmas but on the other I often find that my anxiety is bad. You may remember I have emetophobia (fear of vomiting).

It is so bad that I had to give up work because I was so fearful of coming into contact with "germs" that might make me ill and as such all these horror stories about bugs are freaking me out!!

I then become so worried about being sick that I start to feel nauseas and then don't know whether its real or my imagination!! The mind is a powerful thing and its not good when, sometimes, it doesn't seem to be on your side!!

So, I'm giving myself lots of "talking to's" and downing the old Rescue Remedy in the hopes of keeping things in check!!

Hugs,

S x

 

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The Instagrannies Big Day Out....

Last Saturday the lovely Ashley from Country Rose and I set out on a road trip to Alexandra Palace for The Knitting and Stitching Show and to meet up with some of the lovely ladies we have met online via our blogs and Instagram.

Ashley is now glowingly pregnant and so naturally we had to stop en route which suited me as there was a Starbucks and I got to have a huge Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Dear Ashley looking radiant....

It took a couple of hours to get to Ally Pally and then a while to find a parking space, we thought for a moment we were going to have no luck, but we eventually managed to find a spot in a side street.

We hiked up the hill, and I was glad Ashley was preggers as it meant I could have a rest now and again too - I am soooooo unfit!!

The view over London from the top is spectacular:

You could see the Gherkin and the Shard....

We all met in the foyer and there were hugs all round before we headed into the show - it was huge, really busy and hot!! I didn't take many pics inside as we kept getting split up and there was a huge urge to just stand about and natter.

We did all manage to get together at lunchtime:

And afterwards, we nabbed a passerby to take a group photo of us all:

Please ignore my Johnny Vegas-esque chin(s)....

Kate from Adventures From A City Girl Country Girl; Ashley from Country Rose; Nicki from Homebird; LissyLou from Lissy Lou & The Two Little Boys; Gemma from Little Gem's Diary; Gemma from Musings Of A Gem; Gemma from Gem's Country Life Dream; Julie from Pretty Little Jewels; Cuckoo from Tales From Cuckoo Land; Kmmms from Things Learnt The Hard Way

I couldn't miss the opportunity to join Cuckoo in one of her trademark silly face photos:

What do we look like?!!

In actual fact Cuckoo is every bit as gorgeous IRL as I knew she would be:

I, however, am not....lol....

We all parted feeling even more like old friends with plans afoot to meet up again soon for a whole day of crafting and nattering.

Naturally a few purchases were made, which I must show you:

Sock yarn and Alpaca DK that was going to be for a shawl - indeed since Saturday I have crocheted 3/4 of it, and realised that:

a. I thought it was a bit prickly (I detest prickly wool/garments as my Mum used to make us wear horrid itchy jumpers in the '70's).

b. I didn't have enough yarn.

So it's been frogged.

I also got some pretty ribbons and trimmings:

I also got some cute stitch markers:

It was a really, really good day - some of the ladies had felt a bit nervous about meeting up with people they had met over the Internet but I can honestly say it was very successful indeed - we truly all got along as though we had known each other for years - and not one of us turned out to be a 50 year old fella, eh Cuckoo?!!....

Hugs,

S x

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Last Week...

Hello all - are you having a good weekend?


I haven't blogged all week, partly due to our camera playing up. I think it knows it's days are numbered (we hope to get our DSLR at the end of March) and so on Sunday when we went out for a walk en famille it decided it was going to refuse to retract the lens cover fully thus rendering itself unusable.


So, I have been taking pics on my phone instead and I have finally got around to connecting the lead to the laptop to upload them.


Last Sunday we went to Leigh Park Gardens for a walk, we had been meant to go further afield but I had cricked my back on the Friday doing a jigsaw (yep, really!! Leaning over the low coffee table for hours did it).


There were lots of trees to climb:

Just after this photo was taken there was a bit of incident (fortunately not involving little boys and trees!!) 


A large Staffordshire bull terrier came hooleying out of nowhere, completely out of control and right up to Daisy (our girl JRT) who was on the lead as she is not good with other dogs and was getting used to her muzzle. It does annoy me when owners allow their loose dogs to run up to other dogs that are on the lead.


Anyway, off it went, only to reappear moments later, whereupon it hurtled into me at lightening speed, my legs went from under be and I landed flat on my (already sore) back.


I. Was. Livid. I gingerly got up to see the owner (a young woman) laughing her head off. I confess she got the sharp edge of my tongue and I sent her off with a flea in her ear!!


Mr G was to be highly commended as he managed not to pee himself laughing - something I am not sure I could have done had the boot been on the other foot!!


Fortunately, we were able to continue with our walk despite my sore bum/back and we had quite a few photo opps:

I particularly like this one:

I must show you a close up of my (silly) hair do - it's one of the ones (along with pigtails) that I am, at 39, way too old for but I wear anyway:

I call them my "teddy bear ears"....

The rest of the week has been uneventful, just the usual pottering, looking after horses, sewing and so on. I did finish my tea cosy which is a shameful copy of the one my friend Ashley over at Country Rose has done (we both used the pattern by Crochet With Raymond):

Now I must love you and leave you as Mr G is waiting for me to go out (grocery shopping, nowhere exciting!!)

hugs,

S x

My First Quilt - Ta Dah!!

Hello, my dears - have you had a good weekend? 


We did nothing much at all so I don't have a whole lot to report but my first quilt is finished!!:

I'm much happier with the red now I have the binding on....

It's a "stack & whack" quilt made up of nine blocks.

Wendy, who runs the quilt group, kindly made me a label on her fancy pants (love that phrase Ashley!!) sewing machine....

I even managed to mitre my corners....

So it took me three weeks from start to finish but a lot of that was hanging about waiting for my next class for help. I'm all fired up to make more now!! 

I want to do the boys a patriotic quilt each; a teal & pink one for our lounge; my Mum wants one; one made from 1930's style fabrics; a Dresden plate, etc, etc!!

Yesterday, I finished my first proper fairisle knitting project:

Milo, refusing to look at the camera (never work with animals or children!!)

 "I'm not looking at you..."

"No way...."

"Oh, go on then...."

It makes him look as though he is wearing it under protest, but Milo loves a jumper - he's not got a lot of hair on his undercarriage and feels the cold.

The snowflakes were a right pain and I had to frog them about ten times, I shan't be doing another any time soon - despite Mr G's requests for a Christmas jumper!!

Speaking of Mr G, we have nearly come to blows this weekend because my friend has some GORGEOUS chihuahua puppies and He Won't Let Me Have One >:0(

I mean, how could you resist?:

Nine times out of ten I get my own way, but every so often Mr G puts his foot down over something and this is one of those things....

hugs,

S x

PS Sharon - I hope you're reading, between my phone & laptop your email has disappeared so I don't have your address, please resend it honey!!

Never Give Up - (Look What I Made!!)

You may remember me telling you how for years I thought I couldn't crochet or sew, and that I took the plunged and have become competent at both?


Well, I can't knit either - have always been AWFUL at it - I would start with 20 stitches on my needle and somehow end up with 40, where these other stitches were coming from was anybody's guess - maybe they were breeding?


Anyway, last year I went to a class at my local wool shop and it wasn't long before the owner Claire realised that I was wrapping the yard round wrong (somehow?!!) and thus creating extra stitches. By the end of the class she even had me doing a little bit of cabling!!


However, I still found knitting D-U-L-L. Compared to crochet it works up S-L-O-W-Y and I am an instant gratification kinda gal. So the knitting was cast to one side.


But recently I have been hankering after making socks - inspired by Alice over at Crochet With Raymond - she has been knitting the most beautiful socks and I wanted to try.


The result:

As you can see it fits me perfectly (I say "it" as I have so far only knitted the one!!) but as such my feet must be a very odd shape as this is what it looks like off:

It looks like something Father Christmas might see hung on a mantelpiece!! I judged how long to make the foot by trying it on and as I said it does indeed fit perfectly so I must have short fat feet!! In actual fact they are a size 6 and I take regular width shoes so not quite sure what is going on there!!

I followed this pattern here but could not have done it without Kelley's Sock Class on YouTube (although she is using a circular needle, I did mine on four double points).

I nearly gave up doing the leg as the boredom set in but the combination of the variegated yarn and the TV kept me going.

So, the moral of this tale is even if for years your have thought you can't - maybe, just maybe - you can....

S x