Magic Stripe Blanket

I posted on Facebook last Sunday that I had finally finished the project I was working on. After 5 weeks of work it was finally done! Yay! Immediately, I had requests for pictures. I know! It's a week later and I finally got photo's done this morning!!

I must admit that I spent a whole week just looking at it, and stroking it. Everytime I did, I got that lovely happy feeling of seeing a project finished. Have you ever had that feeling? That slightly smug, puffed up, happy moment of joy? I love that feeling and I love seeing my hard work appreciated. So I was very happy to see that two girls rather enjoyed snuggling up under it this week too... even though we've had gorgeous weather that meant blankets weren't necessary. They still loved getting all cosy under their new blanket. It melts my heart, it really does. Especially when the weeself gave me a big hug and told me that I was 'the best Mummy EVER'. It makes 5 weeks worth of work well worth the effort.

So, I guess you want to see it too?

Ok, that's just a teaser... here's the whole thing on my sofa.

Doesn't it just look soooo inviting? It just makes you want to curl up on the sofa with a book or a good film!

The only problem is that I apparently need to make another one because these two little monsters aren't keen on sharing it!

I took the finished blanket to the Stitch'n'Bitch group on Tuesday and Karen took this picture which shows it  in all it's glory (excuse the awful picture of me looking fat and frumpy!)

To make this blanket I used approximately 800g of Double Knit yarn from my scraps basket and from an unfinished Granny Hexagon blanket that I didn't fancy finishing. Remember this one?

Yes, that crumpled, tatty attempt at a hexagon blanket at the bottom of the pile! Well, I undid the whole the thing and then rolled it into a ball. I added to it from the various left over balls of yarn that were in the bottom of my basket and, once the ball was big enough, I started hooking. A chain of 202 stitches first and then straight into Treble stitches (that's Double stitch for all you US peeps!). Each time the yarn changed colour I made sure that the knot was pushed through to the 'wrong' side and that the loose threads were stitched into the work as I went along. I don't think my sanity would have survived having to go back and stitch them in individually after the blanket was finished! To finish, I put a Half-Treble edging around all four sides and a scallop shell trim on either end.

I had planned on taking a couple of weeks break from crochet to concentrate on a Crosstitch project I started nearly 8 years ago. It has been boxed and shoved in to several garages in at least 5 different houses over the years and I finally hauled it out last week. I did manage to get *some* done before I made the fatal error of going in search of a yarn shop I'd heard about in Glasgow. Hmmm, they had some bargains on and I ended up walking out with a bagful of lovely colours. I managed to resist crocheting anything for, oooh, about an hour and a half... after which I gave in to the call of hookyness!! I love these colours, but I think one of them might be 'not quite right' so I might be taking it back to exchange it for something else. Can anyone guess which colour I'm returning??

A hearty 'Well Done' and a virtual pat on the back for anyone who can guess correctly!

Speak soon!!

WOYWW 14th March (The Crochet Edition)

Helloo!!!

Wow, it's Wednesday again. How come the week comes round so quick each time?? Anyway, I know I'm very late posting but I figured I ought to do a post rather than sitting around staring at Pinterest and Facebook.

I must admit that I don't have an awful lot going on on my desk at the moment. In fact, I haven't done a lot of 'desk' crafting for quite a while now. Part of that is because I'm waiting for my room to be converted from 'spare room' to 'craft room'. Yes, I'm excited but I'm also not feeling a lot of inspiration with the room in it's current state. Another part of the lack of crafting is that I've been doing more projects that allow me to sit in the living room watching telly while I craft.... mostly crochet.

So, here is my 'Work Desk'

OK, I admit.... this picture was taken a couple of weeks ago but it's the closest I've got to a crochet 'work desk'!! However, I do have a couple of completed projects to show you. (I've been reading the Attic24 blog a lot and love how she refers to them as 'Ta-da moments')

See those two folded up items on the top of the pile? Well I finally got to finishing them both this week and here they are. Ta-daaaaaah!

Ok, this is where my camera decided that the battery was going to conk out. I'm glad that Karen at the Glasgow Fort Stitch'n'Bitch had a working camera. She took a couple of photo's for the group blog.

This Orange one is my first attempt at a ripple blanket. It was a bit tricky to establish but once I'd got going it was actually quite easy. I loved the effect of the variegated yarn and decided to highlight the orange and purple because these two colours are high up on the list of Weeself's favourite colours.

This Pink one is is for Herself and is basically a single, large granny square with a border and a picot edging. It went together very quickly and again the variegated yarn produced a lovely effect. Both these small blankets were made specifically for the girls' teddy bears since I discovered that both teddies were being put to bed with makeshift blankets (usually someone's cardigan or jumper!). Cardigans and jumpers have now been returned to their rightful owners and teddies are snuggled under their new blankets tonight, much to the delight of their owners!

The girls are also delighted to discover that I'm now in the process of crocheting a much larger blanket for the two of them to share during their telly watching sessions. If you look at the first picture of my 'workdesk', can you see the unfinished granny hexagon blanket that is hanging over the edge? Well I took it into my head to unravel that piece and start something else with the scraps. It's huge so far and I'm quite pleased with it. Come back in about 3 weeks for a 'ta-da moment' on that project. I'll post before then, I promise!

Anyway, I'm going to head off now. It's late and I'm shattered due to going to bed really late last night. I shall link up to Julie's blog so you can have a look at some other WOYWW'ers desks. See you soon!

Gettin' Hooky!

Welcome back! First, I have to say a big "Thanks" for all the lovely comments that were left yesterday! It was lovely to be welcomed back to blogging so enthusiastically!

Yesterday I promised you that I would be discussing all things crochet today, so here I am! Are you sitting comfortably? Got a cuppa in hand? No?!!.... okay, quickly go make yourself one. I can wait!

Okay, now that you're back... lets get started! So, I picked up a crochet hook for the first time in July last year. I was very quickly hooked! Pardon the pun.  Between YouTube and a book that a friend lent me I managed to pick up the basic stitches. After that it was simply a matter of how many patterns I could lay my hands on and how much yarn I could get hold of. I've discovered a whole new addiction!

I started off learning how to do granny squares, but got bored of them quite quickly. Oops. Then I found a lovely pattern on the web for a hook holder. I couldn't resist! In fact there's loads of tutorials and free pattern on this lady's website.  Here is my finished Hook Holder...

I also made a cardigan made out of two Granny Hexagons. It's a really clever pattern!

I made a little drawstring bag using these yarns too, but I haven't quite finished it yet. It just needs lining. Once I've finished it I'll take a photo and post it for you to see!

Over the past few months I've finished quite a few projects including:

Crochet bunting for my kitchen (pardon the strange facial expression, I think I must have been concentrating!) 

A lovely soft frilly scarf. I made a few of these for Christmas presents and to sell. They sold ok, but I still have a few to sell! Let me know if you want one. 

My latest finish is this Kindle Cover. I love my Kindle but I was worried about the screen getting scratched so I made this cover to protect it. I'm quite pleased with the results!

I also made a little handbag for my SIL's Christmas present, but then I forgot to take a photo of it! D'oh! I'll try get her to take a photo for me so I can show you.

Now you may be wondering where I've been getting my inspiration and patterns from? The easy answer is... online mostly. More specifically, I've been browsing blogs like Attic24 and Coco Rose Diaries and finding lovely free patterns on Ravelry. Inspiration has also been easy to find on Pinterest, there's another thing that I'm addicted to! If you're looking for some crochet inspiration on Pinterest then I've put together a board of hooky goodness. Have a look!

I've also started going to a stitching group. It's been great to have a couple of hours each week to sit and crochet and natter without being interrupted by the kids, hubby or any of the three million things that I'm supposed to be taking care of. Some great 'me' time and I get to be creative too! Our group is called Glasgow Fort Stitch'n'Bitch and they meet on a Tuesday evening. If you're local and interested in joining us let me know and I'll send you details. They have a blog and a Facebook page too! I love grabbing a Starbucks and then having a hooky hour. Bliss! (BTW. I should say 'Thanks' to Karen from the group for taking all the photo's of my projects!)

So, are you inspired? Let me see what you make next. I've got a couple of projects that are nearly finished, so come back soon for an update.

WOYWW 8th February

Whoohoo! I'm back for WOYWW again. I haven't posted a WOYWW update in ages. That's not to say I haven't been crafting. I've been doing quite a bit of crafting - as the state of my desk will testify! However, I've been far too busy to blog my craftiness. But I thought it was about time that I did an update so you can see my mess. Here it is! (Don't say that I didn't warn you!!)

Here's one of the cards that I made recently.

However, papercrafting is not the only crafting I've been doing! Last July I took up crocheting. I bought myself a 4mm hook and some yarn and then sat and watched YouTube videos to learn how to do the stitches. Since then I've had something hooky on the go constantly and I've finished lots of projects. So part of my WOYWW really needs to be a picture of my hooky bag

Okay, so it's just a sneak peak really as you can't tell what these projects are in this picture, but it gives you an idea of what I've put my hand to lately! Come back tomorrow for a good look at some of my finished crocheting projects, inspiration and some hooky blogs I've been following!!

If you're interested in reading a some more WOYWW posts, head over to Julie's blog for loads more!

See you tomorrow, don't play hookie we're getting hooky!

Whoohoo Weightloss!

I'm a very happy bunny today!

I've been struggling with my (lack of) weight loss for the past 10 months, and I've been getting steadily more and more frustrated, disillusioned and discouraged with the whole process. On the other hand, however, I haven't really been *doing* the 'diet' properly either so it was hardly suprising that it wasn't really happening.

This year, as part of my "One Little Word" and the "Move More, Eat Well" classes that I've signed up for, I decided that I would get back to doing the 'diet' properly. It's taken me a while to get back into the swing of this but this morning I finally started seeing the results of my efforts. 2 lbs off this week!! Yay! So drinking more water, cooking fresh and TRACKING everything really does work!

Why did it take me nearly a whole year to remember that?!

Post Christmas Weigh In

I went to Weight Watchers today for my first weigh in after Christmas to find that I've gained 3½lbs. Now, I'd usually be getting really depressed at a figure like that but today I was actually happy about it! Mostly because I know how much I ate over the holiday period, how little I tracked (not at all!) and how much exercise I got (not much!). I also know that my scales at home told me last Friday that I had gained over half a stone!! It seems that my strict tracking, more exercise and eating waaaay better did the trick this week and limited the damage for my first weigh in. So yes, I'm actually happy with a 3½lbs gain.

I've been feeling a lot more positive this week and I'm thinking that maybe it's because I feel like I'm back in control of my eating again.... something that completely eluded me last year! Hopefully, I'll be able to hold onto this feeling for the rest of the year and can have some good results to show for it at the end of 2012.

How is everyone else going with their New Year Resolutions? Anyone else out there trying to lose weight this year??

One Little Word 2011/2012

Happy New Year too all my blogland friends! I hope that you all had a great Christmas and got everything you wanted. I was thoroughly spoiled this year and got quite a few gadgets to play with, including an iPod Shuffle and a new (to me) DSLR camera. Consequently, I've been taking a lot of photo's over the last week or so to convince myself that I *can* shoot on manual. I'm not sure if it's working at all, but I'm having fun!

Now, the New Year is here and it's time for many of us to make our New Year's resolutions. Well, I dispensed with those last year and decided to live my year by One Little Word instead. My chosen word for 2011 was 'Reclaim'. It was quite a difficult word to live by, but I think I managed it in a lot of ways... and failed dismally in others. So in 2011 my word was manifested in:

• the Kitchen: We reclaimed the room and some extra space by knocking down the boiler cupboard and integrating it into the kitchen and fitting new kitchen units, flooring etc. It looks lovely and I actually look forward to cooking now. Result!
• the Finances: We installed our new 'Cash only' system in the form of the Envelope system. So far this is working wonders! Ok, so we're not out of debt yet, but we have managed to get through some emergencies and Christmas without having to increase our overdraft. Result!
• the Nappies: Potty training Weeself was a mission and a half! However, after 3 months the message finally sank in and I was able to reclaim the 'nappy' bag for other use. Result!

So there were also some failures along the way. Firstly, my weightloss. Well, lets just say that it completely stopped. Thankfully, I managed to limit the damage and haven't actually piled any of the weight back on again. Secondly, I struggled with Depression during the summer.... not exactly 'reclaiming' the life I wanted to lead. Thirdly, we took a step backwards with regards to churches. The less said about that the better. However, other than that I think 2011 was a pretty good year over all!

This year I will be attempting to live by One Little Word again. I think it's a great alternative to making New Year's Resulotions which get broken before the end of January comes round. So my word for 2012 is: 'Persevere'.

I'm hoping that I can 'Persevere' this year in: 

• My weightloss
• Stampin' Up!
• Crafting
• PTA
• Finding a new church
• Loving my family
• Making a home
• My faith
• Fitness
• Blogging more regularly
• Learning to use my DSLR properly

There's a lot on my list but I don't think any of them are out of my reach. 

Do you make New Year's Resolutions or do you live by One Little Word? If you're a OLW person what is your word for 2012? 

See you soon!