Playing hooky

Well, finally Picasa and Blogger are working together on my computer, so here we go!

Now then, a girl just has to take some yarns and crochet hooks with her when she goes away. This is the result and I'm a little bit chuffed with the way the colours and the pattern have worked together. Yippee! something I quite like at last, lol.
I made the whole thing in one week (and then ignored it for a bit because of all the ends to sew in) but I actually finished it.
Thanks again to Solveig for the inspiration :-)

I played around with the African flower pattern and made myself a little bookmark



Stand by - here come the doilies (and there are more lurking unironed in my suitcase which I've yet to unpack)







I'm a bit cross with my lack of photography skills on the next one - it was a lot prettier in real life




And finally, here they are - what you've all been waiting for - this year's Diabolicals.  Heehee.

I think that's it for now - I'm having a trial run of a yummy chocolate ganache cake which I've been asked to make for my niece's 18th in a couple of weeks' time.  It was my Mum & Dad's anniversary this week so it's a perfect excuse to try out a cake don't you think?  Pics to follow (if it works, lol).

See you soon!

Hatching a new brain cell....

I've been very bad at blogging the past few weeks as there've been all sorts of things going on here in my little corner of Lalaland. I've finally signed the warrant for my old car to go to the big scrap heaven in the sky, and I'll be very sad when she goes (getting rid of things is excruciating for me), but excited to get a new car that will start when I need it to.
I'm just over 2 months into a new job and I STILL can't get my head round some of it which is really frustrating (I know I'm a bit dizzy at times, but I didn't think I was particularly thick!). It's all a case of learning how all the agencies fit together and all the acronyms etc that they use. Never having worn corporate knickers in my working life, it's taking me a bit of time to get used to it all and so I'm growing a new brain cell to keep my other one company - hence the little duckie above, as she sits on the eggcup I'm using to hatch the brain cell.

What else have I been up to? Hmm, not sure where to begin so I'll just waffle through it.
My sis asked me to make her a nice big blanket for snuggling under on the sofa. She provided the wool and asked if I'd make it like the scarf I gave her for Christmas. With just the one working brain cell, I said "yep, no problem" without realising just how much work would be involved. I crochet pretty fast, but I reckon in all this has taken me between 80 and 100 hours to do. The pics don't show the true colours - they're more of a lovely rich mossy green and a subdued teal/turquoise. By the time I finished (no wonder I was very warm crocheting round the edges) I reckon it ended up about 6 feet long by about 4 feet wide (sorry, don't know what that is in metric, but think large rug!) and really heavy as it's an aran-weight yarn. Anyhow, she loves it and I had a really sweet call from my little niece to tell me she was snuggled under the blanket with Mummy watching a nice film. Awwww.

Even standing on the sofa I couldn't get the whole thing in one picture, so the pics are a bit rubbish I'm afraid.

Now for a lovely surprise (despite the very rude comments by a certain other person). I had an unexpected parcel the other day, beautifully wrapped and in a lovely box. I've been coveting Manos del Uruguay yarns for a long time now, and Lizzie made me a beautiful scarf for a Christmas prezzie. Click here to read her very, erm, charming post about it (and her pics are much better than mine). Despite the rude comments about little ol' me, she's done herself proud with this lovely prezzie.

What else? Oh yes, with my first pay cheque for a VERY long time, I treated myself to some beautiful hand-dyed cotton yarn. I have no real idea of what to make with it, but I'm leaning towards a lovely blanket just for me (or a pashmina type thing, or, or .....)

For no reason other than they made me smile, just look at these daffodils I bought at the weekend. They've all opened and have a wonderful scent. Well, I can pretend it's nearly Spring.

And finally, before I go for a lie down after that lot, I've waited nearly 3 years for this orchid to flower again and she's now been in bloom since the beginning of December. Not only has she given me beautiful flowers, but there are 2 stems of them. It was well worth the wait.

And that's me for now. Off to check the progress of my new brain cell as this one is exhausted now. Toodlepip.

PS Don't put some eggs on to boil and then sit down to write a long blog post. Oops.

Told you I was busy.....

There's a distinct lack of nice yarns available in Portugal, so I have to make do with some of the best of the worst (available in any self-respecting "loja chinesa" or Chinese shop to you and me). For want of something to do besides beading, I faffed about with 3 different styles of project bags. The pics are a bit rubbish I'm afraid, and some of the yarns are hideous, but there you go.

This one has a pocket on the front with a little scissor holder thingy



This one has a drawstring with an inside pocket, and a slidy thing I made for the drawstrings. Awful to photograph :-/

This one is just a very basic, pocket-free bag made with scrap yarns I had no clue what to do with.

A couple of little hook pouches I faffed about with.. (nowhere near as ingenious as the one Sarah sent me in the swap though)

Third attempt and I finally had one big enough for the larger hooks & scissors

And finally, I decided to make a blanket. It can get quite cold in an evening, so I took some yarns with me to make a snuggly blanket, working on the basis that I'd be nice and warm as I made it. Errrm, it's not easy to crochet in 32 degrees buried under an ever-growing blanket. That's about right for me though isn't it! Anyhow, I got slightly carried away and it ended up being about 5ft long, and so far about 3ft wide (sorry, I don't have a clue what that is in metric) and then I ran out of yarns. It's not what I envisioned in my head at all, and I'm not sure I really like it, but I am NOT unpicking that lot. Each row took about 25 minutes, so you can work out how many hours I've spent on it so far! I did it in a ridged ripple so it doesn't have a front or back. I have now run out of yarns, and am hoping a very nice friend of mine in Hastings will toddle off to the shop I got the yarns from and supply me with more........