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!

Stash-busting hooky and a bit of baking

Inspired by this pattern and blog (thanks for sharing the pattern Solveig) I was a bit bored yesterday afternoon so I whipped this up.  It will be a cushion cover, honest - the sides are already joined together and ready to go, but my camera has just died.  The optical illusion you get from this pattern is amazing - edge it in a light colour and you get a star effect, edge it in a dark one and you get a pinwheel.  Very clever.  I will adapt the pattern slightly though so that the edges aren't quite so wonky.

So, with that pattern in mind, I trotted off to the wool shop on Friday, to stock up on a few yarns to make a blanket in Portugal.  All of this cost me less than £10, and even though it's acrylic, it's really soft and doesn't squeak when you work with it :-)  I've been a VERY good girl and haven't touched it, even though my fingers have been beside themselves to get going.



And finally, this week's baking - more oaty bakes, this week made with whizzed up blueberries and peaches.  Not quite as yummy as last week's but I'll soldier on.



And on that note, I'm off to Portugal for a little holiday.  Ahh, happy hooky, beady and reading time all to myself.  Bliss.
See you soon. Jo :-)

Bakey, hooky, croapy and beady stuff

It's been a while since I blogged, but I've been busy doing other stuff.....

I'll start with some yummy Sunday baking - a tray of oaty bakes made with coconut, dried apricots and some white-fleshed necatrines which I whizzed up in my new gadget.  They smell gorgeous and I've had to sample 2 bits just to make sure they taste ok.  They're a bit squidgy in the middle but I'm not complaining :o)

Right, down to business.  This was a little lap blanket I made for my Mum.  I forgot to take a pic when it was finished, but you can get the general idea.  I edged it in dark brown with one narrow row of the other colours.  Mum loves it - now just got to make another for the other room.  Oh, and one for my sister, etc etc!

Then there's the slight flower scarf addiction I seem to have developed lately (Emily, I know you're with me on that one!).  The annoying thing is that ALL of these yarns claim to be "double knitting" thickness - look how different they all are!

Then there's a stash-buster lap blanket I thought I'd do for my niece who has splashes of bright pink in her bedroom.  Yet another WIP....

Oh, and there's a shrugelero thingy, just another WIP...... all those wonky squares have got to be sewn together and made into a curvy edging. 

Then, there's this luscious stuff lurking in my stash.  When my sis asked me what I'd like for my birthday as we happened to be sitting in a coffee shop next door to the yarn shop...well, I didn't physically drag her to the display, but you get my drift :o)

That's all the hooky stuff for now. There is a shawly wrap thing lurking too, but there are far too many of those offending loose ends to sew in yet.

***************
And so, after almost a year, I finally croaped.  Oh yes, my croap crown is safe, and I am indeed the Croap Queen.  I so want to be a decent soapmaker when I grow up.  They NEVER turn out like the image I have in my head.  Quite why I get such bad ash on the tops is beyond me too. 
The blue one is scented with "Blue Amberwood" which is a lovely spicy unisex scent, but for some reason the FO misbehaved and has left brown traces in the soap.  It's also going through the curing stage still so I expect that yellowish colour to change again.
The purple one is scented with Geranium & Lavender.  It's a new FO from Jo, and it behaved beautifully in CP soap, and is holding the scent well so far.
Neither soap has palm oil in, but is loaded with shea butter and other goodies.

This is the purple one before it went through the gel process.  Quite interesting how the colour changed afterwards.  Those "peaks" didn't last too well, but never mind.

And finally, how's a girl ever supposed to get anything done when they keep issuing mags like this, and she keeps getting reminders from people that they're waiting for the jewellery they were promised.  I'll have to have a beadfest when my poorly neck gets sorted out.  Yipppppppppeeeeeeee.

Well, I think that's me for now.  No doubt I've forgotten something and will get told off by Lizzie.  

Think I'll go and sit in the sunshine with a cuppa and a smallish chunk of oaty bake while my horrid neighbours are out and it's nice and quiet.

Hope you're all having a lovely Sunday.  TTFN.

Yummy yarn and some AFOs!

When I visited Lizzie a couple of weeks ago, she took me to a lovely little yarn shop she'd discovered.
Lurking in the bargain bin was this yummy yarn. It's not silk or cotton but it's got a beautiful feel to it (splits like mad but you can get past that bit if you try). Any guesses what it's made from?

Anyway, being the patient soul I am, I ditched all other WIPs and UFOs immediately to dive in and have a go. I have a huge dislike of sewing in ends etc so I found a join-as-you-go pattern (yay!) which I adapted to make a wide wrap. My aunty saw it half-finished and snaffled it! I made her a floppy flower brooch to hold it together, and here's my lovely little Mum modelling for me :-) Now all I have to do is make another one for little ol' me.

Here's where the AFOs come in - yes, blogland, I have some Actual Finished Objects. Oh, I'm so proud of myself, lol.

While the camera's out, my aunty asked me to make her a couple of flower brooches, so I had a play and came up with these 2.

Right, off to mess about with the 3 scarves, doilie and almost-done wrap I've made this past week while I've been off work with a horrid virus :-)

A lot of effort for a courgette

Following yesterday's grumpy post, brace yourselves. Look what they've done overnight :-((

I checked under the leaves last night and there was no creature in sight -
overnight something's eaten most of the leaf they started on the day before....

Flower? What flower? I suppose that means no courgette now....

Rooting around in the shed, I found this. This is the last ditch attempt - after this, I give up...

Ta da!. Must be the world's best-protected courgette, surely...

Why I loathe slugs & snails

Well, hmph, and double hmph.
I've been trying for ages to grow things other than flowers in my teensy garden but have always been thwarted by slugs and snails.
Yet again they've attacked and I'm MIFFED to say the least. Look what they've done to my courgette plant (given to me by Lizzie when I visited her a couple of weeks ago) - I mean, it's not like I didn't try to protect it, is it? Top left - all comfy and well-protected in her new home and surrounded by enough shells to put off even the most determined creature. Look what they've done to it in the next 2 pics - grrrrrrrrrrr.
Bottom right - I'm not holding out much hope for my attempt at being green/eco-friendly - seeds I saved from a red pepper ages ago have sprouted into 5 fairly healthy looking little seedlings, and that's my very own egg-shell snail/slug deterrent - shells dutifully washed and saved and ground with a pestle and mortar. Wonder how long the poor little things will last - the dreaded S&S have scoffed my rocket too.

This is where I get even more miffed - I treated myself to a beautiful little plant which was packed with amazing flowers - all different and pretty shades of pinks/creams.

Look what's left of it! They used the corks as stepping stones I think - corks obviously don't bother the horrid things around here.

I'm going to hmph again now - HMPH.

I shall go and carry on with my crochet to soothe my hmphedness and my summer cold - maybe it's the cold that's making me more grumpy than normal, lol.

Long time no blog!

Thought it was about time I updated my blog as my ears are ringing from the nagging from certain persons (begins with "L" and ends with "izzie"). This may be a long post, so brace yourselves :-)

Well, I swanned off to Portugal for a little while in May/June and because they've had such a wet winter/spring all the wildflowers were still out and it was a real pleasure to see. Just after I'd taken these pics, and been crawling about in the "mato" or scrubland, my neighbour was busy strimming all the wildflowers around her house. I accused her of being a flower killer but she pointed out it was because conditions were perfect for snakes to start breeding/hiding/lurking! Glad I didn't know that before I wandered about in my flipflops.

The weather was really weird for the time of year - either cold and windy and we were sitting about in fleeces (in June!?) or it was a heatwave. Very peculiar and I've never seen it like that in all the years we've been going there.

Even this poor "Dama de noite" or night-blooming jasmine was a bit confused - the flowers usually close up tightly during the day. Although the beautiful scent didn't arrive until night, it was very odd seeing the tiny flowers open all day long.

So, whatever the weather, a girl has to get her crochet hook out - it's the law :-)
Our lovely neighbour had been into the house and made it ready for us - we had no idea she was going to do that and I was really touched by her kindness.  She even climbed over the wall to get in because she couldn't get the gates to open.  Anyway, I thought I'd make her something to say thank you so I had a little play about and came up with a little cotton bag/pouch and a beaded bracelet.

 I got a bit carried away with the pouches after that - I think I made 6 or 7 in total although quite what I've done with the rest of them is baffling me at the moment.

Then I got the doilie bug again.  It's really strange because they're not really my cup of tea at all but I find the rhythm of the patterns really relaxing (although very frustrating sometimes and I could speed unpick in the Olympics).  Anyhow, here are a few (the last 2 are, erm, quite large to say the least!) -

And it wouldn't be the same if I didn't do at least one Diabolical Doilie while I was in Portugal, so here you go - not quite as vile as some of them but even so.....

And finally, for now, Liz pointed me in the direction of a Flickr group making African flower hexagons.  Not being one to choose the easy route to anything, I decided I'd make diddy ones (1.25mm hook and size 10 thread).  Haven't quite decided yet what to do with them - think I'll make you wait for that :-)

Right, I'm worn out after all that.  Toodlepip as Liz would say.

P.S Quite why Blogger is NOT putting pics/text where I want them, I don't know.  Anybody else having problems?