a formal apology

to my nearest & dearest husband, as i found out yesterday, he does in fact read my blog from time to time & he was not impressed by the previous sock post (oops!)  it seems we had a little mis-communication, whereby he has no recollection of telling me he didn't want a pair of hand knitted socks, well as luck would have it, i had just ordered some more sock wool (thanks to periwinkle for pointing me in the direction of Kemps wool shop) so i was quickly able to resolve any ill feeling (& also felt far less guilty for buying yet more wool)

it arrived this morning, & at £1.20 a ball i felt i was very restrained (or possibly crazy some might say) at only buying four of the little beauties

i have also been getting on with my 'granny a day' you can see more of them over on my flickr page

although now i have started to crochet enough of the cirles for a row, & then i'll join them all together when i do the final round on them.

eye of the storm socks

i have cast on for a pair of socks, (using this pattern again), the wool had been ear marked for a pair of socks for my dearest husband, he however has shown little interest in owning a pair of hand knitted socks, he even went so far as to indicate that he might find them ever so slightly itchy on his 'oh so' very delicate feet (what a fool i hear you cry, he clearly knows nothing!)

well  i would agree, & wasting little time trying to persuade him otherwise, these socks shall be all mine!!!

the yarn is regia design line by Kaffe Fassett, in the 'storm' colour way, it's my first attempt at knitting both socks at the same time (no second sock syndrome for me!) & i'm finding it surprisingly easy so far, it was just rather lucky i made two of these little patchwork bags, which have proved rather useful at stopping my yarn getting in a tangle.

weekend potterings

we all love a good 'potter' in this house, just a little mooch about doing nothing much, well not really doing nothing, but more having nothing pressing to do, if that makes sense?

the last few days have slipped by me, January seems to be flying by, my granny blanket is coming along nicley, i've been getting itchy needles to start my lace project for Kate's adventures in lace knit along, i'd promised myself i'd get my tweedy drew finished beforehand, & finish it i did, 

but now it's finished i'm really not that happy with it, yes i love the yarn & it's keeping me warm, but i don't like the shape, it's not long enough & oops, i forgot to put the button hole in (which i only noticed after i'd sewn the whole blooming thing together!!!) so my trusty old kilt pin has come to the rescue, think i'm going to live with it for a few days & see how we pan out together i have in the mean time been perusing ravelry, just to see what else i could make with the amounts of yarn i have should things not work out)

we also took time to visit a few charity shops, where i was lucky enough to search out a couple of great fabric finds!

about half a yard of this lovely vintage floral fabric, i'm thinking maybe a sweet summer skirt for little O,

i also found this skirt, handmade in some amazing floral fabric

this is one very long skirt, loads of fabric, more than enough to make little O a dress from,

whoever this used to belong to must have been very tall with a teeny tiny waist (of course i couldn't resist trying it on!)

i'm off now to pop the kettle on for a pot of tea, to enjoy with the tasty apricot bars that should have just about cooled down to the perfect eating temperature by now, hope you're all enjoying a relaxing weekend.

grannys in a row

i am really enjoying the granny-a-long, i'm not quite doing a granny a day, some days its none, then the next it might be three! i'm loving joining them as i go though (however i've yet to start sewing my ends in as i go!)

right now i'm thinking these will become a blanket 

which really will make it a year long project.

(so long as i don't fall out of love with them & then they can just become a pillow)

i'm loving them so much i even ordered some more of the debbie Bliss pure cotton i'm using (whilst it's on sale here!) so now i have a few more colours to play with,

on a completely random (yet increasing frustrating) note, i'm waiting on some fabric i ordered from the states through etsy, which was shipped two weeks ago, i'm really hoping it was the snow that's delayed it, as whenever i've ordered before it's always found it's way to me within a week! (& i can't keep up my morning lookout for the poor postie going much longer!)

keeping myself busy

this is going to my year of the quilt/knit/granny along! as i find myself having signed up to all three,

as along with the zigzag along, i've also signed up to Kate's Adventures in Lace Knit Along! i've yet to choose my pattern, as i've found lots i want to do, but i've got till February to decide, so i should be able to pick something by then, pop over to see Kate if you fancy joining in on this one too!

i've also signed up to the 'granny a day' over on the meet me at mikes blog, as i've always wanted to crochet a granny blanket, i spent the weekend trying out few different patterns, first up was from rosehip,

then i tried out this one from Priscilla Hewitt (via ravelry)

i still wasn't happy, so finally, late last night after much Internet searching i came across this one, which was just perfect (i'm getting flashbacks to Goldilocks & the three bears here!) so i set to work, and made 3 last night, i'm also joining as i go, & thinking i can now have a few days off as i did make five squares in total over the weekend! i'll be back soon with pictures,

last week i finished off dolly's little summer garden granny blanket, i used Lucy's pattern for bobble shell edging too.

which has been put to use straight away, both dolly Susan & little O are very pleased.

yet more hooky

life still feels a little in limbo this week, the snow is slowly melting but i have yet to leave the village for days, still this has given us all time to slow down somewhat,

i finished off the ripple blanket, & have to admit it has yet to make it up to little O's cot, it has remained mostly on my lap, keeping me extra snug & warm, she of course is not getting cold as she has her quilt & the receiving blanket her brother was brought home from hospital wrapped in (which was lovingly hand knitted my their Nana, ) she too was wrapped in it on the day of her birth (but she was already at home) so i'm sure she won't mind going without the ripple for a little longer.

after a busy morning entertaining little O (& a little friend of hers) she rewarded me with a long nap before we had to collect her brother, so instead of dragging my snug & cosy self off the sofa, to either a:clean the house or b:spend some time with my neglected sewing machine, i started to use up the yarn scraps from the ripple blanket on a new crochet project,

this barely counts as a new project as it is oh so very little & should be finished by the weekend, as i'm sure little O will agree that dolly Susan would benefit from a snug & warm little blanket, i followed the tutorial from Lucy at attic24 on her summer garden granny square blanket

now i'm off to sew a few of those squares together & sample the cookies that should be just about finished baking in the oven as i type,

i'll be back soon to chat about a little lace-along that kate has organised, which is giving me the perfect excuse to browse through patterns on ravelry

the ripple reveal

pretty much more of the same round these parts, G had his first full day at school today, so little miss O & myself enjoyed the peace & quiet, with lots more building (& knocking down) towers with the wooden blocks,

dolly Susan has been given lots of attention (& a new little tank top to keep her warm in this cold, cold weather), both she & little O have been making great use of the doll quilt too.

there has been plenty of time to snuggle & keep warm ourselves too, i have finally finished the 'baby ripple' i started way back here (almost a whole year ago, oops)

there has of course been lots of tea & biscuits involved

& here it is, i'll try & get a full sized pic once the ends have all been neatly sewn away & we get some better light, more details can be found here if you're interested!

a little ribena berry

i'm pleased to report that the debbie bliss yarn was successfully turned into a new hat for little O

details can be found here on ravelry, it was put to good use straight away, with more fun sledging in the snow,

schools back today, (shorter day than normal,)

but a good way to ease us all back into it,

i've been trying to make friends with the sewing machine again (poor thing has been rather neglected of late) but i seem to be spending more time queuing projects on ravelry. although i have signed up to orange flower sketchbooks 'zig zag' quilt piece along over on flickr, as i aim to get my wonderland quilt finished this year!

a slower pace

things have been a little slow round these parts, & in our village we have pretty much been snowed in, luckily our neighbour took me to the shops today (in his big 4x4) so we've stocked up on food, as our local veg shop had run out of so many things, our menu for the next few days will be soup, soup & more soup!

i've spent many hours snuggled up under a quilt keeping warm with little O, as she gets over a tummy bug,

this has given me the perfect excuse to knit a new hat, i love this pattern, (really quick & easy too)

unfortunately i made a bad choice with the yarn (i went with a ball of debbie bliss pure cotton) so this one will be getting frogged, but think i might get hold of some more of the debbie bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed & knit it again. you can never have too many hats, can you?

like mama, like little O

it's not something i would ever do, put myself & little O in matching outfits, but matching socks, well that's just about okay, it is Sunday, where we have nothing more important to do other than settle down for a little 'hairy Maclary'

last week we made a rather impulsive trip to IKEA, as we were in desperate need of some storage, well we came home with a new expedit unit, why had we never got one of these things before, it's great & stores so much stuff,

and means i have found a very happy new home for all my craft books,

a warm welcome to 2010

oops, i had the best of intentions to post yesterday, but having spent a very quiet night in on new years eve, we all wrapped up warm yesterday for the 5 minute walk to our village pub, to watch the traditional new years day morris dancing in the sunshine, whilst this seemed to be a lovely way to welcome in the new year, a group of us found ourselves back at a friends house, (it had got so very cold) after a few too many glasses of mulled wine, we were left wondering where the afternoon had got to, realising it was the little ones bath time, we thought we really should be getting home!

i did eventually find the charger for the camera, & got some pictures of another crochet star garland i have been making,

this one will become a birthday present

just perfect for the little girl its going to (hopefully making up for the fact it will get to her about a week late)

(i was rather surprised & pleased to find out this picture made it onto the explore page of flickr for 31st December!)