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The big button is up there on the right. You know the drill. BTW, I didn't know Google Reader existed until all this talk about it closing down started. I'll crawl back under my technology free rock now! x

Mmm cake

 

Celebrating F's 10th birthday this weekend. Lots of cake has been made, hoping we get lots of visitors this weekend to eat it all up before I do! Hope you all have a lovely weekend whatever you're doing. x

Great British Sewing Bee day trip out

 

Back at the end of April, E and I visited a very special shop opening. Lauren from the Great British Sewing Bee was opening her very own (along with her husband Ayaz) haberdashery shop. It's about an hour and a half's drive from my house but it was well worth the journey. We turned up about an hour after the official opening time but we still had to queue for ten minutes outside. The shop was heaving, so many people, it was amazing to see. And of course it was so lovely to meet some of the contestants from the show - Lauren, Ann and Tilly were there, as you can see in the above photo, and I had a little chat with Stuart who was an absolute delight. There are lots of photos on Tilly and Lauren's blog, some of which appear to have me in the background! Don't quite know how that happened, I wasn't posing honest!!

 

Of course we had to spend some pennies having travelled so far to visit and I'm always keen to support independent businesses. E and I decided to buy some fabric to make a bag each to take with us on holiday. I think I will make a tote bag as per the tutorial on Lauren's blog. The fabric I chose is the brown floral one, E surprised me by choosing a pale pink floral after hating pink for the past 5 years. We also got some pom pom makers (great fun), a cute apple tape measure for E, a seam ripper for me (this unfortunately gets a fair amount of use when I'm sewing) and some fabric squares. I also bought a Colette Hazel dress pattern. Everyone on t'internet seems to be raving about Colette patterns so I thought I would give one a go. 

 

We had such a fab day, including a delicious lunch at a local Italian restaurant. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit any of the numerous charity shops we passed on the way home. There seemed to be one every other shop at one point. I was desperately trying to stop myself from shouting "Stop the Car!" at my husband.

Not too sure what I will make with these but I may use one or two when making the bags. I really wanted to buy the GBSB book but they had run out at the shop so I ordered a couple of copies from Amazon - one for me and one for my Mum. Lots of patterns in there that I would like to make but I decided on the dress that Stuart made in the first episode. If you watched the show, you may remember it was made in the green and navy Chinese lantern fabric above but I dug out some fabric I bought from the charity shop a few weeks ago. Three metres of grey floral fabric for £3.75, not bad at all and it meant I wouldn't feel too bad if I messed up.

I only took one photo whilst making this. Here is the lined bodice on Deirdre my dressmaker's dummy.

 

And here is a photo of the nearly finished dress. I tried to fit a lapped side zip and managed to break the sewing machine needle when I hit one of the zip teeth, consequently breaking the zip as well. I have unpicked and bought a replacement zip and put off fitting it for the last two weeks. In the meantime I have made three other dresses, one is just a wearable muslin though.  After the zip disaster I picked up a dress pattern which doesn't need a zip or buttonholes. It's a New Look Easy 2 hour pattern hence the reason I have made 3 in the past couple of weeks! I really must face my zip phobia though.

 

I've cut out the pattern pieces for the Hazel dress and will make a muslin of the bodice to check for fit before cutting into the actual fabric. So many plans, so little time. Don't worry, I have still found time in the evenings to crochet in front of the telly. Have got some photos of stuff I have made over the past couple of months.

 

 

It was a fantastic day trip out and I'd definitely go again. Lauren's shop also has an online shop so do check it out and see what gorgeous fabrics etc. she has available.

 

Finally, just a little reminder about the Bloggy Blanket that I added some crochet squares to. I still have it carefully packed away under my coffee table. If you would like to add some squares to this blanket, please either contact me or leave a comment here so we can get the blanket moving and growing again. It's all for a very good cause. Thanks.   

Time outside (finally)

Since the weather has turned Spring like, we have been spending some much needed time in the garden. I've done a fair bit of weeding and the garden is starting to look a bit tidier. We had our first BBQ of the year earlier in the week and the tortoises are in heaven now that they have finally been allowed to venture outdoors.

No idea what this post will look like as this is my first blog post using my phone. If it all goes to plan, I will hopefully be able to blog a bit more frequently. :)

Purple Shawl

So, I promised I would tell you what I have made with this wool that was kindly given to my by this lovely lady. I decided I may just have enough to make a shawl and found this beautiful snug looking shawl in a magazine that I bought a couple of months ago.

I made a start and boy, is this wool amazing to work with. So soft, doesn't split, works up really quickly. I really really enjoyed making this. Anyway, you may be interested in the magazine that I got the pattern from. It's from the makers of Inside Crochet which I have never bought before. Now don't be put off by the awful neon chain link scarf on the front cover, there are multiple crochet treasures awaiting inside this publication. It was a little pricy at £9.99 but it is chocca full of patterns and I have already made/am making 4 things from this mag and have plans to make many more - no really, I have already bought yarn specifically for one of the projects!

This is really rather strange for me as I'm usually quite particular about what I want to make and search the internet for patterns. I don't think I have ever bought a crochet magazine before as the patterns never seem to appeal. Also, if the publishers of Simply Crochet are reading this (almost definitely not!) you're going to have to up your game quite a lot more before I fork out any money for your magazine, the patterns are just not my thing at all. Considering they are the same publishers as Mollie Makes (which I really like) I was quite disappointed that the Simply Crochet mag does not match Mollie Makes' high standards. Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

I finished the shawl very quickly, missing off the frilly edging and just doing a border of the same stitch as the main pattern. I steam blocked the shawl with the iron and left it to dry, then popped out to the charity shop to look for a toggle button. As luck would have it, there was one lone toggle in the button bowl and as is usually the case, the charity shop worker had no clue about its price so gave it to me for free. Hoorah. I hasten to add, I did buy some other stuff at said charity shop so they didn't miss out.

It's really difficult trying to take a photo of yourself whilst modelling a shawl. Sorry about the awful photos. E got a camera for her birthday last week so hopefully she will be willing to take better photos for me. :)

I really loved making this shawl and it goes perfectly with my winter coat. I can see myself wearing it instead of a cardie in the Spring/Autumn too.

Last week I had a huge sort through of my yarn stash. Now all wool is in one bag and all cotton is in another. I know exactly what I've got so I can choose my next projects accordingly. (Trying to sound very organised there, which is wildly inaccurate!) I am currently trying to finish off a few UFOs as well as they seem to be piling up in bags throughout the house. Unfortunately (well, very fortunately to be honest!) I went to the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show last week with Alison and we had a ball and I added significantly to my wool stash. Will let you know about it soon. x

Charity Blanket

I am ashamed to say that I received this parcel quite a while ago and still haven't blogged about it. Today is the day!

I volunteered to join in with making a blanket for charity - see Mum's Simply Living Blog - the details of joining in with the Bloggy Blanket are here. I waited with anticipation for the blanket to arrive, mulling over in my head which yarn to use and which blocks I would add (with the help of my 200 Crochet Blocks book). A parcel arrived and I carefully opened it to find a card and two packages beautifully wrapped in tissue paper. The contents of one package were the two skeins of wool above. Oh my goodness, this is the most gorgeous, delicious wool. The colour is difficult to describe, sort of purple with a pearlescent thread running through it, intermingled with the odd splodge (for want of a better word!) of teal, mint green and strawberry red. It's a Colinette Art yarn, colour Mint Chocolate 151 and it is just amazing. This yarn was very generously slipped into the package by the very lovely and extremely kind Thrifty Mummy Hen - thank you so much, I love it and you are too kind.

 Now, I have had this wool sat in my little wool basket next to the sofa for a few weeks now, every so often getting it out of its tissue paper for a little stroke and ponder over what I could make with it. Well, I have almost finished , just a bit of blocking and the addition of a button possibly and all will be done. I will take photos and blog asap, promise.

Anyway, the other package of course contained the bloggy blanket.
 

So many different squares have been completed so far, some I recognised as I was flicking through the 200 blocks book. As you can see, once I'd added the 5 squares I completed, the blanket is no longer square, in fact it looks rather abstract. But it is growing and it needs to get a bit bigger, sort of lap sized. This is where we need your help - could you volunteer to add a few more squares?

If so, please take a look at Mum's Simply Living Blog Bloggy Blanket Chain  and follow the instructions. Seeing as I received such a beautiful gift with the blanket, I am planning on sneaking in a little gift to the next person to receive the blanket. Probably something handmade. What do you say?

Still here

Apologies for my absence. It's been a busy few weeks here, we have had our bathroom and cloakroom ripped out and refitted. Still ongoing, one more day later on this week should mean everything is fitted and then we just need to get around to painting walls and ceilings. It didn't help that we got a whole load of snow during the process, I thought we may not be able to fit much more in the skip as it kept filling up with the white stuff! You can still see just a little bit of turquoise bath in there - lovely. I've got so much to blog about, just need to get photos sorted. xx