Spring!

I dont want to be too premature, but I think it's definitely here. Spring. I looked at the weather forcast and and there were five sunshines for the next five days! I don't really know why this puts me in such a good mood but it does!

So what do you do when it's so sunny outside? Get your shorts on and go on an OUTING!

I think it's much easier to take nice pictures when the subject just looks perfect.

Even though the water was freezing we did a little toe dipping. You can definitely tell that my legs haven't seen the sunshine lately. 

 This trip out was exactly what I needed to perk up my mood. Ice creams were even eaten! Hope everyone's had a wonderful weekend. x

University Life

I haven't been able to post for a while as I've been revising like crazy for my final year exams, and now they are finally over!

So, I haven't been able to do much crocheting, which has been very frustrating to say the least as it is one of the things I do to de-stress.

It's been a very challenging few months and it feels like the first part of this year have been a complete waste of time. 

Of course it hasn't been a waste of time as the whole of my future career is resting on these exam results, but still.

As a consequence I have not made much progress on the ripple blanket even though I have managed to complete all my other WIPs. I am now looking forward to getting back on track with it. xx

Homemade goodness!

The other day I took advantage of some good light, or at least I think it was but I'm not very good at this photography lark, to take some photos of crafty things I got for christmas.

 

This rainbow brooch made for me by one of my best friends. She told me that she'd noticed I have a lot of cardis which dont have buttons and could do with something to hold them together, so she made me this! I wasn't at all expecting anything so thoughtful or so well made, I even asked her if she'd bought it off Etsy! As you can imagine I was pretty excited about this one. :)

This is a log cabin quilted cushion made using mostly Cath Kidston fabric. My Auntie made this for me, this is the first handmade quilted thing I have!

My mum bought me this quilt from a shop in the Isle of Wight. We went there for a holiday in september and I remember admiring it, they only had a single one left though as they were no longer being made. The bed I have is a three quarter, which is about six inches off a double, and I thought it wouldn't fit so I didn't buy it. My mum bought if for me in secret though and I got it for christmas! I am so pleased she did because it really does look beautiful and it doesn't look bad size wise either.

This just shows a little bit of the back because it is reversible, yay! 

Well looking at all these pictures makes me think how lucky I was this christmas to get so many handmade presents! Speaking of making things for other people I thought I'd just share some I'm making. 

This is a 100 square rainbow blanket that I'm making for my boyfriend, only 8 more yellow squares to go!

And this is one half of a teapot cosy I'm making for one of my mum's friends, I'm using this pattern here, this was one of those rare occasions where I had to learn a new stitch!

One last thing I'd just like to mention is that Cherry Heart is starting a Pretty Crafty Home project for everyone so we can all support each other in making our homes, or in my case room, pretty. I think that this is a great idea and cant wait to get started and see what everyone else is doing. You can find more info here on her blog and there is also a flickr group. Enjoy!

Knitted Blanket

Before I 'went off' to university I'd started knitting squares to make a blanket, this had been going on for years because I would always get fed up with how long it was taking and would constantly give up and then find it again a few months later. So before I was due to start my degree me and my mum decided we would try and finish it. In all I has contributions from 7 different people! Me, my mum, my best friend and her mum, my aunty and cousin and my grandma. 

 It's only made from scraps of wool that anyone had lying around but I absolutely love it because everyone contributed to it reminds me of everyone trying to get it done for me. There are also some individual squares which highlight some things which are important to me.

A guitar because my man plays, the girl guiding trefoil because I'm a brownie leader, an austin A35 because my Dad used to have one and mine and my friend's initials.

Well I just wanted to share this and I hope you enjoy! 

The trials of flat circles!

A belated merry christmas and a happy new year!

For christmas I got a lovely bag of wool (among other things, like a quilt and cushion I will be sharing sooooon). I sort of knew I was getting this wool as I had asked for it, but because it's REALLY expensive (£4.25 a 50g ball!!!) I didn't expect to get all the colours I had asked for, but I did! This wool was planned for a special project that I've been craving to make for ages now. This cushion that I am stealing from little tin bird, who incidently orginally took it from here. 

I must admit that I am absolutely rubbish at thinking up new designs and projects of my own to make, and also there are two many wonderful things to be found in blogland for me to make for myself I would never get the time to make anything I thought up myself.

I couldn't get exactly the same colours as little tin bird as they have discontinued the yellow and orange, fortunately I managed to find a similar yellow in king cole merino wool dk but there is no orange to be seen anywhere!

So I started to make the cushion and it was all going pretty well until I got the the dark blue on the outside and realised I'd made a mistake! I am always slightly heartbroken when this happens (as it often does) BUT I thought I could fix it. So I carried on thinking that all was fine and dandy. No it wasn't, I finally figured it out and have to take it back to the yellow. What I haven't already mentionned is this is about the third time I've needed to take it back after making some colour choice mistakes too. Boo hoo. 

In conclusion I have decided I need to concentrate more to avoid these silly mistakes, and I wanted to take a picture of my efforts before I undid half of it, just to pove it did happen!

Finger crochet

So, I found the video of the finger crocheting and had to give it a go. The benefits of doing a blanket this way are that it works up VERY quickly and it makes a very thick and warm blanket. After I'd finished mine I've decided that it's just not for me, it doesn't look bad, but it's definitely no where near as neat as I'd like it to be. Anyway I'll put some pictures up.

As you can see from the above picture, it was going slightly wonky at the end. I'm not really sure what I was doing wrong as the first half is pretty straight!

Well, it was a good experiment but I think I'll stick to using a hook from now on!

Christmassy!

I am finally allowing myself to feel CHRISTMASSY after a hellish few weeks full of deadlines and several thousand word limits. Boo! However, after handing everything into university yesterday I am able to relax and look forward to the festive season.

I have been so excited for the coming of thursday of this week, I'm going out for a christmas curry party tonight, going to York tomorrow (well we're actually just going for Cath Kidston and Betty's!) and then christmas tree decorating when we get back!

And just to start it all off nicely I woke up to this...

Which of course is no where near as impressive as last years offering...

As I am now 'free' from university work for a little bit, as soon as I got home yesterday I finally started to catch up on lost AND more importantly, crocheting. In fact I found this inspiring video and just had to give it a go!

At first I thought it would look a bit naff but after a few rows I really got into it. It doesn't look anywhere near as impressive as normal crocheting but it grows so quickly! I'll get round to taking a photo soon! xx