Falling Out With Olive

I took 4 balls of KingCole Riot DK with me on holidays, and, having searched for a simple pattern before we left, I'd decided to start an Olive Twist Shawl, inspired by the lovely lovely Meredith of mereknits.

I looked up the Olive Twist pattern on ravelry, saved it on my phone, packed up my yarn, hooks and an empty dental floss box, and boarded the plane. What? Don't you always pack an empty dental floss box when you fly ? You mean it's not on your essentials-in-hand-luggage list ? Nop, me neither, until my local crochet group pointed out that whilst crochet hooks are allowed on planes, scissors aren't. Their suggested solution - should you need to cut your yarn at 30,000 feet (is that how high a plane is ? No idea, but it sounds good :) - use the little metal thingy on the dental floss box. Genius!

And so I joined the mile-high-crochet-club! Rock and roll baby! Yeahhhh!

I wish I could say that whilst on holiday I spent many a happy hour hooking by the pool. I did spend quite a bit of time doing just that, but it wasn't happy. Let's just say Olive and I did not get along. Determined though, I had lengthy email conversations with Meredith (who by a bizarre twist of fate actually only lives about 20 miles from where we were staying) and still the pattern somehow evaded me. Stubborn as a mule, I persevered.

After over 2 weeks of crocheting, frogging, crocheting, frogging, frogging more , shrieking, frogging more, crocheting, swearing, frogging again, crying ( ok so I didn't actually cry) and then finally realizing that I had actually invented my own pattern - which I didn't even like - I gave in. Yes, I admitted defeat.

I couldn't bare to rip the whole thing back though, (in fact what I wanted to do was burn the wretched thing) but I was very sensible and calm (unusual) and finished off the row I was on, and then gave it to Little Miss for her new doll.

I wasn't very much in love with King Cole Riot at this point either, but had three and a half balls to use up, so I had a flick through one of my new books, One Skein Wonders.

The eagle-eyed among you will remember I blogged about it before here. I really really love this book. My crochet book collection is quite extensive, I am a bit addicted to buying crochet books (nearly as much as buying yarn), but this one ranks up there with my favourites. I had a flick through and found a great pattern for some doll clothes. 

I made the jacket of the Rainbow Doll ensemble, but left the sleeves off to make it a sleeveless cardigan. It was a bit big for dolly - she was being cuddled in bed by Little Miss at the time and so wasn't available for a fitting.

So I made into a sort of double-breasted-wrap-sleeveless cardy, complete with button and loop fastening.

Little Miss finger-crocheted some bobbles for Dolly's hair, and a bracelet. We like the finished outfit, what do you think ?

One other twist of fate - I bought a magazine whilst away, which turned out to have the Olive Twist pattern in it! Total accident!

I still haven't made up with Olive, however now I was back on speaking terms with the King Cole Riot, but I needed a project for the flight home. It had to be really simple, an overnight flight with 3 children and the hope of maybe watching a movie doesn't leave much brain capacity for complicated crocheting .

Being unable to find anything that seemed simple enough I decided to do a sort of granny stripe-come-simple-filet-crochet scarf-cowl thingy (catchy, huh), of my own design. For now I will leave you with a sneak peek, and I'll post more pictures, and the pattern, another time :)

August Break Day 20 : Peaceful

Hello, and welcome to Day 20 of the August Break.

Today's theme is "Peaceful". Wow, Day 20! Awesome!

I am not, by nature, a peaceful person. Mind always on the go, brain always busy, hands never still. I do almost feel a sense of calm though when I'm looking through my camera lens at flowers and foliage.  Perhaps it's a sense of being in that moment, focusing on the framing of the image, just for a second shutting out the mayhem that usually surrounds me.

These pictures were all taken on our holiday these last couple of weeks. I'm surprised, pleasantly so, at the richness of plant-life around us in Florida. With 3 Little People in tow I wasn't at my most peaceful whilst snapping these pictures, however they do evoke a certain contentment whilst reviewing them :) Hope you enjoy them too :) And if anyone would like to attach names to any varieties, please feel free to inform me!

So many wonderful colours and textures ....

August Break Day 18: Jump

Welcome to Day 18 of the August Break.

Today's theme is "Jump". Golly gosh really nearly caught up, only a few more days of multi-posting!

I've been REAALLLLY looking forward to this post :) All week I've been messing about with my fancy-pants camera and it's various fancy-pants settings. One such setting is a sort of "Action mode" where you hold down the clicky button thing and the camera takes a series of shots, paparazzi style, for as long as the button is held down. You get loads of action shots that would be really hard to get with a one-click setting (well, for me, anyway). I've taken loads of the Little People jumping into the pool. The pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy!

There :) Doesn't that just make you smile :D

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August Break Day 19 : Black and White

Hello, and welcome to Day 19 of the August Break.

Today's theme is " Black and White". Still with me ? Good-o :)

Black and white. That's actually, for me, really hard as a theme. I've had a virtual flick through my photographs to find something black and white - but with extremely limited success. I thought about playing around with settings on my iPad and presenting some pictures in monochrome or sepia-tone, but, well, it's just Not Me. Okay so it might've been intriguing to see what photo-editing could do to some gloriously colorful photos, maybe they would evoke a different feeling ? Well, we'll never know. At least not now. Cos I just didn't really want to mess with my already lovely pictures.

I did however find a couple of photos that were neeeeearly black and white that I'd taken around our holiday villa. It's owned by my lovely friend Carla of http://www.disneyretreatvilla.co.uk. Carla and I met 12 years ago in our ante-natal classes, my Little Man and her Little Lady have known each other since they were babies (well since they were bumps technically lol), they've been at the same primary school for 7 years and are shortly off to the big adventure of secondary school together. Most of the other children from their year are going to the nearest school but our two have not followed the herd, they have struck out on a different path to the majority, and are starting another school together. And excitingly, they will be in the same tutor group together for at least 5 years. And I'm thrilled that Carla and I are continuing down the path of parenthood together :) I've used that word "together" a lot there - but I don't care! Together together together :D

Anyway. To get back to the villa. It really is a home from home. This is our second visit, and there are so many lovely touches around the place. 

For a start there are plants everywhere. They're imitation but it doesn't matter, they look fabulously lush, real ones aren't appropriate in a holiday home, and they really add to the homeliness :)

Let's takes a closer look at those wine glasses shall we .....

So pretty! Upon arrival the dining table is properly set with red mats, a table runner and white crockery. Oh and the wine glasses of course. And I forgot - again - to take a photo of the table all set when we arrived - maybe next time :) NB take note of black and white table runner fulfilling today's theme :)

The kitchen table has Rennie Mackintosh designs on the mats. I ADORE Rennie Mackintosh, especially the rose. Beautiful. (And red just happens to be my favorite colour :)

And in the guest bathroom more touches of black and white .... love these! I'd like them at home actually!

..... and check out the towels - adorable!

And even the shower curtain matches! Brilliant! (don't think I've ever taken a photo of a shower curtain before - that's the holiday vibe for you :)

Our en-suite is MASSIVE with some great beachy scenes .....

.... and more fab towels .... now, when at home would I have a towel with an embroidered palm tree .... hmm getting that creative sparkle again .....

Speaking of towels, my absolute favorite are the pool towels ....

Yes you're right, I have included this picture in a previous post, but the towels deserve a special mention - I happen to know they were purchased in a supermarket not a mile from our house back home LOL

The sofas are mega comfy. I have a bit of an OCD thing about sofas, comes from having to sit on so many truly hideous ones during the student years I reckon. To say that these sofas are even acceptable is a b-i-g compliment, so to say mega-comfy ? Well let's just say I think I prefer them to our brand new recliny ones at home (ssshhhhh don't tell hubby :-/ ). And they have very funky cushions too. 

And finally, the Little People's bedrooms have loads of fun Disney features on the walls and bedding. Although it's *only* our second visit, our Little People felt instantly at home. A bit too much at home if the discarded clothes, teddies, books etc are anything to go by ....

Ok, so there wasn't that much black and white but it did get this post off to a flying start, and that's good enough for me :)

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