Happy Weekend

This weekend has been so lazy, slow and relaxing.  Nothing planned, in fact I haven't left the house at all. Sometimes that is just blissful, pottering about enjoying home comforts :)

Yesterday I crocheted for hours and hours and hours and hours. And hours. Everyone else seemed happy doing their own thing so I just left them all to it and caught up on some TV I'd recorded and spent a happy hooky morning. And afternoon. And evening.

The postman obviously knew I was about to run out of Stylecraft Special DK Pomegranate at lunchtime and very kindly delived my wool order in the nick of time. I love how Wool Warehouse package their wool deliveries in these sort of organza bags, such a nice touch.

I know you're thinking I couldn't possibly need more wool, and really you are right. I usually buy acrylic as it's so affordable and practical, but I'd really like to use something more luxurious for some scarves come winter. Trouble is, I just can't justify buying a load all at once. So, to ease the pain, often when I buy a few balls of acrylic I sneak in a ball of delicious cashmerino. My favourite is the Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK by Sublime. Oooooooh it is SO sublime, it's like stroking a cloud. I'm going for pastels with this collection as I can't get my head round vibrant and silky-soft together. I've a couple of balls of Rowan Pure Wool DK in there too but its quite scratchy by comparison. Cushion covers perhaps.

And while we're on the subject of wool, my lovely lovely crafty friend KC (she doesn't have a sunshine band though) has just come back from a fortnight in Tasmania. As you do. I missed her loads, she is my craft and coffee buddy, and a real shoulder for me to offload onto about stresses with Little Man. She works with children with special needs, a lot of them are autistic so she really understands. Plus our friendship goes way back about 15 years, as my husband and I used to work with her husband, and now all our children go to school together. Anyway, as I said she's just back from Tasmania. (She went with 2 old Uni friends of hers, and didn't take husband or children. Wow!) And bless her sweet sweet heart, she brought me back a present....... some wool of course! Oh my heart leapt with joy! Joy that I have SUCH a Dear Friend, joy that she thought of me at all, and joy that the present was wool. She knows me so well. It's some lovely Alpaca Wool from the Tasmanian Wool centre. Its colours are a really lovely earthy winter palette so I'll be saving it for some gloves or maybe a hat later in the year :)

KC also took loads of wonderful craft-related pictures on her trip, and if she has time, she'll do a guest post here on emerald cottage so she can share her photos with you all :)

Today everyone was quite happy to stay at home, and in the afternoon Little Miss did some baking, She made these biscuits all by herself, I only did the in and out of the oven part. I wasn't even in the kitchen when she was weighing, measuring, rubbing in and so on. Not bad for a 10 year old :) (There were a lot more biscuits but they didn't last long enough to photograph)....

Later we sat round the table doing some colouring. During the Easter holidays we had bought some bargain pound-shop-type-of-shop-felt-tips - £3 for 100 pens, and they're pretty good.  I was kind of expecting them to be a bit rubbish. Look at that range of colours ....

We've got a couple of these amazing colour-by-number books that we bought in Florida last year.  The girls stayed colouring for about an hour, but I was sat there another hour on my own. Very therapeutic :) I love the mosaic style appearance of the resulting picture. I'm brazenly showing off my picture here. The girls didn't finish theirs. No staying power, children these days.

Now. As you know I'm a crocheter, I can knit too, but I always find it slower, and less forgiving in terms of mistakes. But I've had a bit of a knitting itch lately that I need to scratch. I also have some sock yarn that I bought by accident (I know, I know) so I'm going to join in on a Sockalong (such a fab name) with WinwickMum Christine (http://winwickmum.blogspot.co.uk/p/sockalong.html). I had to dig out the bag of knitting needles that my Mum gave me last time I was back home.

My Mum was an amazing knitter but doesn't do it any more at all now really. I think she may have done a knitting needle cull before she gave me her bag, I'm sure she had way more than these. Look how oranised she is, keeping the packs. The wooden ones were magazine freebies in case you're wondering. So I set aside some sock knitting stuff so I'll be ready to start on May 3rd. I think that is sock yarn ? Is it ? Anyone ?? 

One last little job that I did today was button sorting. Gosh if colouring-in is therapeutic then I don't know how to describe button-sorting. Mesmerising ? Soporific ? I find it sooooo relaxing. What is that ? Why is fiddling around with teeny bits of flat plastic or wood sooooo satisfying? I'd found these little spice jars in the charity shop, they were just so cute, and seemed like a full set as there were 8 of them, so I had to buy them really. No really, I did. Thery didn't even smell that spicy. I already had a perfectly good set of random mustard/pickle/jam jars, but they Didn't Match Each Other. And we all know how I don't really do random. And yes, I also already had a perfectly good button tin that even has pictures of buttons on it for heavens sake. But look, I HAD to buy these jars. I mean they were for charity. Look ..... see ?

I hope you all had relaxing weekends too :)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Unravel

Beware! Long post ahead!

On Saturday my friend and I abandoned our menfolk and children, and skived off from all domestic duties, to go to Unravel, the yarny craft show that is run every year in Farnham. We hadn't been before, in fact we'd never managed a craft show together before .... there was always a football match or choir rehearsal or something that at least one of our children would've had to have gone to. What made it even better this time was that the children were going to a party so the menfolk would have to the taxiing around (for a change!). Joyous indeed :)

Anyway, we leapt into the car and before you could say "Mum, will you help me with my homework" we sped off. Sat-nav took us by a scenic route (3 times round Farnham town centre anyone ?) but we got there eventually, found a perfect parking spot, and scampered off towards the venue like a couple of nutters who'd been let out for the day (actually that pretty much sums it up).

Unravel describes itself as a knitting festival, but the first stalls we came across were spinning, weaving and felting, so really it's just one big happy jolly yarny love-in. We booked ourselves onto a felting workshop running later in the day, and went off exploring.

Well. Oh. My. Golly. Gosh. There was soooooooo much to see. Yarn, yarn, crocheting, yarn, knitted items, more yarn, buttons, more yarn, yarny accessories, yet more yarn, and did I mention the yarn ? 

As I said, almost the first thing we saw was this lovely lady spinning. So very calming to watch. "Would you like a go dear?" she said to me. "Would I like a go ? Try and stop me!". So, I sat down, and with a little instruction, I had a go. A really bad go. It turns out I am seriously totally CRAP (sorry, but it has to be said) at spinning. Yes I could push the pedal but I was too fast, not keeping it even enough, I kept forgetting to let the yarn go in, it all sort of overwound, tangled itself all up, snapped, eurgh. The stuff I did actually spin ended up so tight it was like wire. My little spinning lady was so lovely ... "you're doing ever so well dear, keep trying". But it was no good. I was dreadful. I have now found a craft I won't be taking up. I shall leave it to the little old ladies and anyone else who can manage it, and will just watch in admiration from the side-lines.

Next up was The Great Hall. Yarny heaven. Serious, I-have-died-and-want-to-stay-here-forever heaven. Lots of stalls with merino tops (I know what is thanks to the felting lady), oh my gosh so soft I just want to lie in a bed of them forever. There were yarns of all colours, shapes, sizes, and lots of crafted produce on display showing the yarns crocheted or knitted up. And what's more, lots of the attendees were sporting hand-made items - I loved this lady's button necklace.  She thought I was a bit bonkers when I asked if I could take a photo of it :) Isn't it marvelous :)

We had a lovely chat with Louise Walker who was showing some of her fabulous animal creations. I just LOVE the name of her book "Faux Taxidermy Knits" - how brilliant! I wish I'd taken some pictures of her creatures, they really were fab. Louise was really lovely, so bubbly and enthusiastic, I am sure she will go far :)

There was room after room after room of stalls of gorgeous fibers and yarns. My favourite though was Amanda's yarns, at the Natural Dye Studio stall. Amanda, who also hosts a blog amandascrochetblog.blogspot.co.uk, hand-dyes her yarns, they are the most amazing colours, truly DiVine.

On display at her stall was a Zodiac crochet blanket of Amanda's design, made by her crochet group. I kept coming back to gaze at it, the colours were so mesmerizing, and knowing that right alongside, on sale, was all the yarn needed to make such an object of beauty, was almost too much to bear.

And then there was the fact that Amanda is winding down the dyeing side of her business, so this was the last of the yarn. Waaaaaaah :( However, if I'd come home with all the yarn required, hubby would have sent me out to work, and we'd have needed an extra room to store it in, and a spare year to do all the crocheting. It just wasn't to be. Let's just have another look though. Sigh.

Just outside the Great Hall we noticed this very strange thing hanging down from the ceiling, like the drawings in Dr Seuss books, or some weird blue seaweed. Hanging from various points were random balls of blue wool with the occasional knitting needle sticking out. We wandered over to see what this was all about, and discovered we could be part of Sarah Filmer's Blue Project - you can read about it here. (www.sarahfilmer.com/blue-jumper).

We grabbed a pair of knitting needles (or the one-and-only crochet hook - shameful!) and got busy putting our own little stamp on the blue-jumper. This was my bit. Not my finest crochet hour, but lots of fun :)

Soon it was time for our wet felting workshop. We were a small group, just of 4 of us with an enthusiastic teacher.  Here's our kit all laid out .....

We started off with this lovely fluffy stuff ....

.... then we made into a soggy heap ...

.... rolled it and bashed it about a bit ....

.... and somehow managed to get it to look like this! Miraculous!

Here are all our flowers together :) Really very pleasing, don't you think ?

There were some really fun stalls of vintage sewing and knitting patterns, and bits and pieces. We had a LOT of fun giggling at ancient patterns for men's string vests and things :) 

I did bag a wee bargain though, this gorgeous vintage cross-stitch book for £1.50 ........

There are some really great designs which have probably come full circle back into fashion since its first publication decades ago. 

And so the time has come for me to share some photos of the yarn I just had to buy.  We wandered around a lot but I kept coming back to this luxurious number by Manos del Uruguay. It is heavenly. A silk blend, it's amazing to the touch, I have no idea what to make with it, I couldn't possibly do it justice.

That was the buying floodgates opened then, and I went a bit mad! One stall had some samples of woven fabric (on an Ashford Rigid Heddle like mine), made with a variegated yarn on the warp, and a single colour on the weft. And so I bought this to do my own version ....  it's silky soft. Because it's silk. Soooooo gorgeous :)

And then I had a rummage in the sale box (which was still waaaaay dearer than I would normally spend on yarn - oops) and bought these Louise Harding balls as a 4-pack. More silky softness.

And since I couldn't make it my mind which of these skeins of squidginess to buy, I bought all three. And two of each.

And here it is altogether. Yummy yum!

All that ohh-ing and ash-ing at yarn makes a girl rather puckish and very thirsty, so we headed off to the cafe for a rather late lunch. We were standing having a sandwich and a cuppa (there were no seats left), and I was generally looking around, when right next to me I spotted this ....

... yes, a random little white paper bag, stuck on a pillar, saying "Take me!" with a "Have a nice day" sticker. I had a look around for the hidden camera, and after checking with my friend that I wasn't about to really embarrass myself (she thought I was) I tentatively peeled it off. The lady at the next table also thought I was mad, I think. I checked that she hadn't put it there and was waiting for an unsuspecting yarn addict to made a complete idiot of herself. She insisted she'd had nothing to do with it.

On the other side of the paper bag was this ....

Even more intriguing!  And when I opened it, iI found this little leather key fob thingy .....

Isn't it gorgeous! A total "pay-it-forward" type gesture. The little business card didn't even have a business name on it so there was no one I could thank for such a thoughtful gift.

We'd had a really fabulous day at Unravel, and this was the icing on the yarny cake :)

Stress-busting

Do you ever open a "new blog post" page and then think ...... crikey, what have I actually Got Done in the last week ? Yep, me too. Is it really nearly a week since I last posted? Well, that went by in a flash. In a flash of stress I think - poor Little Man was massively unsettled returning to school after a week off for half-term. Lots of tears and panic. I love having the Little People at home, and enjoy the more relaxed days of half-term, but that first week back ? It's never fun. However he seemed happier today, so fingers crossed.

So what does a good hooker do when she is feeling stressed ? That's right! Buy yarn!!! I'm thinking scarves and mitts for most of that lot. For Christmas. Well I'm telling myself that anyway ...

Obviously just buying yarn wasn't enough so I had a nosy round the charity shops too. I've had these artificial lilies since we moved house yeeeeears ago - I bought them so we could have the fresh-flower-look while we had people viewing the house that we were selling, but without actually having to replace the flowers every week. Currently they stand in a tall vase in my hall next to the front door. Over the years they have become a bit more battered and a couple have broken, so I was really chuffed to find these deep raspberry coloured beauties. They fill up the vase really rather well, and the addition of some colour completely changes the look. In the next shop I spotted this cute little mini-pitcher, and a selection of napkins - always handy to top up the fabric stash :) And the whole lot was less than a fiver! Bonkers! (Wish I could say the same about the yarn .....)

I mentioned in my last post I'd been playing with lilac, green and white .... isn't that a winning combo :)

Naturally being in a state of medium stress necessitates lots of crochet therapy. And I am soooooooo nearly finished my rose-blanket. I've gone through loving it then hating it, then leaving it for weeks untouched, then feeling all motivated and doing a load more, then realizing I'd run out of the pink and needed more but had no clue what I'd used (naughty hooker! Must be more organized) then accepting it would have to be smaller, and am currently really motivated and on the final push to get it done. Before the baby it's for starts school or something.

I've sewn in all the ends (yes I know I should have done it as I went along), and am working on the border.

It's looking really rather pretty I think :)

The blocking bit, and it does need it, is filling me with dread, but I'm really hoping I can do a big ta-dah this week :) 

Thanks for all your get well wishes for the Little Peeps, they are all better now and have very kindly shared their germs with good old Mum. Lemsip anyone ? Cheers :) xxxxxxx

Autumn Shades

Now that school is in full swing and Little Man has settled in better, I've started running again in the mornings. I LOVE running. I'm not fast, and it isn't pretty, but it's wonderfully liberating, and I find it clears my head and sets me up for the rest of the day.

At the end of my run on Friday morning I took some pictures, with my phone, so they're not that great, but running with a digital SLR round your neck is not advisable. 

We are so lucky, we live in suburbia but have loads of green space around too. My run took me down leafy paths alongside the river. 

Autumn was in evidence all around: berries, seed-heads, crispy crunchy leaves. Gorgeous gorgeous colours.

Oh dear the sky is looking a bit gloomy now .....

Best head for the path where the sun is still shining ....

Back at home, feeling inspired by all the autumn-colour-gorgeous-ness, I finally made a decision on the yarns to use for my autumn blanket. Back in August in Florida (bear with me, I know it sounds random) I bought a load of lovely scrummy yummy new yarn in loads of lovely scrummy yummy colours. Most of which were bizarrely autumny. I mean, why would I be choosing autumn colours when it was flipping BOILing ?!  Since we got back I've been trying really hard to finish off some other bits and pieces before embarking on a new project. But sod that :) I can't wait any longer :)

Look look look look look !!!!! Gorgeous or what! 

I tell you, I might not even bother to do the blanket, I might just leave the basket sitting about looking all colorful and amazing. 

And I did manage to finish one other project, a scarf that's a Christmas present. It's currently half-blocked so I can't do a proper ta-da yet, but here's a little preview ....

Repeat after me .....

I must not start new blanket until pink scarf is done and poppy squares are finished.
I must not start new blanket until pink scarf is done and poppy squares are finished.
I must not start new blanket until pink scarf is done and poppy squares are finished.

I must not start new blanket until pink scarf is done and poppy squares are finished.

......

xxxx