Apparently It's Snuggly

Naomi just sent me this picture of her vintage vertical stripe crochet blanket in use.

I think she likes it :)

2015 Round Up and the First Finish of 2016

The final tally for 2015 stands at 46 books read, 57 finishes and 9 pairs of shoes bought. A bit down on previous years but the books included quite a few mammoth 1000 page plus ones so I don't feel too bad at falling below one a week.
The nearest guess was Kerry with a total of 146, so if you send me your address Kerry, I'll pop some sort of small prize in the post. I've reset the counter so you are welcome to make a guess on this year's totals by commenting on this post.
I can show some of the things I'd made for Christmas gifts now. The big tada moment is for the vintage vertical stripe CAL blanket I made for Naomi.

This took ages! Come to think of it, it's probably why the finish count was down too. Eagle eyed readers will spot a colour shift at one side. I ran out of the original wools before it was wide enough, so I went back to the on-line shop I'd bought them from and just repeated the same shopping cart from my history. Now I know that different dye lots can have an effect, but to go from the hot pink on one side of the blanket to the magenta on the other seems excessive. Good job I was going for a loud multi coloured effect.
For my December Gifted Gorgeousness post I shamelessly posted a picture of a ball of wool, and said it was going to be a Christmas gift. Well, it made it. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture (well I was a bit short of time to get it wrapped up and delivered), but I did actually make three of them in the end the brown one from the wool I showed and a duck egg blue one as gifts for friends, and this one for myself.

The pattern is by Kalurah Hudson and you can find it on Ravelry here
Also on Ravelry was this pattern which I used to make these cunning hairclips for the girls

Girl walks down the road in that hairclip, people know she's not afraid of anything

And Ravelry again (anyone detecting a theme here?) for the pattern for this knitted choker.

And finally the first finish of 2016. Possibly the weirdest thing I've ever knitted.

Eloise asked me to knit her a beard as a birthday gift for a friend. (Don't ask, I didn't). The pattern for this came from Mollie Makes, and the inset picture shows Eloise modelling it because the picture of it just lying there is more roadkill than facial hair

A Little Progress

Still not what you'd exactly call a blanket, but a little bit closer to one:-

I've finished a Christmas Ornament too, but it's for an exchange so I can't show it yet

September's Gifted Gorgeousness

It's Gifted Gorgeousness Day SAL, the day when we show something we have recieved, made as or made from a gift. As explained much better on Jo's Blog. Here is my September offerering.
A little Happy Sushi purse, all ready for Naomi to take off to Uni.
And a crochet blanket... NOT all ready to take off to Uni
Oh well, maybe it'll be finished by Christmas.

Just for fun I thought I'd share September's page from my kitchen calendar. It features vintage advertising images, and while some of them are lovely, others have not stood the test of time as well and are frankly quite bizarre. Like this one, which clearly illustrates a psychopathic older sister, force feeding her little brother a delicious bowl of Cornflakes and Strychnine.

Ornaments, apples and hooky

And here we are in December! Hi to anyone who has come over here via the Advent Calender on Jo's Blog. A Christmassy post for you all.


The Needlecraft Haven Ornament Exchange finished last week. Here is the ornament I sent to Mary (no blog as far as I am aware)
This is He's a Flake by LHN, stitched on  hand dyed linen from The Crafty Kitten, and backed with the vintage fabric shown, which I bought from Rag Rescue (well worth a visit), and finished with a few pompom "snowballs".

And here is the one I recieved from Barb. Thank you Barb, I totally love it, it is so pretty and delicate and stitched entirely over 1.
It also came wrapped up in the Christmas fabric it is sitting on, which was very thoughtful.

I've also taken part in an ornament exchange via The Gift of Stitching, here is the beautiful ornament I received from Melanie (Don't know of any blog for Melanie either). It looks like a real vintage glass ornament doesn't it? 
Thank you Melanie, its just lovely.
I can't show you the one I sent to Melanie because I used the Monthly Challenge design and it's not reveal day yet, I'll bore you with that one later ;D.

And what about the apples and hooky I hear you ask. Well ta da!
A snuggly little apple cosy a la Mollie Makes.
I've wanted to make one of these since the fabulous Mollie Makes was first launched, and Eloise has been desperate for a cosy to keep her poor neglected little apple safe and warm on it's perilous journey into college.  I mean the girl has literally been pining for an apple cosy. 
If you've been following this blog for a while you'll know that crochet is something I struggle with but last week I bit the bullet and had a go and just like Eliza Doolittle "By George, I think she's got it!"
OK so attempt one was more like a grapefruit cosy, but, 
Look. At. That.
Can you tell I'm excited?
I suspect I may have found a new addiction. Ho Hum.

Hooking and snapping

I did it! I mastered the two colour thing :-

I know the colour combination is revolting, but I was using up oddments to practice. It is, however, official. There is now no stopping me. Blanket here I come.

I've bought this wool for the purpose. It's Stylecraft and the colours are, clockwise from the left :-Cream, Camel, Copper, Mocha, Khaki, and Sunshine.
I'm not 100% sure if the Sunshine isn't a little too strident. What do you think?


At the weekend I decided to practice my photography and try and get used to David's fancy-schmancy camera using the girls as victims models.

These were my favourite shots of each of them :-

Eloise, whose tights are meant to look like that apparently.

Naomi looking pensive (Damn! I was going for thoughtful)

And these are a couple of  more arty type ones :-Glitter!                                                                          

Lollipop!