A first and a second and a too many times to mention

You know that stash of All Seasons Cotton I had? Well, I decided that the beauty of this yarn is in the texture and drape that's created once it's been crocheted up - frankly, it'd be wasted on granny squares.

Soooooooo, I went and added to my stash and am making my first ripple....

Lovely, ripply stripes. What could be better?

The yarn is aran weight, which calls for hook sizes of 5mm to 6mms, but because I crochet quite tightly I'm using a 7mm hook. I think this will improve the drape of the finished piece and give a slightly more open texture. And it means I get to use my red crochet hook. Small things...

And the second?

A second coffee date dress. This time in navy polka dots...

Love it.

And the too many times to mention is this place...

One of my favourite places on earth. I've been holidaying here, on and off, since I was a child.

I can't wait.

I can't wait to see that beach again and to see the mountains again...

and I can't wait to be sitting on the campsite rippling away at my blanket.

So, please wish for some good weather for me and, if I'm lucky, I'll be up on the headland with the Mr to view another sunset like this one...

Paper craft workshop

On Sunday #1 and I went along to a paper craft workshop that was part of the Arts and Crafts festival held annually in our area.

We made a starry garland...

If you take a closer look you'll see that the stars are all made out of a Sylvanian families catalogue...

A paper bunting, also from the Sylvanian families catalogue...

and, out of old envelopes, a 10 pointed flower/star thing...

It was fun.

Also at the weekend we came across this sculpture whilst on a trip to the camping shop...

Apologies for rubbish photos taken on my phone.

It's a heron set alongside the banks of the River Mersey. It is really quite something, but I have to say, from the back it reminds me a lot of the iron chicken from the Clangers...

In which a crocheter attempts to make a dress

A while ago I came across the BurdaStyle website and upon searching the patterns found the 'coffee date dress'.

Photo and design by Elaine M. Huang aka the selfish seamstress

Since then I have been wanting to make it, but have doubted whether my sewing skills would be up to the job. My sewing machine is mostly used for shortening trousers and jeans and making incredibly easy home furnishings (think duvet and cushion covers). But I have made a couple of dresses and tops for #1....could I be up to it? The pattern claims to be suitable for an 'advanced novice' but upon reading the instructions I discover that it requires skills such as applying an all-in-one-facing and inserting a concealed zip. I am put off.

But then a wedding invitation arrived and I want to wear these shoes...

and rather than trawl the shops looking for a dress to go with them I decided to give the Coffee Date dress a go...

Armed with "The complete book of sewing" and the internet, I first of all made a prototype which I am not going to show you because it looks like it's made from an old sheet (it is). But anyway - it did the job of convincing me that perhaps I could make myself a dress.

So I did...

Weekend pursuits

Apart from running, my other weekend pursuits involved a bit of baking...

coffee and walnut fairy cakes with coffee buttercream icing. Oh, they were good.

A spot of crochet...

I'm not convinced about these but I have a stash of Rowan All Seasons Cotton left over from making the stripy throw and I just can't decide what to do with it. I'm wondering whether to make a blanket out of solid coloured squares like the two above. What do you think?

And after days (weeks?) of studiously ignoring it, I got around to tidying up the front garden. Since we moved into our house 4 years ago, we have done nothing to the front garden apart from keep it relatively tidy. Every January we start to see sweet pea shoots coming up and by May they are almost completely taking over. I've never known such hardy sweet peas - I think they are the wild variety, deep pink in colour and with no scent. Anyway, on Saturday afternoon I cut all the sweet pea plants down. That might seem a pity, but believe me, they just looked unkempt!

Underneath was revealed - a row of lily of the valley...

bluebells...

and lots of aquilegia...

I love that frilled one in the bottom picture, it reminds me of the frilly nappy covers babies used to wear in the 'old days'.

I also cut some of the lilac off the tree and brought it indoors...

but I now can't decide whether it smells nice or of cheap air freshener!

Bupa 10K

Fueled by risotto and coffee and walnut fairy cakes (last night) and scrambled eggs on a bagel (this morning), I managed to finish the Bupa 10K run in 1:01:03.

I know I wanted to finish under an hour, but considering that the last organised run that I took part in was the compulsory House cross-country competition circa 1986, I don't think I did too badly at all!

Minutes after finishing...

...can you tell how proud and happy I am?

A whirlwind of activity

I have been so busy sewing and crocheting recently that I have not been paying attention to the house. Like most people, I don't need much of an excuse to put off the housework (what a loathsome, tedious, never-ending business it is), but when I discovered a withered green bean on the floor this morning and remembered that we haven't eaten green beans since last week it forced me to have a good look around and I did not like what I saw!

So, I have cleaned the windows, tidied up all the toys, dusted and polished, taken #2 to his 'rhythm and rhyme' class, made and eaten lunch, washed up, vacuumed up all the crumbs and dust and the hairballs caused by this little lady...

plumped the sofa cushions, pegged a load of washing on the line and bought a bunch of ranunculus to brighten up the place.

Phew!

Now, I'm having a well-earned cup of tea and wondering how long it'll be until I can't see the floor for toys and the windows are full of smeary fingerprints again....

We are usually home from school at around 3:45pm, so around 4pm I reckon!

Granny square bunting

I finished a granny square bunting using some of the yarn left from the granny square blanket.

I used the 'Grandma's all square' tutorial from the Royal Sisters blog and made 9 squares simply because that's how many I got out of one ball of white wool.

Another crochet project underway...

This, depending on how far the yarn goes, is going to be either a tunic or a dress for my niece - I got lucky in John Lewis the other day - 3 balls of Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran in the bargain bucket.

Never visit a yarn shop without a rummage through the bargain bin, I say!

Granny square blanket

I finished the granny square blanket yesterday evening...

and, as you can see, decided to go with a cream border. I tried pink, on request, but it just didn't look right - I did get told off this morning though!.

I don't know how to describe the pattern I used for the border - I'm sure there'll be a name for it somewhere. I thought it'd be called a scallop, but I've looked that up on Google and it's not. It's not a shell stitch either. Anyway, what I did was work the following stitches into each 1ch space...(1dc, 3ch, 3tr) and into each corner space I worked (1dc, 3ch, 5tr). UK terminology there, just to be clear! Here's a close-up...

I am very, very pleased with how this blanket has turned out, but my goodness it's used an incredible amount of yarn. The final round alone used a whole 50g ball. I dread to think how much it must have cost. The yarn is Rowan handknit cotton and a few balls of Debbie Bliss cotton DK. Now according to the info on the yarn band, these yarns should knit/crochet to the same tension, but I don't think they do - the Debbie Bliss yarn is slightly thicker. They are both lovely yarns to work with though. I used a total of 17 different shades, some of which are now discontinued. Here it is in all it's glory, all 196 squares of colourful hooky goodness...

Now, I'm off for a sleep while #2 is napping. I think he's having a lot of trouble with cutting his molars at the moment. He's normally a very good sleeper but wouldn't settle until after 9 last night and then was awake again at 12:30am and just wouldn't go back to sleep again after that. We heard the police helicopter going round and round at 1:30 ...the milkman at 3:30am... #1 got up at 5:00am... it was a long night! I even considered at one point dosing #2 with medised left over from the days when you could buy it for young children - it was only the fact that it was 9 months out of date that stopped me! I have stocked up on teething powders this morning. Far better for him and I think that they really do work. I was also, in the small hours, considering self-medicating with this...

currently on offer at Morrisons (£3.99 instead of £9.99), but decided that turning up drunk at the school gates on a Tuesday morning would not be a good look!

Anyway, I'll leave you with a of gratuitous picture of crochet blanket beautifulness...

Blocking

Currently drying on the bedroom floor...

I can't say I enjoyed the process of pinning the blanket out - I've got a sore thumb from pushing in the pins and it was incredibly time-consuming - but I can tell that it's going to be worth the effort.

I haven't crocheted a border yet and was intending to do a few colourful rounds of grannying, but now I think I've changed my mind and will use what's left of the cream yarn.

And here's my new WIP, using up the leftover yarn from the blanket...

Let's go for a run

I didn't feel like running today, but the 10k run I'm training for is only two weeks away and I want to finish in under an hour. I mostly exercise in the gym - Sunday is the only chance I get to run outside. And running outside makes a huge difference to how far I run - boredom kicks in far earlier on a treadmill.

The essential kit...

We'll start running when we get to the giant yellow pencil...

Only a few minutes later and we're here - who'd have thought we were in a city?

run along the river... once around the lake...

back along the river... we're over half-way now... leave the river behind and head back through the woods...

stopping for a moment to admire the bluebells...

and home to collect my reward: a breakfast of scrambled eggs and fresh coffee.

Now, according to mapmyrun.com that was 9.85km and it took an hour. That wasn't so bad now, was it? And think of the calories it used - now, what can I eat?!