Pot holder

Hook size: 2mm
Yarn: Paton's 100% cotton 4ply
Pattern: Pot holder from 'Lacy Crochet'

Lacy Crochet

I like a bit of lacy crochet occasionally - you know the kind that requires ridiculously small steel crochet hooks like these. The red hook is a 4.5mm, the rest 2mm and smaller...

I hadn't done any lace crochet for a while though - not since making some snowflakes like this for Christmas cards a couple of years ago.

photo from Women's Weekly

A long time ago, whilst I was at University in Lancaster, I used to visit the Assembly Rooms to rummage through the baskets of lace and if I was lucky I'd find bits of crochet edging that I'd copy to edge pillowcases. I've still got some of them, look...

So recently I purchased a Japanese book called 'Lacy Crochet'...

which contains plenty of cute patterns, here are some of my favourites...

braids...

ribbons and edgings...

pincushions...

pot holders...

and corsages...

Whilst the book has been translated into English, the instructions are such that you need to know how to decipher crochet charts like this one...

but there are plenty of websites to go to for help for this kind of thing and it's fairly easy once you get the hang of it. It takes away the confusion between UK and US stitch names for one thing!

My first project from the book is the pincushion, made with a 1.75mm hook and a ball of Rowan's lurex shimmer that I found in my stash...

Pretty cute, don't you think?

Baby doll ripple

This afternoon there have been tears and cries of 'naughty mummy' from #1. My crime? Not letting her mop the kitchen floor with her toy mop. I am wondering whether I'll get the same reaction, or worse, in 10 years time when I ask her to mop the kitchen floor with my mop!

I am hoping to get back into her good books with a little ripple blanket I've made for one of her dolls with the last of the All Seasons Cotton...

If only I'd followed my own advice though and sewn in the ends as I went along.

Sunshine baby dress

Back in May I started the Sunshine baby dress from the May/June '10 issue of 'Crochet Today'. I made it up really quickly - almost finishing it whilst on holiday in Scotland, but on the last round I spotted a mistake I'd made a couple of rounds earlier. I doubt anyone would ever have noticed, but it bugged me so much that I couldn't bring myself to finish the dress completely. This weekend I found my motivation, pulled it back to fix the mistake and finished it...

There are 5 little blue rosebuds around the front yoke...

I think it's quite pretty.

Unfortunately, I haven't yet delivered the dress to its intended recipient, so I can't show you what it looks like on, but to give you some idea, here it is being beautifully, and very ably, modelled by Max the large monkey...

This is not just coffee...

...this is Swedish coffee!!

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway, hosted by Julie at Swedish House, to celebrate the recent royal wedding of Crown Princess Victoria. There was a choice of coffee or chocolate and I won the coffee - I am guessing the pool of entrants for the coffee was somewhat smaller than for the chocolate!

I've sampled it straightaway, sprinkled with cinnamon and with a Tunnocks teacake on the side....mmmmmm, delicious!

Tack, Julie!

This week I will be mostly...

• admiring a beautiful bunch of peonies and lilies.

• visiting health professionals. One down (the dentist) and two to go. The doctor, to find out what is causing my fatigue, and the optician for #1 and me. #2 totally refused to open his mouth for the dentist, but given I have to practically get him into a head-lock just to clean his teeth this was hardly surprising!

• playing endless rounds of 'red dog, blue dog'

• picking up after two children - nothing new there then! Just look what they did to my blankets the other day. I guess they're there to be used though!

• wishing it would stop raining so that we can spend more time outside.

• finding the motivation to finish the pink cardigan. The knitting part is nearly done and I'm going to try really hard to sew it together right away rather than putting it off for weeks (which is what normally happens)

• trying to decide what to crochet next.

p.s. thanks for all your comments on my last post.

A photo in print, albeit inadvertently

I clicked over to Sarah London's blog this morning. Do you know her blog? If you like crochet you really must start visiting - it's full of wonderful colourful crochet and there are plenty of gorgeous patterns to buy. Anyhow, her latest post shows a feature she's done for a magazine called Flow. Below is one of the photographs from the magazine. Now look closely at the picture of granny squares, the one above the lady in the delightful granny square skirt...

originally uploaded by sarah london textiles.

Does it look familiar? It does to me, because it is my photo - first seen here

I can't quite decide how I feel about someone using this photograph without asking first...I think I should be flattered that it is deemed pretty enough to be featured in a magazine, but then part of me is asking 'Can they do that? Can they really publish my photograph without permission?' On the whole, though, I have decided to be flattered. It is a lovely set of granny squares after all!

In other news, I am so tired that I am starting to think there is something wrong with me. At times I feel as though I'm not standing on firm ground - a bit like being on a ship I suppose. Not great when the holidays are due to start. I think I'd better go get my iron levels checked! And before anyone asks, no I'm not pregnant!! This lethargy is the reason I still haven't shared the finished ripple. That and the fact it's been raining here all week so the light levels have not been great. Ah, well....I'll get around to it soon. Oh, go on then, here's a sneak preview...

Have a great weekend all!

Biscuits

My Grandad was a man who, if you don't count my Grannie, had 3 passions in life: Alsatian dogs, Citroen cars and biscuits. I once asked him how many biscuits he ate a day and the answer was "10 on a good day". Well, I don't know if a good day was a day with a lot of biscuits or a day where he held back, but it's a fairly impressive number whichever way you care to look at it! Despite this 10 biscuits a day diet, he managed to stay as thin as a lath, a characteristic I have not been fortunate enough to inherit.

Anyway, to get to the point of today's post, his favourite biscuits were ANZACs and I made a batch yesterday. As they come highly recommended by a biscuit expert, I thought I'd share.

The recipe came from this book - a great favourite of mine.

I really recommend it (although you'll need a set of measuring cups). As well as the ANZACs, it contains the best Millionaire Shortbread recipe I have ever tasted and I don't even like Millionaire Shortbread. I think it's the coconut in the base that makes the difference.

Shall I show you some of the tempting things you could make if you had this book?

Top row L-R: millionaire shortbread, tiramisu, lemon tart

Middle, L-R: amaretti and orange curd parfait & chocolate semi-freddo, chocolate filled biscuits, ginger puddings

Bottom, L-R: chocolate coconut 'melt and mix' cake, almond tartlets, white chocolate 'melt and mix' cake.

All totally delicious. Are you tempted yet?

Right, I'd better be off - I've a cake to bake for the school summer fair and a chicken to joint before tea time! It's never ending, is it? Have a lovely weekend all!

New WIP

I found myself at a bit of a loose end last night with no crochet to do. So I was pleased when some new yarn dropped through my letterbox this morning. 4 balls of Sirdar Juicy DK to make a cardigan for #1. She choose pink and it is a little too pink in my opinion, but then I am not a 5 year old girl!

The yarn is now discontinued and there are some bargains to be had on the internet - I got mine half-price on ebay. It's a lovely soft yarn - a blend of bamboo and cotton - with a slight sheen. I do find, though, that it's prone to splitting while being worked up.

The cardigan I'm making is short-sleeved and has a lacy yoke. It's a nice easy pattern for novice knitters like me. Here, as they say on Blue Peter, is one I made earlier (around this time last year)...

And that's #1 pulling her best 'butter wouldn't melt' expression!

Weekend pursuits

I hope you all had a great weekend. Mine seemed a bit busier than usual...

shopping for fabric at John Lewis while resisting the yarn sale (loads of Rowan milk cotton and fine merino dk, if you're interested). I couldn't get my camera to take a photo of the fabric with the colours true to life, but this is destined to be made into the Barcelona skirt.

A little bit of hooking. The ripple just needs a few ends sewing in now.

I'm procrastinating about sewing those ends in, so my crochet fix yesterday came in the form of an amigurumi kitten.

On Sunday we visited Yorkshire Sculpture Park. We had never been before and we had a reasonably good time. The difficulty being that #2 is at that awkward age where he doesn't want to be in his buggy but he doesn't want to walk either. He's quite happy to run away in the opposite direction, but go where we want to go? No. *stamp foot for good measure*

So we didn't manage to see as much of the park as we'd have liked (#2 still naps during the day, so we had to leave in the early afternoon), but it was good. Definitely a place we'll visit again. We didn't get to see the giant rabbits for one thing.

Resistance was futile

But now there's a decision to make....crumble or pie, crumble or pie...?

Summer dress

I finished my latest sewing project - Simplicity pattern 2579, view B.

I am quite happy with it, despite having doubts about the fabric after I got it home. When I spread it out I couldn't help wondering whether it was saying 'great-aunt's tablecloth' or 'granny's curtains' rather than 'summer frock'!

But actually, as a dress, I really like it. What I'm less happy with is the neck line - I am finding it to be a bit too wide. I also think the fullness of the skirt at the back does not particularly suit my body shape, but having said that, I will wear it.

Next on the sewing to-do list is the Barcelona skirt by Amy Butler.