A job done and a bit of a Jolly ...

 

♥

 

It's done ... I did it !

I managed to complete 'The quickest blanket in the world ' in time for my friends Birthday.

It took exactly a week to make, and that was with normal everyday life carrying on at the same time.

Now I can absolutely assure you I am not particularly speedy when it comes to crochet, and nor did I spend twelve hours a day working on it ( working full time soooo gets in the way of crochet ! ) its just that the chunky wool works up so quickly.

I never normally time myself when working on things but this time I did, just out of curiosity really.

Each ball of wool, and I used 16 in total for the main bit of the blanket, took an hour to crochet, and then I used one more chunky for the border and one ball of DK for the ruffle. The border took 4 hours to finish. The stitch I used for the main bit of the blanket was Half Trebles with two rows of Double Crochet for the border, and then three Trebles into one stitch for the ruffle edging.

Fascinating stuff huh ?

Gosh, I really must be turning into quite a crochet geek I think -

sorry if you have all now lost the will to live on this one.

Aaannnnyway ... I quickly took some photo's of it...

 

 

... and although it did look really very scrummy on the top of the basket in my bedroom ...

 

... I did wrap it up and give it to Claire,

and she loved it !

Yay !

 

♥

After all the crocheting I took a little time out on Friday this week as there was an

event going on very near where I live and once I'd seen it advertised there was

absolutely no way I wasn't going to go.

It was taking place in a tiny hamlet just outside of Bath called St. Catherine.

The list of stall holders was quite mouth watering and to top it all off there

was a Cabbages and Roses ( my most favourite clothes in the world ) sale stall there.

 

The wiggly windy drive through the country lanes to get there was absolutely

beautiful , so amazingly green and lush, all single track though so I was very glad

I had chosen to go on the Friday rather than the much busier Saturday.

 Several times I wondered if I was actually going the right way, especially when I was

checked out by this rather curious lamb who was right in the middle of the road

and seemed to be looking at me

 in a  'What are you doing here ? ' way.

 

I got there in the end and wow.... I felt as though I had walked right in  to a

copy of Homes and Gardens.

It was a complete feast for the eyes, set in the most idyllic cottage garden that ran down to a brook, tucked away right at the bottom of a valley.

 

I strolled, and looked ,

and oohed and aahed ...

 

... and I just may have shopped a tinsy tiny bit too.

You see, one of these dresses had 85% off and the other two 75% ... what's a girl to do ?

And then , of course, I needed a basket to put them in !

 

 

It was a truly heavenly morning out,

 

 

and one of the stalls there, Will and Bea, have pretty much captured

 the whole thing in their gorgeous collage of photo's.

 

♥

 

One other very exciting thing that happened this week was that I received

 'Highly Commended' in the results of Deramores Blog Awards.

I have to confess it did bring about quite a bit of squealing and jumping

  in the office that morning.

 

See, look , there I am at the bottom, second in from the left

 - squeal !

♥

 

And just one more thing before I go...

if you would like to help me celebrate my first Bloggy Birthday at the end of

June don't forget to enter my Birthday Giveaway either by saying hello in the

comments below or on my Facebook page here.

 

 The two winners will be picked out of a hat on the 24th June.
Thank you to everyone who has entered so far ... it has been so lovely to hear from lots of new followers this week and to be able to pop over to visit lots of new blogs.

♥
 

 

 Have a good week.

A super quick blanket and a Giveaway !

♥

This week I have been on a bit of mission as last weekend I decided to make a blanket

for a friends Birthday present.

I ordered the wool on Sunday evening and it arrived on Wednesday.

 

 

All good so far ... the bit that makes it a bit of a mission ?

My friends Birthday is THIS Wednesday, yes, that will be the day after tomorrow !

 

Fortunately, as you can see in the photo above I had very sneakily put a 6mm hook in my

 bag the day the wool was due to arrive so no sooner had the Postman delivered it,

than it was being merrily hooked into a starting chain.

And since then it has been a 'pick up and do a bit project' whenever there has been a

couple of minutes.

 

The wool I am using is Stylecraft Special Chunky and I cannot tell you how

pleasingly quickly it grows....

 

... from taking five in the office...

 

 

... to a quick sit down and cup of tea in the garden ...

 

 

... to a little bit more before bed ...

 

 

... to a lovely morning of happy HTR'ing  in the sun over the weekend.

 

 

And I can happily report that as at yesterday lunchtime the blanket was looking like this !

 

 

Whoo-hoo , I'm on the home run !

♥

Just two more balls to go for the main bit of the blanket,

two balls to make a DC border around the edge and then I am going to finish it off with a small ruffled edge made with the same coloured wool but in a DK rather than the chunky.

 

 So, from starting with a chain of 141 , 18 balls of Stylecarft Chunky in Parchment and 2 balls of Stylecraft DK in Parchment I reckon I'm pretty much on track for the Wednesday deadline.

It absolutely has to go down as the quickest blanket I have ever made.
( Note to Claire ... if you are reading this please remember to look really, really surprised when you get your pressie on Wednesday, Ok ! )

 

♥

 

There was even time for a family Birthday Celebration this weekend as well.

 

 

♥

 

Talking of Birthdays, I mentioned in my last post that it is very nearly my first Bloggy Birthday 

and having received so much pleasure from recently winning a Giveaway from

Jules at Little Woollie I have been busy planning a Giveaway of my own.

 

Its been so much fun deciding what to include ...

and I can now reveal all !

 

I probably should say at this point that I may have got a little carried away as I started by putting together a little crochet package and then I thought,

Hey, what if you're a knitter not a crocheter,

so I have TWO Giveaways ... YAY !

 

So the Crochet Giveaway is this...

 

 

and the Knitting Giveaway  is this ...

( this is sooo much fun ! )

 

 

The very observant of you will notice that they are basically the same but with one very

small and subtle difference ...

one has a crochet hook, one has stitch markers.

Just because I am really enjoying this I am now going to run you through a little breakdown

 of what will be in each package.

 

There will be a little pile of three  handmade cloths,

made in the beautifully soft King Cole Bamboo.

 

 

There will be a beautiful pink spotty tea cup and saucer

and just to ensure the perfect cup of tea three TeaPig

 T-bags will be popped inside the cup.

 

 

There will be a bookmark to mark your place in those crochet or knitting pattern books,

and a couple of cute badges for all you knitters and crocheters out there.

 

And to finish off there will be 3 balls of Rowan Pure Wool 4 ply in my favourite colour of

grey, with either a pink 4.5 mm Tulip Etimo Crochet hook,

 



 

 or 5 of the sweetest stitch markers.

 

 

 So, there you have it,

what's not to love ?

♥

And all you have to do to enter is leave me a little comment either here on my Blog

 or here on my Facebook page, or both !

 

Absolutely anybody can enter, I will happily post anywhere in the world.

 

  If you haven't left a comment before please DON'T BE SHY ...

one of my reasons for doing this Giveaway is to meet lots more of you and discover

 more lovely blogs to visit.

 

The two winners will be picked on my Bloggy Birthday on 24th June.

 

 

 

♥ 

 

 

10 things that made me smile this week and one that made me cry ....

♥

 

Thing 1.

My Victory wrap is finished - and I love it.

I think it is my favourite of all the wraps I have made.

It was so simple to make, growing very quickly, and the way you add the border is so clever.

I will certainly use the pattern again.

The pattern is by Erika Flory and can be found here in Ravelry.

 

 

Thing 2.

When we were staying in Fowey with friends last weekend a fair bit of retail therapy was undertaken.

One small purchase was this beautiful little peg doll that just caught my eye.

She now sits happily on the shelf in my kitchen.

 

 

Thing 3.

This is the view from our bedroom window and I am loving looking out each morning and seeing how everything is flourishing.

We even have a flower on our Wisteria for the first time, and very happily, it is white as hoped.

 

 

Thing 4.

On Tuesday my bestest friend in the whole wide world came to stay for a few days.

Jane and I worked together for 18 years and when she left Bradford-on-Avon last year on her Narrow boat to head off on her travels with her husband it was one of the hardest things ever.

My blog was started as a way of continuing all our day to day chats.

We have been through such a lot together over the years from working together, to raising our families, and best of all we share the same passion for all things yarny ( as well as passions for tea, chocolate, shoes, a good chat, laughing etc, etc )

Before she left we both had a little rebellion and decided right there and then that matching tattoos would be the coolest thing.

We designed one together and decided the words 'Best of Times' just said it all.

The dandelion clock symbolises the passing of the years, and consequently became my main reason for including it in my Just Pootling header.

( so as not to confuse with random body parts... mine is on my foot and Jane's is on her arm.)

 

 

Thing 5.

Whilst she was here we treated ourselves to a bit of pampering at a very gorgeous new

hair salon that has just opened in Bradford-on-Avon.

 

 

Thing 6.

I have a new little pile of squares getting ever taller.

The plan is that when sewn together they will become a baby blanket for a soon to be

new arrival.

 

 

Thing 7.

Very contented animals on a wet and rainy Saturday morning.

 

 

Thing 8.

One warm Chihuahua, who kind of wants to know what's going on outside of the blanket.

 

 

Thing 9.

A naughty Saturday evening treat.

 

 

Thing 10.

I am having so much fun putting together my Bloggy Birthday Giveaway.

Here's a very little sneaky peak - not quite there yet but all will be revealed soon !



 

 

 

Those were the happies.

♥

 

The one sad is that our beautiful cat Angel was run over this week.

It was right outside our house.

 He was a real homecat and very rarely went out the front, but for some reason that day he did.

Its not a particularly busy road being in a small village but he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.



 

 

I have friends who are going through some awful times with their families right now and I do keep telling myself that he was just a cat, but he was our cat and a part of our family for the past 11 years and we loved him very much.

♥

He had a very big character, always head-butting you when you least expected it - usually when you had a cup of tea in your hand, he kind of quacked instead of meowed and he snored as loudly as any person. He also had a habit of doing 'bunny legs' on the kitchen table,

 

 

and stealing Lilou's bed.

 

 

He had a particularly special place in our hearts because he was from a litter of kittens that belonged to my Sister-in-law, Tracey. We lost her in a car accident a week before the kittens were born and we were determined that we would have one of the kittens and call it Angel.

In actual fact, because the girls managed to persuade Dave that there was no way we could have one and leave the smallest one behind all on his own we actually had two...

 Cosmos and Angel.

 



 

 

 

Having lost Cossy last year I have absolutely no doubt in my mind at all that they are now both

 sat on Tracey's knee, purring very loudly and happily.

Angel will almost certainly be snoring a bit too.

 

♥