A Hat and a New Friend

An easy project finished in a couple of nights, I love this yarn it's so soft and the colours are lovely

  as you can see I have quite a bit of yarn left more than enough for another hat but not quite enough for a scarf, I'll have to have a think  and decide what to do with it any suggestions most welcome.

The Hat only took 70 grams of yarn and you can find the nice easy pattern here

We have been so lucky with the weather of late, I have never known such a beautiful Spring, I have spent long days in my garden pottering about and I haven't been alone....

I noticed Jeremy  in my my garden about three weeks ago, at first I wasn't sure what type of bird he was I thought he was a crow but he had white markings on his wings and usually crows don't, but after studying him from afar I realised that yes he was indeed a crow.  Judging by the way he walked... very slowly indeed and by the way he flew...not very high and not very far I came to the conclusion that he was a very old crow and the markings are more grey than white.

Well over the weeks we have struck up a rather strange relationship, he's very timid as soon as I step out of the conservatory he runs as fast as he can in the opposite direction and usually hides behind the birdbath with only his head showing, then comes out slowly and starts pecking at the lawn quite contentedly while I do whatever I'm doing in the garden.

We had a few windy days last weekend and I sat in the conservatory crocheting, Jeremy sat on the decking looking over and didn't budge until I got up to go to the kitchen to make a coffee, he got up too and walked over to the birdbath and stayed there until I came back with my coffee, he jumped down from the birdbath and took up his previous position at the end of the decking looking over watching quite content.  We were keeping each other company.

Taken through the window.

Yesterday I dug a small border in front of my fence and planted some bedding, now I know from previous experience that blackbirds love to come pecking whenever you plant things out and usually pull the whole lot out so I was on my guard as I sat eating my lunch in the conservatory....




sure enough down swooped a couple of blackbirds and started pecking at the soil and then suddenly out runs Jeremy as fast as his tired old legs could carry him and he chased the blackbirds away as if to say can't you see she's been working on that all morning I shouted 'thank you Jeremy!' and he waddled off plumping up his feathers and looking quite proud of himself

I thought he deserved a blueberry treat

Jeremy is always right in the middle of the lawn when I open the curtains in the morning and he stays in the garden for most of the day then in the evening he's nowhere to be seen probably all snuggled up somewhere for the night. 

He is keeping me company in these days of lock-down and I hope he resides in my garden for a long time to come.

Have great weekend xx

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Trying To Catch The days and a Little Sewing.

Another week gone already, I look back and think what did I do this week and I really struggle to remember, one day just seems to blur into another and so I have started another private blog which is more like a journal really, I have called it 'Trying to Catch the Days' I take photo's of the little things that happen throughout the day and post them on there and write a little caption, I also put up a do to list and tick off what I've done at the end of the day.  I find that it's very therapeutic because it enables me to write down my thoughts and fears and let off a bit of steam and no one will be any the wiser.

Another thing I have seen as a brilliant way to mark each day of this lock-down is a little embroidery project everyday just like Linda from Craftygardener has done here I wish I had thought of doing that right at the beginning, Amy from Love made my home blog (sadly no longer online) is also doing that too I see her work on Instagram and it's lovely.

I do love embroidery but I'm not that great at it, but inspired by Lucy from Attic24 a couple of years ago I made this ......

It was a huge learning curve for me but I really enjoyed it and was hoping that the magazine would publish a pattern for each season but they didn't as far as I know, so I started this which was supposed to be for my daughters birthday that year......

and so inspired by Linda and Amy I have taken it out of it's hiding place and I aim to do a little bit everyday and hopefully, my daughter will get this for her birthday this September.

I made this last week, we are being encouraged to wear face coverings now in the UK a little late in the day but there you go.  There are countless patterns online in crochet, knitting and sewing, I tried so many crochet  patterns but didn't get far with any of them, I found worsted/aran yarn is too heavy and uncomfortable and it should be 100% cotton the thought of using wool or acrylic yarn does not appeal in the slightest.  So this one is 100% Dk cotton and I just made it up as I went along, I put a pouch inside for a filter of sorts and I found that elastic was the most practical for keeping the mask in place.  I won't say it's comfortably because wearing a mask isn't in the slightest bit comfortable but needs must.  I remember wearing masks when I was nursing and it wasn't very pleasant, I feel deeply for the staff on the front line who have to wear them now constantly as a matter of life or death really.

Then I got inspired once again this time by Una from  Great Balls Of Wool she had made a fabric one and I quite liked the look of it, so I knocked the cobwebs off my sewing machine, had a dig around and found a piece of fabric that's been languishing in my sewing bag for years and a T shirt that I wasn't too bothered about cutting up..

Sewing does not come easy to me and it took me far longer than it should have done but in the end....

Find the pattern here

I used strips of T shirt material for the straps and they work just fine, this mask is actually comfortable and so I will be wearing this one more than the crochet one above, Having said that I find some people in the UK are very reluctant mask wearers and when I am out and about there doesn't seem to be that many people wearing them. There are a lot of people that don't follow the government guidelines for social distancing either and that is quite a worry.  

Living on the coast the place is now heaving with people walking along the seafront and on the beach which makes social distancing practically impossible and so I haven't been walking there at all this week, I have done quite a bit of gardening which is good exercise in itself and have followed exercise video's on YouTube, you are spoilt for choice there are so many I like Salsa and zumba it puts a smile on my face and last year I learnt how to do Tai Chi which isn't as easy as it looks! it took me six months just to learn the short form of Lee Style Tai chi and I know I'm still not perfect. 

How are you keeping fit in these strange times? 

It's a blustery windy day today and I didn't sleep well last night so I'm going to have a very lazy day I can see a spot of crochet and embroidery on the horizon and I have just taken this yarn out of my stash....

The plan for it is maybe an easy hat charity make, something I can do whilst watching TV . 

Have a great weekend everyone, I think I'm going to make more scones perhaps some fruit ones this time. 😊

Take care and stay safe. xx

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Friday Again

When browsing through your blogs I came across quite a bit of scone making going on, now it has to be said that I am a great lover of scones of all descriptions but I think cheese scones are my utmost favourite of all.  We have a Garden Center near by and they make the most delicious cheese scones, in fact to be honest they are the best I have ever tasted and that is a huge compliment because I have eaten hundreds of cheese scones in my time.  The Garden Centre in question re-opened last Wednesday but only for the purchase of plants which didn't help my scone cravings at all and so this morning I decide to make some.  

My scone baking skills are not great, they never turn out light and fluffy like the ones in the Garden Centre, in fact they are usually more like biscuits than scones, added to which the kitchen is always like a battle scene when I bake anything, I used to bake a lot when my kids were small but I've gotten out of the habit, it's not good for the waistline when one lives on one's own as I'm sure you can appreciate, anyway even though it was a bit of a faff look at these..

Not bad at all and best of all they taste ok too, not as good as the the Garden Centre scones but definitely passable I would say, I have eaten one and the rest are going into the freezer before I eat them all in one go.

This afternoon I decided to walk on the beach but I took a detour first to my local greengrocer because I needed some carrots and lemons but look what else I found...

I have been worried about running out of yarn for my Indiana blanket which is coming on slowly but well by the way and so I was so happy to see that they had some colours that would work for the blanket, I knew that they sold a small amount of yarn but they seem to have increased their stock which is good news and something to remember for the future. 

There were more people on the beach today because of the ease in Lock-down 

there was even a surfer.

One of the reasons I decided to walk on the beach was because I wanted to collect some seaweed...

I gathered two bags full to the brim and I'm going to put it onto my garden as a mulch, my brother tells me it's a great fertilizer. 

It's so lovely and peaceful just watching the waves I could quite easily sit there all day.

On the way back home I noticed that Aldi had bedding plants for sale and best of all the queue wasn't too long so I was able to buy these....

 African Marigolds and some fuchsia all very reasonably priced and I know from experience that Aldi's plants are usually ok.

I have sewn lots of seeds myself but I don't really have high hopes for them, they seem very puny I potted on some petunia and pansies yesterday and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they survive.  

So I know what I'll be doing this weekend playing in the garden, what are your plans? Whatever they are I hope you have a lovely weekend.  
Stay safe 😘😘

Stash-buster Sunshine Baby Blanket

Although my stash has shrunk considerably since I began stash-busting in earnest back in 2013 I still have more than 20,000 grams of yarn to get through before I reach zero and let me tell you that will never happen, for that to become reality one would have to refrain from buying yarn completely and although my yarn purchasing has been reigned in these past 7 years I simply cannot deprive myself of the pleasure of  buying yarn completely.

I have learnt a lot I must say and now I can look around a yarn store and walk out without making a single purchase, however sometimes I do need to buy the odd ball to complete a project and if I see something that I really must make and I don't have the correct yarn then I will buy it knowing that it will get completely used up with the project I'm making.  However I do seem to end up with lots of small odd balls which is how this bright and cheerful baby blanket came into being.

A very quick and easy project made with V stitch and a starting chain of 111 and lots of odd balls of Dk yarn.
When I work V stitch for baby blankets I don't put a chain between the two trebles and it gives a closer texture.

Isn't that bunny cute! I was going to make several of these and give them as gifts for Easter but Lockdown happened and I only made the one maybe next year 😊
You can find the cute bunny pattern here

I kept working on the blanket until it measured 30 inches in length and I busted a very satisfying 300 grams of scrap yarn. I even enjoyed weaving in the ends which I did every few rows. Then I finished it off with a very simple htr border making the final round crab stitch.

The Indiana Blanket is coming on well I'm really enjoying making this, however it is challenging trying to figure what colour yarn to use when you have to depend on your stash when its mainly single balls of each colour....now what colour next red or green?

Have a great weekend and stay safe.😘

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