Stash-buster March review

Good Morning everyone and welcome to the March review can you believe we have been stash-busting for three months that's quarter of the year gone already! There are 118 of us stash-busting so far! 

I have been so impressed with all the lovely projects you have all been making.

Just some of the lovely things made by the ladies of Loving Hands

Thank you so much for linking up all your lovely makes in the Stash-buster Link Party, I hope you are all enjoying it as much as Ana and myself. It's fun to click on those lovely pictures and visit you all to find out how you have made your projects.

• Hurry! you have just until Sunday to link up those March projects because this party will end at 10pm on 31st March.
• The April Party will start on Tuesday the 2nd April at 10am.
• For those who are keeping count please leave me your March totals here in the comment section.
• For those who would like to join the Stash-Buster Challenge read all about it here and just leave me a comment.  

As for myself I have busted just 300 grams of wool this month, I know it doesn't seem like much but I am happy enough, after all I did complete a big project this month, the lovely 
Tunisian Afghan!

I am also busy with five projects at the moment, I'm hoping to complete them all in April and more besides.  Lets see how far I can shrink this little lot!

See you soon and have a great holiday weekend! 

It's Not Too Late!

I know how busy mums can get and sometime's you don't have the time to make something special  for your little one's or even have time to go out and buy a new outfit, that's why I love this.

A cute little chick appliqué, it takes no time at all to make and would look so cute sewn onto a little cardigan, dress or pants, turning an ordinary outfit into a special Easter one.

Whoops that little chick has jumped right out of his shell, he would look so cute on a little Easter bonnet or beanie. 
This little appliqué took a staggering 5 grams of wool, that's 2 for the chick and 3 for the egg.
you can find the pattern here 

The Monday Smile

Good morning and welcome to the last week of the month! can you believe March is nearly over already.  This should be a good week don't you think? for one it's a short working week then we have Easter to look forward to and a nice long week-end... and you never know we may even have some good weather,  one can but hope after all it is now officially Spring, anything has got to be better than the snow and bitterly cold winds we have been having for the last few days..anyway I'm thinking positive and that's got to help.

This weeks smile is all about Easter share it with your little ones, copy them off and have an Easter quiz, I'm sure you will have heard them all before but I think they will still raise a smile.

• What do you get if you pour hot water down a rabbit hole? - A hot cross bunny!!!
• How do you tell which rabbits are the oldest?  -  Look for more grey hares!!
• What do you call four hundred rabbits hopping backwards?  -  A receding hare line
• What is the difference between a crazy bunny and a counterfeit banknote?  -  One is bad money and the other is a mad bunny!
• Where would you find a chicken with no legs?  -  Where you left it!
• What do you get when you cross a bunny with an onion?  -  A bunion
• What did the bunny want to do when he grew up?  -  Join the Hare Force
• What do you call a mischievous egg?  -  A practical yoker
• What did the egg do when the other egg told it a joke?  -  It cracked up
• How does the Easter bunny keep his fur neat?  -  With a hare-brush
• What's the difference between a soldier and a fireman?  -  You can't dip a fireman in an egg
• What kind of books do rabbits like?  -  Ones with hoppy endings
• There were two eggs being boiled in a saucepan. One egg said 'owch it's hot in here'.  The other egg said 'arghhhh! a talking egg!!
• Who wrote Great Eggspectations?  -  Charles Chickens
• What do rabbits get when it rains?  -  Wet!
• What day do chickens hate the most?  -  Fry-day!
• Why did the naked egg cross the road?  -  To get to the shell station
• Do you know how bunnies stay in shape?  -  Hareobics
• What happens if you play table tennis with a bad egg?  -  First it goes ping, then it goes pong
• Why couldn't the rabbit fly home for Easter?  -  He didn't have the hare fare
• How does a chicken fit its shell?  -  Egg-sactly!!
• What do you call a rabbit with fleas?  -  Bugs Bunny
• What do you get when you cross a chicken with a martian?  -  An eggs-traterrestrial 

Hope you have survived that little lot, have a great week :)

here

Rockman Afghan

The great tadaa.... day has come at last, most of you thought it was going to be the Afghan sampler well no... that one I'm afraid has me seriously stumped, I managed to do the inner rectangle but as for joining the rest I will need lots of time and patience to figure how to do it so that it doesn't look a complete mess but I will get there eventually. 

It's the Rockman CAL which Astri introduced here.

I have to say I have enjoyed making it and I would have completed it ages ago had I not been making other things in between, but you know me I can't just have one thing on my hook at once.

If you haven't tried Tunisian crochet before do give it a go, I found it very soothing making long strips of lovely bright colours.  I was a little alarmed after I had completed the first strip because it seemed all wonky and curly, I couldn't imagine how it could ever be turned into a blanket but once I did the second strip and joined it to the first I was relieved  because the wonkyness disappeared with the joining.

Astri joined her blanket with sc on the wrong side and it does look good but I have to be different so I have my joining sc on the right side because I like it like that.  So the wonkyness disappeared but the curling remained so I thought some serious blocking was in order.  However......

Astri decided to line her blanket, so I thought yes very good idea because although the back wasn't too bad and all the ends had been neatly weaved in I thought because there had been so many ends some were bound to escape eventually so...I backed mine too with bright red fleece which I thought was in keeping with the lovely bright cheerful colours of the blanket.

Then I edged it with two rows of sc and a row of reverse sc and guess what... the curly edges disappeared like magic so no blocking was required.  

 So there you have it one lovely warm, bright and cheerful blanket.

The blanket took 450 grams of yarn and it measures just over one metre square. 
I am pleased to say this blanket was made entirely out of my stash yarn, there is something great about creating something beautiful out of materials that you have just lying about the house no purchase necessary apart from the fleece which was a fleece blanket that I cut to size, bought from my local Poundstretcher for just a couple of pounds.

This is what is left of the yarn, I will call this my what's left in the bag stash and do you know what.... I'm using it all ready. 

See you soon :)

The Monday Smile

Good Morning and Happy Monday you lovely people, I hope that you have all had a lovely week-end and have some great plans for the week ahead.
My week-end was brilliant ...why?  because I have actually managed to finish one of my blanket wips!  


Which one do you think it is?.... go on have a guess

Could it be the Afghan Sampler which I blogged about here

Or maybe this one which I have now been making on and off for just over a year, blogged here

Then again it could be this, 

All will be revealed very soon :)



Now what do you think about this?

Canadian Speed Control!  Speed control being used in Canada . How 's this for effective speed control?

I don't know about you, but this would certainly slow me down! People slow down and actually try to "straddle" the hole. 

This is an actual speed control device that is currently in use. It is MUCH cheaper than speed cameras, radar guns, police officers, etc.

Pretty clever -- especially when they move them around every day.

Isn't Art Wonderful?

Here in England we don't need Art we have the real thing !

here 

Using The Small Stash of Little Bits.

Baby Hats 1

You remember that little stash of left over baby yarn in my last post,  well I pondered a bit and decided there was only one thing I could do with it really.

Yes baby hats of course.  

I love making them but I get bored if I stick to one pattern and so because I know as I work through the large baby stash, there will be more and more bit's of yarn left and that little stash will eventually become a big stash of little bits, if you get me. 
Lets face it, that big stash of little bits will make lots of hats so I will be doing a search of free baby hat patterns and trying them all out and sharing the results with you.
I hope I didn't confuse you will all of that I know what I mean anyway haha.

This pattern is so easy and quick and even more easy if you can master the circular needles or Dpns, I can't! and so I am ashamed to say these are made on two needles.

Baby hats are always needed by our charities so I know once I have made that mountain of hats they will all find a good home. 

These were made with Double knit yarn and 4.00 mm needles
They weigh in at 18 grams each.
Find the pattern here 
Thank you Una for the inspiration.


Have a great weekend everyone and I'll see you on Monday :)

Sideways Spring Cardigan

I have had this little cardigan on my to do list for a while and have been dying to try it out.

I liked the idea of crocheting something in one piece and just having the side seams to sew up.  
I found it easy to do but it took longer to make than I would have liked because of the stitch, ribbed  sc where you crochet into the back of the stitch on one row and the front of the stitch on the next.

The sun peeped out from behind the clouds and I ran outside with my little table  (my neighbours think I'm crazy I'm sure)  and took these so here you have a sunbathing cardigan.  I love the pretty spring colours in this yarn,

It did tend to curl at the edges but I did a row of sc all around and finished it off with a picot edging around the collar and that helped.

I used 173 grams of this yarn.
3.75 mm hook
size to fit 18 months.

Find the pattern here

Now I have pounced on this little lot and I'm thinking....?

The Monday Smile

Good Morning everyone, I hope all you mums had a lovely Mothers Day yesterday. 

 I have two things to make you smile this week, the first one is for all the stash-buster's, our challenge has been recognised by Lets knit magazine, they have done a feature on stash-busting and they have mentioned our challenge.

  
Who knows we may get more stash-busters wanting to join in the stash-busting fun, the more that join in the more idea's we will have.  There are some lovely idea's in the magazine by the way and there is a pretty jumper pattern I would love to make, but I haven't made anything for myself for ages and I'm not sure if I will have the patience to complete it... will have to think about it. :)

The second smile is a bit naughty again I'm afraid but it made me laugh out loud when I read it so I hope it does the same for you, have a happy week!

The Hypnotist Accident

The town fathers were looking for a way to increase attendance and participation at their regular meetings. One member suggested bringing in a hypnotist. The officials agreed, a famous hypnotist was hired, publicity distributed, and everyone was pleased.

A few weeks later the meeting hall was packed, and the town's people sat fascinated as the hypnotist withdrew a pocket watch. The hypnotist began chanting... "Watch the watch, watch the watch, watch the watch..."

The crowd became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth, light gleaming off its polished surface. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed the swaying watch, until suddenly the hypnotist's fingers slipped and the watch fell to the floor...

"Shit" said the hypnotist.

It took three weeks to clean up the town hall.

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Raspberry Ripple Scrunchie For Mum

None Scratchie Scrunchie

I love this bath scrunchie something a little different from the usual washcloths and I think it's pretty just to look at even if you don't use it as a scrunchie.  I have to warn you that they are addictive and making just one will not be enough, they are lovely to make very soothing I would say, and quick too.
I thought this would be a lovely gift for Mother's Day along with some fancy soap or shower gel add a bunch of beautiful flowers and there you have the perfect gift.  

Thank you Jean for sharing the pattern.

UK TERMS

4 Ply random cotton yarn, takes about 50 gr yarn 3.5mm hook
Chain 4 slip join to create the ring, chain about 60 for the hanging bit slip stitch back onto the ring, 

ROW 1 chain 2 then try and get about 40 - 50 trebles onto that ring, sl join
ROW 2 2 chain and do 3 trebles into each stitch on the row below, sl join
ROW 3 2 chain and do 3 trebles into each stitch on the row below sl join
ROW 4 2 chain and do 2 trebles into each stitch on the row below tie off.

Of course you could throw a washcloth into the mix too then Mum would have a choice.

Pattern here

More pictures.. I couldn't resist :)

I used this yarn, it took 50g for the scrunchie and 35g for the washcloth that's 85g busted now what do I do with the 15g I have left...?

Thank you all for linking, I'm so glad you like the linky party idea, I will put the party link up in my index bar at the top and you can link up your lovely makes all through March.

Happy Mother's Day to Mums everywhere.

Would You Like To Party?

Welcome to the very first stash-buster link party, I hope you all like this idea, as you can see there are now more than 100 of us busting the stash therefore it makes sense to do this don't you think? It will mean that  everyone has a chance to display their lovely projects and then click on each others links to share inspiration and idea's.

You can link up all of your March projects and because it's the first party you can add what you like from your January and February projects too.  This collection will be open until the end of March

• Stash-buster projects only please.  
• You must be part of the Challenge and have your name listed.

If you want to join us just leave a comment.

Have fun !









Summer Party now in progress
April Party 
February Gallery
January Gallery

The Monday Smile

Hello everyone and welcome to another week and another smile to set you on your way.  It's March! the dark days of winter will soon be behind us and even better we have had sunshine! 

I was even able to get into the garden and start the odious task of clearing up last years debris...still a long way to go but at least I have made a start.

I am introducing something new tomorrow and I have to say I am a little nervous because I've never tried this before and I'm afraid it might not work.  I am useless at technical things and just tend to feel my may through so I have my fingers and toes crossed that I have done it right and that you will all like the idea.

Now let little Johnny make you smile :)

(It is a teeny bit rude)

LITTLE JOHNNY

The teacher asked the class to use the word 'fascinate' in a sentence.

Molly put up her hand and said, 'My family went to my granddad's farm,

and we all saw his pet sheep. It was fascinating.'

The teacher said, ’That was good, but I wanted you to use the word 'fascinate, not fascinating'.

Sally raised her hand. She said, 'My family went to see Rock City and I was ’fascinated.

 ‘The teacher said, 'Well, that was good Sally, but I wanted you to use the word 'fascinate.'

Little Johnny raised his hand.

The teacher hesitated because she had been burned by Little Johnny before.

She finally decided there was no way he could damage the word 'fascinate' so she called on him.

Johnny said, 'My aunt Gina has a sweater with ten buttons, but her boobs are so big she can only fasten eight.' 

The teacher sat down and cried.

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