May Stash-buster Review.

Another stash-busting month is over already so how is everyone doing, can you see a difference in your stash? We are nearly through half of the year already and so It would be fun to see some photo's of what your stash looks like in June compared to how it was when you first started.
Thanks to all of you who have linked up your lovely projects this month, once again you have all been working so hard! you have till the end of the day to link up your final submissions for May so hurry!

Here are some of last months favourites.

Astri's Happy Scrappy Afghan

Erin's Easter Hat

Petka's bag

 Chichi's pastel waves blanket

and just some of the beautiful things made by ladies from loving hands.

 The next link party will start Tuesday 4th June.
For those who are counting please leave me your totals in the comment section here 
and I will update them this weekend.

My totals for this month are 572 grams not as good as last month but I am working on three different things at once right now, two of which I hope to complete next month and the other the....never ending blanket I think will be on going for the foreseeable future, but  I am doing a little everyday so it will be finished sometime, I am now onto round three so I will be showing you that very soon.  
I am also working on a bag, I have never made a bag before so it is a bit of a challenge so if it works out I will show you if not you will never hear about it again ;)
The third is that  something I was making for myself and frogged, I did start it again and I'm hoping it will turn out ok this time.

Also in June I'm hoping to get out the knitting needles I have some must do charity projects that can only be knitted.

So what are your stash-busting plans for June? I know that summer is coming and life does tend to take over but that's ok, it's not a race and it's meant to be fun so don't worry if your stash-busting is put on hold for a while.

It's never too late to join us, just leave a comment if you would like to be a part of the challenge. 

Have a great weekend!

Kids Sleeveless Tops

I think sleeveless tops are invaluable for little one's because they can be warn at any time of the year, pop one over a T shirt when the weather gets cooler in the evening, or over a shirt for a smart look, also good in the cooler weather to add that extra layer of warmth. 

It's so quick and easy to make these little tops I'm sure most of you will be able to improvise and make your own, but this is how I made mine. 

A for Apple Sleeveless Top

To fit 18 months/2 years
Dk wool  100gram
3.75 mm hook   
4.50 mm hook                                
US terms         hdc (hdtr/UK)           sc (dc/UK)
Tension 18sts and 12 rows to 4 inches over pattern

Back
3.75 hook
Chain 44
Sc in second chain from hook and in each chain to the end, 43sc. work 4 rows.
Change to 4.50 hook

• Work one row hdc (wrong side) 2ch turn. (foundation row)
• Work hdc in back loop of each st across, 2ch turn. (right side)
• Work one row hdc in front loop of st across (Wrong side )

The last two rows form the pattern continue working until the piece measures 8 1/2 ins or desired length.

Shape Armhole

• ss in first 3 sts, chain 2 in 4th st (counts as one hdc) and keeping pattern correct work across row leave last 3sts unworked and 2 chain turn.
• Keeping pattern correct cont on these 37sts until armhole measures, 4 ins, 2ch turn.

Shape back neckline
Work across 9st, 2ch turn and work on these 9sts until work measures 1, 1/2 ins from the start of neckline shaping.
Repeat on the other side leaving 19st unworked in the middle fasten off.

Front 
Work as back until armhole shaping.

• ss across 1st 3sts, 2ch in 4th st and work across 16sts, 2ch turn.
• Dec 1st at neck edge, work to end, 2ch turn.

Keeping pattern correct and armhole shaping straight, cont in this way decreasing one st every alt row at neck edge until 9sts remain and work measures the same as back. Fasten off.
Leaving the centre 3sts unworked, complete the other side to match the first.
Join shoulder seams

V neckline

• 1st row with right side facing beginning at beg of v neck shaping work 1 row sc evenly around entire neckline,(working 2sc, tog in corners to form shaping at back neck.) 1ch turn.
• 2nd row work sc, around neckline, working 2sc tog for shaping at back neck corners.1ch turn
• 3rd row as 2nd, fasten off.

Overlap edges at centre v and sew into place.
Work one row of sc around armholes.
sew back and front together.
 Then either leave plain or have fun decorating.
You can find how to make the letter A here and the apple here

measurements as back

If you try the pattern and there's something you can't understand or if you find any mistakes please let me know.
Have fun!

300 grams of yarn busted just in time for the end of May :)

Don't forget to link your May stash-buster projects party ends soon!

The Monday Smile

I hope that you are all enjoying the long weekend, I know I am, two whole days of sunshine already and the sun is still shinning this morning although I know it's going to change later in the day it's lovely to wake up to a bright sunny morning.
What is everyone up to this weekend? So far I have...pressure washed the patio and the drive, lots of weeding, planted out some bedding, fed my roses, loads of washing and housework, managed to fit in some crochet and kept my poor daughter Mandy company as she has hurt her back and can't get out.  Today it will be more of the same and I'm going to bake a lemon drizzle cake and some cookies ...... if you are all at a loose end you could always wind some yarn........... 

and don't forget it's the last week of the month so link up all your stash buster projects! this months link party will end Friday at 10pm

Have a great week!

here

Something for the weekend

It's Bank Holiday weekend and the sun is shining! makes a change in my neck of the woods.
I loved these cute coasters as soon as I saw them and couldn't wait to make some.

Of course I shouldn't digress I should finish the wips I have on the go but I couldn't resist

The reason being I was expecting a few visitors and I hadn't got enough coasters!

 I managed to hook a few before the visitors arrived and one of my friends took three of them with her when she left, 'I need coasters for my caravan and these are just the right colour for my décor!' Of course I was happy to let them go I love making things for my friends.

Which meant of course I had to hook some more.  Quick and easy the perfect Bank holiday weekend project.

Thank you Ana for the pattern and inspiration.

These little coasters weigh in at  7 grams each 

made from the cotton stash

Have a great weekend everyone and for those of you in England make the most of the sunshine while it lasts!

So what happened to that blanket?

Remember it the one I started over a year ago? I'm going to call it my never ending blanket!

I'm pleased to say these are all now part of my blanket.

Yes I know that I said that I would have it finished by last November...well it didn't happen and I have to say I don't think that it will happen any time soon either.  I seriously miscalculated the size of this blanket.  It was supposed to be four and a half foot square to cover my bed well silly me yes it would cover my bed but I want it to drape down the bottom and the  sides so really it needs to be 95''x 96'' now that's a lot of blanket, a mere 756 squares! Anyway I have counted and by my reckoning that means I need only make another 558 are you feeling faint yet because I am!

I am so impressed by you folk and you know who I mean, who can turn blankets out in no time.  Don't you get bored doing the same thing?  I thought that I had cracked the boredom when I did the three a day method which I am calling method one remember this but I got fed up with that So here is method two....

Method Two (part one)

The first round..cute little cogwheel centres  ...count how many colours you have for your blanket then just grab a colour any colour and say you have 10 colours make 10 centres then weave in all the ends and thread them onto a length of wool.
Continue until you have made cute little strings of cogwheels with every colour in your stash or at least all the colours you want to use for your blanket.

Ain't they cute! at this stage you can actually play with them if you like and I do like.. all the pretty colours all playing nicely together.

Now the next stage choose a colour any colour and remove one cogwheel from each string apart from the colour you have chosen or a centre that doesn't go well with the chosen colour, confused? sorry, well at least I know what I'm talking about..I think haha
then do the second round, weave in the ends and thread onto a strand of wool.

I love these too almost as much as the cogwheels maybe even more so because they are more colourful.
Continue this way until you have used up all of your centres.

Then stage three which I can't show you yet because I'm still onto stage two, so once I have used up all my cogwheels I will show you stage three

The object of this exercise is to make lots of motifs in the least stressful way possible, by doing  it this way, I don't have to think too much about what matches what and what colours I do next, one stage just leads nicely on to the next.

My blanket kit this is all I need to take with me to work to get done in my lunch break, nice and portable, if you think you will have time to do more, then just put another colour along with it's matching centres in a little plastic bag...see easy, it works for me anyway.


How do you do yours? have you got any weird and wonderful methods.  Do you make your motifs one by one , do you do a few centres first or complete each motif round by round and how do you choose your colours? do you just pick them randomly.... do share because I know that after a while I will get bored with this method 
too :)

(My thoughts and prayers are with those in Oklahoma who's lives have been devastated by the tornado) 

The Monday Smile

Have a great week everyone!

Here

The Perfect Stash-buster!

This was the first hexagon blanket I made in fact it was only the second blanket I had ever made.

At the time I had so many little bits and pieces of yarn, this seemed like the ideal project to use them all up.  I was determined that no two hexagons should be the same and I think I succeeded.  I had great fun making this blanket although I must admit it was put away for a couple of months to make way for other impulsive must do's you know what I'm like ....but never mind it did get finished in the end and was sent on to Loving hands to be given to one of the charities we support.

I wish I had taken more photo's but unfortunately this is the only one I have, you must admit it is the perfect stash-buster not one single ball of yarn was purchased for this blanket it was made entirely out of my stash.

Inspired by Lucy at attic 24.

How is your stash busting going? don't forget to link up all your projects so we can share inspiration and idea's.

Have a great weekend! 

Pocket Trim Cardigan and that Book!

Thank you for all the lovely comments about the baby hats and for the Monday Smile I'm so glad you all enjoy smiling along with me on a Monday.

Here is the sweet little something I have made out of the baby stash that is slowly but surely diminishing.

I love this little jacket, but after I had completed it I though one of my sweet lacy hearts would have looked just as good for the pocket don't you think?

Now this brings me to the book I have been going on about.

I was given this book as a gift and this little jacket is the first thing I have made out of it.  It's full of the cutest baby things ever and I am going to try to work my way through it.  The patterns all seem easy enough but the biggest difficulty I always find is adapting the tension when using a different yarn than that stated in the pattern.

This little cardigan is made with Dk yarn and I used a 4 mm hook, I made the 3 to 6 month size.  I was so pleased to find that the measurements were exactly the same as stated in the pattern when I had completed it.

I wish I had some yarn left so that I could make one of Julia's hats to go with it but it took 124 grams, I had to add some white in with the pink speckly yarn to finish the top.

 Once again my long term projects have been pushed to one side, I will never finish that blanket!.... this time it's Ana's fault! 

                       I'm playing with some of my cotton stash.

Hope you are all having a great week!

The Monday Smile

Good Morning and happy Monday everyone I hope that you all had a great weekend and for those of you who were celebrating a fabulous Mother's Day!

Now start your week with a smile.....

George Phillips, an elderly man, from Meridian, Mississippi, was going up to bed when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window.

George opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw there were people in the shed, stealing things. 

He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?"
He said "No," but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me. 

The police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available.." 

George said, "OK." 

He hung up the phone and counted to 30. Then he phoned the police again..

"Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed.

Well, you don't have to worry about them now because I just shot and killed them both, the dogs are eating them right now," and he hung up.

Within five minutes, six Police Cars, a SWAT Team, a Helicopter, two Fire Trucks, a Paramedic, and an Ambulance showed up at the Phillips' residence, and caught the burglars red-handed. 

One of the Policemen said to George , "I thought you said that you'd shot them!"

 George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"

(True Story) - I love it! 

Don't mess with old people..

Here

Something For the Weekend

Baby Hats 4

When I see a new pattern for baby hats I tend to jump in there with both feet because I know that this is a job for....'the small stash of little bits' and so when Julia asked us to try out her pattern I was more than happy to oblige.

 These are made with Dk wool and a 4.5 mm hook and have turned out the same size as stated in the pattern. The last round is dc (sc) on the one above.

I made this one using Aran weight yarn and a 5 mm hook.  I started with 13 trebles and worked less rounds to get the same size as the pattern.  I would have made a bigger hat but I only had a small amount of yarn, the last round is dc (sc)

My verdict on the pattern.. it's very easy and straight forward and these hats can be made very quickly, in fact they are quite addictive!  I had to stop myself from making more because I do need to do some work on the projects I flung to one side in my eagerness to try this pattern.  It will be revisited very soon because I want to make some with little girl colours.

To change the hat size just increase or decrease the beginning trebles, you must have an uneven number for the pattern to work

Thank you Julia for the pattern you can find it here

The Dk hats took 27 grams
The Aran hat took 33 grams

I will be showing you my new book next and something cute from the Baby stash.

Have a great weekend!

I'm Back!

Hello everyone and thank you for the lovely comments and good wishes for my trip to Scotland.   I have been trying to catch up with you all since I came back it's amazing how much work has been done in the few short days I was away! 

The May link party is now up and running so don't forget to link up your stash-buster projects.

I had a lovely time while I was away apart from the weather of course it was dull and rainy for most of the time we were away but the views more than made up for it.

We stayed in a Log Cabin near to lock Awe which is on the west coast of Scotland.

Misty but beautiful views from our cabin

It was lovely to wake up to see this every morning...

but a little sunshine would have been nice too.

This little chap is looking for his breakfast we did come prepared and brought lots of food for the birds I love to watch them pecking away right outside on our balcony.

Inverary Castle and grounds

We were hoping to see the bluebells but because the weather has been so cold there were no sign of them,  everything is still hiding away waiting for Spring!

 Promise's of things to come

Beautiful Red Rhododendrons bringing a touch of colour to the dull day

My friends dutifully posing for the photo

A peek of the lock in the background

A carpet of daffodils still making a beautiful display 

Out of the cold and into the castle

  I love visiting these old historic places, I like to imagine myself as lady of the castle...this little place belongs to me you know! do come and listen in while I play you a little tune on my harp.

I have just had this little tapestry thrown together rather quaint don't you think?

Haha come back down to Earth Linda! 

I did quite a lot of crocheting while I was away but... I wasn't happy with the result, it was that little something I was making for myself and so it is going to be frogged! It's funny I'm not even bothered I think crochet is marvellous I enjoy doing it just for the sake of doing it even if there is no result...am I crazy?

 Maybe I should change the name of my blog to Linda's crazy corner haha, see you all again soon and have a great day !