Just The Thing

There's nothing better than a stroll around a beautiful garden to lift the spirits, last weekend a friend and myself went to visit Wynyard Gardens and I thought I would share the beauty with you.

I hope you enjoyed your stroll as much as I did which one was your favourite? 

Have a lovely day it's my Loving Hands meeting day so I'm looking forward to it. :)

Something For The Weekend

Just the thing for the warmer weather, these cute little puppets are light, quick and easy to make and all for a great cause too...

I have challenged myself to make at least two of these a month and these are my June puppets.  OCC Barton upon Humber  need lots more to meet their target, the latest total is 5413 bears.

Why don't you all join in and and make a bear or two you can read all about the appeal, find the patterns and the address to send them here.

I hope you all have a great sunshiny weekend. xxx

Now That's More Like It!

This time I stuck to what I know best which resulted in this....

An easy crochet sweater made with Aran yarn

and it took me only five days! It would have been even quicker of course if there wasn't a thousand other things to do in the day.  Just think in the time it took me to do the May sweater I could have made  three of these!

I used poundstretcher Aran which is quite soft and very reasonably priced and an Aldi variegated yarn  which I'm not too keen on but it was perfect for this sweater

You can find the Free Pattern here

I will be linking this to the latest stash-buster party why don't you link your latest stash busting make just click on the stash-buster icon below.

I intend making a hat and scarf with what's left of the yarn at some point. If you can remember I was going to finish a sock by the end of the month but something else has been urgently asked for so the poor sock will have to wait once again. 

I hope the sun is shining for you today it's cloudy but warm here, leaving you with a picture of my favourite rose it's looking beautiful just now and the scent is heavenly.

Stash-Buster Link Party 12

Hello and welcome to a brand new stash-buster link party, once again a huge thank you to all of you who participated in the last link up there were some fabulous projects, these were your favourites....

Pretty dress created by Ann From Loving Hands

Ladies gilet created Flutemouse From Loving Hands

If you would like any information about the above Loving Hands projects please just leave a comment and I will get in touch with the ladies concerned.

Beautiful Doily created by Anna from Annasimplecrochet

Congratulations ladies!

Stash-Buster Party Twelve

Rules

• Please grab the stash-buster link party button
• All crafts are welcome either complete or works in progress.
• Link the picture from your actual post and not your blog address.
• Be polite and click on at least 2 links and leave some nice comments
• Please mention the link party in your post or display the party button in your sidebar if you want to be featured.

Happy Linking!

An InLinkz Link-up

Any LH pictures are projects made by ladies who are members of Loving Hands, clicking on the picture will show you an enlarged version, if you would like any information about any of the projects shown please just ask in the comments section. 

It Took 17 days!

Honestly I thought that I was never going to finish it! this is my May boy sweater, it was started in May even though I finished it in June so I suppose it's ok to call it the May sweater...

 So why did it take so long? well it's worked in the round in fact it's the first sweater I have ever made this way, I'm a two needle tuck the needle under the arm sort of girl, that was how I was taught and it's very difficult to change your method after 55 years, but as you know I'm always up for a challenge, working in the round for me began when I made my sock making debut back here. I thought making a sweater in the round was a great idea, no sewing of seams I forgot to factor in just how slow I am using this technique..

and have you seen the stripes? so many! I wasn't sure if I should cut the yarn at each colour change or carry the yarn up the work, in the end I used a combination of both to see which worked best and I think cutting the yarn gave the best result but meant I had a zillion ends to weave in.

I'm not happy with the finish, I made so many mistakes and I hate how the colour changes are staggered..

I know that there is a way around this but it didn't work for me because there were just too many changes.

CONCLUSION..
Did I like the pattern? yes I did, I love the idea of working a sweater in one piece neck down.
Would I make it again? well, no at least not with all the stripes anyway, maybe a plain sweater or one with less stripes.
Even though it's not perfect it will still keep a little one warm.

STATS
I used 177 grams of DK yarn out of my stash.
worked on 3.5mm and 4mm circulars 
It will fit a 5-7 year old.
You can find the free pattern here

Making this sweater has really slowed me down  I still have to start my June boy sweater, make two June puppets finish a sock and decide on a doily pattern for my coffee table, will I do it? 

What are you all up too? I hope you are having a great week :) x