Happy New Year!

 

Wishing everyone all the very best for 2022!

Last Minute Rush and Have a Merry Christmas.

 I have decided that I work better under pressure, I know it sounds mad but I get more work done when I know that it has to be done in a very narrow time frame, that's why most things get left until the last minute, that includes last minute little gifts to give to friends and family like these cute little angels..

You can add your own little touches by adding beads, you can find the quick and easy pattern here.

I am still enjoying the Drops Christmas Advent calendar and have made quite a few of the little patterns, I love those Christmas socks and have put them on my to do list for next year. Then the other night I decided to give the Christmas tree coasters a try and I love the result, again another one for next year everyone needs a Christmas tree coaster in their life 😄

Wreaths have been made

The only thing left to do is to complete my Twelve Days Of Christmas Sampler, there isn't a great lot to do for the twelfth day but with everything else that's going on it's finding the time to actually sit and complete it.  I won't have time to frame it but that doesn't matter as long as the sewing is done I will be happy.

I hope all your Christmas preparations are going well so that you can spend sometime just to relax and enjoy the season. I'm hoping to spend lots of time with my youngest son who is visiting from Qatar with his lovely wife, fingers crossed that Covid restrictions won't affect us too much, son number two and his wife are recovering from corona virus as we speak, it has been a rough time for them both but we are hoping that the worst is over.

Christmas blessings to you all, have a safe and very happy Christmas. 😘😘

More Christmas Crochet Mosaic

 Mosaic Crochet continues to become more and more popular,  this time last year I was frantically  trying  to complete my Mosaic cushions and luckily I succeeded, it was lovely to see them again when I went up in to the loft in search of my Christmas decorations.  

I know I have just made new cushions but they will have to step aside just for the month of December and let these take centre stage.  I had planned on gifting some of these but I liked them too much to give away, I do plan to give one to my daughter.

I used panels from Letitia's Holiday CAL blanket by Rosina Plane

Last Year my Mosaic Christmas post was so popular I thought I would add to it just to give you an idea of what new patterns are available this year. 

More patterns seem to be added to the mosaic Christmas list by the day and here are just a few of those that I have seen and loved enough to purchase the patterns, all of these patterns are for the overlay mosaic technique. 

Christmas Table Runner
by Anneke den Outer

Christmas Penguin Potholder
by Anneke den Outer

This designer has some fabulous designs and you can see them all here on Ravelry

I had to purchase this pattern as soon as I saw it, I know my daughter would absolutely love it, I would love to make it and use it as a wall hanging but I think it would turn out too large even if I used fine cotton yarn. This designer's patterns have 35% off the price until the 12 December.

You can see them all here

O Holy Night
A Christmas Nativity
by Lucille Schubert

By the same designer, I had my little grandson Mikey in mind when I bought this one

Oh Christmas Tree

Winter Wonderland
by Ana Morais Soares

So many beautiful patterns so little time! certainly not enough time for me to make any of them this year.  

I am in the process of making  some of these Mosaic Stars because they are so easy and although it's a bought pattern the YouTube tutorial is free.  

Mosaic Stars
by Tinna Thórudóttir Thorvaldsdóttir

I had a lovely relaxing evening crocheting these along with Tinna and I plan on making more if time will permit, they are small enough to pop into an envelope with a Christmas card as a little Christmas gift and lovely to string to together to make a garland. Tinna gives you lots of idea's in her tutorial too, you can watch it here 

More Patterns I have seen

Festive Placemat
by Carol A Scott

Christmas in July
by BebaBlanket

Sholach Mosaic Christmas Trees

by Abi McIntyre

Norway Spruce by 
Rosina Plane

Let it Snow Afghan
by Lynette Kosar

Marji's all decked out table topper 
by Lynette Kosar

Wolf Howling to The Moon
by Anneke den Outer

I will add to these if more become available, please let me know if any of you come across more Christmas Mosaic and I will add it here.

Click below for...

A Mosaic Christmas

Even More Christmas Mosaic

Christmas Crochet roundup

The Countdown has Begun!

 Happy December! The count down to Christmas has officially begun. 

I never really start to seriously think about Christmas until the beginning of December and it's only then that I start to get gift inspiration for friends and family, of course that usually means that I've left it far too late to make much out of the ideas that are spinning around in my head, I do try in the months leading up to December but nothing seems to work because my heart isn't in it. 

To be honest I have been busy with other things, I decided to change the décor in my living room and give it a winter vibe, so out went the pinks and purples and in came the reds and oranges I bought a new rug in the local market 

That meant that accessories had to be changed and before that could happen yarn had to be bought..

I just love it when the postman brings a parcel of yarn to the door, this is the second parcel in as many weeks as I had already bought red and cinnamon but ran out of the red, I decided then and there that in order to avoid p&p the only sensible thing to do would be to spend over £25.  I had to laugh at the postman, he pointed to the parcel and said,  more yarn! then he started singing - when will I see you again😂

Anyway I have made cushions to compliment the rug, six in all..

I am in the process of  completing the last two square cushions and I'm hoping they will be done in the next couple of days.  I think that the colours  match quite well..

I absolutely love the texture in this stitch, the cushions may be plain but that texture lifts them to another level I think.  If anyone would like the pattern please just leave me a comment and I will write a post on how I made them. Although it's hard to see in the photo the larger cushions are made in the same stitch. 

Along with the cushions I have changed my pictures on one wall it had to be a winter scene of course..

You can't get more wintery than that! These are photos taken by one of the leaders of our u3a photography group, he is so talented his photos are beautiful, this is the same scene taken at different times of the day and I just love them.

I would like to make an easy  throw with what is left of the yarn and my brother has asked me to make a cover for his wheelchair cushion so I have a lot to get on with but other things are stirring in my mind, if you remember I showed you a beautiful blanket back here believe it or not I have seen yet another....

I have bought both patterns and I'm thinking that perhaps I will make them slowly throughout next year and hopefully they will be ready for next Christmas, I'm not committing myself to it because like I said earlier I find it hard to make Christmas stuff out of Season so watch this space, will she or won't she!

We woke up to this yesterday morning!

It came as a surprise as we weren't expecting it, I haven't been out in the garden since before the storm that hit us last weekend, my bench is still overturned and I have damage to the summerhouse door and windows but I was very lucky compared to some. Power has yet to be restored to quite a number of homes. 

That little bit of snow doesn't look like much but it was very icy underfoot, I had to walk to my hairdressers appointment as the roads were too icy to risk taking the car, luckily I managed to get there in one 

piece but fortified myself with a cappuccino in Costa before I walked back home again, the sea doesn't look that inviting does it?

Can you believe we have cold water swimmers who actually swim in that sea every morning they must be very brave I couldn't do it could you?

I look forward to the Drops Advent Calendar every year, it's fun to click and find a free pattern everyday some of them are really cute,  I have already tried days one and two so quick and easy,  a nice little project for the weekend.😊

In Remembrance

Once again the time has got away from me and it must be two weeks since I wrote a blog post but I have been busy these past few weeks and it will only get busier as Christmas approaches, there's not enough hours in the day! 

The knitting and crochet groups from our u3a got together to make poppies in order to make a display in Remembrance of those who lost their lives in conflict.

We started this a bit too late for it to have much of an impact but we were busy with the Station Display previous to this and we are also making warm woolly items for the homeless, I honestly didn't know which way to turn crochet wise I have had so much on my hook of late, but back to the poppies I did mention them back here. 

Although this is for a good cause I found myself  at poppy burnout, there comes a time when you just can't bring yourself to make another single one, I didn't actually count how many I made but there were a fair few made after I took this photo and I forgot to take another photograph at the end.

Last Sunday morning  members of the groups got together and assembled not one but two displays, the first onto the railings of a Primary school where Pamela the leader of the knitting group works, pupils will be encouraged to tie their own poppies to the fence too.

The second display was assembled in front of the war memorial outside our Town Hall.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,

We will remember them.

💓

excerpt from the poem For The Fallen by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend 😘

 

Cute little Critters and Happy Halloween!

 I'm not one for making fiddly things but some of those fiddly things are so cute sometimes I really can't help myself.  

As I have mentioned before I run a crochet group for the u3a and as such I have a display board at the u3a's monthly meetings.  I try to make the board look attractive to encourage people to join the group, I usually have a garland pegged to the top of the board which is mostly seasonal like the one below which I showed you last year in this post

This time I went a step further, along with the leaf garland I decided to inject a little bit of Halloween fun into the proceedings and this is where cute came in. 

The pumpkins are so easy to make and to be honest I had to stop myself  from making more, but I do have other things on my hook so I reluctantly dragged myself away from the creating of pumpkins and  moved on to the mice, I have been wanting to make some little mice for a long time just because I think they are so darn cute and this seemed like the perfect time.

Amigurumi is amazing but so fiddly, making the bodies is easy enough but it's the sewing on of ears and other appendages  that gets me, and so for the pink mouse rather than crochet the ear and sew it on I surface crocheted them straight onto the mouse, so much easier and they look ok I think.

I  had to have a hedgehog to complete the display, I'm still looking for a  more realistic looking hedgehog pattern maybe I'll try and design one myself but this one had to do and I think he looks cute enough.

This small display caused quite a bit of laughter at the meeting last Wednesday especially when I told the Chairperson that we had an infestation of mice in the Town hall she looked horrified and said, have you reported it! then when she saw the display she just burst out laughing and announced it when she was addressing the members, it's amazing what a bit of crochet can do to raise the spirits and bring a bit of fun the the proceedings.

I found the mouse pattern in this book here but ended up doing it my own way anyway, here are some cute mouse patterns if you fancy hooking up a few.

Little Christmas Mouse

Tiny Crochet Mouse

There are lots of great pumpkin free patterns, I used this one by Planet June and adapted the size by using different weights of yarn and hook sizes.  More patterns below.

Autumn Pumpkin Pattern by Bella Coco

Medium Crochet Pumpkin Pattern by crochet 365

Crochet Pumpkin Pattern by Petals to Picots

The hedgehog pattern I made is like this one here Easy Crochet Hedgehog by the Whoot but I have since found  one I like better and am going to make more using this pattern The Hedgehog Hedda by Yarnhild

Unfortunately a few days after my last Crochet group session two of the members who had attended the meeting came down with Covid, there had been ten of us in a room much smaller than I would have liked but the large room where it is usually held was not available.  I had to get in touch with everyone concerned and ask them to do a lateral flow test and to watch out for symptoms, luckily now 14 days later we are all fine thank goodness. 

The two ladies in question had attended a birthday party and they think that that's where they caught it.  They have been quite poorly despite having two doses of the vaccine, they had just received their boosters but obviously the effects of those hadn't kicked in, on the bright side they will be both super charged with antibodies and thankfully they are both on the mend.

Thank you for the lovely comments about little Mikey's solar system outfit, he is getting lots of use out of it apparently he has already attended two Halloween Parties and my daughter in law has organised a neighbourhood Halloween trail so he will be wearing it again this weekend. 

If you are celebrating Have a Great Halloween. 😊😘😘

The Solar System In Crochet

 When my daughter in law asked me if I would crochet the solar system for my grandson everything else was immediately put to one side.  She wanted to make a solar system Halloween outfit for him for the Halloween party at his nursery.

If you can remember back in this post Mikey loves the solar system, he knows all the planets and everything about them right down to the number of moons and rings they all have.

I immediately set about making little planets but wondered if anyone had done anything similar before.  Making small spheres is simple enough but the planets are all different sizes and colours and I thought it would be great if I could find a pattern to help me on my way. if I got anything wrong Mikey would soon point it out haha

I found one which seemed to fit the bill here however the designer stated that it had been published in a back issue of Simply Crochet so rather that just buy the pattern on Ravelry it seemed a better option to buy the magazine  and get a whole load of other patterns too. 

I thought that I had plenty of time to make these right up till the end of the month in fact but for some strange reason the Nursery had their Halloween party yesterday, so in the end it was a mad rush to get them finished. 

As you can see my daughter in law has made a great job of attaching them it looks as if Saturn's rings have become a bit wobbly in the process 😂 but Mikey is delighted and sent me a thank you video, I can't wait to hear all about his party.

It was so much fun making these and there are lots of space related patterns in the magazine so I may be making a rocket and a star cushion too.

I hope you all have a great weekend 😘😘

Click here to see the parties I will be linking to this week.