Five on Friday

Hello all you lovely people I hope that you have all had a great week, we had lovely Spring sunshine yesterday what a difference a bit of sunshine makes I quite felt my spirits lifting.  
Another thing that has lifted my spirits this week is the completion of the Mini Rings of Change and I can't wait to share my pictures with you so for this weeks Five on Friday I thought I would show you nine pictures haha I'm not cheating honest that is one picture and 4 pairs of pictures....

Inside

and..

 Outside soaking up a bit of that lovely sunshine

 Close up's of the middle and the edging

 Where it's destined right next to my bed to match the violet meadow blanket.

This week I worked rounds...

41 - Stylecraft Special Chunky in shade Emperor 1425
42 -  Sirdar Bonus Chunky in neon 884

For this project I have used a 5.5 mm hook and the following five colours of
Stylecraft Special chunky in shades 
1425 Emperor -100 grams
1064 meadow - 100 grams
1061 Plum - 150 grams
1023 Raspberry - 125 grams
1241 Fondant - 120 grams
Two colours of Sirdar bonus chunky in shades 
884 neon - 100 grams
742 Leaf Green - 120 grams

The finished rug measures 115cm across 

I really love my rug it has turned out just as nice as I thought it would and I will make another one of these one day in maybe a different yarn, it would look lovely in cotton don't you think? 

I really enjoyed doing this CAL it was mostly very easy and the pattern is well written.

A huge thanks to Kate for hosting do pop along to her blog and see more lovely versions of this lovely design.

Kate will be hosting another CAL at the start of April and this time she will be making The Mini Spirals of Change another beautiful design by Frank O'Randle.

Have a great weekend! :)

Joining Amy for her 5 on Friday

Linking with...

Lunamon Design

Planet Pennys Happy Friday

AnnMarie's Link your stuff

Hookin on Hump Day

Handmade Monday

Creative Tuesday

Eyeloveknots

Link and Share Wednesday

Mini Rings and A crooked Spire

This week seems to have gone so fast I don't seem to have had a minute, thank goodness the weekend is here.

If you remember I went away last weekend to visit Chesterfield and Bakewell, two lovely villages in the Peak District here in England.  I'm afraid the weather wasn't too good so I really wasn't inspired to take many photo's but one I had to take was of this thirteenth century church with a crooked Spire.

 I thought my eyes had gone funny at first when I saw this from the coach window, you can read more about it here.

I had taken my mystery cal squares along with me to work on while we were travelling in the coach but when I looked into my work bag I found the squares, crochet hook, scissors and darning needle but no yarn!! can you imagine how I felt? I was so angry with myself and I sulked all the way the Chesterfield.

As soon as we got there I went on a yarn shop hunt and....

success! I love you Chesterfield! I needed lemon yarn can you see it on the shelf up there? it wasn't the exact same shade but because of the nature of these squares it's really not going to matter I mean to say can you tell? have a look here.  

The guy in the shop wasn't overly friendly so I took these pictures outside the shop so he couldn't see hehe.

The next day we went to visit Bakewell it's the home of the Bakewell pudding, my friend had to buy one to try at home but I resisted, don't you think I'm good :)

Again awful rainy weather 

 I love these quaint streets.

the swans and ducks didn't seem to mind the rain

What do you think of these?, I hadn't seen anything like this before but apparently it's supposed to be a symbol of your love and commitment for somebody you fasten a padlock onto the bridge and throw a key into the river you can read more about it here. I personally think they are an eyesore and spoil the look of the bridge and it seems I'm not alone.

Mini Rings of Change Progress

I was hoping to finish the Mini rings this week there were only four rounds to go but I didn't factor in just how long it takes to get a round done now that it's so large...

so I only managed rounds 39 and 40.  
Apparently there is a mistake in round 40 and I have worked too many trebles, Kate has warned us about it but it came too late for me I had done the round already and it took me ages so there is no way I'm going to frog it I will adapt the next round, it will work you'll see.

Round 39 - Stylecraft special chunky in shade 1023 raspberry
Round 40 - Stylecraft special chunky in shade 1241 fondant

The mini rings cal is hosted by Kate you can read all about it and see everyones progress here 

Have a great weekend!

Five on Friday

It's looking much better at the end of this week than it did at the end of last....

1.  MRI Scan.  The reason being of course is the dreaded MRI scan is over and done with, I would just like to thank you all for all the kind comments and encouragement that you gave me last week it really meant a lot! 
I want to take this opportunity to clarify a few things about MRI's, I think one of the reasons I was so apprehensive was because I got lots of scare stories mostly from work colleagues, please just let me reassure anyone who has to go through this procedure that it's nothing at all to be scared of.  

I know it's difficult if you are claustrophobic but just keep your eyes closed and think of nice things, there are some weird loud clanking noises going on but you are given earphones with music of your choice you can even take your own CD if you like.  

I was given Abba and asked if that was ok, well it was because I love Abba and all went well until Dancing Queen came on, I ask you how could I possibly dance when I was inside a metal tunnel! but when I hear that song I do want to dance it takes me back to my teen years when I thought that I was the dancing queen haha of course my mind drifted way back to my disco day experiences and before I knew it the scan was all over and done with :)

2. Meetup with Crafting Group.   I meet up with the North East Branch of Loving Hands once a month, there were only four of us this month but it's always fun to get together and have a good old natter, eat some yummy goodies and craft away at whatever we are working on at that time.

There were lots of knitted donations from the ladies this month....

A big thank you to Barbara, Ann and an honorary member that attends Mary's church.  People are so kind and generous.  

All of these lovely makes will be going into the box for Operation Orphan where they will be taken to Moldova later in the year.

3.  Mini Rings Progress

It almost as big as my table now and is measuring 38 inches across, I really love it and I'm enjoying this CAL so much because the rounds are easy and the instructions clear, I will definitely be making it again probably in cotton next time.  This one is nearly done just a few more rounds to go.

This week I worked rounds 36-38
round 36-37 in Hayfield bonus chunky in shade 0742 leaf green
round 38 in stylecraft special chunky in shade 1061 plum

The mini rings cal is hosted by Kate you can read all about it and see everyones progress here 

4. The Cherry Heart Blanket Along.   I have decided to join in with yet another CAL but just because I can tie it in with my crochet blocks CAL.  I thought that it would be a good idea to make a little girl blanket similar to the little boy blanket I made here using blocks from the 200 crochet blocks book.  I'm hoping that following this will give me the encouragement to get it completed in a month.  I have still to choose which blocks I will be using, I have decided a few times and then changed my mind, if I want to get it done in a month I need to get a move on!  

I have chosen the colours.... baby pastels from my stash. You can read all about this CAL here

5. Weekend Away.  I'm going away for the weekend with three of my friends, it's a bus trip to Chesterfield and an overnight stay in a hotel, it's a birthday treat for my friend Christine who has just had a big birthday recently.  I'm looking forward to this because I really need the break, I will tell you all about it next week :)

What are you up too this weekend? I hope you all have good one! 

Linking with Amy's Five on Friday

Five on Friday

Hello all you lovely people I hope that you have all had a good week, time to relax now and chill over the weekend, this a bit of a rushed post today because I'm all of a flutter, will tell you why right at the end but first

1. Mini Rings Progress

This week I worked rounds 33-35 so that I can move on to the next colour with round 36.
Using stylecraft special chunky 
Round 33 -  shade 1061 Plum
Rounds 34 - 35 shade 1064 Meadow
The picture was taken on a very dull day and the colours look..well dull, they are much nicer in real life.

The mini rings of change Cal is hosted by Kate and you can find out all about it here

2. Snowdrops

I found some snowdrops hidden under my lavender bushes, I had to actually go out and search for them, I knew they were there somewhere it's such a shame that they are hidden like this, I must transplant them for next Spring, I love snowdrops.

3. New Books
My boyfriend is an avid reader I mean he really loves books all four walls in his spare room have been shelved from floor to ceiling and they literally groan with the weight of the books standing on them in fact there are books on top of books, he can't get rid of a book even if he's read it dozens of times.  One day there will be no room for him in his home the books will take over! and so everytime he see's a craft book he has to buy it for me, this time he bought me these...

I don't mean to sound ungrateful but I do like to choose my own knitting/crochet books because not everything appeals to me and most of these books have the same stuff in them anyway, I will make use of the first one but not the second and it upsets me to think that he has wasted his money.  Do you think that I'm awful? I have tried to be diplomatic and say don't buy me any craft books because I might have them already or check with me first but it falls on deaf ears he says he likes to surprise me, I am an ungrateful bitch go on you can say it haha.

4. Stash Busting

Just a reminder for all of you stash busters it's the end of the month but you still have time to link up all your February stash busting projects the February party will close Saturday midnight.  For those who are counting please leave me your totals and thank you to those of you who have done already I will be updating at the weekend.

The March stash link Party will be up and running on Sunday and I will be showing all your January favourites

5. The Appointment

Yes the dreaded appointment came through at least one of them anyway, I have to go for the MRI scan today at 5pm.  I only got to know yesterday so they certainly haven't given me much notice maybe just as well this way I won't have too long to dwell on it. I'm a little claustrophobic so I'm hoping that I can tolerate lying inside a metal cylinder for half an hour wish me luck!

Just adding this here, thank you for all your good wishes, MRI went fine now just waiting for results and next scan. :) 
Have a great weekend!

Joining with Amy for her five on Friday

Five on Friday

I hope that you have all had a great week mine has been quite a good one.

ONE
I'm feeling really great since I cut out all the eating of chocolate, cakes and biscuits, I have been leaning more towards fruit and nutty nibbles and do you know what I'm enjoying it, I'm hoping that when I do eventually have my MRI scan those pesky gallstones will have melted away haha not likely I know but one can hope. I also started a new exercise class this week it's called step fit and it's so much fun have you tried it?

TWO
My mini rings progress for this week

This week we worked rows 30 and 31 however I did row 32 too because it was curling really badly after row 31 probably because there are no increases in these two rows to compensate for the increase in size, I even contemplated pulling it back and adding an extra chain increase in row 31.  I decided to stretch the work instead by giving each chain space a little tug, it was still curling so I decided to work row 32 to see if that would help and it did, there is still a slight curl but it will even out with the next rows. 

Round 30 - Stylecraft special chunky inshade 1425 Emperor
Rounds 31, 32 - sirdar bonus chunky in shade 884 neon

THREE
I had a fun time trying to tidy my stash this week, it was great emptying bags and bags of yarn onto the bed, it took me absolutely ages to get it into some sort of order but can you remember my Ikea visit? I was quite taken with the cube storage system, I loved the little boxes that fit inside and so when my friend went to Ikea herself last week I asked her to get me some.  I realised I had lots of unutilised space on top of my wardrobe, so I cleared all of the rubbish sorry I forgot to take a picture of the before but take my word for it, it was unsightly. Here it is now

each box is filled to the brim with yarn, first two are full balls of DK yarn the middle one is Aran and the other two are baby yarn, please don't think for one minute that thats the whole of my stash I could fill another five boxes and there would still be some left over.

This is just some of the stuff I took down from the top of the wardrobe!

FOUR
Another great thing that happened this week remember this....

well here it is now

It took Eddie ages to get it finished because the weather has been against him, also it's harder putting an old fence up than starting from scratch with a new one, a lot of the wood had rotted and needed replacing probably because my neighbours hadn't bothered painting their side of the fence, that makes me so angry but they don't care probably because they weren't paying for it.  

Once the weather is better I'm going to paint it again and I'll ask the neighbours if I can paint their side too, I'm just glad it's up again and I asked Eddie to put extra posts to give it extra support so hopefully it won't blow down again.

FIVE
I have decided to do the  Mystery Afghan CAL you must have known I would buckle and give in, I can't resist a CAL. Clue 2 has been revealed already so I have some catching up to do the first clue is 20 granny squares....

I have done eight so far, clue 2 is layering on top of the granny squares that's what made me decide to go for it because I haven't done anything like this before I think it's going to be very interesting'

My colours are pale lemon, blue, white and green, I had to buy the green but the other is from my stash of Dk, I'm hoping to be all caught up by Tuesday ready for clue 3 is anyone else doing this? I would love to see your progress.


This wasn't really intended but once I wrote this post I realised that there are five things so I'm joining Amy with her Five on Friday feature do pop along and see her new Five on Friday Link Up.

Have a great weekend!