Happy Christmas

It's nearly Christmas.

I know this because Master Clicky ate microwave popcorn as his first meal of the day.  "It's lunchtime," he said, "anyway it's Christmas so you can eat whatever, whenever."  This apparently IS TRUE.  Maybe I shall try strange things for breakfast.

Getting Christmassy this year has been hard for me for most of December I've been wiped out, not gone to shops, not looked at beautiful wrapping paper and ribbons, not just wandered getting excited.  The decorations went up very late but they are now up.  This is one of my favourite decorations this year.  A cute little sheep with knitted face and soft wool.

My other favourite, named Sheepdeer by Master Clicky.

I have tried a little crafting, clay decorations made with baking soda and cornflour.  This has not worked out as planned.  I spent lots of time on Pinterest looking at other people's creations and how lovely they were.

Mine were not so lovely.  They cracked and curled and I was disappointed.  

Next year I shall buy air drying white clay instead.

We will be having a quiet Christmas Day, Mr Clicky, me and Master Clicky.  Miss Clicky is with her boyfriend.  Boxing day will be a big family gathering at my brother's house.  

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with the people you love.

Happy Christmas.

Clicky Needles x x 

P.S. Don't forget to Track Santa with Norad.

Back Again

Hello Folks.  

I'm back after a bit of a break.  I have had The Lurgy, one of the problems of working with children.  I've been feeling really rotten, with a blocked up nose,  headache type of lurgy.  It has left me with a blocked eustachian tube in one of my ears which is horrible.  I can't hear very well and I sound like Darth Vader when I breathe.  

Because of this I haven't done much knitting as my mojo has deserted me but I have a few other things to show you.

A little felt reindeer made from a free kit on Prima Christmas Makes magazine.  There is a white one too not done him yet.

A Christmas tree cushion, very simple, triangles and rectangles sewn onto some cheap calico.

An elf hat made for our reception teacher, so she can jingle her way around school.

I have also been melting down the bottoms of scented candle jars to make a new one.  Now, I'm not some old scrooge but there is always quite a lot of wax left at the bottom when you burn a scented candle.  I have been saving them and found some candle wicks on Amazon (very cheap).

After a bit of research I melted the wax in a bain marie, using an old plastic pot, apparently if you use a microwave you can catch it on fire if you're not careful.  

I poured it into the jar, let it cool and then added another colour.  I have mulled wine, vanilla and Christmas Tree in this one.

Because I've had two weeks lying low, I'm behind on the present buying and starting to panic a bit.   Hopefully I'll feel a bit more lively soon!

Right, I'll see you soon, have fun .......Clicky Needles.

A Jeans Bag

Hello Folks.

For the past few months I have been squirrelling away old worn out jeans, with the idea of using them to make a bag.  I have a Pinterest Board with lots of other people's wonderful examples and decided to have a go too.  I changed my needle to a denim one and was surprised how easily it went through the fabric.  It was the Purl Bee 40 Minute Tote pattern again.  

I had two pairs of jeans in this, and used the fabric from the bottom of the legs.  Needless to say the bag took more than 40 minutes ~ I had to faff around sewing the two legs together in the same place for both sides.  I unpicked the waistbands from both pairs and used them as the straps, I didn't alter the length as it was just perfect.  I'm only showing this picture so you can see my lovely nails ~ an unexpected treat when I had my hair cut, I cheekily asked if they could be done and ended up with a manicure and hair cut at the same time!  The girls told me not to get used to it!

I found some beautiful fabric for lining in the sewing shop in Stroud and even put a pocket in.

I lined the straps as well so they won't stretch.

I tried a bit of appliqué too ~ this is the better side ~ something I need to practise.

I've also finished my Aventine Shawl.  Actually I finished it a while ago, but kept forgetting to photograph it, when I remember it's usually too late and the light has gone, autumn, huh.

The pattern is here.  

I really like the buttons on the neck.

Lastly I have carried on with my Stripy Scarf of Happiness.  It was supposed to be emergency knitting ~ so on the back burner but I have been enjoying it so much, it has become No1 priority.  I'll knit to the end of the coloured yarn but I will be sad to see it end.

That's me for now.
Have a great week............Clicky Needles

Autumn Walks

Hello Folks.

I've had a lovely half term, bit of pottering, bit of knitting, bit of sewing, late night tv watching and lie-ins.
The list as long as my arm didn't really get ticked off but never mind.  I have however, been enjoying taking the dog for walks through the woods 5 minutes walk from home.

 We are so lucky to have wonderful beech woods so close.  Very English, full of bluebells in the spring and wonderful shades of orange in the Autumn.

 The dog (Tipper) couldn't understand why we kept stopping for photos.

AGAIN??????  I want to explore.

The colours were so beautiful.  I love this time of the year.

See you soon with the sewing that I got up to.

Bye for now..........................Clicky Needles.

More Stripes

 Hello Folks!

I'm wondering when my stripes obsession will end.  It shows no sign of stopping yet.  On my (four) needles at the moment is a scarf.  60 stitches in the round making a dreamy warm tube of Alpaca and Wool.  Yes, it's Drops again.  Come to think of it I have a Drops obession too. 

 The needles are 4mm and the yarn 4ply, so the fabric is open, but that's just fine.  The lovely rhythm of going round and round and round........................  As this is a small project it can also come my emergency knitting for all those times when you are sitting somewhere ~ traffic jam, dentist, lunch time ~ with your fingers itching for something to occupy them.

 Of course, the true joy of stripes, be it in socks or a scarf, is thinking about the next colour and how that's going to look,  "I'll just finish this colour before I go to bed."  We all do it. 

I am making this right now because I snapped one of my needles on my blue stripy cardi ~ which 

co-incidentally is the same yarn as this scarf.  Well I say I snapped it ~ I put it down on the sofa to make a cup of tea and the dog jumped onto the knitting and snapped it.  This is, obviously, completely my fault and  I can't be cross with him.

Half term is here and I've finished off the bit of patchwork I was doing on my new sewing machine.  You'll notice this is not a close up shot because it is a fairly gash bit of sewing and is never going to win a prize.  I made it double sided, shoved a bit of wadding in and quilted it around the hexagons.  Don't really know what I am doing in the world of patchwork, and I'm not entirely sure I should be in it either.

Anyhoo my machine can sit on it and I used up some fabric I've had for 25/30 years so it's not all bad.

So there we are, it's now gone midday and I'm still trying to get Master Clicky out of bed.  I've played Black Eyed Peas' "I've gotta feeling," at him, full blast, but it's not moved him.  Annoyed him a lot though, and that's what being a parent is all about.
 ;-)

See you soon...........Clicky Needles.

A Relaxing Weekend

Hello Folks!

Me and Mr Clicky have just a wonderfully relaxing weekend in a Canopy and Stars cabin in just over the River Wye in Wales.  If you haven't heard of Canopy and Stars they have a collection of quirky glamping stays from shepherd's huts to Treehouses to converted horse boxes and everything in between.

We stayed in this delightful little cabin which was in the grounds of Kingstone Brewery.

















It was a short 50 minute drive from home and we were greeted by Ed who urged us to dump our bags and come and taste the beer!  We complied and after tasting came out with a box full.

Our little cabin was very sweet and nicely furnished.

I loved the cabin bed and the quilt that was on it.

We settled down by the wood burner and read through some of the vintage books (some over 100 years old ~ the language was priceless.)

We were up bright and early Saturday morning and went into Tintern to see the abbey.   It is a truly magnificent place, which, for the first half hour or so we had it completely to ourselves. 


















It sits on a bend of the River Wye and is very 'still' ~ I can see why the site was chosen by the Cistercian Monks to live here.  The Wye was looking a bit brown on our visit ~ lots of silt from the previous day's rains.

The sun shone when we were there however;  the trees on the English side of the valley behind were just starting to turn to their autumn colours.

It was an extremely hard life for the monks but they did have a rather impressive drainage system presumably borrowed from The Romans who had been this way previously.

We left the Abbey as more people arrived, our silence broken, and stopped at Tintern Old Station for a cup of tea and cake.

Tintern was one of the many lines in the U.K. to fall to Dr Beeching's cuts in the 1960s.

From here we had a pub lunch at The Brockweir Inn and went back to our cabin for a cosy afternoon by the fire, cups of tea from the pewter teapot, idle chat, knitting (me, not Mr Clicky) and a few games of cards.

Back to reality now and I've worked 3 days this week and half term has started.  I have a list as long as my arm of things to get done.  I wonder if it I will do it all any of it?

See you soon, have fun.............Clicky Needles.