Mini Beast from the East

Hello folks.

Yes, it is back again.  The Beast from the East has dropped more snow on us, just when the birds were singing, the daffodils were just about to come out and everything was getting a bit warmer and well,  spring-like.  Now I like a snow day or two as much as the next man ~ we've had four, yes FOUR! this year but I'm all over it now.  The flipping' snow can GO AWAY.  

I've been working on the Wedding Present Blanket, this is the one for my teacher.  These are large granny squares of 11 rounds of colour and 3 rounds of cream.  I laid them all out on the floor and decided that it was looking a bit blue, I seem to have lots of shades from baby blue, to turquoise, to navy.  

I have some of the colours on display in my cube unit in the craft room and the bottom row caught my eye.

So I'm now trying to tone the blanket down with brown, beige, grey and white.  I'm pleased with this square so I shall try and put (at least) one of the colours in each new square I make.  The wedding is in August which seems like a long way away but I don't want to be finishing off the night before so I'm having a push now.

I've been out and brushed the snow off the car in anticipation of tomorrow's journey to work and it was really cold.  I'm hoping it will have melted by then but it might just freeze. *sigh*  

Have a good week, bye for now...........Clicky Needles.

Snow Days are Good for Knitting

Hello there.  

This part of the UK didn't escape the snow that fell last week.  We had two snow days off school and it carried on during the weekend.   I made sure the birds were well topped up with food and water.  The apples I put out even brought in two Field Fares for several days. 

Despite the fact that there were lots of apples to choose from they were scrapping with the Blackbirds over them.

The snow is still hanging around, this is a road on my way to work at the end of this week.

 Of course 4 snow days are a fabulous excuse for knitting.  I finished the back of my grey aran thing.  I was busy congratulating myself on a very neat neck and shoulder (if I do say so myself) went to do the other shoulder and then discovered I had too many stitches.  

Meh! I've pulled it all out and I'm starting again.

It is this pattern, an aran slipover which I wear and wear and wear so it makes sense to make it again.

When I started again last might I had a helpful dog snuggled up with me on the sofa, he was so tucked up I was finding it really uncomfortable to knit.

That's me for now, it's warmer this week so no snow!  

Have fun whatever you do..............Clicky Needles.

Tea Cosies

Hello folks.

It's been half term in these parts and I was persuaded by my colleagues to host afternoon tea, so we could get together and have a good gossip, which we don't seem to do properly at school.  I found some cups and plates in the charity shops in Stroud and in the same charity shop, a pack of tea towels with a couple of prints I really liked.  They were destined to be tea cosies.

I found this tutorial through Pinterest (where else?)  I used a really thick (2cm) wadding unlike the pattern ~ is is a tea cosy after all.  I had a bit of a fight with my machine where the wadding was so thick,  I ended trimming it off at the edges.  They won't win any prizes, a bit wonky in places, but on the whole I'm pleased.

I used a red tea towel out of the pack for one lining

 and a more muted brown tea towel to match the taupe pattern. 

 Here they are on the table.

We had a lovely time catching up with our family lives, something we don't tend to do at work.

I've also caught up with my London cousin and Mum and Dad who came for the day, and our builder has been back to finish off some bits and pieces to the build.  

It's been a bit nippy round here over the last week  or so, this was taken at 7.00am on Minchinhampton Common this week after I'd dropped Master Clicky at work.  That's snow!

I've also had a bit of a potter and clearing in the 'garden'.  It's still a bit of a building site but we're getting there.  I got the steps out and took a photo into the nesting box to check what was inside ~ there were definitely bees in it last summer.  Thankfully no honeycomb and I'm hoping that the blue tits return this summer, they didn't bother last year, I think they were disturbed by the building work.

Lastly my current project.  It's grey, it's Aran and it's growing.  A mindless piece of stocking stitch that's moving quickly.  I will tell you no more because I think it might be finished next time.

Well, that's me for now, have a super week......................Clicky Needles.

Art

Hello there.

I have been making things recently.

I have made a wreath to hang on the craft room door out of large pom-poms.  The wool for this is Rowan Big Wool Fusion, which was discontinued quite a few years ago.  It was very cheap and I bought some pink and blue.  The base was a Christmas wreath from the supermarket made of straw which I took the foliage off.   I made lots of pom-poms ~ I'm a bit obsessed at the moment ~ and glued them on the base.  I was planning to make this for Christmas, but better late than never.

Here it is on the door, when it's open I can admire it and when the door's shut I hope it conveys

 something about what lies within.

I've also had my crochet hook out and made lots of little hearts out of the many shades of Mariner double knit that I have.  I got my glue gun out again and had some fun.

My tiny heart bunting is now in pride of place in the craft room.

Whilst I was having a mooch around a local little town on Friday I came across some wrapping paper.  It really caught my eye, I love the bright colours so I snapped it up straight away.

 I've used to to replace this Wassily Kandinsky Concentric Circles print that has hung in our bedroom since we moved into this house ~ 18 years ago ~ and has faded so much over all that time.

I used the old print turned over and glued with a Pritt Stick, primary school style (around the outside and a cross through the middle) onto the wrapping paper.  I have to say I am very pleased with myself, although I did have a bit of a moment when I couldn't work out why the picture wasn't in the centre of the bed head where it is hung.  After puzzling for a while I realised that the bed had probably been moved.  Duh!

I quite often use wrapping paper or tissue paper for artwork.  This spotty tissue paper is in our kitchen

 and this Christmas Tree tissue paper is in the hall.  I love it so much it stays up all year.

Lastly I have finished sewing in the ends from the temperature blanket, I job I quite enjoy ~ I am aware some people think this weird ~ and I have lots more ends, soon to become another pom-pom.

Well that's me for now, as always have a lovely week.....Clicky Needles.

Ends

Hello folks. 

I've changed my light box to...... 

When you have a large crochet blanket on the go it is all consuming.  I got a huge urge last evening to KNIT something, anything.  I decided to pull out my stripy cardigan, a few hours of mindless stocking stitch being just what I needed.  Unfortunately as I had shoved  tidied it away in October I must have snapped the needle.  No knitting of this then.

Still desperate to knit I found a sock.  These were the stranded ones I was doing when we went to Chicago in July.  I wanted to master continental knitting, and, sat by myself in a hotel room while Mr Clicky was at work, I did!  I'm just progressing through the heel.  My restlessness was quelled.

Now, I am, probably like most crafters, unable to sit and not do anything with my hands.  I took the crochet squares of the temperature blanket to school to sew in the ends in during my lunch hour.  Now that they are all done my colleagues said they were "a bit worried you're not doing anything."  As the wedding blanket is for one of said colleagues and a surprise I can't take that in to work on so I decided to carry on making the pom-poms the ends are making.  How to transport a load of short bits of yarn, without ending up in mess?  Put them in little pots.  I had a happy ~ I know, sad ~ half hour separating all of those little bits.

I can make two or three pom-poms whilst eating lunch.  The bag gets fuller.

Lastly, I need to ask some advice.  I currently blog using our family Mac but I would really like to use my iPad as well.  I wonder if anyone could offer some help about which app to use.  The blogger app is no longer supported and I didn't really get on with that anyway.  If you blog from your iPad how do you do it?  I'm really interested to know.  I don't mind spending money on an app if it will work.  Thanks in advance!

Well, that's me for now.  Have a super week.............

Clicky Needles.

A Sorting Day

Hello folks!

I've been sorting today.  When our new kitchen extension was finished back in October I didn't have the energy or inclination to properly sort out the kitchen drawers.  I just chucked ~ quite literally ~ all the contents of the old drawers in and shut them.  Now I'm not talking about the cutlery and utensils that was sorted at the time, but more the pens and things that you accumulate.  A lot of the things have gone in the bin; I found 5 keys to tighten up rugby studs, spare studs, two packets of 50 balloons ~ 100 balloons what was I thinking?, 3 pairs of 3d glasses from the cinema ~ I hate 3d cinema gives me a headache, 5 lanyards, a paint colour chart, thousands of elastic bands, more pens than I know what to do with, 10 Ikea pencils, loads of Ikea Allen Keys, rawl plugs, screws............I could go on.  Anyhoo the drawers are now a lot lighter and more streamlined.

I've also had the laminator from school apart and removed a laminating pouch that got stuck.

I've filled my car up with oil, done several loads of washing, donated some items on my local Freecycle, walked the dog and fed the wild birds.

Do you remember Miss Clicky's boyfriend was in Shetland and I said he wasn't allowed to by any wool for me?  Turns out he did.  One of my Christmas

Presents was a Jamieson's bag and a ball of yarn.  

On the reverse is a key to wooly dialect, makkin apparently, is knitting.  I was very touched.

My temperature blanket is nearly ready for the border, just have to sew in those ends.  I know some people hate this stage this stage but I quite enjoy it. So if you need me that's where you'll find me this evening, on the sofa sewing in ends.

As always have a lovely week, and if you're in the U.K. make sure those hatches are battened down, there's some weather on the way.

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

Happy New Year

Hello Folks!

I hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas and A Happy New Year.  

Our plans for a family gathering of 12 were slightly scuppered by some more snow.  We ended up postponing until New Year's Day instead.  I needn't have hung my pom-poms on the tree in the front garden after all.

My 50th birthday sneaked up on me just before Christmas. I'm not sure how but there we go.  It was fairly quiet; I'm trying to get people at work to make allowances ~ not sitting on the floor etc. ~ 'because I'm over 50' but they're having none of it!

One of our lovely friends made me some massive crochet hooks from wooden dowling.  I've put a 4.5mm hook next to them for comparison.  I'm not sure if I'll use them or not but they are very tactile and a handcrafted present is always wonderful.

Mr Clicky undecorated the Christmas Tree when I was back at work ~ he sent me a text saying what a well co-ordinated tree it was!  I did ask him if he had noticed the tree at all through Christmas and he said yes, but he hadn't fully appreciated it.  MEN!!!!

 So my big news to tell you ~ apart from the birthday ~ is that Mr Clicky is currently working in Chicago.  He went in October, was back for two weeks over Christmas and I took him back to Heathrow this weekend, that was hard I can tell you.  I will see him again at Easter, his job will last for 3 years.  The plan is that I will join him when I can ~ at the moment Master Clicky is not yet driving so I have to take him to work in the morning ~ the other piece of news ~ Master Clicky has a job! He decided not to go back to college, has joined the world of work and at the age of 18 is earning more than me.

On a wooly note our Godson and his new wife are expecting a baby soon, and I was invited to the baby shower they had.  I made a Puerperium jumper, which I liked because the front opens completely.  This was finished at the 11th hour ~ if you look carefully there is one less stripe of blue on one of the sleeves (!)

and also a pair of baby socks.

Good news! today is the last day of my Temperature Blanket so all that remains now is to crochet it together.  I shall be concentrating on this for the next few weeks.  I love the way it has come together and I can't wait to finish it.

So, I think that's me for now, have a great week................Clicky Needles.