Birthday

Clematis called 'Julia' blooming away for my Birthday this week, what a gorgeous colour! (Thanks to my brilliant partner for the photo) It has been too hot to breathe here this week, on Friday it got to over 40C and 90% humidity, no joke! So I sat inside in the aircon in the afternoons and finished my sock and started another one, and I've managed to make the second to match the first by winding a bit off the second ball of wool, very chuffed!

For the card makers among you, here is a lovely card I have made for my step daughter-in-law from the Debbie Moore CD called 'Glitter & Glitz'

It's actually cloudy this morning (what a relief!) so the pic is a bit dull, but there is real glitter on the dress, very sparkly and pretty. I put dots of glue with a glue pen in lines down the dress as demontrated by Debbie on TV ( Create and Craft channel) recently. The whole project is on the CD to work from step-by-step.

In the craft world everyone is planning for Christmas already, I can't possibly start making Christmas cards in August, I can't get my head around it! Besides there are lots of birthdays to make cards for first. But I am knitting for Christmas, I have taken on a huge project for my grandson, a complete Noah's Ark set, I've just finished one side of the boat, complete with Fair Isle waves, pics of my progress will be coming soon.

I've just launched my own website http://www.handicraftscrazy.com/ where I am building up a lot of information, free patterns etc, so check it out evey now and then, its still a WIP too so be patient!

Back soon....

Handbag pattern

Several people love the handbag I made and want the pattern. It is from Knit Today magazine Jan 2010 issue, go here to order a back copy. I adapted the cosmetic purse pattern to be wider for a handbag size and made a strap of a few rows of dc. The basic design is very simple, just dc stripes as the basic bag and then a pretty border in the same colours sewn over the stripes. I would like to experiment with other lacey border designs sometime.
By the way, I was given a set of Provocraft interchangeable crochet hooks and I can't get on with them so they are on ebay at the moment, go and bid here if you want them.

Here is the heel of my socks, I usually prefer bamboo needles for knitting, but I am using Knit Pro double pointed needles for my these, they are fabulous for socks, so smooth and pointy. It took me a while to get the hang of them as it is easy to drop stitches on such a pointy end, but I love them now.

This is my fourth pair of socks and I'm getting better each time, less mistakes and holes! Some of you may be wondering why I need warm wool socks in Spain? Contrary to what many people believe, it gets very cold here on the Costa Blanca in the winter, the temperature doesn't actually go below freezing that often, but the houses here are built to keep the heat out not in, so they are not insulated and the floors are just cold tiles. My old farmhouse walls are made of rock plastered together, lovely and cool right now, but so cold later. I have been colder in this house than I have ever been in the UK! We do have heating, electric radiators and log effect gas fires, but the heat evaporates very quickly, so I love my warm woolly socks and rugs and my electric blanket!

Busy for a couple of days, back soon.xxx

Hot weather makes

Hi there, when it is so hot during the day I can't bear to work with heavy, warm yarns so I turn to cotton. I thought you would like to see my crochet necklaces made by just working double crochets (single crochet for US readers) of 4 ply (fingering) cotton around  plastic curtain rings and purpose made crochet rings. The flatter ones I used here were Prym Crochet Rings 96 x 26mm. You can find these at Purple Linda Crafts, along with lots of other scrummy crochet things.

I plan to wear this one tonight to a BBQ with other purple accessories, one of which is the handbag I made a few weeks ago from the same yarn. The stone table this is laying in was a beautiful gift from friends, the engraving says,

'Fair quiet have I found thee here'

a bit of a joke this afternoon as the French holiday makers next door have their Cd player on full blast with 'oonge, oonge' music!

When its cooler in the evenings I can knit and am enjoying the fun colours of Kaffe Fassett sock wool and the lovely stripes that are forming as I knit. I wasn't sure I liked olive greens in a mixture of bright turqoise blues, but it works, makes it more adult looking somehow, what do you think?

I am using the Yarn Harlots 'recipe' for this pair and I like it so far. Since this pic was taken, I have done the magic bit of turning the heel, I get such absurd pleasure from this stage, seeing a straight piece of knitting turn into 3D before my eyes!

 
More pics tomorrow, hopefully, have a great weekend!

Well here we go.....

At Last I am venturing into blog land, bear with me while I get the hang of it! I am a passionate crafter, and have been ever since watching 'Picture Book' and Blue Peter! I was always wanting to 'make things', driving my poor house proud Mother to distraction with my 'messes'!
Anyway, I just want to share my projects, inspiration, hints tips and links with you and hope you will enjoy my ramblings along the way.

This is my most recent project, 'Vintage Car Coat' from Knitting magazine April 2007 issue. I had been saving this pattern for a while, and as my lovely son and daughter in law have just produced the most adorable son, I had the perfect excuse to knit it! It is made from Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino yarn, it's beautifully soft, I fell in love with this yarn a few months ago. Look at my Flickr pics and you will see the other things I have made with it.
My WIP's (works in progress for those of you who are new to this stuff) are an Alan Dart's Noah's Ark set (for my grandson of course), crochet necklaces, a rag rug cushion, oh and some warm socks for me.
Over the weeks I will be adding links to sites that I love, and sharing free patterns with you, be patient I am a WIP myself!
Happy crafting until next time...