Memoranum Monday gets crafty

An extra big wave to everyone after all those weeks away.  My sleeping patterns are back to normal although I always find my digestive system takes longer to adjust to the 12 hour time difference.

I was pleased to open up the box where I had packed away all my crafting projects before I went off - and very pleased that I had taken the time to note where I was at on the pattern for each item.  Nice to sit on the sofa in some sunshine and work on my crochet dragon

I also had a play with my 3D pen working on an idea I'd had to make a batch of basic flowers - pleased that the basic idea works and working on refinements and deciding what I'll do with them

the stone and button are there because I used them to help create the depth when I made the petals

Wishing you all a good week with time for creative endeavours

Memo Monday 2017

A big new year wave to you all as I start to get back into routines. 

Now that Christmas has gone and gifts have been opened I can share the 3 crochet pictures that I made into cushion covers for those in my family who actually like to have cushions (not me I tend to move them out of the way).  This photo was taken at my crochet, cake and chat group - being held up with a lovely squares cushion cover one of the others made

I enjoy making the pictures although they need concentration and marking off the grid as it is done so not an activity to do at the crochet group, or even while watching TV. I used graphs created for cross stich or peeler beads - plenty of creativity being shared online for each.

Wishing you all a good week as we transition into the new year and new routines.

snap progress

More festive crochet for you today and a sequence

starting with the picture graph - then work half done and the finished piece - it is about 35 cm square.  This crochet method is called corner to corner (or c2c) and has been popping up on various crochet blogs I follow all year - the appeal is the ease of creating a picture from a square based graph such as you would use for cross stich or beading pictures (the inspiration for this picture was a Perler beading piece) .  It does take concentration to follow the graph because each line of work is a diagonal.  Hard to tell from the pictures but the background is dark blue while the eyes and buttons on the snowman are black.  Various design and technique lessons learnt to apply to future projects  - this is my first complex picture - it is fun (but don't even ask about all the ends to sew in or look at the back!)

looking forward to seeing what has caught your eye this week

Memorandum Monday crochet

Big wave to everyone and hope you are all keeping warm - there was snow in Scotland over the weekend - not near me but up on high ground and forecast this week for the hills I can see on the horizon.

all the cold wind made it perfect for staying inside to craft and watch international rugby matches on TV (well done Ireland).  I started on festive crochet this weekend

as well as being cute, there is a jar inside waiting to be filled with goodies as a hidden surprise.  And I have a growing list of festive patterns that I want to try.

Hoping you all have a good week with some hidden nice surprises.

Memorandum Monday clearing the decks

A big wave to you all on another overcast Monday.  Continuing my feeling of season change I've been working on finishing on-going crochet projects ready for some festive crafting.

I started making the coloured centers back in January and this weekend I finally joined all 8 big squares together and started the brown edging.  I did design it to be modular and easy to do in bits and to pick up and put down but recently the unfinished bits had been staring at me so I'm glad to get it done.  Then some reindeer patterns are calling me - amongst a raft of dragons, monsters, bunting, large mandalas .....

hoping you all have a good week and particular big wave and good wishes to the several of you with ill and ailing relatives.

Memorandum Monday how new is new?

Big wave to everyone on an autumnal morning - still getting used to getting up when it is dark.

I spent a pleasant hour on Sunday crocheting this fun carp that I'd marked in my crochet magazine a few months ago - it's sole purpose is to raise a smile

On Friday I had another first - a pleasant evening at the opening event of the local community book festival - lots of poetry readings and songs all on the theme of 'we're all Jock Tamson's bairns' - this phrase was also new to me even though when I looked it up I learnt that it was first included in the Dictionary of Scots Language  in 1847. It means we are all the same. The theme was interpreted widely with historic and very current examples.

And I wanted to share a first from last weekend when I was in Barcelona - the magic fountain display - a fabulous half hour of lights and music and changing water formations in the giant fountain - a free display.  The crowd was large but the water spouts high and it was easy to see (and at times feel) the spray.  This is a screengrab from my gallery which shows the variety - and if you look closely along the bottom of some of the photos - the number of people using phones and tablets to capture the magic

wishing you all a good week

6 word - new

Joining Miriam's lovely meme - a story in a photo and 6 words

Memorandum Monday seasonal change

Waving to you all on a lovely autumnal feeling day and Labor Day greetings to my friends across the Atlantic.  With blackberries on the bushes, apples ripening and trees starting to change colour plus all the signs of a new University year about to start it really feels like a seasonal change is in process.

So as we ease into autumn I was pleased to discover at my crochet group on Saturday that I am not the only one who has started work on winter items (I'm not mentioning the C word here) !!  We all agreed that with plans to make several versions of an item for family or work colleagues and have them ready in time that work needed to start now.  Having broken the ice when I pulled out my hats to  work on we happily swapped ideas and images saved of possible and started projects.  One of our group happily told us we only have 16 more meetings before that C word.

I'm making these for winter wear so want them finished by the time it is cold enough to need a hat (the pattern is by the fabulous Sarah from Repeatcrafterme)

Anyone else started winter crafting?

Memorandum Monday

Waving to you all as I watch the clouds and hope the wind will blow them all away soon - looking at the weather forecst I think this week will be one of dashing out to do things whenever there is a clear patch and hoping to be done before the next rain shower.


My new thing for the weekend was making these

these will be going to Bath for an installation in late summer to raise money for the Red Cross European Refugee Crisis appeal - you can find out more here.  I'm pleased to have a good use for bits of pink and purple yarn in my stash and they are easy to make while talking or watching TV.

Hoping you all have a good week

6 words Goal

Joining Miriam in her lovely meme

Memorandum Monday spring

 

lots of lovely fruit blossom around - it all seems to have suddenly appeared over the last week.

we have not had the fabulous sunshine that seems to have graced much of southern England lately - fog coming in off the sea comes with living on the East Coast.  But it did clear and the sun came out on Sunday afternoon such that I had my first eat outside ice-cream of the year - it felt like half the local population was doing the same from the length of the queue and the scarcity of an empty bench.

I had 2 scoops in a tub - Turkish delight and coconut and both were delicious.

Even though the weather is improving, I'm still making animal hats for family - make one and everyone wants one!  There are pipe cleaners in the ears so they will stay upright 

wishing you all a good week and sending a big wave

Memorandum Monday with pom poms

I've been playing with pom poms

using a pom pom maker for the first time - way easier than with bits of card like we used to.  Some are fuller than others because I was experimenting with size and fullness.

I added them to the bottom of a decorative strip I had crocheted

using a pattern for lace but with bigger hook and yarn.

Having just taken down my winter / snowman wreath I needed a spring decoration - before I put up my summer bunting.

At the talk of knitting I was at last week they were giving away some wool and I chose a small ball in these 5 colours because I thought they made a good spring palette - at the time I wasn't sure how I would use them. 

A big pompom wave to you all and hope you have a good week

6 words COOL

Joining Miriam in her weekly meme - this week I delivered these to a charity who pass them on to people in need of some cheery warmth

Memorandum Monday with the merpeople

A few weeks ago my sister asked me if I would make something for her to take to a baby shower - I readily agreed as I like to have things to hook.  I'd seen a pattern for a mermaid / merman tail baby pouch and we agreed that would fit the bill - I finished it this weekend and it is so cute, even without a baby inside

Then, serendipitously, a pattern for a mermaid figure popped up on a blog I follow and I just had to make that too - a fun weekend project.

 

Keeping my eyes open for a third merperson now!

 

Waving to all the Monday wavers and hoping you all have a good week

Memorandum Monday making an old lady smile

A big wave to Sian fellow Monday wavers on this extra day of the year.

Plenty of time on my crochet projects again this weekend - having ordered some yarn for a new project I decided that I should finish some of my current projects before starting a new one. Or at least get them to a sensible pause point.  I sewed in lots of ends on my big project and it is now in a box waiting for my sister to finish her half.  More sewing in ends and sewing parts together to create clusters of forget-me-nots for Miriam's Dementia Awareness project she posted about here.

This was the project that I featured for my 6 words story 10 days ago.

What about the smiling lady I mentioned in the title?  Crochet again - at my new knitting and crochet group.  We meet in a lovely cafe which is popular with students (LoveCrumbs for those who know Edinburgh).  10 of us sit around a large round table with piles of yarn in between our cups and empty plates (I must take a photo!). 

We were chatting and making when a lady came up to us and said 'you have made my mother very happy'.  This lady and her mother were in town to visit their daughter / grand daughter who is a student in Edinburgh.  The grandmother lives in Canada but grew up in Iran.  She was delighted to see people knitting and crocheting and loved that there was a mix of ages making things together.  She said that when she was young, in Iran, she saw the ladies sitting together making things but never sees it now.  Her daughter said that she had been smiling since she sat down and noticed our group and that this was her favourite sight in Edinburgh and she posed for a photo with us.  Our 2nd tourist photo in 3 weeks !

Hoping you all have a great week and welcome to March and spring.

6 words work

joining Miriam for her Friday 6 word story – this week the theme is work – I will share the results

my big crochet project

over the last few months I've been working on a big crochet project that I couldn't share because it was a gift - but now it is in its new home I can share.

It all started last August when I was talking about my crafting for charity group looking for new recipients for blankets and my nephew said we could always deliver to his house.  I filed away that thought and mentioned it to my sister who asked him if he really wanted a granny square blanket and he said that he did want a colourful one.  My sister has several so he has grown up with them.

My sister and I agreed we could make one between us and used one of Attic24s colour packs as a starting point for the colours and added a few others which I had left over giving us 19 colours to make squares

 

I made all of the centre pieces and gave half to my sister

 

My approach to colour choice was to add one row to each square, using each of the colours - our only rule was that no square had one colour appearing twice.  The colour swatch pegs were really useful for making the colour choices and then remembering them

 

 I did a lot of the crochet while watching the rugby world cup - all those bits when they are setting up a scrum or watching replays.  By the end I had my pile of finished squares - just needing the final row.  We decided that to tie together all the colours we would use the same colour for the final row on every square and chose an off white for this

 My sister brought me her finished squares and we laid some out to see what it would look like

And by mid November I had all of the squares, ready to join together

Tada the final blanket, all joined with some edging rows too

My sister and I were pleased with the result and my nephew was pleased with the blanket when he opened it at Christmas. 

me on Monday back home

a big wave to Sian and fellow Monday wavers and other blog visitors. 

It was a weekend of re acclimatising to several layers of clothing and total cloud cover and cold rain – quite a change from the blue skies of last week – here is one of the photos I’d hoped to use for my Monday wave last week – I was using my tablet on front camera but couldn’t see the screen due to sun glare so framing was potluck

This weekend started wrapped up in many layers to walk through town with several thousand others on the climate change march – interested to see the wide range of groups represented by banners – too wet to stay around for the speeches.

Saturday evening was a pleasant blend of friends and curries to celebrate the birthday of one of my crafting friends who recently went on a curry making workshop – very tasty.

Sunday marked another key stage in my big crochet project – it is looking great. 

Sunday also saw delighted response from my sister of the reindeer jar cover I made (plus chocolate puddles inside the jar)

Hoping you all have a good week – I’ll be starting on the mince pie consumption and putting up some decorations and getting to grips with cards.

me on Monday in October

A weekend of edge of the seat rugby and ‘wow’ rugby and my NZ self is very pleased and my Scottish self sad and amazed how close they came to winning and sympathies to my Irish friends.

And in between the excitement there was some bits of crochet – my finished Halloween amigurumi trio and trying some ideas for items to sell at festive craft fairs.

Also a visit to a craft fair with some of my crafting group colleagues to assess its suitability for us (probably) and to look at stalls we thought looked great so we can apply that to ours (some useful coalescing of views).

And some contemplation of the National Theatre staging of Hamlet – I saw the live broadcast on Thursday – Benedict was, of course, amazing as Hamlet and I loved the set with the larger than life doors and massive table and how dirt and destruction blew in for the second act.  But the costumes annoyed me (I confess to a strong interest in costuming and having done it for amateur groups in the past). Every tie Horatio came on stage I wondered why they chose to illustrate his otherness in plaid and Gertrude’s dresses seemed wrong.

Waving to you all and hoping you have a good week.

me on Monday

another craft fair with my crafting for charity group on Sunday but this one had plenty of customers – we sold everything you see in this photo

plus a lot of other things to make £230 – strangely only £7 different from last year at the same place.

We were at a local faire held in a park with music, lots of cake, places to sit and a fun dog competition so lots of families come and stay for the 3 hours.  Which means lots of people looking at the stalls and it seemed lots of the kids had some pocket money to spend – they were out best customers.

All of the baby guinea pigs that I’d made sold – very satisfying.  The last 2 were bought by one girl who persuaded her Mum that she couldn’t take just one and leave the other by itself – exactly what my sister would say.

Waving to everyone, with an extra big one for Sian who started this lovely weekly wave (the longest Mexican wave ever??) and hoping you all have a good week.