Goodbye oh so lovely bag

Be good to your new owner, she really deserves you,
Carry her wears without fuss or strain,
Adorn her arm with lustre and wows of "where did you buy that",
Let her eyes gaze with wonderment upon your beautiful lining and seams that are magical.
But let her brow not furrow at your maker's poor sewing skills,
Let her eyes brush over those sewing flaws,
Be sure her mobile phone fits the wee pocket you have inside you,
But most of all bring her joy and birthday wishes.

Happy Hooker

I've become well into crochet this week!
I've just been mucking about really, trying different stitches, getting them wrong, unraveling a whole night's worth of hat because I double crocheted wrong. I want to practice to use the crochet cotton from my Great Grandma to it's full potential.
I did a little bag just to see if I could, I can, just.

Then on Saturday I crocheted this Fast & Easy Crocheted Summer Hat with Brim and it was both fast & easy, it was a summer hat and it did have a brim, unfortunately after ripping it out once due to double crochet confusion, it turned into Giant Fast & Easy Summer Hat with a Brim, fit for the head of Gulliver if crocheted by the Lilliputians for the Lilliputians.
I had a thought, I'll shrink it, the yarn said no tumble dry, so what if I tumble-dried it? Umm fail, apparently that trick only works on clothes bought from NEXT.
It's unwearable unless you are Stewie Griffin or one of those martians from Mars Attacks so I'm going to be brave, frog it and start anew.
I really must go get some fabric to finish those bags from my last post, I can't believe they have rested unfinished in my knitting bag, well I can actually. I'm on a deadline now though as the intended recipient's birthday is at the end of the week and seeing as it will need posting I had better pull my finger out!

That's where I'm at

Lots of things in the mixing pot at the moment.
Two different Bags of Choice, taken from Simply Knitting Mag, one apple green with butterflies and a flower and the other coffee coloured and lacy. I want to get some silky green fabric with butterflies on it for the green bag and I'm thinking burnt orange for the coffee coloured bag to add contrast, what do you think?
Both are for gifts so keep stum about them ok?


An I-cord tied cabled and bobbled cushion cover
(it's gonna take foooooooooooorever)

I also cast on for Ivy because I've had the wool for ages and want to get started on it but need to finish other stuff first!

That's where I'm at!

On a completely non knitting front, wasn't the finale of LOST brilliant! Although it does mean no Sawyer until 2010. I will have to console myself in Season 5 of House (when did it become 'Season', I'm sure we used to say 'Series' have UK progammes adopted the US 'Season' aswell?) But before I can watch it on Sky1 I need to see Season 4. The DVD on its way from Amazon, should be here tomorrow, that gives me 13 days to watch it. Completely do able. Will mean 13 straight days of Hugh Laurie. Shame.
Bea's pleased! Or should that be Russell Brand.

In memory of my Great-Grandma

My Great-Grandma was a lovely woman, she lived with my Grandparents but had her own little living room and kitchen and when we went to visit I would go to her first and we would spend hours playing cards. She taught me many, many card games, but we played Rummy the most, we had long, long, score sheets that we added to every weekend we went there.
I kind of remember her knitting and have vague memories of her showing me how, and I do remember a cream Aran cardigan she made me with brown toggle buttons. I don't remember her crocheting though, I'm trying to but I can't. Maybe it's because when I did see her it was all about the cards, unless the Snooker was on, she was a big fan of Snooker!
I told my Grandparents a few months go about me knitting now and they dug out all her old needles and my Mum mentioned recently that I had started to teach myself crochet, so they have dug out all of her crochet stuff too. All old crochet threads and some hooks.
This is what I came away with today:


In amongst the thread were some samples of my Great-Grandma's work. It's so beautiful.



She died in her early 90's when I was about 17 and I miss her terribly still.
I hope she doesn't mind me using her things, I'm sure she wouldn't, I will put them to good use. I feel like having a game or two of Rummy tonight in her memory.

Well that perked me up

I was feeling quite grumpy this morning, kids were being annoying, PMT kicked in, miserable day of grey skies ahead and then this lot arrives:

New edition of my Knitting mag and the half a ton of wool that I ordered on Tuesday!
Look at all that lovely woolage/yarnage however you prefer to call your balls/skeins!
I love those sorbet colours, they are going to work so well in a bag I'm doing as a present. But not only are the colours and textures delicious but, and this is usually the thing that pricks my ears, is the cost of that lot. Less then £25 (incP&P) for all that above (minus mag) and more not in the picture! 2 lots of bag handles and a monster crochet hook (for that aforementioned t-shirt yarn down there, just below, see?) I thought that was extremely barginous!

So I've cheered up a bit now. Well until tomorrow when my baby boy turns 6 and I ponder all day on where the time has gone, and it's only been 5 mins since I did that pregnancy test, let alone gave birth to him.

Mucking about and trying out

The same lovely lady I mentioned in my last post (@knittingnews) tweeted a site that gave tutorials on recycling household things for re-crafting. This site actually: craftstylish.com
I had to give the recycled t-shirt yarn a go straight away.
I have yet to actually make it into anything, but the thought is there.

Then I came across this... adventures-with-old-jeans.html
Now I want to cut up jeans.

Following knitting peeps on Twitter is such a great way of coming across patterns and tips that you would never find yourself. There are some great knitter-twitters out there.

On the needles front...
Although I'm not good at having too many projects on the go, I have started another cushion before finishing the last one. Well the last one (big softie brown one) is finished in terms of the knitting side it just needs to be sewn up. If I do the other cushions I want to do for the sofa first then I can sew them en mass, can't I? Well that's the excuse I literally just thought of.

I'm really pushing the limits of my skills with this new cushion though.
Cables, and bobbles and it's bigger at 40x40cm
Will I survive?? Will it take weeks?? Will I get bored and put it away and start something else?
(More than likely, I have such a limited concentration span)