Bloomin CAL..........and the Anzen Crochet Cardigan.

Ok so I've only finished six measly hexagons this week and I'd already done the centres so really I've only added the borders.

I have been busy doing some crochet, though. I received the latest edition of Pom Pom Quarterly magazine last week, again it did not disappoint, I would happily knit/crochet every pattern in there. I was immediately drawn to the Anzen which is a crochet cardigan and I had the yarn in my stash to get  started straight away.
I'm using Jenny Watson Pure Merino DK in grey, black and off white, the pattern uses a sport weight yarn. I'm using a DK and have just done a size smaller, that seems to have worked fine for me. I've never knitted or crochet an adult garment before and have made a promise to myself to start knitting more for myself.

I've also got my eye on the Aureus cardigan, I think I will ask the husband to buy me the yarn for Christmas. The photo is taken from the magazine and I love the colour that they've used, so will probably find a similar colour.

I'm linking this to Chrissie and Marianne's blog for the Bloomin' Crochet Along.

A little update on the vegan birthday cake that I had to make, yesterday. It didn't turn out bad at all, the cake was very moist in the centre, the outside was a bit crispier and a little bit crumbly but it cut up fine.

I mixed the ingredients for the cake, which you can find here, so far so good, the mix tasted very good and the recipe was simple.

My decorating skills aren't really up to scratch but in my defence I had 15 minutes to make the icing and decorate, you can find the recipe for the buttercream icing, here. My niece was thrilled with it and told me I'd got the job of making it from now on, even my brother who pulled his nose up at a vegan cake said it tasted good!!!!!

I'm linking this to Cosmos and Cotton's Weekly Bake, check out Hannapat's gorgeous bake this week.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend. I'm off to a scrapbooking retreat for the weekend with my friend, Kerry. I'll tell you all about it next week.

xxxxDebxxxx

FO Friday........and a Bloomin' CAL.

Hi, how are you all doing, I'm writing this a bit later than I planned, I've had no internet for the last few hours. Anyway, I'm back to show you some finished projects for FO Friday.

I've finished my Striped Cardigan and Hat by Sarah Hatton, though I still haven't managed to take it over to my friend yet, hopefully I will see them next weekend. I used Jenny Watson Babysoft in light blue and grey, so it will wash well, nice and practical for a newborn. 

I've also finished the Forest Floor hat by Alana Dakos, if I'm honest I'm not that happy with how it turned out. It's nothing to do with the pattern but I think I used the wrong yarn, it's turned out quite small, I would have liked it a lot more slouchy. It's a Christmas gift for a friend but I think she will really like it and it will keep her warm through the winter months when she takes the dogs out for their walks.

Check out Tami's blog for more FO's.

I didn't get home until late, yesterday, so I didn't have time to write my post for the Bloomin' CAL so I'll show you all my finished Hexagons on this post.

I now have a total of 42 and by next week I should have crocheted the border around all the other centres that I haven't had time to finish.

I'm using the pattern by Lucy from Attic 24, Lucy has used four different colour yarns for her beautiful hexagons but I have just chosen to use one colour for the centre and the cream border, you can find the pattern here.

Check out Chrissie's Crafts and Ladybird Diaries, to see more projects.

Have a great weekend, I'm off to a Midlands Bloggy Meet Up, tomorrow over at Gilly's, I'm looking forward to meeting some fellow Bloggers, it look like everybody had such a great time at the last one.

Thanks for stopping by.

xxxxDebxxxx

Bloomin CAL...........and a FO.

Good morning, I'm back today with this week's progress on my Pretty Pastel Hexagon Blanket for the Bloomin' CAL hosted by Chrissie and Marianne.

 

Unfortunately, there hasn't been a lot of crochet going on this week as I was concentrating on the Striped Baby Jacket and Hat which I wanted to finish before I went to see my friend and her new baby boy.

I've started adding the border around the centres, that I finished last week but have only managed six complete hexagons this week....................

but I have completed the Fair Isle Style Crochet Cardigan by Sarah Lora.

The buttons are sewn on, I used some wooden buttons that I had in my stash.

I've left it hanging in my craft room as I just get so much pleasure looking at it, is that sad??????? I can't wait to see Olivia in it, when I give it to her for Christmas. I hope to start another one soon in another colourway.

Talking about Christmas, my friend, Kerry came around my house, yesterday, for some Christmas crafting. I'm so glad she came round as I haven't done any papercrafting for three months and had lost all inspiration but Kerry has inspired me to create again!!!

Check out Chrissie Crafts and Ladybird Diaries for more projects on the Bloomin' Crochet-A-Long.

Thanks for popping by.

xxxxDebxxxx

Bloomin' CAL.............and a Fair Isle Style Cardigan

I can't believe it's Thursday again, where did the rest of the week go????? It's time to show you my progress this week for my Bloomin' CAL , hosted by Chrissie Crafts and Ladybird Diaries.

I'm crocheting a Pretty Pastel Hexagon Blanket, I'm not sure how many hexagons I will need so I will just carry on until I run out of yarn, the pattern is from the Attic 24 blog.

I had a couple of people on Instagram asking what colours I'm using, it's Drops Merino Extra Fine in these six colours......

Bottom Row-Left to Right......14 Steel Blue, 22 Medium Purple, 16 Light Pink.

Middle Row- Left to Right..........25 Pink, 01 Off White

Top Row................15 Light Greenish Grey

I've got a little system going, where I do all the centres first then add the Off White border, I find it quicker than keep changing colour.

I don't know about you but I love cosy, Autumn evenings, with just the lamps on and the candles lit with the fragrance of vanilla, filling the room. This was me last night working on my hexagon centres and watching Poirot, a perfect evening. 

 Do you remember me showing you a photo of this on my last post, well this is the other project on my hook.

It's a Fair Isle Style Kids Cardigan and I love it, you don't get many kids crochet patterns which is why I started doing more knitting. It's a pattern by Sarah Lora from Ball, Hank 'n' Skein, I first saw this pattern on Lulu Loves blog and instantly fell in love with it, you can find Emma's cardigan, here, the colours she choose are gorgeous.

It's a fairly quick project, I started it on Saturday and had this much finished by Sunday evening. I would have probably finished it, but I ran out of wool on the second sleeve. The pattern doesn't give you a brand, just the type of yarn and how many yards so I 'guesstimated'. I counted the pinks into the yardage but you don't actually use that much of the colours so as a guide, whatever yards is given, order that as your main colour, then one ball of each of the other  two colours. It's always better to have too much than too little.

I originally ordered 4 balls of Drops Nepal Beige Mix, 1 ball of Cerise and 1 ball of Medium Pink, it is an Aran weight wool/alpaca mix. I needed 5 of the beige which has arrived now arrived, so I can carry on, this is part of my niece's Christmas present. I also ordered some grey which I will use to make my friend's Grand-daughter one, too, I should have enough of the pink leftover to make the second cardigan.

Check out Chrissie and Marianne's blog and check out, everybody else's progress, this week.

Thanks for stopping by.

xxxxDebxxxx

Bloomin' Crochet-A-Long.........Week 3

I'm back today with an update on my Hexagon blanket, it's week 3 of Chrissie Crafts and Ladybird Diaries, Bloomin' Crochet-A-Long.

I've made seven hexagons, this week, I will get there slowly but surely, It's a pattern from Attic24 which you can find here. I want to finish at least one a day and thanks to this great Crochet-A-Long, I'm back into my crochet as I have a few WIP's I need to finish. 

I'm also on a mission to finish my Springtime Throw by Nicki Trench, the pattern is from the Cute and Crochet book, I started this, back in August 2011, it took me just over a year to make 780 tiny squares and join them together lengthways. I need to join them across the other way now and crochet a border. I will hopefully have it finished before the start of the Winter.

Check out Chrissie's and Marrianne's blog for my beautiful crochet projects. 

Thanks for stopping by, I really do appreciate it and thank you to all the lovely ladies who have been leaving me some kind and wonderful comments, lately. I do try and reply via your blogs but some of the comments left take me to Google+ so I can't find you, so sorry if I don't reply to some of you.

xxxxDebxxxx

Bloomin' Crochet -A-Long..........Hexagon Blanket

Happy Friday!!!!! I hope everybody has had a good week, it's been another busy week for me, with lots going on, Wednesday I babysat my toddler niece and for the first time my baby nephew. They are golden and not a bit of trouble but I'd forgotten what hard work little people are.

Anyway, I haven't had much knitting time this week but I did manage to do a few of my crochet Hexagons. I find crochet a lot easier to pick up and put down, especially if you've only got ten minutes here and there.
I'm using Drops Merino Extra Fine which is reasonably priced and very soft with lots of gorgeous colours to choose from. I'm up to 21 hexagons now, I'm not sure how many I will do altogether, I will see how I go.

I started it back in July, I haven't really worked on it over the summer but this week, all of a sudden, Autumn has arrived in the UK. I love our seasons and especially enjoy the Autumn months, I always get the urge to crochet a blanket through the Autumn/Winter months, so out came my hibernating Hexies.

 I'm using Lucy's hexagon pattern from Attic24, which is a free pattern but I did donate a coffee, as she puts so much time into writing her patterns up, you can find the pattern, here. I'm just using a block colour for the centre and cream for the border, I think using one colour makes the centres look like flowers, what do you think?

Chrissie Crafts and Ladybird Diaries have started the Bloomin' Crochet-A-Long, they are both working on the Hexagon Flower Throw from the book Crochet with Flowers by Nicki Trench.

I've only just bought this book and had already started my Hexies so I hope it's OK, if I join in with them, it will keep me motivated. I will definitely be doing some of the smaller patterns in-between working on my Hexie, there are some really pretty projects in this book.

If you pop over to Chrissie's and Marianne's blog, you can check out what other lovely ladies have on their hook. I've had a look and there are some fabulous projects, my list is growing longer.

Have a wonderful weekend.
xxxxDebxxxx

Pipers Journey................and more.

Hello, my friends, I hope you are all having a good week, so we're into September and I have started a new project. I always like to start something new at the beginning of each month and hopefully finishing by the end of the month.

This is another shawl and the pattern is called Pipers Journey by Paula Emons-Fuessle, I've renamed it "Buddies Journey", though. The reason I've renamed it, is because I've joined in with The Buddy System Knit Togehther, set up by Mel from Single Handed Knits.

The idea of this, was to find a buddy who wanted to knit the same project, same yarn or any common link. My buddy is a lovely lady called Lyn who is British but now lives in Canada, we both had Pipers Journey in our queue, so decided to knit it together. It's fun to have somebody to knit the same project with, After chatting about our likes and dislikes and what yarn we were going to use for our shawl, Lyn said she was using a different colour for the border, which I hadn't thought of doing, so I also decided to go with two colours.

The patterns uses a sport weight yarn but I'm using Rowan Cashsoft DK on 4.5mm needles so mine will turn out slightly bigger. I'm now up 111 stitches on my needles, I'm only doing a few rows each evening as I really want to finish my Mock Cable Socks.

I've just turned the heel on my second sock so I'm on the home run now, these socks are taking ages and I'm itching to start another pair. As you can see, I'm still reading Inferno by Dan Brown, it's very fast paced and a very enjoyable read.

Check out what others are knitting and reading, this week's Yarn Along, over at the Small Things blog.

The other thing, I've been quietly working away on are my crochet hexagons, I'm using Lucy's pattern from Attic 24, which you can find, here.

My friend, Kerry and I are having our own little Crochet-A-Long, we are doing different patterns but are using the same yarn which is Drops Merino Extra Fine and will both end up with a pretty throw.

Check out even more WIP's over at Tami's blog.

Thank's for stopping by, have a great week.
xxxxDebxxx