Bloomin' Crochet Along........Quick Christmas Gifts.

Good morning, I hope you've all had a good week. It's been a busy week here, with lots of Christmas shopping and making Christmas gifts. I haven't been giving my hexagons much love lately and probably won't until after Christmas now.

I have been crocheting these Bow Tie Mug Hugs, filling an Ikea mug with a sachet of hot chocolate, marshmallows and candy canes. The pattern is from Simply Crochet Issue 11 and I used Drops Nepal, which is an Aran weight wool/alpaca blend. I added a few more rows to the pattern so it would fit the mug better. I think they are great fun stocking filler and quick to finish if you need to make a last minute gift.

I'm linking these to FO Friday over on Tami's blog, check out all the great projects this week.

I've also been working on my Anzen cardigan, it's coming along nicely, I've finished the body and have started the first sleeve. It's a DK weight yarn but crochet grows so much quicker than knitting.

This is my regular post for Chrisse and Marrianne's Bloomin' Crochet Along. I hope you all have a great weekend, I'm off to a local village tonight for the turn on of the Christmas lights, there will be stalls and all the pretty little shops will be open with hot Pimms and mulled wine. I love this time of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

xxxxDebxxxx

Yarn Along.............Slow Progress.

Hello there, it's been a week since I last posted, which is very unlike me but I've been super busy , working on Christmas projects. I haven't got much knitting done again , I hope this isn't getting too boring for you, but these are my two projects bags that holds my projects that I've done a small amount on.

I'm on the home run with the Livingston Baby Sweater, I've never knit a jumper this way before and I'm having to take it slowly, reading the pattern over and over. Hopefully this will be finished for Adam before Christmas.

This Pennycress sock has had two rows completed since last week so probably doesn't look any different.

It's my favourite time of the year and I love to read books that are set around Christmas so I've gone through my books to see if I had any that I hadn't read last year and I found these two. I will probably read Knit the Season first, I'm linking this post to Ginny's Yarn Along, where you can share your love of knitting and reading, it's a gorgeous blog so I hope you'll check it out.

I'm also linking to Tami's WIP Wednesday, another great blog where you can see what everybody else is working on this week.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week.
xxxxDebxxxx

WIP Wednesday....Henslowe Shawl

 I haven't had much knitting time this week, most of my knitting is done over the weekend and as you saw on my previous post I was busy scrapbooking.

I promised myself that I wouldn't start any new projects until I had finished one of my WIP's. Ok, we'll that didn't happen, the thing is I've had a skein of Tickled Mink from the Skein Queen in my stash for sometime, it's so soft and warm and the weather has dropped really cold here in the UK so I fancied making myself a new shawl with it.I wanted more of a scarf than something to wrap around my shoulders. I started looking through Ravelry for patterns using a 3 ply yarn and came across a pattern by Beth King called Henslowe.

I first saw this designer in Pom Pom Quarterly and loved the shawl she had designed on the front cover of Issue 5. I love all her designs and have a few more of hers in my queue.

It's a simple construction starting with just a garter stitch body. This was perfect to take with me on the weekend for any spare time I had as I didn't need to read a pattern.

Also I haven't had much reading time, I'm still reading Take a Look At Me Now by Miranda Dickinson.What I have been flicking through is another book by Vibe Ulrik Sondergaard called Lullaby Knits. I loved Labour of Love and Lullaby Knits is just as good, full of gorgeous baby knits. It's on offer at The Book People for £4.99, another bargain as I will knit a few patterns from it.

Check out what everybody is up to over on Ginny's Yarn Along.

and Tami's WIP Wednesday.

Thank you for stopping by, have a good week.
xxxxDebxxxx

A Fun Weekend at the ScR@P's Retreat........

Hi there, I hope you all had a good weekend, I had a great time spent with some fab friends at the ScR@p Retreat. We didn't think this retreat was going to go ahead but because of the lovely, kind hearted, determined lady named Tracie Hudson, the generosity of Bo Bunny, Echo Park, Simple Stories, American Crafts. Carta Bella, Stix 2, the designers, Jen Gallacher, Morag Cutts, Jane Dean and Ansty Hall, where we stayed, it did happen!!!!

Kerry and I arrived at the beautiful Ansty Hall hotel on Friday afternoon, where we went straight to our rooms to unpack.

My room was gorgeous, it was huge just for little old me but very comfortable, as soon as we unpacked we went downstairs to see who if our other friends had  arrived. We saw Helen and Sarah in reception, so met up in one of the lounges for a coffee, our weekend had begun!!!!!!!

Registration opened at 4.30pm, so off we went to The Orangery where we would spend most of the next three days. We bought a raffle ticket and an American Crafts challenge kit which was lush, full of Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Fun Party, everybody who bought a kit was entered into a prize draw.

This is what greeted us as we walked in, isn't it amazing?!!!!!! There was a table decoration filled with yummy chocolate and little gift boxes with our names on, with goodies from the generous manufacturers.

There was lots of chatter and catching up with people until dinner , we all knew each other on our table, from Bromsgrove Crop. I can't tell you how much fun we had over the weekend, thank you, Kerry, Helen, Sarah, Sue and Dot for making this weekend so much fun and full of memories.

After dinner , the wine was opened and we started our first class with Tracie Hudson. It was a Simple Stories album, the kit we received, included the album and crammed full of papers and embellishments, they were so generous. This was the front cover finished and I added all my little journalling cards, ready to add my photo's and embellishments.

Next morning we had a class with Jen Gallacher from Carta Bella, she was such a nice lady and very sweet. The mini Christmas album was gorgeous, she is an excellent teacher, very patient and her written instructions were so in depth and easy to follow.

Our afternoon class was a double LO by Morag Cutts, we used Simple Stories 24/7 range, again so generous with their product and a great LO, perfect for our Harry Potter trip back in September.

After dinner it was party night with make and takes, a quiz and lots of door prizes given away, I won some Echo Park papers and some Crate Paper wooden bingo numbers. Of course, out came the wine again, this was such a fun night, I haven't laughed so much in ages.

 There was a photo booth which was hilarious, these photo's sum up our weekend. FUN, FUN, FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much to Tracie's sister, Wendy who gave up her Saturday night to do this for us, everybody has been so kind and generous.

Sunday morning, up bright and early again, we were doing another class with Jen using Carta Bella Wildflower. I love this LO, the papers and embellishments are beautiful. I didn't worry about taking photo's with me, other retreats I've been too, I've spent so much time sorting out photo's then when I do the class they don't really go or were the wrong size.

As soon as I saw the finished LO, I knew straight away what photo's I'd be printing out when I got home. Last year, Paige and I took Olivia for a walk along the canal, I love the photo's I took of them especially the one where they are holding hands.

I've finished constructing the album and just need decorate the pages and add photo's, Bo Bunny were so generous with their products. This will be Paige's 18th Birthday album when it's finished.

Sunday afternoon, when the weekend was winding up, the pulled out the winner of the prize draw, first prize was a place on next years retreat, all expenses paid. You'll never guess what, I won it !!!!!!!!!!!!

Back in September, we didn't think this retreat was going to happen but thanks to Tracie's hard work and generosity of everybody, she pulled it off and it was better than ever, so a massive thank you to everybody who made this weekend what it was!!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by, have a good week.
xxxxDebxxxx

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

WIP Wednesday.......my sweater has sleeves.

Good morning, a very quick post on my knitting progress this week.

My Livingston Baby Sweater has got sleeves!!!! I love seamless knits, it was quite fiddly to knit the sleeves onto the body but after a couple of rows, it was fine. The best part is I don't have to sew all the pieces together!!!!

I've also turned the heel on my second Pennycress sock, I'm still reading "Take a Look at me Now" by Miranda Dickinson.

I'm linking up to Ginny's Yarn Along and WIP Wednesday over at Tami's blog.

Thanks for stopping by, I'm sorry it's short and sweet today, my sister has just tried to bake a vegan cake for my nieces 18th birthday which is today and it's turned out a disaster so now I've got to have a go at baking one. I'm not sure if mine will turn out any better but I'll give it a go.

xxxxDebxxxx

Mojo Monday..........18th Birthday Card.

Hello, did everyone have a good weekend? Are you all sitting down, today, I have spent the day making cards!!!!!! Yes, I know, you haven't seen a card on my blog since August, it is the first time in three months I've actually felt inspired to papercraft,

I went over to Mojo Monday for a sketch and hopefully to get my mojo back.It's my niece's 18th birthday on Wednesday and my sister asked if I could make a special card for her, how could I refuse.

When I saw the sketch, and saw the centre circle, my first thought was a rosette, like the age badges you can buy from card shops.

I die cut some circles and a Tim Holtz rosette and layered them up adding lots of die cut banners and ribbons. She loves photography so I added a little wooden camera and stamped "Smile" It's Your Day.

I made a pocket for the inside of the card by stitching a smaller piece of matching paper to the base paper and printed out some photo booth style photo's.

I printed a verse............

and made a matching box to put the card in.

I then went on to make another card for me to send, this one is very simple using a readymade frame, a doily, pearl swirls and some felt flowers.

Thanks for stopping by, have a good week.

xxxxDebxxxx