A very exciting shopping moment!

On Monday I went to visit an art wholesalers. On the way home I needed to find a shop where I could buy a reel of thread to finish Eliza's quilt. I spotted one in Haywards Heath and managed to find a parking spot just outside. The window was full of net curtains, household linens and a bit of fabric so I entered with some trepidation. Once inside I quickly found my thread and then discovered that actually there were some other bits I needed. I bought a few buttons (for a present I am knitting) and also some fleece to line some hats that Eliza and Katy are knitting.
Ok boring tale so far but I am getting there......as I approached the counter I noticed that it was a glass one containing little drawers with ladies hankies, lacy items and girls white socks in, straight out of the 50s! Then after the lady had rung up my purchases she leant to one end of the counter and pulled off a large piece of brown paper. She wrapped my items and then tied the parcel with string, including a small loop as a carry handle!

Now I am a mere 44 years of age and NEVER have I EVER bought anything that was wrapped in brown paper! I positively skipped out of the shop and felt very special! I do remember one shop in Sevenoaks when I was VERY young that had a glass counter with those little wooden drawers.

And here are my unwrapped items! So much nicer than a plastic bag!

A bit more "scrap" knitting

I've been using up a bit more of my wool scraps. Aran wools this time. The Dogs Trust have a charity called Project Hope. They are calling for knitters to knit (or crochet) dog coats for them to donate to people who are homeless and have to sleep rough with their dogs.

 I have made three so far. The lilac one is too big for my cocker spaniel but too small for my Lab just to give you an idea of size!

  Minnie wasn't too chuffed about wearing it either! Let's hope the recipient dogs are a bit more greatful! If you would like to join in I think there is still time as they don't need them until the end of November. Visit their site for more details and a link to the pattern I used.

Finished quilt!

As I continue to show you my gradually finishing items, I am thinking it's a good thing I finished them off as my boiler has packed up! So no heating; luckily I can snuggle under several layers. So here is the finished quilt I made for our bed. Doesn't go with the current pink colour scheme so I think I will need to re-decorate....

 

Crochet Throw

To all you followers of my little blog-ette you will remember my endeavors a year ago as I learnt to crochet. And how I decided to make something that was very repetitive.....

TAH DAH!! I finally finished it; a single bed sized throw made up of over 200 little squares that I crocheted together. I have just laid it on my great big king size bed so you can see it all but it does make it look a bit small. It now sits rather nicely on the back of my brown leather sofa. Handy as my boiler has just packed up!

A little bit of crochet

So off we go with the show and tell of what I have been up to whilst Blogger has been awkward. One job I did do over the summer was clear out the loft and sort out all my wool into chunky, 4 ply and double knit. I then used lots of the double knit to knit hats for The Big Knit, a campaign by Innocent Smoothies to raise money for Age UK. These hats go on top of the smoothie bottles and are sold throughout November with 25p from each bottle going to Age UK. I made about 50, ranging from a basic striped one to dappy hats, a deerstalker and flower ones, but foolishly didn't photograph them and I have sent them all off now.

So what to do with the chunky wool? One evening I just picked up 4 balls that went well, a large hook and set off on a Granny square....

 ....just going round and round 'til I ran out. The children love it for going over knees or shoulders whilst watching TV and it's been christened a "snuggle".

It was such fun to crochet and so cosy that I made a second one, this time using the double knit; more rows, more retro and 70's in style but just as snuggly!

A few flowers

Now that my blog seems to be behaving itself I feel more inclined to post! I have been busy recently with "stuff" which I will gradually add. Some things I didn't take pictures of and I have also been doing a lot of finishing off  so you will see things again that I showed you when they were works in progress. As I haven't yet sorted out my pictures here are a few photos that I took in my garden the other day.

 I think the dew on this rose looks like glitter.

 More like dew here....

This is an old fashioned rose called Kathryn Morely that I bought when I had my second daughter, Katy. I guess this means Autumn is here.

Art Journal CJ continues....

....and we are nearly there with it, despite a few sticky moments and delays. This CJ was "Nursery Rhymes" and belongs to my friend Helly who is a CJ virgin. I had a few ideas but as I know her quite well I decided to go with a blackbird pie!!

 I hand drew the pie and use a bit of a bird stamp I have to stamp the blackbird peeping out. The background is watercolour crayons washed over and then I hand wrote the first line of the rhyme...

Inside are my four and twenty blackbirds; a feat of multiple masking! All was coloured in with watercolour pencil or crayon before attaching the pie lid with a brad. It has turned out rather similiar to my Berkeley Square hasn't it?

Normal service resumed....

It's official....I LOVE Pinterest!! And, I guess like lots of other people, I pin stuff on there with all good intentions and then forget about it! Well as part of the Learn Something New Every Day class by Shimelle we were challenged to actually learn a new technique that we may have pinned there for future reference!

 I'm sure this is a pin many of you will recognise but in the complete absence of ANY creative muse this is what I went with. Step one was to draw everything then colour in all the squares using oil pastels. Then scratch into the pastel...

 .. wash over with watercolour in a browny colour until you get the right amount of grungy.

 Next paint in the tree trunk using acrylics and add the concentric circles, mine are a bit wobbly!

Lastly add gold highlights and circles. Great fun to do and something I may expand upon in the future.