A bit of cosy snuggly whiteness

Well, perhaps thats getting a bit ahead of myself, lol. I have only just started on another snuggle blanket. When the days get shorter and the temperature drops, I need woolly goodness, I have to find something to crochet or knit. I am a very basic knitter only, and crocheting, well, if its not too complicated, I can do it. But my favourite thing to do is crocheting granny squares. Because they are small, they are quick to complete and thus give you a sense of achievement really quickly. It is so nice to see a stack of squares growing steadily.

I had some odd balls of wool from a charity shop in a soft off white and very light beige and a few other balls I acquired a couple of years ago. So I started making very basic granny squares. I also found some quite thick ( recycled from an Arran sweater? ) wool in a local charity shop and thought I would use that wool as well for plain stripes to alternate with granny square stripes. Haven't gotten that far yet though, but here are the pics of what I have made so far -

Not sure you can tell the slightly different shades in the photos, they are quite subtle.

I am linking this post to Becky's Blissful Whites Wednesday over at her TIMEWASHED blog.

Only a couple more days at the cottage in France, we are going back to the UK on the weekend. It is always hard leaving here, but at least I will be back in my craftroom before long, woohoo!

Toodlepip xxx

Sidetracked

There are so many things I should have been doing, but..................... I got sidetracked. It really is my friend Jo's fault, I blame her entirely. She came to visit me on Saturday, and we spent a wonderful day together. And she showed me this beautiful blanket she had made with a new crochet flower pattern.

I really really wanted to try that one as well. You see, I am not very good with patterns, either written or with symbols. I am much better at watching somebody actually doing it and copying them. Thats what we did. Jo showed me how to crochet this sweet flower and also how to join as you go, which I had never been able to get my head round.

So, once she had gone home, I just had to try it out for myself. I had yarns left over from a blanket I had made some time ago, and I spent Saturday evening having a go. And I carried on having a go on Sunday. And Monday morning.

And I am thrilled to bits with the result. It really is nothing special, only a scarf, but I am so pleased I have learned a new pattern and managed to join the flowers as I was crocheting. The colours are pretty pastels, perfect for Spring -


I might just have to get out some of my nice wools and make a lankie..........

Toodlepip xxx

Busy fingers

Not quite as busy as I would like them to be, they get too easily distracted by other stuff, but this is what they have been playing with -

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in scrumptious colours

I am making a little lap blanket with the african flower squared hexagon pattern -

I also made a few more tags -





I have also been busy putting together some bits and pieces for a swap with a lovely German blogger. I am having soooooooooo much fun! I am going to get back to that as soon as I have posted this!

Toodlepip, xxx

France Post 2 - A little bit of crochet

I had hoped to get more crocheting done, really. I had prepared so well, taking a few new yummy yarns with me, as well some yarns left over from previous project. And then of course there was the garden lankie which I had started ages ago. In crazy bright colours, lol, very unlike me. But, you know the saying about the best laid plans, lol. Because my darling husband had broken a couple of ribs just a few days before our trip, it fell to me to do all the stuff he would normally do in the garden. Like cutting the VERY high grass, trimming the bushes, digging the veggie patch etc etc. I was way too pooped in the evenings to do any crocheting for the first couple of weeks. But as Andy improved and did more and more of the hard slog, I got more and more time to crochet. In the evenings, of course, a few granny squares at a time, and during the odd hour or two snatched during the day in the garden, in the beautiful sunshine. That proved not such a good idea, lol, and not just because I frequently stopped to admire the beautiful views. The main reason was...........


Yep, my darling Hector. Needing to be close to his mummy. VERY close. He is such a nosy little soandso as well, and seems to rather enjoy climbing around on things. I can't tell you how many times I had to pick up balls of wool, or how many times I had to untangle Hector. Or how many times I tried to arrange the squares while Hec was around before I learned my lesson and gave up?



But despite all that, I managed to finish the two cushions I had planned. This African Flower Hexagon pattern is soooo pretty and ever so easy to do as well. I prefer the squared version though, so much easier to sew together. I made one cushion approx 18" square and one approx 25" square -

The small one-

The large one-

I had the smaller one in the cottage for a while -

but then it joined the large one in our dinky little caravan-

The gorgeous pink blanket you can see in the above pic was a fabulous charity shop find, 100% mohair, new, huuuuge, the prettiest shades of pink and it was............... 5Euros. I love it.

In between making the granny squares for the cushions, I carried on with my stripey garden lankie. Bright colours, randomly picked out of the basket when I first started, inexpensive acrylic yarns, this was a very different project for me. A bit of colourful fun. But I have to say I am pleased with the way it turned out, its charmingly cheerful in the garden.

You'll probably remember from previous posts that the doggies always just had to make themselves comfy on the work in progress, often snuggling right down on the lankie when I was working on it. Nothing much has changed, lol, as you will see in a minute. First, let me show you the finished lankie-

keeping my darling husband snug after a hard day's work-

Hmm, he wasn't too keen on modelling the lankie, perhaps he would be happier modelling it outside? Two nosy dogs just had to get into the shot, didn't they, sigh-

So I decided that I would drape it over the lounger, surely that would display it properly-

As soon as it was spread out on the lounger, Poppy came over to investigate -" Mum, I arranged it for you, you may take a pic now", then promptly lost interest and wombled off

Not so my darling Hector, sigh. Hector loves the lounger. Hector loves lounger with lankie LOTS, lol -

It took me a good long while to get him off there!

And that is it, 2 months in France and that is all the crocheting I have to show for it. Perhaps during the winter visits I'll be a bit more productive.

I'll leave you with a little pic of a crochet cushion I got from a vide greniers or charity shop last year, I love that 3dimensional pattern -


Toodlepip xxx

Yep, I am back in Blogland!

And I have to say it feels really good, albeit a little strange, writing a blog again after two months of enforced bloglessness. Where to start??? Gosh, there are so many things to write about and so many photos to show, I really don't know where to start. Hmm. Really the first thing to do is to thank you all for the lovely comments on the couple of mimiscule posts I managed during the two months in France. I have just read them, thank you all so very much! It was really heartwarming to see that I hadn't been forgotten and some even missed me. Tehehehe, some of you, naming no names, J and S, might change their minds again pretty soon. I have two months worth of nagging stored up!!!

I am so looking forward to working my way through all of my favourite blogs, ahem, of which there are quite a few, and to catch up with everybody's posts, projects, news, lovely finds etc etc. Might get through by the end of the month, lol!

I have just transferred all the photos from France from camera to computer, geez, digital cameras make it way too easy to go completely nuts. I mean, how on earth did I end up with hundreds and hundreds of photographs??? So where do I start, come on, girls, tell me, please! What sort of photographs should I show first? Piccies of the cottage, of the dogs, of the garden ( well ok, can't really call it garden, lol, a kind word would be meadow, although field is probably more appropriate ), pretty flowers, wildlife, of sunrises and sunsets, of adventurous cows, of gettogethers with friends, of games of boules, pretty little towns, vide greniers finds ( ahem again, I haven't actually photographed many finds yet, so perhaps that will have to wait a wee bit ), of hard working tree surgeons ( my darling son and his colleague ), a couple of finished crochet projects..............

Perhaps I just randomly pick a photo of all the above possibilities and stick them on here, as a kind of appetizer, how would that be? And then you can let me know what you would like to see and hear about first.

Phew, that took a while, but I have picked a few pics, I think from all the above mentioned, and I am not going to stick them in any particular order, but just as I have come across them looking through all the pics. Here goes -

The doggies -


Playing boules at the Fete de Voisins, serious business, lol -

The cottage -

Adventurous cows -

A bit of crochet -

Garden flowers -

Getogether with friends and neighbours -

Spiderweb, I love spiderwebs -

Sunrise over the valley -

Sunset behind our top field -

Men at work -

Vide greniers find, a good length of fabulous tapestry trim, its gorgeous! -

Wildflowers, always have to go and pick some as soon as we get there -

And wildlife, of sorts, a wasp nest -

That's it for now, some time over the weekend I have to try and sort out pics to post, just let me know which ones you would like to see. ok? Now I got to be off and cook dinner.

I am so happy to be back in blogland, lol, and looking forward to hearing from you all!

TOODLEPIP !!! Liz xxx