Off To South of England Show

Yippee, I have a week off work, a whole week. So what am I going to do this week, I am working, yes I am working on my week off. This is good though, I will be selling Mrs Crimbles products at the South of England Show, I get to spend the whole week with my Mum in a little caravan. We have packed lots of goodies, along with lots of books, and a few projects to keep us busy. The Granny Blanket is coming along for the ride as well, just right to snuggle under if it gets chilly.
We will be in the food hall, so if you happen to be going I would love it if you to stopped off and said hello..

Finally

 So Granny stripes is finally finished, the border seemed to take forever, but I eventually got there. I sat and watched the TV last night snuggled up beneath it with a very satisfied grin on my face. I have not measured it yet, the tape is in the bedroom and Mr Roadside is still asleep, but it is a little bit longer than me ( I am five eight ) and is as wide as my arm span .
These pictures are not the best, I am crap at photography and the light is not to good outside yet, it is still quite early. The colours are even more vibrant in real life.
In all honesty I would not have chosen these colours to go together, I am much more anal and I would have chosen colours that all toned in together, but I am so glad that I went with Lucy's choice, it is beautiful. I need to made a few matching cushions now, but not yet, I have the magic box to open and I am itching to get it out to play with it.
I tried to keep the colour sequence as random as I could, not easy being as anal as I am with colour, just picking for the next repeat what felt right, I did however undo a couple of repeats because they clashed way too harshly for my over sensitive eyes.
I plan on doing more of these, I know several people that would be enormously pleased to receive one of these, and I may do another for myself at some stage.

Now onto something entirely different, the magic box, as I may have said I have not done any form of sewing since I left school apart from the odd bit of hemming and a couple of rag dolls for the small people over the years. I have an ancient manual Singer up in the loft which hasn't seen the light of day in decades, I inherited it from my nan, and my mums old machine in the airing cupboard which needs some attention. So I treated myself to a new sewing machine a few weeks ago, it is still sealed in it's box waiting for me patiently.

I have of course been shopping around for fabric since I purchased the magic box, so that the minute I got it out of the box I could dive straight in and get going. I have new fabric, the remnant bins have been emptied across West Sussex, and I have been scouring the Charity Shops for treasures.

This is one of the treasures found locally, a bolt of childrens fabric, I would guess from the seventies (correct me if I am wrong). Just over twelve yards (eleven metres in new money) of the most garish, freaky fabric I have ever seen, I love it, it is so naff that you just simply have to fall in love with it.

 What I am going to make with it I have no idea, I think it would give my Grandkids nightmares, especially the clown, he is freaky, and the rocking horse definitely looks like he might have a chainsaw hidden away behind his back ready to cut off the little dolly's head.

There are more treasures awaiting my dubious photography skills, hopefully I will get around to showing you some more soon.

Still Nearly There

All one hundred and ninety-eight ends have been weaved in and I then changed my mind about doing a edging, so I am currently doing an edge. I hope to have it finished by tomorrow night, if I can stay awake that is. If I thought work was busy before, it has gone totally ballistic today and will carry on being that way for at least another week, we are catering for a huge world famous band  and they are very demanding on top of all the other stuff we do. I cannot reveal who they are just yet, we have been sworn to secrecy, but I may let it slip sometime, so stay tuned (if you want to anyway)

Nearly There

The Granny Stripe Blanket is almost done, at last, just a few more rounds and a billion and ten ends to sew in but I am nearly there.
Work has been horrific for the last couple of weeks, completely non-stop and I am totally exhausted, even after having this weekend off, I feel like curling up and sleeping for a week, but hey ho life goes on.
Will try to get a few photos up sometime this week of the finished blanket and some rather lovely purchases.

New Toy

The granny stripe blanket is coming along, it has grown quite alot, still not quick enough, I need to get this finished as quick as I can now.

I treated myself to a new toy yesterday and I am desperate to get it out of it's box and play with it, But I have sworn to myself that I will finish the blanket first. I know that the minute I break the seal on the box I will not be able to control myself.
 I have bought myself a sewing machine, not that I have done any real sewing since I was a schoolgirl, and that is going back more than a few decades. but let me explain, I fancied a trip to Hobby Craft yesterday and they had 20 % off everything, so it would have been silly not to really. Guess I will be going off on a sewing gig now, I have been flicking through my book of Kate Greenaway dolls this afternoon, so I may be running a few of them up in the not to distant future, or something else altogether, who knows what will happen until it does.

Good Luck to William and Kate

I didn't actually plan on watching The Wedding today, but I seem to have found myself kind of  interested in the television coverage this morning, lovely to see all the people from around the globe that have made it to London to watch it first hand. What I do want to see is the dress, will she go for elegant simplicity or the more traditional lace and flounce of past royal brides, I love wedding dresses, something truely magical about a woman in her dress.
Just to add to the theme of the day a picture or three of my baby girl on her wedding day, her bouquet was originally mine from my wedding, I added a few more flowers to it to add a little length, and though you cannot see it there is a little silk frog hidden in there, I do not really know why but when I chose the flowers I saw him and couldn't resist.

I May Need To Change My Blog Title

I can't actually remember when I last knit, it seems like years ago, I have been seduced by speed over to  the hooky side. Like many of you I pop into attic24 to see the beautiful things there, Lucy has an eye for colour that I can only envy. I am also a member of the We Love Lucy group on Rav where I discovered that you could purchase a Lucy pack from several online retailers containing her choice of the Stylecraft Special DK needed for her Granny Stripes blanket. Naturally upon seeing the pack I promptly pressed the buy now button. For a very well priced acrylic yarn I am impressed with how it feels and looks and will definitely be puchasing more.

Anyhow, the hook has been in pretty much constant use this weekend, I have refrained from checking out the colour order that Lucy used on her blanket, trying to bring my own colour sense into it, if you know what I mean. (Harry) Lots of progress has been made, the blanket is a good five feet wide and is getting very warm to be under in this weather, (hasn't it been glorious) but I shall persevere in the name of art. 

                

I hope you have all had a fantastic Easter weekend with lots of lovely chocolate and been able to get the needles and hooks out at every opportunity.