scarf to...to...to...hmmm...

I've been trawling the charity shops like I always do and found a cheery scarf whose colours evoke for me boiled sweets by the seaside...[bad for the teeth but hey, we were young, we knew no better...] It had to be bought, and so it was.



It duly got shredded (well, cut into long strips). And the strips stitched together. A large crochet hook was located deep in the bottom of stitching craft paraphanelia box no.59 [third from the right, second shelf down].

Google was fired up and my almost annual search for how to perform those basic crochet stitches unleashed.




I was beginning to wonder whether I'd have enough of the strippaged yarn to make anything useful (cos, y'know, it's all about usefulness round here ;-) ) when, lo and behold, deep in to-be-upcycled-sometime-this-century stash box no. 33 [extreme left, bottom shelf] what did I find but another candy-striped scarf bought in a different charity shop sometime last year and utterly neglected, nay erased from the memory banks entirely.


A silver lining in the cloud of the hideous forgetfullness that forms the very core of my being these days.


Still not sure what it might end up being, but I do love it...

Eli's blanket - v2.0

phew, it's done!

I can stop lying awake at night agonising over how it it might be managed...oooh, a nights sleep, what a treat...


I made it all up in the end - some kind of mangled reverse treble stitch that I hope will hold

it ain't pretty in close up I'm afraid, but at least it can be given back to the lovely Eli before he freezes...



meanwhile the ever brave Ms McC remains smiling, even on the operating table one amputation later...what a trooper...


I promise she'll be back shortly with some new fangled footwear, it'll be stripey... that's all I'll say...

ps I've been accused tonight of transforming our kitchen into Knitting'n'Stitching Hospital by the editors of dynamostaropremiumafc who have just returned from their weekly outing. They find me here with various different fixing projects on a nightly basis. These poorly creatures get retired to the kitchen shelves to enable regular life to resume in the morning, I've found a bed for Ms McC above the cookery books tonight... someday I WILL move onto a brand new project, I just know it...still, at least Eli's blanket can be discharged tomorrow and hopefully that'll be the last I see of that particular patient...

a finished scarf, a torn afghan and some canine bedding...

it's been a week, and what a week. I've been in Glasgow for part of it doing some work. Was lucky enough to get along to private views at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Glasgow Museum of Modern Art. Kelvingrove had some fabulous bits and pieces of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (and co) design work but I especially loved the small gallery featuring 18thC costumes
At GoMA I was inspired and enthralled by the Cutting Edge exhibition of contemporary Scottish crafts, there were some interesting and innovative pieces of jewellery and textiles, shame there are no pictures on their website...
Anyway, back at the ranch I managed to finish the scarf yesterday. I put a slit in it as I found myself running out of yarn sooner than I thought so the slit was designed to enable it to wrap without having to really wrap, iykwim. Unfortunately it was a bit TOO close to the end so I had to frog it (ribbit, ribbit - geddit?) and then add a bit more on after the slit. Think I am happy with it now. It is gloriously warm and once I have it around my neck I feel like I can never part with it. Haven't worn it to bed though, yet...
(this is my new hairdo, supposed to work with my natural curls once I wash it - I withold judgement until tomorrow)

Spent today at home with two sick children. Awwwh. They are very poorly. The littlest one is clinging like a limpet while the eldest one is mostly prone before the telly. I did manage to engage them in some crafting though and I have photographic evidence to prove it...

I made this afghan (my first ever crochet "on the buses" project) for Elijah who was born last February. Unfortunately, it being my first ever crochet project, I had no idea how to bind in the ends and so it has suffered a bit of toe damage (he is a strong boy that Eli!) which I have undertaken to mend. No idea how and have a horrible feeling it will involve some crazy backwards crocheting technique not yet invented but I will give it a whirl.


Esther initially decided to help (the lure of some shiny, pointy needles obviously strong enough to combat her ailment) but shortly after returned to limpet mode...


Meanwhile Eva has been nagging me to make a quilt for her favourite soft doggie for some time now. Today I got her to do a design for it and choose the fabric and we cut it out (she turns out to be a whizz on the rotary cutter and a demon with a measuring tape) and pieced it (she lifted and lowered the running foot, and guided the fabric) together. The real excitement came when she got her foot to the motor pedal thing and the machine went off at 120mph, or so it felt to this old dear (I normally sew well below the official speed limit!). Here is the finished article...with the batik fabric looking very fetching on the marbled table (ahem! ...wouldn't have been my choice of fabric but the girlie and her doggie appear to love it)

the flowers Eva made while she was feeling a bit bored as I tried to remember how to change a needle are at the top of this entry...

and here is a "bag" she made when we were testing out her fabric guiding skills...







I think Eva enjoyed her afternoon even though she was feeling a bit miserable

Now, back to that reverse engineering crochet job...