Not So Granny : Crochet A Long ::

After having so much fun on the Woolly Wormhead mystery knit-a-long at the end of last year, when I saw Joanne Scrace of Not So Granny was doing a crochet-a-long for her new space inspired pattern collection for Malabrigo yarns, decided to jump on in.

Granted I barely have time to sleep amongst the mountains of work and masses of work based crochet I am already doing, but well...I wanted to do it...so there!

I've chosen to take on Galactica, I would have loved to have time to make Neptune, but it's just not feasible. I don't mind too much though, I'm a big shawl/shawlette/scarf fan (as you can tell by my wardrobe) and I love the look of this stitch.

I was going to use this as an excuse to make a new yarn purchase, but my conscience got the better of me and I decided to have a look in my stash. Just after Christmas I purchased a few bargain skeins of one of my favourite Rowan 'cashsoft' in mustard yellow (sunny) and blue (lake), so with fingers crossed I have enough to see me through I'm using these.

Cannot wait to get started.

If you fancy joining in you can find Joanne's Ravelry group here and details of the CAL itself here (including a little discount incentive) there are also lots of fabulous prizes up for grabs, including the gorgeous shawl pin by NovaSteel (if you have a love of scarfs/shawls as big as mine, you should definitely check out her shop).

Craft Hobby and Stitch ::

One very sunny day last week I went over to Birmingham for Craft Hobby and Stitch trade show, I usually go with my Mum and sister, we've been going for a good 6 years I think.  It's always loads of fun and great to get a look at lots of exciting new craft products for my Mum's shop.  This year however it clashed with half term in Norfolk so I was dispatched to seek out the new products by myself (though I'm not going to lie I spent most of the time admiring gorgeous yarns).

I also got to listen to Perri Lewis talk about blogging, which was pretty ace.

Some of the highlights for me, were the gorgeous Erika Knight stand ::

The crochet samples on the the DMC stand ::

Super delicious Fyberspates ::

(I recently crocheted a sample in Scrumptious and can categorically say that it is indeed Scrumptious)

New Rowan sock yarn ::

 All in all a great (though utterly exhausting day).

Lego Head ::

I recently purchased Fresh Stitches' amigurumi course from Craftsy.  I'm not a massive fan of making amigurumi, I can totally see it's attraction and that so many people love it, but I don't know why it just hasn't ever really appealed to me, so when I saw that Stacey Trock's 'Design your own monster' course was super discounted on valentines week, I thought I'd see if I could be inspired to give it a go.

And needless to say I was, if you haven't heard of craftsy of looked at the courses they have on offer, I suggest you go on over there and have a peek.  I loved Stacey's class, her manner and explanations were perfect and though I doubt you'll see me churning out masses of amigurumi monsters or animals any time soon, it certainly gave me a lot to think about and who knows I may even write up a pattern or two.  But for now I'm happy creating cuties for the toddler.

He's away this week, so I made him this soft and cuddly lego head, using the techniques I learned in the class, he's not perfect, but he's a close enough resemblance and hopefully the boy will give him the thumbs up when he returns.