Hello ::

I'm sorry, I'm afraid that once again I fell off the blogging wagon, I didn't mean to, it just happened as Christmas approached and the house moving date loomed and time just started to slip away from me at an alarming rate.

If you've been following me on Instagram you'll probably know we've moved into the new house now, though we are far from being finished with the renovation! Life is still kind of crazy whilst we live out of boxes attempting to finish decorating with a house full of possessions and two little ones 'helping' out. I'm gradually getting back into a sort of routine which doesn't involve daily consultations with tradesmen, sanding floors and attempting to paint walls with a baby strapped to my back (these things are still happening just not daily!).

I'm super excited to be getting back to work, crocheting flat out on my sock collection and sending new submissions to magazines left, right and centre.

Effie becomes more demanding by the day in an 'almost two' kind of a way. She's still as wonderfully delicious as ever, parenting her just needs a little more patience as she grows fiercely independent and frustrated at her inability to tell you what she needs. She's settled in at nursery now and is loving it, which gives me two mornings a week to get on with work, which is bliss.

I have lots to share here I just don't always find the time to actually put words and pictures to the page. At the beginning of the year I chose a word to guide me through 2016, I've done this for a few years now, inspired by Susannah Conway and her Unravelling the Year workbook. This year I choose ASPIRE, I want to aspire to be better at all the things in my life, to be less flaky and more organised, more successful and generally a better business owner, but I think it's relevant here too. With that said, I aspire to be a better blogger!

Look out for a catch up on the house renovation, I've kept weekly handwritten logs of our progress, so I hope to share those here in the coming weeks. I also plan to blog lots about crochet techniques and crochet socks as The Crochet Sock Collection nears it's intended publication date and of course I'm sure there will be many posts on family life and a few crafty tutorials.

x

Works in Progress :: Another Hitchhiker ::

I'm a huge fan of Martina Behm, I'd been familiar with her patterns for some time (who on ravlery isn't?!) but it was the Knitmore Girls and their #behmalong that got me knitting her patterns.

So far I've got two Hitchhikers, two Brickless', one Be My Angel and one Brickless/Hitchhiker mash up under my belt! The last of which was very sadly left on a train during a, many train, journey to Norfolk at the beginning of the year and never recovered. I'm still very much mourning that loss.

This Hitchhiker was cast on on the train to Manchester a couple of weeks ago, when I really just needed some mindless travel knitting and I imagine it will just sit in my bag from now until it's done. I have no particular recipient in mind. I just love knitting this pattern.

The yarn was a gift from Johnny and Milo last Christmas and is Tiger's sock yarn. I'm really liking the colour changes and it's a pretty good yarn given it was no doubt a bargain purchase.

I've started adding a bit of a lace panel, so it will become another mixture of the Hitchhiker and the Brickless I think. Though I'm just sort of making it up as I go along!

Crafting 365 :: 15-21 ::

Week 3 of crafting 365 challenge ::

This week I finally finished Milo's Arlo Cardigan from Brooklyn Tweed. I may change the buttons yet, these were the ones that he chose but they're a little too small for the buttonholes. Overall I'm reasonably happy. It's coming up a little snug, but he seems happy with it which is all that matters. I made the size up from his current size, in the hope that it would last a couple of winters, but I'm not sure it will.

We begun getting festive after the crates of clementines arrived in Lidl, we dug out our mini star cutter and got to cutting shapes out of the peel. I pinched this idea from circle of pine trees a couple of years ago and can see it becoming a yearly tradition for us. Once we have enough stars (in varying states of drying) we strung them up on some cotton, using a needle and voila, a beautiful citrus garland.

I worked some more on secret projects for Design Wars.

I did some work on the super cute doll I started at The Handmade Christmas Fair, she's a mini version of Kirsty Hartley's Funky Little Doll kits. I'm thinking she'll be a Christmas gift for Effie.


If you want to join in, please do, it's been lovely seeing everyone else's projects this week. There's no official start date, just jump on in whenever you like (though I would recommend numbering your photos so you can keep track of where you are in the 365 days), simply craft, capture, share, use the hashtag #crafting365.

House Renovation :: Week 6 ::

This week has been super productive. On Sunday we ripped up the last carpet. We'd left this one as there was a storage heater in the way. So we took this apart and pulled out all the stones (these things are ridiculously heavy) we revealed yet more beautifully kept floorboards and a scrap of gorgeous lino.

 The plumbers started and took no time to start ripping out all the old unwanted things. On Monday they removed both water tanks, the entire bathroom suite, including the bath, not only did the bath go, it had to be broken in 2 in order to get it out! I'm sure replacing the bath will turn out to be the best decision, but I can't help feeling a little sad. I am happy though that a scrapman knocked the door on Wedsnesday and asked if he could take it, along with some other scrap metal. I'm pleased it lined his pockets a little and will be recycled.

When I arrived on Tuesday morning all the radiators were in place and by Wednesday the boiler was on the wall.

I've started painting in order to get the radiator walls done before the radiators are permanently in place. I've also finished getting all the tiles off the bathroom walls along with the tile adhesive. I used a screwdriver and hammer to pop the tiles off and my trusty steamer and scraper on the adhesive. It was messy work but easier than I expected.

I also tried my hand at plastering to try and fix a big hole on the bathroom wall. It wasn't perfect but I think it's going to be OK after a bit of sanding. YouTube is a dangerous thing and I'm also convinced I can tile the whole room myself now! I headed to Fired Earth in the week to pick up some tiles, these are just to help us with decision making, we're still very much deciding how things are going to go, but I'm fairly sure these are the tiles we're going with.

We have however chosen our entire bathroom suite after a couple of painful evenings where Johnny and I attempted to find items we both liked!
Next week the electricians start and the gas meter goes in and I'm hoping the bathroom will be done (minus the tiling).

Crafting 356 :: 8-14 ::

Week 2 of my crafting 365 and I'm doing pretty well. The biggest problem I have is that most of my crafting takes place in the evening, when the light is rubbish and my phone battery is most likely to be exhausted for the day. What I've been trying to do to catch up is photograph my work the following day, so at least I can share what I did if not the actual crafting at the time it takes place.

This week I worked on ::

Arlo Cardigan for Milo, this is so close to finished now, it really should have been on his back this week! Only the seaming left to do and a little bit of blocking on the collar, next week hopefully.

A secret project for the Design Wars Challenge.

Another secret(ish) project, which I hope will be a crochet pattern for the blog.

Some giant polymer clay beads, which will become a blog tutorial soon.

I sewed up a felt lollipop at the Handmade Christmas Fair at the weekend.

Cast on another Hitchhiker Shawl, just because I wanted some train knitting.

Finding Inspiration :: Gifts for Harry Potter Fans ::

So as Milo and I are drawing towards the end of the Harry Potter series (remember how I wasn't sure if we would read past the third book originally!) and I'm starting to think about his Christmas gifts, I can't help but drawn into anything Harry Potter related. He is pretty obsessed at the moment and I know he would love nothing more than a stocking full of Harry Potter goodies. So here are a few of my favourite finds from UK etsy sellers ::

1, Advanced Spells Notebook by Literary Emporium

2. 'I'd rather be at Hogwarts' Badge by The Raspberry Finch

3. Hogwarts House Badges by Goodnight Boutique

4. Charms and Spells Pencils by Easily Suede

5. Harry Potter Movie Poster by Abbie Imagine

6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Print by Bensmind

7. Deathly Hallows Necklace by Fairy Fountain Gifts

8. Mischief Managed Mug by Universal Wear

For more inspiration for gifts from UK etsy sellers take a look at my pinterest board and the Etsy gift guide series

Works in Progress :: Arlo Cardigan ::

I started knitting this cardigan way back in the summer after Milo declared, in the midst school uniform shopping, 'you can knit me a school jumper if you like'. I was thrilled to say the least. I never imagined I would be finished in time for school to start but didn't think it would take quite as long as it has either. Mostly I think the delay can be apportioned to lots of work commitments, I've so wanted to get it finished for him, but I must say I think that knitting a garment in pieces just isn't really my thing. I know there are lots of reasons why it can achieve better results, but I just prefer to knit without seams!

However I am getting there, all the main pieces are knitted up and blocked. All that's left to do now is seam and knit on the collar/button band, which I just started this morning. I'm hopeful he'll be wearing it soon, partly so I don't have to keep answering 'soon' to his regular, 'when's my jumper going to be ready?' questioning.

Pattern is Arlo by Michelle Wang from the Brooklyn Tweed Kids Collection.
Yarn is Patons Extrafine Merino DK (held double) in wine.