A little bit of everything

So while the blog still lies in tatters because of  "DON'T TOUCH IT, IT WILL BREAK", I thought I'd carry on blogging away.  I've become well and truly hooked (I know, I know, I used that one before) on my blanket and am knocking out the rows faster than you can say "potato".  Except not.  It's now taking me around forty minutes to do a single row, as it's essentially one big granny square, but I intend on carrying on til I run out of yarn even though it's currently around the right size for a pram blanket for Little Pudding.

I was messing around with Tom's DSLR again so here's another progress shot!

It's very addictive to see it coming together, all the symmetry, those beautiful bright colours, aaaah!  I'm already planning all the other projects in my head, I'm going to be swamped in blankets before I know it.  I want to do a granny stripe, a proper granny square blanket, a ripple... I'm going to end up with a serious RSI with all this hooking coupled with making jewellery!  I'm eyeing up all sorts of inspiration around me and exploring colour schemes in things around the house.  Even looking forward to Spring with all it's delicate flowers and things - I usually hate the Eastery kind of colours but I think they'd look beautiful in a blanket.

This is the view from the window at the moment.  This used to be a wasteland kind of scene when we moved here, with evil looking bare trees scattered around the building site.  We actually have a few new neighbours as you can see!  The snow is pretty to start with but I'm getting stir crazy stuck in the house with the kids (of my own choosing, I'd prefer them to be warm at home than out in the cold so much).  We spent a little while making a rather deformed snowman and discovering the joys of neighbouring cat poop under the snow (bleugh) but it's time for the snow to go away now!  I can see you there in the clouds waiting, off with you!

Since kids move around a bit while you're trying to take photos of them I thought I'd use this little lady as my model.  Her name is Mayu and she's an Alice du Jardin Pullip.  They're gorgeous little things with such attention to detail.

If only they made such gorgeous clothes for us eh?  Well they do actually, but I think I'm a little too old to pull off the Baby, the Stars Shine Bright look.  I suppose I'll have to live vicariously through Mayu for now.

And finally Freya's Cath Kidston teddy.  It's really tiny and cute.  I've done Amigurumi before (I'll show you another time) but these stitches seem so precise.  I'm not sure how I feel about mass produced things masquerading as handmade unique items.  I know there was a period when high street shops seemingly trawled through Etsy systematically plagiarizing designs.  Oh my big words.  Anyway, this bear is still cute as anything and I'm still a sucker for anything Cath Kidston so meh.

Excuse the mess!

I may have broken the blog a little bit and had to start all over again.  Maybe.  Possibly.  The good news is I managed to salvage my posts so all is not lost.  It doesn't look too pretty and I'm without any kind of image editing software at the moment - I've changed computers and all is nightmarish!  Hopefully I'll be able to get everything back to normal (or better) soon but until then you'll have to endure weird titles with fuzzy outlines and a strange layout :D

A confession

Yes, sometimes I just don't blog because I don't take good pictures.  Remember what they always taught you in school?  "Don't judge a book by it's cover."  Well, they were wrong.  I need to take more pictures.  In the meantime while I knock the dusty cobwebs from the DSLR, I photoblog with my fuzzy iPhone camera in bad light at Blipfoto.

Stalled

I'm sure you know, it's snowing everywhere in England.  Tiny sniffles mean we're not out enjoying the snow but never mind because I'm waiting in for a VIP (read - very important package) ;)  It does sometimes feel like everything is grinding to a halt when it snows - I'm not sure how a pushchair would fare and I'm not too confident about babywearing in the snow.  I can just imagine toppling over the squishing poor little Freya.  It does look rather grey and dull though - I guess we've got a lot more snow to come!

I'm progressing well with the First Blanket as it will now be known but I'm not all too sure when to stop.  I'm indecisive like that.  Do I keep it as a baby blanket?  Make it bigger so it's a toddler blanket too?  Make it into a throw?  So many options.  I suppose I'll know when I get there!  I haven't made jewellery for quite a long time now but I'll be getting back into that soon thanks to a Mothers' Day craft swap I'm taking part in.  It's my first ever craft swap so I'm quite excited - I've already been asked for my favourite colours (by my secret crafter).

Hooked

See what I did there?

The pretty wool finally arrived, and just in time for the event of me finally mastering the granny square!  I hadn't got anything in mind specifically for this wool so it's all a happy coincidence.  I've got straight to work on a blanket,  my first one and so far I'm really pleased with the progress.  I've had the wool less than 24 hours and already have 19 rows complete.  I tend to get a little addicted when I start something and can't drop it 'til it's finished.  I guess that was always the appeal of jewellery, it's so easy to finish a piece in a couple of hours at most.

Busy, busy!

I've most definitely got the crafting bug again.  I've got a lovely project in the works for my girls involving felt and letters, more on that later, but I'm also conjuring up all sorts of plans for using the rest of the masses of felt I have for this!  I've also got a package of beautiful wool winging it's way to me soon, so I'll be getting the crochet bug again soon.

I've decided to give photography another go - I think I gave up a little when I discovered how easy it is to Blip from the iPhone!  Anyway, I'm fast discovering that kids are hard to keep up with when you're fiddling with the focus on a lens, but practise I'm sure will make perfect.

Freya aged 5 months

All in all I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out!  I'm getting slightly frustrated at how much the camera depends on a natural light source though, I'll have to investigate that further.  Watch out for updates on my little project - I need a few bits including sequins and ribbon - watch this space!