A PARCEL from America and a pattern of this week.

Well I got a parcel from my swap parcel in America and here is what she sent me (the cat doll), how gorgeous is that!! Dd loves it (of course, she's 'borrowed' it) and it has joined various Gingermonkey toys on her bed, she still sleeps with that lavender mouse that GM made for me. I have parcelled my swap up now I've just got to make the trek to the post office and await with baited breath the arrival of it on the other side of the pond. Thanks M.

Inbetween battling with my doll swap (the hair required tackling a sewing needle and I think you might have guessed by now that handsewing is not my favourite activity), I knocked up a cotton shopping bag. I'm heartily fed up of carrying around a plastic asda 'green' reusuable bag, so I crocheted my own, much better looking alternative to put the 'green' carrier bag in!!. It's fine for lighter shopping but I fear 4 pints of milk may end in carnage!! By the time this photo was taken it had been used for several weeks and I can roll it up and just stick it in my (not exceptionally big) handbag. Soothing therapy and usefulness all rolled up in one little package, bliss.

Inspired by a conversation on a crafting forum (and those responsible for it's inclusion here.... you know who you are ;-) ) I just had to have this charming late 60s pant suit as pattern of the week, I culled it from a dog eared booklet in a collection of patterns that my mum gave me. I do love this booklet in a deeply unironic way, not only does it include bikinis and a knitted all in one playsuit (the joy!!), it also has a crocheted mod wedding dress, complete with cloche type cap. Really it's enough to make you hyperventilate!!

A haircut to celebrate my return.

Well, it's been a while but my return to work has meant less hours crafting and less blogging time too. Still now that I've learnt how to successfully juggle, I can blog with more frequency and less haste.

First things first, a new haircut (and colour of course) to celebrate and here it is, in all it's glory, admittedly the picture is not great and first thing in the morning is never a good time to have your pic taken but what the hell, at least I can console myself with the thought that I look better by lunch time, particularly as by then I would have put some slap on and combed my tangerine coloured barnet into some sort of shape.

Of course, I needed some new accessories to go with the new hair and the two pics on the bottom show my first hard earned purchases courtesy of Whizzz
(the turquoise one) and Chickadee cards
the Victoriana style one. I don't actually feel that the pics do them justice, so I may replace them with better ones shortly but I love them.

I finished my MILs berry bag and this (halfway down) is the end result, I am really pleased with it (not my sort of colour, I'll admit but MIL likes it) and I am doing one in a lovely marine coloured blue and green for myself, that is once I have packaged up my doll swap and sent it off.

My swap from GM, a tag and my first pattern of the week!!

As promised I am blogging the gorgeous cat that GingerMonkey made for my dd in return for my owl (I got the best end of the bargain hee hee ;-) ). It is in fact a pirate cat but darling daughter is insistent that this week she is just KitKat and that she doesn't return in her pirate guise until next week, so if I want pirate cat, I'll have to come back next week!! Dd is seriously glued to this cat, it goes to bed with her, has been to show and tell at school and has even been known to sit and wait outside the bathroom for her to finish her bath. GingerMonkeys marvellous shop is here
should you want to peruse and buy.

In other news, I have been tagged by Dior
so here' s my answers (the more sensitive amongst you may want to look away).

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was a single mother to a 4 year old, working full time and harbouring a major crush on a man who is now my dh! And I was just getting my first promotion at work IIRC.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
Well they were
1) Do the weekly veg and fruit shop at the market.
2)Do the weekly button shop for dd's growing button tin.
3)Browse the charity shop for some clothes.
4)Take dd to the library (we didn't get there).
5)Attempt to finish MILs knitting bag birthday present.

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Marmite on toast, cheese on toast, cheese and biscuits, (bit of a theme here) sour cream and chive pringles (proper pringles, not the low fat, rice cracker jobs), anything with lime and chili in.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Buy myself a fabulous art deco house with a separate wing to use exlusively for stashing yarn and fabric.

5) Places I have lived:
Tottenham
Peterborough
Islington
Harringay
Hackney
Bedfordshire

6) 6 bloggers I want to know more about .
Hmmm, want to put Dior but she's already done, so
Overmilkwood

World of whizzz

Sew to bed

Tillyboo

Dingle

Juicy Fig



And now for my first pattern of the week.

If you've read my blog before you're probably aware of my fascination for all things retro, in the general spirit, I will be selecting a pattern from my stash of charity shop/ebay/passed down from mum finds and nominating it my favourite of the week, so ladies and (perhaps the odd gentleman) ta da, I give you the silver smock top from above. It's contained in a 1971 published book, charmingly entitled The Golden Hands book of crochet and I bagged it in our local Age Concern for the princely sum of £1.70 and it's crocheted in Twilleys Goldfingering, which is a yarn I have long had a childlike hankering for. It's twinkly and shiny, see and satisfies my inner 5 year old fairy whims. Look and release your inner Abigail, you know you want to.

Another owl and a bit of crochet lace.

That wonderful MNer known as Gingermonkey, requested another owl, so I've done another, as you can see, in return she sent my dd a beautiful Pirate Cat, will post photos, when I can actually get hold of the cat as dd has taken to carting said cat about with her everywhere, it goes to bed with her, it roams around the house with her, she is in short, absolutely smitten with it, thank you GM, it is gorgeous, although dd does swap the neckerchief around and sometimes poor old pirate cat has to suffer the indignity of wearing it's neckerchief as a pair of knickers!!

Have been working slowly on the flapper doll but, still not finished, my short attention span keeps wandering off to other things but I aim to finish it by the end of this week, crafting has taken a bit of a back seat to real life this week but I did experiment with this crochet lace pattern the other night from Lily Chin's Couture Crochet book, which if I have enough of this yarn will become a lace stole, not just any old lace stole mind, but the Molly Ringwald lace stole and I really REALLY want to crochet the Molly Ringwald lace pattern crochet dress but that will have to wait until I have enough time and money to buy the yarn!

Have auburn hair, will channel Molly Ringwald!

A PAIR of sock, yes, I've managed a pair!

I am now a working woman, so my commute has provided ample opportunity to whittle down my WIPs and turn them into FOs. Knitting on a train has many pluses, the top one being that if someone tries to invade your personal space, you can stab them with a needle! This week I have managed to finish my cotton bedsocks, yes I now have an actual pair and I love them, the patterned cotton knitted up reminds me of sunset or a thundery sky and although the ribbing could have been a bit tighter, I'm happy with them, I will be slathering my feet in foot butter tonight and popping them over the top, my husband will be thrilled!

The wool on the right is a purchase from my short trip to iknit, the middle one is a ball of Kaffe Fassett from Regia that will be perfect for a pair of socks, (this time I am going to use short rows to turn the heel) and the other two I picked up from the bin wonderfully marked 'Don't be afraid, it's only acrylic' (have I mentioned I don't do acrylic snobbery), they are Robin, which is one of the brands I am not mad about admittedly but they do have a nice felty feel to them and will be perfect incorporated into one of my odds and ends bags that I am making.

A berry nice bag.

I realised the other day that it is my Mother in Laws birthday very soon, now she is a very lovely woman, am immensely fond of her and she hinted the other week that she wouldn't mind if I knitted her a knitting bag.

For quite a while now I have been wanting to knit this
the knitting needle knitting bag and so I grabbed the opportunity with my usual enthusiasm (which means I will work like a demon on it for a couple of days and then get bored and move onto something else for a while, then return to it with all the joy of someone being hauled up by a firing squad).

My MIL is a very pink type of lady, in fact you would have seen evidence of this in her curtains on a previous post, so I popped down to the market for a 200g ball of Bretts best acrylic (I am not an acrylic snob, in fact I think a knitting bag demands acrylic, especially if you're using a Berry stitch). The yarn is called Marble and the pinky, purply, orangey one is for my MIL, while I was there I spotted the beautiful greeny blue one the evidence of which is at the top and bagged it for myself. You can't really see the real colours from the photo but it's a lovely bluey green which I am absolutely besotted with and I love the way the berry stitch makes the colours pop. And although I now have absolutely loads of knitting bags, witness my recent bag making extravaganza, I will be toteing it along to my knitting group with cheerful abandon.

A nice lining (in honour of Chrissnow)

Along with attempting to finish all the other things in my UFO bag, I have used MILs old curtains to contain some of my needles, hooks, spare balls of wool and other assorted crafting paraphenalia. Now as I may have mentioned, I do love a nice lining and this lovely granny print is no exception, am not mad about dusky rose velour but the lining just makes me feel all warm and happy and it is (dons halo) recycled (the bag that is, not strictly speaking, the lining). And while I am not absolutely in love with the outside, I think if I decorated it with some crochet flowers made out of cream coloured crochet thread, I could rather like it.




Onto one of my neglected UFOs, I have a vintage pattern fetish, which I may have mentioned before and which is indulged quite frequently, yes I am that annoying woman taking up all the counter space with the pattern book in your local age concern! This early 70s Patons pattern is one of a huge book of 60s and 70s patterns that my mum gave me when I first started to knit and crochet and I started it an age ago, in a fit of boredom, I picked it up the other night and started on the increase rows, heaven knows when it will actually be finished, probably in time for my dd's 21st I should think but, I am rather pleased with the way it's going.

Mind you, looking at these photos it looks like I am going through a deeply pink phase, must root out that teal wool to counteract the overwhelming girliness.