Eight-by-Six

I finished my crochet cushion cover last night and I'm so happy with the way its turned out. The Stylecraft Simply DK yarn is just perfect and having a bag of left over yarn from my two blankets makes it not only a quick satisfying project but a cost effective one too. I found the pretty glitter buttons in John Lewis at Blue Water last night, 2 packs is all it needed. Simple and scumptious and added to my Macmillan alternative coffee morning draw for next week. The cushion inner was purchased from Dunlem and the size I worked to was 37 cm square. Its the perfect size too for layering up your cushions on your sofa. I have three in various sizes with the granny square cushion in the front. Think chilly days curled up on the sofa, perfect. I'll be writing up the pattern release this weekend to upload to my Ravelry and Loveknitting shops next week. Its going to make a brilliant present, I'm planning on making these for friends for Christmas! my new granny square cush...

On Saturday we decided to make the most of the weather and headed off to Tankerton Slopes near Whitstable on the Kent coast. It's well worth a visit for the views a the top sof the slopes, the beautiful old (and new) beach huts, local shops and cafes. It has a shingle beach with timber groynes and sand and at low tide it is possible to walk out to sea on a natural causeway known as 'The Street'. At this state of tide there is a fair bit of sand and a few rock pools to explore. It was quite misty when we arrived and the tide was on the turn but we managed to walk The Street  strip of sand and Moss had a dip in the sea with a new friend he met. beach hut Whitstable and Tankerton Slopes are only a short drive from our house, about 25 mins. The beach allows dog walking up until May 1st, after that they have to remain on the lead at all times. I'm not too keen going there in the height of the season unless its very early in the morning before the crowds arrive. I...

Yeah for the long Easter weekend full of tea drinking, chocolate eating and lots of knitting and crochet. The weather is going to be awful but I don't mind as I'll be surrounded by colour and warmth and a big granny blanket. I've just released my second pattern this month for the tea cosy, there is no stopping me! It combines my love of knitting and crochet together with a retro look! The inspiration for my tea cosy came from growing up as a kid in the 1970’s, surrounded by a colour palette of browns, orange and mustard that I didn’t appreciate at the time. We always visited my gran on a Sunday for tea and home made cake. She always had a knitted tea cosy and taught me to knit at an early age. I wasn’t that taken with knitting and my skills didn’t further develop until my son was born in 1992, a few garments frogged along the way (ask my husband about the first green jumper I knitted!!). Since then I’ve knitted lots of accessories as gifts for family and friends and ...

After making a silly mistake I had to frog about 12 rows, but I'm back on track now and loving the new colours combination I've picked up. Its so lovely and very autumnal, I think I'll make this for my brother and sister in law to keep them warm this winter. But must make another for myself! Its all Stylecraft Special DK using a standard granny square, two rows of each colour but I might change this as it grows. Friday night catch up with my blanket Sunday morning quick crochet fix

Would you look at these colours, wow aren't they just so bright and cheerful! I'm trying to go a little vintage 1970s style (my era and childhood) I'm sure we had one of these, maybe not quite as bright but I just love the Orla Kiely colours and this is going to be another huge snuggly blanket sure to brighten everyones day! And its so cold I can really get on with this over the weekend and add lots more colourful stripes. Have a fab weekend and keep warm and snuggly and maybe do some crochet too.

I love the designs by Orla Kiely and I have a lovely ceramic herb planter that my sister bought me for my birthday a few years ago, it has a money plant in it. I'm still not feeling too well today and spent the morning in bed, fed up with this awful cold, so to cheer myself up this afternoon I raided my yarn stash for colours to match the planter. A lady who lives in the village has an invitation company and now and again she saves some card samples for me, they make lovely gift tags or small cards. Glue gun ready and a few vintage buttons from my button jar and here they are finished. I'm going to crochet more in bright Cath Kidston colours next. If you want to make the flower, the easy to follow flower pattern can be found here  at Lusciouslyloopy

For those of you outside the UK having warm weather in the UK is something of a rarity, rain on the other hand we do very well. So this week we are having a mini heatwave and its great if you don't have to work, commute or doing anything that makes you move and get too hot! too hot for blankets, lets just look at them I was trying to finish my granny square blanket (shown in the Rocky Road picture), the border is well under way but hey who want's to sit under a hot blanket in this heat? So I guess its going to have to wait another week or so. In the meantime I can still make blankets as squares are so much more portable and I don't need to join them right now. I spent a lot of my weekend in the garden as the weather was so lovely, and we have plans to make some more changes to the area in front of the pond. I like the idea of a chill out area, and those rattan sofas are calling me. I can see myself with a cold drink or cup of tea crocheting to the sound of moving wat...

I can now show you the gifted blanket. I have to say I am very happy with how it turned out. I have hundreds of photos of my progress over the last 7 weeks. I've enjoyed every single moment making it, even sewing in the ends! Here are some of the photos, not too many crochet porn! The sun is shining here in Kent and gardening planned for Sunday, lots of new plants to plant out thanks to my sister dropping off lots of plants she has grown for me. I'll post some pictures over the weekend. two blankets on the go quiet crochet time and a cuppa lots of circles to start of my granny squares round 3 tadah and its finished with a picot edge I taught myself crochet pom poms at lunchtime today