creating makes me happy

So I have been looking for a new notebook to stash all of my creative ideas in and take down colour patterns that I like.
This morning I saw an advert on my facebook feed for a half price personalised moleskin notebook from http://www.urbancottageindustries.com/ and in purple!
This is perfect I thought. My only difficulty was choosing what to have debossed on my notebook. In the end, I chose

Creating makes me happy

I had a little problem with my order but received the most fantastic customer service, literally the best I have ever had.

Then, to make things even better, I received an email from them with a link in it to a video of my notebook being debossed with my special words -

Look at my little words!

This company is absolutely fantastic! I cannot recommend them enough!

Amigurumi Potted Plant

A little present I made to cheer a friend up:

Free pattern from here - http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/80221AD.html

I just made this with some of my Stylecraft Special DK yarn stash. It is fairly easy and as soon as I had done the main part I went mad with my own colours for the flowers and I squeezed in a lot more than the pattern said!

My friend really liked the gift, it is so lovely to make something for someone who appreciates the time and effort you put in. I feel it is thousands of times better than just picking up something generic from a shop. I was able to choose her favourite colours and make it really special.

I do have to say I found it very hard to part with this one, I loved it....

This is why I am making another!!!

Until next time x

Granny stripe blanket growing..

Summer is here (sort of, not really, today it has rained all day, yesterday it rained all day etc)
I have been spending my spare time outside not sitting in front of the TV with my hooks and yarn. However, I have been 'casually' making some progress on my granny stripe blanket. It is getting quite big now!

Be warned, it does get boring so I might move on to something else at any time. Still on target for completion by the end of forever though.

Oh and just a quick photo of my helper:

I am fairly concerned that she thinks it is hers!

STARS

Writing about a colourful project completed a few weeks ago to brighten up this very wet and miserable day we've had..

So my house has stairs that curve and at one point as you are walking down the main part you are faced with a plain beige wall with a view of the full height of the building. I couldn't decide what to do with this wall as I was quite keen for the stairway to stay beige as it has no window so I wanted to keep it as light as possible, but I didn't want it to be dull! And then I created the hombre stars bunting below and I instantly knew it would hang perfectly from top to bottom of this wall!

One of each colour as they were being made -

The pattern is from an issue of Simply Crochet and I used the yarn recommended in the pattern - Drops Paris . This is my first use of 100% cotton yarn and it was magical!  I will most definitely use Drops yarn again. I bought one ball of each colour and there is a little left from each.

This is the stack of them all before they were strung together. Reminded me so much of a pile of coasters, I am tempted to make another lot and stiffen them!
Normally I would block things like this but as they were being hung on the wall I thought there would be little point as they would stretch a bit anyway when they were hung up.

And the Ta Daaaaa moment:

I had to ask the other half to help me hang this and due to the weight I had to put a few tacks in the wall every few stars to prevent the top ones being stretched too much. 

Thanks for reading, hope you love them as much as me and might be a little inspired ?!?!?! 

Mandala Madness

I've been taking advantage of the bank holiday weekend to get some crochet time in! As I have mentioned before I follow blog Attic24 which i love love love because of all the inspiration and easy to understand instructions. It is so clear that Lucy loves what she does so much and wants everyone else to love it too!
Anyway I am taking part in making mandalas - mandalas for yarndale and this is my creation!

It is so colourful and happy and it makes me smile! I would love to cover a little wall with them.

They are really quite simple to make if you aren't too worried about doing colour changes and they are so effective. There are a few different types of stitch here and as I was making this I was thinking it would make a nice showcase for a beginner to do as you could say "look I can do single crochet, double crochet, some chaining and a bit of treble crochet!"  Or is that a bit much for a beginner?  Either way it was fun and a much welcome break from the monotony of blanket production!

From 2 balls of yarn to this!

I finally felt I was confident enough in my crochet skills to risk money on a pattern, previous to this I had been learning using free patterns or from youtube. This is the one I chose, please meet Johnny the Monkey!

I am so so so pleased with this. He is super cute and not too difficult for a beginner, but you do need to be familiar with working in a spiral and make sure you have some stitch markers!

I found him here -  https://www.etsy.com/listing/105941111/amigurumi-pattern-johnny-the-monkey

My only notes are that the pattern is american and I wasn't sure what 'sport weight' yarn is. I used DK weight and he came out absolutely perfect. 

Out of control!

I am getting myself in a situation, there are lots of half finished projects collecting all over my studio (and spreading themselves through the house)

The list of shame:

• An elephant head on my desk! He has no body yet...
• Several uncomplete blankets collecting themselves about the place...
• The start of an Owl body...
• Some squares for a patchy cushion....
• This one-a-day (which is more like one-a-week) granny square project..
• One, yes one, wrist warmer
• A monkey head (I clearly have issues with animal bodies)
• And this little lot turned up today:

Oh my.

Chaos!

However as lots of hobby makers will say, it is as much the process of making as the finished product. So I am excused?!?! *Weeee skips away*

1-a-day

I am part of an amazing crochet group and as of the new year we have started a a 1-a-day granny square project with the hope of having an amazing blanket at the end of the year.
It is day 8, please don't tell anyone but...... this is what I have done:

Please don't be mad!!

To make matters worse I chose tiny little squares, not even the real deal...
How naughty! I will catch up...


UPDATE!!!
By 23:49 I had managed to get up to date: woooosh!

Just one to do today now :) 

Cupcake!

See I can do things other than crochet...!  Whipped this little cutie up for a friend's birthday whilst dinner was cooking this evening.  Just a little card.  I think it means so much more than a shop bought one.  I hope she will like it. 

I printed the free template from here http://wildolive.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/ooohcupcakes.html?m=1 . I just printed this onto card and over stitched. Simples!

Little Lenny

This is little Lenny. I am so pleased with him. Really getting there with this crochet thing! Still trying out some free patterns from around the web to help with my learning. I don't want to risk money on a pattern that I can't do. But safe to say I am getting more confident :)

This was his little legs being made - 

Lenny's eyes have been made with a circle of crochet, I am not quite sure about them as I think he looks a bit spooky. He may get an upgrade... 

Lots in of increasing and decreasing in this pattern which was a bit of a test for me, but a good way to learn a skill I guess! It is all single crochet so it takes quite a while to grow in size. 

Back soon with another creation. 

Crochet and Christmas

Happy New Year everyone! But... we must step back in time for a minute to a time before I started the blog.

The most wonderful time of the year...  I know it is over now, but I must share a few things. As I mentioned I am new to crochet and up came my first Christmas with my new skills! I couldn't resist trying to make a few Christmassy decorations. As I am still learning, I do struggle a lot with reading patterns and non-basic stuff but I was very happy with what I achieved in time for Christmas.

Granny Christmas Trees:
I saw a pattern for a granny Christmas tree and as I knew I could do a granny square I thought I'd give it it try. Before I knew it I had managed to churn out 12 to make a garland with!

I love my choice of festive colours. Here they are in place. I linked them together with a piece of red shiny ribbon

Snowflakes:

I looove my snowflakes! I ended up making loads to give out to family and friends. I also made quite a few to hang in my office at work! They are very quick and easy to make once you know what you are doing and memorise the pattern.

The pattern is from the wonderful Lucy here - http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/crochet-snowflake.html

I used white wool with silver thread running through it to make it a bit sparkly and added some beads give them a bit extra. 

Santa and the Christmas Tree:

Everyone I dared to show my magical little tree to fell in love with it and requested their own one, I ended up making 4!

I found the Christmas Tree pattern on Ravelry and Santa came from Simply Crochet Magazine. He is my first really complicated project and he is all squishy :) 

This is one of the other trees I made for one of the lucky recipients with red bead 'baubles'

No more Christmas now :(  Can't wait to come up with more goodies next time around!

Hello

Eeek! My first post!  So quick introduction then, my name is Emma, I work full time in a non-crafty job so spend my free time pursuing my love of craft and design. I have an absolute need to make and create.
I live in a very very quite village with my boyfriend of three years who asked me to marry him last week! How exciting. So lots of planning ahead.

I have really enjoyed seeing the recent 2013 review posts on blogs I follow, it is amazing to see what they've been up to through the year all in one place. I want this! Keeping this blog will enable me to track and record what I have done and also encourage me to keep making the time to do the things I love.

I have always wanted to crochet and had tried many times and failed but stuck at it recently and with a bit of persistence have been 'hooked' ever since (sorry). I would definitely say I am still a beginner but learning constantly. I have created a few little things, starting with the standard for beginners - the granny square, then the never-ending-granny-square-just-keep-going-round-until-its-baby-blanket-size then this, my first major achievement (and still work in progress!) this granny stripe blanket -

And growing a bit - please excuse the dog, she loves to help me with everything!

I love the colours! I don't usually go for rainbow colours but I am very pleased with the results so far. I think I will be working on this blanket for a long time, it is one I tend to pick up, get bored of the repetitiveness of blanket making, put down, pick up.....

You can find very clear instructions for this blanket here http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2010/05/granny-striping.html . Amazing blog full of inspiration. 

Anyway, enough crochet for now, I will post some of the other things I have made shortly.

I also love painting, sewing, embroidery, cross stitch, paper cutting, quilting and scrapbooking so you will see some of those here too. For this year I am hoping to try my hand at knitting (scary!) and jewellery making.

That's all for now, thanks for visiting :)