Who's a busy hooker?

But only in the rugmaking sense.
Remember this?

Well it's been stuck in the cupboard since before Heather was born so it's about time I got back to it and made an attempt to finish it off. The original plan was a cute soft little rug for a newborn baby to lay down on but the idea now is to hopefully finish it in time for when that baby get's her own room. And seeing as that will be after the older two girls move on then I might have a couple of years to go yet ;-) It's such a faffy project, I have to get all the bits out, make some room to spread them around me, and then hook away a strand of wool at a time. And it can only be done whilst Heather is sleeping as she likes to pull the wool out of the wrappers and throw them about. Or snuggle against the hooked section "aawwing" away. Well I guess that means she likes it though. So this where I'm up to with the latest WIP in the rapidly shrinking list:


And so hopefully the next to be finished. Unless of course I get distracted by a little knitting........or crochet......or cross-stitch.....
And I have promised a new knitted boobie for a colleague. And a knit for a soon to be arriving newborn.
Oh decisions, decisions.
Happy crafting everyone.
xx

Pompon!

Well I used the Rico Pompon that I bought a couple of weeks ago. I did settle with the idea of knitting a bathmat/rug and it knitted up really quickly. I cast on 24sts and just knitted and knitted until the two balls were used. I followed the suggestion to use 4mm needles and knit 2sts between each pompon and I found it was simple yarn to knit with. But I don't like it. It was a nuisance to have to keep peeking at it to keep the pompons all lying nicely and it is quite a boring yarn to use. But I'm glad I tried it. Can't imagine it being used for a scarf as most patterns suggest, it's very bulky and not something I would feel comfortable with around my neck. Also I really should have used a preliminary cast on as the first row was very tight and created a curve which can't be blocked out. The cast off had the same problem although less so. But as it's only for our bathroom and won't be seen by many I decided to leave it as it was rather than mess around unpicking the first and last rows. Who knows, maybe it will start to irritate me and I will do something about it in the future.......

Blanket.

OK, my brain isn't up to imaginative titles right now ;-)
This is the finished blanket/rug for Heather:


Again a very simple knit, nothing too taxing for the one brain cell that still hangs around in my dusty head. Three strips of knitting on 4mm needles in alternating blocks of colour, then joined together to give the effect of an 18 patch piece. Stitches picked up along the sides first and 12 rows of garter stitched worked to create a border. The same then done along the top and bottom. Then a few scraps used to crochet the little flower embellishment. The wool used was Paton's colour 4 me baby DK in shades 4967, 4987 and 4986, the last two of which appear to have been discontinued which is probably why they were a bargain when I got them. Altogether I used 2 balls of the red, 2 of the peachy pink, and 3 of the dusky pink.
All I need to do now is block it into shape and then attach the fabric I am going to cover the reverse with, just to tidy up any straggly threads and hide the colour change rows. Then it will be all ready for using in the car, or for sitting on when we venture out.

Boot sale bargains.

I keep meaning to make myself a knitting bag but have never got round to it. So this bag, top left, was a definite bargain at the car boot sale on Sunday. After all it would have cost more than the £1 I gave just to buy the materials.
And the other bargain, a rug making kit. Years ago I used to babsit for a lady who made latch hook rugs freehand and I thought she was soooo clever. Been meaning to get hold of one for years but always put it off in favour of other wants, books, wools, etc. So again when I saw this complete kit for sale for only £2 I couldn't resist. Not really my choice of design but for a first time project I couldn't grumble for that price. And it will make a nice rug for baby when she arrives.


Only thing now is finding even more time to do these things ;-)