A finished blanket!

Hi everyone. For the firs time in a long time, I have completed a big project. Well, ok, I haven't actually fastened off all the ends yet, but it's basically complete.

I started this blanket last October, so it's taken me nearly a year to finish. I've only worked on it on and off. It came with me during my house move last year, and was the first think I worked on after I moved in. I remember sitting on the floor of my empty new flat (I had no furniture!) the day after I moved in making little circles and squares for this.

I hope it's going to grace my current and future homes for years to come providing cosyness.

The pattern is from The Gentle Art of Knitting. I used DK yarn. The blanket size is just big enough to cover my double bed. I made 272 little squares altogether, and then finished it off with a few rounds of granny crochet all around the edge, followed by one round in double crochet in yellow for trim.

Finished just in time for the cold weather here - lets hope it saves me some money on my heating bills!

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Slowly getting back to normal

It feels like life is slowly settling down again this week (though perhaps I shouldn't speak too soon!). Problems seem to be resolving themselves one by one - I hope it lasts! Thank you so much to the people who commented on my last post - it's nice to see that some of you feel the same sometimes.

I had some time today to play with my new camera - I'm still figuring out all the settings!

I loved photographing these - I think they are Gerberas? I always gravitate towards them at my local supermarket - love the colours.

I also remembered to photograph one of my recent completed projects - a shawl!

Sorry the photos don't give much idea of what the shawl is like - I don't have anyone to photograph me actually wearing it! It's the Cameo shawl - you can find the pattern here.

I feel good that I have managed to finish something. I really must be more disciplined about my makes...I just get frustrated with all the half finished projects lying around...it doesn't make me feel any better!

Easing back to blogging

Hi everyone.

It feels like it has been a very long time since I was here last. I can't even remember what the last thing I posted about was. I haven't looked at this blog for over a month I think. I've thought about it, but I just haven't had the energy for anything.

August was super-stressful and busy, and it looks like September is going to be the same. Hopefully October will be better.

So, I'm easing back into blogging with a short post, just a few photos from my weekend. Nothing crafty I'm afraid, as that takes more time and thought than I have at the moment.

Some of you may find this a bit of a weird subject for photography. S and I went for a wander through Borough Market yesterday, and I thought it would be a chance to practice my photography.

I love looking at the food stalls and the old signage at Borough. I never buy much, but I like to take snaps. I hope it doesn't annoy the stallholders too much!

I find the fish stalls particularly fascinating, with their rows and rows of geaming scales and glassy stares - apologies to any vegetarians reading this!

The cakes and bread are great fun to look at too!

I've just ended up wishing I was a better photographer though!

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Do you ever feel like life is trying to fight with you, putting so much pressure on you to try and get you to give up doing things you love? I've felt like that the last six weeks. But I'm determined not to give up. I won't give up this blog, I won't give up crafting or any of the other things I like doing in my spare time.

Sorry about the slightly weird post this time around. I need to get my equilibrium back, but it's proving to be difficult. I read a magazine article over the weekend about trying to live a more simple life, de-cluttering, having a less materialistic approach to life. I think I need a dose of that. Not so much in the way of de-cluttering (I did a lot of that last year, pre-move) or being less materialistic (can't afford to be these days anyway!), but I think there's something I need to do in terms of slowing myself down, and taking things a step at a time. Not stressing about the stuff I can't control. I never seem to learn this, it's a problem that I seem to come back to over and over, like I just keep going in circles.

Oh well, must keep trying.


I will be back again soon I hope!

Happy pastel stripes

Hello everyone, I've been away for a while, and it's been nagging at my conscience.

So, here I am, back with a quick post.

To be honest, I haven't managed to actually finish many craft projects. I don't know what I've been doing really. I think it just took me a while to get over my post-holiday blues!

One thing which I have finished, and which I LOVE is this stripey cushion. The cushion is for my bedroom, and was inspired by the colours of the Amy Butler fabric shown in the picture.

I love this colour combination of duck egg, pink, fuschia, red and burgundy, and I've decided to try and make this a theme in my bedroom.

 I choose a random stripey pattern because I loved the stripey cushion that I made earlier. This cushion has the same double crochet design at that.

Hope you're all ok. I'm going to be taking a little bit of a break until September. I have more crafting, flat painting, work and studying to do, and I just need a bit of time out from blogging for a couple of weeks.

See you all in Autumn!

Post holiday blues...

Oh dear. I seem to be suffering from attack of the post holiday blues! Do you ever suffer from this? I've actually set one of the pictures of the beach that I took last week as the screen saver on my mobile. I think that's probably just making it worse though - being reminded every time I look at my phone that I wish I was back there!

I don't even feel much like crafting at the moment...so it must be bad. I tried yesterday to console myself with a little crochet, but I couldn't get into it.

My other escape activity is usually reading. This seems to be working better than crochet at the moment.

 What do you do to shake off the blues? I'm wondering what the remedy could be for me. Start planning the next holiday perhaps? This was my suggestion to S today - I know he's suffering with post holiday blues too.

Real life never matches up to a holiday though, does it? After all, if real life were like a holiday, then holidays wouldn't be holidays, and that magic would be lost.

Listen to me, complaining because my holiday is over. I always try to count my blessings when I'm feeling down, so I keep reminding myself that I'm lucky to have the life I've come back to, and I was lucky to be able to take a holiday at all. Not everyone can, and to some it must be an unimaginable luxury.

Still....the silvery light on the beach echoes in my memory, calling to me...I'm sure it must be in my dreams. It seems like a dream now, to be standing on the sand listening to the waves beating and feeling so peaceful.

 
The sea seems to have that effect on me...it makes me pause in the moment. Suddenly the whole world seems to shrink and retract or fall away. Maybe time stops or perhaps the minute just stretches out...whatever the reason it somehow seems to make everything else unimportant. There's no stress or worry, just calm and serenity.

 Oh well...for now I will have to be content with my souvenirs, photos and memories...

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Cornwall

Hello everyone! I haven't been around much the last couple of weeks because I have been on holiday! S and I have just come back from a lovely few days in Cornwall. No time (or energy) for a big catch up today, but I thought I would share a couple of holiday snaps with you.

These gorgeous flowers were everywhere - does anyone know what they are? I know nothing about plants or gardening!

It was lovely to be by the side - even with grey skies, I find the sea beautiful. The grey just looks like silver to me!

We did also get some fantastic weather and amazing views though!

More soon!

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Projects

I have too many projects on the go again. I think I've gotten a little carried away with my stash busting project!

Two of them are knitting. The one above is something I am attempting to make using some of the yarn I won in the Mrs Moon prize draw in December. It's Louisa Harding Mila yarn, and as soon as I opened the parcel and saw it, I though "summer sweater". However, I haven't been able to find a pattern anything like what I had in mind. So, I've decided to take the plunge and try making something for myself from scratch! It will only be something simple, with no waist shaping and dolman style sleeves. I really hope it works out!

The other project is a shawl, which is from a pattern found on Ravelry. It's stripey, and I'm knitting it with some luxury yarn bought from Loop last month! I do love to knit something stripey.

I've been doing a lot of de-cluttering and organising of my storage space (which has made me face up to the amount of yarn I have - eep). I've also been inspired to put more of my crochet work on display around the flat, including my hexagon throw, which is now back on my sofa after having been in a cupboard for a few months. I love seeing the neat shapes tesselating together!

Right, must get back to knitting now. S and I have booked a lovely holiday to Cornwall coming up in less then 2 weeks now, and I am hoping to have my sweater finished by then, so I can fulfil the vision I had of myself strolling down the beach wearing it!

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Random moments

I was in two minds about what to call this post - it was either going to be "a bit of a whinge" or "random moments" depending on how I ended up seeing the thing that it's about!

I don't know if I have ever mentioned it before, but I commute to and from work every day by train. I live in Hertfordshire and I work in central London, so I have a 90 minute journey to and from work - a total of 3 hours commuting a day.

Anyone else who does a similar journey will know, there is something totally de-humanising about train travel during rush hour. The tube is the worst -your crammed into a little metal tube like sardines, often with your face smooshed up against the back of a stranger! It's very weird. The only way I can cope with it is to basically pretend it's not happening, and withdraw into myself and day dream. A book, music on my mp3 player and looking at Pinterest on my phone all help me with this!

So, in a way, it was actually quite nice when, yesterday morning, I had a little moment that reminded me that my fellow passengers are real people too! It didn't start off nicely though. Before I go any further I must explain - one of the coping strategies that commuters employ is having their 'patch' on the platform. You always stand in the same place because you know exactly where the train carriage doors will be when the train pulls up, and you know which carriage has your best chance of getting a seat. Honestly, it's not just me that does this - everyone does! I'm always stood next to the same people on the platform each morning.

So, one of these people is rather rude. I really hate rudeness in people - it's one of my pet hates. This guy, always arrives about 2 minutes before the train pulls in, and just walks to the front of the platform to stand in front of all the people that have been there for 5 minutes already waiting patiently. He does this and then makes sure that he gets on the train first. It really bugs me, but being wary of the possibility of an outbreak of commuter-rage, I never say anything to him. Yesterday morning, he did exactly the same as he always did and pushed on in front of my self and another lady who were waiting. I must have slightly shaken my head at him in frustration because the other lady turned to me and said "he never learns does he!".

I know it sounds weird by that tiny bit of human contact and a little bit of commiseration in the face of rudeness made the journey to work much nicer! It was a reminder that even if some people are just rude most of the other passengers are human after all!

Happy Thursday everyone - the weekend is almost here - hurrah!