Chit Chat

What am I like? I’ve gone the whole weekend and haven’t blogged about last week and stuff – that’s because it’s really hard to type and crochet at the same time and I have given myself a real life project which will need to be finished for the summer – watch this space!

So what have I been up to? Let’s start back at last weekend. On Saturday I visited Janet to hand deliver her birthday present prize – if you click on her name you can see what it was! I was able to customise it because I waited to see who won before I bought it! We spent a lovely afternoon chatting and she showed me her garret where she does all of her creative stuff! She also kindly gave me a few plants that she had grown from cuttings to plant in my garden!

On Sunday I cycled to visit Son1 and FDIL – now that’s no real distance but when I say I haven’t ridden my bike for mmm, must be three years, I hope you'll be proud of me! (This is where I confess that I couldn’t ride all the way back up the hill and had to push it most of the way!!)

The work week whizzed by uneventfully and as it was my Friday off, I persuaded John that he would like to come to Cambridge with me on a yarn hunting trip! Now, Cambridge is about 60 miles away and is well served by Park & Ride buses – the ones where you park outside a city and catch the bus in. Trouble was we took the first exit which is not so well served – in fact it is not at all served. It took us almost as long to get to the centre as it had to arrive on the outskirts! Never mind, I knew where we needed to head and used Google maps on my phone for the first time to great effect. We drove into the car park and almost had a conniption when we saw the cost of parking! If we were over three hours it would be almost £10!!!!!! I wouldn’t mind but we mistakenly took the lift and it was disgustingly dirty – I’d have expected a lift attendant for that sort of money!!

And I was disappointed when I arrived at the large department store (hint - never knowingly undersold) to find that the haberdashery department was tiiiiiiny! I was so looking forward to being able to see and touch yarns that I’ve only dreamt about to discover that they had probably a smaller choice than the lovely little wool shop I found locally a few weeks ago. Before I started out I had decided that I wanted to cover the cushions in my bedroom and wanted lilac and purple shades to make up some granny squares – I was not going to be beaten and did manage to find yarn that matched what I wanted – just!

As I was leaving the store I noticed toilet bags & make up bags – not something I needed but when I saw the little beauty below I just had to have one!

Because – it’s just right for…

…storing my scissors and hooks!!

That was a little consolation to make up for the disappointment in the yarn department – well, a girls gotta have something now and again, hasn’t she!!

On Sunday there was a Vintage & Modern market at the waterfront here in Ipswich – some lovely stalls selling all sorts from crafty to antique to just plain old junk! (sorry!!) not being an antique person or a plain old junk person I opted for the craft stalls and bought this lovely cushion

to which John said ‘You could make that’ Yeah right – me and sewing don’t go together too good but I have long had a hankering to learn to quilt, so maybe just maybe…

Oh and then there was this gorgeous card holder that will be winging it’s way across the Atlantic in a few weeks to the perfect home!

Better finish now – time to get hooking for the evening but I will leave you with a taster  of what arrived today…tune in next time for more details!!

Look what the postman bought me this week!!

I’ve had a week of real deliveries this week – nothing surprising because I’d ordered  a load of stuff, but it is quite nice to have real packages to open!

Since the reawakening of my love for crochet I can often be found either searching blogs or auction sites for vintage-like crochet patterns. I found this gem on e-Bay for 99p (about 70cents now that the pound has dropped against the dollar!!) just look at the 70s-ness of it – I don’t care if I ever use it or not the  10 minutes I spent skimming through it were worth every penny I spent!

 

Please don’t all rush to place your orders!!!!!!

Then there was this yarn – remember I bought some blue last week? Well I found a pattern for a lovely baby blanket (keeping that as a surprise for the time being!!)and needed more yarn than I had, I thought maybe pink & blue together would make it more unisex. I changed my mind when I realised that it would be mainly blue anyway and there is still something that makes pink to girly for unisex! With that thought I managed to find the same brand on another auction site and ordered white to make two blankets – that’s another couple of projects planned!

And then there were these gorgeous notebooks which I ordered from my own photos through Photobox. I’m going to use them as gifts for a couple of very good friends!

What will Sparkle do next?

No – don’t worry, I haven’t done anything wrong or mischievous – just finished the latest hooky project!

When I had finished the Granny squares I had loads of yarn left over and decided to make a wavy blanket – I saw a pattern here but at first look it scared the hell out of me and I didn’t think I could manage it! The lovely Janet then copied a pattern for me that was very similar so I opted for that, with a variation (the pattern said double crochet (US single) but I opted for treble crochet (US double)). I was a little concerned at first to see holes appearing but then I realised it was because I’d varied the pattern slightly – eventually the holes became the guide for the pattern and helped to keep it on track!

It ended up a perfect square – don’t know how!

 

It’s not perfect by any means but it’s kept me occupied for a few months!

I’ve enjoyed making the blanket but was in a hurry to finish it because it is becoming too warm now to sit with it over my legs as I work! So the question is – what next? A while ago I decided to start building up a stash of yarn so that, in an emergency situation(!), I wouldn't have to go for days with nothing to do. We don’t have a particularly good source of yarn in Ipswich so I have to buy it when I see it! I was bemoaning this fact to Janet on Friday and she pointed me in the direction of a shop in Woodbridge, just a few miles away. Yarn heaven! I want that shop – it’s run by a very nice middle-aged man who really needs to let me get my hands on the shop! It would be a goldmine – needs a real good tidy up and sort out and I could see the people flocking from miles around, although saying that about five people came in in the ten minutes or so that I was there.

So – what’s next? Needs to be small so that I can hold it – I would dearly love to try something much finer so have bought some cotton. I’d also like to make a baby afghan – I’ve found a lovely pattern but will need more yarn than I bought :(. And then there’s the scarily bright yarn I bought for Something Completely Different  - I really must stop blog hopping to all of these lovely sites that fuel my imagination!

Janet to the rescue again plus this great site for free pattern downloads from ‘vintage’ crochet books

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The blue is a 4-ply cotton and was the end of the lot – I bought all that was left – I need to find a white to make a lovely baby afghan that I’ve seen! I think I’m veering towards the brights for now to make Granny squares!

I’m off now – need to come up with a way to celebrate Blog-versary tomorrow – may even do a give-away, watch this space!