Journal Cover

I'm quite fond of Pinterest and saw this pin quite some time ago. I frequently see it being re-pinned by others and one day I really must have a go at making my own version.

I used to loooove making fabric book covers. It started when I was very young and every Christmas we would give my grandmother a copy of that years Friendship Book and one year I made a (rather tight fitting as I recall!) pale blue satin cover with a bit of embroidery on it. I can still (vaguely) picture it - funny the little things you remember...

Tortoise Cosie

A work colleague asked today if I could make her a tortoise cosie. Naturally, I immediately pictured a tea pot with a tortoise shaped cosie cuddled round it. But no - she didn't mean that sort of cosie at all. She went on to say she wanted it to look like a shark...it turned out she actually wanted a cosie for her tortoise, not a tortoise cosie for her tea pot!!!
She sent me a picture. OMG...that's so funny!

I may have to do a bit of research on tortoise cosies...

Or how about one for your guinea pig?!

See these and more designs like this in Mossytortoises Etsy shop here. 

I haven't felt like making anything for ages but I did feel a little stir of something when I saw this...

I had a pet tortoise myself when I was very young. His name was Slowcoach. If I still had him, I would now be making him outfits!!!

Emma's Stripey Blanket

Two years ago I decided to make a crochet blanket for my friend's little girl Emma for her 4th birthday. I spent quite a while looking for a design I liked and whilst googling "crochet blankets" came across some images like this by Julie of Little Woollie -

I followed the link to her website and discovered she was making it up as she went along and sharing her method. I decided to follow her approach as I didn't feel I would get it finished in time if I had to follow a pattern as I would get bored. I much prefer to design my own wherever possible. There also wasn't time to wait for her to finish as I only had six weeks to get the whole thing done!
I opted for a rainbow of pastel colours and using Julie's stitch ideas got cracking.
It was a LOT of hard work! I'd never made anything so big before and at one point I realised I'd made a mistake in the stitch count as I "straightened" a scalloped row and had to rip out six inches of work - a third of the length made at the time! But I got there in the end and even managed to get it washed and dried in time too. Here it is chucked on the sofa for a photo session -

And the project page on Ravelry.

It's been getting loads of views  ravelry, which is what finally made me set up a blog. Initially, I think the views were due to a link in a comment I left on Little Woollie's blog. She's had her pattern printed in more than one magazine I think, so probably more people then look at her site, perhaps read the comments and follow the link, plus via her Ravelry project page as well. More recently, it has been pinned to one of those "crochet forum" boards on pinterest, so a lot of interest has come through there I'm sure. Either way, last time I looked, Emma's blanket had almost 7,000 views! And it's still on her bed too.

I can remember telling her Mum when it had had just over 1,000 views and saying just imagine if each of those people actually knocked on your door and you had no option but to to let them in straight away and take them upstairs to see the blanket in situ on the bed. Then let the next one in and the next one...
(Just had a quick look - 6,928 views. Woo hoo!!)

I've finished/started other blankets since then but more about those another day...

Theatre Trip

I went to Salisbury Playhouse last night with a friend to see 84 Charing Cross Road. It's such a "soft and gentle" story and it all takes place in just 2 "rooms" side by side on stage, and yet was quite compelling to watch. Mainly due to the amazing acting skills of the 2 lead actors - I don't remember their names, sorry. Mind you, having said that, the couple sat next to us never came back after the interval...
We're off to see To Kill a Mocking Bird at The Mayflower next month and I quite fancy The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time...

PS
I've still not worked out how to add a Ravelry button. Pinterest was easy peasy!

PPS The actors were - Janie Dee & Clive Francis

Birth of a blog!

Well, I finally bit the bullet and set up a blog! I've often thought about it but never done it but recently the stripey blanket I made for a friend's little girl has been getting a lot of views on my Ravelry page and I kept thinking wouldn't it be nice if people could follow the link to a blog, not just a project page, where I could put far more detail about the making process?...So here we are!

It seemed fitting that I should use a picture of said stripey blanket for my blog header. And the blog name? Well, that's one I came up with a couple of years ago when I had a little table on the corner of a friend's stall at the Winchester Art Market. I used to be Tina's Tea Cosies and made weird and wacky cosies which I sold in aid of various charities (along with a little help from some friends). Maybe you bought one?? When my obsession with tea cosies finally waned, I moved on to smaller quicker things. My interest in crochet took off partly as something I could do while manning the stall. I felt that I needed to be seen to be making something so that my customers could see that I really did make it myself!

When I work out how, I'll add links to my Ravelry and Pinterest pages and then who knows, someone might actually look at my little blog! For now here's a little link to my Stripey blanket.
Thanks for looking,
Tinaspice xXx