Coming along nicely

I'm not rushing with writing  up the pattern for  my Allsorts Blanket- it's taken me 3 years to properly start, so I might as well take my time and get it right! 

The centre panel was finished and  then I started trying out different borders. Nothing too flashy this time  - it's a busy blanket and I don't want the border to detract from it. My original version had a multicolored border but I realise now it was probably a bit much. But it was as much to do with not having enough yarn in one colour and I didn't want to buy another ball.

So I've gone for a very simple border  that's similar to  the original. Along the  way  though, I've been trialling some different edgings too and taking pics of each. After all,  you might not want a simple border. 

Would you like to see? 

This first one is rows of trebles, topped with the flower pattern from the blanket  - but strictly speaking, it isn't reversible as an edging. 

Then I tried same treble rows topped with moss stitch. You may need to go up a hook size for the moss stitch though  - at least I do!

Try trebles followed by a row of dc+ch 1 in every stitch -

Or how about post stitches? This is pink posts on one side and cream on the other. 

You could even add pompoms! 

This next one is made from two rows of dtr 'bobbles' worked in the same colour, so you get bobbles on both sides. 

As mentioned though, my pattern sample, has been finished much like the original, with rows of granny stitches and a contrast edging but this time with one colour and a contrast edge. 

The finished pattern is a little way off yet. I need to take some photos to go with the instructions  - then go back to drawing the chart.... then join all the different sections together into a cohesive pattern...

So watch this space. Still...

The Tooty Stripey Blanket finally gets written up!!!

There is now a fully written pattern of this blanket, with full charts, plenty of photos and loads of information, called 

The Allsorts Blanket 

- available on Ravelry.

Who recognises this photo?? This is the stripey blanket I made for a friend's little girl when I was still learning how to crochet, way back in Dec'12 - Jan'13. 

I had a (birthday) deadline, so it was made very quickly, with no notes written - why would I  need notes??

 I created a project page on Ravelry and shared pics on Pinterest, including this one (I used to spend a lot of time on Pinterest back then). I haven't checked recently but I know at one point it had been re-pinned nearly 50,000 times!!

A blanket that was that popular deserved a written pattern surely? So in 2017, when the craft shop I used to have a part time job in, started selling yarn I decided to buy a selection of baby colours and make a new version of Emma's Blanket. And by that time not only had I learned some more stitches - I and discovered TEXTURE!

I set to making a new blanket, designing as I went, trying to write notes along the way but quickly gave that up as the blanket grew just too fast to keep up! Once it was finished, I painstakingly drew a chart detailing every row and so a new blanket was born - the Tooty Stripey Blanket! 

I published the chart on Ravelry in July 2017 and watched it quickly take flight - this  assisted by several free pattern sites that picked it up, and kindly advertised it for me for free!!

It doesn't seem possible that 3 years have passed since that design stage. I've now made several versions myself in different sizes and colours and it has become my signature blanket. And the free chart has been downloaded from Ravelry 17,500 times!!!

Back in mid-April and after much soul searching, I decided to add a very small fee to the pattern (I described it as a 'buy me a coffee' fee), along with a coupon code so customers could sill have it for free if they preferred. 

Several people over those years have said I should have charged for it from the start but it was my first pattern - and just a hand drawn chart at that - but you know I just didn't think it was good enough (or had the confidence!) to charge a fee. 

But then I released my Hope Springs Hat during lockdown. I had already decided to offer it for free during lockdown with a coupon code but I found a very small number of people were paying for it. I thought at first that I hadn't set the coupon code up properly but then a couple of  those people got in touch to say thank you for the freebie but they could afford to buy the pattern and wanted to support my design efforts by paying for it. Hence the soul searching with my blanket. 

Maybe some of those 17,500 people would have been prepared to pay a little for it... So I added a price that meant after all the fees from Paypal & Ravelry are deducted, I would be left with an average of £1 per copy. And I made it as clear as I could that it could still be downloaded for free with a coupon code.

And you know what, a few people have chosen to pay for it - if you're one of them, THANK YOU!!!

Those few sales have spurred me on to write up the pattern in full, pulling together all the other detail from it's blog page, re-writing, occasionally correcting and adding all the extra info I can think of. Hopefully, there will be photos of different stages and if I can manage it, a new computer generated chart, rather than hand drawn (eek!!).

Writing a pattern means testing it as I go by making  a new blanket but there was a problem. Lockdown had not been lifted and the wool shops were not open. I know I could have ordered all the yarn I wanted online but it's just not the same as choosing colours in person. So I kept writing and refining, a bit of testing with some scrap yarn but I felt desperate to buy a nice collection of colours and get cracking with it!!!!!!

Finally, in mid-June I heard Hobbycraft was opening! I went mid-afternoon, hoping the long queue would have happened first thing and I would only have to wait 10 minutes. But no, I waited for an hour and a half!!! Yes, a full HOUR & a HALF. This was entirely due to someone's decision to only allow 19 customers in store at a time. It's a huge warehouse but just 19 people at a time?... But I was desperate, so I waited patiently. And once I was in I wasn't leaving without a big bag of yarn, so I really took my time choosing colours!!!

Now they don't have the best range - they're not a yarn shop after all. So I came home with a big bag of 12 balls of wool - which received admiring glances from those still in the queue.!!

I took a photo of said bag, posed on the very first Tooty Stripey Blanket I had made, which used colours that reminded me of the Tooty Fruity Sweets that inspired the (ridiculous) name. And guess what??

I'd chosen new colours that looked just like the originals!! I had even bought a variegated ball!! That was definitely NOT my intention as I had hoped for a nice balance of summery colours. But I suppose you have to go with what you can get...

 

After getting over my initial annoyance, I made a start on planning a colour repeat. I made some little bobbins of each colour, with 2 each of the paler colours and just one of each bright colour - a total of twenty for my colour repeat.

I ummed and aahed for quite some time, moving them around and taking lots of pics. I added a golden yellow from my stash and a magenta. Still I wasn't quite happy though.

Finally, I decided to toss out the brighter colours you can see in this pic  and went with just the eight pastel rainbow colours that remained. 

Pity they didn't have any lilac ...

That would make the new blanket sample look even closer to the original but by then I had decided it was actually quite fitting to completely revisit the original. 

And don't worry about the colours I tossed out - I already have a project in mind for them!!

During the weeks without fresh yarn, as I said,  I had been refining and tweaking the original design, adding some extra texture rows so that they really do hop from side to side at regular intervals and taking out a couple of bits I wasn't so keen on.

Once I had yarn and started hooking, things progressed reasonable smoothly. However, there were some hiccups along the way... 

I knew I should trust my own pattern, having spent so much time and effort getting it just right. But I just couldn't help trying to tweak-as-i-go... although most of those attempts ended up with a whole lot of ripping back and doing what the pattern said - including one section that had 13 rows!!!

 

Once the main body of the blanket was completed, I  started stitching in all the ends, ready to start on the border. I considered stitching in as I went but as this was my working sample - and I kept tweaking then ripping out - I thought it wise to leave them all until the end. Once they were all done it had a little photo-shoot and will get a light blocking to properly straighten the edges, before adding the border.

But it's going well so far. Very well actually. I have a BIG smile as I look at this photo -

I've also thought long and hard about what name to give this new, fresh version of the #tootystripeyblanket . As It will be a paid pattern on Ravelry, it can't have the same name as another pattern I sell. I also want to distinguish between the chart only version and the fully written. So a new name was needed and it dawned on me that there really was only one name that would fit. 

May I introduce my signature blanket, The Allsorts Blanket!!

Shame I didn't think of it 3 years ago when I settled on tooty stripey...

There's still quite a way to go before I can publish the pattern, not the least of which will be drawing the new chart... But it will be announced here, as well as over on Instagram. And probably fb too....

Watch this space, as they say!!  Bye for now, T xx

Merino Stripey Blanket progress

If you follow me on Instagram, or read my last blog post, you'll know I'm working on a Merino Stripey Blanket using the beautiful pure merino yarns I bought in the January sales.
I did say to someone that I should call it my Serendipity Blanket, as considering I had to make do with the colours available across 3 different brands, they work really, really well together. Serendipitous indeed.

I'm writing up a separate page for the blanket with all the yarn details, along with how I worked out a colour repeat that should make the best use of the yarn I have, without running out of anything (hopefully!!). And lots of photos of course.
The blanket is growing rapidly, which is hardly surprising as I'm really enjoying working on it.

I've actually only been working on it for 2 weeks not 3, as I had a week off from it while I was trying to work out a crochet version of my Tail of Two Dragons Scarf.
That's going quite well, other than I opted to make it using just one skein of hand dyed 4 ply. Yes, just one skein... Well, it was given to me for Christmas and being hand dyed, there's just the one. And it only has 400m, not the usual 450m for 4 ply. It isn't going to be enough though as I'm incorporating quite a few bobbles into the pattern and they, of course, take extra yarn. So that's been put to one side while I have a little rethink. I know it would look better in a solid colour, or with just speckles rather than variegated as well. So I might frog this lovely yarn and use it for something else.


We had some rather unexpected snow again this weekend. There was some light snow for most of the day yesterday - weird little dry pellets of snow that blew around rather than stuck together. I was hoping we would therefore escape anything more but no, I got up today to at least a 4 inch deep layer. But the temperature is rising already, so it will melt very soon I'm sure.
I took the opportunity to try and get a snowy photo of my blanket but my phone struggled with the brightness of the snow, so I had to settle for a pic of it draped over a bench with a bit of snow on it!

As I write this, the blanket is spread across my lap keeping me very warm indeed! I can see I'm going to have to do some research on budget merino yarn - if anyone knows of any, please do let me know as I don't really want to go back to acrylic!!

Fortunately, I had planned a day of hibernating indoors today with lots of crochet planned, so no going out on icy roads thank goodness!

And remember my Tail of Two Dragons Scarf? Here I am modelling it in the snow this morning!

I'm very pleased to be able to say I have now sold 6 copies!Woo Hoo!! I was very pleased to have sold just one. That one copy made it worth all the effort to design it and write up the pattern, so another five is a bonus!

And guess what?? I sold the project bag I made a while back too!! I'm so glad it sold as the blue version that I made and kept is in constant use and I love it. Who would have guessed a medium sized zip up bag could be so useful when it came to woolly stuff?!

I do enjoy a spot of sewing now and then, so will have to make a couple more when I have time. 

Well, that's all for today - time to get on with some crochet! Til next time,  T  xXx

Snow, Crochet - and my first sale !!

If you're in the UK, it's pretty safe to say that you had snow this week, thanks to The Beast from the East! It was Very cold here - I can't actually remember the last time it was so cold - and we did indeed get the snow that was forecast, with between 4 and 6 inches in the garden. I don't think there was as much as predicted here - we must have been just the right side of the amber warning zone. I opted to take a couple of days holiday when I saw what was predicted, rather than take the risk of heading up the M3 - the main roads may have been ok but not the side roads. And we're on a hill and it froze and nothing could get up or down... Apart from the neighbourhood kids on their sledges and snow boards - they had a whale of a time, they really did!

So what's a girl to do when she's stuck at home and bored?? Crochet of course!! I got a lot done on my blanket - I can't believe I only started it last Saturday, as it already measures 55" x 26"!!! And I even had a days sickness in the middle when I couldn't do much of anything!!

My merino wool is all just beautiful to work with although I must admit, the Debbie Bliss Rialto DK is my favourite. Wish I could afford to buy it all the time...
As I mentioned last week, I'm making my Tooty Stripey Blanket again although I am rearranging some of the stitch patterns - can't stop myself from tweaking! And my colour palette is working really well - not bad considering I was making do with just the colours in the sale. And I'm really glad I added the blue - I nearly didn't but it lifts the whole design.

Here are yet more photos of it - and as it is completely reversible, if you look carefully you'll be able to work out where there are bobbles one side and a straight line the other, and so on.

It's coming on so well that I really hope I don't run out of steam before it's finished.

On an exciting note, ten days ago I put my Tail of Two Dragons Scarf p*a*t*t*e*r*n up for sale and I've sold 3 copies already!!!! I know 3 sounds very little but I think it's fabulous as I wasn't sure I would sell any.
The first one sold the day it went live to a lady in the UK called Liz and I'm really looking forward to maybe seeing some pics and hearing how she got on with it.


CLICK HERE to pop across to Ravelry and buy your copy. You don't have to be a member but if you are, don't forget to sign in first, otherwise you will only receive and emailed version of the pdf, instead of it being in your library.




And look at this -

Lyn, the manager in the craft shop has been making my Tail of Two Dragons Scarf in self striping 4 ply sock yarn. Yes - 4 ply!! It took her a while and I really wouldn't have had the patience  to use 4 ply myself . This pic shows it being blocked and I'm looking forward to seeing it in the flesh tomorrow. She had to make some adjustments to the shaping but managed to finish with just one ball of yarn - yes, just one ball! I never cease to be amazed at how far 4 ply goes.

I've been thinking about how I can make this same design with crochet and have been trying some little test swatches to try different stitches. However, I know I will need to use 4 ply, not DK to get a good drape and have some very nice hand dyed yarn all ready and waiting (I have no objection to using 4 ply for crochet - it works up much faster than knitting). And having had the recent de-stash, I don't have any 4 ply scraps to practise with, so will have to use the good stuff... So I will be "caking it up" later, as the experts like to say. Or as you and I might say, wind the skein into a ball!
Not sure whether it's going to work out as my samples so far have been crap! But it's worth a try.

I'll finish today with a little video of Fluffy in the snow (there's no sound, other than the radio in the background). He really didn't like the snow at all - he hates getting wet, which is understandable when you have really long fur I suppose. Anyway, on our 2 snow days, apart from one single foray up the garden and over the fence for 10 short minutes,  every time he went out his cat flap onto the patio 

he immediately turned tail and came back in! Eventually, at about 10pm, he had to go out for a wee but wasn't out long at all! (He has a litter tray but much prefers to go outside - the tray is a last resort when he's not feeling his best during the night.) 

So after more than 2 days of not going out, come Saturday and the thaw, he went out and vanished!!! He normally keeps coming back for a snack or a snooze in the warm but when he didn't come back for lunch (yes, he eats lunch at the same time as us...) we started to get worried. Mid afternoon we even went out to search for him! We honestly thought he had either been run over, or shut in someones garage or shed, as everyone was out clearly the snow that morning. The house felt very empty without our fluffy friend... we even tried phoning the local vet to see if he had been taken in but being a Saturday they were closed by then.

But we were extremely  relieved when he finally came in his flap at about 4.30pm! He was very quiet and subdued and clearly not his normal self - every sound made him jump. I think he either did get shut in somewhere for a while, or wandered further than normal and got lost. He's actually a very timid boy and runs away from everyone except the people he is most familiar with.
He settled down after a while and then, just to make the most of being able to go in and out whenever he wanted again, he proceeded to do exactly that about 20 times over the next two hours! Bless him.

We do love our Fluffy and for a while were completely at a loss without him...

Take care in the snow if it's still with you and I'll see you again next week. T xXx

Phone issues....

Well, I've just spent an hour trying to get my phone to connect to the pc so I could download the blanket photos but still no joy. In the end I took the memory card out of the phone (after I got it out of it's cover...) and copied all the pics direct from the card. I'll have to consult the family IT guru I think...

So I can now show you a pic or two, although I won't do the full ta-dah as it still needs to be washed and dried and have all the ends trimmed off. (I'm not sure if that method does work better for stopping your cut ends reappearing - maybe next time I'll just cut as I go?)
I have written myself some "shortcut" notes so I know what colour and stitch I used on each row but it's going to take a while for me to write it all up properly for you.

OK. Only three pics here for now - you can have some real blanket spam another day!!

I love all these colours together, they really sing - perfect for a baby blanket!! I would plunge straight into another one but I don't have enough pale pink.... Having finished the blanket all bar the last border row last Sunday night, I had nothing to make at work on Monday during quiet moments - so I decided to make the little bag I saw in Crochet Now Magazine last weekend. It was really quick to make until I got to the flowers and leaves! I finished stitching on all the flowers last night and it looks soooo cute!! I think I might add a fabric lining though, just to stop it stretching out of shape when in use. I'll try and do that this afternoon, then take some nice pics and pop it in my Folksy shop. Here's a quick pic -

It needs a green button, not pink, so I'll have a proper search through the button jar later.

That's all for now - enjoy the bank holiday weekend, T xXx

Nearly done!

My stripey blanket is nearly finished - and I've decided to call it the Tooty Stripey blanket, seeing as it contains all the colours of the Tooty Fruity Blanket, with a few extras. It hasn't taken long to make at all - I'm rather enjoying making baby size blankets!! It would have been quicker but I kept stopping to take a MILLION  photos!  Well it seemed like a million. But they're all on my phone and after a recent update I'm having trouble transferring them to the pc. I'll have to sit and download the software again. ..

I have one or two I can show you now - and if you follow me on Instagram you will have seen some already. (I've become somewhat addicted to Instagram...)

I've changed my mind about the border, having already made the bottom edge of it... I was going to do five rows of granny trebles, with 2 colours per row but carrying the non-working yarn across the row without it showing made the tension a bit on the tight side. So I decided to chop it off and start again. A few rows of trebles with each row in one colour. Much more sensible! 

It doesn't take too long to whiz round the edge with grannies so I should get it done tonight. A quick wash and block and it will be done. I must admit, I did do a bit of steam blocking this morning (very carefully as the yarn I'm using says do not iron...), as the edges were a bit wibbly wobbly. This wasn't due to the stitch count going up and down - I was very careful to count regularly. No, it was because some of the stitches I used were things like "2tr cluster in next st, ch1, skip next st". My chain stitches were a bit tight, so when you did 2 or 3 rows like that they did pull the blanket in a bit. Then I'd do a looser stitch combination on the next row. So a little blocking was called for,  a little blocking was done and  a little blocking worked. And the border already is lying beautifully flat! Woo Hoo!!

I will be writing up just what I did from start to finish as soon as I get time, and sharing it with you. As soon as I get time... Where have I heard that before?? Watch this space as they say.

In the meantime, would you like another quick look at the Tooty Fruity Blanket? Here it is on display in the shop window, with a few balls of wool and some patterns.

Can you see that green kitted square pinned to the back wall?? That was made by Miriam and was the first time she had ever knitted anything. It doesn't look much like this but if you could see it you'd be able to see just how beautiful and even her tension is. Amazing.

I had a look at the crochet magazines yesterday and bought this one - Crochet Now. I've never seen this one before, and this issue had a free Stylecraft pattern magazine with it - I rather like the blanket on the cover!! It's quite a good magazine and I might be buying it again.

As I flicked through, I saw this -

A little design competition to make a tea cosie for Marie Curie. Well my heart just sang!!! I made the blue and yellow confection below a few years ago (way back in the summer of 2013) and gave it to the Winchester branch of Marie Curie for the annual launch of that year's Blooming Great Tea Party. 

I'd quite like to make them another, especially one I've designed myself. I've never made a crocheted tea cosie before but I think I know what I'd like to do. The winner will have their pattern printed in the magazine and a goody bag from Sirdar. Gotta be worth a try hasn't it??

I'll need to magic up some time to make it though!!

I also saw this pretty little shoulder bag pattern. It's so sweet and simple and I can just imagine it in Tooty Fruity colours... Hmmm...maybe. One day!!

Right  - I'm off to work the last 2 or 3 rows of grannies. Have a good week!  T  xXx

Emma's Stripey Blanket

EDIT:  I have now made another stripey blanket on a similar theme to this one but it's fully reversible, with more texture and there's a Pattern! 

It is fully written, has full computerised charts, plenty of photos and loads and loads of information. It's called 

The Allsorts Blanket 

- and is available on Ravelry. (That’s a clickable link.)

I asked Emma's Mum if I could borrow the Stripey Blanket I made for her just over 4 years ago now. It seems like such a long time ago now, it was her 4th birthday and now she's eight... (edit: she's just turned 12!!)



It's had an incredible number of views not only on Ravelry (over 17,ooo so far) but also on Pinterest (50,000+ re-pins of one single image). And that's just the ones I know of!!


I've had a few lovely complimentary comments on Ravelry and some people have emailed requesting a pattern. I politely point out that I never followed / wrote a pattern, I really did make it up as I went along. I had been inspired by Julie of Little Woolly and I send them a link to take a look as Julie did write an excellent pattern. I needed to make Emma's blanket in a hurry as it was planned as a birthday present, so I couldn't wait for Julie's pattern updates.


I had another pattern request last month and I had thought perhaps I would find time over Easter to write out a pattern of sorts, should anyone want to try and make their own blanket. But I spent my time on making my new stripey blanket instead... Sorry...


The pattern I had planned on writing was actually going to be more a simple list of which stitch and colour I used on each row. I couldn't crochet very well when I made the blanket and it was a learning curve for me - indeed, my current blanket is another learning curve! I knew I wouldn't be able to write a pattern that a complete beginner could follow - you would have to already be able to crochet and have an idea about how to keep your edges straight. But like I say, I didn't find the time. Maybe this weekend coming?... No, don't be silly Tina, you'll be busy trying to finish the latest blanket!!


But I will try and write it up "one day". For the time being I thought perhaps a photo merge thingy with a tape measure laid along it for scale so you can have a good look at it for yourself. I wonder which Russian website it will appear on first? I wouldn't mind but they never link back to me...


Maybe I should have done the photo merge as two pics not one but it was rather fun making it! And I've put my name on it this time!!


The new blanket is growing fast and despite my best intentions of writing the pattern as I went along, I managed about 10 rows before I could no longer resist cracking on and going with the flow! It looks good though. At least I think so.


All the photos are currently on my phone and I'm having a spot of bother downloading them other than by bluetooth. And there are a lot of photos! I've tried to take a photo of every row as it's added, plus a few extra for good measure. When I get them downloaded I'll hit you with some real blanket spam!! And I will write a pattern of sorts to go with it, even if it is only a list of stitches and colours. You can follow that can't you? Of course you can.

That's it for today - things to do and stitches to hook!!

See you again soon - T  xXx

A whole year on-line !!

It dawned on me recently that I've been writing my little blog for almost a year and maybe I should write a round-up post, like other bloggers. (And I must apologise that my blog writing has been somewhat disjointed and often jumps from subject to subject - I still haven't quite got the hang of it!)
Originally, I had intended my blog to be simply about crafting (Allsorts of crafting) but it hasn't quite turned out that way. But I think perhaps an anniversary round-up should concentrate on the crafting side of my life, as that is an area that has given me great pleasure throughout the year. And I may throw in some photos from Hillier Gardens and the like. I find a walk in pleasant surroundings always soothes the soul.

So, do I go for just for a timeline of photos of what I've made and what I've seen? Or a bit of text with some links so you can go and read about it?? Maybe a mix of the two?? Or make it up as I go along and hop from subject to subject?!

Let's start with Emma's blanket - that's the Stripey Crochet Blanket that I originally used for my header (although I have now changed it, albeit temporarily). You'll see a link in the sidebar to my Ravelry page for the blanket. I never wrote a pattern for it but there is some info about it and the links to the lady who wrote the pattern that inspired me.Watching the "view count" gradually going up has given me a lot of pleasure in the 3 years since I made it and you may have seen the screen dump I posted recently when it reached 11,111 views.

I had quite a shock last week when I was happily cruising around Pinterest (I loooove Pinterest in case you haven't realised) and by chance came across another of the Ravelry pics I'd posted and noticed it had been re-pinned 34.3k times. Yes, over THIRTY FOUR THOUSAND times!!! Woo Hoo!!

It seems strange to think that so many people liked it enough to re-pin the picture and clearly, quite a few of them followed the link to Ravelry and possibly from there to this blog. Fancy that!

Maybe one day I'll get round to writing a proper post about the other 2 blankets you'll find in the sidebar - the hexagon blanket and ripple blanket. They haven't been viewed anywhere near as often. But maybe one day...

Looking back through my blog, the next project I shared was a book cover. This was in response to something I had seen on Pinterest and I wanted to make my own version. I will add a link here to my Book Cover as that's my first try at a tutorial. You'll find links there to a better tutorial that I followed, along with the reasons why I was making it and who it was for. Those reasons still continued to echo through my life to this day.

Following hot on the heels of the book cover was Pocket Love, which if you are a regular reader you'll know I have returned to recently. The original idea came from HERE and is a simple, yet very sweet idea.
I think I'll keep returning to these little love hearts as they are a true pleasure to make.

My next project was a needle case. Oh what an absolute JOY it was to design and make! There have been few things I have enjoyed making as much as this sweet little needle case. It's one of the best things I've ever made and I love everything about it - and it's currently being used as my blog header. I do so hope Mara, the recipient, loves it too and is making use of it.

I enjoyed it so much, I took lots of photos along the way and used them to write a TUTORIAL which has it's own page. There are links there if you'd like to read more about who it was for - it's part of that echo I mentioned.

I made some other little bits to go with it and then put together a sewing kit with everything I could think of that might come in handy. I often wonder if Mara uses it. Or maybe her Mum does.

During the sewing kit's journey to the far side of the world, I came to hear about Dress a Girl Around the World. This is an international project that aims to give every girl at least one best dress. Or for the boys, shorts.
I realised this was something I could easily get involved with and having followed some links to find good free patterns, I proceeded to make quite a few dresses and shorts.

 

I tried to make/write a pattern for this little version of one of the dresses I made and a link to it was added to the "Dress a Girl" website, and lots of you have come via that link, for which I Thank You.
I plan to make some more dresses for this very worthwhile project soon.

The little smiley face was designed to go in the dress pocket, so the girl receiving it would have her own little toy to treasure.

Around the same time, I was also working on a Chicken Doorstop Tutorial. Something else I really enjoyed doing.

They were quickly joined by paperweight sized chicks.

We're six months into blogging by this time and August beckons. There were lots of garden visits and walks but I think I still managed to make a fair amount that month. The thing that sticks in my mind are the boys shorts as part of the Dress a Girl project.

Life started to get a bit strange for a while after that - for want of a better word. I was still making things but with the intention of trying to sell them to supplement my income. It turned out to be a complete waste of time as almost no-one wanted what I'd made. I won't talk about it further, just share a pic of my favourite make. I actually kept this zipped purse - it was the first one I made in this design and I used my favourite fabrics at the time (from Mara's needle case) and it's currently filled with all the bits I need to make the Pocket Love Hearts.

After that, work became so busy that for the next 3 months there wasn't much time for making things. I managed to make some crochet flowers which I shared amongst family and friends - which were sort of a contribution to Flowers for Memories. These were my favourites -

Then Christmas came and went and in January I started work on a crochet mandala cushion cover. It turned out somewhat gaudy I must admit, but the recipient didn't mind one bit. 

If you visit regularly, you will already have seen the Valentine Pocket Love pic. This was a January/February project I worked on as a fundraiser and every single one sold!

And that brings us up to date with the crafting really, other than to say, if you look up at the tool bar you'll see a Tea Cosie tab. I used to make them to sell for charity and thought it might be nice to share some, should you want to take a look. Every so often I go back and write a bit more as I come across photos.

Shall I pick some "garden" photos now? I take so many, it's probably best just to pick them fairly randomly - I'll be here all day trying to choose favourites! I'll try very hard not to pick too many! And in case you're wondering about the second photo - no, there's nothing wrong with your eyes or your screen, there really are 2 bulls-eyes mowed into the lawn!!

  

And that's it. A year in the life of, so to speak... 

For  a while I did consider winding up my blog but I think I'll keep going for now at least, although probably not as often. But I'll try and bring in more crafting if I can.

Thanks for reading - I really do appreciate it even if I don't say so. Bye for now,
Tinaspice xXx