miss marie's miscellany

November and making stuff

I thought these photos will be a good way to summarise my November, because there's been a LOT of crcoheting going on this month.

I've made loads of there flower brooches recently; I sold a lot at one craft fair, sold not very many at another and quite a few have gone to good homes through Etsy and with my colleagues too. I thought I should take a photo of them all before they all disappear, and share  these lovely vibrant colours with you!

 

Poppies and roses too :-)

 

There are lots more makings to show you but I'll save them for tomorrow.

Happy Saturday!

Still here, just busy

Hello, it's ages since I popped my head round the door. Time seems to be flying by so fast this year, and I'm busy at work, with not much time for blogging at the moment unfortunately. There's been quite a lot of crochet going on......

Most of these are en route to a craft fair this week, or have already found homes with some lovely customers. It's been great to start selling a few more things - I make them because i like doing so, but it's even better when someone likes and wants to buy my creations. Very heartening!

Anyway, the house is a mess, the garden is covered in leaves and I have 101 things to do! I really should get on...see you soon!

August 2011

Sorry this is a bit late; busy, busy, busy! For August's photo, I've chosen this beautiful calendula flower.....I'm having a bit of a love affair with the colour orange just now, so I couldn't resist this!

July 2011

July was a pretty good month, and even if the weather was a little variable, there've been a lot of sunny, hot days; I'm not a great sun lover but even a pale person like me needs some brightness and warmth!. I had time to chill out and do some thinking about what happens next, there were quite a few birthdays of family and friends, and I visited my hometown of Liverpool, which is where I took this month's photo, down at the Pier Head where there were celebrations for the centenary of the famous Liver Buildings. It was a beautiful evening and the sky looked amazing, as you can see.  Happy times :-)

  

Daily snapshot:2

On Sunday, I spent the day by the shores of Loch Tay in Perthshire at my friend Jane's house. This is the spectacular view from her back garden; lucky her, being able to look at this every day!

 

June 2011

Things have been hectic for a while in these parts. You've probably noticed a slight lack of posts recently, for which I'm sorry, real life has taken over for a bit; lots of worries about money and work, which I don't want to bring here. I'm trying to keep positive and this blog is one of my escapes from the austere times in which we are living. Just so you know, if I'm a bit absent for a bit, there'll be stuff happening; but I won't be gone for long!

June has been quite a good month in the end, and I've had some good times. And lots of cake! I think the cake kept me sane..........as they say, Keep Calm and Eat Cake. The photo was taken in Belfast overlooking the river, where I stayed in a very smart apartment, complete with its own gin & tonic balcony!

 

 

April 2011

March

Photographic pickings were slim this month; I seem to be saying I'm busy a lot, it's becoming my mantra but I have been, very much so! In the end I chose this photo on the beach by the sea, because I like the sky and the sun light breaking through the clouds.  A hint at the spring weather on the way soon after this was taken:-)

I will try harder to take more photos in April!!

Green is the colour on my hook

I know I've been have a purple love affair recently, but I am also very fond of green. After I happily sold my multi-coloured big granny square blanket recently, I decided to make another. When looking through my stash, I found so many balls of wool of just about every shade of green possible, and so the colour scheme of green and white suggested itself to me. I think it's something to do with spring coming :-)  After about 3 weeks of hooking when time has allowed, I have finished.

As you can see there really is a plethora of greenness; mint, leaf, apple, grass, moss, spruce, teal, bottle, lime. There's even a yarn called Highland Burn in there. By my count, there are 14 different shades of green! I like the way the white makes the greens look so vivid, and yet when it's lying on the bed it exudes serenity.

It really struck me how the different tones come out with changes in the light; the 2 photos above, taken yesterday(Saturday) have a blueish green tinge: whereas in the photo below, taken last Thursday, on a sunnier day, the mossy green colours come to the fore.

I finished it off with some rows of half treble in greens and a row of white treble stitches folowed by a final lime green scalloped shell edging

The edging's frilliness wasn't deliberate but I like how it has turned out

This has been a great stash buster; I obviously had a huge splurge on green wool at some point in the past and had a lot of it. Now it's down to a sensible amount! The yarns I used are all DK  and a mixed bag of wool and wool and acrylic mixture. I wanted the blanket to be machine washable, I can't imagine what a horrendous chore it would be to hand wash something of this size!

So there you have my latest finished project.

 Staying with the green theme, a friend has asked me to crochet him a cardigan. He presented me with a big bag of this gorgeous wool, we chose this pattern which I found in a vintage book

and I am happily hooking away. The wool is beautifully soft, a joy to work with and crochets up well. I think the finished garment will be very cosy and smart.

It's quite a responsibility making something for someone you know and like, so I'm pulling all the stops out to make it look the biz!

Treading a purple path

I really can't get enough purple at the moment, I've been wearing purple garments, using purple wool in my makings, and these are my most recent acquisition

purple boots, I HAD to have them!!

And now there is some more in the garden. The route to the purple shed needed sprucing up, so some constuction has gone on.

It is a recycling of the sandstone slabs which were there already; they were lifted, cleaned, given a good solid under carriage, replaced and edged with purple slate chippings

Halfway there...........

Finally finished

so now, I can walk up my very own purple path!