miss marie's miscellany

Tulip

I planted lots of tulips in the autumn, and of course they are now coming up and looking fantastic. I love tulips, the more in the garden the better, I think.

 
 

Last week I spied this parrot tulip; I couldn't quite remember what colour it would be, so I waited expectantly for its petals to unfurl.......

A few days later, it was looking decidedly rosier

 

Then after my working trip away at the end of last week, I returned home to this beauty

 

 

I'm very glad I braved the freezing cold to plant all those bulbs, what a treat to have all this colour.

More of those lovely tulips to follow soon :-)

 
 

 
 
 
 

 

Granny revisited

Revisit a past F/O

Bring the fortune and life of a past finished project up to the present. Document the current state and use of an object you have knitted or crocheted, whether it is the hat your sister wears to school almost every day, or a pair of socks you wore until they were full of hole. Or maybe that jumper that your did just didn’t like that much. 

Better late than never, this should have been yesterday's post!  Here is my first granny square cushion, sitting in splendid isolation on the sofa(now it has some colourful friends!) just after I finished it.

 I love the colours, perhaps the finishing off is a bit untidy, but I'm still proud that I made this only a month after learning to crochet. Here it is today.

 

I wanted to say how much I have enjoyed taking part in the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week and a big thank you to Eskimimi for bringing everyone together. It has taken me to visit many new blogs and make some new friends, and it's been interesting to think about my love for making things with wool in the medium of crochet, and my youthful attempts to knit. Blog traffic has greatly increased, and I hope all my new readers will come back to visit again soon, everyone is most welcome!

Blanket battle

This week I've been trying to get started on a blanket for my 9-year old nephew. I've been scratching my head about this one, as I couldn't settle on a design I liked, and that I thought would be acceptable to the recipient. He has been quite specific about the colours he wants, black most definitely, dark red, yellow, dark blue and maybe green.  Not my usual palette!!

I tried rippling, a geometric design and diagonal squares, but they didn't seem right. After a great deal of deliberation and frogging, I found this pattern over at Min Inspiration, a lovely blog I recently discovered. I like it; I worried at first that it was too girly for a cool young dude, but in these bright colours, it reminds me of the sun.

 

 

Edging all the squares with black makes it look 

a) like stained glass 

 

b) quite funky and modern. 

It's also quick to crochet up, which is excellent. So this is the winner, I'll keep you posted as it grows and takes shape. 

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week; 26th April - 2nd May

What a good idea! It's being hosted by Eskimimi and the idea is to have a daily topic which everyone taking part will write about. There is a list which you can take a peek at if you want to be prepared, or if you'd rather have a surprise, you can wait till the day itself to find out what the subject will be.  I'm going to give it a go, it promises to be very interesting to read everyone else's thoughts and stories, and see some beautiful projects. If you're reading this, why don't you join in too?!

 

Giveaway

Time really does fly, when you're enjoying yourself!  I can't quite believe it, but my blog is one year old today. On this auspicious occasion, I thought I'd do a giveaway to say thank you to all you lovely people who visit and comment here.  I have a little goodie bag full of presents, something flowery crocheted by me, and a variety of pretty treats.  If you would like to be the lucky winner of a glamourous collection of mystery gifts, just leave a comment here before midnight on Sunday (21st ) to get your name in the hat!

 

Looking forward to hearing from you all :-)
 

Hocus crocus

It's ages since I was able to post some gratuitous flower photos, but finally, things are happening in the garden. I love crocuses, especially these purple ones; the petals of these have such a gorgeous lustre.

 

It's cheering to think that this is the start of things growing and blooming, that soon, what is now dormant and uncared for, will be a feast of colour and scent. It's time to make plans, sow seeds, tidy up, ready for the coming months. Exciting!
 

 

Washing line blues.....and whites

 

Fantastic blue skies and sunshine yesterday;  perfect drying weather, it seems like forever since I was able to do so....... long may it continue!

 

New to me

There's been a little retail therapy going on here. A girl needs some new things for spring!

Firstly some new boots, which I've been eying up here for a while - now they're mine!

 

I think it was love at first sight!

And this bag was too good to miss; ideal for all my wool and crochet bits and pieces.

 

Shades of Cath Kidston, but it was a snip from Primark for £6 (and thanks to Lucy at The Antidote for the tip-off). I have managed to get an enormous amount of wool, notebook, 3 little pouches with hooks, pins, needles etc, and the latest WIP in here and there's still room for more. Brilliant!
 
 

New books

Quite a few lovely books have come my way recently, 2 lovely crochet pattern books and 2 books to sit and enjoy reading. 

 I thought this would be useful, a collection of edgings and trims which I hope to be able to put to good use in all my crochet creations this year. It's a Harmony guide; I have several of these and find them invaluable, in fact they probably helped me learn to crochet more than any other reference book I used.

I haven't made any garments other than mittens and scarves as yet, but there are a few things in this book which I'd like to try

 

although probably not the socks on the right of the cover! I fancy this jumper though

 Crochet Me is a great site for any crocheters with patterns, links to blogs, forums and tips and advice. Well worth a look if you're into a bit of hooking.

 

After my last read (for book group) turned out to be a big disappointment and hard going, I needed the next book I read to be witty, charming and a little different; my choice was Howard's End is on the Landing by Susan Hill and is proving to have all of those wished for qualities. It tells of the author's endeavours to only read books already in her home, read and unread. As well as discussing the books, there are memories of family and home, thoughts about authors and well loved classic books along with anecdotes from Ms Hill's life as an author and publisher.  Very enjoyable so far!

I picked up this anthology, Modern Delight in Waterstones this weekend. It's a collection of essays by writers, TV and radio personalities, actors and musicians of what makes them happy, what brings delight to their lives. Very happy to see amongst those writing are William Boyd, Jo Brand and the cellist Steven Isserlis. A varied and humourous miscellany which looks like it will prove entertaining, and half the proceeds go to the Dyslexia Trust too.

 

Organisation

I can't say I'm as tidy as I'd like to be when it comes to my wool stash. Things were getting out of hand recently; too many random bags of mixed wool were taking up residence in the corner of the room. Apart from the fact it looked messy, it's not a good system when looking for the right colour or make of wool. I got these boxes in IKEA, they are perfect for wool storage.

 

Photographing the contents of the boxes made me realise that just shoving the balls of wool in haphazardly wasn't going to cut it.

 Not very pleasing to the eye. 

A bit of neatening and matching had to happen for aesthetic purposes! 

 

 

Now I can see exactly what I've got.

 

That's better!