miss marie's miscellany

March collage

Time for another monthly round-up, is it just me or has March flown past? 

Good stuff; lots of crochet, as well as my recent reveals you can see some new stuff in the photos which I've been trying out and will post about soon, getting started in the garden and some lovely flowers beginning to show themselves, my trip to Aye Write and Creative Stitches 2010, the best green boots ever, so comfortable.......and my giveaway (which I very stupidly forgot to photograph; Jenny did a great job for me!)

Bad stuff; yet more snow at the start of this week......I'm not going moan about it too much but I've really had it with the white stuff, enough is enough! Let's hope April will bring more clement and seasonal weather!

 

 Have a good (and prank-free) day :-)
 

Granny blue

I finished my latest cushion cover, a companion to the one I made a couple of weeks ago. This is a green, blue and white colour combo, I think I was inspired by the blue skies and spring greens around me when I started making it.

 

For the other side, I decided to make 9 small squares, using different combinations of the colours in 3 variations. And they were very quick to crochet up, just a couple of days to complete.

 

I used some blue buttons for the fastening, attached to rows of half trebles. I chose the buttons because of their colour, but when I looked the photo below, I realised the square buttons echo the clusters of treble stitches in the granny squares. A happy coincidence.

 

The wools I used were predominantly Sirdar;  the light and dark blue and the lighter green are Countrystyle DK, the greyish blue is Click DK and the white is Snuggly. The slightly darker green is Rowan DK. I like the cool palette  of colours, fresh and light, serene and peaceful. 

Here it is next to Granny Apple Blossom

Looking pretty side by side, bringing a hint of spring inside too :-) 

 
 
 

Colour my Wednesday

It's a grey, wet day here; I need some colour today. I bought these roses yesterday, just from the supermarket; they're such an unusual two-colour variety, I couldn't resist them

 

Velvety peach and deep deep red, lovely!

I'm liking this succulent houseplant I picked up in IKEA today, it was only when I photographed it that I realised the ends of the leaves were so pinky-purple. Purple and green, my favourites :-)

I started another granny square cushion cover in a cooler palette than I've chosen previously. Just for a change.....blue and green with bright white.

The front

And the back, so far. Eventually, there will be 9 squares in total.  

And I'm still making hexagons for the never-ending blanket. I got a bit bored with making these before Christmas, and put it aside for a while. And once all that snow fell, the blanket -so- far was pressed into service; it's been keeping cold feet cosy in bed for a couple of months. I kept adding hexagons here and there, sewing them on before getting into bed...... and this is how it looks today.

 
 I'm not sure when I'll get this finished, but onward and upward, I'm going to make a concerted effort to fill in the spaces so it is a proper rectangle next time I show it here! 

Weekend bits and pieces

The weather has taken an upward turn, the temperature has risen, so happy days. Friday evening started with this amazing sunset sky

  

Then I went off to hear one of my literary heroes, William Boyd, at the Aye Write festival here in Glasgow at the Mitchell Library

 

WB is an engaging and warm orator, natural, warm and witty, and totally at home in front of an audience. It was a fascinating evening with a description into how his novels are conceived, researched and crafted, some readings from his latest book Ordinary Thunderstorms and a Q&A; one of the questions posed was about the particular difficulties of transferring a long novel to the small screen, especially one's own work, and WB told us that his novel (and my favourite of his books) Any Human Heart is just about to start filming in a TV adaptation, to be shown this autumn. I, for one, can't wait to see how such an epic novel of a long and full life will translate to the screen. All wonderfully interesting and entertaining -  I'm so glad I was there.

Saturday, I put on my crafty hat and went to the Creative Stitches show at the SECC. I enjoyed much of the exhibits, and there were some lovely wools. But it was a bit of an effort to get round as there was lots of pushing and shoving - if anyone is familiar with the comedy show The Mighty Boosh, there's an episode called Nanageddon, when all the elderly ladies in the vicinity become possessed by an evil demon and go on the rampage, and I was reminded of this with increasing regularity as it got busier and wool-frenzy took hold.  I left before it got really nasty! However, I didn't come away empty-handed (of course not!) I bought some lovely wool from the New Lanark Organic wool shop

 and a pack of 10 balls of Rowan Alpaca in beautiful purple 

 

and this lovely book

 

I think I'll be making something purple from this book soon, so watch this space!

Today brought an invitation from my sister to go the cinema, so off we duly went, armed with our 3D specs to see Alice in Wonderland. The plot of the film is an amalgam of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and Jabberwocky, so if you are a purist, you may not like it. But I did, it looked so beautiful, wonderful sets and costumes, and the sombre, slightly spooky mood and sense of unease suited the reworking of the story.  I liked Anne Hathaway's White Queen (like a crazed Nigella Lawson) and Stephen Fry's voice for the Cheshire Cat, all persuasive plummy purring! Well worth seeing if you like your films with a dark twist.

That's all I had time for! 

 

 

Baby blue and green

Remember the blue and green WIP I showed you a glimpse of recently? It was a blanket for my friend and her new baby boy and I finally finished it off at the weekend. 

 

I'm pleased with how it's turned out, in fact I'm delighted. I found the pattern at the Lion Brand website, and tweaked it a bit; I used 6 colours, instead of 2

 

made 12 squares instead of 9

 

and added a border of half treble rows in each of the colours used. 

 

It was delivered on Saturday afternoon and they loved it! 

 

A lovely present for a very cute little boy!

 
 
  

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.

 

Blue and green

 

 

More about that in a couple of days.

 

 
 
 

Ta-dah

A reveal today, I finished my round cushion cover. I used a palette of white, red, green and light browns which compliment each other well. Here it is, looking lovely!

 

I made the other side with a slightly different arrangement of the colours

 

Instead of sewing it up all the way round as the pattern suggested, I decided to make it removeable, and fastened it with some pretty buttons

 

The wool was from my stash, nearly every colour is Rowan Pure Wool DK, apart from the bright red and white which are Patons Diploma Gold and Cygnet Superwash respectively. It will probably live on the chair above but it also goes well on the sofa with the cushion covers I made last year

 

It's lovely to have all these bright colours when it's a bit grey and damp outside. Typical Scottish weather for January........ and February......and March.......etc, etc!
 

 
 

Crochet latest

I've got a few things on the go; since I painted the living room white,  I can add more dashes of colour than I was able to when the room was deep yellow. I like to juggle several projects as I don't get bored that way! This round cushion cover is nearly finished. I got this pattern from the Erika Knight book, Essential Crochet. It crochets up quickly, these only took me a couple of evenings. I ran out of white wool, so I had to pause while I replenished stocks - a final push over the coming weekend and I hope to be able to show the completed article soon.

 

And these will make another cushion cover; I found this pattern at Sarah London's lovely blog, it's called a PinWheel motif.

 

I have to get some purple in somewhere!

I bought some sale wool in John Lewis in Liverpool; green, coral pink and cream. I think these will turn into a hexagon cushion cover, that's the idea at present..

 

I have other things in the planning stage; a friend has just had a little boy, so a blanket or maybe some baby clothes are a definite possibility, very soon after all the above are completed. I'm really enjoying making all these things, work is a bit stressful and tiring just now, and coming home and doing some gentle hooking in peace and quiet is a brilliant relaxation. 
 

 

December collage

A happy month with Christmas and the preparations beforehand, good times spent with family and friends, some crafty goings-on and lots of glitter and tinsel.........oh yes, and lots of snow!