miss marie's miscellany

What are you doing here?

I've moved! Click here and you will be transported to my new home.

Then you can see more of this!

 

Time for a change

Oh dear, I seem to have been AWOL for quite some time, sorry that it's been rather silent and boring in these parts.  There's been a lot going on,  mostly work related and there's been nothing else for it but to knuckle down and get the job done. I think I needed a little break from blogging too, if I'm really honest; I felt a bit frazzled at Christmas and it took a little longer than I thought to get myself back on an even keel. Better now!

Anyway, I have decided to have a new start, new blog, new look, Please come and join me at  purpleshed.wordpress.com; it'll be great have your company!

 

 

 

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!

Sunday crochet links

I love hunting the internet for all kinds of interesting stuff, particularly of the crochet kind. I found a few great sites, some new and some old and much loved favourites, which I thought you may want to have a look at.

10 for 10 - Sarah London is having a pattern sale, 10 patterns for $10; there are some fab things, including a wonderful Granny Square Sweater, which I'm loving. I think it may go in my queue of things to make!

Sarah is also still hosting the Crochet a Rainbow appeal, originally set up to help the victims of the terrible flooding in Australia and which is now also making blankets for Japan;  if you have time to make even a few sqaures and send them, it will make a big difference to people whose lives have been shattered.

A new find which I'm very happy to have discovered is Tangled,  a fantastic online magazine for knitters and crocheters, with loads of very lovely patterns, with many of them in both a knit and crochet version. Another garment to go in my must-make list is this cardigan, which I'm very taken with, it's beautiful!

The 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week starts tomorrow! Everyone who signs up for it must post daily about a specific topic for each day, it makes for diverse and entertaining reading. I took part last year, but sadly,  I'm just too busy at the moment for this year. But I'm looking forward to catching up with some of this year's posts :-)

Crochet Spot is a great site with lots of stitches and techniques explained with lots of photos and clear written instructions. I've learned a lot of new stitches from here  and I like its friendly vibe.  This week it features how to make chainless foundation rows which sounds like a dream come true to me.

Today has been lovely here in Glasgow, sunny and warm. Perfect for garden crochet!

I hope your weekend has been fab!

 

 

 

2010 retrospective

2010 seems to have sped by with great speed, and to be honest, some of the ride has been very bumpy. But despite that, when I looked back over my photos, there were lots of good recollections and happy moments.

The weather and seasons have been quite a feast for the eyes, sunsets and snow seem to be greatly featured in this collage.

I have carried on my love affair with crochet. It has kept me sane over some difficult times this year, and it makes me really happy to see how far I've travelled since I first picked up a hook early in 2009. And I made all of these! 

I've been on a few trips to places interesting and beautiful

And last but not least, the garden has been a wonderful source of inspiration and pleasure

Thanks to you all for reading and commenting, lovely blog friends; let's hope 2011 is full of adventures and new wonderful opportunities for us all!

Happy New Year  xxxxxxx

Winners and Christmassy thoughts

Happy announcements today, the 2 winners of the giveaway are;

Petit Filoux, who has won the red rose corsage and Miss Folies who won the star garland. I'm sorry everyone who left their name couldn't win something,but thank you for stopping by and saying hello. I will be emailing the 2 winners to get their postal addresses so their parcels can be sent off soon.

This time last year, I did a post every day in December, an Advent calendar of posting. I have missed the deadline for doing that this year, so I will do some festive posts when I can throughout the next few weeks. To get started, here's a lovely photo I took in the garden a couple of days ago, nice and cheery to get everyone in the Christmas mood!

 

iCrochet

I'm a big fan of Sarah London and regularly visit her blog, it's always full of interesting things and her crochet designs and tutorials are fantastic. I was excited to see she has started a new blog, called iCrochet, which is a place for crocheters from all over the world to leave a link and photo of their latest WIP, a lovely compendium of hookiness, if you like. There are some wonderful things to be seen there already, so head on over and feast your eyes! 

 

 

What every crochet loving lady should drive

I came across this fantastic smart car with its own multi-coloured crocheted cover........I love it!

 

It is the work of Magda Sayeg, an American lady who is a guerilla knitter. I've heard of guerrila gardening, but not knitting; but it sounds like an excellent idea to me, brightening up your surroundings with some lovely knitting or crochet, putting it in locations where you'd least expect to see such a thing; lampposts, road signs, a bus .........yes,really, if you don't believe me, look at this.

 

Magda Sayeg has a blog called KnittaPlease where she posts all her latest projects. Absolutely fascinating and inventive, it takes yarn and what one can do with it to a whole new level.

I wish my car looked like this!

  

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!

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?!