Brightening the grey days

Well the weather has been pretty awful the last week or so...lots of rain and grey skies.

But indoors is cheery and bright...

Pretty spring flowers - tulips and daffodils. I love both these flowers and daffodils especially make me happy just by looking at them!

I made a lemon cake...zesty and tasty.

I finished my pink scarf! I really love this scarf - I finished it on Friday and have been wearing it lots. It's so cosy but not too heavy if that makes sense?! I used Stylecraft 4ply in shade Pale Rose and the pattern is the Catherine Scarf from Inside Crochet Magazine issue 34 (from 2012!). It was so enjoyable to make and I want to make another one for my mum now.

I have made very little progress (ok...no progress) on my cardigan this week. I have wanted to make another granny blanket for a while now and I decided I couldn't resist starting it any longer! So I began a new one at the weekend in soft, pastel colours. I'm infatuated with it and have been working on it whenever I have any spare time. 

So lots of things to cheer up these grey January days!

Wishing you all a lovely week.

X

Pastels, and some white

I've been crocheting with some nice pastel colours this past week.  I've now finished the yoke of my cardigan and I'm ready to start the lacy pattern part. I'm a bit scared about that so at the moment I'm working on a forgotten project until I pluck up the courage to continue with the cardigan!  I'm making a scarf in 4 ply yarn with a pretty shell pattern. I'm making it nice and long so that I can wrap it around twice...I'm hoping to have it finished this week as its been really cold here.

Pretty flowers in the house...I love to have fresh flowers at home and I'm loving these roses and carnations. I love those two flowers together, so pretty.

My little Miss celebrated her birthday this week...I made her a pastel layer cake like last year although I have to say that the layers didn't turn out as vividly coloured as before. I didn't want it to be too bright so probably didn't use quite enough colouring. But...I was really happy with how the decorating of the cake turned out! Animals in party hats, with lots of candles! Totally inspired by the gorgeous cakes I saw on Coco Rose Diaries and Posy Gets Cozy blogs.  Miss M was so happy with it when she came home from school and saw it! I was exhausted after making it (making party hats for tiny toy animals is not entirely straight forward!) but it was worth it as she loved it.

We have had snow this weekend!  We've had lots of fun building snowmen and throwing snowballs at each other. Miss M loved it. It's almost all gone now though and I'm glad as I didn't fancy having to drive to work in the snow tomorrow! We enjoyed it whilst it lasted though especially as we didn't really need to be anywhere. 

Hopefully next time I will have a finished scarf to show you!

Wishing you all a lovely week.

X

Happy New Year

I can't believe we are into the second week of January already!  We are getting back into our usual routine again after the festive period. I love Christmas and we had a lovely time but I'm always pretty glad to get back to normal! Everyone is back at work and school now, although it's been quite an effort for a certain person (me!) to get used to the early starts again especially with it being so dark in the mornings.

I've been busy with lots of crochet as usual...mainly Christmas gift making the past couple of months so it's actually been really nice to work on some things for me for a change!

I made a tea cosy...it's just a simple pattern which I made up as I went along...it worked out the way I had hoped it would so I was pretty pleased about that. I made it with cotton yarn - Stylecraft Classique Cotton which is great to crochet with and not at all splitty which is real bugbear of mine with certain cotton yarns.

I've also started a cardigan for myself. I'm absolutely determined not to give up with this one...I don't have a good track record with crocheting garments for myself and tend to give up when things get a bit tricky! So far I've had to pull this right back 3 times and I'm only on the yoke. Not good! But I will persevere.  I'm making the Lacy Cardigan from issue 33 of Simply Crochet magazine. I'm really having to take my time with it and properly concentrate because if anyone talks to me when I'm working on it I just lose my place...so it's one to work on when I'm home alone. 

I've also got another blanket in the go (of course!) which I'm really enjoying and it's an easy project to pick up in the evenings when I'm tired after work.

It's been really cold here the past few days and we even had some snow yesterday although it didn't last long at all. We've had some nice family walks but the best part of those for me is getting back home to get cosy with a cuppa and the wood burner!

Hope you're all having a great start to the new year.

X