Christmas Break is now over

Hope everyone had a great Christmas with lots of family and friends. Mine was great, nice long family days and rest.

 My Christmas present to my self turned up this morning and have been playing with it since!

Can you guess what it is?

Yaaaay! I finally have my spinning wheel. This is my first step into my cottage industry plans!

       After a lot of cursing and watching videos I finally assembled it and begin spinning.

It was super hard at first. Compared to my drop spindle it went super fast so there was lots of over spun bits, but a nice hot bath and a rest on the niddy noddy should help the excited bits to calm down.

Crochet things

I first learnt to crochet around June last year. I found it very hard tedious, and painful on the hands. I persevered, made a ton of wonky squares until it finally clicked. The first full pattern I followed was for a rug that now sits proudly on the landing.

The next thing I made was a cuddly tortoise for my boyfriend's niece (which I don't have a picture of! Sorry :( )

Next I delved into the world of crochet books; Beyond the Square: Crochet Motifs by Edie Eckman which is definitely worth a try it was the first crochet boot I purchased. I have crocheted many of the patterns in cotton and now used mostly as (very tea-stained) coasters.

Following that I have also purchased: The Granny Square Book: Timeless Techniques and Fresh Ideas for Crocheting Square by Square by Marget Hubert which I have on my kindle. I like this book but I the patterns are many, many squares which is ideal for making blankets and such, but what I like most about this book is the section at the end that shows you how to incoperate the many squares you acquire into a full-blown project.

Another favourite crochet book I have is Cute and Easy Crochet by Nikki Trench. I haven't made anything out of this book, but I love the quirky-ness of it, and I will definitely be making the tea cosy when I get a tea pot bigger than my one-cup!

For my birthday last year, I got given a huuuge selection of stylecraft wool for my birthday where I immediately started work on making many, many grany squares, soon I had around 80 small and large ones. I started to join them together to make a blanket. Soon I got bored of this and just chucked it up on to the top of the sofa. After a while I started work on the border, and still today, nearly 6 months later I am still working on the blanket, but at least it is a useable size now! I love, love, loooove the colourfulness of it.

Another completed project is a soft, cuddly monster I made for my nephew. I tried to keep it as simple as possible be he is only two and I didn't want too many bits that could be pulled off.

Also, as it is Christmas eve, Merry Christmas to all!

Knitting before work.

Lately I have been getting up extra early so I can fit in some knitting before work. I love the morning so it's not a problem for me. I love the smell and the bird song of this magical time of day.

Because knitting in cycling clothes doesn't get much cooler.

My current WIP is a set of six sofa cushions for Mum for her Christmas and birthday presents. I am spinning the wool from scratch on my drop spindle and then knitting them up, it's taking ages! So far I am on number three. Luckily Mum's birthday isn't until 26th of January.

Sorry for the blurry picture!

Welcome!

Finally I have taken the step into blog-land. So hello! My blog will contain thing of my life that I love. Cooking, spinning wool, knitting and crochet as well as building my way up to a farm.