LoopyAng

Thursday, 8 May 2014

I. Love. To. Crochet.

I love to Crochet.

Plain and simple. It's a fact.

But my crochet tends not to be very plain.

In fact in tends to be pretty colourful.

Very Lucy-ish, of Attic24 bloggy fame.

I chose this style of rainbowy hooky goodness before discovering her blog.... but seeing her lovely high colour crochet exploits has done nothing to tone down my hooky-ing!

This is a cushion cover I've recently been working on....

See what I mean about colourful?!

These balls of gorgeous full on colour happened into my home last week.

Again, inspired my Lucy and her current mandala obsession and her recent acquisition of some of this very same make of yarn.

It is Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK bought from Wool Warehouse.

I started off with these colours but have since also got pastel blue and pink, cream, and white.

And this is what I bought it for.... to make these super cute coasters.

Aren't they lovely?

I saw a picture of these or something very similar on FB.

So I googled crochet coasters, and found This Pattern.

I love that this pattern was based on a circle motif from 1893- but it doesn't look at all out of place crocheted in bright modern colours!

I didn't overly like the way the last round crocheted up, so had a play with the first one I made til I was happy.

Now there's no stopping me and I have a steadily growing pile of them on my table!

I will also blame this yarny purchase on Lucy too....

This is Stylecraft Special Chunky also from Wool Warehouse, but bought in a colour pack.

It was This Post on Attic24 that made me need this wool, and I do plan on trying that cushion sometime..... but for now I'm making this simple round cushion with it....

Very simple, nothing fancy. Just a colourful soft squishy cushion.

So that's what I've been up to these last few days.

Happy crocheting to you if that's what you do! :o)

Wednesday, 7 May 2014

Photo a Day

I'm still taking photos for the FMS Photo a Day challenge. There have been a few prompts I've missed, or really struggled with.

Some days I've just completely missed it, and after a few days it's been hard to catch up.

But I'm trying my hardest to keep on top of it!

5th May - 4pm.

Unfortunately I didn't check what the prompt even was until early evening.

But I know what I was doing at 4pm- I was sat in the car crocheting this whilst in a queue of cars trying to leave Truckfest!

6th May - From Down Low.

My washing line from an unusual angle!

7th May - Taken from Above.

Emily playing the piano- shot from above her head.

For several years now I've fancied going to Truckfest. It happens every May in Peterborough. Every year I've seen signs advertising it in the weeks leading up to the event, but we've never actually got to go.

But this year we did.

Monday this week was the May Day Bank a Holiday, so none of us were at work or school.

Despite Emily really needing to spend as much time as possible revising ready for her GCSEs starting next week, we also thought it important to still have family time and to let her have some down time away from her books.

Other than there being hundreds of lorries there on display, there were lots of stalls with goods to buy, lots of different foods to eat, lots of funfair rides, and also ring events.

First up we went to watch the Broke FMX display- two motorcyclists showing off some of their best jumps.

Then we had lunch... Emily and Adam had lovely juicy burgers, while James and I had cheesy chips and shared a hotdog.

Some of the displayed trucks had pretty impressive artwork...

There were a few Stobarts there- Ashley Maddocks is one of the drivers and he appears in the TV programmes- Emily and I had our photo taken with him.

Then we went back to the arena to see the Monster Trucks.

One was from the UK, and the other from the US.

They only did a couple of jumps each, but it was great to watch.

We had a lovely day out- it was something a bit different.

Just maybe it was a shame the food cost so much. If we were to go again I think I'd plan on taking a picnic.

Saturday, 3 May 2014

My Trip to Cath Kidston Outlet Shop

I love Cath Kidston products- the items, the patterns, and especially the colours.
But not really the prices so much.

So when I discovered they have an outlet store not not many miles away, I couldn't wait to visit.
Today we did, and Emily and I had a lovely time having a good look around.

They sell items from all sections of their regular stores, but the products are end of lines, slight seconds, returned, are damaged or have items missing.

There were a couple of things I was hoping to find- a fold-away backpack, and a new purse.
I also bought a couple of small gifts to give at Christmas, and some things, just because.

My favourite find was this gorgeous "Stationery Tin".

It was reduced to £4 as damaged, and with items missing. The lid should open up on a hinge, but was on round the wrong way. I'm not sure what should have been inside, but it only came with a little notebook, two little sticker sheets, and an eraser.

I've fixed the lid so I'm really happy with this pretty house tin- and it has a red spotty roof!

This "Secret Notes" book had its padlock and key missing. I got it for £2.

I've fixed it for now with elastic and a couple of buttons. I don't need it to lock, so a quick fix was all it needed.

This cute little card holder has stitching coming undone. I plan on fixing it, but haven't tried yet.

It only cost me £1 so if I can't or it goes wrong, I'll not have lost out too much!

I could have bought so much more, I think I was quite restrained only buying what I did!

Emily bought a few little things too- I'm glad she loves Cath Kidston things as much as me :o)

Thursday, 1 May 2014

Let's Try This Again!

So at the beginning of this year I decided I was going to give this blogging lark a good go again.... but it didn't take long for it fall by the wayside again!

So here we are, 1st May- a new miponth, and I'm going to try again... again!

I love my crochet, so essentially that is what I will be blogging about. Mainly.
But there will be my FMS Photo a Day pics, plus photo posts if I've been out and about with my camera.
Generally it will be a little bit of this and that.... whatever takes my fancy, and as and when.

So firstly my daily photo... today's prompt was " Begins with J"

Jam!

Yesterday I completed a Patchwork Granny blanket I'd started quite some time ago.

It's made of 120 simple 5 round single colour granny squares, joined using the join-as-you-go method that Lucy used on her Attic24 blog. I finished it with two granny rounds of cream, finished with a simple small scalloped edge I came up with for a previous blanket.

It's so nice to know its finished at last!

And the plan for this blanket is to sell it... But I'm not sure how or for how much yet. I need to think it over some more first.

I told myself I was supposed to be finishing up some other WIPs after finishing that blanket, but instead decided to make a couple of cushion covers. Both will be in the same yarn (Stylecraft Life DK which is an acrylic/wool mix)

The front will be a single granny square, each round a different colour.... and the back? I haven't decided yet.... either plain cream or white, or maybe coloured stripes? Only time will tell!