Needles and Thread, not Yarn and Hooks

Guess what? I’m stitching again!

My inspiration over the new Chatelaine designs lasted longer than the time it takes to get home, play with the girls, feed them and get them to bed! Yippee!!

I actually went and got out Medieval Town Mandala, set it up on q-snaps, and got stitching!

Gosh – I’m so d@mn pleased with myself! I’m loving every second!

Here’s roughly where I’d got to the last time I shared a pic –

I’d finished part 5 (of 12) and was making a start on part 6.

And here’s where I am now. Still part 6, obviously, but a little further on, I'm working on the big building in the centre of the north side of the square.

I’ve gone back to working on Gay Ann Rogers idea of 12 stitches per day, or as I do it, at least 12 stitches a day or as many stitches as I can fit in to the time slot I’ve allowed for it. So, what I’ve showed there represents almost a whole week of stitching.

It doesn’t make for fast progress, but it’s wonderful just to be doing it again!

Christmas crochet redux

I haven’t been able to keep up with these Christmas crochet posts in quite the way I’d intended, but before summer arrives, here’s a final catch-up!

I really wanted to share my Christmas dinner table with you. 2011 was the first Christmas we had the family Christmas at home plus visitors. We’ve done the family bit on our own before, the visitors required that just a
little bit more effort be made!

For the sake of simplicity (and not spending too much money), I had a red paper table cloth and also found a paper tablerunner in the supermarket (I love table runners but, other than the paper one, have never owned one!) As a finishing touch, I had the idea of crocheting some white lacy motifs to look like white snowflakes on top of the red.

I was very pleased with the way they looked – my longer term plan is to crochet all sorts of motifs like this and to make them into a table runner. However, I rather suspect it was these that killed my elbow!

Finally, I think you’ve seen all these before! I just feel the need to summarise these designs again as I don’t think I’ve always given full details of where things came from or whose patterns I’ve used. So, if you’ve seen them all before, you can ignore this bit!

1		Cedric: My own design based on photos I’ve seen around the net. Christmas present for nephew C in Manchester.
2		Momster & Baby: Uses Momster & Baby pattern from Demonstrative Crochet, but with my own mixture of yarn. Christmas present for Niamh. Niamh calls Momster Monkey!
3		Viktor: Based on Momster pattern from Demonstrative Crochet, but made with chunky yarn and a bigger hook. Individual coloured spots in dk yarn were added later (I don’t know that you can see them so well in the photo). Christmas present for nephew L4 in Manchester.
4		Fleur: My own design based on photos I’ve seen around the net and with my own mixture of yarn. Christmas present for a friend.
5		Knitted monkey: Uses Monkeemaker’s pattern. Christmas present for nephew L1 in Manchester. This one was a definite hit!

D@mned inspiration!

Ooh I'm so inspired at the mo'! If only I had the time ...

I want to stitch these - NOW!

• Martina Rosenberg's Spring Watergarden 
• Martina Rosenberg's Springy Micro Medallions
• Martina Rosenberg's 15th anniversary design - Sleeping Beauty's castle

Can you see me drooling?

Anyone want to give me some time and money as an early birthday present?

Hmmm ... might dig out MTM when I get home ... until I get distracted by something else!

When Billy and Belinda came home

Hi everyone!

So, Billy and Belinda finally arrived home at the end of last week and we were all delighted to see them again!

There was a bit of this -

(By the way, my little Neevie-noo has renamed Billy as Billy-Boo! How cute is that?)

And a bit of this –

And, for once in our house, there was peace!

No shouting, no screaming, howling, fighting or arguing. And no tears.

Just two happy little girls and two happy, home-at-last, crochet bears!

The Christmas Crochet Marathon, part 1

And this is the one I'm most pleased with! Even my Mum said she thought it was the best thing I'd ever made!

So here she is -

My Topsy Turvy Princess, made for my own little Princess Iona, and she adores her! In fact, the two princesses go almost everywhere together - I even had to warn Iona not to drop her in the toilet the other day!

Isn't she gorgeous? (I mean the doll, not Iona.)

Of course, Iona had to customise her by adding a bobble and some hair clips!

As usual, she's partly someone else's pattern, partly off the top of my head. My inspiration includes Jullie Teo's wedding dolls and Carolyn Christmas's Topsy Turvy doll, but I think the original seed was planted a long time ago by Julie who make have knitted, or at least blogged about, a Jean Greenhowe doll (which I can't find now). I stored this little seed away at the back of my mind, and this year, I actually did something about it!

I really really love and admire the way Jullie Teo dresses her wedding dolls and wanted to try something similar. So, on this side of the doll, I've crocheted on some layers of lacy trim. On the other, I've crocheted the trim too.

I'm not entirely certain that the neck is strong enough, with all that hair, but that's my only (slightly) bad point - I really am delighted with her as she is.

I'd like to work on the pattern a bit more, elbow and time permitting, and then publish it.

Oh - and Iona now wants a Prince to go with her!

Grrrrr - frustrated - crochet injury!

I have to declare myself currently injured and only fit for the lightest crochet activities. After what I am officially naming my Christmas Crochet Marathon, I am now suffering with what I suspect is probably a touch of tendonitis in my left elbow.

And I am so incredibly frustrated!

I have lots and lots of wonderful ideas for crochet creatures buzzing around in my head that I'm so excited about, but there's very little I can do about them!

I am rather assuming it's the crochet that's causing the problem - there certainly was rather a lot of it in the run up to Christmas, but I was loving it so much!

However, I was talking to my brother who recently had a tennis elbow, and he thinks I've probably got the same as him - in my weaker arm (I'm right handed) caused by repetitive small movements - and that could very very easily be crochet, I can see that I constantly rotate my left forearm slightly in manipulating and creating crochet fabric.

So, I've had a full week off crochet, which has helped a bit, and I'm starting again slowly, only doing the odd 5 mins here and there and wearing an elasticated bandage on my elbow and supporting it on a pillow while I crochet. I have a good stock of ice cubes in the freezer for my elbow too.

Hopefully that'll help improve things, but I'm wondering whether it might be useful to change my crochet technique to limit or stop the movement in my left arm.

Anyone have any tips? I'm open to anything that will help me back to normal soon!

After all elite crochet and stitching athletes like us all have to take care of ourselves, don't we?

Happy 2012

Wishing a happy 2012 to all!

Here's a brief summary of what I got up to in 2011 - I need to blog about some of these properly!

I love this mosaic!

I wonder what 2012 will bring?