Monday, 23 May 2011

How the wind blows

(c) Little Miss 
The roses in our garden are taking a real battering today and the lawn looks like it's been confettied *sigh* Little Miss has been desperate to play outside, but each time we venture out the wind is so strong she wants to come back in again... and so it goes on. She has busied herself instead with a dressing up box full of beads and play silks and, as I later discovered from my iPhone, tried her hand at photography. That and 'helping' me put away the huge grocery delivery. By helping, of course I mean emptying things all over the kitchen floor and then putting them away in the wrong cupboards. Luckily I found everything (including the garlic & herb cream cheese in the pantry cupboard) quite quickly.

My Boy went on a school outing to a meadow to look for Mini Beasts (when were 'creepy crawlies' rebranded? I obviously missed that one!) By all accounts he managed to find an ant. Honestly.....? AN ANT!?! We have about a billion of them in our garden who are trying to invade our home on an hourly basis (a battle I WILL NOT let them win) so this was probably far more disappointing than he let on - and I'm sure I noted a hint of longing in his voice when he mentioned a worm that his friend found. Regardless, he had a good day and I think the real highlight for him was a picnic (packed lunch) back at the school afterwards. He usually has a cooked meal at lunch time so I think this made up for the lack of beastly adventure. Oh, and he happily took an apple in a crocheted jacket too - bless him. I wonder how many more years I have of him finding everything I made to be "beautiful", "wonderful" or at the least "very nice, Mum"?

And back at home, I managed the Monday Mountain [of laundry] - why does my daily laundry routine suddenly stop at the weekend? I know it doesn't make sense, and regret it every Monday, but I still do it every week. So when the third load was washed, dried and folded and Little Miss had her nap I did this...

Room for improvement at the start/end of the rounds
It's intended to become a cushion cover to live on my Cwtch sofa and is based on this tutorial. It's really just a bit of a practice while I (continue to) wait for my big pack of colourful yarn - it's not perfect at the joins yet but I'm finding I'm no longer gripping the hook hard enough to bruise my index finger (which I was last week) and am actually getting into a rhythm with it. I can also tell by looking when I need to do the 'increase' stitch which is another huge improvement on last week and requires much less concentration/counting.  Each time I look at it and have a grrr thought about the imperfections, I remind myself that I have been crocheting for 6 days and it's fine - this makes me much happier and has (so far) prevented me from undoing the lot :) 

For this project I'm still using the Wendy Sublime Cotton DK and I'm not finding it very satisfying to crochet as the strands split apart very easily and I either have to go very slowly or redo stitches. I really don't want to spend a lot on nicer yarn at the moment - I'll wait until my technique is better and for now will just enjoy the learning process. 

This evening I shall be cracking on with my Boneyard Shawl. I've decided that I will be finished on Friday no matter what - the finished size will be whatever size it is at the end of the week - otherwise it's something that will just go on forever! This picture was taken a few days ago although progress is now very slow and I've probably only managed a few more rows since then. 


And finally, I really wanted to join in with Booksharing Monday as we're a house of book-lovers (even D has converted thanks to the Kindle App on his iPad) and when I recently posted our Five Favourite Family Books I went with the books that are enjoyed by EVERYONE. Today I'm going to post one that  My Boy and I really love - 

Paperback - ISBN 1407108824 

Stick Man lives in the family tree with his stick family and one day while he's out for a walk, he's picked up by a dog for a game of catch. And so begins a long journey far from his home (where his stick lady love & kids are missing him), and through the changing seasons as he's used as all sorts of things by all sorts of people and creatures... but just longs to return home. 

This is such a touching story - the illustrations are funny, the rhyming is superb, and there is so much pathos (I actually feel quite choked when I read it!) Will he get back to his family tree in time for Christmas?? This is a fabulous book at any time of year, but the seasonal ending would make it a superb Christmas gift for a child of any age - even one as old as me :)

You can see other recommendations, and add your own by clicking here
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And if you're looking for something else to read, I'm taking part in the BritMums May BlogHop - click the link to find a list of other posts

7 comments:

  1. Adding "The Stick Man" to my reading list and your circle is beautiful!!!!! Your work doesn't look like you're a new crocheter at all!!!! Love the colour combo also.

    The budding photographer's story is too cute. :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love kids books - they are so much better than grown up books! lol

    And I love EVERYTHING about your crochet and table - is that spotty transparent oil cloth? WHHHHATTT?

    How cute is Little Miss - I need some help unpacking my shopping tomorrow, does she do freelance =P

    ReplyDelete
  3. your crochet, looks Fab!, i have not read stick man! will check it out!! xx

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  4. Many thanks for linking up.Sounds like a fabulous book,will look it up :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I use the invisable join when doing rounds and change where I start the new round which gets rid of the obvious join line. I'm sure Sarah London has a tute on the invisible join, if you wanted to have a go. It looks fab though Sarah and I love the colours you have picked.

    I'm starting a manly boneyard for OH when I finish my Hitchhiker - yours looks fab!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Carole, I will check that out. xxx

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  7. And for future reference - here is the tutorial link - looks fab! http://sarahlondon.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/seamless-symmetrical/

    ReplyDelete

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