A Mixed Bag

I seem to have so much to show you today of events over the last few days. Sorry I know this post is going to be picture heavy but hope you will stay with me. We have had a few glorious days with bright sunshine and frosty mornings where you just want to get out and walk in the countryside.


The first such day was last Thursday so we set off to St. Mary Bourne, I am sure regular readers will recognise some of these views but the great delight this time was the River Bourne. It has been a dry river bed since the end of May last year but the water is now flowing again, a welcome sight.

Two weeks before when the river bed was still dry

 

What a difference two weeks make!

Now for a change of activity - over the weekend I completed the second of my charity blankets, this is another Sunshine International Blanket of Love which will be donated to a local residential care home.

You might remember me showing you these squares on my blocking board ready to be joined. I have tried a new way (to me) of joining this blanket using the continuous flat braid join which I have to say I really like and now I have got the hang of it I will definitely be using it again. It is great to be able to join the whole blanket plus crochet the edging without having to break the yarn and sew in those dratted ends!


Blanket number 3 is in process but I will keep photos of that back to show you next time.


Yesterday dawned another cold and sunny day so we set off for Hedge End where there is a big retail complex. Because of my weight loss I needed some smaller size clothes (how great is that) so we spent the morning shopping and spending far too much money before stopping off at one of our favourite eating places, the Brigadier Gerard at Horton Heath for a delicious lunch.

Having eaten far too much what better way to walk it off than go for a walk in Stoke Park Woods on our way home.

And finally (you might be relieved to hear) we get to this morning where we enjoyed a walk around our local patch.


I love the sunlit tangled branches on the tree below and the crocuses and snowdrops in the park were beautifully displayed in all their glory with the sun shining on them.

I hope I haven't bored you completely so if you are still here many thanks for reading and viewing my blog. Until the next time .....

Tools Of My Trade

Friday's seem to come round so quick these days and it is time for Five On Friday again, once more I am linking up with Amy at Love Made My Home and this week I am bringing you the tools of my trade (in this case the things I use on a daily basis to do my crochet). I do like to have lovely quality tools to use to assist me in my crafting - whether it be crochet, knitting or cross-stitch so thought I would show you some of the bits and pieces I wouldn't want to be without for my crochet projects.


Number one is my wool winder, I like to wind my wool into cakes using this gadget. It is well worth the time spent on the winding process and you will see why when you see tool number two. The winding process is quite therapeutic (except when the wool decides to knot as you are pulling it from the ball).

Number two is my yarn spinner, this holds the cakes of yarn which I pop on the floor or onto a table next to where I am crocheting. This is much easier to work with than having a ball of yarn leaping all over the place as you crochet.

Number three is my lovely collection of Clover Amour crochet hooks. I have used many types of hook over the years but I find these the best. They are not the cheapest hooks around but are so comfortable to use. I was getting stiff joints using the traditional aluminium hooks but I have no trouble with these at all.

This is number four and I am cheating really as there are several items photographed here but they are all the little bits and pieces you need around you as you crochet - tape measure, darning needles, scissors and pins.

And finally, number five is my newest acquisition which if you are a regular reader of my blog you will have seen recently. This is a blocking board which is used to block out the squares to the size you require. It makes a huge difference to the look of the square once it has been blocked and this is rapidly becoming a tool which I cannot do without.

I hope you have enjoyed viewing my five items this week. Have a good week and look forward to seeing you again same time, same place, next week.

Sunshine Blankets and an Amaryllis

The weather hasn't really been very suitable for getting out and about over the last few days being wet, windy and muddy, so I have made the most of being stuck indoors by completing one of my Sunshine Blankets of Love and blocking out the squares on another plus a bit of forward planning for some future blankets. 


As you might remember I have challenged myself to complete twelve of these blankets to donate to a local residential care home at the end of the year. Since then I have agreed to make another blanket which will be entered into a raffle to raise money for Ronald McDonald House in Southampton which provides free 'home away from home' accommodation for families with children in hospital and relies entirely on charitable donations (currently an old school friend's son and daughter in law are staying there while their new baby is in hospital awaiting a heart operation).  I have also agreed to make some squares for Jill at Emerald Cottage for her Autism Project. I definitely will have enough to keep me occupied this year and not sure I have time to go to work and keep up with walking as well but I will give it a good go.


So here we are with the blanket I completed today.

Completing the edging

All Sunshine blankets have a name so I am calling this one 'Rose Garden'

A butterfly is the logo for the Sunshine blankets and each blanket has one attached to the corner

Close up of the butterfly I made for this blanket

Excuse the grotty carpet, I have problems finding a space to photograph the blankets properly

A closer look at some of the squares

This was actually the second Sunshine blanket that I crocheted but the squares of the first one really needed blocking and I must say they have a greatly improved appearance once they have been blocked. The blocking process is almost finished and hopefully on my next day off work at the end of the week I can begin the process of assembling and edging this one.

I am highly delighted with my new blocking board from @blockingboardsbydaisyboo that I showed you in an earlier post, it certainly has made the process of blocking so much easier and I know it will get lots of use this year.


I have also crocheted a few sample squares that I intend to use on future Sunshine blankets - now which one am I going to start first? I have so many ideas for these blankets and the charity blankets are a good way of trying them all out.

Finally, some non-crochet related photos, my amaryllis plant is stunning at the moment and it still has another three buds to emerge so I thought I would show it to you. I purchased one of these for my Mum for her 90th birthday and hers has been stunning as well so they were a really good buy.

I couldn't resist picking up these tulips from the supermarket the other day. Tulips are amongst my favourite flowers and these have really brightened up our sitting room. I do need to look for another jug though as the red of the strawberries doesn't really go with the pale pink of the tulips and my other vases were too large.

I now have two very long days at work (with evening meetings) so am looking forward to my days off on Thursday and Friday when hopefully the weather will be better so we can get out for a walk in the countryside but if not my crochet will stop me from getting bored!

Sculpture

It's that time of the week again which means it is time for my Five On Friday post hosted by Amy at Love Made My Home. Do go and visit Amy's blog and follow the links to view more Five On Friday posts.


We visited Salisbury yesterday and as we wandered through the Cathedral Green we noticed some new additions - there were several pieces of sculpture with more in the process of being assembled.

We had no idea who designed these sculptures or what they were all about and there didn't seem to be any literature around to enlighten us. However, when I googled I found out that these form part of an exhibition which opens on 12th February and runs to 3rd July and are by Sophie Ryder and the title of the exhibition is Relationships.


On reading a bit more I found out that the sculptures explore Sophie's own relationships and family interactions and at the same time challenge us to consider how we interact with each other and our own loved ones. She uses the Hare headed female figures and Minotaur males to both portray these relationships but also to disguise them by concealing the identity of the figures in the sculptures.


I must say that I found them a bit odd but when I was looking at them I didn't have a clue as to what the sculptures were all about. Having googled it all makes more sense.


 

My new toy has arrived

My long awaited blocking board arrived today from Paul from Blocking Boards by Daisy Boo and I love it. As you can see from the photos below I have put it to use already and I am loving the difference it makes to the squares. As it stretches them out it really makes the pattern of the square show up so well.


I was so excited to get into the package that I didn't stop to take a photo of the beautiful way the board was packaged which was very remiss of me. You can see in the photo below the lovely little handmade with love tag that was threaded onto the string that surrounded the tissue paper. Don't you find that things like that make so much difference to the product? 

I purchased the tin with the owls on today to keep the rods in so that I don't lose or break them. 


Paul from Daisyboo Creations will be starting a waiting list very shortly for these boards so if you are interested make sure you get your name down as they sell out very quickly, the last batch sold within 40 seconds of going live. They are handmade from solid birch wood and take about three weeks to make but take it from me it was well worth the wait for mine to arrive as it is definitely a quality product that will be very well used.

The Year In Books - February

I have really enjoyed participating during January in the Year In Books hosted by Laura at Circle of Pine Trees and am looking forward to continuing throughout the year. The aim is to read at least one book a month.


Unlike most book clubs we usually select the books we wish to read rather than all reading the same, however for February the plan is for as many people as possible to read The Trouble With Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon. I was lucky enough to be selected by Laura to receive a free copy of this book from Harper Collins. 


My choices for February are:- 

I initially only selected one book to read in January but I did add more books to my January reads as I went through the month.

The first book I read was In Falling Snow. This was a very interesting read. The main character was Iris, an Australian, who travelled to France in WW1 to find her brother who had signed up to fight during WW1 despite not being of age. She intended to find Tom and bring him home. However before she found Tom she discovered an old abbey at Royaumont where a group of women were working to set up a field hospital. Iris decided to stay and help. The story goes back and forth from WW1 to the days back in Australia when Iris was an old woman who had just received an invitation to travel to France once again to attend a reunion at Royaumont. Her granddaughter, a doctor, tried to persuade her that she was too old and frail to make the journey. But does she decide to go? 

My second read was Bill Bryson's The Road to Little Dribbling. This is a continuation of his book Notes From A Small Island twenty years on. I had heard reports that this was not as good as the first one but I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Lots of laugh out loud moments, I found this book hard to put down. Yes, he is more cranky than he used to be but I guess as we get older we all suffer the same fate and I have to say that in many cases I agreed totally with what he was saying. Part of the book was about some areas I know well and he was absolutely spot on with his descriptions. 

My third read was The Turning Point by Freya North. I still have about 20% of the book to read so I will review this at the end of February along with my February reads. I have never read one of Freya's books before and am really enjoying it and wondering why I haven't picked one up before.

I think to get through all my February reads I will need to not spend so much time on my iPad during the evenings and crack on with reading earlier than I currently do, when I am usually so tired that I find myself drifting off to sleep before I have read very much.