The Ginger Squirrel

No more sky!

 

The snoopy picture is finally finished! If you follow me on twitter you'll know how fed up I was of stitching sky day after day! The picture is worked on 16ct aida so it went on and on! But now I have the pleasure of presenting it to my line manager, who is very supportive of me, and puts up with a lot!

Look what I found in Oxfam this morning! This crinoline lady antimacassar was £1.99

 

 

And this pretty tray cloth was £2.99!

 

Then I walked around the Georgian market with Marie, and found this pretty piece of fabric, which I will use to make a patchwork cushion.

 

Well, the fudge became toffee. At least I now know how to make toffee! Here's the coconut ice.

 

 

Something else I'm working on is a bag project from Cath Kidston's "Make" book. I just need to add the detailing on these roses now.

 

This week we had our annual "Workplace Wellbeing" day. There was a big tent with all sorts of healthy stalls and fun things to try. In particular, I liked having a scone!

 

At the Chaplaincy stall I met two Buddhist monks who were really nice.

 

I have meditated in the past, but began to have problems just before I was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder when I was 29. I asked the monk if someone who was mentally ill could meditate. He said no. I asked, never? He said first a person must learn to be present in the real world. Soemone who is ill has a mind that dwells in bad places and can focus in the wrong direction. He askd me if I had a job - and he said that meant I was able to function in the real world and that I might try short periods of meditation. He invited me to the monastary which is not far from where I live, and gave me a bracelet, which has 8 strands, one for each of the points of the Eightfold path - ie things you must do to live a moral life.

 

Well, tomorrow I am going to visit the monks! I'm going to ask advice about how I should meditate and how to live a Buddhist life. The monks practice Pure Land Buddhism (if that means anything to anyone reading this) which is a form of Mahayana Buddhism practised in East Asia, especially Japan. How ironic! I knew nothing of this when I lived in Tokyo!

And now for a book review! Here are some of the highlights from the book I bought recently. What is different about this book? Well, she mixes up different types of yarn and has some novel ideas for using crochet on clothing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you will know if you read my blog I am a proponant of acrylic yarn. I'd never really liked the idea of using cheap "weirdy" yarns like eyelash yarn though, I just thought they looked rubbish. But in this book the author has combined different types of yarn in a way that I think is interesting and pretty. So I'll be trying this!

 

And finally, I bought myself a Cath Kidston gadget holder! I just couldn't resist.

TGS

Cath Kidston meets Union Jack

I'm so excited about my Union Jack cushion! I've seen variations everywhere and have incorporated my favourite features. The best thing is that the felt cost me about £5 - the buttons I already had and I used remnants of Cath Kidston fabric I had left over from my bunting project.

You might be able to see, in the bottom left, I'm now starting to stitch the white down using red cross-stitch. That's what I'll be doing today.

Something I knew about the UJ is that the diagonal red stripes are not in the centre of the white ones. One side of the white stripes should be wider - which is what I planned - but mysteriously it didn't turn out that way!!!

I appliqued the rose on, first ironing on some interfacing, then using the matching threads given in Cath Kidston's book "Make".

Here's how I did it . . .

Also, I've finished my Moebius scarf. What I hadn't realised is that they sit perfectly crossed over, really neat and stylish.

I bought a magazine today and I'm quite excited about some of the ideas in it.

I like this version of the ripple blanket! You don't see this as often.

TGS

Still juggling

 

Here's how I'm getting on with the hexagons. I think turquoise must go with everything! As you can see I'm not joining them together on the fifth round. I want to lay them out and think about where they'll go. Also, if I put one in back to front (as I did with my shawl) I won't have to undo the whole thing to get it out and turn it around. I'm being a bit pedantic I suppose! But the overall effect will be exactly the same.

 

And the ripple blanket has also grown.

 

I've finished sewing my star motifs together for the moebius scarf, just waiting for it to dry in the sunshine before finishing off.

 

This week I've been given this cute flower trim by Vicky.

 

Yesterday me, Mum, Uncle Brian and Aunt Kate went to the garden centre and brought home this beautiful Peony.

 

And Hazel came over. She's had a really pretty new tattoo on her foot. (yes it hurt)

Like the rest of the planet, I will be buying at least one Michael Jackson album tomorrow when I get paid. It's been years since I owned any - I think I took it for granted he'd always be around. I will also be buying the "Pink box", Pink's first 4 albums in a set, and "The E.N.D" - Black Eyed Peas. There's so much great music around at the moment. I'm also going to have a splurge in the Cath Kidston sale!!!

TGS

Scrummy evening

 

I started the day with cupcakes courtesy of Vicky thebeadshopgal.

 

And ended the day with peach pie. (It actually contains peach, plum and apple). Which turned out nicely, considering I couldn't tell what temperature the oven was at because the front panel had been removed for re-enamelling.

 

Mum gave me this cute tea-pot today! So I let her have the first slice of pie.

 

Here it is after she, erm, demolished it!

TGS

Hurrah for hexagons

 

I finally got to the stage where I can turn my circles into hexagons! And here is my first one! (And what a pretty one it is too) You'll see I still haven't darned the ends in - I never learn!

Today I worked hard on the third rounds . . .

 

. . . and finished them all . . .

 

. . . then I rearranged the piles into the colours of the fourth and fifth rounds . . .

 

. . . and I kicked all the books off my shelves to make room for my yarn . . .

 

. . . and now I'm exhausted and ready for bed!

TGS

Moving on

 

I've moved on a bit with the hexagon blanket today. This morning I worked three hours on the ripple blanket, then three on the hexagons. I got a bit fed up then and watched a movie. Putting the colours together is fun though. I'm finding some lovely combinations.

 

. . . just about too wide to be a scarf anymore . . .

 

I took some new pictures of Twinkle last night! There are some more on Flickr.

 

She's still too fast to photograph without holding her, but she's slowed down a bit as she got bigger.

Yesterday I bought CrossStitcher. I saw a few things I definately want to make, including the gorgeous picture on the front.

 

Check out this Japanese doll pattern.

 

And I really like this Laura Ashley design - only I'm seeing it in bright colours - pink, turquoise . . .?

 

I'm off to finish re-arranging my room, tidying up my wool stash and doing some more crochet!

TGS

Happiness is . . .

 

. . . the floor of my room! Two main projects on the go here - and a cup of tea for fuel.

 

Here's how the raspberry ripple scarf for K is coming on.

 

Tahmina asked me today if it was a scarf. (Whatever folks see you working on they assume it's a scarf!) It would make an excellent scarf - although it's a little long. I said no it's a blanket. She thought for a moment, then asked me how long it will take! As fast as I can, I answered! A little crochet experiment.

Must get on with it!

TGS

Emergency stop!

 

My colleague K broke up with her boyfriend last week and is now looking for somewhere to live at short notice. She was so sad on Monday - you know when you feel helpless - there's nothing you can say or do? But there is! Make a blanket! I thought it would be nice for her to have something new in her new flat - something without memories of her old house. As she'll be renting she won't be able to paint or decorate - so maybe she could use the blanket over the sofa???

Anyway, I raided "the stash" and came up with some pretty colours - and took my first leap into the world of ripple blankets.

 

So work on the rainbow hexagon blanket is temporarily halted - as fast as it started!

I had an exciting day - I sorted myself out on Twitter! I'm there as - surprise surprise - gingersquirrel. It's fun exploring the magical realms of modern technology!

TGS

All crocheted out!

 

I have spent all day working on the rainbow blanket! I am so ready for bed! But I have really got stuck in today. After the second round, each motif looked like a cute primula. 

I've started working on the third rounds. And I have a method I'm working to which is made easier by keeping the colours laid out in a circle on the floor. I'm really excited about putting the colours next to each other with the third rounds.

 

Here all thirteen disks with medium blue as the second colour, are given their third round.

 

I think I may have bought WAY too much yarn! But that's great because I can get a ripple blanket  and matching cushions out of it too.

TGS

Small beginnings

 

I've made 195 of these small sunny centres today. Minus this yellow, there are 15 colours, so the second round will consist of 13 of each colour. I will get on with this tomorrow.

 

How can you not love the abundant plumpness of a 100g ball??!! Another reason to love acrylic yarn.

 

I would estimate I used about 75g to make the centres. Here they are divided up, ready for the next rounds to be added.

 

Last night I had a crazy idea to consider using bobble stitch hexagons, so I spent the evening making up a sample. However, after consideration, I decided this hexagon was way too much for the colours I was using. It would look like an overly florid, fussy 1960's flashback!

 

I had to take a picture of this melon I bought yesterday. This is my favourite colour - this pink/coral, which is why I had to include it in the blanket. Weirdly, one of my dogs Jake really liked it! He ate loads!

And I couldn't resist another photo of the beautiful parrot-edged (?!) poppy in the garden. 

 

TGS