Terrific Tuesday

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On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.

What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!

From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

This is what I see when I walk to work from Waterloo station. Sometimes I feel a bit “bleh”, but then I see this and I’m reminded of how blessed I am.

St. Pauls from Oxo Tower

“Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
― Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784), The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 3

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.

Natasja

How the German military keep their tanks warm

military vehicle yarnbomb

One of the Partners at the law firm where I work, sent me this photo via this link. Apparently the tank was yarnbombed by the women from Dresden, Germany and they used 36kg of wool!

I wonder if it shoots yarn? Would be great if it did. Every second shot could be a crochet hook and the victor would be the soldier that crochetes the most scarves for the opposing side. That’s my kind of “friendly fire”.

 

Terrific Tuesday

On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.

What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!

From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

 

For more flowery crochet shawls have a look at KnittedParadise’s Etsy shop. It’s crochet like this, that makes me love my craft even more.

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday!

Natasja

You can be part of a yarnbomb!

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You know you want to!

All you have to do is crochet a piece of fruit and post it to me. No measurements to take, no getting onto ladders, no braving the elements to put up the yarnbomb. You dont even have to find a pattern, I’ll supply you with one. Just raid your stash, hook and go to the post office. Are you in? Want to know more?

The yarnbomb is for Surbiton’s first annual Food Festival from 4 to 19 May 2013. The organisers contacted Bobi of The Craft Inn to do the marketing for the festival and being a crafter extrodinaire she immediately thought of a craftbomb. My Thames Ditton yarnbombs (here, here and here) caught her attention so she asked me if I wanted to be part of this great crafty endeavour. Of course I said yes!

I don’t want to tell you exactly what I’m planning or how I’m going to use your fruit, but I can tell you that I need to cover a lot of space. I need a lot, or big pieces, of crochet. All before 29 March.

This is where you come in. It would be great if my blog buddies from all over the world could be part of the yarnbomb. A multi-national fruit salad for Surbiton!

As I receive your pieces I’ll give you credit on this blog and if you include a business card, I will attach it to one of your fruit as well . Due to a change of venue I will no longer be able to attach business cards to the crochet.

As for the pattern, you can find it here: Fruit crochet for Surbiton Food Festival (the link will open a PDF document). The pattern is in fact four crochet fruit coaster patterns, all courtesy of Louise Howe of the Lally Lou Lou blog, that I just put together in one document. Louise’s original patterns can be found here and here. Thank you so, so, so much Louise for agreeing to me using your fruit coasters for the yarnbomb. Dear readers, Louise has also promised to send me a couple of apples, pears and strawberries to use in the yarnbomb. It’s only right that the designer should have her handiwork included in the yarnbomb, don’t you think?

These are the fruit that I’ve made so far. I used Double Knit, Aran and Chunky yarn. I think towards the deadline of 29 March I’ll probably be sticking to only Chunky yarn as it works up so quickly.

crochet fruit.jpg

The orange was made using Double Knit cotton and a 4 mm crochet hook:

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Sliced in half apple in Chunky with a 7 mm crochet hook (and a dodgy uneven backstitch):

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Apple in Chunky with a 7 mm crochet hook:

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Strawberry in Aran cotton and a 5 mm crochet hook. There is a combination of white french knots and two straight stitches to indicate the strawberry hairs. After three french knots I gave up and stuck to the straight stitches:

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Pear in Aran cotton and a 5 mm crochet hook. Later I realised that the pear looks more like a pear if the leaf is at the top of the stem (the way Louise does it), not the bottom :

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I just want to stress that (if you haven’t already gathered this from my backstitch, strawberry hairs and pear leaf mistakes) the fruit doesn’t have to be perfect. Honestly, it’s just a bit of fun (I can hear Uncle Bryn‘s voice in my head as I’m typing here). The yarnbomb will be outside during the British Month Of April and when all the pieces of crochet are put together no-one will notice mistakes, so just enjoy it.

And of course you can send me any crocheted fruit, you don’t have to use Louise’s pattern. In fact, I hope someone will send me something different. The multi-national fruit salad could do with lemon, lime, cherry and banana.

When you’re ready to post me your crocheted fruit, send me a message and I will email you my address. The yarnbomb will be going up over the Easter weekend, and I need time to do my thing to turn the pieces into a workable yarnbomb, so I need your fruit before 22 March 2013 please.

I’m really looking forward to receiving your yarnbomb contributions. Remember, every time you finish a piece of crocheted fruit, it counts as one of your five a day. Fact.

How to de-Freddy a sweater

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I have a H&M v-neck striped sweater that John absolutely hates. As a rule he encourages me to be unique, embrace my style and wear unexpected colour combinations – all things that drew me to the sweater in the first place – but this sweater is an absolute no-go for him. Literally. “No, I’m not going out with you in that.”

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He says it reminds him of Freddy Krueger, he of A Nightmare on Elm Street fame. Freddy is so frightfully ugly,  I don’t even want to put a picture of him in this post. In stead, here is a link to the Google image search for him. Go have a look (quickly!), then come back to the blog and read on.

Did you see the resemblance between Freddy’s red & black striped sweater and my pink, purple & black striped sweater? I don’t think mine screams Freddy Krueger, but I guess the black horizontal stripes and pinkish-red is close enough to bring back memories of watching the horror film. Knowing my husband, he probably watched A Nightmare on Elm Street when he was way too young and was scared sh*tless – hence visions of Freddy Krueger when his wife is wearing a sweater with black horizontal stripes.

No matter what the reasons for his Sweater Aversion, if I want to wear my sweater when out & about with him, I need to find a way to de-Freddy it. Enter Simply Crochet magazine Issue 2. It dropped through our front door on Saturday (yeah!!!). Just like Issue 1, it’s jam-packed with crochet projects, one of which is a crochet pocket patch. When I saw it, I just knew it’s the perfect adornment to de-Freddy my sweater.

I whipped it up in ten minutes using a 3 mm crochet hook and black Elle Family Knit 4-ply yarn, and sewed it onto the sweater with invisible thread.

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Seeing as I used a 4-ply yarn, and not DK as in the pattern, my pocket patch came out smaller, but it’s perfectly proportioned for my sweater.

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When Hubby saw the sweater he was very impressed and said it “looked great”. He even agreed to be seen with me wearing it!

Freddy Krueger 0 – Crochet 1. Result!

Terrific Tuesday

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On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.

What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!

From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

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I’m still busy with the ripple blanket in blue. I have about seven rows left to go, then I have to wash the blanket so that I can “open up” the ripples and stretch it a bit, weave in the ends and then do a border.

With each crashing wave and bubbling ripple of white foam, I’m getting closer to finishing my oceanic blanket.

Wishing you a terrific Tuesday!

Natasja

 

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My contribution to Plank 2013 is the striped piece on the pole to the left of the Town Map. I’m so happy to be part of this huge Yarnbomb!

artrovings's avatarCAROL PARKER - social artist, supported with funding from Arts Council England, The Heritage Lottery, Cultural Olympiad 2012 and a bursary from a-n The Artist Information Company

I made an early start and got to Market Rasen for 10am.   Amazingly no rain, wind, ice or snow, so spent a pleasant day sewing on all the knitted contributions (with only one coffee and cake break).

Took some pics so you can all enjoy the installation even if you can’t get to Market Rasen.  Very many thanks to all those who contributed and special thanks to Alison who did the beautiful ‘plank’ pieces and stayed to help me put the rest up, a real star.

I’m not going to thank everyone by name as I know I’ll forget someone….but you are all very lovely and anytime you need some knitting done let me know! x

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Terrific Tuesday

Tags

, , ,

On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.

What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!

From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

More mosaics from Parc Guell in Barcelona. If you click on each of the photos it will enlarge so that you can appreciate the detail and fabulous colours.

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday!

Natasja

Terrific Tuesday

Tags

On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.

What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!

From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

Berries in the snow

I had a play on Picmonkey with a photo I took yesterday morning on my way to work. (What is it with snow? It’s just begging to be photographed!)

I used the posterize function, added Winter Wonderland birdies, snow flakes, holly and pine cones and a frame. Good thing I had a play yesterday as, as of today, Picmonkey have replaced their Winter theme with Valentines Day. Do yourself a favour and have a look and a play. It’s a great site.

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.

Natasja