Pickles and jams to end off 2011

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Thanks to a free magazine (albeit from September 2010) at my local train station ticket office, I have the pattern for Nicki Trench’s Jam Pot Covers which is on the cover of her book Cute and Easy Crochet, to share with you today!

Inside this little ticket office…

was this magazine…

with the pattern for these beauties…

To print the pattern, click here and it will open in Acrobat as a .pdf file.

Happy New Year all!!! I hope the only pickles and jams you find yourself in, are the ones you crochet covers for.

May it be a hooktastic 2012 for one and all!

Proper retro

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I recently found a selection of vintage crochet patterns on Etsy, all incorporating granny squares. I love granny squares, but some of these patterns are quite… well, see for yourself.

Will I buy the pattern, make and wear this? Maybe:

Will I buy the pattern, make and wear this? Only if you pay me:

Source: etsy.com via Natasja on Pinterest

 

Will I buy the pattern, make and wear this? Not even if you pay me:

Source: etsy.com via Natasja on Pinterest

What do you think of these bad boys? Would you? Wouldn’t you?

 

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 every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

My stash of cotton yarn (mostly Rowan Handknit Cotton and Drops Paris) on my wonderfully stripey colourful Ikea rug:

Yarn

Did it work? Do you feel inspired to take on Tuesday? I hope so!

Have a terrific Tuesday friends!

Natasja

Beautiful blankets from Lionbrand Yarns

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I totally fell in love with these afghans from Lionbrand Yarns! Especially the top one. It’s so so so pretty! I wouldn’t even change the colours, it’s perfect as it is.

You can find the pattern for the Wavy Blocks Throw pattern here, and the Garden Patch Granny Afghan pattern, here. As with all free Lionbrand Yarns patterns, you will have to create an user account and log in to access the pattern.

 

What you give is what you get

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I’d like to share a Christmas tale that proves what you give is what you get. Seriously.

On Thursday John and I decided that we would only spend £10 on each other this Christmas. While I was thinking what to get the man who has everything I thought of a Boots voucher, but then I realised it’s actually something I would really want (there’s always something for me to buy at the make-up / hair care / lotion counter) so I tried to find another gift for him.

That morning I did some work for one of the lawyers in our department who I don’t usually work for. I must have done a really good job, because later that day he handed me an envelope with a £10 Boots voucher to say thanks for the work I did! I was gobsmacked! Here I received exactly what I had desired that morning, and from the most unlikely source (seriously, if you know this lawyer you would know that a thank you, much less a voucher, is totally out of character).

Friday, my last day at work, I received various christmas presents from the lawyers I work for, including a £100 Amazon gift voucher. £100 is a lot of money to spend at Amazon! During the course of Friday morning John went to the shops to buy my £10 gift. That evening I showed him the Amazon voucher and without thinking, I just blurted out that he could have half of my voucher to spend on himself at Amazon. I honestly hadn’t planned on giving him half, it just sort of “fell” out of my mouth. He was really happy and grateful and ended up buying new Philips hairclippers and PC memory. These two items came to £60 so he asked whether he should give me the £10 back in cash but I said no, go for it, £40 is enough for me to spend on Amazon.

Christmas morning, and I received my gift from John. Guess what it was….. a £50 voucher from Boots!!!!!!!!!!! Remember, he bought the voucher before I got home that evening, so he didn’t know I would give him £60 to spend at Amazon! That means that:

I think of a £10 Boots voucher, I receive the voucher the same day.

I receive a £100 voucher and give £60 to John, but I get my £60 back in the form of £50 Boots vouchers from him and the £10 from the lawyer, and he gets his £50 back in the form of £50 from Amazon!

I just love love love love these Laws of the Universe. If you give with love, it, and more, will come back to you!!!

By the way, I’m going to spend my £40 at Amazon on, among other things, Simply Crochet: 30 Stylish Designs for Every day and Crocheted Throws and Wraps. My £10 gift to John was a very cute and funny Red Bird Angry Bird that makes the same sounds as in the iPhone game. Red Bird is now hanging out with the three crochet birdies and they are big friends. We think he’s not really angry, just a bit misunderstood.

I hope you are enjoying your Christmas Day with friends and family. Hopefully you’ll find time for a bit of crochet action as well.

A change of plan and a Ta-daaaah

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If you are a fan of crocheTime on Facebook, you would have seen my public declaration of yesterday, saying that I will not finish the Winter Scarf, but rather finish the Identity Crisis blanket before 2012 (it’s been coming dragging along since 20 November 2009 so it really should not have to see 2012 without a border and ends to woven in). I really really really planned to do it this way but things change…

The problem lies therein that the blanket is already big enough for two people to comfortably sit under, or one person to snuggle under from head to toe… more often than not that one person is Hubby. Case and point last night. I had packed away the scarf,  eager and ready to work exclusively on the Identity Crisis blanket but he refused to give it to me! “You can find something else to crochet, I’m sitting under my blanky”. I had to laugh. “My blanky”?! At least I know that when I do (one day) finish it, it will be loved and used.

Back to the scarf then.

I don’t think I’ve given the details on the blog, so here it is. I used Garnstudio Drops Delight in shade no. 10 and myPicot Openwork and Lace pattern no. 2015 with a 3.5mm hook. I can’t remember how many stitches I cast on, but it was quite a lot as the scarf is very wide. It was the width that actually lead me to think that it will work better as a cowl as I’d be able to twist it better around my neck and over my chest, than I would with a scarf. It seemed a waste to have two wide, very warm scarf ends just hanging down the front!

So this is the result.


Strangely enough it reminds me a lot of the Annie’s Attic cowl wrap I wanted to recreate. Looks like I kinda did, without even trying!

This is such a lovely warm cowl! I doesn’t feel heavy or restrictive, just warm and snuggly.

As you can see from my earlier post, it made its debut earlier today in Surbiton and I loved wearing it!

I would say that it’s off to work on the Identity Crisis blanket now but I’m not. Hubby asked for a “draft stopper” for the livingroom.  Let’s hope I can wizz through the Lion Brand’s Striped Draft Stopper pattern quickly enough to finish the blanket before 2012 but past experience has taught me that I shouldn’t hold my breath.