February

Hello everyone!

A few new followers have joined my blog while I’ve been away so I want to say a big Hi and Welcome to you :) Thanks for clicking the follow button!

And I also want to say a big thank you to my ‘older’ followers too. I read a post over at Meredith’s blog this morning where she talks about friendship and how she didn’t expect to meet so many wonderful people through blogging and I really want to echo her thoughts. Thank you to all of you who share your beautiful, inspiration work through your blogs and thank you to everyone who stops by my blog and inspires me with their messages.

~

Are you getting ready for Valentine’s day? I’m thinking of making some more crochet hearts to join the ones I made last year

 

Pinterest is full of some really pretty heart patterns and I love this heart afghan I saw on there:

 

Isn't it cute?
You can find the free pattern over at the Red Heart website.

 

~

 I had some yarn arrive last week:

 

Do you like Drops? I love their yarn, they have really nice yarn, beautiful colours and great prices.

I got a cro-hook / double ended crochet hook too. I really like Tunisian crochet but I've not tried a double ended hook before. That's another soon to be WIP ;) 

I have wanted to try Sugar n Cream cotton yarn for a while too and it’s a bit difficult to find here in Europe so when I saw that the Drops store I use had some Sugar n Cream I just had to get some!

 

I didn’t choose these colours to use together but I kind of like the idea of making a Spanish flag with them :)

Have a wonderful day and I’ll be back soon with some crochet projects

xx

Ta daaaaaah!

This week I finished a project that has been in my WIP bucket for about 5 months.

 

Here it is:

 

I am so happy with it!

 

The pattern is called Lantern Pullover by Cristina Mershon and appeared in Crochet! Today in the March/April edition of 2012.

 

 

It's a great pattern, very easy to follow and at the same time pretty.

 

The pattern calls for Sport / 5 ply yarn but I used King Cole Mirage DK. I've used this yarn before and I think it's thinner than the average DK / 8 ply so I thought I'd give it a try and it turned out just fine.

 

It's a lovely yarn to work with pretty stripes that appear as you work. It's 50% wool and 50% acrylic and really warm and snugly.

 

 ~

 

The Christmas tree in the town where we live has been lit this weekend:

 

 

I love the mix of blue with the white stars.

 

~

 

How is your weekend going so far?

 

I have got one more Christmas present to finish and I am trying to finish my WIPS. I am going to make a New Year's resolution to keep my WIPs under control next year so I am desperately trying to finish all my current projects before the end of the year :)

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

 

x

 

 

Christmas: coffee, cookies and angels

Christmas really is getting close now.

 

Are you enjoying this time of year? Everywhere is looking beautiful right now with pretty decorations.

 

We decorated our home at the weekend and I have made a little crochet decoration:

 

 

 

 

A cute little angel!

 

 

 

 

 

This is from a Drops pattern. As with all Drops patterns, it is really easy to follow and the outcome is exactly as I had hoped :)

 

 

 

 

I used craft cotton and a 4mm hook for this project.

 

 

~

 

Remember the christmas cookies I wrote about last week?

 

Well, they were so delicious I went back for some more!

 

 

 

 

 

They are so beautifully decorated. Next week I am going to make a birthday cake and I'm thinking of making a plain sponge cake and trying some really special decoration with colours and edible decorations :)

 

~

 

Another typical Christmas treat I like to enjoy at this time of year is a Starbucks Christmas coffee.

 

They are really sweet and a little bit sickly but I love to have one while walking around Madrid admiring the decorations.

 

 

 

 

 

I had an orange moccha coffee. I love the christmas cups. Can you see my name on mine? :) 

 

 

Look how pretty the advertising board is:

 

 

 

 

And here is the centre square in Madrid all ready for christmas :

 

 

 

 

I LOVE this time of year!

 

 

~

 

Are you nearly ready for Christmas?

 

x

 

 

 

Cookies, coasters and cushions

Yesterday it snowed for the first time in Madrid this season. It's feeling very festive and I love to wrap up warm in crochet and winter boots and go for walks in the evening.

 

Yesterday we stopped by a bakery that sells the most delicious, home made cakes and bought some Christmas cookies.

 

 

 

When it's cold out there is nothing nicer than being at home with a cup of something hot and some sweet treats :)

 

 

 

Can you see the coaster under my mug of coffee?

 

It was one my mom made for me a while ago:

 

 

 

It's so pretty. She had a hard time following the pattern but I think it was worth the effort. It is shaped like a lily and she made it in the colours of the Spanish flag especially for us!

 

~

 

I'm not a big magazine reader...apart from crochet ones of course :) But my mom reads a lot and often cuts things out of them for me.

 

A while back she gave me this cut out:

 

 

 

 

It is a step by step guide to making a pin cushion.

 

I've seen a few of these on craft blogs that I visit and always thought how pretty they were so I just had to give it a go!

 

I got the materials together :

 

 

 

 

Technically this is an upcycling project because the fabric I used it from an old t shirt. I have a new craft related addition to add to the ever growing list

 

1. Yarn

2. Hooks

3. Buttons

4. Beads

5. Fabric

 

and now

 

6. a huge stash of old clothes

 

I look at them and think that the fabric would be great for an upcyling project so I put them to one side and now I have a huge  mountain of old clothes!

 

I told my dad about this and he added to my stash with 47 of his old silk ties! 47!!! They are really nice and I want to use them for something specially so I am searching pinterest for a great idea to use them with.

 

Anyway, back to the pin cushion....

 

The pattern called for a perfect circle and I am terrible at drawing on fabric so I came up with a solution:

 

 

 

 

I used a huge mug as the template!

 

 

Sewed the pieces together with my machine and then by hand added some purple thread to finish it off:

 

 

 

 

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

 

x