Thursday 28 March 2013

Crowning Glory

Yay I finally finished my tea cosy pattern hat yesterday and I love it. This is it (and yes I was dead lazy and used the wool ends as decoration instead of sewing them in).....



This is me wearing it......I can cram all of my pink sheep hair into it and it keeps my ears warm against the arctic blasts.....


But.......


...the dog wears it better than I do  :)

Sunday 24 March 2013

Time For A Brew

As if I don't have enough unfinished craft projects lying around I decided yesterday to knit myself a hat seeing as the winter seems so reluctant to bog off. It's a tea cosy pattern (takes me back to tea at my Nan's) and I'm doing it in a host of rainbow colours cos I'm past caring how much of a tit I look 



I'm hoping to get it finished by tomorrow so at least I get to try it out in the arctic conditions when I'm out with the dogs. It's inspired me to recreate the stripey jumper I first knitted way back in the late 80's. It was perfect festival and 'alternative' lifestyle attire. You can just about see it in this rather awful picture 


That's me aged 19 at the 1988 Reading Festival. Ahh those were the days. Drinking cider, living on Pot Noodles and arriving home unwashed after 4 days in a field full of hippies.

Saturday 23 March 2013

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

It's been a manic few weeks and far too long since I put sarcasm to 'paper' and blogged about something inconsequential. Diabetic Dog has now turned into DD who also has Cushing's and to add to that the poor old git has had a serious bout of Pancreatitis which saw him spending 48 hours at the Vet's on a drip. After a rough 10 days he's now recovering and I'm planning a bank heist so I'm ready for the next lot of horrendous Vet bills. 



Naff all has been happening on the job front so I'm now being true to myself and applying for slightly more bizarre jobs such as Mother's Helper and Support Worker which a lot of people seem to think would be the last thing I'd want to do for a living but I'm getting more good feedback from these than I am from the zillions of boring Office jobs I'm wasting my time chasing after. We don't all aspire to wear suits, work 9 to 5 and earn 5 or 6 figure salaries so watch this space.

This chap left me this week for his new home and it was a painful parting...



He is a gift for someones adult Goth son. I really hope he likes him and hopefully I get some more orders . There are currently 2 more in the making - 1 for me as a stock piece and 1 for a friend as an advert for my skills - dare I say that? Anyway, the dolls are available to order - several styles to choose  - from £20.

I've also been busy crocheting these little fellas...


Owls seem to be the current trend and I tweaked the pattern to produce penguins as they seem to have quite a fan base too thanks to recent BBC programmes. I'm also making these to order though at the moment I'm trying to make a dozen for the village craft fair! I can't take credit for the pattern, that has to go to this lady whose blog I follow and whose tutorial I used 

http://bunnymummy-jacquie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/easy-crochet-owl-tutorial.html

The village is once again buried in snow - it's late March for crying out loud! I did my bit and wielded the snow shovel this morning to clear most of it from the paths and drive. The dogs enjoyed a mad plough across the field - it was up to their chins. I didn't enjoy having to remove tennis ball sized clumps from their feet when we got back. I felt really sorry for the lambs who didn't seem to know what had hit them as they tried desperately to shelter from the drifting snow and freezing cold winds. I wonder if the BF would notice me sneaking a few into the house to keep them warm? Not a lot else has been going here out here in the sticks. My car passed its MOT - phew. My motorhome is still up for sale and I just wish it would go now as it's a bit of a burden. I still religiously attend craft class every Wednesday though we seem to do more chatting than crafting. These village elders as I shall call them are all mad as a box of frogs and have more interesting tales to tell than most people would give them credit for. It is my weekly dose of happy. I've been asked to help host the May WI meeting - bit taken aback at that honour. Marches meeting sparked a lot of ladies interest as we had a very nice young man come to talk to us about wilderness survival skills and native awareness. He then attempted to make fire on the Parish Hall carpet! I'm also going to be delivering the Parish News every month. This means that me, the Athiest blasphemer will have to set foot inside the village church. I'm sure I'll survive.


Thursday 7 March 2013

Bela Lugosi's Not Dead

He is alive - in the knitted sense of the word, and sitting on the kitchen table waiting for me to grow a pair of balls and embroider his face.



Here he is looking a bit bald and scary with a Jimmy Hill chin going on and freaking my BF out ! What a wimp.


That's 25" from the top of his head to the tip of his Gothy black painted toenails (only joking)


Now he has hair he reminds me of Pete Burns before he changed gender and got a trout pout. Seeing as I was very reluctant to take on this project I'm actually very pleased with him but I do still have to sew on his ears and embroider his facial features (Yikes!!) The person I've done him for is chuffed to bits with him so maybe this is my saving grace. I can crochet without looking but knitting requires a bit more concentration so I don't get to think about the all of the trash that's stressing me out at the moment (no job, endless applications, diabetic dog, car, van, blah, blah, blah). Knitting as Therapy Rocks. More Goth dolls are in the pipeline and I may even stick them on a well known handmade website. I do believe I've knitted my ideal man, maybe I can create somebody elses :)