Knitting By The Sea

Loom Knitted Cup Cake

 Loom Lady has a pattern for a loom knitted cupcake. I haven't loom knitted since I was a kid and was surprised to find it back in fashion. It is something I might explore when I have a little more time.

Mirabilia Christmas Flourishes

A little before Christmas I broke off from stitching on Purple Perfection and took up Mirabilia's Christmas Flourishes, which had been abandoned years ago as too difficult to see. I set up my magnifying lamp and made some progress over the holiday.

 

This was how much I had done before I abandoned it.

 

And this is with the aid of the lamp and the Christmas break.

The first photograph is a better representation of the colours. I must experiment with the camera, I hadn't noticed how much the colours were distorted.

If ever I finish it, it should look like this.

Crochet Poinsettia

 Visit Planet June for this fantastic Poinsettia pattern

Eeyore Bookmark and a Sock Surprise

Recently my friend on Goodreads sent me a surprise pair of socks. I'm wearing them now and they are really cosy.

Eager to thank her and surprise her in turn I made her a bookmark. I was worried that it might not get there, what with the postal strike and me forgetting to put a return address in case it got lost on its way to Sweden from the UK but I needn't have worried, I was astonished at how quickly she received it and  posted a photo on her Goodreads page.

It's such a long time since I "allowed" myself a bit of stitching time and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it. I hauled Sleeping Beauty out and put some more beads on. This picture was taken a while ago and all the stitching has been finished since then. Just the beads to finish and then, instead of the obligatory wait for umpteen years until I get around to having her framed, I will find a framer and hang her in the orangery.

Nintendo DS 100 classic book collection

I recently purchased the Nintendo DS 100 classic book collection, mainly for reading at the hairdressers and such like. There is a hilarious article about it at EuroGamer.

For anyone that's interested, there is a list of books included, at Wikipedia, and I have added them all to my Goodreads "nintendo" shelf. I discovered that I had already read about 26 of them. Only 74 to go.

Exercises in Knitting

A group of volunteers at Librivox have been adding illustrations and patterns from the book, Exercises in Knitting by Cornelia Mee, written in 1846.
Exercises in Knitting - KnitWiki.

Chrochet basket of veggies

Sugar n cream have published a great free crochet pattern for an assortment of vegetables and even the basket to put them in.

Mini knitted hats

I've only just heard about The Big Knit by innocent drinks. I don't shop at Sainsbury's, I can't face the Lancaster traffic, and so have never stumbled across an innocent bottle wearing a knitted hat. Basically, people knit little hats, send them to Innocent who put them on innocent bottles to be sold in Sainsbury's and for each one sold they donate 50p to age concern.

 

There are some little hat patterns on Innocent's site but people have fun inventing their own as well.

Completed String Bag

My Daughter says that my completed string bag is far too small, but I am happy enough with my first attempt.

Crochet Sring Bag

At last I have found some patterns for the type of string bag I remember as being stuffed into pockets and bags when I was a kid. This pattern is from 1933,   way before my time but it's interesting to see how fashions come around again and again. There is another pattern here for an Crocheted eco-friendly carryall. Lidl are selling big balls of chrochet cotton for £5.99. I joined the scrum yesterday and got one, the one I got has a slight metallic tint running through it.