And the winner is........

Hello Lovelies!
Sorry to keep you all waiting in suspense! I was hoping to come and announce the winner of the competition on Saturday evening, but a busy work schedule got the better of me.
Thank you to everybody who entered the competition, it really was a lot of fun and very exciting to have so many people enter. I had over 400 entrants!!
As mentioned in the last post, the winner will receive this rather glorious collection of knitpro crochet hooks, diamond edition!

Who wants to find out how many buttons were actually in that jam jar?

I'm sure you're more eager to find out who the winner is?!
Well........drum roll please........

The winner of this fab hook set is..........

Angie was the first person to correctly guess 324 buttons! Rather funny that in her comment she also wrote that she is "no good at this", apparently Angie couldn't have been further from the truth!
Congratulations Angie!!!

Once again thank you to everyone that took the time to take part. I'll have to do it again some time!

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The Giveaway- Crochet Hook Set

Hello Lovelies!!

I do hope you are all having a jolly good week?

Would you like to see what I bought on Monday?

A gorgeous gift that makes my heart kind of flutter.....

A stylish and sophisticated box, that when opened contains some rather divine, brand spanking new, wooden crochet hooks.

My absolute favourite crochet hooks in fact! I swear by these hooks and have used them in many of my projects:

I find them so utterly comfortable to work with! They glide through your work with ease and precision.

These hooks are extra special though! They not only come in a gorgeous storage box, but they each contain a little decorative diamond at the base of the handle. A rather unique touch.
It appears they double up not only as crochet hooks, but as magic wands as well!

The box is in simple in black and has a rather elegant, golden design on the top.

Inside (again in gold) is the manufacturers logo, Knitpro.

The box is designed to store these special hooks, so there is (of course) a functional elastic contraption that holds each of the hooks in place. 

8 gorgeous hooks in total! Thats a 3.5mm, 4mm, 4.5mm, 5mm, 5.5mm, 6mm, 7mm and a chunkier 8mm hook. One couldn't ask for more!

Here's the thing.....
I didn't actually buy these hooks as a gift myself. Instead they are a gift for you!!!!
One of you gorgeous people could get your hands on this set as I'M HAVING A GIVEAWAY!!
It's been a while since I did this on my blog. I remember last time... the excitement and buzz was a lot of fun! I though it was about time that I did another :-)

So to win this absolutely fabulous set of elegant hooks, all you have to do is guess how many buttons I have in my jar (below). SIMPLE!!!!

To enter just leave a comment at the bottom of this post along with:

• Your guess (How many buttons in the jar above?).
• Your name.
• Where you are from.

Everybody, anywhere in the world can enter. But please only one guess each!
The winner of the crochet hook set will be the first person to guess the correct amount of buttons in the jar. However, if nobody guesses by next Friday (30th January), the winner will be the person who made the earliest and closest guess.

This is SUCH FUN!! Good luck everybody!!!!!

*********************************************************************************

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!

I'll reveal who the winner is later today.

Thank's to everybody that participated, that was a lot of fun!

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Silence In The Snow

Waking up yesterday morning to a bright white quilt of snow was rather exciting. 

I stepped out onto the balcony to enjoy the fresh and crisp air and was taken by how beautiful everything was looking. A true Winter wonderland!

I couldn't let the morning pass without taking a stroll in the snow. I wrapped up nice and warm (two jumpers, along with my pyjama trousers underneath my jeans) to go and investigate my newly transformed neighbourhood. 

Snow and ice clung to everything, adding a touch of magic to the simplest of things.

The ducks were still swimming about in the lake, looking a tad chilly with snow collecting on their backs.

It was amazing to see that snow had collected everywhere...

and created some rather stunning views!
Look at the contrast between the fluffy looking snow and the dark brownish/green of the tree bark.

The little glimpses of colour that I could see amongst the snow were looking so much more vibrant than usual.
Deep greens....

and bright reds.

The colours were glorious! However, what I love most about snowfall is not only how beautiful everything looks, but the silence. The snow seems to soak up all noise. Walking around the lake, hearing only the sound of the crunching snow beneath my feet was rather lovely.

Jumping on my bike and cycling to work was done in complete silence. The roads were deserted and not a single sound could be heard. A perfect time for contemplation.

For me silence only truly happens when it snows. Even now as I sit at home writing this, I can hear the refrigerator humming.  I'm thankful for my silent walk, it cleared my head and calmed my thoughts.
Hope you're all having a lovely calm week.

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Lalylala

Hello there!

I do hope you are all having a jolly good week?

I've been keeping myself rather happily occupied this past week, with a tremendously fun pattern that I purchased two weeks ago. A pattern so unimaginably cute, that I can barely put it into words!

Shall I show you what I've been working on? 

Those of you that know your way around my blog will know that I have a page called "blogs I love". It's a page containing a small list of the blogs that I enjoy reading and visit regularly for a dose of crafty inspiration. Among the fabulous list is a rather enchanting website, Lalylala.com

I discovered Lalylala about six months ago and have been desperate to make one of these adorable dolls, created by the very talented Lydia Tresselt. 

Have a look at what I mean, all of the patterns for these dolls are available for purchase on Lydia's website, she even offers the pattern for one of them for free:

As you can see Lydia is an extremely talented designer and has clearly put a lot of work into the concept and look of her creations.
After a couple of days of trying to decide which pattern I wanted to try making (they all look rather intriguing to me), I finally took the plunge and purchased the patter for Lupo the Lamb:

Photo courtesy of Lalylala.com

I bought myself some Ököwolle by Wolle Rödel, in the colours required for the pattern, cream and brown.

I got to work with the pattern and enjoyed the easy to follow instructions that I had received on purchase.

The pattern called for a yarn that was suitable for a 2mm-2.4mm hook. The yarn I chose is a little chunkier than recommended  in the pattern and is to be used with a hook sized 6mm-7mm. I thought I'd compromise and try working it with a 3.5mm hook. 

The pattern worked up lovely and the 3.5mm hook really wasn't a problem with this yarn. After a while however, I noticed that because I had ignored the patterns recommendation and gone for a hook size larger than suggested, my doll was going to be humongous!

A little too large infact! So I decided to pull it apart and start again.

I started to remake the doll, this time using a 2mm hook. It was a struggle with the thick yarn, but the results were far better. As you can see from the picture below, the end product was turning out smaller and neater (The upper arm is with the final 2mm hook and the lower arm was my initial attempt with a 3.5mm hook.)

I persevered with the little hook and my doll grew:

I have to confess that I had one more failed attempt at this pattern before I finally got it right. I somehow managed to stitch the legs on backwards, so the joining seam of each round ran up the front of  Lupo's body. I really wasn't happy with that, so  I pulled it apart..... It definitely was a case of 3rd time lucky! two failed attempts all because of me being  silly. Definitely no fault of the pattern, as it was extremely well written, with photographs and diagrams.

I got there in the end though and after a few evenings of after work crochet, had completed the torso, legs and head. 

I added black safety eyes to the face of Lupo (purchased on ebay from a German seller)

Looking pretty dandy already!

Of course he needed his hat:

A gorgeous spiral of bobble stitches:

Some ears:

Arms:

and some ome pom pom decoration to finish him off:

I stitched him all together, and he was done!!!!

What a cutie!!

All of the little features added to create a truly special end product, such a well designed and  well written pattern.

Isn't he adorable? I'm totally smitten with him!

I can not say a bad thing about this pattern, it was fun to make, it was simple, but challenged me enough so I still had to concentrate (which I like). He turned out perfect! SUCH FUN!

I'll definitely be making more of Lydia's patterns,  I'm having a hard time deciding which one though? Possibly Carl the Cactus?....or Paul the Toadstool?......Mici the Mermaid?.......

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Hyacinth Pot

There's nothing like making the most of a spare hour and working on a really simple, fuss free crochet project.

I had the luxury this afternoon...... I made myself a big mug of tea and spent my time whipping up something rather cheery! Something that would brighten up my apartment and fill some of the void thats been left since taking down all of my Christmas decorations. 

When grocery shopping on Monday, I spotted this little pink pot of Hyacinth bulbs and had to pop them into my basket. I thought it would be nice to have a touch of Spring at home, to keep me energised through the grey days. 

The bulbs already came in a rather jolly coloured pot, but I thought there was room for improvement and challenged myself to add a little touch of crochet creative flare!

I had a search through my yarn box for my stashed stylecraft yarn and picked an array of glorious rainbow colours. (1083-Pomegranate, 1132-Shrimp, 1081-Safron, 1065-Meadow, 1422-Aspen, 1068-Turquoise, 1432-Wisteria)

Armed with a size 3.5 hook, I crocheted a foundation chain of 40, then joined with a slip stitch to form a circle.
I then single crocheted in rounds. in the beginning I would change colour every round, but later I would change colour every 2nd round. I did this until I had a rainbow sleeve big enough to slide over my Hyacinth pot.

For an extra homemade touch, I found a nice shiny red button to sew onto the middle of my crocheted sleeve. I thought it would add a little extra flare to my pot cover.

There we have it! Bright, bold rainbow colours that compliment the natural green shade of the leaves.

I'm excited to see my Hyacinths grow and look forward to them opening up to reveal which colour flowers they will have.

It was rather lovely working on a small project! Something I could make relatively fast and have results to show for it within an hour of starting it.

Hope you are all having a bright and happy week!?

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