My Week In Pictures

Hello Lovelies!

How are you all doing? 

I'm back to work today and settling back into my normal routine after a rather splendid time visiting Dennis. 

It was a much needed vacation for me and a chance for me to spend some time with Dennis. I miss him terribly when he's away working on the ship, so I jump at the chance to go and visit him.

It was a week of exploring ports, seeing Dennis perform in his shows and indulging in some me time. I managed to read three books in a week!! Thats almost unheard of for me :-)

I've taken so many pictures this week. I wish I could share them all, but that would be one hell of a post and no doubt a tad boring for each of you. 

So I've picked a selection, taken throughout my week as I stopped off in Madeira, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Palma. Mainly nature shots, but I thought you'd enjoy the vibrancy and texture.

I'm rather pleased with the pictures, because of their beauty and because of the memories they stir up.
A lovely time. I'm feeling very grateful!

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Crocheted Candy

Hello there! How are you all doing? 

I'm typing this at the airport as I wait for my flight to start boarding. I'm off on holiday for the week, visiting Dennis on the cruise ship that he's working on. My flight takes me to Gran Canaria and I'll get on the ship tomorrow. A week of  sailing around the Canary Islands, not too shabby.

As I sit waiting for my flight to start boarding I'm feelings rather like a top class business executive.... Nobody needs to know that I'm working on my blog. I'll let everyone believe I'm typing urgent world changing emails. :-)

I wanted to share with you a little more information on this rather fun candy inspired project that I've been working on. As mentioned in my last post, this project was actually a commissioned project from the lovely people at Homespun magazine. A candy themed piece that will appear in a food inspired issue of the magazine later in the year (September, I believe). I don't usually do commissioned pieces, as it tends to stress me out working towards a deadline and trying to make it fit alongside my work schedule. However when the opportunity came up to work with this magazine, I really couldn't refuse. 

Here's a glimpse  at the January edition: 

It's such a great magazine, showcasing a huge range of different crafty projects. 

I was lucky enough to be interviewed for the January edition. There is a piece all about my crochet work in the section "Men who craft". It was a huge honor to be interviewed and placed alongside some extraordinary talented fellow male crafters. 

As you can imagine I can't reveal exactly what I've been working on, as this will appear later in the magazine along with a tutorial/ pattern of how to make a similar project.

Despite not being able to show you the whole project, I thought I could show you a few pictures of the candy I made (the candy forms the decoration to the main crochet project).

I had a great time coming up with crocheted versions of my favorite treats. I made sour cherries: 

Fried eggs! These were so simple to make and turned out rather nicely. I think they are rather cute, a similar size to the real sweets.

Of course I had to make some Licorice allsorts. These classic sweets worked up rather well as crocheted versions. I prefer my crocheted allsorts, as I'm not a big fan of licorice....yuck!

I had to make some chocolate. It's my absolute favorite thing (after ice cream). Chocolate truffles! 

Finally some lollipops. These were a joy to design and make. Not only because I was happy with the end result, but because of all of the crazy colour combinations I was able to use.

I made quite a collection of candy!

The great thing about this commission was that it made me work on a theme that I probably wouldn't have considered working on. It turned out to be a rather fun theme, colourful with endless possibilities!

Ok my flights, starting boarding....I must run! I'll be back in the week with some holiday snaps.

Have a lovely weekend!!

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Works In Progress

Hello there fellow hookers! How are you all doing?

I'm doing great! 

Today I finished a commissioned project that I've been working extremely hard on . It's been taxing work, but I was extremely proud of the results and mailing the project off to its recipient gave me a great sense of satisfaction. 

This commissioned project was a rather fun one, as it was candy inspired. A project that had only a theme as a guideline and the rest was left up to me to do as I pleased. 

Jolly exciting for two reasons:

1. because I love to crochet and 2. because I have a rather sweet tooth and looooove candy!!

I had fun coming up with designs and playing with the vibrant mercerised cotton that I had chosen to work with.

I made all sorts off sweets and made sure to include my favourite sour cherries and gummy fried eggs. Not to mention also making chocolate truffles, boiled sweets, liquorice allsorts and swirly lolly pops.

This candy project has kept me busy, but I had to keep a couple of other projects on the go at the same time. I didn't want to get bored of working on one project now did I ?! :-)

I've also been working on a couple of pillow cases for a good friend of mine. 

Truth is they have taken me far too long to make (I was asked for them months ago!), but I am almost done with them and should have them completed within the next few days. 

They are very simple,

Rows of thick Tunisian simple stitch, in a deep navy blue:

And some big bold buttons to finish them off:

I'm looking forward to having them all done, not because I haven't enjoyed working on them, but because I'm embarrassed at how long my friend has had to wait for them. 

Oh well!!! The wait is almost over Sasha!! 

Another project swimming around in my brain, has been one of a team effort with Mel from yarntree.co.uk.

Mel sent me this glorious Merino yarn that she has hand dyed in a rather scrummy shade of grey. 

Its so luxurious! I love receiving yarn all wound up in a skein and then enjoying unraveling it and winding it up into neat little packages.

I'm very much enjoying playing around with it and can't wait to share with you all what I've come up with. 

Finally my last W.I.P is something I've been spending a lot of time on and am very excited about! You may have notice in the left sidebar, a button linking to my "crochet library", well I've been hard at work on it and hoping to have it fully up and running sometime next month.

Its a helpful video resource, containing helping hints and tips to help with your crochet work. At the moment it's very basic and mainly showing people how to begin crocheting, but I do plan on working on some more advanced techniques as it progresses.

It was very daunting standing in front of a camera and filming myself. A little frustrating and awquard at times, but I hope it's a way to interact with you all and for you all to put a face to the person writing this blog.
Heres a sneak peak, its my introduction video to "The crochet Library". I'd love to hear what you all think?

Sooooo....As you can see I've been busy. I'll share each of these projects with you in a little more detail once they all near completion. Until then.... Happy Weekend!!!

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