Blogiversary!!!

Yay!!! I'm sooo glad you could all make it!!!

So, I guess your all wandering what the big cake/party/celebration is all about? Some of you have guessed correct and some of you were WAY of the mark :-)

Today is the 1st Birthday of our blog!!! So come grab a drink! A glass of Champagne maybe?

 Or perhaps you'd prefer a cup of tea? And let's all celebrate together!!!

I know it probably seems a little "over the top" to be celebrating the blogs Birthday. I just couldn't let it pass without acknowledging the FAB first year Dennis and I have had working on it!

I prepared enough nibbles to munch whilst we chit chat over all things crafty!

 Jammy Dodger, anyone?

Enough party food for all!!!

When I started the blog this time last year, I really had no idea where I was heading. I didn't plan on this purely being a craft blog. In the beginning I tried to keep it much more general....it turns out you can't keep me away from the crochet and crafts!!!

It was really fun to have Dennis join the blog in December. Not only has it been a great hobby that we can enjoy together, It's also been lots of fun working creatively with each other.
Using each others ideas and finding a balance between what I like and what he likes. It's been interesting to say the least. Sometimes we had arguments ( I can get stressy at times), but most of the time we worked just fine and would encourage each others ideas.

So who's for Birthday cake?

I've been working on this cake for the last week or so. I tried to keep it within the style of the blog......I think I succeeded! :-)

Each of the layers has a different theme. A theme based on some of the projects we have made throughout the past year.   

We've had a lot of projects on the go, here are some of my favourite projects and post from our first year. (you can click on the pictures to go to the original posts)

Blankets Galore!!!

Peg Perfection

Crochet O'Clock

Felt Hearts

Jammy Dodger Tutorial

So there you have it! Our first year of blogging, project making and creative craftyness! It's been a great first year! Thanks for all of the support and inspiration. For reading, commenting and giving us lots of LOVE!!!
So glad you could come along and celebrate with us today!!!

Matt and Dennis xxx

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A stripe a day, keeps the grannies away!

Hello Lovelies!! Hope your all having a colourful weekend?!
Look at what the post man delivered earlier in the week!

17 scrummy balls of Stylecraft DK!! I ordered it from Masons last week and was very surprised to have it delivered three days later!!! VERY SPEEDY INDEED!!!
I love to order these Stylecraft assorted packs. Not only are they full of great colours, but they are also amazing value! This bundle of 17 different colours cost me only £25.50 (plus postage), If that isn't a bargain I don't know what is?!

Now I don't want to sound like a 'Yarn Snob', but I don't usually go for acrylic yarns.
My favourite yarns include a nice Cashmere or Merino, so soft and snuggly. The problem with always using fancy yarn.... is the price. It's soooo damn expensive.
So when the budget is a little tight, I find myself looking for cheaper alternatives. Acrylic yarn tends to tick the boxes in terms of price.
The problem I have with SOME acrylic yarns is that quite often  I find them to be just a little too plasticy for my liking. I want my yarn to feel luxuriously soft and not scrunchy and cheap.
For me Stylecraft fits the medium perfectly. Its great value but it doesn't feel like I've dropped down in quality. Its feels lovely and soft. There is such large selection of colours that you can't help but be drawn to it.
This is why I've used Stylecraft for many projects, Its acrylic that doesn't feel like acrylic. Look how wonderfully colourful it is when worked up!:

I ordered my Stylecraft with the intention of making another Granny Stripe Blanket (using the Attic24 pattern). A colleague of mine (Dani) had seen my crochet work and was so smitten with the Granny Stripe, that she asked me to make her one. I'm not usually so keen on making items for people when they know about it. I feel under pressure to get the project finished fast. Instead I like to make a project secretly and give it as a surprise, that way I'm under no obligation to get the project finished by a certain time.
This was different, It was for Dani!
Dani works at the theatre and is part of the wigs and make-up department. She is such a lovely woman! Always has a smile on her face and is so fun and crazy.
Dani and I help each other with our language learning. She speaks to me in English and I'll correct her when she gets stuck. Then she does the same for me in German, it's a win win Situation!
So of course when Dani asked me for a bright (like her personality) blanket, I got straight to work.

Dennis and I have both made granny stripes before. I made mine with Merino the first time around:

Dennis made his with the Stylecraft pack:

As I've just bought the Stylecraft pack, I'm going for a Granny Stripe similar to Dennis'.
Dani told me that there is no rush for the blanket so I'm making this a sideline project. A project that I'm always working on, but that doesn't always have to be my main focus. I hope that this way I won't get bored of it and will have time to work on other projects. :-)

With that in mind I've decided to do just one stripe a day. A stripe is taking only about 20 minutes to complete, so I should be able to fit easily one per day.

With the amount of stripes I'm hoping this blanket will be finished around early September. I'm thinking that's perfect! It will be finished in time for Autumn. So Dani will have a bright and gorgeous blanket to snuggle in during the cold Autumn and Winter months. I cant wait to give it to her!!

There we have it!! Day seven and I'm mid row on my 7th stripe. I'm giving the random colour approach a try, let's see how that turns out!

Have a glorious Sunday!!
Matt xxx

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New Projects (and fake Tulips)

It may have been very rainy in Hamburg, but that hasn't kept us from having a very productive day!
We've received a lot of positive messages about the new design of our blog, which has not only made us crazy happy, but it's also fueling our creativity and encouraging our work here on the blog.
A big THANKS for all the lovely comments and support! We really appreciate it.

We've both been off from work today, and ventured into the city for a hardcore gym session. With the depressing weather it seems that much harder to push ourselves to get to the gym! However, once we were there with our headphones on and our favorite music playing, it didn't seem all that bad.

After the gym we've had a lovely afternoon at home, finishing old projects and starting new ones.

Dennis finished a blanket. It's actually the 'neat ripple' pattern from Lucy at Attic24 but with a little alteration. It's worked through the back loops only, making the waves pop! Another thing you might notice is that's it's in one color. Not very common for a ripple, but I believe it works just lovely and makes it a very calm and 'neat ripple' ;-) The measurements are about 1,80 by 1,20 meters which doesn't really show on this picture. This ripple actually worked up very fast, using quite a thick pure merino yarn, and an 8mm hook!

 And here is a new addition to our apartment, some lovely Dutch tulips...

 ...which are as fake as they could be, but we still love them.

Don't they fit perfectly in our new milk jug?
Notice the little brown boxes full of Matt's current work in progress?
Wanna see what's inside?

A million trillion gazillion granny squares! Made with the fabulous wool received at Christmas.
More on this project as it continues to grow...

Here's a little something Dennis has been trying out. It's not very often he pulls out the knitting needles, but once he gets an idea in his head!

Another thing we're both VERY excited about, and that's an understatement, is the announcement of Sophie Kinsella's new novel! We've both been obsessed with her books from day 1 and we're always the first in line to buy her newest additions. If you haven't read any of her books, we really recommend them. They are one hilarious read and can't wait until next month when this one is released!

Hope you all had a lovely Monday?

and Dennis xxx

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Scraps...

Over the last two years, Matt and I have been working on many many projects. The problem with having two people crocheting a lot, is that you end up with a big collection of left-over yarn! A couple of days ago we had a big sort out of all our yarn and found out how much this actually was. After emptying out all the places where we store our yarn we found out that it's enough to fill up a big garbage bag! But is a garbage bag really the right place for all this forgotten yarn? It's a bit sad to just throw it all away, but then again, what can you make from these tiny little amounts of yarn?

I started to see a little project in this bunch of happy colors! A blanket! I started to experiment a little with some different squares and even tried to knit one! My knitting is terribly slow however and I was sure I would give up on the blanket after 1 day, so I just went back to the very basics: A simple and plain granny square consisting of 3 rounds.

I showed my project to Matt after I'd made about 4 squares, and he came up with the idea that we could both work on this blanket at the same time! I was thrilled by this, since we never work on something together. Every crocheter has their own tension, and the stitches might come out a little different, but with a blanket like this, it doesn't matter! That's the fun of it! Granny squares can adjust quite a lot because of the spaces in between the stitches. You can use a lot of different types of yarn, thick or thin, acrylic or natural fibers. Of course you have to watch out a tiny little bit, no crazy bulky yarn, and no lace weight yarn, but other than that, pretty much any yarn will do!

We chose to join all the squares as we go, which makes it a very easy project to work on! And did I mention how fast it goes when you work on it together? We join one square after the other, and sometimes even have to wait for each other to finish the joining. In 2 days we managed to make 63 squares! I'm really excited about how colourful it's turning out and I really enjoy going through all the scraps and bits of yarn, because a lot of them bring back memories of other projects we've worked on!

It's also a great project to work on besides your other projects. It doesn't take long to add a couple of squares every day or every week. And as long as you use one colour per square, you don't have so much ends to sew in!

Having a crazy bunch of left-over yarn suddenly doesn't seem like such a bad thing anymore. I think we've found a good solution for it!

What do you do with your left over yarn?

Dennis xxx

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Granny Stripe!

The first time I wrote the title of this blog I missed out the 'S' so you almost had a blog entry all about Grannies Tripe! Not sure if that would have made particularly nice reading! So thank God I noticed the missing 'S'!

Well, anyways..... Its here and its done! After weeks of ferocious crochet I now have my first Granny stripe! A delightfully thick and soft blanket to snuggle under and hide from the cold dark nights that are all ready creeping upon us!

You may remember about five weeks ago I posted a little picture of some gorgeous Merino wool I had just purchased at the craft store. Ten yummy shades of Soft Merino by Wolle Rödel and each one of them really was 'Oh so soft!'

 I saw this wool in the store and immediately had to give it a squeeze it looked so luxurious and the different shades available were to die for! The colours were slightly darker than I normally go for. They have a soothing warmth to them and make me feel all Autumny. I couldn't get the thought of having something this soft and warm to wrap up in once winter hits Hamburg.

The problem was that It was so expensive and I really did hesitate before spending a small fortune on wool. Normally I work with Stylecraft, I love to do so because of the great value and vast range of colours. And if I'm not feeling Stylecraft, I would normally take a trip to the wool factory and buy in bulk. Buying at the factory usually comes out much better value than buying 50g skeins on the High Street.
I had a little battle with my conscience and finally decided to go for luxury. It  was kind of a treat to myself since I had just been given a slight pay-rise at work.

So home I went, all ready to start my first Granny Stripe!
I started with the blanket and had decided to give "Random" ago. Not putting the colours in a pattern but having them in random sequence.  This worked out well in the beginning and I was so happy with how it all looked! However, the more I went on the less happy I became. I really didn't want to mess this up!
I found it very hard to place the yellow colour as it would clash with most other shades. I also found  the grey too dark and I really wasn't happy with how it looked compared to the other warmer colours.  I had to make a decision because it was starting to go rapidly down hill. I decided to take the grey out of the blanket and save it for a future project. I also decided to stick to a formation of colours rather than playing chance with 'random'

I 'frogged' my project up until the point I became unhappy.

It turned out to follow a rainbow pattern (how predictable am I?.) I decided to keep the rainbow and started repeating it, but in reverse.

Each night I would come home from work and spend a little bit of time on my blanket. Sometimes I'd pour myself a glass of wine get some snacks at the ready and get down to work.

The thing I loved about this pattern (once again by Lucy at Attic24) was how simple it was and how fast you would see results. In just a couple of weeks I could see I was on the right track towards blanket heaven! It was really nice to work those clusters of double crochet and feel the soft yarn gliding through my fingers.

Each time I would pick up my work I couldn't help but notice a resemblance in its colour to that of the changing seasons out side of my window. It reminded my so much of the leaves that were falling and littering the streets.

Are you ready to see my Autumn/Winter Granny Stripe in full? Here Goes:

90 stripes in total!!! Sounds more than I thought! I may have got a little carried away ;-)

I also followed the pattern that Lucy gave for the border and think that it finishes it off perfectly.

I like how stripy it is, but am totally in LOVE  when it's a pile of stripes rippling over each other in a heap on the floor. It looks so warm and cosy.

This is my favourite picture! It makes me want to jump right on into the stripey warmth. This picture sums up how the blanket makes me feel. I'm in Love!!!

Look how lovely the border hangs over the side of my bed. I think that it looks kind of eligant.
Here it is on my bed with all of the cushions Dennis and I have made! I Cant wait to jump into bed tonight!

Now to crack on with this Bunting........Yiiiiiiiipeeeeeeee!!

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