All you need is....

All you need is LOVE, 

BAM BAM BA DA DA.

All you need is LOVE, 

BAM BAM BA DA DA 

All you need is LOVE LOVE 

Love, a crochet hook and a little yarn is all you need!

Hello gorgeous people! Did you have a nice Valentines Day, I do hope so? A dozen red roses and chocolates from your special someone?.....

I was hoping to get this post up to you yesterday, but time really got the better of me. As per usual things have been a little hectic, but hectic in a very good way!
I've been busy playing host. I've had a friend from London come to visit and had a jolly good time catching up and reminiscing on past times. Now my family are here for the weekend! It's so nice having Mum, Dad and my lil' sister here in Hamburg, I'm sure we are going to have a super weekend!

Here's what I wanted to share with you yesterday:

Isn't that a gorgeous sight? A deep red tulip framing a jar of my FAVOURITE crochet hooks. AAAAH HEAVEN! 

Out of all of the different brands of crochet hooks I've tried, these fit best to me.  They are "Knit Pro Symfonie" hooks and I adore them. I've made many a project with these hooks:

Working with wooden hooks seems to suit me best. They feel so nice when working up a crochet storm! They really are my favourite and I guess thats why I'm so excited to be giving them away to one lucky reader.....Yes that's right!!! We're having a little competition/giveaway!!! WOOOOP!!!

This fabulous set of "Knit Pro Symfonie hooks" Could be all yours and it's all thanks to the very kind people at Loveknitting.com. 

loveknitting.com is a fabulous website and resource for all of your yarn related crafting supplies. Sure...It's called love knitting.com but the super nice Helen (who's family run the company) has assured me that they also LOVE crochet and therefore stock a wide range of not only knitting supplies, but crochet supplies too!

They have a large online store full of yummy yarns, buttons, needles, hooks and books:

Sure the store is great, but the thing I LOVE most are the little "extras" that the company has to offer. They pack their products extremely well and mail all ordered products super fast (they know how desperate we are for that new skein of yarn!). 

However, my absolute favourite thing that the company has to offer is an expert knitter in the form of the very clever Natascha. Natascha is there on hand to offer any knit advice or help to "loveknitting's" customers. I don't know many sites that offer this service, but I think it's blooming marvellous! 

Why not pop by the website for a visit? You'll see what I'm talking about!
Their logo is pretty cute also!

So how do I go about winning this fab set of hooks? 

All you have to do is guess how many beads I have in the jar below......Simple(ish)

I'll give you a little push in the right direction. It's more than 350 beads :-)
To enter just leave a comment at the bottom of this post along with:

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

Everybody, anywhere in the world can enter. But please only one guess each! EEEEEK!
The winner will be the first person to guess the correct amount of beads in the jar, or if nobody guesses by next Friday (22nd Feb) the winner will be the person with the closest guess.

I feel a little like I'm working on a stall in a fairground! SUCH FUN!!!

A big thank you to the hardworking team at loveknitting.com for being generous enough to supply this amazing set of hooks.

Best of luck to everybody!!! WOOOOOP!!! EXCITING!!!!!

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

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!

Somebody very cleverly guessed whilst I was catching some zzzzz's! I'll reveal who winner is over the next few days! 

WOOOOOOOOP!!!

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A little bit of love

Good evening lovely people!! I can't believe we're well and truly into the month of February! The first 9 days of the month have flown by and it's only now that I find the time to come and say a quick "hello".
I've been a busy bee! Lots of things going on at work and so my much loved hobby time has been dramatically reduced!
Everything is good though, as I have had a little time to fit in a lovely little valentines project. A project which thrills me bucket loads!
Want to see what I've been working on?
Here, I'll show you:

I've been making some felted hearts! SUCH FUN!
It's the first time I have ever tried needle felting and I have enjoyed it immensely! I decided to give it a whirl after I received some gorgeously vibrant felting wool for my Birthday last year.

I wasn't really sure what to do with felting wool, but after a google search I discovered that it could be felted and formed into many things with the help of a very lethal needle!

I say "lethal" as I have stabbed myself a few too many times whilst working on this project. These needles REALLY hurt when going into your finger! Not only sharp and pointed, but barbed as well!!! OUCH!

As this was my first time needle felting, I read that it would be easier to get a better shape and less stab wounds by using a cookie cutter to help form the desired shape. 

I had seen in a recent issue of "Mollie makes magazine" some very cute felted hearts and decided to also to make hearts. 

The actual felting process was extrmely simple. Tear of a lump of wool and place it into the heart shaped cookie cutter.

Gently stab at the wool until it starts to fit to the cookie cutter shape.
I was gentle at first but once the wool was a little felted I was able to be a little rougher. Great stress relief stabbing at the wool! Stab, stab, stab until the wool was nicely shaped and pretty dense.

Cute huh!

I had a lot of fun playing around with lots of different colours and sizes.  However, in the end I decided to stick mainly to traditional valentines pinks and reds.

Once I had made an assortment of hearts I raided my bead collection for some happy beads to jazz up my little project!

Some little bells for a finishing touch

and pretty embroidery thread to join everything together!

Here's what I made! Cute little Valentines ornaments, ready to hang and send to friends I hold close to my heart.

I added buttons to a couple of them, just for an extra special touch.

This one is for a very special friend of mine, It's my favourite :-)

I'm going to post it off to her and keep my fingers crossed that it arrives by Valentines Day. I hope that when she receives it, it will brighten up her day!

Cute and fun little ornaments to spread a little bit of love!

This post has moved!
You can read an updated and revised version on our new blog.

Click here to read this post in full at it's new home!