Goodbye, Bear...Hello, hat!

On Friday, I knew exactly what I had to do. Christmas is coming, I have 3 blankets and a cowboy toy to finish. I consulted my diary and worked out how long I needed to devote to each project.

So far, so good.

I got all of said projects out, checked I had the requisite materials, and faffed about with each for a while. 

All set. Diary rechecked. The brown and brights blanket it would be. 

I made a stack of the finished squares and laid out the partially completed squares with the colours I had chosen to finish them off:

Then, without further ado, I spied some lovely yarn that knits up like Fairisle:

Got out my Jane Brocket 'The Gentle Art of Knitting', for the slouch hat pattern I have made numerous times:

Picked up my knitting needles, and away I went:

I knitted it up in a day, got it sewed, and Ta-dah, a hat that figures nowhere in my diary, on my schedule or on my urgent to do list:

So what in the name of all that's sane, was that about?

I then checked my Etsy shop and found out this chap has been sold, and needs shipping to California:

At that point, I realised I couldn't possibly just send him, but needed to add a little surprise package for the buyer, so got out the old crochet hook:

Finally, I got around to wrapping up the present, ready to post on Monday:

So...Goodbye, Bear. Hello, hat...and absolutely no further ahead with the blanket.

Have a business plan, and resolutely ignore it, that's how I roll! Boom!

Just not feeling the love...

My sister has the most beautiful 6 bed roomed Georgian house that really does look like a feature in 'Homes and Gardens'.  This leads me to always be in a quandary about Christmas presents. What do you get for the gal who has everything?

A couple of months ago, she commented that she really liked the lap blanket I had crocheted for my mum, in pastel colours.

"Aha" thought I, "Christmas is sorted".  So far, so good.

That's where the trouble started. Unlike me, she does not like bright colours, nor does she like pastel, but likes muted colours. So I have been using what I thought were appropriate colours and I HATE the result. It doesn't seem to have any flow or cohesion. I am now at the stage where each row takes over an hour to do and it is driving me crazy. I can't decide whether just to keep ploughing on and finish it, hoping she will like it. Or maybe I should put it to one side, make her another blanket, and come back to this one in the New Year to use on the dogs' sofa?  This is the problem of doing things for other people. 

This just looks dull and uninspiring to me. Especially when contrasted with my own bright blanket:

On a happier, and much brighter note, the blanket for son #1 and Adored Grandson is to my liking.

I have worked up another 3 inner squares in addition to these. They can now be worked up fairly quickly and mindlessly in front of the tv.

Also, as a diversionary tactic from The Blanket Of Gloom, I have 
made another Botany Bear - Holly, who makes me smile.

She seems to get on well with Rosie Posy. They are both being put up for sale on Etsy @ SimplyBearsCraft.

             Any advice about the Blanket of Gloom?

Botany and Baking

I live in a small complex of 6 maisonettes.  We have a communal garden, which is looked after by a gardener. In my non-disabled past I LOVED gardening, and it has been a sadness to see that go. The gardener, however, is lovely. He is planting tulips at my request, and has an abundance of my favourite Sweet Williams.

As it is a beautiful crisp day, I thought I would capture some of the plants that are still giving the garden such colour.

Good old fuscia.  We have been having these jewel pinks and purples for months now, and the bushes are still full of flowers.

Cotoneaster berries, ready for what 

I hope will be a cold, snowy winter.

Rose hips, intermingled with fallen red leaves.

Just starting to acknowledge that the seasons are turning, but...

...not quite everyone is willing to abandon summer!

Look at that glorious colour ...

Just like our wedding candle.

The dish it stands on was commissioned by Whitechapel Pottery and has a quote from my favourite poet, John Donne: "This extacie doth unperplex (we said) and tell us what we love."

Having been outside where it was a bit nippy, I fancied the smell of home baking. Little Fairy Cakes seemed the order of the day.

I have inherited my love of baking from my maternal nana. The mixing bowl I use was her's and she passed in 1982.  There is something comforting about using things that have been loved over the years.

My favourite baking book was a £1 find from a charity shop.

Cakes ready for baking and bowl ready for licking. With no smallies around anymore, I will do the noble thing and lick it out myself!

Cooked cakes finished - some with icing sugar, some with jam filling and powdered sugar, some plain Janes.

Later on, a nice cup of tea and a couple of cakes will be the order of the day.

Meet the critters

Because of my bi-polar disorder,I really do not like being outside the house. Fortunately, we have 4 gorgeous critters that keep me company.

Bodhi is an old dog now...almost 13. He is a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. Fin rescued him in Texas as a puppy. He had been abused and abandoned and had no social skills.  Gradually, he became civilised. He has now been diagnosed with senile dementia, and his behaviour is becoming challenging - sleeping all day, up all night and weeing all over the place.

He is a bit of a barker.

 One of the first instances of his dementia was that when we were out, he literally chewed through half the bathroom door, leaving us £700 poorer after a visit to the vet and removal of 7 damaged teeth. On the plus side, it is easy to give him his arthritis medication - find a gap in the teeth and slip the pill in!

Atos has been with us for 5 months. Bodhi was quite depressed and we thought a companion would help. I spent hours surfing doggie sites on the internet and found this beautiful dog.

He is Romanian. He was a street dog living near a teaching hospital. When they needed to practice sewing up patients, or do experiments, he was pulled off the streets, experimented on and then thrown back out again. This picture from the rescue site shows how cowed and timid he was. Even after being there a while, his ribs were all 

visible.

We fell in love with his photo. Phone calls, visits with Bodhi, home inspection...and then he came back with us.

Right from this first journey home in the car, the boys were bonding.

This is how they like to cuddle up in the evening.

Atos has now become relaxed. He lies in the most unusual position, with his frog like back legs:

He started off very timid and cowed, with his tail under his belly. He is rather less inhibited now!

 

Also in the house are our two cats. Whisper is the 11 year old mother of 10 year old Bradley. Here is Whisper:

On a cushion...

In the linen basket...

On a knee.

She is very cuddlesome, very dangerous to mice, birds and voles, and very happy to shed hair wherever she goes.

Bradley likes to sit on my feet in the evening, and cuddle up by me in bed. She has little to do with anyone else in the house. She is rather bold with the dogs, and will bat them with her paws if she feels they are out of line!

Also in the house are 4 Giant African Land Snails which 

I inherited from my last teaching post because no one else wanted them. I don't mean to be rude, but they are less huggable and photogenic than our furry critters.

Our house has a fine layer of hairs over everything, but I would not be without my lovely critters.

"Product Development"

As always when I have a number of projects that I need to finish, my brain gets all restless and I ignore the projects and start faffing around with something new. That is what happened this weekend, and I am choosing to call it "product Development"!

It all started when I was tidying up this gigantic ball of yarn:

I have used it for squishy teddies on sale in SimplyBearsCraft on Etsy, but I wanted to use it for a dressed bear. It is Aran weight wool and acrylic blend, so I knew the bear would be bigger than my other little bears. I wanted that, so I could make clothes from my Stylecraft, rather than thin cotton.


So I made a head and torso and then couldn't wait to do the rest of the bear, but started making a cardi:

I knew once I started pinning it in place, that it was too big. So I started again, making a beautifully detailed, carefully written out pattern!:

I decided that having arms on the bear would help with the fitting. So I made the arms and used my scribbled pattern, and the fit was good.

I have a nice selection of buttons from Hobbycraft. All these only cost £4.00

I had chosen some fabric, got out my sewing machine and made a pillowcase dress. It looked so wrong that it went straight into the bin!!

Instead, I decided to use this pleated skirt style, but add on a bodice to make it into a frock - love the word frock, it is just so old fashioned:

So now I had the bear, the dress and the cardi. Please note her big, white knickers:

She was all ready. Or was she?

She was missing something...a ridiculously oversized bow, I think:

So here she is, the result of my Product Development - Rosie Posy:

RESULT!