A Little Catch Up

Hi, once again its been a while.  I am finding it more difficult to follow blogs and to blog these days, it is mainly down to the fact that I have become a little bit addicted to using my iphone and ipad for everything.  I know its possible to blog from a phone and ipad but it's just not for me.

I am getting my fix of crafty goings on from my little Instagram family so I rarely venture into blogland these days.

I did start this blog as a little online diary of my makes and goings on, so I am not quite ready to give it up just yet.

In my last post I mentioned my first ever knitted jumper, well I did finish it, after much frogging and a bit of swearing I have a completed garment.  It is very thick and covered in sequins and to be honest I can't see me wearing it much (I know, what was I thinking) but it will be a good cover up when the cold comes back.

 Knitted with a crochet rib band.

 I finally managed to make something from my ever growing pile of 6" squares

Its my mish mash blanket in tones of pink and grey. It's been a WIP for a long time but I'm glad to have it finally done and dusted. It seems odd making blankets in this weather but it's made a nice garden blanket this summer.

Still on the crochet theme I was delighted to make a little gift for a special little girl.  My gorgeous friend had her precious baby girl christened last month and I was honoured to be asked to be her Godmother.  I made this bunting for her christening cake table, 

 here it is insitu with a stunning cake hand made by Sophies Mum and Granny,

 isn't it special?

The last of my crochet makes was a long string of bunting for a friend of mine, Lynda.

Lynda is embarking on a new business venture, I just have to share her stuff with you but that deserves a post all of it's own.  I will be back to share tomorrow but here is a sneak peek at one of her designs I have recently completed.

 

 Back soon, promise.

Well Hello There

Once again it's been a while.

With the changing of the season from Winter to Spring I have been busy making changes.  My youngest boys are now 14 and have very little interest in our garden so this year we have decided to take the garden back and make it nice.  

All of these years there was no point with four boys playing out there but as they have no interest in the outdoors we chucked the trampoline and took back the back 1/3 of the garden.

I must admit most of this is down to the hard work of my husband, he has planted it up with potatoes, onions, cabbage, broccoil, lettuces, pumpkins, rapspberries etc and we have been repairing hedges, adding new shed and gates and now it is somewhere I want to spend time.  

This has involved a bit of crafting too, hubbie spotted this in one of my magazines and asked me to make one, if you have ever had a wasps nest in your home or outbuildings you will know it's not much fun.

This is supposed to deter wasps, as they are very territorial and will not come within a certain radius of another nest.  

Behold the waspinator!

As part of the garden tidy I wanted an insect hotel, I love bees with a passion and want to do what I can to invite them into my garden. 

Hubbie once again came up trumps and made me this, a bee/insect hotel! The irony of an item on one side of the shed to keep insects away and another on the other side to invite them in is not lost on me!

This year my Hubbie decided we should get some chickens, and I can't say I was terribly enthusiastic but...

 Here they are, Henley and Billie our two girls.

 They just love corn it's like chocolate cake for hens!

... I love them, they are the funniest little things and I just love to sit and watch them bobbing about.  They are so friendly and inquisitive and so easy to look after.  A wonderful bonus is that there are two fresh eggs waiting for us each day!

The need arose for a sturdy bad to hold their grit and corn so I got the oilcloth out and ran two little bags up.  Every room in my home now has at least one handmade item in it, including the shed!

I have been pottering on with my crochet in the meantime and am making good progress on my first ever knitted jumper. 

 I have frogged this back so many times I've lost count!!!

 I hope to be back soon to show you a completed garment.

~ ♥Giveaway Winner ♥ ~

Thanks again everyone for joining in my little giveaway, I was blown away by all of the entries, there were 141 in total across blogger and instagram!

I wrote you all down in a list and gave you all a number and the random number thingymajig picked No 133

~ drum roll please.....

Winner ~ Shelley - All4meggymoo (via instagram)

Please email me your address (kandipandi@live.co.uk) and I will send some goodies your way!

Thanks for entering everyone x

~ ♥ Back Soon ♥ ~

~ ♥ Giveaway Time NOW CLOSED ♥ ~

Well today is my 3 year blogiversary.

Although I find less time these days I do enjoy reading blogs and getting to see your makes and gathering inspiration and ideas, it is something I could not do without.  I have come to know many of you through your blogs and Instagram and I have made some great friends along the way.

As a little thank you for following and bearing with my ramblings, I would like to offer up a little giveaway.

I just bought myself this book and really love it so I bought another to offer to you.  I have made a little knitted wool pin cushion inspired by the makes in this book. 

I will add a couple of other little treats in there too.

To be in with a chance to get your hands on my goodies please follow the simple rules below, no jumping through hoops required :0)

Simple Rules:
This giveaway will run on both blogger and Instagram.

To enter the giveaway you don't have to follow me but I do need to be able to contact you. If you don't have a blog or instagram account please leave a valid email address.

Blogger - Just leave a comment on this post and I will add you to the list. 
Instagram - Please repost the giveaway photo and link to me so I can count your entry.

If you have your own blog and if you wish, please add my button to your sidebar and link to this giveaway and I will add you again. Please let me know if you do and I will add you twice.

I will draw the winner one week today on Tuesday 16th April and post out the following day!

~ ♥ Good Luck ♥ ~ 

A wooly catch up

I've been busy hooking up a few little easter gifts and though I would share them here, first up is little 'Lynda the Knitting Bunny' made for my Knitting Guru friend, made from the pattern here.

I made a little crochet spring / easter bag for my friend's little girl. 

Sophie is just over 6 months old and too little for chocolate so I bought her a few books and thought a little bag might be nice to give them in. 

I made this up as I went, it is just a big rectangle of alternating double crochet and treble crochet lines finished with a simple scallop at the top and a couple of curvy handles.

The daffodil is from an Attic24 pattern.

 Whilst the hook was out I did myself a couple more 6" squares for the CannyCAL crochet-along.  Hopefully at this rate I will have another crochet blanket to show this year!

 Check me out in my favourite position, feet up with my slippers on!

I've made extra squares that are not on the CAL just to keep up the momentum as I need to have this blanket completed this year!

 

Back to the knitting and my shawl kits finally arrived and I have made a start, but I am struggling. 

 I don't find knitting comfortable at all I have very tight shoulders after a short while, I am persevering for now though. 

In the meantime I made some knitted gloves from this pattern available from the same designer on Ravelry.

  Now I really enjoyed making these and didn't find the tight shoulder thing happened at all.  

They are not perfect and they did take me a while but I am in 

love with them.

Excuse the weird photo but they are hard to model!

I am wearing them with my Colour Affection shawl which was a special handmade gift from my talented friend Lynda and I adore it! I'm very much a pink stripe girl it seems!

I still love my little place in blogland and this Tuesday is my 3 year Blogiversary. To celebrate I would like to host a little giveaway, I will be back on Tuesday to share.

Back Soon

My Knitted Garment - or not!

So I mentioned that I wanted to knit a real life garment, well I have taken the first step and bought the wool (there is more than I have shown here).

It's Rowan Alpaca Cotton and its all fluffy and soft, however...

something is stopping me taking that first step and casting it on. I have the pattern and the needles and all the trankelybobs I need just not the confidence I guess.

I had a word with myself and thought, RIGHT! I must make a start and so I made myself a new 'knitting project bag' to put my as yet non existent knitting in!

I'm hopeless...

I used some pretty Cath Kidston Cotton Duck (I bought ages ago) and used some thick grosgrain ribbon that I had kept from some packaging.

I didn't use interfacing I only lined it as I wanted it to be soft and floppy, I intend to have it sat by my side as I knit this elusive garment.

I also made a long pouch for my knitting bits, needles and stitch markers and such, lined in a pretty tilda fabric.

So it's all ready for me take the plunge and KNIT SOMETHING ALREADY!

The thing is, I spotted a pretty pink Ray of Light Shawl and I have ordered the wool and the pattern to make it from The Wool Sanctuary designed by the clever Suzie, so I might start that first.  

Well it is a garment too, strictly speaking...

I told you, I'm hopeless!

Back Soon

Testing, Testing ...are you all still there?

Well hello folks, it's been a while hasn't it?

This is the longest I have gone without blogging since my blog started and I'm missing it.  Life has been getting in the way somewhat and with the discovery of Instagram it seems I'm getting my crafty fix over there.

I've mentioned it before but I have a bad back, it's been bad on and off for 18 years now but this last few months its been very sore and I am struggling with it at the minute.  The result of this is that the most I can manage to create revolves around crochet. Crochet requires no special position or extra equipment and when I find my least painful position on the couch I can crochet to my hearts content!

 My little crochet basket is a permanent feature on my sofa!

I started this in August last year and had hoped to complete it by the end of the year, seven months later it's finally done. It is lap size and nice to cosy under when watching the TV. 

I've joined a crochet-along on Instagram and Ravelry hosted by SewCanny and I hope to create enough 6" squares to add to my pile of WIP 6" and 12" squares to hopefully create another blanket, these are my latest efforts, on a pink and grey theme.

I've been inspired to make a crochet hottie cover by Lynda and Vanessa.  Following the pattern on Vanessa's beautiful blog I made this, if you can crochet it was very simple to make and will hopefully be well received.

Unfortunately it is still cold enough to need a hot water bottle!

Thinking forward to Spring and Easter I made a little Easter Bunny following this lovely pattern.

 Scary?

 Then cute.

 I love her little tail.

Well that's it from me for now. I promise not to leave it too long next time.  I have so many blogs to catch up on it will take me forever but I will try!

p.s. heartfelt thanks to the ladies who contacted me asking if everything was ok as it was so long since I blogged, you know who you are xxx

Back Soon