Liebster Award

Back in May the lovely Una nominated me for the Liebster award and I've been embarrasingly slow in responding! WHERE does the time go?!

Anyways, the Liebster award is a bit of fun and because I've been so slow I'm not nominating anyone but if you want to join in then here are the rules. If you would like to leave a link to your post in the comments section that would be lovely :-)

1. Post 11 random facts about yourself
2. Answer 11 questions the awarding blogger has asked
3. Nominate 11 blogs with less than 200 followers, add their links to this post and let them know they've been nominated
4. Create 11 questions the nominated blogs have to answer




So here goes, 11 random fact about me:

1. I'm left handed and crochet left handed too but I knit right handedly. It just makes sense to my brain this way

2. My favourite colour is purple, it crops up quite a lot in my projects

3. I used to be able to play the flute to grade 7 standard. I passed my grade 6 but because of bein busy with school exams I stopped taking the flute exams and just enjoyed practicing. I don't really play my flute any more :(

4. I have 5 hamsters and they are kept in massive cages. I also have 2 cats and 4 children. I don't keep them in cages :-p

5. Mr Soaring Sheep and I have been together since I was 17, I think we've got quite a good partnership even if we do sometimes disagree on things like house cleaning ;-)

6.  This year I've been trying to up my fitness by cycling more. My eldest son and I go out 2-3 times a week and average around 6 miles each time. We often go out cycling as a family at the weekends too.

7. We are currently in the process of buying our first house together, I am so excited to be getting out of renting at last.

8. In a couple of years time we want to get a dog. Mr Soaring Sheep and I both grew up with dogs and we want our children to do so too. Currently we like the idea of a rescue staffie

9. If we ever get a garden big enough I would love to get some chickens. I've wanted them ever since I was a little girl and went round to a friend's house who had them.

10. My favourite food is any type of chicken curry as long as it's not mouth-burningly hot! Chocolate doesn't go down badly either ;-)

11. When the children have left home I want to drive round the coast of the UK with Mr Soaring Sheep and a caravan.


And here are my questions from Una :-)

1) What is the last thing you knitted or crocheted?

My last finished project is my Mum's shawl. I tend to have multiple projects on the go though

2)Where would you go on holiday if price was no object?

Whoops, already answered this one, New Zealand. If you could guarantee my safety then I'd love to go to the moon lol

3) Do you think there is intelligent life on other planets?

Yes although I don't know if we will ever encounter it

4) At what age did you learn to knit or crochet?

I was 21 when I taught myself to knit and 26 when I learned to crochet

5) What is your natural hair colour?

Brown, with an increasing number of grey hairs

6) Which is your favourite season?

Spring, when everything starts to grow again :-)

7)  Are you a books or e-reader fan?

Books. I don't have an e-reader and whilst I can definitely see the appeal, I like having a shelf full of books

8)  Do you prefer curtains or blinds?

Curtains generally but depends on the room

9) Are you wearing earrings right now?

Yup, some silver dangly ones my Mum gave me with what looks like a lapis lazuli stone at the bottom

10) Do you have a special crafting area at home?

Nope, I wish I did though. With a cosy chair with blankets and cushions and shelves overflowing with yarn and pattern books...

11) If one person could rule the world, who should it be?

Ooof tough one. I don't really think anyone could rule the world on their own and not be corrupted by it. Maybe Lisa Simpson lol

Lastly, here are 11 questions from me if you want to join in too:

1. Where is your favourite place and why is it special to you?
2. Early mornings or late evenings; which do you prefer?
3. If you could become an expert in a skill by taking a pill, what would it be?
4. What is your best feature?
5. Cats or dogs?
6. Favourite accent?
7. What is your most treasured possession and why?
8. Do you have a garden?
9. Do you have any pets?
10.What did you want to be when you grew up?
11. Do you have any phobias?


If you join in please leave a link at the bottom of this post, I'd love to see your answers :-)

FO Friday - Out of Darkness Shawl #2

Well as promised, here are the photos of my finished shawl :-)  I'm afraid I went a bit snap happy with my camera!



I love blocking lace, it's such fun. And the yarn (Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace)  blocks out beautifully



So vibrant



I didn't have my normal helper around for taking photos so instead here are some of it draped in artistic ways round the garden!



The beads have a silver lining and just GLOW when the light catches them :)








Ooo look a 3 yr old victim model, thanks Squishy!







Pattern: Out of Darkness by Booknits
Yarn: Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace in Cherry I used half this skein to make a Morticia shawl which was blogged here
Project Page: here



Thanks for visiting :-) I'm linking this post up with FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday and Creative Friday.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Finished!

I've finished my Mum's shawl and didn't run out of beads either. Phew!



I've washed it and now it's blocking in my bedroom away from little people. Obviously these photos were taken before blocking!



I've done a simple stretchy cast off and I'm blocking the points out. I love blocking lace, it's so fun watching the design emerge. I'll get some photos of it ready for Friday :-)



My lillies are nearly all open now and smell gorgeous. I keep finding myself gazing at them whilst I'm knitting, so beautiful



I do butcher them though and remove the stamens to try to stop the pollen getting everywhere. I need to go round and do the others soon. I prefer them with the stamens, I just don't like the mess!



I've got a new project on the needles. It's almost finished actually, I'll tell you more about it in another post :) Happy crafting everyone!

Yarn Along
WIP Wednesday

Almost done

Look at these beautiful lillies my son chose for me. I've got another 3 stems in a different vase so my house smells beautiful :-)



It's lovely watching them gradually open up into something beautiful





Today I've been busy with boring household jobs like washing and ironing clothes. I did manage to squeeze in another row of my Mum's shawl. Just 2 purl rows, 1 lace row and the cast off to go now. The lace row will be slow, 3 beads for every 12 stitch pattern repeat...



I've counted and I think I've got _just_ enough beads. Fingers crossed! I might even be able to get it finished and blocked by Friday. I can't wait to see how it turns out :-D

Keep Calm Craft On

FO Friday - Father's Day Socks

Hi everyone, I've got another pair of socks to share with you today. These were intended as a Father's Day present for Mr Soaring Sheep but were 3 days late. He doesn't mind though and is looking forward to wearing them :-)



Check out my new tray, spotted it in the supermarket and fluttered my eyelashes at Mr SS who said I could have it lol. It's going to be used for serving food but I thought the stripes and the blue looked good with the socks



The yarn colourway is called "Gift Wrap" and is from Flamboyance Yarns



The pattern is Jeck by Regina Satta but I changed it a little and worked it toe up instead using my normal 64 stitches starting with Judy's magic cast on then Wendy D Johnson's gusset heel and a stretchy Russian cast off.



I'm going to have a play on ravelry later to start working out which sock pattern I want to knit next. For now though it's the never ending granny square blanket :-)

Linking this post up with FO Friday, Creative Friday and Fiber Arts Friday. Thanks for dropping by, have a good weekend everyone :-)

WIP Wednesday

Well I've been busy, then I've been battling my internet and flickr but finally I can post some photos. I've finished the socks! I will have a FO Friday post for the first time in aaaages :-D



Can't wait to get these babies properly blocked and photographed. The yarn is so vibrant and I love the slipped stitch pattern. It's Jeck by the way, a free one on ravelry. I modified it slightly to fit my normal toe up sock pattern.

So my projects for this week are now my granny squares blanket which has a new row round it since the photo was taken and a long neglected lace shawl



The granny squares I'm working on are actually for the centre of my blanket, I've got some bigger squares to go round the edge. I'm looking forward to laying it all out and joining it together.

The shawl is a Booknits one called Out of Darkness. I'm making it for my Mum but only working on it sporadically depending on how much time I've got to concentrate. My ravelry notes say I cast it on in March, should probably get a move on and finish it then!

Thanks for dropping by, pop back on Friday to see my finished socks :-)

Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On, WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along

Setting goals

We had a wonderful cycle ride yesterday for Father's Day. It was along the route of an old railway line. The route is 14 miles from one end to the other but we only did a section in the middle. We cycled 11.5 miles though which isn't too shabby and we got to walk through one of the long unlit tunnels. Very surreal, you just walk and walk towards the light but can't see a thing and when you think you must be nearly there you look behind you and it's like you've hardly walked at all. I think next time we'll bring some lights with us!

This week I'm going to get Mr Soaring Sheep's Father's day socks finished. I've just got the leg to do now, I think about 50 more rows and then the ribbing so hopefully it won't take me too long if I make the time for it. Fingers crossed I can get it finished to show off to you guys on Friday :-)



If I miraculously have time to spare after finishing the sock I'd like to do some more rows on my blanket centre section. Each row takes a while now though as it's got bigger so there probably won't be much visible progress. Every little helps I guess!

Have a good week everyone :-)

Sunny days

A Father's day card I need to post this afternoon, made using this template.

A cold glass of my first batch of elderflower cordial. Simple to make and absolutely delicious

Mr Soaring Sheep's Father's day socks probably won't be ready for Sunday but at least one of them is finished now!

The first red raspberry of the season is almost ready. Lots more to come though.

Summer flowers, some of which are apparently very tasty for slugs!

Silly girl pulling faces in her Summer dress.

Soppy black cat wanting cuddles in the sunshine.

Gentle days.

Giant Granny Squares

When I last posted I was thinking about what I wanted to do for the centre of this blanket so I thought today I'd show you what I decided. I've gone for 3 half size granny squares in the middle which gives me a gap of 1.5 big granny squares or 3 half granny squares wide


As you can see I am now filling that gap with the same pattern that I have elsewhere in the blanket, 2 rows of each colour and shading from white through to purple


The next colour will be pink and then purple. After that I'm thinking of going back the other way, so it goes pink, purple, pink, red, orange etc. I'm not sure what I want to do for the border yet. Mr Soaring Sheep suggested lots of little granny squares but I'm not sure if I fancy dealing with that many ends! Might have a look through my crochet borders book for inspiration instead.

Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On at Frontier Dreams

Thinking

I've finished the two sets of seven squares and now I'm pondering what to do next



I had originally been inspired by this project and was going to do 6 more squares to fill in the middle. But now I'm looking at it and I'm not sure



(Please ignore that I'm clearly unable to arrange the squares in a straight line! I had a little helper out of shot so was trying to be quick!)

I favourited this amazing blanket a while ago when I browsing on ravelry. But I have 4 x 5 big squares whereas she had 5 x 5 so the centre could be a single giant square.

I might have an idea though, I think I'll play around for a bit to see if it will look right ;-) Crossing my fingers!

Holding my breath

We're at that weird stage in house buying where lots of things are going on behind the scenes with solicitors, mortgage brokers, valuations etc. but we're just waiting. Part of me wants to get started with packing and getting ready but given we have to give 2 months notice to our landlord and we don't have a moving date yet there isn't really much point packing now. Instead I'm sorting through old baby clothes, working out what things we want to keep and finding new homes for the things we don't. I expect once we have a moving date things will get very busy very quickly so I'm trying to enjoy the quiet before the storm



I'm finding it hard to concentrate on just one project which is why I've got 5 WIP's at the moment. I find I spend an hour or so on one and then flit to the next one. Unsettled



My Grace cardigan is almost at the point where I need to start the hip increases. I'm planning on making it a bit longer than the pattern so I need to work out how many increases I need to do. Basically it requires a little bit of thinking so I'm drawn to other easier projects at the momet.



I've turned the heel on Mr Soaring Sheep's Jeck socks so they're nice and simple to work on again. I've got the pattern going all round the leg now.



I've not really worked much on these granny squares this week. I've got 2 more to do in this pattern (changing the starting colour each time). Then I need to pick out my favourite squares to duplicate so I can end up with a 4 x 5 blanket. I've already got 7 squares in the reverse order of colours. It will make sense when I've done it lol.

Hopefully I'll feel less in limbo soon although I guess then I'll be busy packing. Argh!

Linking up with Keep Calm Craft On, WIP Wednesday and Yarn Along

June

Wow, can't believe it's June already, the start of what is occasionally known as "Summer" in the UK :-p This morning I dropped the children off at school and pre-school and came home to a quiet house that is in need of a tidy and vacuum.



Instead of cleaning though I'm going to ignore the mess and have some uninterrupted crafting time. I'm hoping to get a few rows on my Mum's shawl done. It's been waiting for some attention for a while. I've just got the border to do now although I suspect I'm going to run out of beads



I'm so looking forward to getting it off the needles and giving it a good blocking. Best part of any lace project I think :-)

I've also got my ripple blanket which just about fills the screen on my camera now. I think I need to do a yellow row next. I'm having to start repeating colours now although I do have a few that I haven't used. I don't want to have an obvious point where I've started repeating so I'm sneaking them in earlier so it blends better, it's fun working out which one to use next and watching the colour combinations



I'm aiming to finish off my current projects this month. I've got 5 WIPs on the go and they're all in need of some time being spent on them to get them finished off. I want to be able to start on some new projects to work on when we move house in hopefully a couple of months time. Very excited!

Have a good week everyone :-)