Slight design change

I've been working away on my red scarf and have run into a problem. I've run out of yarn!



Now, I did consider frogging it but that would be rather painful given how much effort it's taken to do. Then I had a look on ravelry to see if anyone else had the same yarn in their stash and could be persuaded to sell it. Nope. Ok, how about a different colour?



Hmm, nope, not quite right. Needs something darker and more contrasty. I know!



Fab :-D The purple yarn is a little softer than the red because it's not spun as tightly (it's left over from my Capricious cardigan) I think if I do about 2 inches of the purple yarn then together with the 4 inches of red I'll have a nice looking scarf and it will be lovely and cosy for my Dad.

I'm hoping to finish it this week and get it posted it so I can do finished photos in a week's time after my parents have got their scarves. My Mum reads my blog so don't want her to know exactly what she's getting. If I can get the scarf finished fast enough I'll do some work on my crochet Christmas tree and then I'll have something to show off this friday. The ironing basket and housework will just have to wait, there's crochet to do! ;-)

Weekend Breakfast

Mornings in our house, like many other families with young, school-age children, are rather busy. They want their breakfast immediately, you want to stay in bed for another 10 minutes, they want to watch tv, you want them to get their clothes on first... It's busy and a little crazy, breakfast tends to be a bowl of cereal or some toast.

At the weekend we have more time. It doesn't matter if they spend a while watching tv in their pj's while you have that extra 10 minutes dozing. Breakfast can be more leisurely, you can put a bit more effort in. Today we made Cranberry-Orange Breakfast Buns from Smitten Kitchen.

Oh my!



The prep work was done yesterday evening. This morning I just put the dish in the oven for half an hour.



The recipe suggests orange icing to go on top so we added that too



So pretty!



The centre is gooey, sweet and citrusy



They were very very good! And filling too, we've got half the dish left over for breakfast tomorrow, fab :-)

WIP Wednesday

Brr we've started getting frosts at night now, Winter is definitely getting closer! I guess it's a good time of year to be a knitter or crocheter. Lots of warm scarves and hats and snuggling under blankets, what could be better lol.

I've been working on a scarf for my Dad. I wasn't happy with the knitted version I posted about on Monday so I'm now crocheting him one.



Doesn't really look like I've done much since Monday does it. How about if I told you it's sock yarn, a 3.0mm hook and I'm crocheting it along it's long length rather than the short...



Is that slightly more impressive?

Ok, it's not really, I'm not the fastest crocheter in the world and I've been a bit busy these past few days. I'll have to try harder lol.

A couple of weekends ago I started making this pattern for a Christmas tree. I've almost finished it really but I messed up the number of branches in one section so frogged it back a bit and put it on a shelf in time out. I've almost forgiven it so hopefully I'll get it finished off soon ;-)



I'm looking forward to decorating it :-)

I'm trying to finish off some long running WIP's and I've promised myself that when I've finished off a colourwork cardigan which I cast on AGES ago I'll let myself cast on a pair of socks in this yummy yarn. Hopefully it will motivate me!



What do you do when you've lost motivation for a project? Do you force yourself to work on it or just put it in time out for a bit until you're in the mood again?

I'm linking in with Tami, Ginny and Nicole this week so hop over to their blogs for more links to what other crafters have been up to this week :-)

Searching for inspiration

I promised my parents I'd make them each a scarf/shawl as a retirement present. I've finished my Mum's shawl so I thought I'd cast on for my Dad's. I was originally planning to make the Checkerboard scarf but the brioche stitch, the thin yarn and my inability to concentrate properly at the time meant I was finding it far more complicated than I could be bothered with and not looking how I wanted it to



It's gorgeous yarn (from Posh Yarn) and in my opinion it needs something simple and textural to show it off best. Ok, back to the drawing board, or rather back to the stitch pattern dictionary. How about a simple k5 p5 basket stitch?



Grr still not right. My tension is all over the place and it just looks messy and yuck. Plus I'm having doubts about the whole concept of knitting a 5ft scarf using 2.5mm needles and fingering weight yarn :-S

So I log onto the laptop, make a pot of tea and have a read through some blogs. I see Country Maison has just posted about a crocheted scarf. Now there's an idea... maybe lengthwise instead of doing the short horizontal rows. The natural texture of the crochet will look a bit like a ribbed one and show off the yarn nicely. Plus I can make sure it's the right length and then just keep working it until the right thickness or until the yarn runs out. Perfect!

A slight problem though. A certain flur baby has decided to take over my lap and, well, I'm pinned down!



He is beautiful though :-)



I think I'm going to get frogging and then start hooking. Once I've had my cup of tea and escaped from the cat of course ;-)

Found my rainbow

After a rubbish week with hospital visits and a trip in an ambulance it's been nice to have an afternoon walk with my family



As you can see my littlest boy is perfectly cheerful and has no idea how much he worried his parents!



He also rather likes his new hat :-)





We all wrapped up warm and went for a walk round our local country park





A certain young lady has lost one of her gloves somewhere in the playroom so borrowed Daddy's instead!



Daddy didn't seem too bothered lol



A rare photo of me! And I'm wearing my new shawl too :-)

















Walking like geese apparently...



  



A good day :-)