Hello! Dearie me, my blogging had been rather poor of late, hasn't it? Sometimes just life gets in the way. Constant deadlines, a series of annoying little illnesses and a pervading feeling of toddler mess has prevented me from having anything very real to blog about. But, I have been plodding on, having forgotten about Easter until it was almost upon me. I didn't even put up my usual Easter decorations, trying (and usually failing) to make an 'easter tree' with twigs and a jug.
So I dabbled with a few easter crafts, and took some pictures with my real camera, rather than the snapshots from my iPhone I have been sharing lately (you can find me on Instagram, incidentally). I finally got around to crocheting these delightful little egg cosies from
Nicki Trench's book Cute & Easy Crochet. Either my eggs are huge or my crochet is tiny because they wouldn't quite fit on the eggs!
So I switched to a 4mm hook, worked an extra row before decreasing and they now snugly fit around the lovely East Anglian free range eggs. The yarn (L-R) is Rowan Pure Wool DK in: Honey (Discontinued), Parsley, Kiss, Clay, Pier, Tudor rose. All have trim in Enamel, with East of India ribbon 'handles'.
I also tried making macarons on Saturday, using the recipe in the Tesco 'Real Food' magazine. As you can see, they came out quite nicely, but ENORMOUS! I will try using a smaller template next time. But I got to grips (literally) with my piping bag, and conquered my fear of meringues. I might even try it again some day!
I'm now at week six of my #grannyaday project, which I began on March 1st. So that's 43 squares altogether!
The time has flown by, and I think I'm about halfway through my stash now, so I reckon on another 43 squares before working a lovely granny border. I've been weaving in my ends (mostly!) and joining the squares on-the-go, so I don't have a huge, tedious job at the end. Do you love it? I LOVE IT! I am loving this easy project, textural pattern and luxurious, light wool. Beautiful.
My other yarn progress: the back piece of a cropped cardigan I am making from the Sirdar escape DK I picked up at the Knitting and Stitching Show last year. The pattern I am knitting is a vintage one, and I plan to customise the finished cardi with some fabulous buttons (perhaps the covermount buttons from Mollie Makes issue 13), some lace trim and a Liberty tana lawn pocket. Yes, I am excited about knitting a cardigan! My stepgrandmother, Nia, is a lovely lady. She has wonderful manners, is a great conversationist and a handy crafter. She taught me and my sister to knit many, many years ago, then we went and forgot it. She and my grandfather are moving house soon, so I am the lucky recipient of some of her trash/treasure. Including lots of vintage (and I mean 1930s) knitting patterns, and masses of yarn. Some good, some bad. And also this:
When Nia said those words "Would you like the Ercol table" my little granny heart skipped a beat. Of course I said yes, and took delivery of the little beaut on Wednesday. At the moment it is up in the spare room, though it'd look so lovely in the lounge. Sadly our front room is a main thoroughfare and also toddler stomping ground, so it'll remain upstairs until I clear a special place down here for it. Alongside this free treasure in the picture are some more free treasures: a futon from my other grandmother (luckily I am the only one who has ever slept on it prior to my ownership), and you spy there a mirror, rescued from potential skipdom by our dear friend Damo. I've painted it white for this house, and am waiting for a day of 'hanging' so it can be put up, along with those lovely printing/ hot metal/ letter trays there.
I've also taken some time for reading over the Easter weekend. Mollie Makes arrived on Saturday, so I sat down with a cuppa (in my latest Cath Kidston mug) and some jolly nice reading. I also was given the
Little Paris Kitchen cookbook by my beloved for an Easter present. Can't wait to cook some French stuff! I drool looking at the pages- reblouchon cheese, lardons, rabbit, liver salad! NOM! Not one for vegetarians I'm afraid.
And that's it. Quite a lot acheived in the last week, now I look at it. I have a couple of room makeovers to reveal soon, as well as soon news I am absolutely BURSTING to tell you, but I must contain myself for now. On Friday I'm going to
Selina Lake's book launch event for Homespun Style, and plan to make a few Homespun-style purchases. Hope to see some of you there!
xxx
