knitting friends and knitted friends

Today I had a grand afternoon, going on the bus and doing some cafe knitting with the greatest company, Snowy and Debbie. You can see some of Debbie's knitting in the background - a grand project she has in progress! Snowy has a pet cloud called jungle - a knitted cloud! Here is a picture of him sitting on a rock in canada:



I had the best seat on the bus on the way - front row. When I got on the bus was empty too which was strange but nice. I had a funny encounter with some people on another bus who we kept overtaking and being overtaken by. They kept waving to me - I think they thought I was much younger than I am (it might have been the doll that did it). That was quite friendly, but I felt a bit awkward. The scene was so lovely on the coast road though, the sun was shining and the sea was so calm.



On the way home it was the opposite of empty (full) but I carried on my knitting for a while and ignored the hustle and bustle around me. I managed to do such a lot of my knitting I was so happy. I am knitting a red cardigan - it has been a work in progress for about 2 years now, but I have a June deadline to meet. It is easy for me to get distracted these days but I think I am going to try to do a row a day from now on.

There is no romance in this post, but I did manage a little valentines themed craft this weekend which I will share once it's dry! Also this weekend I have been doing a lot of clothes folding - phew!

Happy valentines day if you have celebrated this day of love. x

a little crochet wall hanging

One of my new years resolutions was to do a few more crafts to help brighten up our home.  I moved around a lot in my twenties and I developed a bit of a phobia of owning unnecessary things. And for me purely decorative items were definitely in the category of unnecessary. But now we are settled in our home and able to hammer nails into the wall, I am feeling much more like I want to cosy up  our home a little and there is good reason to have decorative and unnecessary bits and bops.

Recently I have seen some wonderful ideas using textiles to brighten up walls. Not just tapestry and embroidery, but also weavings and applique banners, and crochet hangings.



This week I had a little go myself at a crochet wall hanging. I found a lovely free pattern online for this square motif - the flower power granny square. I thought this was a pretty design and a good one to introduce different colour combinations to. I'd like to use this pattern again changing the number of colours used to see how it effects the way the pattern is picked out.

To turn my square into a hanging for the wall, I just added some pom poms to give it a bit of weight to hang (and I like pom poms. Although I have not spaced them very well so might need to revisit those!) and a little chain stitch handle to the top. I've got it taped up at the moment until I have made it a partner.

Lovely stuff!