dolly dimple knits

Parklife

Following the current fashion for park photography (Lis and Kathleen), I give you .......

Wilo in the park. We actually have a perfectly good garden I could have taken this in but hey, ever the follower of fashion :0)

I'm pretty pleased with the way this has turned out. (This is a better close up picture of it). Crochet for me has only been an occasional edging so this is my first EVER entirely crocheted project.

What I'm not so pleased with is Rowan's yarn quantities AGAIN. They say you need 3 balls of Kid Classic and 2 of Lurex for this project but I only used 1½ balls of Kid Classic and a tiddly amount (less than half a ball !) of Lurex. WHAT is going on here ?? This happens to me all the time with Rowan patterns and whilst at one level adding to my stash or having enough to do another scarf is not a problem, as their yarns get more and more expensive I could do without all the over-estimating.

I'm beginning to think they work out how many balls you actually need and then add 1 of each just in case you have funny tension and it goes wrong somewhere .... tho' that is a thought, maybe I've gone wrong somewhere ??? Don't think so though, it looks pretty much like the one in the picture and it measures the right length so I think it is a sneaky marketing ploy, preying on the knitterly fear of running out of yarn. Fat chance with their patterns :0)

I've also been working on Dolly for my neice. Being a lazy so and so I did decide against beading the whole thing but instead I did this round the bottom of the sleeve

Here's the overall effect. (There was going to be a gratuitous iron shot in the background for Kay (check the entry for August 12th) - but then I realised you could also see the gratuitous ironing pile and that's enough to frighten the horses !)

I'm still thinking about baby gifts and I'm kind of drawn to the little snowflake (it is a Winter baby !) blanket in this DB book. I could even do it from stash - if I swapped the colours around and made it blue with cream snowflakes - so I can't help but think it's meant to be ....

Speaking of things meant to be, if you haven't already heard about Oliver, go, read about him here RIGHT NOW and help get that boy a set of wheels. I've been lucky enough to meet Oliver twice and apart from being a bonafide, in the flesh, major cutie - he is an absolute wick with a wicked sense of humour and a very infectious laugh. I dread to think how Emma and Allan are going to keep up with him once he's got his freedom ;0)

Someone else who's got her "freedom" recently is my pal Kathleen. Check out her new blog - see ? Fab knitting AND the ability to translate Phildar patterns for linguistically challenged friends. What more could you ask ?

Anyway, enough from me. Thank you for the kind words from those who picked up that I was feeling a bit down recently (you know who you are :0)) but don't worry - I have hidden shallows and being down in the dumps never lasts for long whilst there's wool around to distract me so I'm back on track ;0)

Playing Catch-up

So far, August hasn't been much better than July when it comes to blogging. I have been SO busy but sadly, not busy with fun, interesting things. Busy with dull, boring work things, family things, health things and not a whole heck of a lot else. I'm just not feeling the joy at the moment folks, so I need to do something about that.

One of the things I've done is discovered a new skill which has extended my crafty repertoire a bit. I can now crochet ......... wait for it ...... lying down.

To be honest, I had dismissed most of Rowan 38 as utter mince. Just not my style at all. But then I spotted this in it.

I think I'm getting a bit obsessed with spiral scarves because I just had to do it. So I have. I've worked mine in this shade of Kid Classic and I've got some Lurex stashed away in a deep wine shade that I think will do the centre trim.

I'm loving it so far. I should finish it this weekend and I'll try to post pictures then just to try to get back into the blogging habit.

Anyway, what with being a bit stressed out I haven't been sleeping, so rather than waste my time lying about being cross with myself for not sleeping I have been working on my spiral scarf - which led me to discover I can crochet lying down in bed watching late night trash TV. Perfect. Try it. You'll love it :0)

Another thing to drag me out of the doldrums is the news that our bestest friends in the world are expecting a baby in January ! They've waited 9 years and then out of the blue, bingo. I am just so excited for them. And for me. 'Cos now I get to knit baby things and better still, WINTER baby things. Yum !

So what should I do ? They don't know if it's a boy or girl so I need suggestions for the most fabulous (non-gender specific !) baby gifts in the world. I'm not aiming too high am I ?? .....

I've just indulged in some of the new Rowan baby soft yarns so I'm raring to go :0)

I'm also raring to go on a little One Skein Wonder for my neice. I've had this pattern for ages and never got round to it but having spent some time in my neice's company recently I reckon it's got sultry, snarling, "I'm so bored", fashion conscious teenager written all over it. Or it will have once I've knitted it up in some black (what else ?) Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk I have lying around. I might just change the edges though ..... maybe some pointy picot edging ?

Actually, know what ? I really don't have time to sit about being fed up. There's knitting to be done !