little chefs finished!

Good evening from Ward 7 where the only thing warmer than the soup and tea is the nurse`s smile :)

I`ll be the first to admit: I have no idea how it happened in all the commotion (both snotty males are home, no doubt to give the school and work a little respite for a change) but I managed to finish not one... not two... but THREE projects!

OK, first up is the least successful one. I sewed up the Scrappy Doo pieces I`d knitted the other day - well, I don`t know if you remember the cover of the Wendy booklet I showed you earlier, but my Scrappy looks nothing like the model. I don`t know why, I mean I followed the pattern to the letter, and still: my version looks more like the love child of Ratatouille and Wile E. Coyote. Are you ready for a giggle? Here we go:

I think I stuffed the muzzle too much so it`s a wee bit on the large side - not to mention that I mixed up the arms and legs (by that point I just wanted to finish ASAP and get this thing out of my sight) but Gregory seems to like it... well, he very caringly buried it under a pile of toys...

Next one up is a couple of hats I made for the charity appeal: I have to say, I`m much happier with the end result of this knitting escapade!

And, finally, the big reveal, the moment I`ve been waiting for for a couple of months now (due to other engagements) but it`s finally finished - yay!!!

weekend summary

It`s Sunday night, time to sum up the weekend - so here it is in a nutshell: 

The Snotty Young One (SYO) had finished the third box of mansize tissues by 10 o`clock this morning, so I was forced to go to Tesco again, after spending the bulk of my Saturday morning there (spent a fortune and got a trolleyful again, despite the fact I`d only gone in for another 4 boxes of tissues). The Battery-Operated Husband (BOH) had disappeared somewhere around the garage area on Friday afternoon, and only resurfaced a couple of hours ago - my fault entirely: if I hadn`t kept the coffees coming, he would`ve returned to the house much sooner. (Oh, he`s BOH because he had this 24-hour blood pressure monitoring device attached to him Fri-Sat). And me, you ask? I`m fine, thank you - as long as I don`t have a runny nose, I`m OK, I mean I can still stitch (I just try not to cough all over it).

I`ll show you the stitchy pic in a second - after a quick update on the Scooby story... I`ll be short, I promise, as there`s not much to tell. I spent almost two whole days knitting up the bits and pieces, just to run out of the Scooby brown yarn before making the tail and the two ears. I don`t want to cheat and use a different brown for these, and anyway, I wouldn`t gain anything as I still have to sew up all the pieces. I was so disappointed last night that I started to knit Scrappy instead but then I got bored with it, so today I picked up the little chefs again - and here`s the result:

I`ve finished the cross stitches, done a bit more backstitch and started the "floor" with the tent stitches

Little Chefs update

Just a quick note because I think I might have a cold - that`s the bad news but the good news is that I`m not shivering (yet) vehemently enough to be unable to handle a needle, so here`s how much I`ve done since the last update on my Gran`s little chefs:

I started the backstitch too so as not to be lumbered with the whole lot at the end

Scooby Doo

I`m happy to report that the green pig was/is a great success: we took it to the playground yesterday (and I had to push the bloomin` thing on the swing, whilst hoping against all hope that nobody saw me), and after sleeping with it last night, Gregory took it to school with him today for Show-and-Tell. So all in all, he`s quite chuffed with it - although the first thing he said this morning was that now my next knitting project (for him, obviously) should be a Scooby Doo, because "Piggy needs a friend". After failing to persuade him that I could make the red angry bird or the yellow one (Knitterbees also has patterns for those here), I spent about an hour this morning searching for Scooby - and found this:

Found this on the Vintage Knitting Lady`s website here 

Isn`t the Internet a wonderful thing? My son just utters a wish and within an hour, for a mere £1.50 I`m the ecstatic owner of a vintage Scooby - as well as a Scrappy! - knitting pattern. Whether I can make it for him is another question but at least the first step`s been taken.

I feel a bit guilty for inundating my so-called stitchy blog with all this knitting but it (and especially making knitted soft toys) became my hobby away from my hobby, more so since I started to "work" as a model stitcher. However, today I`ve been a good girl and done a bit more on my Gran`s birthday chefs:

Now I`ve got almost a whole dog and at least half a cat

And, finally, a mixed lot: the mohair beanie on the right is last night`s crop (for charity) and yes, you guessed it, I simply couldn`t resist putting up a photo of the black hat I knitted  for Mummy-in-law - this is the one she`ll get for Mothers` Day, together with this card I made a couple of years ago for a fair and never sold it, but I`m all for recycling... and sniggering at the moment cause the phrase `Here`s one I made earlier` reminded me of Vinnie Jones and Stayin` Alive... And now, of course, I`ll be humming it for the rest of the night, argggghhhhh!

the greedy Green Pig from Angry Birds

This time I promise to be short and sweet: Saturday night I finished the black hat for MIL (I won`t attach a picture here, it looks like the one I`d made a few days ago, only this hat is plain black). Yesterday I spent practically the whole day knitting, and a mere 5 minutes before I had to go and pick the Wee Man up from school today, I managed to finish the green pig I`ve been meaning to knit for a couple of months now. I found the pattern here - thanks again, Knitterbees - and the other day in Dundee I finally overcame the last obstacle too (that I didn`t have light green wool), so here`s the result:

Gregory`s favourite, the Green Pig

I`m finally famous!!!

I wasn`t going to write today but this has just happened and anyway, I might as well celebrate the fact that I have...ta-dah: TWELVE followers! Yes, a dozen! And they`re not all just family any more, lol! Besides, I`ve just spent almost the whole day with my Mummy-in-law and I`ve got a new commission: she saw the hat I`d made yesterday and now she wants one too (before you think there`s something wrong with her taste, no, she didn`t see Gregory`s photo and no, she doesn`t want it in the same vibrant colours, just a plain black beanie). According to my laconic Scotsman of a hubby, she probably needs it for going to funerals - the cheek of him! So, I quickly amended my plans - I meant to stitch the freebie bookmark that came with WOCS?/Crazy last month (?) but 1) we gave her something similar a couple of years ago anyway (not that it matters: she could use a different one in every lovey-dovey she`s got) and 2) I`d rather give her something she really wants or needs. I already started it but as there`s no point in showing a picture of it just yet, I`ve decided to share with you some photos instead which I came across while looking for something completely different:

I forgot to add this on Valentine`s Day - this is the card I got from my wee boy :)

I accidentally found this in the archives, the model I stitched for Bothy Threads, called Sand Castle

Another model for Bothy Threads, a sporty sampler from Kate`s experimental Paddington series

Oh, and I almost forgot: today, in Dundee, I finally found a copy of Cross Stitch Collection 219 (now that 220 is already supposed to be on sale), so I`ve got my little owls where they belong, in my folder (remember? Ticking boxes...) and I`ve seen my Easter cards... OK, they`re actually Lucie Heaton`s, but you know what I mean - so I saw them featured from next month`s issue. Well, I haven`t bought issue 220 yet and if you haven`t either, here`s a sneak peek:

And finally - good job I didn`t mean to write today at all! - another surprise waited for me when we got home from Dundee: my copy of Cross Stitch Crazy 175, with my (well, again, it`s Jenny Barton`s, technically) Baby ABC in it... and for the first time ever, my name is mentioned!!! Yay! I`m going back to knitting MIL`s bank robber hat with the hugest grin on my face!

henna tattoos finished - happy dance!

Well, hello! Today`s a big day for several reasons:

1. I`ve just discovered why I couldn`t format my posts in the past: I was in HTML mode, not Compose - DOH! Well, we shall see the difference now (hopefully).
2. I`ve finished the henna tattoos, YAY! They`ll be in Gold 103, which is the May?/June? issue but until then, here`s a sneak peek:

I hope I`m not breaking any rules here by revealing some big surprise... I just wanted to show how relatively small and "simple" they are - you wouldn`t think that with all the backstitch in one/two strand(s), gold metallic thread, 225 French knots and 136 beads, they each took about 30 hours to stitch. Oh, and from the brownish main colour I`ve used 5 and a half skeins...

However, the main thing is that they`re done now and I`m just back from the post office so they`re on their way to the magazine. Talking about the PO: why is it that when you see something funny, there`s never anyone with you to discuss it with? I, again, ended up giggling by myself like a moron when I saw this: a bunch of 2013 calendars, with this hand-written post-it sign above them, "All calanders buy one get one free". Now, I`m not trying to be cheeky here but once you have the actual word written on every single item you`re selling, wouldn`t it make sense just to copy it? 

Ach, well, sometimes maybe even common sense must take a day off. But not me, oh no! This morning I finished my seventh teddy square, so that`s almost half of my blanket done - now I think I`ll take a break from the teddies and knit some hats before I run out of time for this charity thing... But knitting is only for the evenings when I can hardly see any more: for now, back to Abi`s stitching for Collection (some more teacups, would you have believed it?). Cheerio!