October Catch Up

If it's true that time flies when you're having fun, then October was truly fun filled for me.  Holy cow! Did it whip by for you too?!
Where September saw my needle and thread out for most of it, October was mostly about crochet.
  I know I say it every year, but the leaves were simply spectacular this fall and I was inspired by all the beautiful colours like these:

Doesn't it just want to make you go home and crochet a tea cozy?

I think it needs a few more acorns, but other than that I am so happy with it.  I actually had to rip the base out twice, and then make a completely different one on the third try.  Thank goodness I love crochet!

I also made a fall inspired mandala for it to sit on:

I thought it was rather 70's looking with all the browns, but at this time of year it all looks good together I think.  It got Mr. Crafty World's praise so that's worth something!
For the mandala I used part of a pattern from Nata's Nest.  On the sidebar you will see lovely links to free tutorials.  I have my eye on another one of her mandalas, and the crochet snails are just so sweet I think.

While in the craft store I found the prettiest yarn from Red Heart.  It's called Boutique Treasure, and the colourway I fell in love with is called Horizon.  As soon as I saw it I wanted to stitch up a cozy fall infinity scarf.  The colours are very fall like I think, without being all about browns, oranges and reds.

It actually reminded me of days like this:

I have worn it a lot already and still love it so much.  The pattern I used for the scarf can be found HERE.  I made mine a bit less wide because the yarn was a bit chunkier.

I mentioned in my last post about a few other projects I had started:  the scarves are growing bit by bit:

Both are made with Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable , using the linen stitch.

My 'Canadian' blanket is growing too:

This is also stitched with linen stitch and is working up very quickly.  I have to put it away now until after Christmas, but I have completed a third of it so far.

I also started another blanket!

These are left over colours from my Lake Erie blanket, and over the summer I started making up a few squares here and there.  I just decided to go for it and start using up all the left overs to get this out of the yarn cupboard.  I have a goal of about ten squares a week:  I need eighty squares all together and then I am going to attach them together with grey and use any left over blues in the border.

I did finally manage to pin down My Favourite Girl and craft our leafy luminaries:

I love how they turned out and I burn candles in them every night.  The look just gorgeous all lit up in the evening.
We used leaves from the dollar store which had to be individually ironed before we could glue them on, but despite the extra work I think these fabric leaves look much more realistic than the ones we saw in the craft store.

By the middle of the month I knew I wasn't going to get any new cross stitch completed.  I finished off this apple that I had started in September.  I was about half way done when I ran out of floss.  The craft store does not sell individual skeins of DMC 115, so mail order was my only option.  I finished the back with the red and white toile in the photo.  I tried to finish it off into an apple shape, but it's a a little hard to see here.

This little black bird is a project I started last summer and put away.  Every once in a while I get it in my head to stitch over one and it always takes me forever!  This is a design from Danybrod in France.  I finished it with some dyed wool; vintage lace, and a small charm.  The pillow itself is quite tiny, maybe two by three inches all together.

And that brings us to the end of the month!  I have started working on some Christmas gifts so I plan to be a busy bee in November.  Thank you all so much for visiting and your kind remarks on my September projects.  I'll leave you with a few Halloween photos.  Until next time,
Happy Days!
Jenn

Between Coats

Hello, hello!  Did you have a good weekend?  I was supposed to have the weekend to myself as everyone else was scheduled to be somewhere Friday and Saturday night. I was looking forward to it because I wanted to get my kitchen painted with no interruptions, etc.  My Favourite Boy's plans got cancelled, but as he is pretty easy-going I was able to do it anyway.  He even cooked the hot dogs for our lunch on Saturday!  I have no dramatic before and after pictures of my kitchen to share:  I went from a lighter yellow to cream.  I'm hardly on trend or anything, but it looks good and I'm happy!  The biggest shock was that I actually lived with one colour for eight years!
During the time I wasn't painting, I worked at a few quick projects.  Michael's has cotton yarn on sale again this week so I picked some up on Friday night to make some Swiffer cloths.

 I use washable Swiffer cloths already, but they are starting to come apart.  I found this pattern on Mary Maxim and used it for my first cloth.  It is made up in three parts, and after getting it together I figured I could do better.  I changed the numbers a bit and just stitched one long piece; then I folded over and stitched up the sides.  Much better and way less ends to weave in!  Each one takes about an hour to make from start to finish.  What I like about these is that you can turn them inside out and use the same cloth twice before washing.  Oh, and they work really well too!
I used Bernat Handicrafter cotton in 'Love', 'Green Dream', and 'Poppy'.

A few months ago I discovered a set of crochet videos on You Tube. Donna has a website as well, where you can see all of her projects and they are linked up to her videos.
The infinity scarf project using ruffle yarn really caught my eye.  Instead of unravelling the yarn, you just treat it like a really bulky yarn and use a large crochet hook.  I bought an 'S' size hook on Friday night, and used it with this yarn I got on clearance for $2 at a local yarn shop.

I bought two skeins and used both of them up to get this:

I really like it!  It's not too bulky at the back of the neck and it isn't heavy either.  I have a lunch to go to on Wednesday and have the perfect jacket to wear with it.  Not bad for $4!

I also made some good progress on my sewing desk, but I will wait to show you that when it's all finished.  It has warmed up considerably here and it really feels like Spring will make her debut sometime in the near future.  Until then, thanks for visiting!

xo  Jenn

Are We Done Yet?

First off, I am having a good January; I really am.  I have been getting things done around the house and lots of stitchy things too.  I'm really, really not complaining.  But...does it seem to anyone else that this month is taking its sweet time to pass?  I would have thought all the activity I have done would make it seem to zip by.  Apparently not so, and I'm getting bored. Bored of the cold; bored of cleaning the basement;  I'm bored of my projects - most especially the ripple blanket.  I have run out of some colours for it:  should I order more or just make it into a 'throw'?  It's lovely, and the dog has certainly been enjoying it:

I didn't want to start any other projects but I felt the need to switch things up and I started this infinity scarf:

The colours are gorgeous, but it's going to be too short for my liking I think.  My Favourite Girl is A-OK with getting another one of her own so it will all work out in the end.

I noticed that everything I am crocheting at the moment is some shade of blue, so perhaps that isn't helping things.  I just got this book in the mail today, and not only am I dreaming of camping again on the shores of Lake Erie, but I am desperate to make that blanket on the front.  I would use pinks, and purples and maybe a bit of aqua (which I will pretend belongs more in the green family than the blue).

I think I will try out Willow Burrow worsted and see how it works up.  I can't seem to find any real reviews of it so I hope it washes OK.

Only one more day to go:  out with the January blues and in with the sweetheart colours!

I'm linking up with: http://chrissiecrafts.blogspot.ca