This week has been close to a right off….

Crafting wise this week has been close to a right off for me.  At the start of the week I basically slept.  I’ve been gradually getting more and more exhausted over the last few months but I needed to keep going.  Finally I could kick back, turn the alarm clock off and just relax.

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By Tuesday I was starting have more energy, deciding to head out to take a few shots around sunset for my photography ‘Ghost Project’ and that’s where things started to go wrong.  I was eaten alive by bugs, covered and I mean covered in bites.  Annoying as this was I just resolved not to scratch and forget about them.  That didn’t work.  Soon I started swelling and before long I had lumps expanding all over my body and a splitting headache.  You know the bites are bad when even the pharmacist sucks air through his teeth and goes eek.

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Now normally this would be a good excuse to settle down on the sofa and knit.  Except my left hand was badly swollen making knitting uncomfortable.  So as a result not a lot of crafting has gone on this week.  Fortunately the swelling is now going down and I’m starting to feel human again thanks to steroids and antihistamines.

So all I have to show you this week is a small amount of crochet.  Yup, crochet!  Remember I blogged that I’d made a little travel pouch for one of my smaller lenses?  We I decided that crocheted pouches might be an interesting alternative.  Here are a couple of snaps of my progress off my mobile phone.

Frating Knitting Day–November 2011

Yesterday was another of the wonderful Frating Knitting Days.  I know I’ve blogged about them before, but basically they are an opportunity for knitters to come together and do their thing.  Chatting and cake are also involved obviously.  You can crochet as well and people often take wheels to spin.  They’re a wonderful opportunity to just relax and be inspired by your fellow crafters projects.

I didn’t make the last one due to being snowed under with work in September, but I’d been looking forward to this one for a while.  While there I picked up a large 400g ball of green aran weight yarn which I’ll talk about later in the week, but I also won on the raffle!  Now this is amazing as I never win on these things.  All the proceeds went to ovarian cancer research in memory of one of our members who sadly passed away from this horrible disease this summer.

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This was my prize, a book on crochet.  Now I can crochet, but I’m more of a knitter.  I have nothing against crochet or anything like that, I simply tend to gravitate towards pointy needles rather than hooks.  I suspect it’s a confidence thing.  That said this seemed the perfect prize for me.  My mother tells me that my grandmother taught me to crochet when I was a child but I have no memory of it.  However, a couple of years ago our departed friend very patiently sat with me at one of these meets and went through the basics.

Some of the little projects in here look perfect for using up some of those left over bits of yarn that are piling up in the stash.  Making it a perfect way to encourage me to practice this craft a bit more…

Just a little quickie….

Well I’ve been busy or ill most of this week so not a lot of time for any sort of crafting.  I did however get the time to have a go at a stash busting project I’ve been thinking about for a while.
On the coach trip to Ally Pally my friend Irene was crocheting a beautiful bag.  I’m not always taken with knitted or crocheted bags but this one was lovely.  She explained the idea of how to do it (couldn’t believe how simple it was)  and so I decided to have a go.
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Unfortunately when I was part way up the sides I decided that the base was a bit big for the bag I have in my head.  So I decided to make it into a basket / toiletry tidy.  It’s three strands of yarn from my stash worked together.  A cream DK (not sure where is came from) and two balls of Noro Sock for the colour.  I’m rather pleased with the results.  Simple, easy and most importantly stops Salem the cat from playing football with the stuff on top of my chest of draws.