Basix Men’s Hat - February 2022

​​The first gift of 2022 was for my brother-in-law, who’s birthday is in February. I found this pattern by Canoe Mtn Designs on Ravelry - Basix Men’s Set - Hat & Scarf and had a small stash of MillaMia Naturally Soft Aran, which just feels lush. Always having to think about what to gift people, especially the men in the family, I thought this would be a good gift to make. 

Obviously keeping what I make quiet for those who will be receiving the gifts, I have not posted these projects before, then I got kind of carried away by life and forget about posting them to the blog.

Update! It’s been a while…

​Happy 2023! 

It’s been a good 6 months since I last posted and I haven’t posted for a while because most projects I’ve worked at have been gifts that I couldn’t write about yet. Several have been gifted now and a few more are in the making. I’ve been posting over on my Insta about some of the projects, so go check it out and I’ll come back here for more detailed updates! 

One I posted about in January 2022 and that’s not finished is my first temperature blanket. I ran out of yarn three times! Once in February, that’s when I ran out of my home stash and of course I had no reference to the shade or even the brand of yarn, so had to search for an alternative and failed. So I ended up splitting the temperatures and go on with one shade less. 

Below an image of the second time I ran out of yarn in April. I’ve now caught up to early June, but ran out of the third shade and it was out of stock for such a long time. I’ve finally received it in November. Needless to say I got behind big time. Some catching up to do there… 

There’s another project I posted about on Instagram, but hasn’t finished either. It was supposed to have finished by Halloween, however same thing happened, ran out of yarn and then Halloween had passed before I could finish, so it’ll have to be finished this year in time for Halloween 2023… 

I will post a lot of the other items I’ve completed last year over the next few days/weeks, because I didn’t plan ahead. So I’m going to have to make posts as and when I make something, even if it’s a gift and save as a draft until it’s been gifted, then publish the post. 

So, keep following the blog and see what I’ve been up to in the past year… and in the future. 

Painswick Shawl

​…another project finished.

Well, almost, probably just needs a bit of a block, but I couldn’t wait to share the photos.

The pattern is by Veronika Cromwell of Blue Star Crochet. 

Painswick Shawl pattern on Ravelry

Veronika did her shawl with a gradient yarn cake, I used Stylecraft Head Over Heels All Stars in Saltaire

I really enjoyed making this, it was one of those projects that you could just crochet away without much thinking of following a complicated pattern, once you’ve got the hang of the stitch repeat it was just such a pleasure to crochet. One of those that you can do in front of the TV or even when you’re in company and chatting with people. 

This shawl goes perfectly with the fingerless gloves I made some time ago. Mystical Mitts by HanJan Crochet. 

See original post on my Instagram account 

Grand Gentleman Hat

It's been a while since my last post, I've had several projects on the go as well as the preparation for Christmas, so the Crochet Hat Challenge has gone a little bit on the back burner. I crochet when I can, so there are hats in the process of being made. I will share projects when they're finished as I can't keep up with posting mid project on each Work In Process (known in the craft community as a WIP).

So I finished Hat 6, having skipped 3, 4 and 5 for now, I will get back to them. Finished hat number 6 in the #crochetcancerchallenge by #sweetpotato3 this pattern is called the Grand Gentleman Hat designed by @straighthookedus I decided to go for an all black version.

Of course this hat can be worn by anyone, any gender, but this one is slightly big on me, so will be labelled large for charity.

I tend to post a bit faster on Instagram than here, so do make sure to follow me on Instagram if you aren't already! https://www.instagram.com/flyniccrafts/

 #crochetcancerchallenge2021 #chrochetofinstagram  #chrochethats  #crochet  #crochetaddict

Hat 3 - Crochet Hats for Cancer

Hat number 3 of the #crochetcancerchallenge2021 - this one is Striped Dylan Claire Beanie by @eyeloveknots and was a pattern of the 1st Bonus Weekend. 

I think I am going to redo this one in another yarn as this worsted weight 4-ply Lily Sugar & Cream in white and yellow, seems too rough for a beanie hat. So I’m not going to finish this for now and go hunting for other yarn that will feel better and not too scratchy. 
Still wanted to share that I got this far, so far… 

#CrochetCancerChallenge #cancerawareness
#CrochetForCancer #CrochetersOfInstagram
#CrochetHats #SweetPotato3patterns #EyeLoveKnots

Crochet Interlude

With Halloween around the corner there's some distraction around. Distraction from my Crochet Hat Challenge. Yes, still crocheting, but another crochet project finished. 

This is the 60 minute pumpkin by @nickishomemadecrafts from her #linkedcrochet e-book. It was a fun project to do, probably took less than 60 minutes when I got the hang of the stitch. It was so easy to do! #crochet #crochetersofinstagram #nickishomemadecrafts #pumpkin #halloween #autumndecor

Hat 2 - Crochet Challenge Cont'd.

 Finally finished hat 2 of the Crochet Cancer Challenge organised by @sweetpotato3patterns 

This was a bonus pattern the first weekend, the ‘Adelaide Beanie’ by @crystalizeddesigns 

This one was a bit of a challenge indeed and got half made and undone about four times. Somehow I ended up with more stitches than I should’ve when I was half way through the pattern. I finally sussed what I was doing wrong though. However I am now way behind making my hat patterns, I think I’ll be crocheting these well into November and December… 

Still not sure if I should add a pompom to this one or not. What do you think? 

#crochetcancerchallenge #cancerawareness
#crochetforcancer #crochetersofinstagram 
#crochethats #crochetcancerchallenge2021

Hat 2 - Crochet for Cancer Challenge 2021

The next hat is on the hook… this one is going to be the Adelaide Beanie by @crystalizeddesigns 

I do hope that it is as quick and easy as the previous one, which I made two of in two days! I have loads of this yarn as bought it for a jumper that never got made for someone who has now outgrown that pattern, so this is a good use for the yarn stash. 

#chrochetofinstagram #crochetcancerchallenge #cancerawareness #crochetcancerchallenge2021 #cancerawarenessmonth #crochetforcancerawareness

Hat 1 - Crochet Cancer Challenge

As posted before, I’m taking part in a Crochet for Cancer Challenge. I have been busy since October when the challenge started. This crochet challenge is organised by, and this is Hat number 1 ‘Colors of Courage’ designed by, Christine Naugle of Sweet Potato 3. The first hat was finished on 3rd October 2021 in adult size, these were so easy to crochet, it got me all fired up to do more.

Second hat finished 6 October, yes, really a hat a day! 

This is the same pattern as Hat 1; “Colors of Courage’ by @sweetpotato3patterns but this one is child size. Only because there wasn’t enough yarn to make another adult one. At least one hat gets donated to a cancer charity - I’m still looking for a U.K. based cancer charity that takes hats to give to patients, but if I don’t find one, I will sell the hats and all proceeds will go to Blood Cancer UK and Cancer Research UK as my two chosen charities. 

More hats to come... ;o)

#crochetcancerchallenge #crochetforcancer #cancerawareness #crochetcancerchallenge2021

Back To School…

Back to school is around the corner and I’m seeing mums already post about getting uniforms and such. 

Now my kids don’t have to wear a uniform, so my search for fun clothes is on. Came across these cute shoes…

They come in sizes up to women’s UK 9 

And they get delivered in this cute chocolate milk box 

Shop these shoes now!

Progress on my crochet bag project.

Oh yes, let’s do a crochet post. 

A bit of background; I never managed to master crocheting until about 5 years ago, when I got so frustrated that I couldn’t get my head around it that I was determined to learn, so I did. 

My first project was a granny square based glasses case. This was the first thing I ever made. This was on the 31st of August 2016 (yeah ok I had to look it up on Facebook) 

I haven’t done an awful lot of crocheting since, but got inspired by my friend Monique in the Netherlands showing off her crochet bag. It was a Mochila bag and the bag she had was from Ingrid Eefting of Kralentik so I had a look and my mum and I got inspired to make one and so we bought a kit… this was Christmas 2016 I think from memory.

Since this was a new craft for me and the crochet pattern seemed complicated, my mum was going to have a go at making them… and she couldn’t get her head around it. So a few years ago I took my kit home to the U.K. with the intention of giving it a go myself. Obviously all sorts of stuff happened in between and I made some other craft projects and a lot of them didn’t get finished. So when I finished my rainbow shawl knitting project, I decided the Mochila bag was next. 

The aim is to get something resembling this bag - photo courtesy of Kralentik

It was hard, I struggled getting the bottom straight, just like mum struggled, so I took to YouTube and watched videos and I managed it. 

So this is tapestry crochet, yes working with five threads at the same time, I know, I don’t go for easy… Four of the threads are running inside the crochet stitches and with each colour change the previous thread goes with the running threads inside and you crochet over the four threads. This is the start and the trick is to keep the bottom flat and the lines to go straight… It took some time to figure it out. 

I didn’t stick to the pattern very well, but hey, it worked and it’s ok, my interpretation of the pattern, making it my own… I came up with not enough stitches at the end of the bottom and had to improvise, I’m sure the end result will look ok. 

The next part is working up, yes, we keep working from the flat round bottom and the bag then goes up, there’s no separate bottom that gets sewn into the top of the bag, it’s all in one. Like I said, let’s not make things easy on ourselves… considering this is like my third ever crochet project… 

I’m sure I’ve made more mistakes on this than I could show in photos and even now I have completed the first layer of the pattern I realise I made a mistake all the way around, so I had to decide to either go with it or pull it all out again and start from the bottom… 

My progress up to the day before yesterday is this - see if you can spot the mistakes… 

Let me know what you think in the comments! 

Resurrection of the Blog

Oh such fun!

I found my old blog about 10 years after I last posted!
I'm actually wearing the scarf today that I made on the 28th February 2011, how well did that one keep! I didn't even think it was that old!

Maybe I should resurrect this blog and write some more about my musings. It's been quite a journey over 10 years, the kids are in secondary school now, I stopped working with Mary Kay and I am now focussed on doing genealogy. Getting my qualifications and also reaching out to help other people.

At the moment, as I write this I am 'on duty' on a volunteer web chat service. It's quiet, so I can do other things whilst there's no calls coming in.

I am also creating my new website for my genealogy services. Whilst sorting out all the work I found a link to this blog and thought to just pop in and say hello.

This is literally that, a pop in to say hello and I will try to post more in the near future. See you soon!

October Half Term 2011

This half term is a bit different as the husband is off to Vietnam with my Dad! My mum is here at home with me and in the past week we have done nowt but clean the house, tidy the kitchen, wash, fold & put away laundry and some fun activities with the kids.

My parents arrived on Monday the first day of Half Term.
We took the kids to Tumblers in the morning to meet up with Netmums.
Once at home we did not have to wait long for Mum and Dad to arrive, so the party was complete.

We went Baking with Becky at Bicester Avenue's Wyevale Garden Centre. That was loads of fun, just hours before the men took to the sky in their Singapore Airlines aeroplane on Wednesday. The children made pizza and scary fairy cakes and they enjoyed making them as much as eating them up after!

Thursday was Cupcake baking day at home. The little people wanted to go to the play ground and it was soaking wet, so baking more cakes was the perfect way to keep them distracted!
Note to self: use hard butter at room temperature for frosting in the future!

Friday was big clean day. Mum did many loads of laundry folding and washing when I did the vacuuming all around the house. I ended up going to the osteopath at 5:30pm as I was completely shattered and in pain. His treatment worked wonders as usual...
An early-ish bed for me, whilst the children where no-where near ready to sleep at 9:00-10:00pm. I believe Mum managed to get them to sleep in the end...

Today, Saturday, we had a long lie-in and went for a quick browse at Waddesdon Plant Centre as Mum had never been and she wanted to pick up a nice plant for my sister-in-law. Upon retuen home I had a visit from a garden company who may be able to help with re-planting our garden. After that we went on to Tring to visit the Smith family. Nana & Grandad were there too, so it was a full house and we had lots to chat, catch up on and the kids enjoyed playing with each other. A very pleasant afternoon and early evening. We got home before 9:00pm and the children said they were still hungry so we made some boiled eggs and pasta shapes on toast for them and Mum and I had a fried egg with bacon and cheese. Then kids to bed and Mum went up shortly after. I'm finishing off some work now and then I'll be following their suit! Remember: clocks went back 1 hour tonight!

A very busy time...

I do appologise for not writing anything for a very long time, but I have been extremely busy since March 2011 as I have stepped up as the Chairperson on the Management Committee for our local pre-school. As one can imagine that involves a lot of work and we've pretty much had a meeting a week with the full committee plus an additional 1-3 meetings per week with individual committee members. It's all very challenging, but generally gives me great satisfaction.

Meanwhile my hobby room has been painted and decorated and is now waiting for the furniture so I can finally put all my books and craft items away in the bookcases and new desk. I also have a Horn Sewing Cabinet on order and all will be delivered next Tuesday... http://www.hornfurniture.co.uk/superior.php
My task over the weekend is to make sure there is floor space to put all the new furniture in it's new place.

Amidsts all this we have also made two trips to the Netherlands, once for Easter Break and then again last weekend to celebrate my parents' 40th anniversary.

We've had loads of fun, and of course celebrations go with the usual food, so there was not much of a 'sticking to thhe plan' attitude, but obviously the pounds added up around Easter so I was well prepared for a gain. Unfortunately the 'damage' was about 4lbs. I was not sticking to any plan, so feared all my previous hard work had gone belly-up. Fortunately this was not the case and when I weighed myself the Monday before last (about 3 weeks after Easter & Royal Wedding Weekend) and found I had lost about 6lbs, so was well chuffed, especially after not really following a plan in those 3 weeks.
I find just eating smaller portions and using smaller plates works just fine.
OK - the stress involved with all the pre-school work may have helped as well...
We shall see what the status is on Monday.

Another busy week ahead

Rudolf Day

As part of the Fly Lady Christmas UK yahoo! group some of us are taking part in a monthly Rudolph Day so we can prepare to make Christmas decorations and/or gifts throughout the year.
This month I have been knitting fashionable scarfs. They were easy to make and each one took less than 24 hours to make! The result below...



They are made from 'Creative Can Can' by RICO Design.
Like this, as you see I have another colour...


I was lead to believe that one ball would make one scarf, but I actually made two out of one ball.
So next month I can make 2 more!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Another week...

Goodness, another week has passed. I only weigh in every two weeks, so I have no idea what the damage is this week... though I did get on the scales on Tuesday and found I have lost even more weight...

I placed some orders with Cath Kidston and received some really nice fabrics for some projects I am going to be working on as soon as I have a proper workspace. Lovely fabrics for projects from Cath Kidston's book 'SEW'.

I also ordered some more bits and pieces from a newly found FlyBaby friend's website - http://www.sewbox.co.uk

I cannot wait for my craft room! It just means we have to get the guest room sorted and make it into a multi-function room. We've bought a new guest bed yesterday, one that looks like a normal single bed, but slides out to a double if needed. This will give more space in the guest room.
We will have to break out the built-in wardrobe and put new storage back in and a nice big desk for me so I can have my sewing machine out as well as a computer...

The rest of the house is near to completion now. We've got the new fireplace and the new skirting board in the living room, we're just waiting for the final coat of paint on it and then the carpet can be finished.
The curtains are nearly ready to be hung and I think we have finally reached an agreement about the new lights... difficult as there's so many choices and so little I really like... and what we all agreed on would be the best solution is now not available as they've discontinued the lights. Thanks, Next!

Along with the new guest bed, we also bought a 'Big Girl Bed' for Katelijn yesterday. The beds will be delivered on Tuesday, so we have to get the guest room empty by then. I've put the old bed on eBay as well as our old TV and will do the same with the cot.
Bed on eBay
TV on eBay

Today we will be opening Christmas presents with the extended Smith Family. We were going to hav ethe whole lot here, but as our living room is still not livable and the stuff still stacked in the dining room, this is all not going to happen and we've moved the venue to the Brother- and Sister-in-Law. As I had already bought all the food I have just started preparations. DH is off to the supermarket with the kids to pick up some last minute items as Ocado could not deliver this morning. The house is now empty, so I can sort out the presents.

BBCs 10 Things You Need To Know About Losing Weight

Today SureSlim UK posted on the Facebook Newsfeed a message about this programme that was aired on the BBC last week. I felt compelled to watch and was amazed at the results of some of the scientific tests.

I thought to share it with you all here too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ksh7c

The 10 Things We Need To Know About Losing Weight are:

1. Don’t skip meals. Your body will crave food and will subconsciously prefer the high calorie, high fat foods over the healthy options. Your brain messes with you when you do not eat your meals on a regular basis!

2. Your plate size matters! Use smaller plates and you"ll likely eat less than you normally would but you feel full just the same.

3. Calories matter too. But we"ve all known that for years!

4. Everybody is different, glucose metabolism is key but it"s not the be all and end all! It can be any number of things that are stopping you lose weight.

5. Protein staves off hunger pangs. Protein will naturally help the body suppress Insulin & correct Glucose Metabolism it will also keep you feeling fuller for longer!

6. Soup keeps you fuller for longer!

7. The wider the choice the more you eat variety is good but keep focused on the things that are good for you!

‎8. Low fat dairy helps excrete fat from your food.

‎9. Exercise goes on burning fat even when you sleep.

10. Keep moving and lose weight.

I can also recommend some interesting books on the subject...

Gary Taubes - The Diet Delusion

Mark Sisson - The Primal Blueprint

If you’re on a weight adjustment plan, I would highly recommend these books. There’s others as well, but that’s for another time.

Only gained half a pound!

Well, had my weigh-in yesterday and feared the worse after stepping on my scales at home last Tuesday.

We stopped by the in-laws on our way home on Monday and was offered a biscuit, which I kindly declined. I said it probably wouldn't make a difference as I had probably gained weight over the holidays anyway and the MIL said she thought so and that it was 'noticable'! I felt sooo awful after that remark that I HAD to step on the scales at home on Tuesday morning. I never weigh after having had any food, so only weigh myself in the morning, fresh out of bed, after having been to the loo!

So thinking there would be a 2,5 kilo damage, I found out I had only gained HALF A POUND!!!!!

How on earth is that possible after all the excess at Christmas and New Year and then a week of not being on plan 100% and eating crisps, arctic rolls, biscuits, chocolate and all sorts?
I do not know how, but I am well pleased.

So here's to my MIL who told me it was 'noticable' that I had gained weight..! NOT!! ;o) LOL

The Sewing Diva (and her reluctant models): Look what santa brought me!!!!

The Sewing Diva (and her reluctant models): Look what santa brought me!!!!

Back Home

After a few busy weeks at the family in the Netherlands we're finally back home.

We came home to an extremely cold house on Monday afternoon and we discovered we'd ran out of oil!

We thought we'd be OK until today, but even with the whole system on frost setting the oil ran out. We had ordered a delivery before we went away, but with the snow and cold weather they had run behind. Of course it was a Bank Holiday so no oil suppliers were open.

Mark managed to get a couple of portable heaters from a local DIY shop and we managed to heat up the kitchen, the conservatory (which has electric underfloor heating) and the bedrooms.

Yesterday we managed to get a few jerrycans full of oil, so that kept us going and just half an hour ago our delivery finally arrived, so we're warm and cosy again.

I dared the personal scales yesterday and of course the Christmas and New Year's damage was visible. I have my next Sure Slim UK weigh-in on Saturday so I reserve judgement until then as it gives me a few days to get back on track. I don't expect much, but who knows.

Unfortunately this morning I was cleaning my kitchen scales and the top dropped out of my hands onto the stone floor and shattered in thousands of pieces. Now I have no means to weigh my portions accurately, I have another set of scales, but they are not very accurate, but for now that'll have to do.

I'm going to have to look for some snazzy new kitchen scales now! Any excuse to go shopping really... LOL

The house is still a mess after the decorating that was done before the Christmas and New Years festivities and we had the carpet delivered today. We're still on track for getting it all fitted this Friday and Saturday, so hopefully by Sunday we can re-claim our living and dining rooms in full new decor! I cannot wait. 
The new fireplace is being installed next week and we'll get all the curtains then as well. I'll be glad when it's all over.

I have not done anything creative since coming back, but I did manage to do a lot on the cross stitch work over the holidays. Maybe I'll manage to finish it by March.