Chester the crochet cat and Taffy the crochet bear help with Hedge Trimming!

Hello

It's that time of the week again! I shall be visiting Handmade Harbour for the fantastic Handmade Monday Link Party later but first I must start by thanking you for your comments from last week, I read them all but didn't get the opportunity to reply to them this week.  I love receiving them though, so please don't stop!!

Unfortunately no makes this week so I thought you may like to see what Chester and Taffy have been up to.  I'll just give you a quick update on the WIP first.

Hobbycraft
This project is still progressing slowly!  I have a lot of measuring to do in a moment which probably will involve maths too.  Ugh! not my favourite bit of the project, but very necessary.  I am hoping to go and collect the yarn tomorrow, providing the supplier has the correct colour in stock (no I can't tell you what colour it is yet!!!).

Kidsilk Haze Stripe Cardigan
Also progressing slowly!  I'm half way up both fronts now but I think it may have to be put on hold if I get the yarn for the Hobbycraft project tomorrow!!

Chester and Taffy
And now to see what these two characters have been up to.  For those of you not yet familiar with Chester and Taffy click on their individual links below and all will be revealed!

We had some major hedge trimming to do this weekend so enlisted the help of Chester and Taffy!  Or should that read hindrance!  Chester was quite useful as he is rather tall and could reach the high bits but as usual Taffy was up to mischief and no Uncle Martin in sight!

Onto the BIG machine now - just need to fill it up with petrol!

Uh Oh!  Look who's on the scene now!

What have you got in your hand Taffy?

No Taffy!  This is not helpful at all!

(There is no real petrol anywhere near this picture.  

NEVER put matches anywhere near petrol)

OMG what was Taffy thinking of!

That's far more helpful Taffy!  

Thank you for clearing up the mess!

Now what are you up to? You'll get stuck!!!

What did I tell you Taffy?  How do you think you're going to get down now then?

Perhaps best to leave him up there, he can't get into any more mischief up there can he?

Well somehow he got down!!!!  I tell you it's worse than having children!

You need eyes in the back of your head!!

I hope you have enjoyed Chester and Taffy's antics.

It made us chuckle and we knew what was coming next!

Hopefully this little picture gallery has helped brighten up your week or maybe

it will put a smile on your face for the week to come!

Have a good one, whatever you are doing!

Bye for now, see you next week :)

Works in Progress

Hi everyone

Not got anything finished this week so I'll have to bring you up to date with my WIP's.

You may remember from a previous post I bought 3 balls of Kidsilk Haze Stripe.  Well I just couldn't resist making a start - despite not having a clear idea of what I was going to make.  I searched high and low for a suitable pattern but nothing ticked all the boxes.  I wanted something sloppy and snuggly.  I needed something to keep my interest but not too complicated so the colours would be lost in the pattern.  And to cap it all a lot of the garment patterns appeared to need more than the 3 balls I had bought!  So what did I do?

Well I decided I would design my own, but as I didn't know how much yarn I would need I decided to start off making a wide scarf to see how far the yarn would go.  I chose a chevron/ripple pattern to give me a bit to concentrate on but also show off the colours and I liked the wavy edge!

As I progressed it looked as though the yarn was going to go a fair distance so I have now decided to turn it into a cardigan/jacket (I made sure the scarf started out wide enough for a jacket from the beginning).  I am a good half way up the back and probably no more than half way through the first ball so hopefully, if I use 1 ball for the back, 1 for the front and 1 for both sleeves I may just get away with it.  I can always buy 1 more ball if push comes to shove!

I think you'll agree the colours are looking rather scrummy and it feels lovely and snuggly on my lap when I'm working with it! Hopefully I should have a bit more to show you over the next few weeks.

I'm also about to start another hat.  I did one for when I demonstrated crochet in the new Hobbycraft Store in Kingsteignton but for some unknown reason I didn't take a photo!   The pattern came from the book Love to Crochet and was the Sloppy Joe Beret.  It's crocheted in Rowan Cocoon, a lovely soft dk yarn.  The previous one was in blue but the lady I'm doing this one for chose cream.

Cream should go with a lot of things and it should look lovely when it's worked up.  Once again I'll show you a bit more in a few weeks.

One thing I did finish today though!  It's a bit Heath Robinson, but it will do the trick.  We are trying to get organised for a camping trip and our camping cooker has been packed in a very tatty cardboard box.  Each year it gets tattier and tattier.  It must be about 15-20 years old now.  So today, I got my sewing machine out and made a 'bag' for it!  We had been given some waste yurt canvas which is perfect for something like this, is very strong and doesn't fray so no need to finish edges and seems (nice and quick!)  I did have to stitch a few pieces together to get a big enough square of fabric and the same with the straps as not one piece was long enough, hence why it's a bit Heath Robinson!

But I think you'll agree, as I said at the beginning, it does the trick!

Well that's all from me this time so I hope you have all had a good week.  I'm off over to Handmade Monday now to see what you have all been up to :)  Bye!