An Extreme Wind Up

Hello everyone!

What gorgeous sunny weather we are having at the moment.  Doesn't it make you feel so much better?

I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front recently as I have been very busy trying to get ready for a 3 day food and craft fair over the Jubilee weekend.  I am going to be using the fair mainly to promote the workshops I will be running soon.  So in order to get people's attention, I am encouraging people to come along and have a go at extreme crochet.  Therefore I haven't really been making much, but I have been winding balls of yarn by the bucket load!!

I have been trying to design some Extreme Crochet kits to sell at the fair, this is what has been taking up my time and unfortunately I have come to the decision that time wise it is just not viable.  I was going to include a pattern, a 25mm wooden crochet hook (hand made by my OH) and 20 balls of yarn in the kit.  Well winding and labeling all the balls took ages to get them looking professional, on top of that you have the time spent making the hook, and the cost of the packaging!  So all in all what seemed like a good idea at the time turned out to be too time consuming, but it took me at least a week if not more to work this out!!

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After much discussion we are still going to offer the handmade crochet hooks, the yarn and the pattern, but I will be selling them separately.  Instead of 20 small balls of yarn I have been busy winding huge balls with 20 strands at a time, this reduces the labeling from 20 down to 1 and the winding is so much quicker.  Rather than measuring the length of the yarn on each ball I have weighed each one at 500g.

I added my cup of coffee just to give you an idea of scale!

So as you can see, my link to Handmade Monday this week isn't strictly correct as I haven't actually managed to make anything over these past couple of weeks!!!  But I hope you will forgive me this time :)

To finish off my post I thought you may like to see a photo of Chester that I took a while back (both him and Taffy have been a bit neglected recently :( )

I think you'll agree - he looks such a cool cat!

See you all again soon, have a good week and enjoy the sunshine! 

Alison 

x

Taffy and the Crochet Cat

Yay it's Friday!  Day off today.  Housework squeezed in yesterday, Tesco later but whenever!

I'll start with a couple of odd things.  Look at these two pictures!  I just popped out in the garden because I was convinced I could see a spot of yellow from the kitchen window and there it was - our first primrose and in January!  The rose has amazed me too, not a fantastic specimen I'll grant you, but a rose in January all the same!!!  This rose used to belong to my husband's, father who I never knew as he passed away just after I met my husband.  It must be somewhere between 35 and 40 years old, my husband can remember it in his garden when he was young.  Not doing bad considering it gets cut back annually and neglected all year!

Introducing Taffy

As promised, I'd like to introduce you to Taffy.  He is the first bear I've ever crocheted so is rather special.  His name was chosen by myself and a few friends on New Year's day.   I was looking for a welsh name as he is made from proper welsh wool (written in welsh on the label even!) so I thought it would be rather fitting!  He has been exploring our garden for the first time.

"I like being outside" said Taffy :)

I'm making new friends too.  I wonder who he is?  Doesn't move much!

Look at me I've been climbing.  Hold on tight Taffy!

Need a rest after all that climbing!  Look at this, a fuchsia in November!  Who'd have thought it?

Oooh errr! Looks cold in there, hope I don't fall in!

Hang on a minute, who's that looking at me?

Oooh!! It's my reflection!  Hope the birds don't come down for a drink!

Taffy is looking forward to Saturday as he is going to the Eden Project http://www.edenproject.com/ I wonder what he will get up to there? Note to self! Remember to come back and have a look next week!

Crochet Cat

Well my crochet cat is growing well. My elbow is beginning to ache and our lounge looks like a woollen mill but apart from that everything is just fine.

I've tried to give you an idea of size in this picture.  I have completed 46 rounds so far. 

I've just stuffed him with some skeins of yarn for the purpose of this photo, so he looks a bit lumpy!  But by taking a photo of him on the sofa I thought it would give you some idea of scale.  I am just about to start decreasing for the shoulders now, so his body will be even taller when I've finished.

Look at this! Without his stuffing he has a 42" waist!!!

And look how much he weighs!  1391g - over a kilo already!

Shall need to start thinking of a name for him, can't keep calling him Crochet Cat! Got any ideas?  Drop me a line!

Right that's it!  Washing machine has stopped and cup of tea needs replacing.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend, here's to lots of crafting and lots of fun!  Would love to hear about any of your creations.  See you soon, byeee! x