Earlier this month, during a moment of weakness, I splurged on some lovely Posh Yarn. 6 skeins of Bonnie Aran to be precise. On a whim I’d decided I wanted to try my hand at making a jumper and oh! What a coincidence, it was the day of the weekly Posh Yarn update. For those not in the know, yarn from Posh is highly coveted and once a week, on a Sunday evening, a selection of yarn goes on sale on their website. Getting what you want can be a bit of an elbow fight but that just adds to the excitement! The thrill of the chase somehow makes you want that yarn all the more.

So I sat there with bated breath that Sunday evening, my fingers itching as I waited for the clock to strike 7 and the update to go live. My heart began to thud as I refreshed and the buy button appeared next to that precious yarn I wanted. Several furious clicks later and… success! The yarn was mine, hurrah!

Two days later and a delicious pink package bursting with yummy yarn arrived at my door. Bonnie Aran is an Aran weight yarn (if you hadn’t guessed) made from 100% BFL wool and wow it smells sheepy! The colour, Another woman’s shoes, is a very autumnal rusty brown and just perfect for this time of year. I’d best get cracking on that jumper then!

Having never knitted anything larger than a sock or a hat, I initially wanted to find a simple, plain-ish pattern to ease me into the world of garment making. Then I fell in love the lacy cable-y beauty that is Julissa. Take a look at the pattern on Ravelry and prepare to swoon. Nothing like jumping in at the deep end!

Early September, my Husband and I took a five day trip to Tallinn in Estonia. We had an amazing time! It’s a magical city full of history with well preserved medieval buildings and a rich culture.

The weather was very kind to us. Although we arrived in the pouring rain the rest of our days were filled with blue skies and sunshine, the ideal weather to explore this beautiful city.

We spent a lot of time walking around the Old Town area of Tallinn admiring the medieval buildings and defence towers. The red roofs set off perfectly by the bright azure sky.

The local cafés were fantastic, so cosy and inviting! The perfect place to recuperate from all the walking & climbing.

One of my favourite places of all that we visited was the Estonian Open Air Museum. We spent nearly a full day there roaming around the old rural houses. It was like stepping back in time.

I couldn’t resist including this picture of a polar bear at Tallinn Zoo. I’ve never seen a polar bear at a zoo before and it reminded me somewhat of LOST!

We took another trip back in time at the restaurant Olde Hansa. The entire place was lit by candles, the staff were dressed in medieval costume and a band were playing ye olde music. Such a great atmosphere . Mark ate bear sausages!

I cannot recommend Tallinn highly enough, I already want to go back. If you’re looking for a European city break and you like history then I urge you to visit, you won’t be disappointed.

I completely lost my crafting mojo this summer. I’m not sure if it was the unusually hot weather we had here in the UK or if I was just distracted by a busy summer schedule but my needles, hooks and yarn were left feeling very much neglected.

Although there has been very little crafting I have had a fantastic summer filled with all sorts of lovely things – festivals, weddings, city breaks, country walks and I even got to attend the filming of the very last IT Crowd episode in London! There has also been the not so lovely task of getting our incredibly old boiler replaced with a snazzy new one. Yay for instant hot water! Boo to the cleaning & redecorating that followed.

Estonian open air museum

 

Left: At Olde Hansa, an awesome medieval themed restaurant in Tallinn, Estonia.
Right: At a wedding in Dublin

 

At Glastonbury festival

My fingers have been resting but I can’t say the same for my bank account, unfortunately! Several crafty items may have been purchased over the last few months but more on that another time.

So now that autumn is upon us and the temperature has dropped considerably my fingers are itching to get back to work. New yarn purchases are calling to me and I have exciting plans to knit my first sweater. Watch this space!

My latest finished object is one that I’m super proud of mainly because it’s my first real crochet project. I started making these granny circles last year with the intention of making a blanket. In fact it was the whole reason I learnt to crochet, I really wanted a lovely flowers in the snow blanket to call my own.

Every now and then I would make a few circles and add them to my growing collection. It was fun to mix colours that normally I would never dream of putting together. I liked naming the colour schemes as I made each one. There was the superman circle, the sunflower circle, the blue jeans circle and OK you get the picture. After crocheting over 70 circles I couldn’t wait any longer, I had to start joining them up to see what my blanket would look like.

But something didn’t feel right, my blanket wasn’t soft or snuggly like I thought it should be. It was actually kinda scratchy and rough. I fell out of love with my blanket idea and I fell out of love with acrylic yarn – big time. So the project lay neglected for months as I concentrated on my new found love – sock knitting.

Recently I lost my sock knitting mojo and found myself drawn to crochet again. This blanket that had been bugging me for over half a year grabbed my attention and the idea struck me that I could make it into a cushion! Most of the work was already done, I only had to join a few more circles, sew up the sides and bingo! A lovely crochet cushion.

So I bet you want to see the finished cushion now don’t you? OK, OK, here it is…

Ta-dah!!

It certainly adds a splash of colour to an otherwise dull sofa. What do you think?

I was making an iCord recently when the idea struck me that if I made one large enough I could slide a biro inside to make a cute yarn-bombed pen. Now I don’t know about you but when I get a crafty idea I have to stop what I’m doing and try it out immediately. Away went my current project, out came some more needles and yarn and hurrah, it worked! As soon as I stitched the end up I knew it would look even better with some kind of embellishment attached. What better than a large fluffy pom pom?

What do you think of my pom pom pens? Would you be interested in a tutorial on how to make them? Let me know and I’ll write one up.