Flowers and candles and bye-bye to Christmas

Last night we lit the Christmas windowsill candles for the last time :(

I love Christmas and I always find it hard to say goodbye each year.  We took all the decorations down today, before we return to work, so we can start a fresh year and month without tripping over baubles and glitter every five minutes.  The house seems so empty.

But it's not all bad, oh no!  Lillia led the way in making clay candle holders, which we painted this afternoon under her supervision and I have to say they are brightening up the fireplace a treat as I type...

How cute are they?!  They make me feel very cheerful indeed :)

So.

Last night I tried some crochet flowers to add to my ripple scarf.  I hadn't expected so much swearing would be created by such a seemingly simple task.  In the end I managed four attempts...

The first one is topsy turvy, the second doesn't look like the picture in the book I used at all (though I quite like it all the same), the third is a bit wonky, and the fourth I really quite like.

It was the topsy turvy first one that cause me all the agro.  It's supposed to be worked in one go, aside from the contrasting centre, and it was when I got to the bit on the pattern where it said, "..working in skipped sts in Rnd 3 and behind petals in Rnd 5, sl st to first skipped sc in Rnd 3..." that I started to get really lost.  I kind of worked it out in the end and was rather pleased with myself until I realised I had done the back petals backwards.

Here's the front...



Here's the side...

And here's the back...

The petals here should be facing the other way, if you see what I mean, so that they curl towards the front, not the back.  Silly me.  Still, it doesn't look too bad and I will wear my little topsy flower on my scarf proudly!

Tonight I am abandoning flowers and strawberries and cream in favour of green wool and a toilet roll for size guidance, more tomorrow!

xx