Yup I am still here...

39 weeks, 2 days and counting!  I am still here, waiting waiting waiting and getting larger and more uncomfortable by the day.  Every twinge gets me thinking that things are about to get going, then...nothing.

*sigh*

So the crochet fest continues!  A hat for baby Bonnie, our newest neice who was due the same time as our own but arrived over two weeks ago.  Jealous, me?

The sockathon also continues, the latest are a pink pair and a green pair...

These are already in envelopes winging their way through the royal mail to their new owners :)

So, I will no doubt see you all tomorrow, or Monday, or the next day!  At this rate it could be a December baby after all!

xx

Cosy feet

Apparently snow is on its way so I made myself my own pair of slipper socks to match Hubby's and Lillia's.  Now we shall all have cosy toes when the white stuff arrives.

Yellow is my absolute favourite colour so they had to be yellow :)  I mixed some soft acrylic double-knit yarn with the same aran yarn I used for their's.

Perfect.

On the hook is the next pair - aran with a deep purple this time...

I am slightly addicted to making these.  Every time I finish one pair I think of somebody else to make a pair for and a fair stock of these socks are slowly piling up in my Christmas present basket!  And lets face it I have plenty of time to sit and make them - with just over a week until my due date I am still here at home waiting for signs that this baby is going to make an appearance. I have been so convinced all the way through that she would be early that now the due date is approaching I am beginning to doubt my instincts!
Still, wtih Lillia at school for a large portion of each day it has been nice to enjoy some nice quiet time on my own before the whirlwind of a newborn arrives.  In the kitchen some homemade bakewell tart...

I still can't believe I actually made this, it's totally divine!

And also some fresh pineapple...

I think I'd have to eat about ten fresh pineapples to actually stimulate labour of course...but at least it's tasty and healthy :)

Crochet socks, cake and drugs.

I have to take my daily dose of steroids with food, it says so on the packet, and there's nothing to specify what kind of food...

...so I figure cake is as good as anything else :) 

And whilst I sit munching away on cake and steroids I have taken to absorbing myself with quick and satisfying crochet projects that make me smile.  It started with hats and has progressed to...socks!

I found the pattern on Ravelry and it can be found here, it is quick and easy and the socks are so cosy and..well..funny!  I made a nice big pair for hubby first of all using aran yarn...

Despite some initial skeptism he has worn them pretty constantly around the house since I presented them to him.  I then mixed the same aran yarn with some soft pink double-knit and whipped up a cute little pair for Lillia...

It's safe to say they are both delighted...

...not least because they can have skidding competitions on the kitchen floor!

I am already working on my own pair (can't be left out) and there will definitely be more being made as Christmas gifts :)

Hats

My step-mum is currently undergoing a very aggressive form of chemotherapy for an aggressive form of breast cancer.  As a result she is losing her hair and has taken to wearing hats.  I made her a lovely pink crochet hat which I then promptly forgot to take a photograph off before she headed off on a mini-break to Paris with it! 

But now I have a bit of a hat bug and Ravelry does nothing to curb the problem with all its lovely free patterns.

So first I used up the rest of the Wendy Serenity yarn I had left over from the Li'l Monkey blanket and made myself a lovely winter hat using this pattern....

My mum then tried it on and has requested one for herself, so I may have to attempt a trip into the Outside World today and get some more yarn.

I love this pattern, it is utterly fabulous, and it only took about two hours to make.

With all the hat making going on Lillia felt left out and requested a new hat for herself.  So last night I used this pattern that has been lurking in my Ravelry favourites for a wee while and ran up this cute little butterfly beanie...

The early morning frosty light and my inability to function much before 10am didn't help with the photos!

But trust me this hat looks super cool, and most importantly for out little lady - super pink!

It's been nice to pass the time with some leisurely crocheting.  I now 38 weeks pregnant, so due any day, and very uncomfortable indeed.  The baby seems to sit on every internal organ at the same time leaving me breathless and pretty miserable.  Although I remain at home for now my illness is still flaring up quite badly and draining me. Whinge whinge...  I could do with this baby arriving very soon!

£40 voucher winner!

Sorry sorry, I am so tardy in revealing the winner of the £40 voucher giveaway! 

I numbered the comments 1-14, then I used the good old random Random Number Generator and extracted a rather blurry snapshot of the result...

And lucky number 13 is...Claire of The Hookery!  Congratulations Claire!  I will forward your email to CSN who will email you your £40 voucher so you can get shopping!

Thanks so much everyone who commented and left me positive vibes - it seems to have worked as for now I still out of hopsital and actually seeing some improvement to the blasted condition that makes me so unwell!  Still no sign of baby, I will keep you all posted!

xx

Handmade rabbit

On my last day at work my lovely colleagues sent me off with some lovely clothes and toys for the baby.  They know how much I love handmade so the clothes were handmade and beautiful, as well as this gorgeous little bunny...

Isn't she lovely?  She is called "Rag Rab" and she is made by Once Upon Juliet.  Unfortunately they have no online presence that I can find so I can't provide you with a link, but if you live in London they have a stall at Spitalfields Market every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Happy Hooker Backwards Project #38 Completed!

I finished my blanket on Monday afternoon during what turned out to be a rather stressful 24 hours.  So in the midst of running backwards and forwards to various hospitals, having Big Discussions, and dealing with a vomiting 4-year-old we had a new soft blanket to snuggle down with.

Very handy it was too as when the sickness bug hit Lillia's own pink ripple blanket took most of the mess!  So while that was washed and dried she was able to recover on the sofa quite warm and cosy under the new Colour Bar blanket.

Do excuse the rather bad and wonky "voila!" photo!  The light has been terrible and space to lay it out is fairly limited so you'll have to make do...

All in all in took just under a month to do and it was really good fun working through each little coloured pile of granny squares, then laying them all out and crocheting them together.  I used grey yarn and a single crochet stitch to join them, I like the contrast and the pattern it creates...

The yarn, despite being relatively cheap and cheerful, is incredibly soft and the colours are soooo earthy and warm.  Hubby calls it his "man blanket" as it is one of very few things in the house at the moment that doesn't contain an element of pink.

The pattern didn't call for any edging to finish off the blanket but I felt it needed a finishing edge, so I added four rows of single crochet in taupe and green...

It fits in beautifully in the bedroom as I hoped, the colours are perfect.

But for now it has taken up residence with the family on the sofa, which is where I suspect it may stay for a while :)

So here's the lowdown on Happy Hooker Backwards Project #38!

• Cost - about £15 - I bought one ball of each of the ten colours and I haven't used any of them up entirely so there's plenty of left for more projects.
• Yarn - 100% acrylic - various brands.
• Hook - 6mm
• Difficulty - Easy!  In fact this project almost made me enjoy doing granny squares!  Each square is only three rounds so they are easy to work up quickly, which is just as well as there are 140 in total!  I enjoy joining granny squares so I didn't find that much of a chore, but I am guessing others would disagree :)
• Overall happiness with finished object - as usual I am delighted!  But not as delighted as hubby is with his "man blanket"!

So another project is completed, that's 3 out of 40 so far!  Two weeks until my due date, can I squeeze another one in do you think? 

xx

PS - thanks for all the lovely positive vibes and comments on my Giveaway post, and don't forget you have until Friday to enter if you haven't already!

£40 Voucher Giveaway!

The lovely people at CSN Stores have given me another chance to do a little giveaway for my lovely readers - I have a whopping £40 voucher to give away to the lucky winner! Not heard of CSN yet?  They're a UK based online supplier of..well..pretty much everything from wardrobes to wall-art, lamps to cookie cutters.  If you win you can use the voucher in any of their online stores and treat yourself (or someone else if you're feeling really generous) to something lovely in time for Christmas!

I wanted to do a little giveaway of this kind for purely selfish reasons - I need a little good karma to come my way.  I am having a Bad Week.  Considering it's only Monday night you can imagine how rough my day has been!  I am not well at all and could end up being admitted to hospital for the remaining 3 weeks of my pregnancy...I don't want this obviously so I need all the postive karma I can get!

In the absence of any of my own photos to accompany this post, and in honour of winter fast approaching, here are some lovely frosty things I picked out from CSN..stuff I would definitely be buying if I were lucky enough to have a £40 voucher...

Marvell's Ltd Winter Tree Scene Wall Art

KitchenCraft Star Shaped Cookie Cutters

Dar Lighting Gazetta Table Lamp

This giveaway is open to UK readers only I'm afraid as they only ship to the UK, sorry lovely US readers!  All you have to do is leave me a comment (and send a little luck and positive vibes my way of course).  Make sure you leave your email address please, if I can't get in touch with you I can't send you your online voucher!

You have until 7pm GMT this Friday (12th Nov) night to enter.  What are you waiting for?

The view from where I'm sitting

During my first "proper" week of maternity leave now that no.1 is back at school I have spent some quality time crocheting on the sofa.  Not as much time as I would like so far, due the ongoing nesting operation, but a fair amount of time :)

The Colour Bar blanket is coming along very nicely, despite me mucking it up considerably on the first assembly.  I used a 4mm hook when I should have used a 6mm and ended up with a very crinkly blanket that just wouldn't sit right at all.

It took me ages to work out what I had done and you can imagine the reaction of an eight-month pregnant woman with heartburn when I realised I had to rip it apart and start again.  However the end is now in sight and I am pleased to report that a 6mm hook and a lot of patience has indeed solved the issue.

So excuse me whilst I sit here and hook away, it's easier than getting up.  If only someone would bring me a cup of raspberry leaf tea my afternoon would be complete...

Cleaning cupboards

I  have been somewhat distracted of late so you will have to excuse my erratic visits to blogland :)

I have been doing a lot of clearing cupboards, cleaning, sorting, preparing and general nesting. I am a domestic-organisation-zilla at the best of times but throw those pregnancy hormones in and I am like a tasmanian devil with a cleaning addiction. It's exhausting!
 

My kitchen is now fully organised and ready to function seamlessly during the coming sleepless nights...and days.

My cupboards are cleaned, my mugs are organised (important for all the tea drinking I'll be doing) and my little bird from Mairuru will bring a little cheeriness to the long nights and early starts, as will my little collection of teacups which sit atop my cupboards.

And if all else fails, there's always sugar :)

I will return again far quicker next time I promise x