Confessions from Brighton

It all started so beautifully ...sunshine, sea, champers, and our hooks of course...

Maybe there was too much wool to choose from...

Maybe the champers was too free-flowing...ooops

...but whatever the reason here is (are) my confession (s)

Skein Queen

Sparkleduck

Fivemoons

Bit more Skein Queen

oops and a bit more Skein Queen

Old Maiden Aunt Yarns

Bit more Skein Queen

Bit more Old Maiden Aunt Yarns

I just keep laying it all out and sighing at its loveliness. Simple pleasures eh? 

Now I have to spend a happy morning going through my Ravelry favourites and plan out some projects...most are destined as Christmas presents so not ALL for me, honest. 

All I know is that it was WOOLTASTIC and I'm already planning on going next year too. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about Brighton Unwind is a new wool festival like Yarndale/Unravel/Fibre East etc...and it's  especially brilliant if you go with your chief hooker - Big Love Mrs E! xx). 

Birthday Bike and Bunting

My gorgeous hubbie promised me a Dawes bike for my birthday back in March but I had set my heart on this particular grey/powder blue version of the Duchess model which apparently hadn't even been made yet for general sale,  so I had to order it and wait.....

...it finally arrived yesterday so I was dropped off at the bike shop 4 miles away and peddled my way home in the glorious sunshine, sporting my Hi-Vis crocheted jacket, of course. Safety first. 

Can't imagine why my 14 year old pro-cyclist son who was accompanying  babysitting me threatened to leave me stranded if I put it on...

I think it went rather well actually; I changed gears and everything. 

Anyway, once home I had only one thing on my hooky mind...BIKE BUNTING!

So I opened a bottle of red, grabbed my hook, logged on to Lucy's blog to use her triangle bunting pattern and hey ho within the hour...ta dah! 

I thought that little HexOwl deserved a spin in the sun although she slept through the whole thing it has to be said. How rude.

Watch this space for more bike bombing...

***STOP PRESS***

I really still can't believe it but...daughter number 2 just came running into the kitchen yelling, "Mummy!! Look what I've found behind the sofa...!!!!". Naturally I expected her to produce a half-eaten-mainly-mouldy-very-smelly-deceased-rodent of some description which my gorgeous cat had deposited there some time ago. But NO! 

It was :

a) Woolly (always a good start)

b) Neither alive nor fetid (very good on both counts)

c) Purple (also good)

d) A bit dusty (bad housewife)

Can you guess what it is yet? 

Well, if you have already read my 'Calamity Cardigan' post in my Ta Dah column you know all about me making a rather time-consuming-labour-of-love-and-also-bloomin-expensive-cardi last year. And then losing the thing in Reading.

No No No!

Or so I thought. 

Yes Yes Yes! Miracle of miracles,  it has just turned up behind our sofa! I am still gobsmacked as I really did think that was it. One dilemma now though. 

I made another one to replace the 'lost' one. ..

...so now I have two....

..why  oh why didn't I do it in another colour? ??

Turtle Tales

Ok, so last year I made a Happypotomus using Heidi Bears' fab pattern

 and have been badgered by my girls to make one for them ever since.

Last September I  raffled him off at our Macmillan Cancer Coffee morning...

 he raised over £60 but  it was goodbye Happy...

WELL, whilst I did enjoy hooking up Happy it was a LOT of work and I have to admit I wasn't exactly relishing the thought of repeating the job for a second let alone a third time....so imagine my glee when a friend pointed me towards this cute Hex-Turtle Pattern, especially since number 1 daughter has a 'thing' for all things 'tortle'...

'Jack Union'

So the Easter Holidays began in beautiful sunshine and I found myself looking after the kids whilst sitting in the garden with my hook...doesn't get much better! This little critter was surprisingly quick to hook up and he was finished within a few days.  I've now started on the Owl so let's hope the sun stays out...