Valentine's Day Yarnbombing!

I love the idea of yarnbombing - but some of the creations look way beyond me in terms of both skill, time and opportunity, for example:

I look at this and think it's fantastic. But, how did they get the measurements right?! And how long must it have taken?









A friend of mine did this one:

Fabulous, no?












But both a bit beyond me I think. But earlier this year I saw via the One Sheepish Girl blog the suggestion for a Valentine's Day global yarnbombing. And with a do-able heart pattern (that I'll have to search out later!) to hand, I made three. 

So, Valentine's day I took the kids out around our village. The first one we put on the pagoda-type structure where the village yoofs hang out:

I can't remember which one says which, but they say 'You are loved', 'You are unique' and 'Happy Valentine's Day'
















Next, we visited the bus stop. We had to hang around a bit waiting for the bus to come and the passengers to embark/disembark (there's only one bus an hour - typical that we of course got the time when it was due!).

Eldest daughter, my finger and a heart. Notice how the delicately crocheted heart complements the graffiti (including the classic 'X is a peado').










Close up (so, this is the one that says 'Happy Valentine's Day')

(Yes, I did have to check where the apostrophe went, as I do every year for Mother's Day.)












Next, we went to the bench that's near the Kwik-E-Mart shop. In the summer we often sit here and enjoy an ice-cream or some chocolate.

It was quite a cold day, true. 














The bench as we left it:

Not only is it missing slats at the back as you can see, but the seat part is rather bowed as you sit down. One of these days I'll ask the parish council if they're going to replace it. On a related issue, I'd quite like a bench in a nice place after I die. University Parks would be nice, but I suspect you have to be related to the university in some way.





A couple of days later we went back to check what had happened to them, if anything. I was fully expecting at least one to be trodden into the ground (it was particularly muddy weather) - but they had all gone, hopefully to people whose days were slightly improved for finding them.

Knitted knocker

Yes, yes, it's crochet, not knitting, but that doesn't have the same alliterative ring. And there's a pattern for knitting one too!

Again, this was a request to the Woolly Hugs team from the breastfeeding and expressing support team at the Royal Brompton.  Babies born with heart conditions often find breastfeeding more difficult as they do not have the energy required for it and, with many newborn babies being transferred to the Brompton, it is vital they are able to support mothers with this. They have decided knitted breasts are the way forward to help them teach hand expressing techniques, positioning and attachments skills to new mums and to new staff.

Here's my effort:

It was a little odd watching it take on such a familiar shape, and in hindsight I think perhaps it would have been better to do what some of the other crafters did and go for bold colours rather than 'natural' ones. But I had some pink yarn that I knew I wouldn't use, so....











Here's some of the 40-odd knockers that MN crafters made queueing to get into the delivery box:

See, fab colours! (I think that's mine third from the box.)







The knitting pattern can be found at the bottom of the Woolly Hugs website page, here and the crochet pattern can be found via DillyTante's blog, here.

Disclaimer: I'm not a so-called 'breastfeeding Nazi' (the most inaccurate use of the term 'Nazi', what, ever?!) but breastmilk is generally considered to be absolutely the best food for babies, but especially for babies who are ill or premature. So if my crocheted boob can help, so much the better. 

Angel hug

Again, a quote from the WoollyHugs team:

'We have been very moved by a request from the Octavia Appeal at the Brompton Hospital. The Brompton Hospital is a specialist heart and lung centre in London complete with the second largest paediatric intensive care unit in the country. This unit takes the sickest babies and children from all over, some transferred immediately after birth, others have become too sick to be cared for at other major hospitals and most are already on life support when they arrive. These babies and children are incredibly sick, and very sadly not all survive. The Octavia Appeal have approached us and asked if we are able to make blankets for these babies who have very sadly passed away.'

I'll be honest - my first thought was 'I can't do that' - because, basically, I don't want to spend much time thinking about what they were actually for. I thought it would upset me too much (selfish, I know). But what changed my mind was seeing the pictures of the beautiful blankets that others had started to make. I felt I wanted to be a part of that. 

So this is my blanket:

If you look closely, you can see the slight mistake section with character.

But, overall, not a bad effort I feel.

And - [preen] - the actual, real, one-and-only Debbie Bliss herself of yarn fame 'liked' it on Facebook.
<squeeeeeeee>

Yes way.

The pattern designer has asked for any mentions of it online to be linked back to this pattern here. 

Again, I can only hope it brings some tiny shred of comfort.

Remembrance poppies

Like lots of people, every year I buy a poppy. And each and every year, at some point I look down and find that it's fallen off, and perhaps not every year - but most - I jab myself in the finger trying to get the pin into my coat and/or getting the pin out if just the poppy has fallen off.

This happened last year, as usual. And then a FB friend posted a picture of her crocheted poppy, and I thought 'I could do that'.

And I could.

Apparently the leaf is meant to point to 11 o'clock, as shown. 

So, now, every year I can wear this instead as long as I can remember where I put it and simply donate. 

I've attached it to a safety pin, so although the chances of it falling off are reduced, the chances of me jabbing myself in the finger are still pretty high.

Still, one thing at a time.

This year I'll do some more for the rest of the family. 

Another day, another blanket - Lemontruffles

Inevitably, there is a need for another blanket. In Pistey's words:

Lemontruffles' husband died this week on New Year's Day after living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Such devastating news. Our hearts go out to her. In her own words, he was the love of her life. 

Just sharing some of her words about him
He was Welsh and loved the countryside of North Wales especially. He loved walking. He loved going to the pub and having the biggest laugh he could. He had a fantastic sense of humour and he loved having fun. He was warm hearted, he had a spirit of pure generosity - though with a 'sticking point' stubborn streak! - he was no angel. He was very adventurous about life. He was a proper hippy in the 60s and 70s. He had an amazing memory for all sorts of things, and a very wide ranging and strange knowledge of very odd things. Such an interesting man. A man with endless and deep humanity towards all the people he met. He was very well loved. He had a deep maturity and wisdom about other people.

Oh, and music! Not male voice choirs! Rock and blues from the 60s and 70s, and the manic street preachers. He had great taste. Also photographs. He was always photographing things, all sorts of random things, all sorts of bits of nature, and landscapes. He loved his camera.

Suggestions for motifs
* Any motifs of the natural world - trees, leaves, flowers, birds (esp crows )
* Can anyone find a Welsh dragon design or a harp? We'd love to find these for her.
* Anything to reflect he was a Welshman.
* Music, photography related

The original thread is here

I don't know Lemontruffles - not in real life, nor do I 'know' her by Mumsnet. But I know that the blankets help people, and I wanted to help. 

So, I revisited an old classic, and this is what I made:

 Oak leaf pattern

 This is taken from one of the Angel blanket patterns; I just reduced it to fit the 6" brief.







I hope they bring some comfort.

Back to basics

Right, as this blog is - if nothing else - for me to document my, ahem, creations, I'd best get back to it really.

 This was for the Wubbly blanket - as this one had a theme of life, nature, etc. I chose a bamboo-style pattern. Can you spot the mistake? Fortunately, the Woolly Hugs team are very forgiving of mistakes, calling them 'character'. Also, I didn't notice until I was 3/4 of the way through and couldn't really face tinking all the way back. Made with donated wool from another MNer.
March 2012.

OFFS, how do I rotate the pictures?? Again for Wubbly's blanket because her son loves the Octonauts. It's a seahorse, clearly. Made with donated wool from another MNer.
March 2012

Just a moss-stitch square here, as a spare. It's the same donated wool as above, although it's come out a completely different colour.

March 2012

Oak leaf - Wubbly blanket, March 2012.

 Tree of Life, Wubbly blanket. Really pleased with this one - even if it did (once again) take a group effort to get it done. 
March 2012

Flower for MrsKwaazi blanket.
March 2012

Owl for MatildaWormwood's blanket - also did one for Greengoose's blanket
June 2012

 Bobble square (which looked a bit, up close, like lots of little boobs, so I called it a booble square)
Spare - June 2012

 Daisy stitch square, for MatildaWormwood blanket. If you look very closely I did lose count, but I think it's very slight.
June 2012

 Icord flower for Expat/Giraffes blankets. I loved doing the icord - so simple! Bit bored by the end of this one though, and trying to get the flower shape was tricky (evidently).
Donated wool, August 2012

 Spare square, June 2012. I think this pattern would be great for appliqueing crochet designs onto, for example. 

 Bear/paw print for Expat/Giraffes blankets.
August 2012

 Daisy stitch for MumOf's blanket. Maybe this is the one where I went wrong...
August 2012

 Tribal sun for MumOf's blanket. I am really happy with the end result of this one - I tried 'proper' intarsia. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't (by which I mean it looked like it's meant to on the back) and when it did I couldn't remember what I'd done to do it right. One of these days I'll look up a YouTube tutorial...
August 2012

 Moss stitch checkerboard pattern for Expat/Giraffe blankets, or a spare. Donated wool.
August 2012

 Basketweave square for 3G blanket. Not sure if this is a contraversial cold purple?? Love this design though - another good staple I feel.
August 2012

 As lots of MNers lit a candle for Expat's DD, this was meant to be a candle-flame design. Up close it shows how shocking my tension is... must go a needle size down if I ever try it again.
August 2012

I saw this on the Vogue blanket and thought 'I did embroidery at school, I can do this'. Evidently, no I can't. Embroidering on wool is much harder than fabric. 
September 2012

Playing away...

Not only have I been neglecting the blog of late but I've also been having an affair.

I have been cheating on my original true love.

I can't help it. It's just so addictive. I've never felt this way before, and I can't stop. It's just better. More fun. I have more control over what happens. I can do things I've never been able to do before. 


No, not an affair affair. But I have cruelly, carelessly abandoned my original partner - knitting - and casually dumped her for my new passion - crochet.

Oh yes. Bring it on. Me and my hook, BFF.

Yes, I know there's mistakes. This was from, oooh, November. I'm brilliant now.

Team Hooker is GO!