I've been rather busy...

There has been lots of crafting, as well as lots of other busy-ness.

I got married on Sunday, and did quite a bit of last minute crafting for that.

I finished off the bridesmaids' earrings (but didn't take a picture.. oops).

I made the seating plan (the day before the wedding.. again, oops!)

 Picture taken from my Mum's collection of wedding pictures, on her facebook page

I made (assembled) bracelet presents for my bridesemaids

I also found time to make a birthday present for my Mum, which I started last week, after making a mistake with the project I had been intending to give her, and scrapping the knitting for crochet instead!

More about the knitting another time, but here is the result of the new project. Crochet fingerless gloves/wrist warmers, pattern can be found here

The yarn is stylecraft special DK (I finally bought some) and the colour is Aster.

I also made a new hat for myself. I started it Saturday night, when I should probably have been trying to sleep. Then spent last night and this morning finishing it off. I didn't follow a pattern, just increased until it felt like it would fit my head, then just sc in each stitch until it was the length I wanted :)

And to finish off this huge post.. a little sneak peek wedding photo taken by our brilliant photographer Hayley, from Tigerfly Photography (on facebook here)

Oo look at this.. exciting news...

I've been a bit behind with my blog reading, but I'm glad I finally got to Woolhogs this week

I found out that I was awarded the voters' choice for September in the Made It Challenge.

As a result I'm allowed to show that lovely little badge over on the right >>

Isn't it beautiful?

Thank you to everyone who voted! :)

Lonely Tree Shawl

I finished my knitting last week!

Here's my shawl, originally mentioned and linked to the pattern here, when I finished it:

Looks alright, but not perfect, and you don't really get the gist of the pattern.. so I had to block it.

And apparently this is the bit where most knitters turn away in horror, or so I've read in other blogs!

To begin with, the blocking was a bit of a nightmare.

I remembered reading on Lucy's blog, Attic 24, about blocking acrylic with steam, which she had suggested for the bunting for yarndale, which has just passed by!

Remembering this, I realised I'd need an iron, and ours, sadly, is not capable of producing steam, due to a crack from it being dropped (thankfully cold) on to our floor...

So, I had to borrow my Mum's, which meant waiting until the weekend to be able to wear my shawl!

Once I'd gotten hold of Mum's iron though, the blocking process was fairly straight forward, if a little time consuming.

I pinned the shawl one section at a time to my ironing board, hovered the iron over it, pressing the steam button far too often, then let it dry, unpinned, and repeated.

When it was finally done, I had my finished shawl (almost.. I sewed in the ends in the car as I was so desperate to wear it!)

So there we have it.. and now I would happily try knitting something again. It gave my fingers a welcome change from my awkward style of crocheting! :)