Catch up!

Its been a very long time since I have made a blog post here. I'm having that issue that a lot of craft bloggers have at this time of year though, everything I'm making is for Christmas presents! 

I'd love to show you what I've been up to, but since I don't want to risk people seeing what they're going to receive in a few days time, I thought instead that I'd show you a select few pictures from my honeymoon last month!

I'm starting to draft posts about the different things I've been making for people, so I'll schedule those to appear throughout January, and then hopefully I'll be able to keep a bit more up to date with this blog.

Now, on to the pictures I took in beautiful Prague..

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! :)

A different kind of crafting...

Recently I've been doing a lot of baking!

I thought I'd show you all the raisin bread I made this week. I'm quite proud of it as it is lovely toasted, and I managed a plaited loaf on my second ever attempt at making bread completely from scratch!

Not bad huh?

If you fancy having a go, I found the recipe through a bit of google searching, but it is here. I didn't do the glaze partly because I'm watching the calories, and partly because my plan for this bread was toasted for breakfast and I thought the glaze might go a bit sticky in the toaster!

And for good measure, here is my first ever loaf of bread (made completely from scratch, rather than a bread mix), which I made earlier in the week.

This one was made using Paul Hollywood's recipe on the bbc website, here.

Knitting!

I have actually been enjoying some knitting this week! I have always felt like I should love it and persevered to try but it has only really clicked with this recent pattern.

So, let me introduce you to the "Lonely Tree Shawl". I first saw this pattern on not your average crochet when Hannah posted a ravelry knitting wishlist. I loved this look of it and started hunting for yarn to use!

I haven't done any sort of lace work before, or even ever worked from a chart like this does. I am finding working from a chart easy enough though, and getting hang of all the yarn overs now too! I needed a little help from my future mother-in-law to begin with, but after a quick phone call I was on my way.

What do you think of my attempt so far?

A big congratulations...

...to my lovely Mum who found out she passed her degree this week!

To say well done I made another little graduation owl for her.

This one is a little bigger than the 2 I've made before.

Mum's a big Portsmouth football fan, so I crocheted this little guy in their colours for her!

Details

Yarn: blue, yellow and orange are Dolly Mix DK from King Cole

White and Black are nameless acrylics

Hook: 4mm metal hook

Size: I forgot to measure him, but I think he's around 10cm tall

Time to complete: 3 evenings from start to finish

For the first time I'm linking up with Handmade Monday (which I always read about and follow but have never joined in with!)