Post Christmas and still zzzzzing

Still wiped out - been asleep all day today ..................

Anyway can post pics of presents I sent to my parents ( seeing as they have now opened their presents)

These to remind my Father of his sailing days

I hand quilted and embroidered the grasses in the foreground on the panels - to add dimension

  - well these were returned as 'they dont match' anything ...

Mother's floral cusion - hand quilted and beaded

This illicited no comments whatsoever - but was not returned

Snow mostly gone - but more froecast tomorrow - but still been bitterly cold brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Wood burner in great use all day as are throws over legs to keep warm
Not much else to report as been asleep most of day zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz be glad when return to some semblance of normality!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Well its the small hours of Christmas Morn ...............not a creature is stirring - not even a mouse .............. and that includes me!!
Sitting here wiped out on sofa having been zzzzzzing all evening
Decorations are not done and not a card sent to anyone (so if anyone thinks I have left them off my list and sulking they ahve been forgotten - its nothing personal no-one has received a card) and I don't even have to try and cook tomorrow!! YEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAA
Had a last minute invite to friends for the festive feasting so Christmas Day night we set off bearing gifts and vino and whatever else I can think of. But such a lifesaver as been really out of it these past weeks with the ME - hurrumph Everyone keeps telling how grey n grim I look :-( and that I need REST! Yes well .............. I will I do when I melt down ahve no choice!

Think most presents are wrapped - such as they are - pretty short shrift for everyone this year - if I hadnt bought you that special something during the year - sorry but your out of luck this year.

I remember years ago I used to go with my good friend Sandy out Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve .................. and we would come home laden with goodies for everyone and had such fun at the same time .............  I am sure her house is busy this evening as she readies for all her children and grandchildren ( 5 + partners + 25 Grand-children) - she needs catering service!
And here I am with just the two of us and can not cope!! How sad is that!
I just keep falling asleep and can not fight it off ................. then awake at odd hours and legs keep going out from under me being all weak n wobbly - like a poorly set jelly

Anyway DH manged to take me to supermarket this afternoon - and managed to buy some real food (having bought cakes/mince pies etc earlier inthe month) - he is such an angel putting up with my frustrations!

Son will be busy getting ready for Christmas with his finacee and her children in Wakefield and daughter in Northampton settling in there - they both moved the same time last weekend in all that terrible snow and ice and blizzards - was horrific for them!! Anyway hope they have unpacked and manged to get festive and get provisions in all this snow

Well about time I put out the mincepie for Santa with a wee dram plus a carrot for Rudolf and his pals .................... as I hear pitter pattering of feet ...................... lets hope Santa is good to all of you!!

Merry Christmas to ALL and to All a Goodnight!

Snowmen in Kirton .....................

Snowmen in Kirton - the lads were busy till 4am building snowmen in the bus shelter on The Village Green ......

They were complaining that the snow was not as good as last year!  But seems they did a great job again and totally diffferent 'family' to last year - a real thumbs up!! Well done lads!!  Even at 0600 the early birds wlaking dogs etc were busy taking photographs - I think we are so used to seeing snowfamilies now that everyone looks for them first thing!

Are they not great!!??

While they were busy I decided I had to make a start on Christmas decorations - having been away and ill so much these past weeks - so started on the windows - this is progress so far .............

Sitting Room - one of the three windows in progress

This is all brass ornaments

The side window - not finished yet - still to add the stained glass ornaments of 12 days Christmas
This window is for the children as it faces the road - so they can easily see everything - all childrens things - teddy bears, stockings, ships, carousel animals etc

The Bay Window - A White Stars and Snowflakes Theme

A sort of snow mountain and a frozen pond to the side all with all kinds silver and white snowflakes and icicles with my new starry lights - you can see the snow outside! Will do a pic from the outside

Looking down at part of the window - have 3 kinds white fabric - to give effect of snow and grouped ornaments together - birds, snowmen, houses etc Have to check it looks ok from the outside

The Hall Window with a CAT theme - just for Sonja!

All stained glass - big cats and cat faces (tabby and marmalade cats) with period style pressed and printed cardboard cats in Victorian costumes

Now to do my funky Modern Christmas Trees - and do upstairs windows - they are easy just simple lights and stars
So another days work - plus of course the clearing up!!

Then cards and wrapping presents - can not see me going out shopping in this weather!

New crafting designs + More snow + new hairdo ...........................

My Halloween Eeenceeweency Spidey waistcoat - I bought an amber silver spider to pin on it (from the Amber Shop in Felixstowe) - looks great!

My design - not too full around - falls neatly in the front so you dont feel swamped! Nice shawl collar and the bottom hangs down to about mid thigh

Spiders Web Circular Waistcoat

The pattern will soon be available for sale on my ETSY website



ALso finshed off my circular monchrome wasitcoat in all shades of caramel and cream - perfect for this seasons Camel coat/skirt/trousers. Neat front and shawl collar - neat shoulderline and circle lower in the back than most other designs and it fits well around the waist

The front of Caramels Waistcoat

The back of caramels waistcoat

Has rows of various textures and stiches to add interest

This pattern will be for sale on my ETSY website

A chambray blue Shawlette - my version of the Klamath Shawl 

Made when returned from USA with dah fluuuuuuuuuuu .............. love the subtle wave pattern and hangs neatly on the shoulders and ties in front or back or side - depending how you want to wear it

A pressy for a friends Christmas Box ......................

Klamath Blues Shawl

So thats the crafting update ............. items and the patterns (so you can do your own thing) will be for sale .......... apart from that more snow is falling and the village looked like a winter wonderland again this evening - see what it looks like tomorrow ...........
Flu still hanging in there - yet more antibiotics from Doc's today ............. O me miserum!

Also toddled across to my favourite jewellery shop - The Amber Shop in Felixstowe - and bought a few goodies - an Xmas pressy - Fergus (the owner) is a really good salesman in that he tells you if it suits you or NOT! That is worth a great deal in my book. Shame he is retiring - great loss to the town in being a truly unique local shop.

Meanwhile new hairdo from 'The Salon' in Felixstowe - we trying for a longer hairstyle - see how it goes can always go back to short in the Summer
She is great does what's right for the person's face/hair/personality rather than what the hairdresser wants . Noted that other customers have brilliant cuts that suit THEM . That is a rare thing in hairdressers when mosta re just keen to do their own thing! So new hairdresser a great find!

Drove there and home in the snow ...very ughy

Well back to quilting - making new cushions for Xmas presents ............... will post pics of them tomorrow
Finished the 3 bears cushion - now backed and ready to wrap up in Festive paper

Winter white wonderland ...................

Woke today to snowy whiteness ............................

The green white with snow - as are the fields

Holly - now denuded of all the berries by the birds - so no berrylicious holly for decorating the house

Rowan - still dead but looking better for tis snow covering - be better in our woodburner keeping us warm!

Even the bird food has a snowcap - now even more important to ensure the feeders are kept full as poor birds will not eb prepared for this early winter snow fall - weaken them for winter

Design new pattern 'Tiny' Wristwarmers - despite the FLU

Oh Me Miserum!!
Fly out all the way to NJ to see my old friend Sonja to end up spending it in my room with a bad case of the flu - am so disappointed frustrated and fed up ................seems such a shame not spending planned time with her (but dont want to end up making her ill in my being enerous with my flu germs)
So no nice meals ................ or outings
Bed rest and watch sky from room
Did manage to hobble out to local LYS - The Wooly Mammoth in Red Bank
http://www.woolymonmouth.com/
Had shelves n shelves of scrummy yarn - came out with a big bag of wool (of course) and met some lovely people while there and wondering if, despite this beastly flu if I can make a return visit before I fly back to UK .................

Meanwhile between coughing n feeling sorry for myself - I crocheted the Tiny Scarf by Okmin Park (a charted japanese design found at - ehtory.blog.me ) for my friend and was so pleased with it - so simple and sweet that I have adapted the design to make a matching pair of wristwarmers.
All are in fine Shetland wool - so as it is an oiled wool it is now washed and blocking in my room.

Free Pattern
TINY WRISTWARMERS - Medium size
These have been designed to match the Tiny Scarf

The TINY SCARF

My matching TINY Wristwarmers

The TINY Scarf and Wristwarmers

You can make them any length you want - key is to make the starting chain the length you want + 5 chains
I made mine medium length of 36 chain - 31 dc with a chain 5 turning chain (as in the Tiny Scarf Pattern)
Starting chain:So I chained 36 (I often do more so always enough - just be sure to do an odd number dc)
Row 1: Make a dc in 6th chain from hook and dc across - an odd number
Chain 5 and turn
Row 2: Dc in top of dc below, chain 1 and dc in 2nd stitch (ie miss a dc below) and continue across (dc chn 1) till last dc and then chain 5 and turn
 Repeat the dc and dc chn1 rows till you have made 32 rows - make sure last row is a dc chain 1 row
Add or subtract rows depending on width of your wrist - just make sure its 2 rows wider or narrower to maintain the pattern

Then slip stitch across making the tube
Wash and block

So they are really simple to make - the basic Tiny scarf chart rows made into a rectangle and slip stitched closed
Took me a morning to make the wristwarmers and an evening to make the scarf - so the whole set would take a weekend ................. so a quick easy and delightful set to give as a gift

ETSY Shop set up ..........................SingularOne

Well at long last set up my ETSY Shop  called , of course - SingularOne
Would have put my first item for sale - except it all hung up on me - so shall try again tomorrow .....so watch this space and ETSY!

I shall list my unique designs in crochet and pdf patterns for sale, such as my crocheted

• Felted bags and flower brooches
• Tailored circular waistcoats
• Blankets/afghans
• Scarves, cowls, neckpieces
• PDF patterns of my designs so if you wish you can make items yourself

AND
Unique sewn items such as my

• Small latop/kindle/epad bags with matching accessory pouches (seeing as no-one makes them) ideal for travelling and keeping things tidy and together - so you do not loose all the bits when on the go
• Hand bag tidies
• Bed-Hounds - bed tidies for adults and children (ideal when they are ill in bed and to stop them getting bored) keeps crayons, books, paper at hand
• Memory or My Boy-Friend My-Dad/Grandad cushions - upcycle his old shirt into a cushion that you can cuddle when he is gone - and make 'him' useful to store the remote in or whatever and secret pocket (for a hidden treat). Makes perfect gift - these will be special order
• School or University cushions - made from short/ jacket/tie or whatever into a momento of your school or varsity days - the shirt cushion can be used for all your pals to sign

Items will be unique and made in qualioty materials - luxury yarns and fabrics
They will be 'one-offs' and so unique - so if you see something you like but wish it in another colour  I will be willing to make it in a similar way but in a different colour or yarn so making it unique 

So watch this space folks!
I will let you know when first item is 'UP FOR SALE'
Please have a look - tell your friends and look forward to hearing from you!

Halloween Spiders web waistcoat

Busy designing and finishing a circualr waistcaot that looks like a spiders web ........all very spooky ready for Halloween - but still nice enough to wear all the time. I have even bought a spider in silver and amber to pin on it ................... should look great pics coming up ................ so watch this space!

Email boooooooooooooooooooob

Oh dear oh dearie me - whot a booo booo I have done
On my fliers I put the wrong email address ........................ feel such an idiot!

So just in case anyone really is interested in ordering an item or discussing a new design ............... it should be
SingularOne (at) hotmail.co.uk

I am such a twit - no wonder no emails at all!

Lets hope this does not cause a whole lot of unwanted junk mail ...............

Shotley Craft Show at Wolverstone Hall

Well craft show was well attended - lots people looking stroking and buying .................... there was such an amazing choice - froom woodturning (bowls, pens, vases, mushrooms etc); jewelery (semi-precious, silver, beaded); pottery (lovely ironstone and thrown pots, jugs, mugs, bowls); quilts; wool spinning; lacemaking; fabric bowls, bags, cushions, advent calendars; crochet and knitting (blankets, scarves, shawls,  jackets, hats, bags); stained glass panels; basket weaving; fabric and embroidery artwork, dolls ...and so the list goes on ................. all made by wonderfully talented people!!
Additional bonus being they are all really nice people - which makes it an even better experience to not only buy from them and but exhibit with such lovely people aswell!
There was an exhibition hall and sales room in the Oranagerie with a  dedicated refreshment room (lots lovely cakes n goodies to eat while you decided what to buy!)

The Orangerie - the Sales room - every table was groaning with all sorts sumptuous goodies

Another view of the room in a brief lull - we bought that blue pot

The Exhibition Room - even more stunning things ........... I wanted to buy one of the wall hangings

Exhibition Room - more goodies on display .............

Lace making demonstration - with young and old equally fascinated!!

The Saturday started with rain but soon cleared up to a stunning sunny Autumn day - same again Sunday with many families coming to look and buy - lots taking a break eating cake and having a coffee while they tried to make that difficult decision as to what to buy!

Was such a fun day -lovely items and equally nice people to talk to

GADGET BAGS - notebook palmtop, kindle bags etc ..................

Been busy and finished off .................... a couple of gadget bags, one with a co-ordinating funky desk tidy
- no excuses now for being untidy and not being able to find things!

Gadget bag and matching bandolier style office/desk tidy

Made in heavy weight deisgner upholstery fabric, trimmed with co-ordinating grosgrain ribbon

The gadget bag has ribbon trim on the opening with self fringed sides

The bandolier desk tidy can be coiled up and tied with ribbon -  slots for pens,/pencils, post-it pads, busines cards, mobile palmtop etc etc

This has self fringed top edges with the badolier ribbon - sewn so you can slot things into them as well - so 3 times the storage capacity!

Can be easily coiled inside a bag - keep things tidy in your handbag or laptop bag and can just put teh bandolier into anotehr bag complete with everything - much easier.

You could hang frmo the wall and attach things to the bandolier style ribbon ............... really usefull accessory!

This another gadget bag - in designer brocade with co-ordinating grosgrain ribbon tie

So you can adjust where you need to tie it closed depedning on size gadget going in - simple flap closure

Here is the flap with the ribbon sewn to make bandolier pockets - so you can clip a pen or two

Here it is full length - not folded over

Pretty yet practical

All ideal for travelling or keeping those essential gadgets neat and tidy when you are not working on them

All will be at the craft show this weekend - now to decide on prices!

A really difficult thing to gauge - time effort + materials ........... and of course my designing!

Anyway really pleased with them

Kalahari Bag and Roses Bag - completed at last!

The Kalahari Bag has been crocheted and then felted and lined - complete with lots pockets on the inside

In two shades of sand - with a rich texture made in pure chunky wool that has been gently felted - fully lined with pockets running around the full diameter of the interior. The lining is also in 2 shades of sand to co-ordinate with the colours of the bag

A close up of the textural detail

The Roses Bag - made of purs Aran weight wool - felted and embellished with felted roses with beaded centers

Detail of the roses with 2 types of glass beads.

There are three roses on each side - so no right or wrong side

Both will be in the forthcoming Craft Show at Shotley this weekend - let you know how it goes

Busy and tired .....................

Been a great day - sunny and bright
Surprise trip to Felixstowe with a friend had lovely morning and great coffee and cake in Bonets very yummy indeed (well wortht eh calories!!) - anyway it all exhausted me

Anyway completed few more things .......all ready for sale

Sock wool set - has matching moebius cowl and tendril neck piece

will take pics of the others

Brown camouflage fringerless mitts and made a matching scarf in a similar stitch

Scarf pattern my own design

Mitts I adapted from pattern on web -never could stick to a pattern  - lol

More to be posted

Quilting ................... and crocheting

This latest quilting project - birds for Les - a new cushion cover in the making

Almost completed the quilting - just stems of plants to do ........ then to make it intoa  cushion cover

The new Chistmas cushion cover - almost done with the embroidery in glossy rayon threads - so adds a little glow/sparkle

Just love the monochrome colours of browns and sepies with a touch of gold and turquoise

Here is a detail of the tree

The Three Bears - Cushion cover again. Quilting finished now to make it into a  cushion or bag  

The super scrunchy hat - soft can scrunch up into a abg or pocket and is a nice snug fit - so it will not blow off in the wind

Made in pure wool - so warm as well

Tightly crocheted so keeps its shape

So thats what I have been up to the past few weeks - bewtween various family crises .................which have been exhausting ............... zzzzzzzzzzz ing a lot as well

Brunschwig and Fils 'Lichfield Hills' Wallhanging - finally completed

This is showing work in progress

The piece has been quilted by hand, embroidered and beaded.

As the fabric has 16 colours I have used a wide variety of beads and embroidery threads to reflect thecolours and wonderful quality of the fabric - it was a dream to work with (but then it was expensive fabric).

The embellishments were worked to bring the trees 'forward' so the houses were 'pushed' into the background

So the dominant trees were beaded and the trunks embroidered

Only the central part had been selectively quilted

It was all done by hand - apart from sewing on the border and backing

It took a couple of months of work to complete

and now has been backed and bordered in co-ordinating fabric

Now to decide where to hang it .................

Will add a pic of it completed

Has 16 colours in the print and is the pattern 'Lichfield Hills'

Finishing touches ......bedroom

I posted pics of recent bedroom makeover - the curtains are still 'hanging in' until they can be properly hemmed but in meantime ............................

Antique Rose Throw

This is made from a 'space-dyed' mohair - so soft light fluffy and incredibly warm and snuggly - ideal for approaching cold winter nights n snuggling in with a book

Do not know quite how to describe the colours - its a dark dusky rose with an ochre which makes subtle stripes in the 12-point throw

The stripes seemed quite obvious as I was making it ...................  now seem to disappeared!

I shall try to photograph it again - maybe outside, to more clearly illustarte the subtle striping.

The colours are very difficult to pick up by camera .................. all I know is that I was using almost a whole ball of wool for each row towards the end. Its a bit logarithmic in quantity - the bigger the throw the more wool you use, without seeming to make the throw much bigger!

Anyway hope to make more in different colours for sale as they look quite unique and are just sooooooooooo luxurious and cosy!

Next week I had better get down to it and hem all the curtains and attach the fringe .................all of which needs to be doine by hand.