Mousy Brown's House-Creating, crafting and collecting. Enjoying Life.

I confess...

...you were all right (read the comments!), the temptation was too much...

I ended up with....

• Artesano aran (50% alpaca 50% wool) to knit a blanket for Sam (a special request just voiced for Christmas, I will see what I can do...)
• NiMu yarns beautiful torva yarn (I have only seen it on-line and it is pinned to my pinterest board but it was even more stunning in real life!) and the stripe study shawl pattern (inspired initially by this post)
• Some french ticking to make those Christmas gifts...now all made, pictures by the end of the week!
• Some gorgeous Japanese and American quilting fabrics and scrap packs, the former to make another Mamas bag and the latter for more Christmas gifts...
• A ball of Noro sock yarn...@ £6.99 a ball do I need an excuse??
• A ball of Noro Sekku lace weight to make something that looks a bit like this.

I have to run now as I have to do my penance, well actually I am going for afternoon tea with a friend but I will do my best to suffer I promise!  Back with those pictures of gift bags on Thursday, when I should hopefully be able to reveal this years Advent calendar too!  Enjoy the rest of November, see you next month....

Scroll lace scarf.

Just had to show you my new scroll lace scarf, fresh off the needles and truly irresistible!  It was knitted using two and a tiny bit skeins of stunning Noro Cash Island I bought on impulse on another day out with Emma, my yarn pusher friend!  The yarn is such gorgeous colours (the three skeins were all different colours but all complimentary) and unlike other Noro yarns I have used, this mix of cashmere and wool is so amazingly soft and lofty, a real pleasure to wear next to your skin.

The pattern was a challenge in some ways, really easy in others and the whole thing took around three weeks to knit in a very relaxed and interrupted way. All Ravelled here...

I am off again with Em to the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate, this weekend, I will attempt to come away with only inspiration and photo's but if not I will confess all next week...Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who are celebrating this weekend and Happy Weekend to all of you who aren't, I hope it is a weekend of good things for all of you!

A little bit of Christmas making...

I have found the mild Autumn weather this year, very confusing to my Christmas preparation plans.  It just seems impossible that the "event" is that close, when we are walking about in t-shirts and the fire is still being used very much just for the fun of it rather than necessity.  Factor in my annual need to hibernate once the clocks go back and I have to admit that crafting for Christmas has been absent so far, not only no making but no planning either. 

Sam pushed me into a mild panic at the weekend by calculating the number of days left until he starts his advent calendar and from there the number of days till school ends and from there the number of days left to make any presents....but it wasn't enough to get me started, just enough to push me into denial!

Then suddenly, as if by magic, I woke up yesterday full of ideas...it was as if everything had been working away inside, in secret, and having decided exactly what I needed to do my brain chose to tell me what it had come up with for this year.

I am starting slowly, no need to rush....now I know what I am doing, I also know I have plenty of time to fit it all in!  So yesterday resulted in a completed Advent calendar (more of that when it has been revealed to the recipient)  and the finger print robins above, which will adorn our Christmas cards this year.

Today includes plans for some sewing (for 2 nephews and a niece) and a bit of knitting (not Christmas related at all, except that I might wear it for the festivities).  I'll be back with pictures when they are made....

Looking back at last year, I am a little behind but if you check out the dates, its really not that different and while I may not end up with quite so many homemade gifts this year, what I do make will be made with love and enjoyed by both the maker and those who receive them.  Something it is very important for me to remember when I get into the craziness of planning a perfect, handcrafted holidays....

 

Adding to my stash.

A special trip to Manchester last week resulted in a visit to a yarn shop and a few new items in my stash.  I tried to resist, really I did but I have no will power at all....

The Noro is to make another Ishbel...subtle first try, this time the results should be somewhat wilder!

The fibrespates lace weight was just a moment of complete madness but it is sooooo gorgeous I just couldn't stop myself....I am thinking it may well become a citron shawl (maybe the crochet version?).

The drops Nepal was too good a bargain to leave in the store (can you spot the price there?) and is already cast on to make a menten shawl...

I woke up on Saturday with an overwhelming urge for something shocking pink, with a lime green edge to it, you might have already guessed that?

In my swap parcel...to Jennifer.

My package to Jennifer had a skein of yarn and a pattern for a pair of crochet mittens (I happen to know she has made something even nicer with it to decorate her home...)...

2 handmade stitch markers, using some beads I bought in Sweden when I was 11 (my first trip away from home by myself) and some I had handmade by a glass artist in Falmouth (Cornwall) for my first project in art college. The  2 little square mother-of-pearl buttons were from my button box.

This necklace is sister to one I made myself and shares beads from a favourite fair trade necklace that had broken beyond repair...it seemed appropriate for TWO to be made from the one.

This bunting was made to CELEBRATE, we love to have bunting up and it is always hung across the kitchen for any special occasion....I used some special fabrics from my stash...

This little tin came with some sewing cotton but I thought it was the perfect container for two pretty sewing silks, two painted stones from the beach and of course two felted acorns!

Great minds think alike - 2 acorns travelled in this direction and 2 acorns travelled in that....

There were a few more little bits and pieces and then to wrap it all up I made this patchwork square....my first and a little wonky (yes Anne - this is the one I referred to!)  It is backed in a felted wool jumper and I thought it might make a good potholder or just in-case I added a couple of tabs that Jennifer could sew on if she wanted to hang it.  The quote I stitched in the centre says....

    "Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet; and two others at first speech are old friends."
                                         - Mary Catherwood

and that sums up how it has been with Jennifer and I all along, old friends.  Thank you again to all of you who took part and made this such a special celebration for me....are you up for another one next year?  I hope so...start thinking in threes.....

In my swap parcel...from Jennifer.

I can't believe it has taken me ten days to get around to showing you what I received in my Celebration Swap package, in fact I was worried I had lost all the photo's I had taken as I hadn't realised how far back I would have to look!  Jennifer ( The Prairie Girl ) and I have been friends ever since we 'met' two years ago and I was pretty sure I would love anything she chose to put in my package....I wasn't wrong, she knows me so well that everyone of her gifts was spot on! 

• There was a gorgeous tote bag with lots of useful pockets, which is already full of all my work stuff and cheers me up every time I reach for a pencil.
• The soft grey yarn flower badge is now attatched to my tote, where it looks really lovely and picks up the colour of the button on the pocket.
• The beeswax candles smell wonderful and I can't imagine ever burning them....maybe if Jennifer and I meet sometime for real we can burn them on a celebration cake?
• The felted acorns are so sweet and quite funny too...you'll understand why tomorrow when I show you what I sent her!
• The vintage button and ric-rac are put away, waiting for the perfect project...I think I may have something in mind but you will have to wait till next year to find out what...
• The tea-wallet is so beautifully made and is travelling to work with me, where it is the perfect answer for break time tea...

Really, I loved every single thing she sent and will treasure all my celebration gifts...wow I LOVE snail mail!  Things are looking good in the Flickr group too, please take a look at all the lovely swap items and if any of you who took part but don't have a Flickr account would like to add your photo's too, just drop me a line and I can do it for you.  Back tomorrow, with my side of the swap, I'd love you to come back and tell me what you think!

Ps You can find me back at Habit today too...

Life Interrupted.

I had such high hopes for this space this week.  I have two lots of swap packages to show (one I sent, one I received) and a new series that I am very excited about.  But in that way that always happens, just when I think I am in control, life took over and showed me very clearly just how wrong I am about that.

So, instead of sitting at my desk and writing the posts I planned, I have...

• Met the Mayor
• Created a new message board at Sam's school to show all their achievements
• Made a bouquet for the Lady Mayoress
• Made a new friend from Texas
• Learned how to play "Go Fish!"
• Sat a GCSE exam alongside someone else
• Met some Bees I am hoping to get more friendly with
• Taken my new Texan friend to a supermarket in another country
• Learned how to create new libraries on itunes
• Walked 15 miles with the dog
• Knitted two foot of a scarf
• Found the artichoke plants in my garden I thought had died

....and had one of my photo's chosen to go on Habit (one of my favourite blogs which has opened up its Flickr group to the world this week - can you spot mine?).

As to all that other stuff I was going to do, I'll try again next week, I will be very humble, ask life to slow down a bit and see where that gets me...

A weekend of bright lights and bonfires...Sunday.

"...I see no reason why gunpowder, treason should ever be forgot"

A weekend of bright lights and bonfires...Saturday.

"Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot....."

I got my knitting mojo back!

A few months back I received a surprise package from a friend containing the most beautiful Quince and Co yarn. I wanted to use it for something special and useful and after a lot of searching of Ravelry cast on for a pair of gloves using a vintage pattern.  They were abandoned not long after as I felt I had too many projects on the go....and I realised I didn't feel excited at the idea of knitting gloves (in sock yarn) as they were too much like knitting another pair of socks...and I already had two pairs of socks in my project basket!

After picking them up a couple of times and then very quickly placing them back down, with only a few more rows completed, I finally accepted the inevitable last week and ripped out everything I had knitted so far and cast on for something completely different....

....after a couple of false starts, I quickly found a rhythm, became just a tad obsessed and the result was that 3 days later I was the proud owner of a Ishbel of my own....

  ...It is a great pattern and feels like it grows really quickly (which in this case I guess it really did!).  The yarn is amazingly soft and drapes beautifully and the colour is perfect to brighten these grey Autumn days.  Having looked at other examples I am convinced that the pattern I have ended up with looks like none of the others but as I love it anyway I am not going to worry myself too much as to why that may be!  It was just what I needed to get my excitement for knitting back and two other projects are now on my needles, one and three quarter socks are finished (unfortunately from different pairs but I'll get there in the end!) and my pinwheel blanket is just waiting for a bigger circular needle to arrive so I can start on my next skein of Manos yarn...

...yep I definately feel I have got my mojo back and that feels good....for me at least, I am not sure my family agree, knitting is more important than laundry, cleaning and cooking right???