January Crochet Intentions

Hello Lovelies,
we enjoyed a lovely sunny day here on Friday . It was sooooooo welcome after all the rain and gales we had earlier in the week.
Walking into my bedroom in the afternoon I was very happy to see the low sun shining in my ever growing piles of hexagons.You know , the ones for my Kaleidoscope hexagon blanket .Started way back in April last year :0)

I imediately got my camera and captured them to share with you lovelies..........

I love the way the late afternoon ( 3pm !! ) sun made the colours glow ........

And I'm announcing here  my intention to FINISH THIS BLANKET THIS MONTH in the hope that it will spur me on .
I think this is one of the slowest blankets I've ever made . The motifs are relatively fiddely to do so I've been making them in a production line style . 100 hexagons , to add to the few I've already joined. This was taken last May and it's still pretty much unaltered..........

But now I'm completing the hexagons, 60 so far, I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel......

As you can tell I'm being good and sewing in the ends as I go . So wish me luck as there is still quite a bit to do. I've still got 40 hexagons to compleat. Then there's adding the final, joining, round then sewing in those ends and thinking about a border.

Don't forget there are two tutorials for this pattern in my side bar.

Thank you for all the lovely things you said about last years crochet.Your encouragement is wonderful , especially for big projects like this :0)
Hope your week goes well.
Jacquie x

December Nature Notes

Hello Lovelies,
here I go with my final "Nature Notes" post. To be honest I've not been feeling the love for this post . I think my own pictures are not so good as other months ,but I guess December is not always very photogenic. How different it was last year.

One thing that does not disappoint are the Illustrations from my "Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady" book .Here are Edith's paintings for December..........

I love these beautifully observed bird pictures...........

And the friendly looking fox.....

A short verse that is so evocative of this this December's ( and January's ) weather.........

Ahhh, holly and ivy...a bit of festive cheer.......

And a happy Christmas verse..........

The facts and mottoes for this month.........

I particularly liked ............

Sounds good to me :0)

Here are my own photos from last month. 2011 seems to have been a particularly good one for berries...

This Hawthorn hedge , now devoid of leaves ,looks stunning with it's mass of red berries.........

December saw our first significant frosts this Autumn,Winter ..........

Some festive Ivy........

And a friendly local peeping through the bare branches..................

When there is not much growing on the ground it's good to look up and notice a stunning skyscape....

I also loved the sun on this favourite country church , with the stormy sky behind.........

The trees my be bare , but fear not, Mother Nature is already preparing for
Spring :0)........

And even though I've completed the twelve months of my Nature notes posts I'm sure I will be looking for more countryside scenes to share with you lovelies in 2012.
Have a great weekend.
Jacquie x

2011 Crochet Collection

Hello Lovelies,

The weather has been dismal again here today. So instead of trying to write my December Nature notes post I've been cheering myself up looking through my photos from 2011 , picking out three crochet images from each month to share with you again :0)

2011 was my first full year of blogging and looking back at my photos I'm surprised at the amount of things I've made

JANUARY.........

SIBOL squares and Flowers from a new book

Granny "spike"cushion

Hanging Hearts

FEBRUARY.........

Squares for my Granny square blanket

Crochet trim for a jersey dress ( I've worn this lots over the festive period:0)  )

Felt Needle books with crochet embellishments for a giveaway

MARCH.........

Kaleidoscope Hexagon....I was not happy with this colourway but loved the pattern

Recycling cotton yarn from a thrifted garment

Cushion made using the recycled yarn

APRIL.......

Second cushion from same yarn

Amigurumi Bunnies

Patriotic flower bunting for the royal wedding 

MAY........

Bunny for my niece....more of a sewing project but she has a crochet jacket :0)

Finding a colourway I like for the Kaleidoscope hexagons

Little crochet toadstool house

JUNE.........

playing around with my granny squares writing the initials of my blog :0)

Then adding the plum border to my granny squares

Finishing my granny square blanket and photographing it next to the vintage blanket that inspired it ( Love mine but the original is just amazing )

JULY....

Starting a giant granny inspired by Sucrettes CAL

Hooking the border of this blanket in the car on the way to Norfolk for our Holidays

Photographing finished blanket outside our caravan and giving it to my Mum

AUGUST........

Starting my Blooming flower cushion

Adding round 2 to my production line of 100 Kaleidoscope hexagons

Starting another giant granny in "vintage" colours

SEPTEMBER........

Finishing my blooming flower cushion

Adding more rounds to second giant granny

Making crochet bowls for another giveaway

OCTOBER........

Finishing second giant granny

Joining Lucy and Heathers ripple along with a baby blanket

Making a little family of owls :0)

NOVEMBER........

Finishing my baby ripple

Making a cosy cowl 

and a little zipped pouch as a leaving gift

DECEMBER.......

Mug cosy teacher gifts

Christmas Pud with Lucy's holly

and finally...... a Little Mouse tree decoration for my sister in law and family

Phew!
 that's.........
4 cushions, 4 Blankets and 14 smaller projects ......there are one or two that I haven't included in this list as well !!
That's a lot of crochet for me and looking at it all together makes me very happy . The thing that ties it all together is that it's all been inspired by the internet......and mostly your lovely blogs and Flickr photo streams.I just love being able to see what you clever people are creating.

Being able to share my own creations here really  is the icing on the cake . So thank you again for visiting and your kind, generous comments :0)
Here's to lots more crochet in 2012 . My main crochet resolution is to finish my Kaleidoscope blanket and I'm trying very hard not to get sidelined into any more projects till it's finished.
Hope the start of 2012 is going well for you.
Jacquie x
P.S. December Nature notes will follow soon .