Major Project (and a big decision)

I'm in the process of tidying my study this summer.  It is a Major Project.  I've been taking pictures, and I'll post some when I've got them loaded on the computer.

The big decision is that I really want a Caroline Rose print for my birthday.  The trouble is, narrowing it down to just one... See here *sighs*

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More creations!

 I sold quite a lot of corsages and brooches over the last couple of weeks, so I set to making a few more things to put on my Folksy shop.  Most of the brooches sold seem to have been gifts for teachers.  I like that!  (Being a teacher myself...)

So, a few more corsages.  They look more like rosettes now I've added the fabric and ribbons to them.  Maybe I'll call them rosettes.  Fairly flat, which is a good thing.  It's much cheaper to post things that will go through the 'large letter' hole at the post office.  Talking about cheaper, I got all these lovely bits of ribbon off price tags on clothes!  Clothes I bought, I add hastily - I don't go round stealing price labels and their ribbons.  But these little scraps of ribbon are far too pretty to throw away.

And the Folky Bird I'd started making.  I've got this red Rowan Handknit Cotton, plus some cream and beige Rowan Pima Cotton that just look gorgeous together, so I think some little Folky-style decorations will be just right for that.

A Folky Heart, using the same yarns, and a line of buttons to neaten up the row of increase/decrease stitches.

The other side has a contrast row, whereas the first side just has a stitched outline.  

And a colourful Hippoo!  The weather's been so depressing that I got all that lovely colourful yarn out that I had left from the Technicolour Dreambag and started making a matching Hippoo.

I did finish off another Hippoo last night, but I don't have any pics of that one yet.  She's in candy shades of Sublime Baby Cotton Kapok - very pretty, and feels super-soft.  I'm planning to make another one for a friend who's having a baby.  She doesn't know what kind yet, so I'm going to use some lilac Cotton Kapok and do a white heart on either side

There are a few part-finished projects on my stash box right now.  A couple more rosettes in different colours and another Folky Bird.  I did three more rows on a bag I've been making last night too.  Listening to the Proms concert, crocheting and reading Dracula, all at the same time!  I've never read Dracula all the way through before.  It's really good!  Not sure I can say the same about the Boulez piece at the Proms concert.  I tried, but it still sounded like a lot of people playing a lot of different unrelated notes.  Give me the Beethoven and I'll go to do the washing-up during the Boulez, I think.  (They're doing all nine Beethoven symphonies in a run of five concerts, but they've paired them all with Boulez pieces.  Odd choice, but maybe I'm missing something.)

There will be pics of Candystripe Hippoo soon, along with Folky Bird 2 and the new rosettes, and the items I've pictured here will soon be up on Folksy.  There are three more days of term left, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm on holiday now!  All my actual teaching has finished, and all I've got to do is a bit of paperwork and a couple of meetings.  The thing I'm looking forward to most this holiday?  Some nice weather to do some crochet outdoors, and being able to have a nap every afternoon.  I'm easily pleased.  :-)

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New Hippoos!

Having sent off Petunia and Hugo to sunny Formby, to display themselves at China Butterfly,I set to with my hook to restock with hippoos.  No home is complete without a little herd of hippoos, after all!

Introducing Rosalie and Mudbath Mungo!

Rosalie is a tiny hippoo, made with Rowan's Fine Lace yarn and a 2.5mm hook.  Very fiddly, but I do like working with fine yarn, and it feels lovely!  I just wanted to stroke the ball of yarn.

Mungo is a bigger boy, made with Rowan's Pima Cotton and a 4mm hook.  He loves his mudbaths, like hippoos do, and he still has a big splotch of mud on his side and a serious tidemark from his last mudbath!

More colourful hippoos on the way.  Rainbow Hippoo!  It looks so pretty with all those colours I used on the Technicolour Dreambag, but there's one hell of a lot of ends to sew in!

And here is a batch of pretty yarn I've just received from Black Sheep Wools.  You might see that there are a couple of balls missing.  That's because they're in my car, gradually working into a candystripe hippoo in my lunchbreaks.  Can't stop the crochet!

And another experiment, after the Bluebird Dangly worked out so well.  I'm not too sure whether this looks like a Christmas tree ornament.  It was meant to look quite folky, but maybe I should make a bunch of these to sell for Christmas?  I'm planning to outline the wings with little pearly beads and add a little hanging cord in  a lovely beige yarn  (the same colour as Mungo's tidemark, in fact!).  The heart you can just see is going to get a second side, get stuffed and decorated before getting a hanging string.

Mungo and Rosalie will make their debut on Little Lovely Stuff on Folksy later on, when I get back from work.  I was hoping to have a free afternoon today, due to one of my schools having a sports day, but the Great British Summer has prevailed and the sports day has been cancelled.  No free afternoon for Ali.  :-(  Ah well, it keeps me out of mischief...

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