Besides Knitting

While I'm slowly working on publishing my new knitting pattern,I thought I might share some other things going on in my life, just so you know I am a human being and not completely obsessed with knitting (even though that remains to be proved😉)

I've been know to do a bit of baking: I don't particularly enjoy baking, it's mostly the eating part I love. I made my first slow-cooker banana cake recently: slow cooked cakes are the best, very difficult to burn 😂.

My yummy banana cake

Speaking of baking, I managed to grow a healthy enough blueberry bush in my backyard and since I'm the only one who seems to want to eat them, I froze the few blueberries I picked so far this season and planning to make a batch of either blueberry muffins or blueberry tartlets (my mum made some once when I was a kid and they were delicious!).

As for gardening, I wouldn't call myself a keen gardener but I enjoy having pretty plants and edible things in my garden (the less maintenance the better). Here's a pretty picture of my hydrangea now in full bloom, it's not as pretty when the flowers die off:

Close -up of my beautiful hydrangea

But what I really love doing is knitting so I thought I'd share a sneak peak of my new hooded cowl:

Wriggles Hooded Cowl fresh off the blocking mat

I just couldn't help myself, could I?

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July Crafting, Exams, A Birthday And Holidays.

I successfully sat both my accountancy tests last week and I'm due to go to France in 3 days so I'm taking a break from studying until I come back (or until the girls are back in school at the very end of August if I can get away with it:)

My latest make is this reversible tote bag that I made for my youngest daughter - she wanted to make it herself but it took me so long to get the supplies ready and I must admit I was being a bit of a control freak and was afraid of mistakes. I think maybe a smaller project like a small lavender bag may be easier for her to start with (and for me to let go a little of my control-freakedness)

I've also been working a little on my yarn stash and used the best of a giant 400g ball of aran yarn with this knitted infinity scarf for my eldest daughter (I made her a grey slouch hat last year so now she'll have the scarf to match), as well as 2 crochet hats that will be listed in my shop probably from September as I'm a bit poor on time at the moment - one slouchy and the other in a more classic shape.

I also finished my daughter's green cropped box top (or turquoise - we tend to fight about colours a lot as I don't seem to see colours the same way my daughters do - They see blue when I see green!)

My daughter's birthday is tomorrow and since both my girls are spending a few days with their Dad I had an early little birthday party with a not so little birthday cake:

I wanted to cross-stitch a birthday card and since she loves "My Little Pony" I decided to do Rainbow Dash: I just hadn't planned on it taking so goddamn long! It's a surprise so I started making it in my room during the day when she's in her room or outside playing - I did manage a few hours per day but now that she's at her Dad's until tomorrow I've been spending most of last night and today on it (while binge watching "The Killing" on Netflix). I do have to go to town tomorrow so really putting in the time today and I hope to have it finished by tomorrow evening when she comes home (but I can't promise anything).

The day after I get my girls back I have to pack for our annual holiday in France so I really, really need to finish thay Rainbow Dash quickly (especially since I'll be driving 4 hours to get to the Ferry and I'll need to rest my eyes from all the cross-stitching before going on a long drive). I'm overdoing it on my eye drops (because I suffer from dry eyes and I need eye drops even when I'm not cross-stitching) so hopefully I'll be able to see the road and not billions of tiny rainbow coloured crosses!


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