Extravagant Ripple

I've wanted to make a crochet ripple blanket for ages. The rate-limiting step was, for a while, my inability to read a crochet pattern - I tried, and failed, with many a ripple pattern. After my wonderful mother-in-law tweaked my crochet technique and explained that american and UK crochet terms were different and it was never going to work if I mixed the two, I realised that I could in fact read a pattern!

The ripple patern I used was adapted from 'Cute and Easy Crochet' by Nicky Trench of Laughing Hens fame. In the book the ripple features as a cushion cover. I can't remember the number of chains in my foundation chain specifically - I made it a little longer than I wanted the blanket to be and then repeated the pattern repeat sequence until I got towards the end of the foundation chain. If there weren't enough chains left to make another pattern sequence then I left them as a little tail at the end of the work - to be undone or woven in on completion of the project!

The 'extravagant' part of the blanket lies in the choice of yarn - Rowan Felted Tweed. I have always loved this yarn, but at around £5.50 a ball it is a tad pricey. It was an impromptu purchase when I found it on special offer at my not so local yarn shop. The ripple has been an ongoing project for a few months now and I'm about two thirds done. I love the warm, rich colours of the yarn - I had planned to share the finished article on my blog when it was completed, but with the weather and evenings becoming increasingly autumnal with blankets on the sofa, I couldn't resist.

Holiday

It's a couple of weeks now since we returned from our holiday in West Wales. We stayed in the tiny village of Cribyn, not far from Lampeter in a renovated tin shed known as Ty Sinc.

We had a very relaxing time mainly reading, DVD watching, crafting, playing board games and completing jigsaws. We did have some lovely jaunts though. Dr Husband and Big Girl had a boat trip out of New Quay to watch dolphins while Baby Boy slept and I relaxed watching little boats and read Miss Buncle's Book. I've been a big fan of Persephone Books for a few years now and had stocked up on some new books for holiday purposes.

We had an afternoon at the National Woollen Museum which I loved. It's an excellent, well thought out museum chronicling the history of the wool trade in Carmarthenshire with fabulous exhibits and lots to see. Being Welsh I've grown up cwtched under welsh woollen blankets and I loved seeing so many on display - including one very like a blanket I inherited from my grandparents!

(giant boiler at the woollen museum)

(preserved loom)

We enjoyed pottering in Aberaeron ...

...and had a very nice lunch at The Hive.

All in all a very lovely time of not doing very much!

Strawberry Milk

I had bit of a poorly Big Girl at the start of last week - never a good combination during school holidays! What better to ease a sore throat than some homemade strawberry milk.

All you need is some milk and some fresh strawberries - we used half a pint of milk and six yummy strawberries.

Whizz in the blender and, hey presto, a refreshing comforting drink!

It's a mad rush in our house this morning and we are headed off to West Wales for a few days. Everything is nearly packed - just some good books and knitting to organise!



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Matilda cake

My friend Luned is providing the catering at a children's camp at Llanmadoc this week. Part of the theme for the week is Children's books and so I was asked to make a Matildaesque chocolate cake for the final evening. for anyone who is lost, and I must confess I had to jog my memory, this is in reference to the chocolate cake that features in the book Matilda by Roald Dahl. In the novel Bruce Bogtrotter, one of the characters, eats an entire chocolate cake without throwing up. Apologies if I've got any details wrong - it is at least 20 years since I read the book!

A suitably large and chocolatey offering has been gracing my kitchen - a moist and gooey monster of a cake. I have baked two 10" chocolate cakes which I split to provide four layers sandwiched with vanilla buttercream. The whole cake has been covered with a thick layer of chocolate buttercream applied with a spatula and a straight edge and then finished with an icing comb for effect. Not being a great lover of chocolate this mammoth creation is a bit lost on me. Am sure it will be greatly received by a bunch of 10-13 year olds though. This has made me feel a little *ahem* old, as I have memories of similar summer camps and it doesn't feel that long ago!

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Well the little virus I mentioned in my last post turned out to be a bit more than that! With 168 cupcakes to bake and decorate, as well as a sugarpasted cutting cake to make, 48 hours before the wedding I developed a dental abscess! Maaaaan, was I rough! The two dentists at my surgery were on holiday so I was referred to a covering dentist who drained it and gave me antibiotics. All the baking was completed on painkillers and the icing and decorating was all done the day the abscess was drained - the anaesthetic injection wore off with 12 cupcakes left to ice! Thankfully I got it all done.

The pictures aren't the greatest I'm afraid - partly due to the fact they were taken on my iphone and partly due to the fact I felt truly hideous!

The cupcakes were red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. The wedding theme was 'The Movies' so the bride had sourced some Hollywood style cake toppers for the decoration.

A view of some of the 168!

A blurry image of the cutting cake - red velvet cake, layered with cream cheese icing and covered with white sugarpaste. The Star Trek lego figures are a reference to the bride and groom who got married as Princess Leia and Han Solo!

The summer holidays are going swimmingly and I've accomplished quite a bit in the house as well as with some crafting projects. I have finished the Amy Butler knitted cushion cover - I shall refrain from posting a picture until I've decided on a suitable fabric for the backing. I'm off to the quilting exhibition at the Birmingham NEC on saturday so hope to find something lovely there!

Summer Holidays

We are halfway through our first full week of the school holidays and so far we are all a bit under the weather! Why is it that we are the picture of health when we are living life in the fast lane, but come relaxation time the four of us are afflicted by a random virus - how typical.

Still it's giving me some time for knitting, reading and film watching so it can't all be bad. I've put my sewing machine away for the early weeks of the summer hols in a bid to finish some festering unfinished projects. Some of these were discovered in the spare room whilst decluttering in preparation for decorating. These are largely knitted articles and some have, I am ashamed to say, have been on the needles for *ahem* a year - maybe even a leeettle bit longer. Oh dear!

My current finishing off project is a cable cushion cover from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Knits. I wonder why it got left along the wayside for so long as I love the pattern. The Aran wool makes it a relatively quick knit. I plan to only knit one side of the cover at this point, using fabric, possibly an Amy Butler print for the other.

At the end of the week begins the cake marathon - my friend is getting married and I have 168 red velvet cupcakes and a 6" cutting cake to make! Madness! This is why I don't do full time cake decorating - the wedding season would be too manic!



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Birthday Cushion

There aren't enough hours in the day at the moment. So much inspiration but oh so little time! There are 2 days left before school breaks up and I have my Big Girl home - I'm looking forward to lazy mornings and not having to be out-the-door by 8.30 am.

I made my friend Mari a birthday cushion for her little girl who turned one last week. I'd bought a delicious fat quarter pack about a month ago - quite literally delicious as the fabric, by Makower, is covered in cupcakes and other sweet delights.

I had some 30X30 cm cushion pads so I calculated that nine 4 and a half squares arranged in three rows of 3 squares would give the correct dimensions. The fat quarter pack contained 4 prints so two 4 and a half squares were cut from each - the remaining square would be white fabric so I could embroider Gwennan's name onto it.

The cut squares ready to go:

And sewn together:

I used a fabric marker to write Gwennan's name on the white square after I'd sewn the squares together to make sure I centered it properly.

This was then embroidered with running stitch in a hot pink coloured silk:

The cushion was backed simply using the envelope method. I am very pleased with the result and it was well received by Gwennan herself! I was in a bit of a rush to complete it and would have liked to have embroidered some flowers around the name on the centre square but time did not allow! However, I've cut out another set of squares to make a similar cushion for a little 3 year old called Efa - her much shorter name lends itself to lots of embellishing!!



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