I’m back! Did you miss me?

Hello blogging world! Well, I am back and – phew! – what a hectic and surprising month this has turned out to be, with even more twists are turns in store for the immediate future! I’ll try as much as I can to fill you in without boring the pants off you. First of all, I finished the final draft of my thesis. I’d like to pay great respect to my poor laptop for carrying the burden of the whole 86,000 word endeavour (excluding references and bibliography!). The beast got handed in to my supervisors on Tuesday, and in my mind I had set aside three weeks for them to read it, and three weeks to make any amendments deemed necessary. So, imagine my fall-of-the-seat surprise when an email pops up on Thursday saying that not only had they read it, but it was excellent and that it was ready to hand in, apart from a couple of minor changes. I took minor to mean a couple of weeks’ work, but no! Apparently, the changes should take no longer than a day!!!!! So, err, that’s that and I’m on my way to Sheffield on Thursday to get it bound and handed in! I have also found out that out of my cohort of 20, I am the third person to submit, which is rather good. Actually, to be completely honest, I am annoyed that I am not the first. I know that being so competitive isn’t attractive, but that’s the way I am. I like to be first! I like to win! So, I have rationalised to myself that I would have been first had I not also took some time out to renovate two houses over the period of my PhD; indeed had I not done this, I would have actually finished my PhD in under 3 years. So not only would I have been first to hand in, but I would have equalled the Department record, which makes me a winner on two fronts! I told you my competitiveness was downright ugly

And, errr, talking of renovating houses, itchy feet has struck again! Yes, despite the stresses of last year’s move to Leeds, it’s time to up sticks again, and move onto pastures new once more. Pastures new being Sheffield. The place I lived in for ten years, loved, ended up loathing, and have recently come to a new understanding with . I don’t really want to say any more at this stage, because there’s actually quite a lot riding on this move that isn’t about floor space and money, and if I say it now, and it doesn’t come off, the disappointment will be too raw and deep to relay here. The stress levels are already high, made worse by the fact that it is all completely out of my controlling hands (the other aspect of my competitive nature), and I once again only have the sage words of Russell Grant for solace. Whilst I don’t want to say much more for now, I will however just say that there are no babies involved though

Amongst all of this, I have still managed to find time for a spot of light crafting. I am in the midst of making a pair of these socks, but it’s soooooo slow! I’ve heard how most people get bored by the second sock, but for me, tedium has set in halfway through the first ankle! But, I don’t give up (tenacity being a good aspect of competitiveness) – no socks are beating me! So, I’ll keep you posted on that one! I’ve also been bitten by the Blythe crochet dress bug, which also bit Rima a couple of weeks ago with wonderfully creative results. It started in March with these (I don’t think I shared these before).

I then moved onto creating another new pattern, with even prettier results.

Indeed, the feedback to this dress was so lovely, that I started to make a few for sale on a commission basis, where each panel is in a colour handpicked by the buyer. (Further details are here, plug plug ). So far, it’s been wonderfully fun, and I have got to try out some amazing colour combinations such as these.

Indeed, the shop as a whole is doing rather nicely! It’s always a pleasure to make special clothes for special girls, and even better when you’re able to see the results of your labour being worn and enjoyed.

(THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR SHARING YOUR PICTURES WITH ME – FULL CREDITS AVAILABLE HERE).

Time out for now…

Hello everyone!  Yay, I’m still here!  But intensely busy as I am about to hand in the final draft of my thesis.  I promise I will write more once things are at a slower pace around here, and you can always get a snapshot of what I’ve been up to by having a nosey on my Flickr

In the meantime, I just want to share on of my favourite adverts du jour with you. Enjoy!

And an earlier version

Birthdays, Blythes and Breathing Difficulties (!)

Yep, it was my birthday this week.  I reached the grand old age of 28 and spent the weekend mourning the loss of my youth! As my family live relatively (in terms of time and money for me) far away, I took the opportunity to visit them for the day. I don’t see them as much as I should, to be honest. But that’s life, and maybe one day some things will change.

Here’s a photo of me and my Dad. I only have about three photos of us together from the past 15 years. I can’t see that much of a family resemblance (thank God, lol!).

I also managed to get a photo or to of the runaground boat off the Fylde coast. You can learn all about it news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/7229956.stm>here; try not to read the company name as Seastuck like I do every time!

I forgot to take some of my mum when I saw her later; I must remember next time. Mum took us out for a nice meal to celebrate my birthday, apart from the mortal embarrassment that she caused me when she went to the toilet. She’d flicked her paper napkin into the candle without realising (read ‘paying attention to her surroundings’) and it set alight. No-one noticed for a good thirty seconds and then I grabbed it and had to throw a perfectly good pint of lager on it to stem the flames. Needless to say, everyone stared at us and I wished the ground could swallow me up!Embarrassments aside, birthdays = pressies, woot! Here’s my little haul. Lots of cards is one of the benefits of having a divorced family

That mug tree thingy is an Easter tree from my Mum (you hang those eggs on it, which unfortunately are not edible), which is strangely kitsch and I like it a lot. I also got a couple of craft books. On the recommendation of several of you, I decided to go with the Reader’s Digest sewing book. I did consider the Dorling Kindersley one, but it reminded me of school to much, and TBH I didn’t like school all that much. I also got a cool crochet book, which got slated on AmazonUK for being in American-English, but this suits me as I learned to crochet out of The Happy Hooker. There’s also a copy of Vogue Knitting on its way to me I was also spoilt financially and got some lovely money of the paper variety, which I spent on tickets to see Paul Weller in May and for a semi-final match of the Darts World Championship in June. YAY!!!! Both are in Blackpool, so perhaps I could take advantage of the ready-made opportunity to get some more photos? Oh, and the eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed a new addition, amongst the detritus, to my expanding plastic family. Yup, lovely Johnny treated me to a Mrs Retro Mamma.

So, without further ado, let me introduce you to Gwendolina Custardina! She’s a little nervous here are this is a pre-op photo, and she’s had to don her surgical gown and slippers.

Why? Her hair! It’s like a matted brillo pad that’s been used several times over! Here’s the site of the surgical intervention. We attempted to disconnect the intermingled follicles and introduce heightened verticality (i.e. wash her hair in fabric softener and comb straight).

And here she is mid-op.

And how is the patient now, I hear you cry? Well it was touch and go. There were some hairy (arf!) moments, not least when I had to pour a kettle of boiled water over it to make it all lie flat. But here she is now, and as we haven’t the time for a real photoshoot, this one taken using my laptop will have to suffice. As silky as a silkworm covered in silk!

And the breathlessness. Yeah, had another asthma attack when I went running. It wasn’t major, but I’ve been generally short of breath so decided to go to the doctors. Now on a course of steroids, whose list of attractive side-effects include stomach ulcers with bleeding or perforation; wasting of the upper arm and leg muscles; thinning of the skin; hormonal imbalance; foetal abnormalities; and glaucoma. I assume that such symptoms will not occur from a five day course, but it was rather kind of the drug company to let me know! So reassuring

Remembering our soldiers

The Art Fund is launching a campaign to persuade the Royal Mail to honour our war dead through a series of stamps.

Now, politics aside regarding the rights and wrongs of the Iraq War, nearly 200 young men and women from the UK have died in this conflict. They did not engineer this war. They did not choose this war. But they gave their life to serve this country, and should be honoured, rather than their memory conflated with the political controversies that surround it.

If you would like to sign the petition, the link is here:

www.artfund.org/queenandcountry/index.php

My hair in someone else’s hands

For the past ten years, the same person has cut and coloured my hair.  I am protective about my hair.  Indeed for the first six months of living in Leeds, I’ve still trekked back to Sheffield to have my barnet dealt with, which is no mean feat when public transport takes around 4 hours.   At present and for the foreseeable, however, I simply don’t have 4 hours to while away on a trundling train going through the less salubrious parts of South Yorkshire (of which there are many).  So, the time has come to take the plunge, move onto pastures new, as a change is as good as a rest (insert your own cliches, ad naseum).  I have found somewhere in Leeds that looks pretty good; it has won salon of the year a couple of times, so who am I to argue with the voting public.  It’s pretty pricey, so I’m having my hair cut with a junior, erk!  I’m sure it ill be okay; what on earth could go wrong with a pair of scissors and a bottle of peroxide? 

Of Mice and Snakes

You may have noticed by now that I’m not the world’s fastest crafter. A post will appear extolling the virtues of the latest project under construction, and then it goes completely off-radar for weeks, nay months. Take, for example, the bag I made for Mummykins at Christmas – that spread over a quarter of the year! To be fair, most things do get finished in the end (one notable exception being that dang Henry scarf, which peed me off no end and got ripped after a week). Indeed, only these past few days has another project finally reached completion, and has been firmly crossed off my ‘to-do’ list (and by virtue of it being a leap year, has been contained within two calendar months). So without further ado, let me introduce Marvin Mouse and Archie Anaconda!

Aren’t they wonderful? They’re made out of a fabulous pattern designed by Anna of Mochimochiland. Her patterns are fab, fun and (apparently) quick! She’s also got a lovely free pattern on Knitty that’s definitely worth consideration. Now, despite the traditional predator-prey relationship between snakes and mice, Marvin and Archie have sought to bridge the divide by being the best of friends; look, they even have matching toupees! Each night they sleep together. Sometimes Marvin likes to nestle in the warmth of Archie’s mouth.

At other times, Archie likes to suck his tail with Marvin snuggled up in the crook of his body.

I only made one modification to this pattern, and that was to place a little bell in the end of his tail. He’s a rattlesnake, d’uh! Actually, he must have mixed parentage, as surely he can’t be both and anaconda and a rattle snake?*

Apart from the snake, I have also found the time to make my Mum a Mother’s Day Pressie. Now this is not an ambitious project, but I am in the invidious position of late of being both cash-poor and time-poor. What’s a girl to do? Well, in this instance, use the nicest wool in their stash (Rowan Felted Tweed) and set to making a really pretty flower brooch, embellished with iridescent sequins and beads. There is also a practical reason for this project’s bijou dimensions. For the past 10 years I have had to mail presents to all my family, having never been close enough for a ‘pop over’ visit. Honestly, there are only so many things that travel through the post easily, and there are only so many books, CDs, DVDs etc you can send before you feel like ripping up your Amazon account and poking your eyes out. Anyway, I do hope she’ll like it

Now, onto a more pressing subject – the weather (deary me, you can tell I’m English).

First of all, I slept through the earthquake (is this ‘weather’? I apologist to a certain scientist who might berate me for my sloppy conceptualisations). This is no real surprise as I also slept through this as a child (proof indeed that capacity to sleep bears no relationship to wine consumed). Second of all, last Wednesday cast the most magical frost over where I live that I really do need to share some photos with you. Fortunately I had the day off for John’s birthday (29th!!!), so I was able to take some cracking pics before it melted away just an hour or so later.

It sure was wonderful!

*********

*Two reasons why he’s an anaconda. Firstly, I like alliteration. Secondly, when on holiday in Prague once I got caught in the rain with no umbrella. A kindly street seller saw my predicament and sold me one of his wares, pressing a snakeskin print design into my soggy hands. Speaking no Czech myself, and he little English, the seller just simply winked at me and said ‘A-na-con-daaaa!!!!!’ with a great big smirk on his face. God, I loved that umbrella.

Is this weird?

My name is Felicity and I’m a stash addict.  I have over 100 balls of wool with no predefined purpose, and possibly a mile of fabric which is just too special to cut.  And, yet, I keep buying.  Especially when it’s on sale. 

Am I normal?  Please share you stash stories and thoughts. 

What we’ve been making

As I had previously mentioned, the lack of posts has been the result of many hours crocheting for my little shop. I’ve made four different lines so far; two of hats and two of tops.

The first things were these gorgeous bonnets with little crochet flowers added.

Then, a wonderful find at my new-found secret yarn supplier led to the creation of some little sparkly sequined helmets. (In fact I managed to get some more of this in new colours, so keep your eyes peeled for further helmets!)

After being buoyed by the positive feedback I’d received, I decided to try out some of my designs for little tops. I loved making these jumpers and was super pleased with the way they turned out.

And just this weekend, I revealed another design – my babydoll camisoles – which sold out in three hours! I was astounded, to say the least. I know a lot of people were disappointed so, if time allows, I’m going to make some more for sale on Etsy this week

There has been a couple of downsides to this frenetic Etsy activity. For one, the girls are getting very peed off at having to model all the clothes without ever getting to keep any for themselves.

Also, I think that all the money I’ve made has been pretty much reinvested in wool, adding to the already precariously large Pudsey wool mountain! Only thing for it is to make some more clothes!

A very, very overdue thank you*

Wow! Two weeks since my last post! I was going to blame it on forgetting my WordPress password and the like, but I must confess that the limited spare time I have had, has been given over to my Etsy shop (more of which tomorrow). The crochet capitalist within has come to the fore! To get things back on track, I just wanted to say a big thank you to two net friends who have been so kind recently.

First up, I’d like to thank Sarah (electrocuties) – we agreed to do a small swap in December in the spirit of Christmas. You may recall that I made her a fluffy hat for her Blythe doll. In return, I received these goodies

I particularly like the 8 Ball pin – it’s a firm fixture on my lapel. And those chopsticks, wahhhh!!! Too cute to use of course, in a similar vein to novelty soaps

And I’d also like to say thank you to Oiyi. Earlier in the year she made what us Brits know as cinder toffee, and when I realised that you couldn’t get Cadbury’s Crunchies in the US, I just had to come to the rescue! In return, I unexpectedly got the most lovely parcel a couple of days before Christmas.

Now, I must confess that there were way more sweeties in the red carton, but they slowly got nibbled as they sat on my desk waiting for a sunny day to take a photo. And, my, they were good! I’ve yet to eat the rest – the gingerbread man is just too cute! But he will get eaten – I still have flashbacks from when I wouldn’t eat a chocolate bear from Thornton’s (again, too cute) and it eventually exploded. Plus I will still have uber cute tin afterwards, which I think is going to be used for housing cable needles and stitch markers If you want to see what a really fab crafter’s site is like, don’t waste your time here and head over to Oiyi’s site. She’s got 3 1/2 years of goodies to look over; knit, crochet, sewing, baking – it’s all there! She’s just had a gorgeous little girl too and, honestly, I have never known a baby have such an extensive bespoke wardrobe!

Finally, I would like to thank my Blythe girls, who have worked really hard over the past couple of weeks to get our little shop off the ground. Here they all are together for the first time. I love them all so much, squeeeee!

*Obviously, I emailed Sarah and Oiyi straight away to say ‘thanks’; I’m not that slack!

Please say ‘hello’ to Princess Esmeralda…

…the latest edition to the Happy Sisters family!  She’s the reason why I’ve had another eBay purge and why I set up my Etsy shop.  Isn’t she beautiful?

Sigh, I love her so much! She’s also made a wonderful model for the shop, and is wearing the latest line in the last two pictures I’ve sold 12 things already and am super pleased. I do hope that the recipients are equally as happy!

Keeping the post brief as had a mini-asthma ‘event’ when running tonight. I have heard that Chinese takeaway has therapeutic properties…