A cuddly bunny

When my friend announced she was pregnant late last year, I knew I wanted to knit her something for the baby.  But being a crochet wiz she's already made many blankets and I wanted to make something a little different.  So when I found the lovely knitting patterns at HuggableBears on Etsy, I knew it would be one of these guys.  Once I found the snowflake wool I knew this bunny would be perfect.

It's funny how I am totally cool with the bunny being blue, but the idea of a blue teddy is just too wrong to even consider!

As you can see Bunny is a little bigger than Ted, but is more floppy - perfect to be taken anywhere by a little person.  I hope little Olivia Rose enjoys it.

Race For Life

On my medal hanger I have 8 medals.  I've worked hard to earn them; got up early to train and changed my diet to make me faster.  But if it hadn't been for the guys behind the scenes the races would never have happened so today I felt it was right I gave something back.

I spent the day in Guildford as a marshal at the Race for Life.  There were two 5k races, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  My role was to make sure the participants knew where to go, make sure they didn't trip on the big pot hole I was guarding, but more importantly to encourage them to keep going.  

Race for Life is a different sort of race from the one's I normally take part in, but it was my first race in 2013.  The people running/walking this race aren't trying to do the best time ever, they are trying to raise as much money for Cancer Research UK as possible and at the same time they are remembering their loved ones touched by cancer or their own journey with cancer which makes this event is so special.

I hope that I helped everyone to have a great day, and I hope they all believed me when I shouted at them 'You are all amazing'.

Mays Writers Group

I'm not sure they appreciated last months homework.  There were many comments about how hard it was, maybe because it covered such a wide subject.  But the pieces people wrote were very insightful reminding us that freedom doesn't have to be a huge thing, but sometimes can be quite small, for instance having the freedom to choose the colour we paint our rooms.  
It might have been hard but it generated lots of discussion.

This months homework:

Change a historical fact, this could be big – Germany wins WW1, or small – your great grandfather never met your great grandmother.  

Now write your story based in 2015 but with this different past.

(inspired by Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series of books)

Spots

Before we went away on honeymoon I knitted a scarf. (I realise that was 4 months ago, but I've only just gotten round to writing about it.)  It's not that remarkable, I'm sure most people who are learning to knit have made a scarf at some point.  The idea of my scarf was to learn how to add a different coloured wool to a project.  This involved a little bit of 'design' work and some stitch markers.

Out came the handy sketch pad and I started by working out the stitches I would need to make a spot.  A little bit of research was needed here, and I finally came up with the design below.

At this point I also purchased myself some stitch markers from Crafty Cat Knitty Bits to help me keep my spots in the correct place throughout.  (I used them to mark the first and last stitch of each spot for the first row - so 3 stitches apart.)

If you want to have a go yourself, just follow the pattern below.  My scarf was quite thin so you might want to double the pattern or make it even bigger so you can make it into a snood - then you won't have to worry about tidying up the back.

Cast on 33 stitches, then stocking stitch 4 rows starting with a knit row.
On the fifth row knit 5 stitches then swap colour.  Knit 3 stitches in your new colour then swap back to the main colour.  Knit 17 stitches and swap again for 3 stitches.  Finish the row with 5 stitches in the main colour.
On the next row purl 4 stitches then swap colour.  Purl 5 stitches in your new colour then swap back to the main colour.  Purl 15 stitches and swap again for 5 stitches.  Finish the row with 4 stitches in the main colour.
Repeat the last row as a knit row and again as a purl row.
Then repeat the fifth row.
Stocking stitch 3 rows in the main colour.
Now knit 15 stitches in the main colour.  Swap colour and knit 3 stitches.  Swap back to the main colour and finish the row.
Next row purl 14 stitches and swap colour.  Purl 5 stitches then swap back to the main colour and finish the row.
Repeat the last row as a knit row and again as a purl row.
Then repeat the first row of this spot - knit 15 stitches ...
Stocking stitch 3 rows in the main colour and continue until it reaches the desired length.

Good luck and happy knitting.

Glow in the dark

While most people are thinking about the London Marathon this weekend my thoughts were on the much shorter 5k Glow in the Dark run on Saturday night.
The idea was to have a fun run round the nice flat Dorney Lake in Windsor and help my friend Nikki run her first 5k.  We took it steady, enjoyed the music and had some fun.  Everyone had dressed up with glow sticks and flashing lights so following the route was easy.  We came in at 39:03 which for a first time 5k was pretty good.
It was a nice little run.  We were set off in waves so there was no hanging around as there was a new wave every 5 mins or so.  No queue for the loos and a special tent with UV lights so you could take photos all glowing.  The perfect sort of run for a beginner.
(and the medal glows in the dark!  What more could you want!?)

Aprils Writers Group

This months meeting was pushed back due to Easter and I guess the lack of attendees and writing might have been linked to this too.
But those of us who did attend had a really good conversation about writing, our motivation and the most important question - can anyone write?  I think we came to the conclusion that yes anyone can write but it takes time and effort - something a lot of us, including myself, struggle with.
Remember, the next time you see someone doing something and making it look easy - they probably spent a long time practicing and working at it before they got that good.

This months homework: 
Use the following as the inspiration for a story or poem: Freedom

Garlic paper

A couple of years ago I attended a week of paper making at Central Saint Martins art college.  I can't remember now if I started collecting my garlic skins before this or after, but I finally decided that this Easter I would try making paper out of them.

I do use a lot of garlic in my cooking but in two years I had only managed to collect about 2 1/2 oz.

They were all stuck in a saucepan with some water and washing soda and boiled for a bit - this removes all the waxes and oils and organic stuff which would affect my paper.

At the end of the process you have something that looks like this.  Very appetising!  But once it is mixed with some cotton fibre then you can see how beautiful it really is.  I love that you can see all the fibres.  'im outdoors said it looked like hair.
Sadly I didn't have much so couldn't make very much paper, but I've already started collecting my next batch, so give it another couple of years and I'll have another go.

Above you can see the difference between paper made from onion skins, leaves of an ornamental thistle and the garlic skins.

A pretty little Coco dress

I love the idea of making my own cloths, so often what I find in the shops isn't quite what I want. So when I came across the Tilly and the Buttons blog I was quite excited, but not as much as when I found her Coco dress!  I fell in love straight away and bought the pattern. 

But this left me with a problem.  I didn't have a sewing machine.  I normally borrowed my Mum's, but it died while I was making my knitting needle wrap.  Dad lent me one to finish it with, but needed it back.  Time to treat myself then.  Welcome to my new Singer Talent.  Its a lovely little machine and we get on very well.

The dress took about 2 days to make once I had everything I needed to start.  The material came from the local haberdashery while the buttons came from Textile Garden, I could spend hours on their site looking at their buttons!  Tilly has all the instructions you need on her site, so it was like having my very own personal tutor talking me though how to do everything.  Perfect.

And there you have it - my first handmade dress. 

I have to say it doesn't look much until you put it on, but once on it feels and looks great.  I can't wait to wear it to work next week, and yes there will be a little bit of pride when I'm asked where I got it from and I can say I made it myself.
If I can find the right material I already have plans for the next one...