Quick Calm Cowl

Yesterday morning I was reading through the latest blogs that dropped into by inbox when I came across one that especially caught my eye. Mrs Patch showed the beginnings of the Calm Cowl that she was making. It was the yarn itself that caught my eye – I was given a ball (but in a different colour) for Christmas and had wondered what to do with it. The cowl seemed like the perfect thing! I found the pattern on Ravelry (Calm Cowl by Suzana Davidovic) and saw that I’d need to get at least 2, possibly 3 more balls.

So just before lunchtime I headed to my local yarn shop. I found the right yarn straight away – but not in the right colour! I then spent the next 15 minutes dithering, wandering back and forth along the shelves, picking up and putting down a multitude of different yarns until I finally settled on James C. Brett Monsoon, shade 5.

I’m so pleased with my choice – the colours are lovely! And the pattern is great too. It’s very clear to follow and it is so quick to finish. I think it took about 6 or 7 hours all together (I made over half of it while I was watching Sense and Sensibility with some friends, and that was about 3 hours long!) and it’s great to have a project that can be finished before I get bored!

And here it is…

…and again…

…and being worn by my obliging model…

It’s wonderfully cosy and I’m almost looking forward to the weather turning colder so I have an excuse to wear it!

Yummy yarn bombing

On our way to visit friends on the beautiful island of Barra we stopped off in Oban (where we were catching the ferry from) and had a wander around. We were walking from the car park towards the town and as we came round a corner we suddenly saw this…

… and this was next to it.

Then we found this…

There was a local artist who had a tiny studio surrounded by all this amazing mosaic work.

She was also the source of the yarn bombing. She told us it had started with these posts – the original paint was chipping off and looking very ugly so she decided to make them some covers to make them look more attractive.

It grew from there and she had ended up surrounding her little patch with all this lovely colour.

She only yarn bombed close to her studio so that she could maintain them fairly easily and mend any that need it. It was a delightful and unexpected surprise!

And the winners are…

…about to be announced!

But before I announce them, let me show you the lavender bags…

And the lucky people who will be their new owners…

Congratulations to Kate, Linda and Jill! I’m hoping you’ll all want a different bag, but let me know which one you prefer and I’ll do my best to send you the one you most like 🙂 And drop me an email with you address (cuteasabutton82@hotmail.co.uk). For those of you who didn’t win, I’m in the process of preparing a tutorial so you can make your very own!

Lovely lavender bags

Today is a very sad day. It’s the last day of the holiday before I go back to school. I will miss my holiday time so very much! I’m planning a few posts about some of my holiday activities over the next couple of weeks. I’ve seen some beautiful quilting, some fantastic yarn bombing and have started (but not finished!) several projects.

The lavender bags I want to show you were whipped up this week. It was one of those situations where I’ve been friends with someone for a while, but hadn’t found out her birthday. Until Facebook told me! Her birthday was on Friday, but I knew I wouldn’t be seeing her until Sunday, giving me a day and a half to make something for her. I kind of put it to the back of my mind (for about 5 minutes) as I was supposed to be doing some planning for school. Then out of nowhere I remembered the huge bag of lavender I have, and Emma’s love for all things crochet. So I put the two together and came up with these…

They’re super easy to make – two circles of glorious colour filled with delicious smelling lavender – simples!

For the first two I did the same pattern of stripes on each side, but with slightly different buttons. For the third one I made a stripy side and a plain side which I embellished with some pretty flowers. (Find the flower patterns at Attic24, here (about halfway down the page) and here.)

I’ve made three more since these – I think they’re the only project I’ve started and finished recently! And because I have three spare ones, (and because my posts have been so sporadic recently and I want to make it up to you) I’m having a super speedy giveaway – if you’d like a crochet lavender bag of your very own, leave a comment at the bottom of this post before 7.00pm GMT. I’ll pick names out of a hat and will let you know the results tomorrow 🙂

Edit: This giveaway is now closed. You can find out the winners here 🙂