In April & May…

…I had more fun with Turtle Tales. (See the full story here, here, here, here and here.)

…I made pompom animals with lots of children at an Easter family event.

…I made a cute cardigan as a birthday present for a cute little girl.

…I had some lovely things in the post from Tamara and Jane.

…I finally showed you the Riverbed Blanket.

…I enjoyed bright splashes of colour as spring arrived – at long last!

…I spent a bank holiday with a lovely friend and a crazy cat.

…I had some lovely presents for my birthday.

…I revealed the winner of my birthday giveaway (and even managed to send it before the month was over!)

…I spent my half-term holiday making granny bunting.

That’s actually a whole lot more than I thought I’d done! I think it feels like I haven’t done much because I haven’t been blogging much, but perhaps that’s not the case…

#196

I noticed when I posted yesterday that I am getting very close to my 200th post – how exciting! It’s also getting pretty close to my birthday – something else that’s very exciting! So to celebrate these two exciting events I’ve decided to have a giveaway! So many exclamation marks!!!

The winner can choose between a Hearts Desire Doily…

…or a Five Point Star Doily.

This can be made in red, cream, white, pink, pale blue, pale green or pale yellow – is that enough choice?! (Read about the first time I made these patterns here.)

In addition, the winner will also receive a custom made crochet and wooden beaded necklace, similar to this one.

The winner can pick the colour and length of their choice.

There may also be one or two other goodies added over the next couple of weeks – watch this space!

If you’re interested in joining in, simply leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

A deluge of doilies

Since the first doily turned out so successfully (with only one or two small mistakes) I have been in a bit of a doily frenzy! I ended up making four more over the weekend, churning them out one after the other.

This is doily #2, the Petit Pineapple Doily.

This is the biggest and laciest doily. It was quite ripply after I finished, so I pinned it and sprayed it with starch. The edges are not quite as rounded as in the pattern picture – any tips on how to pin rounded edges without ending up with pointy bits?!

This is doily #3, the Hearts Desire Doily.

This is quite a tiny, dainty one. The colour hasn’t come out very well in the picture – the cotton I used is a fair bit darker. This was a lovely, quick pattern to use and I can see me making more.

This is doily #4, the Five Point Star Doily.

Again, a super quick make and a similar size to the heart doily. I’m glad I didn’t start with this one – most of the instructions are clear enough, but rounds 5 and 6 are a bit vague. Because it was a similar technique to the heart doily I could figure out what needed to be done, but I think it would have a little frustrating if it had been my first attempt at a doily.

#5 is the Daisy Doily.

There is no link to this one as I sort of made it up as I went along! It’s based on one that Mum has…

Mum said it was a family heirloom – meaning it’s old and well used! So well used it’s starting to fall apart in places.

I like the flower pattern in it and thought I’d have a go at making my own. I made less outer rounds than the original, choosing to finish only a couple of rounds after the flower part was finished. On the whole it’s not too bad – some of the chain bits are longer than they should be, and one of the last rounds was a bit tight (meaning that the edge curled up – oops!) but nothing that a bit of blocking and spray starching couldn’t fix.

And of course I didn’t write the pattern down as I went along, so if I attempt another one it’ll all be guess work again!