Category Archives: Craftiness

March 2, 2013 · 2:43 pm

Restless Digits in Abu Dhabi

At the tail end of last year I went to Abu Dhabi to stay with my Mum with the aim of working for a Marine charity for six months. The work placement fell through but the flights were booked and the loose ends were tied so I decided to stay there for six weeks to do research for my pipeline PhD and crochet.

I only found one yarn shop nearby, which was a good hours drive away, so I took some yarn with me in a vacuum pack, a true obsessive! There are a lot of tailors in Abu Dhabi so sewing supply stores were plentiful (hence the buttons) and the metal clips were taken from the lanyards we were given at the Grand Prix. (It was Mr Ginger’s 30th birthday last year so I got him tickets for the race and he joined me for a week in Abu Dhabi). Each of us received a separate lanyard for each of the four days of the race and we went with friends = lots of lanyards = oodles of key rings 🙂

Mr Ginger likes his pictures and he got himself a super zoom lens from eBay – it obviously needed a super case to keep it safe and sound. I made the pattern up as I went along, but the basics came from Attic24’s fabby baggy blog post which is here.

Not one to miss out on the action, I decided I also needed a camera case. I stole the button from Mum… I do hope she never loses a button off whichever blouse it once belonged to! Again, I made this one up as I went along.

Granny Bunting! To be honest I’ve no idea where the pattern came from for these, there seem to be lots of similar ones online. You may have noticed I seem to reference Attic24 in almost every post (repeatedly), the wonderful Lucy has a similar pattern on this post here, aside from that, I think I’d made so many granny squares by this point for my blanket a triangle wasn’t too challenging!

Having spent 6 weeks in the sunshine and knowing I was arriving home at the start of December I decided some gloves were in order. I must admit they are a tad drafty as gloves go, but they did the trick!

Please note, the gloves match my camera case beautifully and Mr Ginger looks very well coordinated using his camera near the bunting. It’s probably for the best I didn’t have more wool as there was reading to be done…

Thanks for popping by!

Po x

Birthday Crochet x 2

I learned to crochet in September last year at a café in York called The Flax and Twine, they do all sorts of wonderful crafty courses (during which they often serve tea, cake and sandwiches – ruddy lovely!). Since then I’ve been well and truly hooked to the hookey business.

By way of birthday gifts I made three brooches for the lovely lady next door:

The rose pattern is from Cute and Easy Crochet by Niki Trench, in the book she attaches loads of them to a stunner of a tea cosy . I then turned to the ever wonderful Lucy of Attic24 for tips on how to make them broochy from this post here.

AND a garland for a friend with a soft spot for ladybirds:

The lady birds were made using Attic24’s flat circle tutorial, I left a gap in the second round and changed colour from red to black to make the head. There are lots of flower patterns knocking around on-line, but I used this one from Sarahndipities lovely flower garland tutorial.

The weather looks utterly gorgous and I have a puppy waiting to explore the great out doors 🙂

Thanks for popping by!

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February 28, 2013 · 9:49 pm

Intro to me and my blanket

This is my first shot at all this, so I’m going to keep it brief! My name is Polly and I live in York with a puppy called Ginger and my ginger husband-to-be called Tim. We keep bees in our backyard and hope to expand with additional hives in future. I studied the sea but in the absence of a job and the presence of a puppy I spend most of my time crocheting, cooking, pootling in the garden, eating cake with friends, searching for reasons not to do house work and musing the beautiful blogs of crafty people. At present I’m working on a blanket, progress pictures below:

Grannies waiting to be crocheted together, I greatly enjoy pictures like this.

This picture was taken in Abu Dhabi in November when I was visiting my Mum, at the time I thought I’d get the blanket finished by the end of December – not a chance!!

Novembers squares in order!

I’ve done a lot since then, but that picture might have to wait until I’m finished! What I will say is that it’s a flower with blue petals a green stem and purple grannies round the edge.

Thanks for popping by!

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