Crafty Goodness.

I'm still knitting away slowly here. Well what else are you supposed to do with wet miserable summer days?
I came across a pattern for a knitted ripple blanket and just had to have a play. I made the rainbow dolly version first, using some acrylic yarns that were on Sale. That also gave me the ability to tweak the pattern a little.
Before investing in some yarn that has a much better pedigree!

The brown one on the right is a local yarn made from the wool of a local breed, the Manx Loughtan. The other two I'm not so familiar with, but it's pure new wool, from a british breed, so I know our pregnant friends will appreciate it. Yep, you guessed, another baby gift.

*

Gotta go, I want to get more of this larger version done so I can show a picture tomorrow.

The Great British Summer.

Need I say more.

Little boots.

As I said in my last post, I found a little time for crafting. As promised, I made the second bootee and also a tiny pair of mittens to match.
I just need to get some ribbon for the mittens. Aren't they so cute? Tony is fascinated by the tiny boots, he can't resist having a play each time he sees them. LOL
*
I've been hunting hard for a job, as some of you have observed, it's really not a good time, but it's only been a few weeks, something will pop up. I'm trying to remain focused and positive. It's not so easy to stay positive at my own work just now though, my enthusiasm is wearing thin.
*
Thank you for all the comments and encouragement about my new hair do. I'll keep on practising with the straighteners, though I have found that washing, a quick comb and abandonment works well. ;-)
*
I've been doing a little walking, in between the summer down pours! They seem to have dried up at the moment and we've had a little sun. Look at the pretty flowers I spotted.
This gorgeous rose caught my eye. Sorry the pictures are not up to much, I'm still using my phone. This sweet pea was a little further along my path.

Just beautiful. As well as walking I've been swimming, in fact I'm off to the pool today. I love swimming but haven't been for ages, time to get back into the habit. I had to purchase a larger swim suit though. :-(

*

Time to go, take care.

Still bumbling along.

Still alive! Still no camera and very little in the way of needle craft to show off anyway! I have knitted a half a pair of booties for our pregnant friends! LOL I'll knit the other half soon.
*
I'm still learning to live with slightly shorter hair. I loved it when I came out of the salon, the stylist had straightened it for me. I've had a few goes since, with minimal success! LOL My sister in law did a much better job, but even she didn't get that real sleek effect Kirsten managed to achieve. Practice, practice I guess.
*
The reason I've done so little crafting has become less about the temperature and more about the hunt for a new job. I'm all signed up with some agencies now and every day I'm at the job seekers website. I've been told that I'm over qualified for one job I applied for, and well you know how it is, some organisations don't even bother to acknowledge your existence when you CV lands with them! I also have a part time course guide from the local college and I'm planning a couple of courses, provided of course I can make it fit around my current job.
*
As I have no crafts of my own to show off, here's a peep at Moya's latest offering. I've shown a smaller section of this top before I'm sure I have. It's a work in very slow progress as Moya is currently working two jobs!
Her day job in the office and an evening job at the restaurant. That doesn't leave much time for all the house work and keeping up with the children, never mind time to sew!
*
Speaking of housework, I'm off to wave a duster about, somebody wrote in it!

Okay, Okay!

I can take a hint! Here's a peep at the new doo!
But first the old one. Here it is down for our wedding day. It had grown a lot since then and was waist length. (Nice bum Hun!)
You could scroll down to see another before image, in the last post too.
*
Sorry bout the image quality, this was taken using my cell phone.

It's the shaggy dog look. The stylist had straightened it and it looked very sleek, but I had to wash it! I lasted 4 days, that's not bad.

*

Happy now? LOL

Booooring.

It's boring having no camera! I had a lovely day out on Monday with Mum and Kay. We visited some beautiful gardens, but Kay forgot her camera, and ours is broken. Sadly the few pictures I attempted with my phone were poor, so I haven't saved them. I have another update too, you know all my hair? My waist length waves and curls? (It grew a lot after this pic was taken.)
Most of it is gone! I went to a salon on Tuesday and asked for it all to be chopped off! The stylist didn't go as short as I had intended, but I love it anyway. From start to finish took over an hour. Just as soon as we get a new camera I'll post a pic.
*
I'm still knitting, lots of smaller projects, I'll get pics of those soon too.
*
Domestic day today!

Little pretties

I've finished the knitting I was showing off recently. It will hopefully be all parcelled up and mailed on Tuesday. I'm still in knitting mode, so I pulled out some cotton yarn and started knitting little wash cloths. I thought they may be nice for our friends baby, but I think I'll look for a softer yarn and keep these ones for adults.
I love this pretty flower shape and may play about with the pattern to see if I can make it a little bigger, it would make lovely place mats.

Ducky was a must! Isn't it adorable?

*

Our camera is broken. Hunney can't fix it. It's served us for 5-6 years and seen a lot of use. For now I'm using my phone to take pictures. That's ok for little cloths but we'll need to replace the camera soon.

*

I also had Hunney take a look at the laptop. It really was acting very strange. He ended up reformatting. He's not sure if the video card is on it's way out or if it was a Microsoft update which caused the problem. We'll see how things go. This laptop is still new, the video card shouldn't be on it's way out yet!!

*

I'm off to knit another wash cloth.

Lets pretend you didn't notice.

Did I say I had a late shift on Thursday? Make that today, Friday!
As planned I did manage to get up to the sewing shop in Onchan on Wednesday, where I bought some fabrics for another pin cushion swap. If you remember Mandy and I were finished and swapped very quickly for the Pincushion Pass, so we agreed to go around again. I found some bright modern fabrics waaaaaay outside my colour comfort zone, I do hope Mandy likes them. This morning I've sat and played about and come up with........
A picture of a Fairy Orchid! LOL Not showing the finished project yet, not until Mandy has seen it. But you can't have a blog post without a picture. Can you see the pretty fairy who lives in this orchid?
There you go Katherine, Laura, Ashley and Courtney. I said there are fairies here on the Isle of Man! Now I have provided photographic evidence. ;-)