saut de la foi

New Year’s Resolutions

My resolutions for the coming year are simple enough.

1. Read 50 books
2. Listen to 50 new albums
3. Do 100 hours of proper exercise

This last one may sound measly, but I need to start somewhere.  Two hours of exericse, a book and an album a week, with two weeks off.  That sounds wholesome.

I’m giving myself, what, a 17 day head start?  Fair enough.  I’ll ease myself in gently.

2012 is going to be interesting.

Space Nails

Green magnetic nail polish after a heavy weekend of wear.  The final effect looks a lot like the nothern lights.

Bears: Panda Bear

I’ve been working on a series of bear and rabbit toys, and this guy was the first bear.

It’s crocheted using a small hook (3mm or 3.5mm I think).  The black is acrylic dk, but the white is dishcloth cotton.  Using dishcloth cotton means that it isn’t particularly soft, but it held its shape extremely well when I stuffed it.

More bears are in various stages of completion, and will follow when finished.

Open Cable Mitts

I’m knitting and crocheting furiously for Christmas, and seeing as my nearest and dearest are nowhere near this blog at the moment, I am probably safe to post a few previews.

Knitwear is one of the best things about Winter, in my humble opinion.  Every year I treat myself to a new hat and scarf, and I always lose the mittens that I make throughout the year.  I am only just starting to knit properly, and these Cabled Open Mitts are the first pattern I have written.

Please excuse my chipped nail polish.  Knitting is a rigourous, physical activity, or maybe that’s just the way I do it?

I’m going for a cream mitt, with sparkly pink ribbing by the fingers.  Open mitts aren’t as warm, but they are much, much more practical than traditional mittens (even if you secure them inside your coat with a string running down each arm…which of course I don’t.)

They are knitting up quickly, and will hopefully be finished soon (or at least in time for Christmas).  Watch this space.

My Neighbour Totoro

I’m a big fan of Studio Ghibli, expecially the films that go in for environmental themes like My Neighbour Totoro, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, and Princess Mononoke.

I crocheted this Totoro…it looks a bit squiff, but I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, particularly the eyes which are made out of felt that I embroidered with an outline and pupils.

It was easy to make, just basic shapes really.

Nature

I saw these poppies growing up the railings at Homerton Overground station.  I’m not much of a photographer, but I couldn’t leave them without taking a clumsy phone photo.

Treetops on Hampstead Heath:

And leaves on great big London Plane trees in Hackney:

We found this catterpillar when we were moving house…I’ve never seen one like it:

It looked fierce.

(Soy)Latte Art and Cake

Instead of going on a trip abroad this year, I booked ten days off work and went to stay with family and friends around the country.  I booked my train tickets a long way in advance, and I managed to go a total of 420 miles for about £24 (get in!).  So I went on a sort of semi-staycation I suppose - no accommodation costs, great company and cheap travel.

I went to stay with my brother in Brighton.  It’s a great city for vegans to eat in, and the best place I went was the Redroaster cafe.  Soy milk lattes, cakes, and sandwiches on the menu.

I had this latte:

It was so pretty…and every latte I had was decorated with some kind of latte art (HOW do they do it?!)

And I had this carrot cake with vegan cream cheese frosting…I usually hate any sort of vegan cheese replacement, but this was very, very nice.

Here is the cafe website: http://www.redroaster.co.uk/

I also flew kites on Hastings Beach while I was on holiday.  Unfortunately, I don’t think my kite was ever meant to get airborne.  The poles collapsed almost immediately, so it flitted in manic circles about two feet above the ground and wouldn’t do anything else.

Little Lobster

This was another pattern from ravelry.com, and when I find it again I’ll link it here.

A project for a quiet evening, this came together extremely quickly.  It probably went from wanting to make a lobster to having made a lobster in just under an hour.  The pattern was really simple and needed minimal stuffing and fiddling and putting together.

A Blanket for my Grannie

It started off like this…

I heard that my grandmother has been unwell, and I wanted to send something to cheer her up.  A blanket seemed like a good option, so I started right away.

I based it around a pattern I found on ravelry.com, and it’s basically a square made out of a circle.  Using two chain stitches at each corner makes the shape.  It came together extremely quickly, and was a pleasure to work on.

The pattern itself was a little bit repetitive to crochet up, but changing the colours regularly added interest.

I planned the colours beforehand, which I think made the finished product look a lot more professional.  I went for rich, bold, slightly muted bright colours, with a pale cream stripe separating each one.

Here it is!  I finished it very quickly, in just over a week, probably because it was destined to be a special present for someone else.

My grannie loved it.

First Post

First posts are hard…I’ll get back to you when I find the words for a suitable introduction.