Sigh no more...

... Ladies, sigh no more;
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea and one on shore,

To one thing constant never; 

Then sigh not so, 

But let them go, 

And be you blithe and bonny; 

Converting all your sounds of woe 

Into. Hey nonny, nonny.

Tra la. I'm waxing lyrical (Shakespeare), and sighing no more, for I have finished those golden baby shoes that have been languishing on my list for over a year!

Hey nonny, nonny! And hurray, and other exclamations of fun and satisfaction.

Eighties revival socks

My latest FO:

These fab eighties -type slouch socks came from a pattern in The Knitter magazine issue 44, and used yarn from UK indy dyer The Knitting Goddess. I used a whole skein of sock yarn in raspberry semi solid, plus five miniskeins (purple variegated, chocolate brown, undyed x2, pale pink) and some leftover easyknits sock yarn in choc-cherry. I was aiming for a confection that looked a bit like a raspberry sundae, with chocolate sauce and whipped cream, and I think I achieved the desired effect. Awesome pattern also, and no errors at all!

Also, I used up 366 yards of yarn that had been in my stash since last September, when I first planned to make these socks. This project definitely counts as using up what I have. :-D

Heart mobile

Yay, I finished something!

I crocheted this little heart mobile for my grandma's ninety-third birthday. She was once an advanced crocheter, but sadly is now unable owing to arthritis in her hands. She still likes to see my efforts, though.

I used up some Rico creative cotton in my stash, and a 3.00mm hook. The pattern was a free download on Ravelry.

Stashdown #4: April

April was Total Stashdown Failure, I'm afraid. I didn't do any knitting at all, and no crochet either.

At least I bought no yarn, so the YTD position is exactly the same as end March: +187.

My sweater is stalled. Here's the last photo I took of it, as evidence that progress is being made. Since then, I finished the front piece and also started on the first sleeve, so I am well beyond half way, probably getting on for 70% now.

Since the beginning of May, I have been crafting again. Let me show you some evidence, in my on-the-hook crochet project:

Hoping I have a better result next month. It would be really nice to move into a negative figure!

I'm still here...

This blog is supposed to be about crafting, but I just haven't had the opportunity.

The cooking and entertaining marathon of dd's birthday weekend was followed by two tremendously busy working weeks, dh working away for five days, more computer failures. Last weekend I mostly did domestic drudgery, plus driving up to Leeds to pick up a laptop on temporary loan from my brother, while I save up some money to pay for a new laptop for dd. As she clearly needs another. I did sew a lot of badges onto ds's new scout shirt, but that's not the kind of sewing I can blog about!

I'm taking a break from House Cup crafting as well this term, so I'll have even less motivation to craft. Slightly concerned that the stashdown objective is not working well in terms of crafting. I seem to have a bit of a stop on buying new yarn for possible projects. I suppose the answer to this is to get on with finishing my laceweight sweater (stalled at middle of first sleeve), or cast on for the socks and sleeveless top I could make out of yarn I have in hand.

Eighteen

Eighteen year olds enjoy a family lunch at a tapas restaurant.

The spectacular batch of red velvet cupcakes was made for my dd by my SIL.

Later, there was partying with friends and cousins, and a great time was had by all, apparently. I was asleep by then. But how can it happen, that eighteen years passes so quickly? it's a cliche, but it does not seem that long since I was bringing my baby girl home from the hospital.

Happy birthday, dd!

A tornado of cakes

I took ds to see Oz the Great and Powerful this week; we really enjoyed it. That's the very first time I sat through a whole film in 3-D. It was awesome, wonderfully visual, I really liked it, and so did ds, although I think it might be rather frightening for small children.

After that, I really felt like making something out of the Oz-themed book of makes. So I whipped up a batch of cyclone cup-cakes.

They have lemon curd filling and then meringue on top. 

You're supposed to pipe the meringue to look like cyclones. I would have benefited from better equipment at this point, as I had one of those plastic icing sets, with a plunger, but I could only get enough meringue mixture in for two cakes at a time, and it wasn't ideal to have to keep handling the meringue. I am going to get a proper piping bag for next time!

My finished cakes do not look as good as the original book version:

Hope they pass the taste test, though! 

This wasn't the only cake I made. Here's my kitchen, looking like a disaster zone:

I have somewhere between 20 and 30 people coming over to our house for pre-drinks tomorrow. My dd was eighteen this week and the main celebrations are this weekend. I made two dozen small cakes and two large ones. Hope it will be enough!