... Cyclists

As mentioned last year (blog post on 27th August) I have fallen for cycling. It turned out to be no summer romance and is turning into a long term relationship. I have just started watching the Giro d'Italia, the last major tour I have not seen yet and I am settled in for three weeks of spectacular sporting wonder.

Three weeks I hear you cry in concern for my possible sanity.  Well maybe I have a few other plans, alongside keeping my rapidly growing veg garden in check, I am mainly hoping to expand my collection of cycling embroideries.

So to start off the fun we have two new cyclists who can join Bradley (sorry, Sir Bradley) to make up the start of the cycling wall of wonder in our front room. They will be joined by others soon, probably something to celebrate Mark Cavendish's spectacular first stage sprint to take the maglia rosa (it means he's winning), (designed by Paul Smith this year) and then some to celebrate the range of colour wonder that are cycling jerseys and the crazy feats of human endurance they give them out for.

...crocheted cushion covers.

Sometimes (most times indeed) I like to make things out of stuff I have found, scavenged, been given etc (more on that soon). However, sometimes you want to treat yourself to something new and exceptionally lovely to work with. This was one of those times. I had a hankering for some cotton to crochet some cushion covers with and after much searching, visiting many wool shops and nearly everywhere online I settled upon Debbie Bliss Cotton in a beautiful turquoise . I know - good name coincidence eh?

As you can see from the picture it is a beautiful colour and you will have to take it from me it feels just as lovely. It was a real treat, a little bit more than I would usually spend but worth every penny. I was in making raptures for the whole project.

(Just to stick to my repurposing roots the black cover the crochet is stitched to is made from an old sofa cover and the buttons came from an old coat)

Maybe my reverence for the materials or maybe something else explains why they have taken me so damned long to get finished! Seriously I have had these on the go for an age and they were a long standing member of the job pile.

That is all behind me now. They are done and I love them.

Off to gracefully lie around on my gorgeous cushions....

...a hot water bottle cover

Designed to be extra snugly in response to all the snow we have been having.

If you have been following my makes for a while you might think I make a slightly above average number of hot water bottle covers. You'd be right, I have a thing about them. Most people's hot water bottle covers last for ages but I have 10+ hot water bottles a day to ease the daily pain and stiffness I enjoy due to hypermobility. As I also often have more an one at a time I need quite a lot of them and due to their hard lives they tend to give up the ghost quicker than the average!

In my aforementioned drive to get on top of my making pile hot water bottle covers were near the top of the list as my hot water bottles have been going round in the nuddy for a while now. This is all my own design and I enjoyed crocheting it so much I have already started another one prior to writing up the pattern.

This is the third completed job in my drive to get on top of my making pile hot water bottle covers were near the top of the list as my hot water bottles have been going round in the nuddy for a while now in my pile reduction drive (job number two was repairing Dan's long johns but I decided you didn't want or need to see them, however good the sewing was). Job number three is likely to involve cushion covers or pyjamas, we'll see where my mood takes me when I face up the pile next.

... more Croc liners

So it came to pass that I really really needed to sort out my craft area. My normal method of sorting my space out usually ends up with everything in neat piles but sadly the same amount of stuff is still there (too much stuff bay far). But not this time. This time I have decided to tidy my space up by actually doing the jobs in the various piles not just rearranging them so they look better. Revolutionary I know!

Brace yourself for a raft of upcoming posts that are finishing off projects. I am going to feel GOOD after this little episode is over.

Completed project number 1 is a reworking of the Croc socks that I made a couple of years ago which were a great success. This time I changed the pattern somewhat to meet with feedback received on the first pair which meant there was some fun freeform crochet moments (I.e. I made it up as I went along). But despite the need to bodge them a little they have turned out a treat and just in time for the upcoming snowy conditions.

Right onto the next thing in the pile...

... a monster

I was bought a zombie making kit by some friends for Christmas which was a brilliant present and having had a making break over the festive period this seemed like a good place to start warming up my crafting muscles ready for my new year plans.

So I hunkered down, put on appropriately unchallenging tv (Star Trek) and created a monster zombie. Not quite like the one the pack was designed to make as I employed a large dose of creative licence!

He needs to be handled carefully as his jaw, like my own, can stretch quite a lot. Unlike mine however, his is, at a stretch, capable of eating a small human or dwarf (of which I am one, though which one no one knows).