Tackling the Tetris Blanket

I know I keep talking about it but I've decided that I'm going to tackle the blanket (in my Mum's terms) 'little and often' so I'm going to do it as part of 'A Granny A Day' based on the idea by craftyminx.

The game has a 10x20 square grid so I will be making 200 squares.  If, starting now, I make 1 a day every day I should complete the 200th on 14th August - better get started then!

I've also started work on my present for The Boy and my cowl for myself.

Treating myself - wool shopping

As I said yesterday I have been looking forward to my exams being over so I can go wool shopping.  So I set off this morning to go and re-stock my wool stash.

Here is what I bought:
I'm making myself a lovely snuggly cowl using a pattern by HappyBerry so I bought a huge 200g ball of James C. Brett Chunky wool.

I bought some Sirdar Click (as it was reduced) for The Boy's birthday fingerless mitts.

Also as I mentioned I want to make a Tetris blanket so I bought lots of wool for that (the purple is the only colour missing but I already had that:

Annoyingly, I forgot the black that I needed for the background so I will need to pop back for that.

I did get some funny looks for having that much wool - both from the shop assistants and from the people I passed on my way home.

I also love my stash bag for my Tetris blanket.  I've gotten to a point of commandeering every canvas bag I can find and The Boy now looks out for free ones for me - this one is from a family friend who works at the Royal Institute and was promoting his work in Liverpool recently.

And finally, as it is Friday, I have to post my finished projects.

I decided to make headbands for my teddy bear using this pattern for the bow but experimenting with the straps - either crochet chains or bands with little ear-holes:

Doesn't she look lovely!

I'm free!!!

My exams are finally over! I know 4 exams spread over 2 weeks sounds quite relaxed - I thought so too but it has been so tiring.  I think they went well though.

Now that they're over I can't wait to get back to crocheting and blogging.  Oh that reminds me, I've got 737 unread blog posts on my Google reader to catch up on.

I have a trip to the nearest craft shop planned for tomorrow and I've written a list of all the lovely things I want to make - most importantly are birthday presents for The Boy and my Sister but I also want to make a granny square blanket which looks like a Tetris game (it was the first app I put on my new phone) but that needs more planning and A LOT of wool.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some of my WIPs finished too before I start burying myself new projects.

I'll let you know tomorrow what I end up with.

FO Friday - A Cute Little Smiling Robot

Recently, I discovered the magical world of Moon Buns at Moon's Creations.  I love the idea of having a basic body and then customising it for an occasion or to represent a character.  However I wanted to make it more personal to me so decided that I should make a little crochet robot.

I wanted to make the robot simple, as the Moon Buns don't have arms or legs (but hopefully it's still identifiable as a robot).

So this is what I ended up with:

What do you think?  I'm planning on making another one then I'll probably write up the pattern if I'm happy with it.

*Ooh Random Point*
I've set up a blog email address so you can ask me questions directly and I'll get straight back to you.
It is written at the side of my blog so over  there --> somewhere hopefully, under the Ravelry icon.

But here it is anyway:
thesmilingrobot @ hotmail . co . uk
Don't forget to remove the spaces.

Darn it! - Missed FO Friday

Ok so I've lost track of a lot of time recently also with having so much revision to do at the moment I haven’t finished many projects.

However I did make a case for my new phone:
No Sew Mobile Phone Case by Lydia Busek

Also I couldn’t resist making this adorable R2D2 egg cosy:
R2D2 Egg Cozy by Jodie Beale-Hughes

Sadly I haven’t got around to finishing the 'Basic Bear' I started on Christmas Day from the book I received - Toys to Crochet by Claire Garland.

I Went to Venice!!!

My Birthday present this year from The Boy was a trip to Venice.  I know my birthday was aaages ago but we decided to go over New Year.

I've always wanted to go to Venice so I couldn't believe I was actually there at first.

Venice is so beautiful!!!

We did so much walking and sight-seeing in the 7 days we were there and managed to fit in a gondola ride which, although overpriced, is just something you have to do in Venice!

The B&B (B&B San Marco) was on the third floor of a building and the family who ran it were so friendly and we often all sat around to breakfast together with the other guests.  This was the view from our balcony:

There was a little pizza restaurant nearby which did amazing pizzas at great prices - we had a pizza each and drinks for around €20. When we got back we both agreed that we won't be eating pizza for a while - at first you love how fresh and tasty they are but after 4 or 5 days you are like "I NEED BACON!!!"

I was glad that everyone in the restaurants and shops spoke English - I know it sounds arrogant but I didn't know any Italian (also they all seem to speak at least 4 languages).  On my first attempt to speak Italian to a local it was a ticket inspector on the waterbus and he said 'buongiorno' so I replied the same and he says "so are you going to the airport?"  I was gutted that I was called out as being English so easily!

It was an amazing holiday and great to be able to see the place I have spent years fantasising about visiting.

Here is an assortment of pictures from our holiday:

Me by the Ponte di Rialto

The Bridge of Sighs

A close-up of the Bridge of Sighs

The Boy by a canal

View of the Grand Canal from the Accademia Bridge

The Boy with St Mark's square in the background

One of the lions of St Mark on the Doge's Palace

St Mark's Bell Tower

St Mark's Basilica (left) and the Doge's Palace (right)

Me with a view across the Grand Canal

Taking the gondola under the Rialto Bridge (supposed to be lucky)

Gondolas only sign by side of canal

Our Gondola (the red one in the middle)

Me and The  Boy

Merry Christmas Everyone

I can’t believe how close Christmas is now!  I spent all of yesterday reminding people that it was Christmas Grace (it didn’t seem fair that Eve had a day and I didn’t so the 23^rd of December is officially Christmas Grace).

I wasn’t well for a couple of days so I couldn’t go and visit my best friend so he posted me my present which was so nice of him – THANK YOU!

So here is what I got:

Ok the little graduate minifig I bought myself but the rest was all off my best friend - the Christmas tree, the mini R2D2 and the racing car.

Also, my friend sent me a picture of the R2D2 that I made, sitting in his Christmas Tree:

Have a great Christmas everyone!

Christmassy-ness!

I haven't blogged in so long due to courseworks and project work but I have still been crocheting!

I've also been away this weekend with The Boy's family having a Christmas together.  As everyone lives scattered over the country, it was great to have everyone in one place to celebrate an early Christmas.  I also got some presents which was lovely including a wind-up pair of mini spacehoppers off The Boy's little brother which Eve and I were racing today.

They are so much fun!

I decided to make one if my Mum's patterns - Patchwork Ball in Celtic colours as a present for The Boy's brother as he is a huge Celtic fan (I blame his Dad for corrupting him).

You can't really see the colours in the picture though - it's white and dark green.

Oh also, thank you to everyone who has made my Christmas Tree Angel or who plans to.  It has kindly been translated into French for me by Particules so there is now a French pdf pattern on ravelry or available from her blog here.

FO Friday - My first present finished

I was working on wednesday at the place I did my summer work and it was great to see everyone.  I figured it would probably be the last time I'd see my Best Friend before Christmas so I had to rush to complete my present for him.

He's been making me watch Star Wars because apparently it's such a crime that I haven't seen them already so I had to make him a Star Wars present.

I chose to make R2D2 by Penelope Senior (pattern here)

The colour-work looks really effective and I was thrilled by the way it looked when I finished it.

I think I'll be making myself one! My Best Friend loved it too.

Weekend Pie

Yup I baked a pie.  Well I love baking and The Boy has wanted to make a pie between us for a while now (he'd make the filling and I'd make the pastry).

It was so tasty!  I managed to kill the top part a bit though as I tried to lift it over the pie so spent a fair amount of time with a glass of water and any spare pastry pieces trying to patch it up again,

I cut out the little heart by hand and it really confused Boy as I didn't let him see it until after it had been baked.

 

It also meant I got to use my cookery book I got for my birthday for only about the second time (last time was scrambled eggs I think).  We'll definitely be making another pie again soon!

December!!!

As it's the first of December today I am finally allowed to put my Christmas Tree up - and guess who is on top of it:

I got a 5ft tree as it's just the cheapest I could find (students!) and just got some simple baubles for it.  I need to crochet some decorations but I've been so busy with my uni project presentation that I haven't got much done.

As you can see my teddy bear is supervising me while I decorate the tree.

Also when I met up with my Mum in town last week-ish she gave me a lovely owl decoration for the tree:

It's so cute and it has a bell in it so when she gave it to me in a plastic bag I was so confused by the jangling.

Brewing Review

The day of beer tasting finally arrived and the one of the bottles was opened.  However, we didn't realise that you're not supposed to tip up the bottles but to keep the yeast settled at the bottom so the first couple that were opened were undrinkable.

We were then told by a friend who has done this before that it's best to pour it into a glass and leave the yeast in the bottle so it's now drinkable apparently.  Well, drinkable enough for The Boy to take a box of 20 around to a friend's to split between a few of them.

So overall it was a success (although we all though it wouldn't work) and no doubt there will be more beer brewing in the flat again soon.

Om nom nom Crumble!

I decided to bake an apple and mixed berry crumble the other day and it was DELICIOUS!!!

We actually haven't finished it all off yet.

Here is the recipe I used:
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/516845

Although I used tinned mixed berries rather than fresh or frozen.