Presents

I've rediscovered crochet in rather an obsessive way this week. It was a friend's birthday, and I saw these adorable (and easy) crocheted slippers at Oh my good knits blog, and thought I'd have a go. 

Hmm. After an entire afternoon sitting on the living room floor in front of repeat episodes of Jeeves and Wooster (another slight obsession), crocheting and unravelling, I ended up with three slippers, two supposedly the same but actually entirely different, and a third of another pattern altogether, which also didn't look right. 

I should point out that the instructions were perfectly clear! It was my own complete inability to follow them and remember even the basics of crocheting patterns that was the problem :) Once I sussed out what I was doing, the instructions were very easy. My hook and wool were also several sizes thinner than in the pattern, (well, you know what it's like when you have to do something right now) so I was having to add in extra bits here and there.

Eventually, after another few evenings of puzzling, and a bit of improvisation, I managed to get two vaguely similar slippers. Hooray! They were rather too big, even for me, so they would have been huge on my friend. After a couple of, er, funny looks from the people I showed them to, I decided they weren't the best present, and so am keeping them for myself, and very nice they are too :) 

What I ended up making for my friend was rather easier, and nicer, but the photos are on the other camera, which I don't have here, so you'll have to wait to see them... 

I've had quite a good couple of days of charity-shopping this week. This morning I found this fabulously shiny pink material, goodness knows what it is, I want to call it organza, but I don't think it is... There was also a huge selection of zips for 10p (I did manage to refrain from bringing them all home), and three baskets (!) of embroidery thread. I already have boxes of this, so I managed to leave that in the shop too. It was difficult though...

Yesterday we found ourselves in Doncaster for a few hours, and gravitated towards the market. There's a couple of fabric stalls there, and I haven't been before. There was an excellent selection of remnants, and I picked up a couple of yards of thick cotton with gorgeous patterns on. 

It's not really yellow, it's white, but my camera isn't fixed yet... :( Anyway, you can imagine! 

On top of that, I helped a friend clear out her kitchen yesterday as she's soon moving to Belgium, and I acquired her collection of old linen embroidered and edged linen. There's not too much of it, and some of it is covered in coffee, but there's some beautiful lacy edging which can be added to something else. I couldn't get a decent picture in this light, but as soon as I've made something with it, I'll post it. 

So, on with the crocheting. I've learned how to make flowers today, so I can foresee some garlands hanging about soon...