Monday 17 March 2008

Quilt Giveaway!

I was perusing the MN Crafters blog (as you do) & with a few clicks of the mouse found myself at the Old Red Barn Co. drooling over the most beautiful quilt which is being given away free! Yep, absolutely free. Just head on over to the Old Red Barn Co. (well worth a look even without the prospect of a freebie) & leave a comment before 7:00pm EDT on March 19th & you'll be entered into the draw.

Go on - you know you want to :0)

Wednesday 12 March 2008

Don't be shy!

Hokay - I know people are visiting 'cos Sitemeter tells me so (Big Brother is watching dontcha know ;0P) but hardly anyone is leaving a comment.

Please don't be shy. Feel free to leave your comments on anything you see on the blog - even if you're only correcting my terrible spelling/grammar or writing XXXX woz 'ere.

Monday 10 March 2008

More swapsies

I suspect I'll have to start numbering my swap posts soon - I've signed up for a fingerless glove swap & a pot-holder swap on Ravelry & a vintage swap on the MN Crafters blog. Never mind - swaps are great fun.

I recently took part in the Inaugural MN Crafters swap, an Easter themed swap where I was paired up with the wonderful Suzanne.

Suzanne makes gorgeous things (definitely go check out her blog) & is so fast! Just days after announcing the swap partners I received this in the mail



Aren't they gorgeous? The wee egg is hanging up in my bedroom (I'll move it downstairs for Easter) & I plan to give the card to the DCs so I can pinch it back for my memories book - sneaky eh?

And here's what I sent my victim - I mean swap partner



I had had vague thoughts about making this breakfast set as a yellow Easter chick 'til I discovered that Suzanne's fave colour is pink - cue a rapid rethink & a startlingly pink Easter bunny. The egg cosy bunny was hiding a Creme Egg which, Suzanne informs me, was washed down by a mug of hot chocolate :0D

All photo credits in this post go to Suzanne who is a much better photographer than me. Cheers m'dear!

Sunday 9 March 2008

Pratchgan WIP - part 2

So I'm getting all these squares in the mail but what am I actually doing with them?

The short answer is not a lot :0! I did have great plans to sew them all up as I got them but events have conspired against me - namely the big Discworld box swap (see previous post). Since the swap is now over I can start sewing squares with a vengeance - yeah, right, I've just signed up for 4(!) more swaps. But don't worry - they're all little swaps.



So here are the picture squares I've received so far, all together & looking fab. The 2 strips at the top are all sewn together & I'm trying to do it so that they more or less match (I don't think any of us actually managed bang on 6x6 inches lol).



We also have over half the squares for the 'I Aten't Dead' logo . . .



. . . as well as a whole pile of letters & cards for Pterry that will be accompanying the Pratchgan on its journey south.

Saturday 8 March 2008

Swapsies

I love swaps - they give me the incentive I need to actually finish a project & I get lovely things in return.

I've done a few recently but the biggie was the 'I’m just sending this box so my partner can have cardboard for their boots and I was guilted into putting stuff in it' swap from the Ankh-Morpork Knitters Guild on Ravelry (yes we have our own Guild, no it's not like the Seamstresses Guild, okay?). I shouldn't have to point out that Ankh-Morpork is the premier city on Discworld but since there is the slight chance that a non-Terry-Pratchett fan may stumble across this blog I will.

My box arrived on Friday & since I've finally learned to use dh's camera I can show you all the fantastic goodies I got from Sarah all the way over in the US.

You can imagine my excitement when the wee red Royal Mail van drew up outside - I nearly did myself an injury tripping over some of the dc's toys running to answer the door. After a brief struggle with the sticky tape I finally got my first look at my goodies.



It was accompanied by a brilliant letter from my ‘loving cousine Sarah (newe citizen of Ankh-Morpork) which made me lol all the way through & contained -

A swamp dragon from the Sunshine Sanctuary who had to be rehomed after he ate Lady Sybil’s sewing kit. His dinner obviously didn't agree with him & the poor love had a little whoopsie shortly after arrival but on the plus side I now have a new sewing kit which will come in mighty handy for sewing up the Pratchgan.



A skein of Octarine sock yarn which my cousine says she can’t see herself but she’s been told it’s magic (it is too - gorgeous!).



A souvenir t-shirt from UU. It has the UU unofficial mottoe (Eta Beta Pi) - I’ll be wearing it to my parents’ next week to see if my dad gets the joke (he should as he’s as big a Pterry fan as I am). Here's a pic of the back -



A figurine of the Librarian, a genuine AMCW badge no 177 (as sold by Mr Dibbler) & a wooden dried frog pills box complete with pills.



An elephant tea-cosy - despite not having a tea-pot I’ve always wanted a cosy & am off out shortly to buy a pot to fit it. Here it is being modelled by ds's foam football.



A black handkerchief for Dark Morris Dancing (you'll see it in the bottom left corner of the main pic) & 3 (three!) knitting patterns - 1 for Flynn, 1 for DoR & 1 for Nanny’s Knickers bag. There was also a tract from Constable Visit - Die Chelonian Mobil - which contained a crochet pattern for a turtle pocket necklace. I think Om would approve.



A HUGE thank you to Sarah - I love all of my goodies & can't wait 'til the next swap (which is being planned already).

Just in case you're interested - here's what I sent to Sarah.




The horse is Binky, Death's faithful flying steed & is actually a purse - one side of his saddle lifts up so you can stuff things in his back. The wall hanging is a portrait of Death, his grand-daughter Susan & the Death of Rats taken by Otto Chriek, vampire iconographer for the Ankh-Morpork Times - it's worked in tapestry crochet & is actually oblong rather than trapezoidal like the pic makes it look :0D Inside the egg is yarn & notions to make a swamp dragon labelled as CMOT Dibbler's Genyooine Growe-Thine-Own-Dragon Kyt. It's approved by Lady Sybil Ramkin's Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons. The gloves are fingerless crocheted ones done to mine own pattern in Noro Silver Thaw, the purple thing is an abstract caterpillar cowl knitted in Morpork Mist yarn (Patons Moonglow heh), the bracelet is crocheted silver wire & shell beads, the stitch markers are handmade by the wonderful Whizzz & Ridcully's knitted coin purse was bulging with chocolate coins - it's just a shame he's so tight you can't get them out. The yarn is gorgeous Wensleydale sock yarn dyed by Freyalyn - please go check out her Etsy shop for fab spinning fibres.



Binky was made following the fab crochet horse pattern by Kristen with a little modification to the saddle so it's all in one piece & can act as a flap to close the bag. Please go check out Kristen's blog - she has the cutest free patterns imaginable.



I had great fun with the portrait right from charting it to finishing it off. I think I'm gonna publish it on Ravelry at some point as it should work well in intarsia knitting too but not a good enough knitter to try it yet :0)

Sadly that's all the pics I have but if you take a look at Sarah's blog you'll see loads of much better pics than I've got here. In the meantime I'm off to sew up some more Pratchgan squares. Check back soon as I aim to get more up-to-date Pratchgan WIP pics on this weekend!