Hooked

I've been enjoying my crochet so much that when I saw a set of colourful hooks on eBay I decided to treat myself (well that is if you consider a whole £1.55 a treat). They came all the way from China in double quick time and they're not bad given the price - not quite up to the KnitPro Wave or Clover SoftTouch standard but, for something to cart around, they'll do the job nicely.

They came in crackly cellophane pouch and just cried out for a nice little case so, after a quick trawl of the Internet I found a tutorial, and on Boxing Day while DH was out flying his model planes I set to using a fat quarter I've had for ages (- an apology from when I went on a quilting workshop and the irons blew the trip switch so we were without power for some of the time) and I made a cute little case

                       

The TUTORIAL was really good except that it didn't point out that the inner pieces should be cut so that they are the right way up when placed on the outer - (yes, I know I should have known better, and I did really, but it's been a very long time since I did any sewing ) and after I re-cut the inner pieces,  the design is great and I had room for a pocket for scissors and one for sewing up needles as well so I'm all set

                        

   

And this being the last post of the year, as is traditional,  I want to record all the books I've read in 2013 and they are

• Safe House by Chris Ewan
• The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark
• The Beach Cafe by Lucy Diamond
• Breaking Even by Kathleen Kole
• Coming Home by Melanie Rose
• A Dreadful Murder by Minette Walters
• A life for a life by Tim Ellis
• The Wages of Sin by Tim Ellis
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• The Flesh is Weak by Tim Ellis
• A Mother's Wish by Debbie Macomber
• Never Apologise, Never Explain by James Craig
• In the Land of the Long White Cloud by Sarah Lark
• Tangled Lives by Hilary Boyd
• Christmas at the Beach Cafe by Lucy Diamond

A total of 15, (same as 2012 and 1 more than 2011) 

This New Year's Eve will be a quiet one, DH has man flu, I'm at the end of the second week of the same cold (and it's getting boring now!) and DD has just arrived home with a migraine, so I think I'll do a few rows of my Rugged Ripple blanket and then it's hot water bottles and early nights all round.

Happy New year. 

Serves her right

DD is always teasing me about my knitted dishcloths, it came to a head when we went on holiday and I was trying to find wifi to get the next clue for the mystery dishcloth KAL I was doing at the time, she ribbed me no end. 

Well a few days before Christmas I was trying to think what else to pop in her stocking when the light dawned. As she recently moved into a flat I had been adding odds and ends of useful things so I decided to make her a dishcloth. I found a nice crochet pattern and it worked up so fast that one became three

                              

Simple Stripes Dishcloth

Much to my surprise she was actually delighted with them.

It's been a long time since I did much crochet (apart from a quantity of poppies, but that's not quite the same- you just get started in time to stop) and I'd forgotten how enjoyable it could be. That got me thinking and then when I stumbled across the charity KOFIA (Knitting for Our Friends In Africa) who send hats and blankets out to areas where the babies are born in such deprived circumstances that some die simply because they can't be kept warm, I knew what to do.

Initially I crocheted a couple of hats 

                      

And then I found the bag of DK oddments I'd been given because ' there wasn't enough of anything to be of use'! and popped them into the new bag DH gave me for Christmas, got out my lovely new KnitPro Waves crochet hook and hunted on Ravelry for a Ripple Blanket Pattern as I've wanted to make one for a very long time and so far I have this

                                       

And I'm really enjoying myself