…comment number 10! 

Thanks for all the lovely comments left on my circle scarf giveaway.  It closed just one hour ago and I have been really excited to work out the winner.  I used the random number generator at random.org and between the numbers 1 and 14 it generated 10!  There were actually 15 comments but the lovely Adrianne has already made her own so said she wasn’t entering.

Ok I’ve stalled long enough.  Counting from the first post left as number 1, missing Adrianne’s, to the most recent being number 14 the winner is BEV!!!  Many congrats Bev.  I shall email you for your address and get it in the post to you in the next few days.  Bev didn’t leave details if she has a website so can’t give her a plug unfortunately.

Thanks so much for all your comments, I’ve really loved giving everyone the opportunity to have a circle scarf that I love so much.  I might just have to do it again some time!!

I thought it was about time I offered a giveaway!  I’ve been in blogland a while now and I’m ashamed to say I’ve never done one, so here’s a first for me.  And what to give…?  Well, there’s only one thing it could possibly be!  A circle scarf of course!!!  It’s the one project I’ve been making over and over again and I get so many comments on it here, on flickr and when I wear one!

And here it is:   

This one is in King Cole Riot in shades of blue, grey, green and brown.  I thought those were colours that most folks would like if they won it as they aren’t too garish and would match lots of other colours.  I had to remember that not everyone is like me in liking lots and lots of bright colour and pattern.

So what do you have to do for a chance to own this very scarf?  Very little actually.  Just leave a comment on this post by 6pm (GMT/UK time) on Sunday 30th January!  Easy as that.  Make sure I can contact you through your comment (ie fill in the email address box in the comment form) and if you have a blog / website leave me a link so that I can have a look in return.  Please feel free to link to this giveaway on your own website too.  I’m happy to post internationally. 

A winner will be picked at random, probably by Captain Caveman (or maybe the random number gadget thingy that I have seen others use) on Sunday evening after the closing time!   

Lots of luck xx

There’s nothing like spending time with friends to make you feel better so that’s exactly what I’ve been doing this week!

Have you been to see The King’s Speech?  It’s sooooo good!  It’s really funny which I didn’t expect and it’s also really interesting.  I am fascinated by the period in history between the two world wars too so I really enjoyed that.  Colin Firth was brilliant in the lead role and I can really understand why he is winning awards for it!  Another reason why it was so good to go to the cinema this week… my friend had a free ticket so we shared the cost of the other ticket!  Bargain!

There’s also been a bit of yarn shopping!!  I have been meaning to go to Black Sheep Wools, near Warrington, for ages and Kathy and I had spoken about going before Christmas but it was closed for refurbishment.  It opened again last week so off we went.  Oh, it’s sooooo good!  (yes in this post everything is sooooo good’)  It’s really big for a yarn shop and has a really good range of brands, prices and qualities of yarn.  There are also lots of accessories and loads of embroidery and cross stitch things too.  I didn’t go too mad – well, I’m a girl of limited means now aren’t I!!?  I’ll show you what I bought another time, but here’s a peek in Kathy’s bag, and some pictures of the shop:

And then this afternoon there was cake!  It is my friend Jayne’s birthday today so she invited lots of the girls round and had her 2 teenagers on tea and coffee making duty (I must say they did a sterling job!).  Jayne had made lots of cakes: the victoria sponge was sooooo good and absolutely delicious.  We all had a really good giggle!  In fact after a couple of hours we had decided to set up our own version of the WI and meet fortnightly for carrot growing contests, trips out, reading groups, exhibitions and crafts.  Mad but true!!!

Here’s the cake:

When things aren’t feeling very good for me I can find it too easy to stay indoors and shut myself away.  That was fine when I still had to go to work every day, but now I could go days without having reason to go out.  I’m still not sleeping very well so not 100% but hoping that with a bit of time I’ll start fully enjoying my time not working!  So long as it doesn’t last too long that is!!

Today is a big day for me, but not necessarily in a good way.  That will hopefully change but I’m still not ready to feel it!  Today is my first day without a job for 18 years, since the summer I left university in fact.

It’s been coming for many months, but as of 15th January I’ve been redundant.  I only found out the previous day that it was actually going ahead as my appeal had been completely rejected!  It’s not a good feeling and it won’t be for a long time.  It doesn’t feel like any sort of relief now that the actual day itself has passed, particularly when it’s not as cut and dried as me leaving and it all being over.  I have many issues about the way its been done and the fairness of it so I will be taking legal advice and probably taking it further.  I can’t say I want to do that but I’ve spent 5 months fighting for my 13 year career with the same organisation and been lied to, undermined and treated very unfairly and unreasonably.  Yes, most of that is my ‘opinion’ but the organisation has policies which have not been followed and in my view that’s just not fair.

It doesn’t help that today is classed as Blue Monday – the most depressing day of the year!  Just what I need!

This website was never meant to be about this type of issue, or anything other than craft, tea and cake, but I just feel I had to ‘vent’! 

I will have more time on a day to day basis to crochet, see friends and try to get on top of things, but I am a great believer in working for a living if you possibly can and this doesn’t sit well with me at all.

Splurge over!  Next post will be back to normal content!

For anyone who, like me, needs a smile put on their face today… amigurumi bear and bunny singing The Beatles ‘Twist and Shout’ while playing ukuleles! I dare you to try not to smile!!

Source:  KerokerokingDX (I first saw them on Craftzine)

I can’t hide the fact that I became a little obsessed with the Circles Scarf from Inside Crochet Magazine, issue 11, designed by Linda Permann – I’ve raved on and on about it often enough on here!  In a bid to share the love I have posted before about how that actual pattern can be found, but there are some other versions of the same technique that can be used to give similar or alternative effects too.  So read on if you don’t mind that you too may become hooked!

The design and pattern for the Circles Scarf are by Linda Permann and she has written a post about it on her own blog found here!  Linda has said that in a few months she will be able to offer the pattern for sale as a pdf file, but in the meantime it is available in a digital copy of Inside Crochet magazine on Yudu.  It will cost £4.99 on Yudu, which is the same price as the paper copy of the magazine when it was published, so no loss buying it that way.

Following my last post about the pattern I was contacted by Sunshine to tell me that this technique is called yo-yo crochet!  Not only is it shown on her website, Sunshine’s Creations, she’s written a book about it called Learn to do Yo Yo Crochet! 

I found that details of how to use this technique aren’t widely available online, but I did find this free pattern, on free-crochet, that uses it in a square form which can be adapted into other shapes or rows fairly easily.  You need to register to download this pattern, but it’s worth it if you want to know how.

And there’s more… a flickr group too!  The group contains many different styles using this technique, some of which aren’t in my taste [sorry], or my types of colours, but they show off the technique very well.

I’ve also found it called a ‘medallion’ too, but both medallion and yo-yo crochet have many different variations so it’s not as easy as googling it to find instructions on how to create it.

I found a basic description of the technique on Patchwork Crochet, if you scroll waaaaaaay down to the bottom of this page.  It also shows you how to add a border around the circles to give a different type of finish.

And finally, the lovely Heather has been trying really hard to track down the issue of Inside Crochet with the circles scarf pattern in it and eventually got a copy on Ebay! 

So, I hope this info gets you up and running with the technique.  If you grow to love it as much as I do leave a comment or send a link to your site.