I’m a lucky gal as my friends and family are very good at choosing gifts for me that I love.  And I love owls!  Just look at all these lovely, snuggly, gorgeous owls:

There’s a hot water bottle in an owl cover, lavender filled owls and a bright blue owl purse, as well as the cutest owl cards.

I especially love the hot water bottle.  I’m a massive fan of hot water bottles and take one to bed on all but the hottest nights of the year.  I know that might sound mad, but I love to be cosy in my bed.

Now, while I’m on the subject of animals, there’s another that I have a fascination with.  I can’t in truth say its a love fascination, more like a strange curiosity!  Am I the only one in the world that finds pandas a bit weird?  Caveman gave me this hugging panda salt and pepper set:

They have such strange block markings and they bumble around eating bamboo shoots while looking really quite sad! 

If it ever came to light that pandas aren’t actually real I wouldn’t be at all surprised.  You heard it here first!

I just realised that my last few posts haven’t even mentioned crochet!  I still find it a little odd when I write about other things going on on my life and not primarily crafty things.  I’m not sure anyone’s interested in them either, but I do quite like sharing the odd random other bits and pieces.

So time to get back to the crochet!  I’ve not been sitting here twiddling my thumbs without having a crochet hook in them. 

I have been making some more apple coasters, in green this time:

I’ve also started another circle scarf.  This is really an amazing pattern, I love it so much!  This one is again in King Cole Riot, this time shade number 400 which is blue, grey, green shades and is destined for a present!

Now don’t be alarmed by the word I’m about to use!!!  I IRONED the first circles scarf!  Have you noticed in the picture of the new blue one that each little circle curls in on itself?  The first finished scarf curled up like this along its whole length which looked funny and meant the lovely circles couldn’t be seen properly. 

Ok, maybe I could have blocked it properly, but I’m very naughty and impatient.  I pressed it very lightly with the iron on wool setting, so it wasn’t too hot.  It worked a treat!  The circles have flattened and overall it has a lovely more lacy feel, which I really like.  Here are a couple of pics of the very final finished result:

After a day that included some shopping, getting stuck in traffic for far too long getting to the shopping, playing Mario Kart with Caveman on our new Nintendo Wii we finished off the weekend having dinner with friends.  They were kind enough to cook for us and it was great to see them outside work, which is where I normally see them.

And what a delight to see the Apple Coasters I made them recently as a wedding present in situ and in daily use!  I don’t know about you, but I love knowing a gift I’ve made is so well received, so much more than a bought item.  It makes me smile!

Over a cup of tea and some jaffa cakes we did some html tinkering (doesn’t everyone?) and shared details of our latest crochet yarns and projects.  Ah, perfect afternoon!

And she had a fab present for me, a seasonal present no less:

So here’s an undulterated plug for her new website: Hairballs and Hatstands!

Some commenters were saying that maybe the recipient didn’t know the blanket was hand made for her, or maybe she was worried about caring for a handmade item, particularly given how messy babies can be!  Both completely possible scenarios.

One of the commenters gave a link to an item she had bought on Etsy from Knit, in the form of little tags to put on crafted / gifted items with details of the composition and laundry instructions.  It is a tin of little gift tags that say ‘A hand-crocheted gift’ – there’s no mistaking that is there!!! 

They are so cute and such a brilliant and simple idea, very well executed.  When I gift a handmade item I usually give the recipient a band from the ball of yarn, but that’s not very pretty.

I bought one tin of these and had intended to give some of them to my crocheting friend whose birthday approaches (yes chick, you know who you are!) but I am not sure I can part with any of them!  Maybe I’ll need to buy some more for her.  Knit is currently away from Etsy having a baby herself but due back very soon, so have a look!

So this circle has been ripped back more times than I care to remember.  I ended up more or less making up each round as I went along.  Standard circle increases on each round weren’t working and in the end I have repeated each increase pattern for two rows instead of putting more stitches between each increase with each new round.  It seems to be working!  It isn’t completely flat, but that’s OK for this project.

This circle is the top of a beret for my sister-in-law as it was her birthday yesterday.  Don’t worry, it’s not going to be late really as I’m off to Scotland this week and will see her on Thursday.  Good job as with this cold autumnal weather she’ll need it to keep her ears warm!  Brrrrrrr!