My travelling Scarf returns home

Ok so your first question is probably, What is a travelling scarf?

Well, 10 knitters across Europe all got together on Ravelry.com to create a unique scarf for each other.

This is done by each knitter adding a bit to each scarf and sending it on to the next person in the chain.

By the end, each of the 10 knitters has her own scarf back with 9 extra panels worked.

we put some rules in with the package. Mine said, each knitter must do skinny stripes using the yarn before and their own choice of yarn. That way the scarf changes colour one section at a time. for example, the first panel is green and pea, the next is pea and black the next is black and white etc.

Once it came home i crocheted an edging around it to even up the edges ( the tension varies as you can imagion with 10 knitters) and to pull it all together. I think it looks great and will definately wear it about town.

The scarf also came home with it's own little diary to say who worked on it, with what yarn and where in the world they were. So this scarf is very well travelled (hence the name) It went from South Wales to North Wales to Cheshire UK, to Stoke UK, to Wakefield UK then all the way to Austria, Two stops in Germany, Finland and Scotland before finally returning home to me.

I wasn't sure if I should put this scarf on my Finished objects calendar as I only made one section and the edging,

but I decided that I would put it on the calendar as it represents the other 9 sections I've made for the other members of the round robin.

many many thanks to all those who took part. Maybe you could join us next time on the "travelling scarves" group on Ravelry.com It's the best place for all knitters and crocheters and yarn addicts of all kinds.

Hooked on breaking records

Not many people know but our little town of Bridgend is in the Guiness book of Records.

We won the world record for the longest line of drinks cans in 1986

and then won it back again last November from the Home Nursing federation of Singapore

All the people of the town saved their cans so now the record stands at 106,000 cans beating the previous record by more than 15,000

Well now that I hold a world record (along with many others but I still helped to both collect and stack them)

I'm hungry for more. I'm now crocheting squares for the world's largest blanket.

Granny squares from all over the world are being collected to be put together to win this title.

Here are some of mine. all 5 inches

across. They are still looking for more. See http://planetblanket.wordpress.com/

But of course, this method of crocheting is not just for squares.

have a look at this little guy. Totally done in the same style.

Fun isn't he?

find him and more at http://eddyspressies.artfire.com/

Creative Challenge February 2010 (52 in 52)

Here we are again at the end of another month. So I will now show what I made for the challenge.



If you remember; the challenge is to make 52 items during the 52 weeks of the year. January was a great start with 9 items finished.

So here's February's calendar/chart

So what are all those funny little icons?

• A 12" purple pony - made to order - people seem to love the purple
• Lilac and cream baby cuddle blanket - made for a swap.
• red striped scarf with celtic knots and cables - yes another swap - I got a lovely scarf back
• A Walrus crocheted in the "granny square" style - I'm really into those granny squares lately
• A baby and her bunny - that's for a givaway on another blog - you can enter and win this and lots more prizes too - more on that later.
• Small ladybird wrist purse - yes, for a "make something red" swap
• A knitted crab - so cute but already bought and paid for - I'll make another on request though.

That's 7 for February to add to January's 9; making 16 so far.

And next month promises to be better because I have so many items "on the needles" that just need finishing off.

I'm really enjoying this.

Swaps are such fun

I'm getting quite addicted to this swapping lark. They are great fun when it all works out properly.

I'm in a group on Ravelry.com ( a site for knitters and crocheters) We decided to make and send a whole scarf to another member picked at random for us from our group - that way we would all receive one each but not necessarily from the person we sent to - make sense? good.

Once I was given the name of the person I would be making for, I started to look at her profiles and blogs to see what she liked. She had lots of black accessories but wanted to put some colour into her life this year. So I chose this lovely Chunky yarn from James C Brett. It is so soft to the touch and great to work with. She received it a few days ago and yeay, she liked it. here's what she said about it,

"I have the most perfect scarf, its long long long and soft and squashy and gorgeous. Its definitely not black but lovely shades of pink and purple and covered from end to end in wonderful cabled Celtic knots which my swap partner realised I had a thing about from checking out the blogs - oops - forgot to add, my lovely partner was EddyG

Isn't that wonderful. I feel fuzzy all over to know I got it right. Actually, as I was working on it, I kinda fell in love with it and wanted to keep it - so I was going to make one like this for myself.

But now I think that all my other scarves can go to the back of the wardrobe as I received, from the swap (and yes a different person) this amazing scarf...

It's in one of my most favorite colours in the world; Navy blue and is knitted to look like a piece of Swiss Cheese - how fabulous is that? It's also over six foot long. You all know how I love anything unusual.

My wonderful partner even sent me some extra yarn so I could make a matching hat if I want to. It's made from lambswool so very soft and warm. And some lovely extras that I wasn't expecting; A postcard for my collection, french chocolate, red fruits tea, Yum.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Hurrah for giraffes

My friend Catrin found this adorable site which has a Norwegian guy trying to collect one million giraffes. yes that's right, He's asking people to send in giraffes that they have made

"My friend, Jørgen, doesn't believe I can collect one million giraffes by 2011. I'm gonna prove him wrong, but I need your help. You can create your giraffe(s) in any way you like, but not on a computer and no store bought objects. You must create your giraffe(s) yourself! So far I've got 566 899 giraffes, so I need 433 101 more and I have 324 days left.Let's show Jørgen how amazing the Internet is."

How could I let an opportunity like this go? I love to draw so I'm starting with a drawn giraffe.

This little guy has great sky and clouds markings but his scarf has the correct markings - I thought that would be fun.

It's been a long time since I have coloured something in not using the computer. I'd forgotten how long felt tip pens take to use. (aching arm) But I think he turned out OK

Creative challenge 52 in 52 January 2010

OK so last year I tried this creative challenge to

Make 52 items (knitted or crocheted) in 52 weeks.

I got a little bogged down with other things and found that keeping count got really hard - especially since I started partway through the year.

So this year I'm going to try it again.

Each month I will show you what I made, and with my new chart system, keeping count should be easy

Some of these items are for sale in my Artfire shop, others are for swaps or challenges or even myself.
So here we go with the counting;

1. 12" tall Pink sparkly pony
2. Purple knitted piggy bank
3. 9" tall Pink dragon
4. orange knitted piggy bank
5. sheep teacosy
6. little knitted firebird
7. snowflake hat
8. snow princess doll
9. baby security blanket - polar bear.

Yeay 9 items in the first 4 weeks we are off to a great start - I really hope I can keep this up.

Reading

Well yes I do have many hobbies that sometimes seem to use up all my spare time but I always find time to do a little reading.
I know that it's not the kind of passtime that you can get really excited about but I thought I would share some of my tastes and selections with you.

Clive Cussler. OK so that's not a book. He is a great writer. Lots of adventure, treasure hunting and close shaves for our heros. The stories bounce along at quite a pace. Also very educational as I know quite alot about boats, classic cars, guns and special forces equipment.

Saucer by Stephen Coonts (not koonts; he's a horror writer) This book and it's sequel is really believable so even if you don't read sci fi normally, you should enjoy this. It takes place in modern times and tells of what would happen if an ordinary person found a real UFO.

They are my favorites at the moment. But I've read lots that I really enjoyed.

But do you want to know what I really hated? The Harry Potter novels. That's what. Sorry to those who love the boy wizzard but the books are awful.. The movies are great fun - but the books - ugg. She is such a slow writer; it takes forever for anything to happen. JK spends pages describing things that aren't even relevant to the story.

so lots of adventures and sci-fi and even the odd fantasy but Jk Rowlings - no way.