Crochet Art - Lillian Crespi

When I have been looking across the net for some crochet art, I came across this awesome spider web:

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This is something I would love to attach to my bamboo fence as I think it would look awesome. The pattern looks totally doable:

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I tried to find out more about the artist, Lillian Crespi but to be honest the only thing I can find is the entry accompanying the above image on the Sculpture Key West site. It's a shame because I would have liked to have seen some more of her work.

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WIP - Selbudeath Socks

I am currently loving {this sock pattern} - the Selbudeath socks totally rock my world.

This is my first attempt at working with a pattern that required two colours and I am excited to see if I can work it.

So far so good:)

For more WIP's check out {Tami's Blog}

Perfect Crackling - Layout

I did it again....and I am stinkin' happy about it.

Actually it is two thing I did again and I am equally happy about it.

1. For the first time since November 2011 - and eight weeks since my operation - I have been able to power walk again. I am over the moon that I can get back into my health regime now without doubling over in pain. But for the moment there will be no running, just walking. I don't want to overdo it in case I jinx our upcoming holiday.

2. I scrapped yet again.....wahoooooo. And I still enjoyed the whole process of getting my fingers dirty with glue and paints. Life is good :)

Papers: Donna Salazar Designs, Making Memories

Stamp: Donna Salazar Designs

Inks: Donna Salazar for Clearsnap Inc

Mists: Donna Salazar for Clearsnap Inc, Cosmic Shimmer

Pearls: Want2Scrap

Stickers: Jillybean Soup, Jenni Bowlin

Picture frame: K&Company

Other: Doily, Embroidery Floss, Gesso

Hope you all are having a most enjoyable Sunday and a wonderful week ahead.

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FP - The Fishtail socks

Today I have another pair of finished socks to share that never even made it to my WIP list as I finished them so quickly :)

Following my "success" of completing two pairs of socks in a short amount of time, I felt brave enough to design my own pair.

When I say designing, I mean that I have taken the general measurements for a medium sized sock, found myself a knitted pattern I liked (the fishtail) and worked the sock design around the pattern.

I made a slight mistake though in that the cuff on one sock is two rows shorter than the other....but I can live with that considering that the cuff will be hidden under trouser legs anyway.

You can find all the details about the Fishtail socks {here}

For more finished projects hop over to {Tami's blog}

Knitting failures...again

Well, it had to happen at some stage. After I finished my delightful {hoodie} and a few pairs of {socks}, I believed the world of finished garments would be mine.

Uhm, yep - THAT worked out well...

'memba {this fella}?

The knit itself was finished within the matter of a few days and it looked promising - until I came to sew it all together. Despite me doing a gauge swatch AND still going one size up, the arms almost cut my circulation off and believe you me, my arms ain't that fat.

And the bottom bit was also way too tight and there was no way I would ever wear that jumper.

So my most expensive yarn was unravelled and put deep in my stash box until I feel confident I have found the perfect pattern.

To be brutally honest, I was never really that excited about the pattern in the first place. All I wanted was to knit with that luscious yarn and after searching for a pattern for two weeks without success I chose what looked easiest. Should have just waited.

Then the amazing {Candy Skein came into my life} and I so wanted to work with it straight away as I have been drooling over it for months.

One evening I just started on the magic loop the same way I would for socks and quickly decided that I wanted to knit some {fingerless gloves}:

The first glove was already too wide and I was not so hot on the striping of the yarn, I did what I do best: frogging :)

Sourcing online patterns for hours on end I found {this} scarf which I hoped would bring out the rainbow colouring much more,which it did:

But as always, the story didn't end there, when I came to the halfway mark I realised that the scarf would not be as long as I expected it to be (even after blocking) and it was much narrower than I would have liked.

I decided to frog this scarf also and banish the yarn to live together in darkness with my Rowan Cashsoft for the time being....

It is getting a little frustrating now as I will not spend any more money on yarn until I have used up all my stash. Maybe I try my luck with the Rowan Milk Cotton next

Sunny Days on the Isle of Wight

I only just realised that I forgot to share the picture of our days out when we had the marvellous sunshine last week.

First off, we decided to go the Hythe, which is two ferry rides away but always looks so quaint and sweet from the shoreline. When I had to call into the office one day to discuss my return to work, Mr P and I decided that was the prefect excuse to stop by and see what Hythe has to offer.

For starters, I was famished as we arrived around 13:30hrs and I had not eaten that day - so we went and got us some wonderful fish'n'chips.

There is something very comforting about this traditional dish, and there were happy faces all around.

Afterwards we started walking around the town centre but there was not really much to it, so we made our way to the opposite suite and checked out the Marina.

picture by Mr P

To have a sailing boat or yacht in this kind of weather would just be bliss...

But to be honest, that was all that was to Hythe and while we found it pretty and very clean after an hour there was not much more to do or see, so we made our way back on the quaint little train, which rides between pier end and town centre.

picture by Mr P

Only two days later we had more excitement as her Majesty, the Queen came to set foot on the Isle of Wight. This was to conclude her Diamond Jubilee Tour and seeing that it was just a ten minute walk away from our house, it would have been rude not to go.

Cowes seafront was packed and everyone got really excited when the 21 gun salute started. We did not see the guns but the firing smoke drifted over to us.

picture by Mr P

I could kick myself though, because while I remembered to take my super zoom lens, I only freaking forgot to put the battery in my camera....gnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh.

So the only shots we have of the Queen are the ones taken with out point and shoot. The Queen and Prince Phillip are the wee spots in the circle.

picture by Mr P

It was a great occasion and the wave of cheer and love that emerged from the crowd made me all teary. Definitely the best day this summer!

FP - The Tadpole Socks

The tadpole socks are done...YAY!

In fact, they have been almost worn to bits by now as they were finished Mid-July already, I just didn't get a chance to upload the pictures earlier.

There is something about red socks that I love...

It's a good thing that I still have a lot of red and orange yarn left - I see many more bright socks in my future :)

You can find all the details about the socks {here}

For more finished projects hop over to {Tami's blog}

The movies we watched in July

Here is July's run down of the movies we enjoyed

Spiderman 2 

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Yes, we have already watched this movie in March BUT in our defense, this time we watched the movie with additional scenes...and BOY oh BOY are they fantastic. I really do not understand why they were deleted or re/shot as they totally work and some of them were actually kind of important to explain something that happens later on the movie. The only scene that worked better in the final cut is the one in the lift. The deleted scene is funny but not as good.

See for yourself, here is the final scene first:

And here is the deleted one:

Too much talk for my liking, the final lift scene is much more awkward moment for both and that's what makes it work, I think.

Jaws 2 

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Jaws is Mr P's favourite movie of all times and it was shown again in the cinema the week I had my operation. Needless to say that Mr P went to watch it, so it was only logical that we would end up one evening throwing Jaws 2 into our DVD player. It is not half bad for a sequel, even though nothing will ever match the way in which Spielberg made Jaws work and how Scheider, Dreyfuss and Shaw played perfectly together. But again, this sequel works and is quite enjoyable to watch.

The Sound of Music 

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As we are taking Mr P's mum on a holiday to the Bavarian Alps including a visit to Salzburg, and seeing that she never saw this Classic from start to finish, we felt it only fitting to sit and watch the movie. It never gets boring and it doesn't even seem its running time is almost 3 hours.Perfect combination of music and pulling at heart strings without being too soppy.

Murder, She Said 

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My favourite Miss Marple  movie - ever! I just love how Margaret Rutherford portrays Agatha Christie's  sleuth. The cast is brilliant and I only wish that Margaret would have done more than just four Miss Marple movies...

Smokey and The Bandit

Another movie that we already watched {this year} but after I listened to the title song the other day, I fancied watching it again and Mr P thankfully agreed :)
And of course, when you watch this one, the sequel is inevitable, so we watched this one again as well:

Smokey and The Bandit II

And because you cannot watch those two without following it with another Burt Reynolds classic, we could not finish this month without a movie we already watched in March:

Cannonball Run

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Well, I wonder how many repeat movies we are going to see in August - any guesses?