A cleaning Sunday

My husband and friends have gone down to Miami to watch the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins game.  I decided not to go, stay home and tidy up my craft room instead.

I started off by sorting through all the patterns I have dumped on my desk and organized them in a binder.  I finished the arms of my mohair cardigan and am working on the body now.

 I spent this afternoon to install 2 new software and re-install 2 old ones in my computer..

Intwined Studio and Crochet Charts are new.  The Cross Stitch and MasterCook are old.

I don't normally shop over the Thanksgiving holiday.  This year is my first ever shop on-line on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.   I bought a few things; all craft related.

Intwined Studio is a knitting pattern design software $44 and the Stitch Works Crochet Charts is a crochet pattern design software $50.  The applications have a similar look and feel as the other Office programs like Excel and Words.  They are new products, came out in 2010 and 2011.  They have user groups in Ravelry already.  So happy that they keep the price affordable so I do not have to break my piggy bank.
 

Baby Winter Cap

I knitted a baby cap to try out the pattern.  It is very quick to make and it is so cute.

 

It is knitted in the rounds.

 I added six little pink flowers to decorate the sides.

Material: worsted or Aran weight.
Knitting needle size: 5.5mm
Pattern: free from Drops Design (http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/us/pattern.php?id=3860&lang=us)

Teddy Bear - all done

We decided to stay home this Thanksgiving holiday.  Since I am not cooking, I have plenty of time to finish my teddy bear toy.

Going outside for some day light.

Size: 11 inches tall standing
Pattern: Birthday Bears & Blankets by Annie's Attic
Material: Red Heart TLC Amore in Chocolate color
Crochet hook: 4mm

Teddy Bear in progress

The clock goes back today; winter is here.  The weather is beautiful this time of the year.
Sitting outside with Poppy, having a cup of tea, enjoying the morning sun, and crochet a few more rounds of a new project.

A teddy bear in progress, just all body parts at the moment.

Lizzie our bathroom lizard

I was cleaning the front bathroom the other day and just missed not vacuuming a tiny baby lizard.  She has the good sense to hide behind the trash can.

 A close up...we named her Lizzie.

A few days later Poppy was waiting for her shower and Lizzie was in there with her.  Top right corner of the floor.

 Can you see her now?

Yup, Lizzie has taken over the bathroom as her home.

Building work

Just a quick post to show you a few pictures of the building work that was involved in updating our bathrooms.  It does look like a building site, doesn't it? 

 Totally gutted out the two bathrooms.

 Bathroom 1 - the after pictures.

 Bathroom 2 - the finished result.

Baby Blanket

I have been away from Blog Land for such a long time; I am surprised to find that it has a complete new layout.  I have to take a moment to look at some of the new features. 

The reason for my long absence is because my craft room was out of action since the last post.  I didn't do much needle work at all. We have to remodel our bathrooms, so the house was like a building site. My craft room turned into an office for my hubby during these times.  The bathroom work is now finished and I am slowly putting things back together.

I started a little baby project.  A baby blanket.  Someone from work is expecting a baby in September.  I am not sure if I like the texture, I might have to frog it.

Then I made this: a cover for my ipad cover.

I know it might sound a bit over the top, but you just have to protect something that is white, right?

Anyway, I hope you have been keeping well, and thank you so much for remembering/visiting this blog.

Cat Bookmark

I work with quite a few animal lovers. One of them is crazy about her cats. She lost one recently in a very sad accident. I made a little gift for this co-worker in memory of her cat.

I gathered some scrape yarns in the color of her pet and started knitting in the rounds.Glued a small piece of felt to the face as the outline before I embroidered the nose.
Add the ears, eyes and mouth...and a cute cat bookmark appears.
Marking the page of a book.
I hope she likes it.
You can find the pattern in Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cat-bookmark) or from this website http://twinsknit.blogspot.com

Florida Manatees

After my return from the UK, my hubby asked me what I wanted to do with the first free day we have together in the new year. I said “Let’s go and find a manatee.” Manatees live in Florida and I have always wanted to see one swimming in the open sea. So we drove north 70 miles and visited a manatee center.While we were busy looking for manatees, Poppy was busy checking out bugs in the grass.We have no manatee luck that day. All I managed was to take a picture of a man-made manatee outside the visitor center.Then a week later, when we weren't looking, it happened. We took Poppy for a walk on the beach in Delray, a female manatee swam leisurely by with her calf.This is not my picture and not the manatees we saw...but aren't they the cutest?

My first post for 2012

2011 was a good year for me. It was busy. I changed jobs in the beginning of the year. At the end of the year I flew back to the United Kingdom to visit my elderly mother and my family. It was so good to see them after nearly 3 years.

I have established a routine; I like routines and feel more settled now. I don't have a to-do project list for 2012. I have been knitting though and am making progress with the green shawl.I want to pick up where I left off with the spider wrap but there is only one spare ball of yarn.So I found the white Dorset Down and started carding...and started spinning again.Using a jumbo flyer and jumbo bobbin for the aran weight yarn.I hope you have a great start to 2012. Wishing you and yours all the very best for the coming year.