Times flies when you are having fun...Merry Christmas Everyone!

Gosh, I can not believe that it will be Christmas this week (in fact in 2.5 days)!! What a year it has been! I've met some wonderful fellow bloggers and learnt so much (personally and craftwise). I'm so glad that I have started knitting and sewing again. The baking has been fun too.

I'm so glad that my rascal has recovered from her flu, now we can have a nice, relaxing and stress free Christmas break. I'm still at work at the moment, I finish for the year on the 23. This is what I have planned for the Christmas break:

1. Christmas Eve will be spent at my Inlaws as it is my Father In Law's birthday
2. Christmas Day will be at my Mums for a Christmas Roast
3. My hubby wants to spend Boxing Day at the 'Sales' ...I wonder whether John Lewis will start their yarn sale early this year?
4. The other days will be spent relaxing with friends and family. I need to do my Tax Return, but it depends on whehter I have the time (or whether I feel like it.....I could also do it in January?). If I get a quiet moment, I'd like to work on my knitting projects (mainly hubby's never ending scarf and the rascal's cardigan)..but lets see.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year. I'm planning a short series of blog post on how to save money whilst crafting in the new year. So I will see you then...Happy Holidays!

Back to My Knitting and Something Old

Out of all the crafts I have say that knitting is one of my favourite, its so relaxing and you can easily knit and/or purl all your stress away stitch by stitch. As the weather is getting colder and Christmas is coming, things at home has become a bit stressful, so I'm glad I have my knitting to keep me sane.

I have also started using a tissue cozy I knitted last year and which I have forgot to blog about...oh gosh how did that happen?? The pattern can be found here, the every talented lady behind Zakka Life. I made some small adjustments to the length and added a pink gingham lining. It has been lying in my craft draw for while, but I now use it to protect my mobile phone. At a recent craft fair (it was a private corporate one, so I can't give the name of the company) a stall holder saw the cozy and wanted a bright pink one, so I gave her the pattern.

My daughter's cardigan is going well so far....touch wood. Here is a photo of the progress (she has dark hair, her head is there....Hee! Hee!):

I'm Back from my Baking & Chocolate Adventures

Wow....what an adventure! We had such a great day and we are so glad that our cakes and chocolates were so well received. To read more, refer to the my other blog. After the fair, I just slept and slept....I was completely knacked. The Wemake Fair was great, there were so many crafty gifts to buy, but I was so busy with the cake stand that I didn't have time to buy anything. Luckily my lovely husband got me a free goodie bag with lots of business cards to check out and few handmade goodies. I really like the crochet face cloth, it is so nice to feel.

After the fair, I had to tend to my 'To Do' list which was getting a bit out of hand, and this explains why it has taken me so long to start blogging again. Most of them includes things that I promised my daughter such as getting the Christmas decorations, finding a T shirt for her school play, getting her Advent Calender (I think I will make one next year which is re-useable), sorting out her school trip to London Zoo, writing letters to Santa (and members of the family), writing cards to her friends...etc...

I'm going to slowly ease myself back into my work in progress, mainly my daugther's cardigan which I have finished the back and pockets. Hopefully my husband's scarf will be finished by next winter...Hee! Hee!

Now I'm going to catch up with all the lovely blogs which I have missed over the past few weeks....

Debbie Bliss Magazine

I know I'm not suppose to be blogging and I should be focusing on my baking/chocolate making project, but I just can't resist telling you fellow bloggers about a bargain I found today. Most lunch time (when it is not pouring down with rain), I go to White Cross Market near where I work. They have great food there (I recommend the salad, falel and the Italian stall) as well as a discounted magazine stall. Look what I found today for 60p:

The first edition of the Debbie Bliss magazine....the premier issue (Fall/Winter 2008). Inside is packed with wonderful patterns which I should be capable of knitting......yay.....I'm very excited..........I oh do love a bargain.

Now, I have to stop and calm myself down now....breathe......I will have a look at the projects after 6th December 2008....otherwise Gracie will kill me (Hee! Hee! Hee!).

Taking a small break for Simply Scrumblicious and being a 'Yappy'

I'm taking a 'very short' break from this blog over the next two weeks as I need to focus 100% on Simply Scrumblicioius. I don't believe that we only have two weekends left till the Wemake fair. Arggg! You can keep up with our progress on our blog.

On my way home from work today I picked up the London Paper (another free paper provided on the streets of London) to ease the stress of communting home during the rush hour (sound familiar doesn't it). I found another article on Knitting (also on jam making and owning your own allotment) written by Johnny Vaughan (yes the guy from the Big Breakfast). According to this article people in their 20s and 30s are turning into Happy Yappies - Young Aged Pensioners?? I'm typing this wearing my old peach (hand-knitted) cardigan that my cousin made me. Hee! Hee! So instead of going out and wasting money on drinks and clubbing we prefer to stay at home and attend knitting groups.

Knitting in the Metro

On my way to work I always pick up the Metro (a free newspaper provided in the London Underground) to relieve the stress of commuting during the rush hour. Look what I found today:

Photo taken from Today's Metro

A whole article on Knitting by Kristina Georgiou, how cool is that! It certainly cheered up such a miserable start to the week. It promotes knitting help.com and ravelry.com for new knitters and cool patterns on Knitty.com (yes Kyoko the one you recommended). I'm really interested in checking out these website, but will have to resist until the craft fair is over as I really need to focus on my baking over the next few weeks. I have noticed that there has been an increase in articles in British magazines and newspapers on buying 'Handmade', there was an article in the Metro a few weeks ago promoting Etsy.

Unwinding and Starting Again

Remember the beret that I was suppose to knit for my Mum a few months ago? Yes the one that I messed up? Well, I have taken my Mum's advice and I have unwind everything and started again. This time I followed a new pattern from Let's Knit magazine called Renee. You can get the pattern free on their website. The instruction was bit strange as it requires 7mm and 20mm needles. So the base fits snugly whilst the body is nice and loose. This makes the beret nice and light. The good thing about it is that it only uses one ball of Rowan Little Big Wool. I also made one for myself in purple.


My Mum also complained that the handle of my first bag looks too messy. So she taught me how to correct my mistake by:

• ripping out the seam,
• make a larger gap towards the top of one side of the handle,
• turn the end of the two handles so the right sides are facing each other and sew across,
• turn the handle back to the right sides should all be neatly sewed together
• close the gap that was opened when top stitching the edge.

It is a difficult to explain so please excuse the inexperienced instructions.

My Mum has agreed to teach me how to sew now...yay! She has refused for 30 years, probably because I broke my first sewing machine....Hee! Hee! Seriously, I think she wanted me to get a career first, but now that I'm a Mother and a Wife, I need to be able to sew so I can mend/make basic clothes at home....so she has agreed. I originally thought of spending £390 to learn, but there is a lot more I can do with that kind of money, so I have decided to buy some books and patterns instead.