Hats and Soup

I've had a bit of a crochet/knit drought at the moment. The only thing I have made is two of these convertible hats. I made one for me - the prototype, a black and red one. I then was told it was my sister's boyfriend's birthday, last year I made him an earflap hat and it literally never leaves his head. He has trouble buying hats as by his own admission his head is "well big" so I thought I'd make him one too.


This meant my Other Half started moaning at me as he also wants one, so i am now halfway through my third, it should be very useful for him as he can wear it round his neck when he rides his motorbike and tie it in a hat when he gets off it.


I recommend the pattern, it's easy to follow and works up quickly unless you have distractions, which I do as this week we decided to buy...

...A SCALEXTRIC SET!!!! I've never had one and always wanted one, so we set it up in the living room and have been racing each other like big kids all week. We've also bought two track extension kits and 2 more cars. We decided to get some cheaper cars until the dog gets more used to it; there truly is nothing funnier than a greyhound trying to catch a F1 racing car. It is not funny when he manages and the spoiler drops off!

In between races last night I had to make some food. We've been a bit slack this week and couldn't be bothered to go to the supermarket. I looked through the cupboards and managed to find the following:

• potatoes (about 4)
• onions (2)
• courgettes (2)
• a vegetable stock cube (made about 400ml of stock)
• butter
• milk (225ml)
• parsley
• salt and pepper

From it I made my first ever 'cream of' soup. I loosely followed this recipe and it was delicious! Better still, there's enough for tonight with a crusty loaf I've bought today!

Granny Squares on the Red Carpet

I saw this picture on the BBC's Entertainment Site's photo of the day section and thought I should share it with you (and by share I mean copy the picture and post it here - sorry BBC!) It's very cool, although I'm not too keen on the colours myself. No doubt it's been followed by a barrage of "Cate Blanket" headlines and might feature on those dreadful 'what were you wearing????!?!?!?!?' sections in fashion magazines but personally I think it's quirky and I love it!

A Tribute To Pointless Wool Crafts

I love browsing online for quirky little projects I have no reason to make, here I'm giving you my run down of the Top 5 Pointless Yarn Projects

In fifth place it may be quirky but it's also slightly pointless unless you are bald, in either way I'm not sure you'd want this knitted wig from Knitty

In fourth place there's this lot of crazy fools who think they're being the Knitting world's answer to Banksy with their random knitted graffiti nonsense. "Oh but it's cute they argue" "How can you be offended by knitting?" Well, quite easily when you've knitted up my bloomin' post box thanks a bunch now I have to walk half a mile to post my letter or frog this huge piece of craziness. Now take your yarn and your needles and go make something practical like a jumper.

In third place it's this little annoyance. There's no pattern but it's probably for the best.All I can say is Christ no! Take the hat off the dog. I'll repeat, just in case you misunderstood: take the hat off the dog.

In second place I choose crocheted food. Any kind of crocheted food is pointless, you can't eat it, you're too big to play let's pretend. A project that really is pointless are these crochet cupcakes from Bitter Sweet. I can't enjoy their sugary goodness because they are made of blinking WOOL.

At number one it's this knitted toilet roll from Mochimochi Blog the only possible purpose for this would be to put it on your loo roll holder in order to torture a friend or relative. You can't use it but you'll need to use something, I can see this practical joke ending one of two ways: stinky knitting project or stinky friend, either way you're not going to be pleased you made it.

The Special Award for making me want to kill myself for ever even owning knitting needles goes to this:

Apparently by an artist called Guido Daniele he is now on my hit list. This is wrong for the following reasons:

1. Bikes should not be pink
2. Bikes should not be knitted
3. Pink bikes are not art

Yarn Drought

Well, not really a yarn drought, but a project drought. I'm at a bit of a loose end knowing what to make, recently I've been making teddy bears, knitted ones adn I would post pictures but as usual the PC for posting pictures is occupied by the Other Half and prising him from the chair is far too much effort.

Recently I've been struggling to find an inspiring project, this in turn puts me in a bad mood as I'm not the kind of person that can just sit and watch TV. So I'm on the hunt for projects that are enjoyable to knit or crochet. Does anyone out there have any old favourites? Any suggestions? I need help to get my knitting mojo back!!