Frank and Josie's House

Hi all, Did you have a good festive season? Ours was lovely. My parents travelled over and we all had our first Christmas in France. There was a lot of food, a lot of wine, a fake fire and a reasonable amount of presents (by that I mean not too many). Father Christmas delivered everything he was asked for and films were watched. A lot of time was spent in pyjamas and with good company, plus we played some games too. All good fun.  Here are some of my festive photos for you.  This is a bit of a downer: yesterday I went for a les than successful gynaecologist appointment about my endometriosis. He was nice but basically told me he wasn’t going to do anything at all, even for the pain. It was a bit of a miserable time for me as I spent ages travelling there by train (easier than driving) and hanging around for a 15 minute appointment that didn’t have any progress for my treatment of this illness. However, I was bought to earth with a bump when I saw this encampment of people in t...

Hi all. I'd like you to meet someone: this is Clyde. Clyde is a giant dragon. He is 135cms nose to tail and has a wing-span of 86cms. Here he is sunbathing and snuggling on the mermaid blanket along with other crochet goodies. Clyde was a birthday present to my son. This year, knowing that I make them something for each birthday (which is now a tradition), Finn was really helpful in changing his mind every five minutes over what he wanted. The mini Spider-Man to go with his other  Avengers  was a given as he's been asking for that for ages. But he didn't get finished, instead he was presented in bits like this: Not ideal but hey he gave me a "ok mum" and a pat on the back because he had already had Clyde. As some of you may recall from past posts my son is a bit obsessed with dragons and this year he wanted a "really big, cuddly dragon". He first saw Clyde like this: He leaped and squealed and hugged him and told me I was the best mum ever! Total...

So here I am: awake far too late because I'm uncomfortable with yet another endometriosis flare up. My stomach hurts as does my lower back and my hands feel like they're shaking despite the fact they're still as anything. My legs feel like jelly as if all the bones have been removed and my brain can't settle on one thing or another. So I thought I'd write a blogpost until I fall asleep as I can't get into my book and I'm going around in social media circles! Instead I'm going to tell you all about my yoga mat case/bag. I've had trouble knowing what to call it. I say bag but you might say case. I say potaato and you say potato! I'm going with bag as thats what it is. It has a strap so its a bag. Ok so I only carry it from the corner by the CDs to the rug but thats at least 30 seconds walking! And here is is: This one is for my sister...if she likes the colour. Now I do have the pattern written down which I may share at some point but at the moment...

I'm writing a blogpost about crochet! I know!!! How long has that *^+&ing been? Ages. Too long my dear friends. You will be pleased to hear that I am determined to make all things in my life work and after last week's rainy day thoughts I decided to be a little more chipper. The sun heard me and decided to come out (even if a storm is brewing for this evening) and has helped me regain some energy. So onward and on to a new crochet technique I finally tried: corner to corner crochet or C2C as it is referred to in short hand. It was Frank's birthday in March and I decided that as loads of our cushions were falling apart and he loved his Avenger's logo cushion from last year that I'd bring to life another of his favourite super hero characters...well logos. And Batman it was. the decision was easy really as he's always saying to the kids: "Do you know why? Because I'm Batman!" in a silly, growly imitation of the Lego Batman. The kids love it. So ...

As lots of crocheters out there know there is a subscription company called Little Box of Crochet . (I've mentioned them in previous posts). I first found them on Instagram and followed their story as Amanda dealt with the terminal illness of her daughter Jenny (read more here. ) Last year I saw this on their Instagram feed: A Hygge Ponchette. Now all the other designs I'd seen, whilst I admired them and thought they looked lovely, weren't for me. Simply a matter of taste and desire. But then I saw this and thought "I've got to have it!" So I asked Father Christmas/ Père Noël/Santa if I could have it for Christmas and (lucky me!) he said yes! Now this box they called their first Not-So-Little box of crochet because the yarn was super chunky and there were six balls of it! Basically it was a super chunky, snuggly, cosy, hygge project so couldn't fit into a little box. When I opened it on Christmas day it was so exciting. I think only fellow crafters can un...

It's a miracle: I've managed to make myself something, a whole garment in fact. It did take a total of 3 years from start to finish because it was always someone's birthday, or Christmas or I had a commission to work on. But finally, after a few wrong turns it is no longer 4 bits of crocheted fabric, it is a jumper. I'm actually wearing it now and love it. It started life as a few balls of chunky marble yarn . I love this yarn as it has a subtle colour change effect. I've no idea why now but I went with a multi-coloured effect. In all honesty I probably ran out of one colour and had another in my stash. I got the pattern from an issue of Inside Crochet magazine and it's called Jessica Sweater from issue 52. I made it in a bigger size as I am a bigger size and wanted a chunky jumper. As you can see from the picture above I had to completely redo both the arms. It's been a faff, picking it up randomly after a few months. After one long gap I ended up using th...