Posy Scarf...

"I had a break

I didn't intend to

It was a week

But turned into three

I haven't been lazy

Lots going on

Not much crafting

But changes for me..."

So the 'Posy Scarf ' is complete.

The ends have been tidied away and it was laid out and blocked

For the first time Doris got unwrapped and put to use.

The days have been dark and grey, but Friday when I was home from work, the sun showed it's appearance, and we had some light and brightness.

Firstly we had an indoor shoot near the window with rare natural light.

But I couldn't resist taking her out, into the rays of the sun, with the dark green bushes filled with bright orange berries as a background

Meanwhile, I have still be working away on making lots of pink posies, when I have a field full, then I can then face the task of working out how they can join for the shawl pattern...

So after my prize winning last month, it's like buses, I won another prize! This time it was a Woodland prize pack from a group of amazing crafters

It's been exciting getting different packages through the door, so far I have received these goodies...

Cards, notebook and print from @bycharlieshand and 3 prints from @erryberrydesign

I'm feeling extremely lucky!

From one little posy...

If you cast your mind back to prior my holiday, you may recall I was working on my posy scarf. Having got past the fiddly stage of working out the join, it just needed completing.

I can happily say it is now finished. Once in the rhythm of the join it flows quite nicely, but still takes a bit of concentration to make sure it's going correctly. It just needs to go on the blocking mat now so that it can be photographed in all its glory!

I had intended to then move on to a new design, and I've been having a little play!

After looking at the scarf and with my new yarn purchases I thought how lovely it would look as a shawl.

So I set about doing some colour swatches.

After eliminating one, I was undecided between the other two, and after posting my picture,the response was split too.

So I listened to my gut instinct and went with the warm soft pinks. I made a few centres, and now have started with the petals.

I'm hoping, as the joining will be the same in theory to the scarf it won't be too hard, but we will see, as we will be working in odd numbers in a row instead of even!

I still kept looking at my other colour swatch, and decided that this more contrasting colourway would lend itself nicely as a cushion. After more glances I thought how nicely a little hexagon would slot into the gaps!

So now from one little posy, we have a scarf, shawl and a cushion...

Animals and flowers...

So as promised, or threatened, whichever your viewpoint, I have a whole host of animal pictures from our great trip to London Zoo last week.

The weather wasn't as good as we hoped, but it was good enough.

We started round the reptile room

and round to Gorilla kingdom, where this big boy ambled towards us, 

and we saw smaller breeds of monkeys in their groups, relaxing, grooming, running and jumping.

We went to see the Tiger, but he was fast asleep with his back to us, so went on to the Llamas and Alpacas who were adorable

These Giants were amazing slowly making their way to their greens

BEWARE if sqeamish!! We were brave, very brave. We were in the Bugs section, which coincided with the Spider talk, and a man came out with quite a frisky tarantular on his hand, to give details and answer questions. But then we ventured into 'the' room, where the spiders are loose, just hanging about on their webs, dangling from the ceiling! I cant say it was a pleasant experience, quite frankly we just clung on to each other, where the young amused guide stated "dont worry they dont move"!

A much more pleasant experience was the Butterfly pavilion. Where amongst the greenery and flowers flitted flashes of bright colours, they were fascinating to watch

Then it was off to Penguin beach to watch their fun and frolics, in and out of the water

One of the best experiences was being surrounded by Squirrel monkeys. We went into the enclosure, and walked round the pathways, seeing all the ropes up high, but seeing no signs of life. But as we got to the end we stood still and then heard the bushes rustle, then spotted a couple of tiny faces peering through, and before we knew it the place came to life. Tiny bodies leaping around us, around the bushes, up in the trees and adeptly across the ropes. They were adorable, and we didn't want to stop watching!

Meercats are always a favourite with their cute little inquisitive faces

Another great experience was to be in with the Lemurs. Alongside this black and white fluffball were a group of ring-tailed lemurs with their infamous long black and white tails hanging below the branches. They love the sun, and they'd sit in the sunniest spots, head up, leaning back and basking.

The last section we went round was Into Africa.

Before leaving, we checked back in with Mr Tiger. He was still fast asleep, but had moved to a ledge where he was in full view. And he did eventually open his eyes and sleepily look around!

I would thoroughly recommend a trip there. I went many many years ago, when animals just had small little cages. Now its great that so many areas are walk through, to be at such close encounters with the creatures.

We were exhausted after a full day of walking round, and it started to rain, so rather than face the rush hour, we opted to stop at a little Italian cafe in Camden for dinner

On the crafting front, I have been working on my latest flowers

Starting with a whole rainbow of circular centres

Before starting to add the petals

Each flower has a beginning, middle, and ends...

A whole bunch of flowers just waiting to be joined

And yes, I have finally figured how to do an all in one join. It took a lot of doing, undoing and redoing. And even after I figured out how to do it, I managed to make a mistake, and I'm back to the beginning. Now I have drawn myself a very simplistic graph, so hopefully I'll be all set.

Blocking Blooms...

On our day off last week, we were lucky with the weather, so after the chores were done we were back on our bikes. We cycled to Woking town centre, and stopped to look for our first Geocache around the WWF building. We made our way back, and found 3 more, but they were harder to find so we saved the others for another time, and cycled the rest of the route back...

I have continued working on my orange blooms this week

As I have so much blocking to do, and a towel really wasn't ideal, I sourced a set of foam mats, although technically play mats, they seem to be a popular, affordable option.

They have worked so well. The pins pop in so easily and stay in too!

The flowers are coming together. All the orange petals are made so i'm just adding the red edging and joining as I go and then blocking each flower

I'm thinking about writing out a pattern for this one, but as I haven't written a pattern for someone else to understand, I think I may need to do a bit of research first!

The weather has been quite erratic this week. From bright blue skies to deep, dark heavy rain clouds, but whichever we've had it's been very humid

Our flat is pretty hot, so when it gets too much, we have a lovely lake we can visit. just down the road

I never tire of this view, and a lap of the lake is a perfect stroll in the sun

We did have a sneak treat this time !!

Oranges and grannies...

So this week I have continued with my orange blooms

I joined two of the flowers together, but I really needed to block them, and what a difference it makes in doing so

I have no idea whether blocking will actually keep the petals open, or if they'll go back to being curly? I guess I will find out as I continue to work and join

After blocking the two finished flowers ( I really need to invest in some of those kiddies foam play mats to block on, a towel is very hard going to get the pins to go and stay in!)

I'm now whizzing through making more blooms, I've got a nice little pile ready for the red edging

This week I had a massive tidy of my craft corner. Hubby is very patient, but he doesn't like it to spread to widely! I have a big basket, and a small trunk, one which held yarn, the other my wip's and then lots of loose annoying bits. So the yarn has been relegated to the garage, and embarrassingly my unfinished projects have been moved to the large basket, and all the little tools, buttons, ribbons and odds and ends have fitted into the trunk. It is a job well done, and I found projects I'd forgotten about too (hangs head in shame!) but all I need to do now is stay organised, and maybe actually finish a few!

As usual a few more more mood blooms have been added to the ever increasing blanket

Yesterday was National Granny square day, so as last year, the crochet community from across the globe posted a close up picture of their square and uploaded it on instagram. The idea is then to take screenshot of everyones' squares to make a virtual blanket. With a heavy weekend workload, I had to cheat and take a cropped photo of a square from last years mood blanket. It's been amazing to scroll through everyones pictures, to see the variety and colours