classic cars and scrappy baskets

So for this weeks walk we took a detour. There was an annual classic car show at a local park, opposite the beach. As we're still new and acting like tourists we thought we'd have a mooch around. Cars really aren't my thing, but even so I could appreciate the beautiful styles that were on display.

The fun part was when they started to leave the arena onto the main road. The were revving, doing burnouts, wheel spinning, and honking their horns. It was a great atmosphere.

My focus this week has been on a large scrap yarn basket

Its the largest one I've made so far, with lots of colour changes

I work with a big bag full of yarns at my feet, and have a lucky dip to choose the next colour to add, although it can be slightly edited, as I wouldn't want two colours or tones the same, I want them all nicely spread out. So sometimes its orchestrated randomness!! 

I do like the double colours blending together

And look, we have handles !!

I'm close to finishing. There's just a few more ends to be sewn in, as you can see. That's the only downfall to making a very colourful piece, so many ends!!

We go away on holiday next weekend, across to the Cornish coast. I will be taking my Mandala with me. Although its a bit of a beast, it is plausible to be portable. This will give me the opportunity to focus on this piece again, and rectify my mistake and get back in the flow...

Brighton and Baskets

So this weeks beach walk took place further down the coast in Brighton. We got off the bus at the Hove borderline and headed down to the waters edge.

We had a great, relaxing hour walking along beach combing. We had a massive haul, finding so many pieces.

We took a break for refreshment at a seaside café and had a delicious homemade macaroni cheese

We continued along the seafront but couldn't continue treasure hunting as the tide had come in

We looked into various shops and galleries along the front, until we reached the pier, and had our usual fun on our favourite games

We stopped off for a quick drink before heading to the Theatre Royal, where hubby had booked us a treat to go and see Footloose, which is one of my favourite films

It was a great production, and we both thoroughly enjoyed our day and evening out.

After making my mandala mistake last week, I'll admit I haven't yet picked it up again.

I have however, completed my scrap yarn piece

As it had turned into a bowl, I decided to finish it off with a picot edging

I have also started a new scrap yarn basket

I started with the plain circular base

And made a start on building up the sides, using up the small balls of scrap yarns, and working two colours together at a time 

I'll admit that I haven't quite finished sewing in the ends of the yarn basket/bowl. Although, with the mad mix of colours it means that you are able work over some of the ends.

By the time I have finished this basket I do hope to have finished the ends of all the scrap collection to be able to show them off together!

Scrap yarn basket...

On this weeks beach walk, despite thinking it was perfect treasure conditions, strong wind and waves and the tide far out, there wasn't much to be found.

Of course we still enjoyed our walk in spite of this

We walked as far as the pier

And decided to stop at the lovely café at the end of the pier for tea cake

And went on to the amusements to play the 2p machines

Craft wise I have been continuing round the mandala. Its extending out again, but thankfully not too complicated

I have also managed to finish my scrap yarn basket

Ive just got a few more ends to tidy up!

I love how its turned out and the fact that however many you made none of them would look the same! I intend to make another, but with some variation...

Seaside walks and washing lines...

We had another great Geocaching session along the seafront. It gets us out and about, and fun to do and in a great setting too!

We invited my Mum to visit our new place, on Mothers day. She enjoyed having a look around, and we had a lovely seafront stroll.

We cooked dinner, and gave her a present, but she arrived with homebaked goodies for us! A malteser cake and marmite cheese straws, yummy!

Last time I showed you my neon crochet squares, these were supposed to help get my creative flow going again, but they failed to do so. I thought by making simple squares, the ideas and passion would come back, but I ended up disliking them, so put me off doing any at all.

I had in my stash some washing line, that I found at poundland. I had bought this with the intention of having a go at making a basket. Now, I was itching to give it a go

 

No plans, no pattern, just having a play and see what happens

It's working up quite quickly, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

I know there's not much colour going on here, but don't worry this will change, as this is just the base. As i'm making this up as I go, I thought I would make it for my own use, ideally to keep whatever my latest project is. So I thought I would choose colours suitable to match our living room.

I have a rug that i'd bought in Morocco many years ago and I thought I would use this as colour inspiration

So I've chosen an oatmeal colour and various tones of red, and the black of the washing line will be seen through.

I'm looking forward to continuing with this project, and fingers crossed it will end up resembling a basket in the end!

Today was a beautiful sunny day, so of course we ventured outside to enjoy the coastal views.

We also went to find some local Geocaches. This took us inland a little, around the local streets and park, following clues and various coordinates to get to the end result.

It enabled us to have a look around the area, and spot other things

These two had a great vantage point

And we stayed out till we saw the sun go down

It was so lovely to see the sun out and to feel a touch of Spring in the air

sea walks and puffs...

We've been in our new home, and we're starting to get settled and get into a routine. Thankfully as we have a spare room, it means we don't have to sit and look at all the boxes yet to be unpacked and sorted! We got our new washing machine delivered and installed, so no more trips to the launderette!
The weather hasn't been amazing, but on Thursday we were able to venture out along the seafront. We will never tire of watching and listening to the waves

And we enjoyed watching 2 little birdies at the waters edge, trying to avoid the crashing waves

We also got our first glimpse of birds flying in formation

We had gone out without breakfast, so when we came across a garage, we decided a pit-stop was required!

On the return walk we stopped to look for Geocaches, and although it was next to a busy main road, it's amazing how discreet you can be!

I've tried to get back into crochet, and decided to just do a simple project to get the creativity flowing again. It turned out not to be quite so simple, as I intended to do puff stitch petals, except I got confused with the cluster stitch. I made a start and realised the petals were looking quite flat, so had to look up the correct technique.

All is not lost though, as I think a combination of both squares will look pretty good. I've had these bright, sparkly yarns in my stash for a couple of years, but now that I have a lovely, large cupboard for all my yarns to be stored, rather than boxed up in the garage, I have access to them all.

Now I've got my stitches organised, I should be able to get the squares made up quite quickly

Until next time...