Cycling and Mandala Madness...

So I made it through the busy Easter time at work, and the actual day at home was a nice lazy one!!

I haven't made too much progress with my basket, it has grown in stature a little, wibbly wobbly though it is, I'm still loving it!

The reason for not completing this project, is I got distracted by something else!!

Now I very rarely follow a pattern, but now and again something jumps out at me, and I think it's good to test yourself, and it helps to learn and grow.

What I had seen was a picture of the Mandala Madness Cal (crochet along)

It looked to have plenty of interest to keep my attention, and plenty of different techniques to try. So I chose a colour palette of purple and green and gave it a try.

I found a video tutorial by It's all in a nutshell on her blog. I'm not sure I would have managed without the visual help, but I have thoroughly enjoyed each round and I've learnt so much

The BIG lesson to learn, is pay attention to what you're getting into, and read the small print, because this I thought was the finished piece, worked over two weeks.

I now find that actually this is an 18 week project!!!

This is already 12" wide, so the end result must be enormous!

So my dilemma is do I stop now or continue??

On one hand, ive found this fun, ive enjoyed seeing how all the rounds link together, I'm curious as to how this will end up looking (its a mystery cal, hence no pictures of the end result) and I'm sure I will continue to learn. But, I don't have much crochet time so this will be all I get to work on, I cant paln what other colours to use without knowing what it looks like, what will I do with it when its complete, I like the way it looks right now, and I wont get the chance to play around with the ideas I have with what ive learnt so far!!

Any opinions welcome...

Last week we were able to get out on our bikes for the first time since moving to the coast.

No nasty hills to contend with just lovely flat ground with fantastic views. We had to do the obligatory café stop

We went as far as Ferring, before doing an about turn. On the return instead of a straight ride, we searched for Geo's on the coastal route. It was our best haul yet, finding 15!

It was quite a busy route to be searching, and they were tucked away in various places from benches and signposts to trees and walls, and under beach huts...

(can you spot the floating teddy bear!?)

We have a week off this week so hopefully more chance to explore and make

until next week...

Basket progress...

Short and sweet this week, as work is at it's peak season, so it's all pretty hectic. I just wanted to show you an update of my crochet basket, which currently I would say is at 'Bowl' stage, but I'm loving it so far!!

I think I got the increases a little wrong, but it doesn't show too much as I've continued, and with each row I'm learning!

We did manage a little seaside walk this week, but it did get cut short after an emergency trip to Specsavers to fix one of the lenses in my glasses.

We did the 2 mile walk to Lancing, as we were invited to a family dinner, but only had the opportunity to find one Geo en route...

Until next week, fingers crossed for some more sunny days...

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...

A new start by the sea...

Well hello,

It's been a whole month since my last post, and despite no crafting having taken place, there have been a lot of big changes!

We've moved. House, job and county!

With both our jobs we were able to transfer. We've moved into a spacious flat, which we can just about see the sea from the front windows.

We have been surrounded by boxes for awhile and probably will for a long time yet.

The move went pretty smoothly, thanks to family and friends.

We left town behind, there was nothing keeping us there as we only moved with my job, but leaving behind people who we'd grown close to was the hardest part, but our dream of being by the sea has become a reality.

I went straight into work, so its been a bit of a whirlwind!

With so much to do, we are making sure we are taking the time out to appreciate where we are.

In the space of just two weeks we have seen an extreme of weathers. Strong gale winds, blue skies and beautiful sunsets, all have been exciting and exhilarating in their own way...

We are looking forward to more adventures by the sea, to get out on our bikes when the weather improves and to start geocaching.

I've got the massive task ahead of unpacking and sorting my crafting items which i've amassed over many years, wish me luck with that!!!