Minion hats

Izzy with her hat :)

 

Gabe as a minion

Rudolf

Another ornament for Mum and Dad's tree. Ravelry project is here.

Owl napkins

More embroidery stuff, this time I decorated some plain napkins with owls, using this design :) for +Kalyn Wilson  

Baby Kraken

For some reason I decided Dave needed a baby kraken for his birthday :)

Delicate green scarf

I had some green mohair thread that I thought  Bridget would like so I made a floaty scarf from it.

Cat scarf

I rediscovered my embroidery machine and made Uncle +David Moat a birthday scarf.

First I did a practice on a scrap of material: 

Then I cut out some brown linen and embroidered 3 cats on: 

I discovered that using a bobbin thread that matches the fabric works quite well as you don't notice if the tension isn't quite right and pulls up the back thread.

I used the following threads: 

Anchor Alcazar Viscose Rayon 200m 40

• 1008 - dark brown
• 1015 - royal blue
• 429 - beige
• 665 - navy blue
• 622 - light blue
• 422 - tan

After that I sewed on the back of the scarf. 

In retrospect I think smaller cats that could have fitted horizontally would have worked better. So I'll try that next time.

Baby booties

I made some baby booties for my friend's babies, (it seems like all my friends are having babies at the moment). I made these out of left over yarn I had sitting around. They turned out well and are hopefully keeping Lucy and Sophie's feet warm :).

Birthday 10k

As is becoming traditional, I did the chilly 10k near my birthday +George Kirke and +Shaney Orrowe came along too and, of course, beat me.

Brandy, Redcurrant shrub

 Tasty redcurrant shrub that I made as gifts for people. 

Cider Apple Jelly

As requested by +Rachael Moat I've made some cider apple jelly, for the first time in a while. It made the house smell of cider and apples :) lovely. The apples are from +Alison Woogara and +Jay Woogara 's tree. I'm not really sure if I really need my own, considering the amount of apples theirs produces.

Cumberland Sauce

I made some Cumberland sauce today:

Redcurrant Jelly

• 200g redcurrant jelly
• 50ml port
• 1tsp cayenne pepper
• 1tsp ground ginger
• zest of 1 lemon
• zest of 1 orange

Hopefully they'll make good xmas prezzies

Cumberland Sauce

Fish tank

Finished fish tank

I crocheted a fish tank for Sally's birthday.

Goldfish

Crayfish

Fish tank weed

Cake

 So it was Kalyn and Greg's 10th wedding anniversary and  they didn't get a wedding cake so, inspired by The Great British Bake Off I attempted a tiered cake. It worked ok. :)

Multi Colored Hat For Me

I lost my beloved purple bobble hat somewhere in London so I finally got round to making a replacement. Originally I made the tassels as suggested but eventually I decided that I wanted chunkier, longer ones so I remade them.

Dr who scarf

My friend, Greg, really likes Dr Who, so when I found this pattern, I couldn't resist. I only made a third of it, and it was already much longer than a normal scarf. I did offer to make the rest, but he said that wasn't necessary. :)

Max, overseeing the crochet, as usual.

Happy birthday :)

Tockington Triathlon

Tockington Manor triathlon was my last tri of the year

Midsomer triathlon

7am bike racked ready for transition

Yet another Sunday morning found me in Midsomer wondering whether I'd brought enough warm clothes for the bike ride.

The swim was indoors, so that was nice and warm. It's a rather hilly cycle ride and it started to rain near the end, for some reason I stopped being able to feel my left foot and my hands started to go numb, I think it might be time to switch to full fingered gloves.

The run was uphill too! (well, half of it was) I slowed down a lot and didn't make it under 2 hours. It was fun tho'.

Turkish trousers

Mina, helping with the pleating

I attempted to make some Turkish trousers for +Kalyn Wilson using this pattern. The pattern required a certain amount of interpretation, and I annoyingly made a couple of mistakes, but I think it's at least wearable and I got a lot of practice in making pleats! I'll add some pictures of her wearing it at the 1318 LARP this weekend.

I've added a project in my sewing circle.

Yay, finished trousers.

Wood workshop

My first attempts at a dove joint. 

Swim Britain

I went to a Swim Britain event held in Blenheim Palace with Sally, Kate and Lizzie. It wasn't a huge distance to swim (4 x 250m in a rather murky lake) but it was fun and rather social. 

Westonbirt Challenge Tri

I entered the Westonbirt Challenge Triathlon, it was my longest ever tri and it was great fun :). It consisted of a 500m swim, 30k cycle and 8k run. I started feeling tired at about the 25k cycle point and was glad to reach the end of the ride. I wasn't looking forward to the run, I never do. But it was really good, I think the endorphines had kicked in at this point and I started having a really good time. It helped that the croute was a there and back so I got to grin madly at everyone who was going the other way. I came last, out of everyone but I finished and had fun :)

Granny square blanket

Caroline's having a baby soon, so I've started making a blanket.

I'm using a motif from a book and varying the colours.

My progress so far 6/8/13 :

15/08/13

I've added another Motif to add interest, and another colour.

20/01/14
I've had to rename this post as I've now adopted this blanket as my own. I've started joining up the squares.

Women's 10k

Cthulhu rug

I've started making a rug. It will be a space invaders design but with Cthulhus rather than aliens :)

Here's the design I'm using:

Here's my progress so far:

Update: 2nd Aug

Bath Endurance Weekend

I've just completed an exhausting weekend of exercise. The swim was 750m of cold water, I was supposed to do 1.5k but I became worried that I wouldn't complete so I got out early. The cycle ride was scenic, leafy and very hilly. 40k of that left me sore. The run was, as always, gruelling but mercifully flat.
I'm glad I did this and that I didn't realise beforehand how good everyone else was going to be because I would have been a little intimidated. Everyone was very friendly tho' and I hope I get to do it next year too.