Back on it

I've been making an effort to set aside some crochet time of late. Remember the weather blanket? I've been playing catch-up with that.

I'm currently up to mid-September and have just hit a big long stretch of bright blue. 

It's good remembering late summer warmth on these chilly days when the temperature is hovering around zero. Looking back through my diary, I'm reminded how great September was: Erik arrived and there were warm, sunny hacks with Bailey (when I was still just his sharer).

We may have started the week with snow, but I did manage to squeeze in a bright sunny hack today on the Ginger Beast. Funny how all you need is one bright day to feel like Spring is just around the corner. That said, Hector's not taking any chances...

The mercury will need to rise a bit further before we can prise him out from under the duvet! I expect he'll appreciate another blanket being added to the collection...

Under the Paw!

It's all got a bit cat-flavoured here at The Hookery of late.  More so than usual, anyway. I sat down the other day to make a few bits of stock for the shop and rather than making more existing lines, I ended up with some new ones instead.

This little guy is one of many (a litter?) of cat keyrings that flew off my hook over the weekend. He and his buddies are sitting patiently in the shop, waiting for a new home.

In other cat/crochet news, the Skelly Fish were featured on coolforcatsuk, which has prompted a number of them to swim off to new homes too.  Hector has looked on with some disappointment as I parcel them up. I think he thought they were all for him. He's extra-protective of his own fish now!

Mine!

Meanwhile, in a corner of the living room, Felix has been quietly napping, oblivious to Hector's worrying and my frantic parcelling...

Ahhh... Everybody loves a granny blanket.

Especially me.

Hard to evict a sleeping cat though, isn't it?

I'll wait until she wakes up. Won't be long, right...?

Skelly Fish!

I have a small stock of projects in the back of my mind, ideas I'm saving for a rainy day. Quite often, the reason they're in the back of my mind and not in my hands being made is because they're still not quite perfect. I like to give them a mental prod from time to time, but usually they stay in my mind.  This weekend, one of these projects - a catnip fish - escaped and made it into the make-y pile.

This project has been swimming about in the recesses of my mind for a while now. The problem - too many fiddle-y bits. Many bits mean many joins and many joins make a project impractical to stock and sell. It's a delicate balance between cost and price, and time is what swings things one way or the other. Lots of fiddle-y sewing (and therefore sewing-in) takes time and so I either sell at a loss by under-pricing my time, or I don't sell at all because they're too expensive.

My problem with this project was the spine. All those joins. I spent ages turning it over and considering how to make it. Finally, I hit on the idea of tying it together with knots. There are still lots of bits to Skelly Fish, but the assembly is quicker which makes it a feasible product to stock. As you can see in the top picture, the tail is a flat piece of crochet. I decided I didn't like that, so Skelly Fish II had a more robust tail.

Better. But the knots... I dunno... hmm...

Then I doubled-up the yarn on the spine so that one knot would be big enough to separate each rib.

Behold, Skelly Fish III!

The head is stuffed with a catnip insert (more time - I've sewn the catnip into a muslin pouch to try minimise fallout), the tail is perfect to sink claws and teeth into and the ribs are equally nice to chomp. The knotted construction means that Skelly Fish is a little bit flappy, as you might expect from a dead fish.

Cat #2 obligingly put Prototype Skelly Fish through its paces, checking for catnippiness, bitey-tuggy-fun and claw-resistance...

 ...And then gave it the seal of approval

And so, Skelly Fish is now in production and will be available in a range of colours. Look out for them if you're coming to Yarndale, but if you'd like to get your paws on one sooner, stay tuned. There may be a giveaway in the offing...

Working with cats

Today, this arrived...

This is a bag containing half a pound of catnip.  Good catnip, it would seem.  Knowing that cat #2 is a bit of a 'nip head, I decided to put it out of reach before he had chance to see/sniff/drool on it.

No chance.

I walked into the sewing room a moment ago to see this...

He knows.  He knows there is catnip in here. He has a suspicion that it's on the top shelf...

And he's right.  He also knows that sending jars of things scattering off high shelves makes Ooman cross, so for now he's trying a different tactic.  He's got his game face on...

And he's just going to wait it out.

As soon as I start work on new cat toys for sale, he'll be there. Ready. Waiting...

Settling in

People have been asking how the cats are getting on in the new house.  They're fine. In fact, they settled in faster than we did.  Cat #1 can usually be found warming her old bones on the rocking chair in the conservatory.

Meanwhile, Cat #2 likes to keep an eye on things in the garden.

Occasionally they busy themselves chinning boxes and furniture (and us) to make sure they know what's what.  Oh, and they're moulting.  This sudden blast of summer has meant that they're shedding handfuls.  It's like they're trying to make up for not shedding much during last year's washout summer.  Honestly, I could stuff a mattress...

Yellow

They're absolutely irresistible, aren't they? Those bright, colourful bunches of daffodils that are in all the shops at the moment. I don't think I've had a trip into town lately and not come home with a bunch. In the living room, there's a rather elegant bunch with long stems and leaves

They provide a nice splash of colour against such grey skies.

In the kitchen, there's a more rowdy bunch, which positively glow in the afternoon light.

An inevitably, there's the bunch that I buy but have nothing to put them in. Thankfully, I never throw away a jam jar...

But a jam jar is a poor second to the nice vase that the others are sitting in, so...

With a little help from cat #2...

Ta-daaaa!

Much better!

Monday

Not everyone here at The Hookery can cope with the idea of Monday...

Maybe Tuesday will be easier to face?

Keeping watch

Cat #2 is an accomplished hunter. I try not to let him out at dawn or dusk to give the local wild bird population a fighting chance. With all the snow, however, there has been a pretty constant stream of birds at the bird feeders in the hedge outside.

Hector has very firm views about getting his paws wet, so the birds are safe. He seems content to sit in the window watching them coming and going. It's as good as telly for him!

Merry Christmas!

For every photo you take of me in this, I get 20 minutes uninterrupted one-on-one time with the tree, right?

I hope Santa brings everything you ask him for and you all have a wonderful time.

The Ripple

I thought I'd share my progress on the ripple blanket. It seems to be going quite slowly, but I am quite pleased with how it's shaping up.

I want it to be bed-sized, so I've got a way to go yet.

I can't help thinking it looks quite good on the back of the sofa though...

It's going slowly because cat #2 has taken quite a shine to it and it's difficult to manage half a blanket, various balls of yarn and a (not very small) cat who's determined to sit on said blanket while I work.

Ooman! Why you no finish my blanky yet?

And I haven't forgotten that I promised to post the pattern for the bunting curtain ties. I will, soon, honest...

The two-year cushion

It doesn't usually take me so long to finish a cushion cover.  Honest.  No really, I can prove it.  It's just that this cushion is made from all the scraps of yarn that are leftover from making cloths and scrubbies for Scrubbitty.  I have a little bag in which I collect yarn ends that are too short to use for anything, and one day I will use them to stuff something, I'm sure.  I also keep those bits that are leftover at the end of the ball.  The bits that are too long to go in the scrap bag and too short to make a Whole Thing out of.  So one day, not long after I started Scrubbitty, I decided to make a Whole Thing out of lots and lots of bits.

Here it is in my rocking chair (yes, I have a rocking chair).  And from the back...

I didn't plan any of the colours, it was just what I picked out of the box first.  Towards the end, I did have to try 'save' some of the stronger colours as I seemed to be left with a lot of pastels, but otherwise it was totally serendipitous.

Truth be told, I can't quite believe it's finished.  It's just always been there, you know? I also can't believe I haven't mentioned it before.  But then, I am awash with half-finished crochet projects. This one has been quite a nice one to have lurking in the background but if you're planning on making your own, be prepared for an epic amount of sewing in. Oh, and although it may look like it's fastened with buttons...

...it's not! *laughs like Muttley*  I wasn't totally happy with the way buttons came out on the last cushion, and I couldn't face working out where to place the buttonholes and where my scraps of yarn might overlap.  So I didn't bother.

Really Ooman?  Another crochet cushion...?

I think it fits in quite well here at The Hookery.

Shed Sphinx

The return of the sunshine means Hector can stop snoozing all day on the end of my bed and recommence his surveillance of the neighbouring gardens.  This is where he sits, sphinx-like, keeping tabs on everyone's comings and goings...

Looking wise and knowing...

 

Ever hopeful that the camera might be edible...

What gives? Ooman usually shoves eat-y things at my face...

Settling in

I said in my last post that the cats had coped very well with the move.  They are however, like me, still settling in.  While I'm still finding the best arrangement of things in my teeny-weeny kitchen and wondering whether I might invest in a small table and chairs for the yard, they are finding the best hidey holes, the best places to sprawl (currently at the top of the stairs), the best viewing points (also on the stairs) and the best sunbathing spots.  Happily, once the sun moves round to the back of the cottage, there are a few nice sun spots to sunbathe in.  They found and tried most of them this weekend.

There's a nice toasty  spot on the stairs.

I left both cat beds stacked by the back door (which is all glass).  Felix was quick to monopolise. Then we moved outside.

sprawl

Felix likes her creature comforts
 

slurp!

Hector is more rustic in his sunbathing preferences.  I think he likes being almost camoflaged against the concrete.

And I got on with a bit of crochet.  I started it one evening.  I didn't intend to make a granny square, it just sort of happened when I saw the colours next to each other in one of the yarn baskets.  I played around for a bit trying to get the ideal circle in a square, then remembered that Sucrette has a pattern on her blog.  Perfect!

Before I knew it, I had 18 squares and a use for one of the two cushion pads I keep moving from place to place. 

I spent a happy hour or so outside joining them all.  I just need to put a border round the each set of nine squares, crochet them together and add buttons.  I'll (hopefully) be back soon with pics of the finished article.