Shopping, a second go at crochet and a little trip.

 A lot of my raw materials comes from charity shops. They're a good source of vintage bedding (there's bucket loads of fabric in a king size duvet cover!), crocheted mats, wool, etc, though you can't guarantee a good haul every time you go. My regular haunt in New Brighton hasn't had much in it (for me) the past couple of weeks but this week I found yarn. Lots of it. There's some in the picture below, plus there was at least of a dozen more that stayed with my Mum. I also bought a stack of cross-stitching magazines and a couple of pillow cases. Not bad eh?

                                                   

On Thursday, I went to Calico Laine's shop in Neston. I usually visit their Liscard shop, but their Neston one is a bit bigger and laid out differently, but I can't get there on public transport. This week we had access to a car so to Neston we went. Unfortunately, I was accompanied by my other half so I couldn't mooch around as much as I'd have done if I was on my own. I think I did manage to see everything though!

You can see what I bought in the picture below. One of the reasons I wanted to go there was to see things that aren't in the Liscard shop, but are on their website. When it comes to fabric you really do need to see what it looks and feels like.

                                                    

On Friday I was on a day trip to Edinburgh and on the journey there and back I had a go at my first granny square. Earlier this year I had my first try of crochet and made a flower, but I have been wanting to do a granny square for a while, as I'd like a granny square blanket. 

Once I had mastered the triple crochet, it was quite straight forward.I started the square a few times until I had the hang of it. You can see my finished square below. It's a bit wonky and I think I missed a treble on the second ring, but it is my first one. For my second square, I'm aiming to keep it as neat as possible, so I'll keep redoing it till I get it right.
 
                                                 

I didn't have long in Edinburgh, but I did take quite a few pictures, a couple of which are below. I'll share more of them in the week.

The Balmoral Hotel

Looking across the roof of Waverley station towards Edinburgh Castle

This building used to house The Scotsman newspaper, it's now a hotel.

On the making front this week, I've made a couple of Christmas decorations and done a bit more of my knitted sleeveless jerkin that I started in January 2011! I've had a commission for three of my decorated fish so I've also drawn the design for the embroidery for these. I've also drafted a design for a new sampler, even though I have another that's unfinished, along with the rest of the pile of TBCs (to be completed). My excuse is that I have to draft a design as soon as I get the idea, otherwise I'd forget!

Have a great week.

TTFN
Louise

P.S. Don't forget to pop over to Handmade Monday to see what other bloggers have been up to in the past week. There's also a list of other blog parties I share with in the right-hand side column.

P.S.S. Don't forget that you still have plenty of time to enter this month's Creative Connections challenge. The theme is 'wedding' and the closing date is 30th September. If you'd like to join in go over to the monthly challenge blog.