Lovely day

I had a great day today. I got a visit from my friend Vicky http://web.mac.com/vhjeffery/Site/Welcome.html and we had a chat and a discussion on crochet hats - technique and stitches to use etc. Vicky in embarking on one with some lovely yarn (chenille I think) in my favourite colourways. I am sure it will appear on her blog any day soon.

I got a lovely gift from Vicky of some Rowan Kid classic in my favourite colour of purple. The packaging was a work of art as you can see in the photo also the card. I love anything handmade as it shows that a great deal of time, thought, effort and love has gone into the packaging as well as the gift. My skills with paper, glue or sellotape are legendary in my family. I would never make a presenter on Blue Peter that is for sure. I can manage to turn anything into a tattily wrapped mangle in no time at all! Glue welds itself to my fingers and that in turn welds my fingers to the parcel. Sellotape has a life of it's own even with a dispenser. I have yet to place one piece of it on anything without a copy of my fingerprint and a fold in it. My family were amazed one Christmas at my parcelling skills. I had curls of ribbon etc and everything was wonderful. I had to confess that a friend of mine who is skilled in the art had visited me just before Christmas and taken pity on my Klutziness and done them all for me! Why did she have to marry and move away?

The scarf to match the Kilim cap is finished and fringed. It really was a labour of love as darning in ends of yarn in is not my favourite task and as the colour changed with every row you can imagine how many tails I had to stitch. Luckily for me my niece isn't a perfectionist so won't mind if she has little ends of wool working their way out of the scarf as she wears it. Adds to it's homemade charm?

I have started the openwork crochet cardigan for my other niece Kath. The pattern stitch is quite straightforward but the garment has lots of shaping for the waist and wrap over fronts so the pattern was labelled as for the experienced so I hope there won't be too much cursing tonight.

I have crocheted half of the mohair scarf for my sister in law so hopefully that will get finished off tonight.