SPRING CLEANING

Last weekend I had a visit from Crafty Magazine, which wanted to take some picture of were i live. The house has never been this tidy. I'm not going to lie - it was an effort to make everything look nice and neat. 2 min after they had left everything was back to normal with things everywhere. Oh well at least it looked nice for a brief moment. 

This is the start of one of the doilies, for my friend's wedding, based on this design. I don't know if I'm happy with the result yet. This weekend I'm going to Sweden so maybe I can find some cool inspiration from there.

SPRING TOILET MAT

I have worked on this project in stages. Rather than having a plan from the start I have just let it develop. If I'm honest I had no idea what it was going to become when I started but I'm pleased with the result. Goes to show that plans are not always important.  

LOOKING FOR SOME INSPIRATION

One of my friends is getting married in May and she has ordered 5 vintage-style doilies for the day from me. I must confess that I don't have much experience of crocheting doilies, so I thought I would get some inspiration from my countless vintage patterns. Looking at the different patterns I have realised that I have been quite gender-biased in my selection. Lots of cool patterns for guys but not that many doilies. I will have to browse some online resources for some inspiration instead.

I have been obsessed with hats lately. The photo above made me laugh. Either the man to the left is about to floor the man with the crazy-looking balaclava or he is about to kiss him. It could go either way. Life seemed more dramatic in the days before google maps.

TECHNO TRIVET

Coffee is wonderful! So I had to crochet a cool trivet to go with my hipster Coffee Drip Decanter from Hario. 

I'm not a fan of multicolored wool but I think this skein was awesome. My experience of working with multicolored wool have thought me that simplicity is the key. Don't make any fancy patterns as the details will be lost and outshone by all the colors. In this case less is definitely more and that is the reason why I have only used trebles for this trivet. 

To make an easy crochet trivet for yourself just crochet two circles, roughly the same size, and crochet them together with Double Crochet (UK) / Single Crochet (US). This way it will be thick enough for there to be no condensation under the coffee/tea-pot. 

UPKEEP

The work seems to be piling up. I'm working on a new book project that takes all my creative energy. I will share it with you in the future.

On the crafting side I'm helping out a fellow craft book writer - Karin Holmberg - for her next book, in which the project above is going to be featured. For all of you who haven't guessed what it is yet - it's a child-friendly Xmas bauble. Merry Christmas!

THE DAYS OF THE DANDY

It has been a while since I went out treasure hunting, but this week I was able to find a real treasure - a vintage tie - all the way from California. 

The lovely bookmarks are from the back room of an old paper shop in Sweden and are from the 1940s.  The beautiful book (Yoga Erotica) that I'm reading which is more yoga than erotica was given to me by my book-agent. If you know some Swedish and want to find out more then drop by the authors' own website.   

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

Where has the time gone?  I seem to be  running low of it lately - to much work.  

Stuff that has been occurring:  

• Snow has gone and there is daffodils everywhere.  
• Found a cool Swedish shirt in a charity shop here in Oxford!  
• Finished another hat in some awesome Norwegian wool.

Norway is also the place where my book is being launched next. At the end of February all people of the Norwegian persuasion can go into a bookshop and find my book on the shelf. Exciting.      

WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS

Basically I'm still just a big kid. I bought this circus for one my nieces this Christmas and I'm still a bit  jealous. It is just such a cool toy-box. The french people over at Janod knows what they are doing - getting the grown-ups hooked first. 

COLD MOUNTAIN

Strange things are happening. Daffodils are popping up in the snow - yes Oxford has snow. I don't know why everyone is so surprised  - we have had it for the last three years. I'm keeping indoors with a nice cup of tea and a new hat projects. I don't know about you but I have become hat crazy. Who knows maybe this is a start of a new book!  

WORK IT LADS!

I need to get cracking on becoming better at knitting. All the cool cardigans that I see for men are always knitted...never crocheted.