Of yoga bags & dreamcatchers

Before I begin, I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you for all your kind words on my last post. It means a lot to know there are so many of you out there who care about us. It's only been a week but it feels much longer than that. Both of us are fine and, for the most part, it's business as usual. The only real change is getting Chickpea into the routine of taking medication. She has to work her way up to the full dose so I've written the schedule on a calendar so she knows what to take when. Which has made me feel useful and has satisfied my practical problem-solving side.

Anyway, as I said, it's pretty much business as usual and that's how I want it to be, at least on my blog so...

I still have a couple of things from the summer to show you but, for a change, I thought I'd show you some crafting. Over the summer I managed to finish off a couple of projects and made progress on a couple of others. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that it was back in March that I started my yoga mat bag! It didn't take long to complete the bag part but I lost momentum when it came to the strap.

In the end I just had to put my mind to it and, luckily, managed to complete it before the class restarted last week. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and it attracted a few admiring glances - that and lots of teasing :) The atmosphere at the class has been lovely since we restarted. Doing the walks over the summer really helped us get to know each other better and brought us much closer. So much so that, if we can get our act together, we plan to hire a cottage for a walking weekend. If we don't, we'll definitely be doing our walks again next summer.

The other thing I completed was a dreamcatcher. Like the bag, it was a pattern in Simply Crochet magazine (issue 5). Although the web is made up of different colours, it's actually the same yarn, Katia Candy, shade 656. As I only needed small amounts, I unwound the ball until I reached a colour change and made several little balls. The ring is an embroidery hoop.

I bought the crystal a while back, not because I liked the crystal but because I wanted the silver chain it was on for another pendant. I knew it would come in handy for something! The ribbons with the silver balls and pink crystals were from Lidl and came in lots of different colours. The other ribbons were cut off clothes - they're the ribbons you find in shoulders to stop clothes falling off hangers in shops. Yes, I save everything!

I've also finished knitting all the pieces of my cardigan (photo of the pattern here). Unfortunately, I've hit a problem in that the needles I need to complete the edging already have something else on them! I need to ask Mum if she has a set so I can finish it. My light summer cardigan will just be ready in time for winter...

Last but not least, I've put a border on my wonky star quilt. The star was a sample made in a workshop, using a technique I will never ever use again as it came out completely wonky and sticks up in the middle. I'd tried to salvage it by adding the applique in the corners but it was then abandoned and stuffed in a drawer. However, I wanted something to practice free motion machine quilting on and this seemed to fit the bill. It was meant to be a quick finish so that I could move onto doing the quilting: I can't tell you how many times I had to unpick and resew that border! I've layered it all up with the wadding now but haven't started the quilting yet - if it turns out ok I'll show you the finished result. If you never see it again, you'll know why!

I have also almost finished the little birds quilt which was my blogiversary giveaway. Louise, it will be with you shortly!

To finish, not something I've made but which I've grown - the bargain 50p chilli plant! I don't think I really believed it would actually produce chillis but here they are. We haven't been brave enough to try any yet - they're habaneros so are going to be very hot!

Hope you had a lovely weekend. We had a day out yesterday which I'll tell you about later. For now though, here's a taster of what we saw. xx