Hat Delivery Day

On Monday, we woke up early and packed up 5830 little tiny hats and went on an Adventure to the big city! 

 We were made to feel so welcome at Fruit Towers, and I was so pleased to be able to take my lovely mum along! We were shown the pen where all the hats will be kept, and had photos taken, and we were loaded down with lovely juice for the journey home. 

 (The hat pen - Before and after our hats were added...)

We also had a little mooch around London. It was just a lovely day.

My Week...

This week has passed by in a blur. I've been busy making my studio pretty, but also trying to balance that with the other things that need to be done, like preparing for the festive season - picking out supplies for upcoming makings, and starting work on stock. I've also been trying to keep the Big Knit makings under control, and spent an evening sewing pompoms onto pompomless hats that had arrived. My life as a full-time-crafter is one that I enjoy so much, but I must confess that the last week has left me feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

My Week

After the many and various shenanigans of the last two weeks, this week has been one for time at home. There has been the mass-pompom-production that comes with this particular time of year - I spent time sat in the garden with my family whilst making them, and binge-watching tv shows whilst making them, and dreaming about making them. We are edging ever closer to our target of five thousand tiny hats, we are just shy of three thousand at the moment with almost two months still to go, I am pretty proud of how we're doing, and hope it makes a difference to lots of people. 

The quiet-time at home has given me an opportunity to see all of the little creatures enjoying our garden, we've had beautiful butterflies and busy little bees. I hope they like the flowers we've chosen for them. Inspired by the summery florals, (and because the weather is disappointingly wintry) I have been making little tiny cross-stitch samples, using the lovely Cath Kidston "Stitch" book as my starting point. I made a tiny frame brooch that I'm sure I will thoroughly enjoy wearing. There are big changes happening in my little world at the moment, and the hope for the future has given me some inspiration to get making. I am trying to grab it with both hands. 

Knit-Along!

Yesterday was one of my favourite "work" days of the year - our Knit-Along for Innocent Smoothie's Big Knit campaign. This is our fifth year making teeny bobble hats to raise money for AgeUK and we always have a little day of knitting and cake and lovely company! Let me introduce the gang...

(Top left photo)

Gemma, who was knitting hats, and also brought along two massive cakes and £25 worth of yarn that her lovely boss at The Little Food Company donated to our day!

My mum, who is my right-hand helper, I really couldn't do it all without her! Mum makes millions of pom-poms for the hats that arrive without them, as well as knitting loads herself, helping me with the counting and bagging up of the hats, and encouraging all of the knitters she knows to help out. She really is ace. 


(Top middle photo)
Then there was Helen and Carys, as well as Mathew, a really lovely crafty family! Helen was crocheting, Carys was making pompoms and Mathew was doing a bit of both! They are legends!

(Top right photo)

Matilda came along to help with pompoms, and even brought along some chocolate coins that she had made - she knows us pretty well!

We also had help from my lovely friends Graeme and Sam and their little folks Abigail and Finlay, but unfortunately I was a bit hopeless and didn't get any photos of them! And my dear friend Lowri kept popping over from her shop with little crochet hats! 

It was a really lovely day, full of tea and cake and laughter, and we made lots and lots of hats and pompoms, as well as taking in more than 500 from people just popping in to drop them off. A conservative estimate of our progress so far is 2500 hats - half of our massive target of five thousand (since it's our fifth year I thought it made a nice target!) and I couldn't be happier!

My Week!

Another week has flown by, and what a lovely week it has been. It started just right with my trip to London, mooching around the British Museum, then on to the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery, all so very full of people enjoying lovely cultural excursions. I also enjoyed rather a lot of cake, scones at the British Museum and Cannoli from a sweet little cafe around the corner. A day out is not a day out without cake.  

The rest of the week has been spent working and knitting, and getting over some kind of lurgy that left me dizzy and confined to the sofa. I can't complain, I binge watched old episodes of The Simpsons and started a snazzy pair of Frankensocks, as well as finishing my first ever toe-up pair. I spent my Friday evening making pompoms for Innocent Smoothie Big Knit hats with my mum, and squeezing her little dog Jock. He's a happy little ball of fluff. 

My Week...

The past week has been one of time spent at home - Enjoying our garden, chatting to our hens and our little bunny Clarence, sitting out in the sunshine knitting. We have baked, and tended our little patch, and taken things slowly. 

I went for a little drive to visit my parents, where there was more time spent in the garden and knitting, going for long walks with their little companion - a small terrier called Jock. He's rather cute and very excitable. It has been a splendid week, and although it looks like a change in the weather is upon us, I have made the effort to enjoy the glorious sunshine. 

My Week...

As the autumnal air seems to be here to stay I am choosing to embrace it wholeheartedly and make the very best of it. This week has been chilly but mostly sunshiny, and full of opportunities for tea and craftiness. 

I had a nice little surprise on Sunday, in the chiller cabinet of a supermarket where I found my very own little face looking back at me from the side of an Innocent Smoothie carton. I have been organising knit-alongs and Big Knit hat collections for the last couple of years, and in May a very nice lady came to visit to take my picture, and now I am gracing the packaging - these ones were Blackcurrent, Strawberry and Blackberry, but I am told that I also smile out from other flavours too. It's exciting and a little bit strange it has to be said. 

Monday was a "work in a cafe" day, a pleasant little day of sewing and drinking lots of tea and enjoying a rather lovely lunch. Being self employed has several pretty splendid perks, and this is most definitely one of them. 

I discovered on Tuesday that not only is my Gypsophelia growing nicely, but my Delphiniums are flowering! They are a beautiful and rather regal purple, and I am, as always, amazed to find that I made something grow. Their lovely colours inspired a new project, I am a wee bit late to the party for this one, but I am embarking on a crochet "mood blanket", as seen in the deligtful photographs of many and varied instagramers. I am four squares/days into the project and rather enjoying it. As well as my delphiniums, my squares have been inspired by a grey and rainy day, the colours that I loved most this summer and the new autumn colours outside. I am stitching them together as I go along and hope that I will eventually have a cosy and autobiographical blanket. My other crafty time has been taken up making pompoms for little hats, and my assistant was of my all-time favourite little chaps - my parent's little dog Jock, who kept me company and tried to help by attempting to dispose of the scraps of yarn.

My Week...

It's been a funny week, busy with lots of boring everyday things like haircuts and various appointments, but these are some of the little highlights...

Sunday - hanging out at home with the cats, where Norman made the most of his access to my crocheted rug

Thursday - Blueberry and Coconut cake at one of my favourite tea shops 

Friday - the start of Groot, from the pattern by Twinkie Chan, after a day of hat knitting for Innocent Smoothie's Big Knit Campaign