Sorry

Sorry Happy Hooky mates that I've not been here for such a long time but Christmas & New Year turned out to be very difficult in ways that I could not possibly have imagined and I was plunged into a devastating life change. Consequently all crafting and blogging has come to an abrupt stop.

I hope to be back before too long but must say bye for now. Tricia, an Unhappy Hooky.....

Christmas is in the air.......

Yep, Christmas really is in the air now! After a mild Autumn, the weather has turned chilly, with a few frosty mornings making it feel more like December. So, I have been prompted to get on with the Christmas preparations. Christmas cards are all written and waiting in tidy little piles to be posted or hand-delivered and pressies are bought or homemade. But the biggest and most enjoyable job this weekend was putting up the tree - and VOILA!

All it needs now are some gifts around the bottom...... So today's enjoyable task is to get wrapping!

So here I am with a table full of paper, ribbons and bows in a range of colours and textures and surrounded by gifts lovingly made or chosen and now to be lovingly wrapped. This is my FAVOURITE bit - next to watching people open their gifts that is! So the fire is glowing nicely, the tree is beautifully lit, the Christmas music is playing and I even have a little traditional glass of sherry! It is after noon and it is only a teensy little glass so that's ok!

I'll be back to finish this update in a few hours............

 As you can see, I like plain crepe or tissue paper in festive colours all tied up with festive ribbon.

And here they are under the tree........

.....  which finishes it off very nicely.

There are quite a few still to wrap because I do like to take my time doing this, but there is no rush now that there are a few under the tree. And some of my favourite decorations have been unwrapped, dusted off and scattered about the place too  - like these two characters which were a gift from a Canadian friend a couple of years ago and which she said represent me and P!

On the craft front, the last couple of evenings I have spent some time working on unfinished crochet projects but I've also felt like doing some knitting. And so I started a Rainbow Strip Hoodie to match the two blankets that I have recently finished. It's growing really fast! The back and one front were finished in just a few hours. As you can see I still haven't learned the lesson of working in the ends as I go along!

Well, darkness has fallen as I have been writing this update and it's time to make something warm and nourishing to eat! See you again soon, Tricia xx

Christmas is coming!

What a busy week this has been! Of course, it is THAT time of the year again. I'm glad to say that I have managed to avoid all of the shopping chaos, which I find increasingly unpleasant, by doing most of my Christmas shopping online, making perfect but unplanned purchases in small local shops as I go about, or making Christmas gifts myself. I find this a truly pleasurable and easy approach to Christmas gifts which suits me, rather than fighting with the hordes. Anyway, gift shopping is pretty much all done! So, since my man P is abroad for another week and I'm home alone, I have decided that this week is the beginning of the Christmas season proper in our house starting TODAY! As soon as I got up to this beautiful, crisp, frosty and gloriously sunny morning I just felt IN THE MOOD. So this weekend will be spent writing Christmas cards, wrapping gifts and putting up the tree and decorations! I must confess I NEVER do this so early but it just FEELS right, so I'm going with it - and when P gets home at the end of this week Christmas will have begun in our house! I must say I'm really quite excited!

Other people are obviously getting all Christmassy too this week and I have sent several of my hoodies and blankets off to be Christmas gifts for Littlies in the UK and USA, including my last remaining Rainbow Ripple Blanket - which means I may just have to get rippling again! I can't tell you how much I LOVE wrapping up something that I have made in lots of pretty, bright-coloured tissue paper and ribbon and posting it off to a new home somewhere in the world! I've just realised I should have taken pictures to show you! I'll do that next time! 

I always feel incredibly pleased and humble that someone likes my stuff enough to buy it as a gift for someone they care about - and a bit anxious too. Will it arrive safely? Will they love it, like I do? I SO hope they won't be disappointed! Even though I've been sending stuff all over the world for a couple of years now, to friends, family and paying customers, with nothing having gone astray and lots of lovely feedback I still can't wait to get the messages informing me that yes, it arrived safely and, so far anyway, that it is better than expected from the pictures and they do love it too! Sometimes I have even been sent photos of the Littlies wearing one of my hoodies which gives me a real THRILL.

As well as posting some things off to new homes I have been finishing some projects this week. Like many others I have been joining Lucy in her Crochet-A-Long at Attic 24. But whereas Lucy is making one beautiful big blanket I have made several small ones! I must say that I did get just a bit addicted to my rainbow stripes, in the same way that I was addicted to rainbow ripples previously! So much so that I have just completed my THIRD such blanket - two Rainbow Striped ones and another that I haven't got a name for yet!

I must say the Rainbow ones are my favourites - and the favourites with my customers too!

As you can see, this one still needs all those peskie ends working in because I didn't follow Lucy's excellent advice to do them as I went along!!

But this one is ready-to-go! And so is this one

 - but I have started knitting a hoodie to match this one so they can be a set or individual gifts.

And this one is finished apart from its little wooden buttons and crocheted loop fastenings.

This one reminds me of a beautiful sky - so I'm going to call it that! 

Sky.....

And it has a matching blanket which has a knitted Moss/Seed stitch centre, exactly like the hoodie, and a deep hooky border with rows of Double Crochet, Trebles and Puff Stitches.

I must confess that, despite finishing so many this week, I still have lots of projects on the go! At least 3 hoodies in various sizes and yarns, plus two or three blankets including this one,

And this one!

 And this one!!

I just can't help myself! Last night while watching TV I worked on THREE different projects in turn, knitting and hooking to my hearts content and changing when I felt like it. AND, shshsh... don' tell P, but I have more yarn on the way! I can't wait! I wonder if there is a 12 step programme for people who are addicted to YARN?!!! 

Well, Christmassy things are calling and it's already lunchtime so I'd better get cracking on with those cards!! Pressie wrapping and tree decorating will have to wait till tomorrow I think!
Catch you later Hooky Mates, Tricia xx

Hi, I'm back!!

Hello Happy Hooky Mates! I'm finally back from my travels and caught up enough with tasks to be able to get back to a bit of hooking and blogging! I really don't know where to start with this update, there is SO much to catch up on! Travels first I think and then a Hooky Catch-Up.

Our trip to South Africa is right up there with the best we have ever made! I have NEVER taken so many photographs! I have been through a few times discarding many but it is so hard to delete them, even though I have got so many! I hope you won't mind if I share just a few with you here. I think I will create a specific page for those of you who may be interested to see some more.

So let's begin - with ELEPHANTS! It took a little while to find them but when we did we ended up surrounded! And we were amazed at how close they came to our vehicle - and they are BIG!

 This male decided to come and check us out!

 Mother and baby!

SO cute!!

Then there were zebras!

And Ostriches! Lots and lots of ostriches, both wild and on specific Ostrich farms.

They really are very weird looking creatures! But the babies are super- cute!

Then there were the birds! Beautiful, colourful little Weaver birds

And Penguins!

All wonderful! BUT the absolute highlight of the entire trip and, indeed, the best experience of ANY trip I have been on, was seeing Southern Right Whales up-close-and-personal!! 

Just a glimpse at first...........

And then a bit more!

And before long we didn't know where to look as more and more females with calves were playing all around the boat.

 Rolling and flipping, fin and tail slapping.........

 And coming up to have a good look at us too!

They are so INCREDIBLE and so gentle and friendly. 

The boat we were on is not allowed to go closer that 50 metres and so it had stopped when they saw whales in the distance and the whales then came right up to the boat! Totally BRILLIANT!

Anyway, I don't want to bore you so, let's leave these amazing creatures behind and move on to hooking.......

I didn't take any hooking with me on this trip so I was suffering withdrawal symptoms by the time I got back!! So, I have been keenly hooking in the evenings when watching TV, finishing one project and starting and finishing a second!

The first one, which I mentioned in my last post, is a blanket with a moss stitch knitted centre panel to match a hoodie that I have knit. I'm really pleased with how the set has turned out - but disappointed with these pictures which do not do justice to the pale pastel colours. I'll have to try to take some better ones.....

This one captures the colours a bit better - but I've just noticed that shadow of me taking the picture! Doh!!

And this one shows the crochet border which is a combination of rows of Double Crochet followed by rows of Trebles, then more Double Crochet before finishing with 4 rows of Puff Stitches and a final row of Double Crochet.

And finally let me show you my Rainbow Striped Baby Blanket that I have just completed... VOILA!!

I SO LOVE working with these rainbow colours - as you can tell, because I keep on doing it! 

Once again very many thanks to Lucy at Attic 24 for her inspiration and for sharing her pattern. Like many other Happy Hookers (!!) I have been joining Lucy in her Crochet-Along using this particular pattern but with everyone getting creative with their own colour combinations. 

Because mine is a small blanket and others are doing full-size versions mine is already finished! 

I decided to complete my Rainbow with a pale sky-blue border of trebles. And I'm so very pleased with it that I have already started another!

Well, I really must go and do something else now Hooky Pals. I hope you have enjoyed catching up as much as I have - please let me know! And let's do this again, soon! 

Bye for now, Tricia xx

Celebrating Life.

I'm sorry I've been away for a while Hooky Pals - longer than I intended. I enjoyed a very pleasant week in Mallorca, with very warm sunshiney days and nothing to do but potter around.

Above is a view from the promenade at C'an Picafort where we stayed,  a very pleasant little town just down the coast from Alcudia.

 I just had to take this picture! So much work has gone into creating this sand dragon.

 These remaining pics are of Alcudia old town, I just love wandering down these little narrow streets.

Unfortunately, the day after I got back a very close friend and neighbour passed away, losing her short and traumatic battle with cancer. Gone far too soon........ She was a wonderful, feisty, vibrant woman who had always grabbed life with both hands and lived it to the full - something she tried to continue to do to the very end. And her premature and all-too-fast passing serves as another reminder to do the same and live life to the full, in whatever way means most to us.

And for me knitting and hooking is a BIG part of that, because I get so much pleasure from it. So. I have, of course, got several projects on the go. I will just give you a sneak peak of a couple.......

 This picture doesn't really do justice to the colours of this Hexie Hooky blanket - but then I always think that projects look so much better when you can get close up and personal with them!

 And this is my latest Hoodie Set: a little sunshine striped seed stitch hoodie and what will be a matching pram blanket with a knitted seed stitch centre panel and a yet-to-be-crafted hooky border of some sort. The hoodie just needs the sleeves to be sewn in and the buttons attached and the blanket is just waiting for me to get on with deciding on a border.

But all of that will have to wait a couple of weeks now because I'm off abroad again on November 1st, this time for a couple of weeks in South Africa, travelling the beautiful Garden Route from Port Elizabeth to Capetown! I really can't tell you how excited I am! I might not be hooking but I will be doing the next best thing which is taking lots of pics of my travels!

I'm really looking forward to sharing with you when I get back, so watch this space Hooky Pals and I'll be back before too long. BFN, Tricia xxx

Introducing 'doppelpops'! SO exciting!

I'm SOooooo excited, Happy Hooky Pals! I have a REAL treat for you today! I want to introduce to you my very talented friend Clare and her really amazing, and oh so cute, doppelpops lookalike dolls. 

Here is what she has to say about how doppelpops were born.

doppelpops were born when I couldn’t attend my friend’s Hen Party weekend. I wanted to still have a ‘presence’ during the weekend, so I created a little ‘mini-me’ to send along with her! 

She loved it, and appreciated the gesture.

I enjoyed making the doll so much, I decided to keep going and drew inspiration from the sweet-faced simplicity of Waldorf Dolls.









My favourite thing about making doppelpops is focusing on the qualities that make a person individual and then turning that into a unique portrait in cloth and yarn.


doppelpops are custom made lookalike dolls of you, or a loved one, and can match the skin tone, hair and eye colour of the subject. Check out my etsy shop for more details!

Aren't they just great! I just love Clare's unique creations. And having seen them 'in person' I can tell you that they are even more amazing than in the pictures! They seem so simple and innocent and yet each one is so full of personality. Soft and cuddly too! Custom-made, they make a completely unique gift for all kinds of occasions. So if you have a special someone, a special occasion or both or if there is a special someone you want to be reminded of, take a look at the Clare's etsy doppelpops shop here.

Well, I have a number of hooky and knitting projects on the go at the moment but I'm off on Wednesday for a little holiday for a week so I'll catch up with you when I get back. BFN, Tricia xxxx