Thank you so much to Kate for hosting it, I loved the whole process and is so happy with the final outcome! (I’ll pretend that there are no edges to work away)

I must admit that I was very unsure about rows 40 and 41, I did not like what they looked like, but thankfully 42 brought it all together and it looks so nice.

I am quite tempted to buy the full pattern and continue, but I think that might be a bit much

I have to admit that I am very thankful for that, the timing was great as I had a really hectic week at work and had to work late more than one day.

The row itself was nice and easy, just chains and dc(tr)2tog’s.

As my first doily project I did the Passion Flower Doily by Esther Chandler.

The doily itself is quite pretty and was very quick to work up at only 11 rows in total.

I enjoyed the crocheting and the pattern itself is fairly simple – no complicated stitches. I did however find the pattern somewhat difficult to read sometimes – I think that it could have been clearer in some places about where stitches should go or where a row starts etc.

I do appreciate that the designer makes the pattern available in both UK and US crochet terms – I am able to follow both, but prefer the UK terms since that is what I am used to.

My doily is crocheted in Vinnis Colours Nikkim which is a 100% cotton yarn(Unfortunately I can’t get their site to work to link to it)

It hasn’t been blocked yet – to be honest, I’m not sure I’d be able to block it in a circular shape if I tried. I’m fairly happy with how it turned out though – not bad for a first attempt I think.

On to the next doily!

Once again it was fairly easy, but this time we had something a bit more interesting in that  we had to do cross stitches for row 28.

I took the easy way out and crossed in front rather than behind, but I think it still looks OK.

Here it is:

It’s becoming less and less flat, but there is not much that I can do about it as far as I know.

Only one row to do this week, two if I’m feeling adventurous – looking forward to it!

How is your CAL going?

I typed in “Doily” and selected “Crochet” and “Free” as my search options – I was greeted with 28  pages of results. I dived in and emerged a couple of blissful hours later.

Along the way I added everything that looked remotely interesting to my queue – this resulted in a queue of 97 patterns, all doilies.

You’ll never guess what I want to do now…yarn shopping! I don’t have any thinner yarns as my usual preference of patterns tend to use 4ply/DK yarns.

I’m thinking that I should pick one or two patterns and then buy yarn for that, the only question now, is how on earth do I pick those two patterns? Do I just take the first two in my queue, or do I spend another hour or two in careful consideration? Another alternative I suppose is to pick two random numbers between 0 and 97 and whichever numbers are picked, those are the projects I shall attempt. That actually sounds like a good idea.

The very first one that  I will do however has been picked as there is only doily in my queue that uses dk/4ply yarn. That is the Passion Flower doily by Ester Chandler it is a fairly “small” doily at 11 rounds and will hopefully be a good starter project.

What are your favourite doily patterns?

Fairly easy rows, mostly chains and sc’s. It worked up quite quickly, but I have to admit, I am getting to a point now where the rows are starting to feel too big. I get about half way and then already start wondering if I’m close to done.

Still looking forward to continuing though – this pattern has a nice variety in terms of stitches and what you do with them.

I’m not sure what the next assignment is yet, but I’m sure it will be up at Stitches, Scraps and Sparkles in the sun later today

Without further ado, my photo:

This post will contain the pictures for week 2 – 6  – isn’t it amazing how different light makes the colours look so different?

Rows 6 – 7

Rows 8 – 10:

Rows 11 – 14:

Rows 15 – 19:

Very much looking forward to continuing this project!

I’m a bit late to the party – the official CAL is now on week 6. I’ve done rows 1-5 in about 40 minutes, here they are:

The rest will take quite a bit longer! I’m thinking of trying to do about 2 weeks worth of crochet every week until I’m caught up, but I’ll have to see how it goes.

I’m doing the work in Vinnis Colours Nikkim which is a dk cotton yarn – I absolutely love working with this yarn.

My colours are Ballet Pink, Pink and Raspberry

I’m not so sure how well it works, but it is what I have available. The current plan is to do 3 rows in each colour.

This project is something quite new to me – I usually avoid working in the round and prefer “straight” projects, but something about this one caught my attention and I think I’m ready for the challenge (That optimism might change after a few more rounds though)

Stubborn – beyond belief! We were hoping to get final confirmation on the gender, but she kept her legs crossed the whole time. The doc also tried to give us a 3D photo of her face, but then she proceeded to put her arm in front of her face.
The pictures that we did get of these are quite hilarious.

So, now we have a follow up appointment in 4 weeks where we will hopefully find out what the gender is for sure – after that I think that it might be too late to return all the pink anyways!

I have to admit that thinking about how much time is left before baby arrives (about 18 weeks), I feel a bit nervousabout getting everything done.
Logically I know that it is still a while, but it just sounds so close! I’m thinking that I want to start buying all the toiletries etc. which off course raises the question of what to buy!

In terms of bigger items, I think the main things we still need is a bath (our sink won’t work all that well) and a cradle to fix the car seat to (that one is probably quite important).

Other than that…do we need much more than a cot (with changing table) and a stroller?

Seriously looking at buying a Fisher Price Sleeper – seems like it really helps with the sleeping initially.

How important is a nursing chair? I’m thinking of initially just using the sleeper couch to sit on or the office chair which are both in the nursery/guest room/study.

Excitement! 18 weeks until I can hold our little Parker in my arms