Crafty Little Rat

  I’ve not long come back from an amazing weekend away at Wonderwool Wales and I am TIRED; that good earthy, I won’t be long to bed tonight tired that comes from a fab weekend with brilliant friends, meeting new people, seeing a whole load of amazing stuff and wishing that I’d won the lottery so I could buy it all AND have the time to make it!   We stayed again at The Old Station Caravan park and we were in the same ‘Van as last year which was lovely. I can’t honestly say enough about how nice the caravan is and how the owners have thought of every last little thing inside to really make it a home from home. I hopped on the train Friday lunchtime to Cheltenham to meet up with Angie and Michelle, and after we loaded Michelle’s car she very graciously drove us up. It’s a wonderful drive, very scenic A roads mostly and we made good time in order to get settled, eat some delicious Pizza and drink some lovely fizz   . If it sounds like I was spoiled this weekend dear r...

  Happy belated Easter! I managed to finish two things over Easter. We went to Bath on Good Friday, and despite Wool being shut (that’s twice I’ve missed it out of the 3 times I've been to Bath!) I managed to find a fabric shop instead. I bought a meter of this very pretty owl fabric and made myself a skirt.   It’s made up of little print owls! It’s a 100% cotton fabric. Nice and firm, with a good handle. A very easy fabric for a beginner sewer like me. Yes I’ve had my machine nearly 3 years and yes this is the first piece of sewing I’ve done on it. It’s a very simple skirt. Side seams sewn, a casing for some elastic and a hem at the bottom. I had to cut out about 6 inches of fabric as I made it too wide to begin with. I’m on the hunt for a pair of white leggings to wear with this and I’m really going to enjoy it I think. Skirts are not my usual choice of attire – and gathered ones probably even less so but we shall see!   When I was looking through my queue at...

  Hello! I’ve been busy knitting and watching Netflix and not a lot else these past few weeks. Work has been busy and real life busy too that home time means switch off time. Since I last posted I’ve finished 4 things! I have to be so much better about blogging This month’s mystery Socks – Reverso. I didn’t particularly like knitting these – I loved the way the hand dyed yarn striped, although a lot of that is lost when they’re right side out (Left sock) and the patterning was lost around the heel and toe. There was a LOT of purling after the heel turn. At this point I had to turn the sock inside out again and purl across the bottom of the foot – there was no way I could keep my patterning right on the instep looking at the purl side. Never the less it was in my queue and free, and sometimes you just can’t tell until you’ve knit them. They fit well, look nice but boy am I glad they are DONE!   Next up is Across The beach The above Pre-Blocking gives a far better idea ...

  Today I managed to make the most of the little light we had to take some update pictures! It’s been a bit of a spring clean-y day around here. I’ve got rid of a huge pile of too big for me clothes today and had a general spruce up around the living room. I’ve also changed the URL of the blog to http://craftylittlerat.blogspot.com – previously it was craftylilrat, the little part wasn’t available in full when I registered. Maybe now I won’t keep typing in my blog address wrong! I’m knitting away on my March Socks pretty much exclusively Pattern is Reverso from Knitty and the yarn is a hand dyed one called Night Jewels from my LYS Miju. From this side with the purls facing out it’s not that obvious but it striped up pretty accurately!   I’ve also fallen off the cold sheep wagon a little. 18 months ago I made my nephew a blanket for his first birthday out of Natura cotton, well he now has a little sister and I wanted to do the same for her. Spotting this in my LYS I j...

  Happy St David’s Day from sunny (for once!) Wales. It’s still a bit chilly here, but apparently the first of March heralds the start of spring. I did manage to complete some things in February, though not as much as I would have liked and frankly I’m glad to see the back of the flipping month. February’s pair of Socks – Dalekanium in some sock will with a long lost label. For this pattern I had to modify the stitch count dramatically – I ended up just using the slip stitch pattern really over 60 stitches and a toe up heel flap and gusset. First successful eye of partridge heel as well. I also did a short row toe as well. I also finished another section of the Christmas Tree skirt. Still really loving the pattern and the yarn (Stylecraft Chunky held double). It’s a nice amount of knitting to do in a month. I think it’s too much to sit down and do all at once, but this way it never feels like a slog to complete just the one section. I’m a bit worried I may have to do cable s...

  I didn’t want to write this post. I’d hoped we’d have longer. I hoped she’d live forever. I hoped that it would be peaceful. At least I got my final hope. All day Sunday all Esme wanted to do was cuddle. You’d put her down to go to the loo, and she’d be at the front of the cage waiting for you to come back. I feared it was the start of the end so indulged her constant demand for cuddles. I don’t think she left my lap much from 8.30am to 11pm when I went to bed. When I went to bed Rhys because the defacto cushion and stayed up with her for longer.   Coming down on Monday morning I was honestly shocked to find her still alive, and stroking her head thought she could do with some warming up and cuddles in bed. So we went up. I placed a pillow under my arm, and her on a towel on top of that. Pulled the duvet over us and we stayed like that for a while. Telling her I loved her, telling her that it was okay and we’d miss her and that we loved loved loved her. I called Rhy...

  On Sunday we returned home from a wonderful weekend away in Chester. When we got home and the girls saw us Gytha slinked out of their bed and came to the bars – which was incredibly strange for her. Never one for cuddles, she was always a bright spark and on the move. Petting her she felt cold, so I scooped her up and cuddled her in to my jumper to try and warm her up. We sat like that for a while, me stroking her head until she just slipped away. By the time we realised what was happening she was gone. Incredibly peacefully, almost like she waited for me to come back.   Shortly after returning from the vets (we have our animals cremated, with ashes back) Maggie started to wheese horribly. Gasping for air, crackling lungs. Fine before we left on the weekend, fine when we returned – an easy assumption is stress and grief for her sister. A return trip to the vets, where she was placed in an oxygen kennel but struggled every time she was brought out in the normal air. ...