stash busting CAL | The Contented Crafter

Hello, hello from the wintery far south of New Zealand. Despite this, my house at certain hours of the day is awash with sparkles! This was the kitchen this morning

It’s the right time of year to be enjoying a light catcher or two (I have many more than two) with the sun laying low in the sky and sunbeams more inclined to come through windows and play with the faceted crystals.

I had started playing with, for me, unusual colour combinations of beads – you may recall seeing this photo a couple of posts backEventually I completed three – at some stage I’ll pop them into my shop.

This first one I feel I was channeling my late friend Cynthia who loved bold hues of orange and blue and I pretty much smiled and even laughed out loud on my way through its creation. So, of course, this is called The Cynthia.

Next this one came, I’m thinking ‘Chocolate and Lemon Cream’ …….. Mmmmmmm! The deep brown fluted beads look black here – but that is just my terrible photography. It really looks good enough to eat – but please don’t Siddy!

Staying with the food related beading programme (Huh?) Did you have those orange flavoured chocolate balls when you were a kid? We called them Jaffas and the boys loved to roll them down the sloped floor at the weekend kids movie show when the serial opened with a replay that revealed the heart-stopping event ending last weeks episode was completely untrue and the hero hadn’t gone over the cliff on his horse, wagon or train. He had jumped clear at the last moment. I got fooled week after week! And of course we don’t call those sweets ‘Jaffas’ any more. Now they are Choc-Oranges – So this one is the ‘Choc-Orange’

I also made a pink catcher, but as you can’t eat that one, I’ll just pop it quietly into the shop. Next lot will probably all be shades of blue just to make me really happy.

The Seaside Stash Busting Blanket is up to date with the CAL. Here is the link if you are interested in checking it out. It’s not too late as Eleonora adds just four or six rows a week and we are, I think, at week 13 now. My two rows of pebbles tend to look a bit ruffled here – perhaps its the wind that is howling around outside the house. I’m thinking I might steam it and stretch it out a bit so that all the bobbles and interesting bits find their places nicely…….. Or I might just leave it. Any thoughts?

I think this is the last time I’ll be able to show all the rows all at once – it’s starting to get quite big. Still, with the weather showing definite signs that winter is approaching fast it is nice to have this across my knee as I hook away.

So with those catchers completed, it’s back to the card making. Happy days!

Thanks for coming by today, I’m so happy that you did!

There’s activity in the happy making room again … well, I shouldn’t say ‘again’ in some ways it didn’t really stop. I made lots of cards there for a bit, but forgot to take photos of any of them except this one, which kind of reminds me of Siddy and so I kept it

But there’s been some playing with beads going on

A few new light catchers are emerging – I’m playing with odd colour combinations to see what happens.

Also, somewhere along the line I had decided to make a concerted effort to rid myself, or at least make a serious dent in, the cupboard full of of left over and unused yarns that have been accumulated over the past two decades. I had been on the lookout for an idea or inspiration and then happened to mention it to Nana Cathy who sent me over to Coastal Crochet and voila! The perfect thing for me and, at just nine weeks behind, I caught up in two weeks. As you can see my yarn cupboard holds many different shades and hues of blue and even that green has a blue thread running through it – I have no clue how that grape colour got in there!

It’s a slow project, the designer Eleonora is adding just 4 or so rows every week, leaving plenty of time for other creative projects to continue too. Which is really good, because on arriving home from my Blogging Babes Reunion and collecting a bag of mail from my lovely neighbour I found it included two big letters.

One, from The Wool Company, contained a catalogue and a gift voucher and a note saying to do nothing until I received an explanatory letter….. and the other from my friend who blogs, Jan, over at The Snail of Happiness containing the explanatory letter and a ‘Persian Tiles’ crochet pattern

Jan explained she had seen a comment I had left on a mutual friends blog who was making the Persian Jewels blanket, that if I lived in the UK I’d be definitely buying that kit to make up and she decided that not living in the UK was no reason to not be able to make my own ……

You can see why I wax eloquent about the joys of blogging right? I am once again made speechless by the kindness, love and generosity heaped on my tiny head by fabulous people!! I sat in silence for a long time reading and rereading Jan’s letter and looking at the note from The Wool Company, then I packed it all up and drove off to my daughter’s place and showed her and we both sat in silence and revelled in the wonder of having wonderful friends, met purely through blogging.

A week passed by while I looked and considered colour options, eventually this is what I chose – it’s 100% NZ Corriedale wool, 8 ply from The Wool Company

Aren’t those just the best colours! Though that red hank is not red, it’s ‘Azalea’ a bright pink. There are seven different colours and as soon as I have finished wrangling those 200g hanks into giant balls I will begin to crochet my first square – I can’t wait to get it underway!

You know it is going to be mostly blue don’t you 🙂

Jan you are brilliant and thoughtful and kind and I am so happy to have you as a friend – thank you so much!!

And to finish, here’s a shot I took of Siddy and two of his favourite admirers having coffee a couple of weeks back – I wonder what they are talking about …..