Ok, so this is it. The end of 2014. Can’t believe that it is the end of the second year of my blog! Last year I wrote about things I feel I have achieved and things that I wanted to achieve.

What I have achieved this year

• I have been horse riding.
• I have wall climbed! (I am immensely proud of this one).
• I have been to the top of Blackpool Tower – TWICE!
• I finally went to Germany!
• I am now a high A2, low B1 language level in German.
• I have been abroad on my own – full independence!
• I have a new teaching job.
• I got a summer job teaching English.
• I finally went to a pub gig and did some dancing.
• I rescued some more chickens.
• My boyfriend and I got a flat.
• I learnt how to sew.

Looking back over that list I am very proud of myself.

This is last years list. I will cross out what I feel I have achieved.

Things I would like to try/ achieve in 2014.

• Learn long draw
• Dye using proper dyes
• Learn entrelac
• Crochet a baby garment
• Knit another pair of socks
• Get as many of my kits done as possible
• Finish CAL blanket
• Do something with Tunisian crochet
• Sew up my dpn holder
• Sew the Christmas advent calendar
• Create my own knitting pattern
• Make some felt kits
• Get lots of more sheep fleece prepped

Yeah, looking good! I kept meaning to sew the Christmas Advent Calendar but never got around to doing it which is a shame. Me and Mum will sew it for next year. I tried having a go at Tunisian Crochet again but I don’t think it is for me. I used the fabric for the dpn holder for making baby pants, haha. Knitting pattern, hmm, thinking about I think I did sort of adapt a knitting pattern so that is kinda my own pattern, right? As for getting kits done… urgh! Hardly any done. I really, really need to.

Ok, this is what I would like to achieve by the end of 2015!

• Have at least ten baby items sewn, aging from newborn to age 2/3.
• At least ten baby items knitted, aging from newborn to 2/3.
• At least ten baby items crocheted, aging from newborn to 2/3. (Can you see the links here??)
• To get every single fleece in the shed and porch washed and carded into gorgeous, soft, fluffy batts.
• To spin up ten batts/tops/rovings that I have in my spinning box.
• To spin up an entire fleece.
• To knit/crochet/weave something using the handspun yarn under my bed.
• To learn to weave on my weaving loom.
• To weave on a pin loom and create a blanket from the squares using my handspun wool.
• To not buy any yarn/wool until I have used up as much as possible from the cabinet. (See how long this one lasts!)
• To lose at least two stone.
• To reborn at least three reborn doll kits.
• To go back to Germany at least once.
• To have something I have wanted since I was little.
• To make a baby blanket.

I think that is enough for now! I am looking forward to the end of next year to see if I have achieved any of these! I really, REALLY want to lose two stone so will be doing (after the New Year dinner) the dreaded diet and exercise… if possible! I would like to do some more reborn doll kits but will just sell them when finished. I already have two, it’s just the crafting that I love. And sooooooooo much wool craft – it makes me so happy to think of all that lovely wool!

Now, to see some photos of what I have achieved this year. Sadly, not nearly as much as last year but I have been working an awful lot. 🙂

January

February

March

April

July

September

October

December 

Ok everybody. I hate this bit… it always feels so sad knowing that this is the end of a long year. I hope that everyone has a very, very Happy New Year.

Make sure you do all that you want to do. Love deeply, be happy and don’t regret anything.

Happy New Year!

xXx Love Kais xXx

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Hello everyone,

I have another blog post to complete later but thought I would squeeze another one in before I do my last one of the year.  Just a few photos to show the last month or two.

Here I was working on a simple crochet mitten. I took some of the shaping from a simple pattern but instead of crocheting in rounds I worked in a spiral. I found that was better because it didn’t leave a line up the back of the mitten. I have finished it now and put a little bit of blue ribbon round the wrist.

Here are the first pair of mittens I crocheted. Aren’t they cute?!

I am very proud of this next picture. This is another crocheted top with a little hat to match. There was only a few metres of yarn left at the end so I was fortunate to get it all finished. I will have to find the pattern out later. I learnt some new stitches (fbhp or something like that, haha) so my crochet skills are slowly improving.

Ok, time for some pet pictures! Here is sweet Molly sitting on my spinning wheel. She LOVES sitting on it. Excuse the mess, there are an awful lot of clothes not put away!  I also have to put sheets around the table so that she and Evie do not get under the table and stay there. Gorgeous girls 😀

My beautiful girls 🙂 Grace nearest me, Donna at front, Rose at left back and Martha. All doing well and happy 🙂

I was annoyed the other day that my train had been cancelled due to flooding. I know that sometimes they seem to exaggerate these things so I was angry at the thought of it being hardly a problem. Imagine my surprise opening the paper to find this! This is my exact train I wanted to get, haha. Ok, it’s not funny but I won’t complain about flooding again! (Everyone was fine, don’t worry). I had to get the slightly quicker, but more round about way train.

There has been an awful lot of flooding round here. This is the river in front of Andrews house (Ayr river). It was very high, a lot more than usual. Sometimes the river is so low you can see the floor.

This is a long overdue photo of the latest reborn doll I have done. The pictures don’t give it justice and make it look very, very pale with very little paint, grrr. This is the Tilly sculpt, bought from Lillian Trigg of Rochester. Beautiful kit. I didn’t see any pictures of what it could look like when painted so this was complete guesswork.  This one is different too as it has eyes. What a hassle trying to get the eyes in! You have to slit the back of the eye sockets and push them in that way. It took me ages trying to go through the front which resulted in me tearing tiny, tiny marks at the corners of her right eye. Oh well, she isn’t for sale anyway. I thought she looked like a boy when I finished, but the more I look at her it’s a her. She is a full limbed sculpt.

I love the soles of the feet.

You can just see the rosey cheeks in the picture above.

She is fully weighted to have the weight of a baby. She is filled with ground glass and stuffed with polyester stuffing to make a nice squidgey body.

In the photo below you can see the difference between the Tilly painted doll (right) and the Archie unpainted doll (left). The Archie sculpt is very pale in comparison and Tilly seems to have much more skin tone, and shiny lips!

I made a terrible error when I first started Tilly though. 😦 I had got most of her painted up and she looked great, no shiny skin or anything. Then I tried putting the eyes in and realised to my horror that the paint was rubbing off! I had forgotten to put thinner/sealer in any of the paint mix. This is a must as it seals the paint to the vinyl and prevents it from ever coming off. So yeah, I was very, very disappointed as the skin tone looked a lot better than it did in the photos you can see on here. Oh well, learning curves! I won’t be forgetting the thinner again, haha.

This is my little table I was using to get everything painted up. You can see I am painting in daylight because it shows the true colours. But because of the daylight fading away at 3pmish it was hard to stop. My wonderful parents bought me a daylight lamp, yay! I’m using it right now and it is amazing. It means I can do my crafts until stupid o clock in the morning and won’t be straining my eyes. The lights I have in my room seem very orange in comparison to the daylight lamp. I love it! But what shall my next  project be? Hmm…

Here are a couple of photos of the doll wearing the recent crocheted items.

I crocheted the little hat the other night in bed as a ‘something to do with my hands’ whilst watching telly. Going to make another one tonight perhaps? I have also crocheted a little diaper cover which matches the hat.

One thing I do need to work on is starting my crochet much, MUCH more loosely. It’s far too tight and pulls the stitches in, distorting it.

Right, I’m off to get photos and things ready for my final post of the year. Sobering thought, huh? I’ve now been doing this blog for two whole years. Never, ever thought it would get this far. But I love it, and I hope that everyone who reads it has enjoyed it too.

xXx Love Kais xXx

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 30 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Hello everyone,

How are you all? This will be one of my last blog posts of the year. Can’t believe how fast this year has gone. It only feels a short while ago before I was compiling my list of what I wanted to achieve in the year. I have achieved some of them, but not all. And I have achieved more things than I thought I would, e.g. sewing.

So, to all, Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a great time, visiting friends and family. We always have a very quiet family Christmas and I love it. This time it was Alfies first Christmas and he had a fantastic time. We always buy the dogs loads of presents and they go mad opening them. It’s fantastic to watch.

They had this toy (Bob the Builder) for at least ten whole minutes before this happened. At least they had fun! Alfie hates not being on the sofa if everyone else is on it, well, if Freddy is on it and he isn’t. This is how Alfie lay on Freddy the other night. Yeah…

So, did everyone get everything they wanted for Christmas? This is one of my favourite presents that my little brother got me –

I LOVE this story. The book is out of print so it was very, very hard to find a copy that was cheap enough to buy. I have seen one copy at £250! Ridiculous prices. It took months of searching and D finally found me a copy. I’m very grateful and I’ve read it already. I plan on reading it to my classes. The story is simply, exciting and very, very different to anything I have ever read before.

I got loads more loom bands for Christmas! I got a small box full and then another box using the loom bands as padding round another present, haha. I have so many now. I just adore sorting them all out. It’s a very simple, repetitive thing to do. I think the fad for these has gone very quickly (only seemed to last a few months here) so they are being sold dirt cheap. One shop near me was giving them away free! The local pound shop was giving them at sale for 10 for a £1!

Mum got me and A this gorgeous clock for our flat. Isn’t it sweet?! The paperclips around are so we can swap and change different photos. It will look great in the front room.

Me and A had our Christmas dinner a little early this year so we could be together. We decorated the flat and made dinner. It was really lovely. We dressed up smartly. We were only in our flat but thought we would make the effort. 

Now, look at these gorgeous two! Aren’t they beautiful? Andrew and I (mostly Andrew) now have two cats! Well, two kittens. The tabby on the left is called Aya and the black and white on the right is called Miko.

Both are very, very sweet. They are either tearing around the flat like crazy or cuddled up with each other on the duvet we have in the front room.

I have so much more to write, but so little time right now. I hope to write more later. Have a great evening!

xXx Love Kais xXx

It’s certainly been a while since I lasted posted. The longest gap yet I think. I have had a few reasons for this though. First is that I was in Germany for a month. Gosh… that doesn’t seem real really. It was only a few weeks ago I came back and it hardly feels like I was there at all. I miss it so much, but I know I will be back there one day. Maybe next year, if I am lucky.

Here are a couple of my favourite photos.

Koln am Rhein. This bridge was very long – the Hohenzelle Brucke. Absolutely stunning. If you lean over the side you can see the ships and boats going underneath. The first few times that I saw it, the bridge was pretty empty except for a few tourists. The next time I went it was so busy I could barely move! I love the idea of the locks on the bridge. You put the name of your lover or loved ones on the bridge. You lock the padlocks (which are engraved or written on) and then throw the keys into the water below. This symbolises ever lasting love. (Apparently, if you split up, you have to dive into the water to retrieve the keys). I, of course, had to join in this beatiful tradition.

 

Me and my boyfriend, my parents, my beautiful, beautiful dogs, and above, my wonderful family 🙂 I took a photo of the surrounding area and the number above the bridge so I can hopefully find them the next time.

Here is a quick picture of me on the way back home (after a 24 hour bus journey!!) I was almost home… I look so tired.

If you would like to see some more photos of the Cologne trip you can view them here –

https://adventuresincologne.wordpress.com/

I created a little blog so I could show the photos to my family whilst I was away. I was there for a month but have only sixteen days worth of photos up. I need to get around doing the rest later.

I saw some beautiful craft shops in Germany, and the craft book section in Mayersche book store was beautiful. They sold sewing patterns too.

I loved this sign on a clothes shop window!

Knit Club!

I bought a fantastic crochet book from Mayersche shop. It is a pattern book for a really cute set of dolls with an entire wardrobe.

It was E12,99, which is kind of expensive. Ah, who am I kidding, it IS expensive. I worked out though, it was the same price if I had bought it online at home. I think it works out to about £9/10. The illustrations are so pretty. As soon as I got home I found out my favourite Patons Smoothie yarn and started. (After I had translated several of the instructions). It didn’t take me too long to create the basic doll.

After that I created some mini pants (whilst watching The Apprentice. Anybody been watching the UK Apprentice show? Last one was horrendous, was so annoyed with it) and then a little jacket.

I haven’t done any features on the face apart from a teeny yarn nose. I think she is cute. And it gives me a great excuse to buy some more Patons Smoothie. I cannot rate that yarn highly enough!

Mum had bought back my jumper knitting project from my Nans house and it was waiting for me in my room when I got back. It didn’t take me too long to finish the sleeve and sew it up. It was a little too tight the first sleeve I sewed, so I unpicked it and sewed it as loose as possible. Still a bit tight but wearable. I love it.

I had planned on knitting some socks when I was away but never got around to doing them. I started them a week ago and have them finished. I’m wearing them right now actually.

I used Sirdar Crofter yarn that I had been given ages ago. I used Silvers Sock Class tutorial to make these.

http://www.cometosilver.com/socks/

Absolutely fantastic tutorial for anyone who would like to learn how to knit socks, either on four needles, two at a time toe up or one sock at a time on circular needles. I think I can remember how to do it without a tutorial now which is really helpful. This is my second two at a time toe up socks on circular needles. Invaluable. I don’t think I would like to knit socks singly anymore, haha.

I added a bit of cabling and a picot edge bind off. The cabling was my own design. Not fantastic, but I like it. It might have worked better on non stripy yarn.

I bought some mini Christmas decorations back from Aldi in Germany. They were E2,99 and you could make six little people from it. It had an awful lot in the pack!

I love the little knitted hats. I did a bit of one and Mum did the rest. They look so cute! She put our initials on each of the angels.

They are hanging on a little tree in our hallway at the moment. They look so pretty. I need to get a photo of that.

The following pictures are of the little project I finished today. I fell in love with it when I saw the pattern online. It did not take too long to make and I want to make loads!

I then put it on Christina doll.

Haha, I love it. The pom pom took aggges. I haven’t made one in such a long time!

Anyway, I’d better go. Here are a few pictures of my babies… I was so happy to see them again. I couldn’t believe how much I missed them. It’s Alfies birthday today too, exactly one year old! Happy Birthday Alfie!

Alfie fell asleep like this…

Gorgeous boys together. Love you Freddy and Alfie.

Have a great night everyone,

xXx Love Kais xXx