I'm Still Alive....

It seems like it's been forever since I had a chance to actually sit and pay a visit here. With work, family and other things going on in the past few months, I feel like I haven't really even had time to stop and scratch myself.
Today I decided that enough was enough, and here I am!

In the past 4 months, I have officially become an 'empty nester'. My son and his  fiancée finally moved out on their own into mum's house at the end of April. They've settled in really well and are loving being out on their own and being independent. It's taken a lot of getting used to for me, I still have days where I go to talk to one of them, then remember they are not here.

On the upside, I can now put something down and not have to worry about not being able to find it again, my house is cleaner, I can watch what I want (much to hubby's dis-satisfaction) and I don't have to play taxi to anyone, seeing as they both now have their licence :)

My daughter is still out on her own, she had to move house, which was a big job, but we got it done and she has settled into her new home and is happy there, which is what counts.

Mum has had a few ups and downs, we had a pretty horrible few weeks where they thought that she wasn't going to make it. She had a bad episode in late April/early May where she aspirated into her lungs and they thought they were going to lose her, then again in late May, when she was battling a bad chest infection, but I'm glad to say that she is still with us and battling on like she always has. It's at the point now where she doesn't recognise anyone anymore, which is heart breaking and it's very rare that she even speaks to anyone, but just to have her here still, is enough.

With all the goings on, I decided to put my Mood Blanket project aside, so that has come to a standstill. I have a decent size batch of squares made, which I may re-purpose into another project, I'm not sure what yet, so they are stashed away until inspiration strikes.

I have managed to get a few other things off my hook though. With the cold weather we are experiencing now that it is Winter here, I have been busy making throws. The Red Heart Corner to Corner (C2C) has become my favourite and so far I have made 2, which I am really happy with.

These are photo's I took while I was working on them, I don't have photo's of them completed at this stage. It's too dark and dreary to capture the colours properly, so when the weather is nicer, I will probably take some :)

I have a thing for monochrome at the moment, so this one was born from that:

This gorgeous coloured yarn had been in my stash for a while and I needed to find something make from it, this is the result, which I love! I had 2 similar skeins in different types and they both worked  beautifully together is called Moda Vera Bouvardia in the colourway - Canyon Flight and the other is Moda Vera Noemi - Pink Mix.

As well as those, I've put together a couple of smaller projects, both of my own design.

One was a cover for my ottoman that sits near my crochet chair and has a lift up lid that of course hides some of my yarn stash :)

This is the view of the top:

 The side on view:

And this is what is hiding underneath lol:

Finally, I have finally managed to get my hands on some Red Heart Aran yarn. A chain store (Big W) here in Australia has finally started stocking some of it, not much, but enough to allow me to buy some to try.

I bought a couple of skeins of their purple and white and made myself a brick stitch throw (which you can see lurking on the back of my chair in the centre photo above)

It's just long enough to cover my feet and allow me to snuggle up under it if I want to, when it's really cold.....

 This is a close up of the stitch pattern and edging I used....

And the latest thing to come off my hook, which I just finished last night, is a cover for my Ipad. I had been wanting to make one for a while, for when I take it to work, etc with me, so I went to my stash and found some yarn that I thought would be perfect for the job.

I designed the cover myself, using a basic cover pattern where you make a chain as long as you need and then work up from that in the round until it is the length you want. I wanted a flap on mine, so I could close it, so I set about designing one that I would like and allow me to attach some buttons (which I also had in my stash). And then I went on the search for an applique, which I found in my stash from a Maggie Weldon pattern.

This is the end result of what I came up with and I have to say that I am really happy with the results :) 

My next project is finding a pattern for a rug out of t-shirt yarn for in front of my kitchen sink. If I can't find one that I like, I may just have to create one of my own.

I'm still working, teaching IT 2 days a week and am studying as well, so on top of everything else, there isn't much time left for anything that I really want to do.

Until next time....