Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Howdy folks, how are you all? Are you alright? Have you had a nice Christmas break?

It’s been a bit odd at the KCACO.UK house as on the first day of the holiday break we were woken up by my six year old running in to tell us that she was going to be sick…and then her promptly being sick all over the floor! That certainly wakes you up quickly! Since then we just haven’t been able to shake this sick bug but I hear there’s a lot of it going around. Either the baby or, more so, the big one has been sick (usually at 3.30am – what’s with that!) so it’s been a bit of a subdued Christmas and we’ve had to cancel quite a few of our plans which is a shame. Even I haven’t been feeling great – the only one with immunity seems to be my husband, which I’m very thankful for because it would be even more horrendous if all of us were ill at the same time.

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That said even though we may not have got dressed on Christmas day, Santa came and brought LOADS of presents for the little ones and some nice stuff for us grown ups and we did manage to have a semi nice day. And luckily we happen to handily have lots of crochet blankets around for snuggling under and some new Christmas movies to watch so we’ve taken some time to rest and try to recuperate.

Looking on the positive side of things I got some FABULOUS yarny gifts! Anyone would think I like crochet or something… 

Firstly I got this absolutely gorgeous Scheepjes mango wood yarn bowl which is just sooooo lovely. I absolutely adore wooden things and really wanted a wooden yarn bowl so I was very pleased with this. It’s so smooth and tactile and just super yummy! I love it and I’ve already been using it.

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I also got the new Scheepjes Yarn Bookazine ‘Dutch Masters‘ which is also gorgeous (I need more adjectives for gorgeous don’t I; splendid, sublime, delightful – they all work!).

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I shall have to do a review of these bookazines for you at some point because after I had my first one from the lovely people at Black Sheep Yarns (the Tropical edition) I had to have them aaaallllll! Glorious patterns, stunning photography and really interesting articles – what’s not to love! So I was really pleased to add the Dutch Masters edition to my collection which came out in October this year.

My other yarn related gifts were some really useful retractable snips, a Stylecraft Batik Swirl in colourway Poppyfields, which is super pretty and not something I’ve used before, a James C Brett Fairy Cake, in colourway FC03 which is lots of blues, very fluffy, and again something I’ve never used before. I was also lucky enough to get the Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies book from Lalylala which I reallllllyyy had wanted so I was super happy to find that under the tree – so look out for reviews of all these once I get round to using them. 

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And finally I got a joint present for my wedding anniversary and Christmas present; a days pass to visit the Crochet Sanctuary in Cheshire (not that far away from me) in February which I can’t WAIT for! A day off to relax, unwind and crochet – hooray!!! Haven’t I been a very lucky girl! 

I have been crocheting off and on throughout the holidays but I can’t show you any of my finished objects as they are Christmas presents still waiting to be given in the main. Though I can share these… I had this idea that I really wanted to make a special amigurumi for both children using the TOFT DK yarn I bought at TOFTfest. If you remember when I went to TOFTfest then you’ll know I started these amigurumi’s back in 2016 so it’s rather disgraceful that it’s taken me this long to finish them but I actually kicked myself into gear and finished them off for Christmas. I made Little G Jack the Macaw from Edward’s Menagerie: Birds and I made Little Miss; Georgina the Hippo from the original Edward’s Menagerie with a tutu accompaniment pattern I got at TOFTfest.

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I love how they came out and both children loved their special present from Mummy. I’ll try and do a review of both of the TOFT books in the new year too for those of you that are thinking you might like to make either some animals or birds (or both) of your own.

I’m already busy working on some secret commissions for 2018 – there’s some really exciting projects coming up in the new year that I can’t wait to share with you all.

Until then I’d like to wish those of you that celebrate it…

A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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A pretty amazing weekend actually…

Although I’m currently a bit under the weather and feel like I have been like that for months (I blame little people and their germs) I need to tell you about the weekend before last as it was pretty fan-dabby-dozy and I shall tell you why in a rather longer than usual post.

Back in October, when I was down at the Knitting and Stitching show in London, I got chatting with the lovely Sara from Black Sheep Wools who told me about a special open day they were holding in November.  

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To celebrate becoming Scheepjes stockists they had arranged for Haak Maar Raak blogger Kirsten (think the Hygge Shawl) and Look at What I Made blogger Dedri Uys (think Sophie’s Universe) to come along and chat to people, sign books and run mini workshops.  Well after discovering that Black Sheep Wool are only about 50 minutes up the motorway from me I marked the date in my calendar to go along because yarn plus chance to meet amazing designers equals no brainer right?!

If you’ve never been to Black Sheep Wools  it’s a big yarn shop (with it’s own coffee shop) in Warrington who regularly hold yarny events and workshops in their craft barn. For me it was a little bit like stepping into a sweet shop – and I do so find it hard to resist squishy goodness…but more on that in a bit.

So with my lovely mum in tow (and my dad – but he read his book in the car) we set off early last Saturday morning to Warrington.  When we first got there the bloggers hadn’t arrived yet which was actually handy as I got time to squish and browse. I feel I must just bring your attention to the Christmas tree in the store foyer because I’m sure like me you will feel that you need it in your life! It had been decorated, amongst other things, with all the little Scheepjes Catona Cutie Pies and looked fantastic!

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But it wasn’t long before I got to have a complete fan girl moment and meet the lovely Dedri and Kirsten. Now you may recall that Dedri was my first ever designer interview  (which you can read it herebut we had never actually met in person.

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When Heather met Dedri!

It’s so nice to finally meet someone that you have only met virtually and I’m going to add quickly, in case any of you have done it too, that all this time I’d not realised that I’d been saying her name wrong! In case you were wondering Uys isn’t pronounced ‘yus’ as I’d been saying it but should be pronounced more like ‘ace’. And whilst we are talking about pronunciations Scheepjes I also learnt should be said like ‘Shape-yuz’ not ‘Sheepes’! 

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When Heather met Kirsten…

Both bloggers were so nice, open and helpful, answering all my many questions and offering really good advice on ways of looking at colours, designs and blogging! They also kindly signed a couple of my books that I took along (Amamani Puzzle Balls by Dedri and Bold Baby Crochet: 30 Modern & Colorful Projects for Baby collated by Dedri and features Kirsten).

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Next mum and I took part in a mini workshop by Kirsten to make her fab Scandinavian Heart (get the free pattern here) with some yummy Scheepjes Catona. 

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Mum and I both decided to go for Christmassy sort of colours and had great fun making little yarn jellyfish to weave together to form the heart. It was really nice sitting crocheting and chatting about crochet in a little group. 

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But conscious that Dad was still sitting in the car (he was still happily reading) and we’d already been there for over three hours we decided it was probably time to leave. But of course as there there was soooooo much lovely yarn to squish and as it was a Scheepjes open day I thought it would be really rude of me not to purchase maybe a little something…

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I know! I know! I have a yarn addiction! I must hasten to say at this point that although it may seem that all I do is buy nothing but yarn I promise that everything I purchased was / is all for specific projects! 

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And some of it was a lovely gift! Because I was one of the first 50 customers in store I also got an exciting Schjeepes goody bag in which I got the purple Schjeepes Catona (this is fast becoming one of my favourite yarns to use for my ami’s), the really inspirational Schjeepes YARN Bookazine Tropical Edition (which I LOVE by the way), two mini Schjeepes YARN pattern books, the big Schjeepes window sticker and two great Schjeepes wooden buttons.

The next day mum and Dad came back round to my house to look after the girls as Mr. KCACO.UK and myself were off for a spa day! I know! Sooooo exciting! You may remember that this year we had celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary and as I gift I bought us a spar day. We usually aren’t so extravagant as this with gifts but ten years – it’s an achievement well worthy of a bit of a special gift. 

We ended up going to Mottram Hall in Cheshire which has an outside sort of spa bit with a hot tub and steam rooms. It was so strange to be sitting outside in a swimming cozzie in November but it was really fun, they’d decorated ready for Christmas and I have to say their tree’s were pretty amazing ranging from Harry Potter themed to Alice in Wonderland (which was my favourite).

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We also had fantastic back massages and enjoyed a most delicious afternoon tea.

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All too soon the weekend was over and it was back to reality with a Monday-ish bump.  But cake, back massages, crochet and yarn – it doesn’t get any better than that really does it! 

Until next time folks! Happy hooking, keep calm and crochet on my friends xx

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