Library and a sneak peak!

Pleased to report Little Bear is a lot better - no more temperature! He still has his horrible cough and cold but has turned back into being my cheeky boy. He has gone to see his Nanny today and usually I am at work but due to school strikes I have the morning off.

So it's about 11am and so far I have done the food shopping, gone to the wool warehouse (a.k.a Holly Heaven), been to the library, cleaned the kitchen and cleaned the bathroom. So I feel like I can sit down and have some me time!

I don't often go to the library (usually because of time or lack of) but today I wanted to see what knitting and crochet books they have in. I was pleasantly surprised at the selection and came away with these..

Library books

Five books on knitting or crochet and a book called The Relaxed Home (I bet this book doesn't contain the word toddler..). There are two in particular that really caught my eye so thought I would share some photos from each of them. The first one is 50 Pincushions to knit and crochet by Cat Thomas.

Mini sewing kit holder

Isn't the sewing kit holder lovely? I love the idea of using the cross stitch ring to frame it as well.

Flower Mandala 

These mandalas are everywhere in blogland at the moment - partly due to Lucy over at Attic24. The idea of turning it into a pincushion is great though!

Water Lily design

 These colours remind me of the baby hats and moses blanket I have made here.

Spring flower design

I loved the added floral ric rac on this one - very pretty as a finishing touch.

I have never seen anything like these before and they are SO sweet and I bet they wouldn't take long to make. They are all made from DK Cotton (probably why I am drawn to them!) I could photograph every design in this book they are all so lovely. Have a look in your library to see if you can find it - definitely worth a look!

The second book is all about edgings and is titled Exquisite Trims in Thread Cotton by Caitlin Sainio. Have a look at some of these ideas - aren't they unique?

Edgings for children

Stars and Moons

Sailing Boats

Rainbows

I was thinking these could be added to the edge of a blanket perhaps. There are tons of different themes in this book - the Christmas ones are especially clever!

I can't wait to sit down tonight and browse through these books, no doubt they will make me want to make things NOW but I made my promise to hubby - crochet dress first and then I can start on Little Fairy's doll (although I'm sure a little tiny pin cushion wouldn't count as they are so small?!) Anyway, would you like to meet her?

Emily Doll

Say Hello to Emily Doll! She is sweet isn't she? We wanted something fairly traditional for Little Fairy (we are way too old before our time - we are both 27 by the way and like nothing more than an early night with no T.V a book for hubby and wooly things for me!)

I have made a few things from Jean Greenhowe patterns like Little Bear's special toy here which means I have a few colours that are needed already. So today I came away with these..

Emily Doll colours

I do however have a dilema - the pattern uses a lovely pale blue for her dress (the ball of yarn on the far right) but I couldn't help but spot this lovely lavender colour (the ball of yarn on the far left). So I am thinking about changing her dress colour.. Here they are both together as a close up with the bright pink for the shoes and hair ribbons.

Pink, Blue and Lavender

I think both balls of wool go nicely with the pink but still a bit undecided - any thoughts? If so please do let me know. I'm hoping I can start Emily Doll really soon as I only have 5 more rows on the crochet dress before it is finished!!! A lot of people do a Ta-Dah! moment when they finish a project... I can feel one getting ready with this dress!