Blog like no one is reading

Chris asked me yesterday how my blog revival was going. I told him that next-to-nobody is reading it or interacting with it but that I don't care and I'm carrying on regardless because I find it comforting. It's nice to put a few thoughts and pictures out there, I think. Little snippets of life recorded until the servers are no more. I'm enjoying reading other people's blogs too. Bring blogging back, I say!

Crochet in the morning sunshine

I've not got much to report because nothing much is happening. I've been getting up early to crochet before work because the mornings are lighter earlier and once the sunshine has woken me up I'm awake for good. There's no point lying there in bed effing-and-jeffing at Twitter and the news on my phone, so I get up, make myself a cup of tea, feed Nigel, then get a couple of hours of crochet done.

I'm enjoying the new CiM colours and there are some really lovely ones in this batch. I'm in a polka dot mood this week so every passing bead is getting polka dotted to within an inch of its life.

This bobbly one is polka dotty too, just with added raised bumps. In case you're interested this bead is CiM Heather with polka dots in CiM Quetzal, topped with CiM Aegean.

I'm very much liking the springtime. Last week the flowering cherry tree I walk past on my way to the shop had burst into full bloom.

I love this particular tree because we used to have one like it at home. My Great Uncle Bernard gave it to me when I was really small. I got a flowering cherry and my mum got an apple tree. Here's a photo of me watering one of them just after we'd planted it.

Socks and sandals

Both trees grew to be quite large over the years and sadly we had to have them taken down not long before we moved as the roots were doing damage to the lawn. Still, whenever I see flowering cherries I always think of the one at the bottom of our garden.

Anyway, I'm off to clean some beads and take some pictures of them and then I should be back later with another testing post.

CiM Testing: Coming Up Roses

Coming Up Roses is a transparent pink glass that has a slight purplish hue to it. It has a nice smooth, not-too-stiff working consistency and it wasn’t shocky but the rod I had did have a fair few microbubbles in it. They’re not a major issue, though. Remember that you’re looking at a photo of beads that shows them way bigger than they are in real life. The beads here are only 12mm diameter. What I’m trying to balance here is telling you to not let the tiny bubble thing deter you from using this very lovely colour, with simultaneously letting you know that the tiny bubbles are there.

These beads are CiM Heffalump encased with Coming Up Roses, with polka dots and spacers in Effetre Lavender Blue 247.

The beads were photographed indoors in natural daylight.

CiM Testing: Dollhouse Misty and Dollhouse Milky

Dollhouse is a very pretty rose quartzy pink glass and there are two versions of it - misty and milky.

Dollhouse Misty has the translucent opalescent thing going on that CiM does so well.

Dollhouse Misty
Photographed indoors in natural daylight

These ones have a core of CiM Heffalump encased with Dollhouse Misty, decorated with spots of Effetre Violet 272. The spacers are plain Dollhouse Misty. 

Dollhouse Misty photographed outdoors

I had no troubles at all with this one. It melted nicely with no shocking or scumming.

Dollhouse Milky is milkier than its misty counterpart, and more opaque yet still translucent. A really lovely colour and glass. Again, no trouble with it at all.

CiM Dollhouse Milky

I just made solid beads with it, decorated with polka dots in Effetre White 204.

CiM Dollhouse Milky

Both photos of Dollhouse Milky were taken indoors in natural daylight.

The photo at the very top of this post shows the misty and milky versions of Dollhouse next to each other.

Nothing in particular

In bead news, my bundle of Creation is Messy testing glass arrived this week and it's going to keep me busy for quite a while. I made a start with the testing and the first colour I tried was a misty opal pink called Dollhouse. I'll give it, and its milky opal counterpart, a proper write-up in a separate post next week.

In a recent post I mentioned my Akihiro Okama 'Sakura' bead and I said I'd take a photo of it to show you. Here it is:

I bought this bead in about 2006. It's quite big and it's very beautiful. It has a 4mm hole and as you can see I just used a couple of sterling silver round beads and wired it very simply as a pendant and it's strung on a long chain.

In crochet news, I finished my Attic24 Aria blanket a couple of weeks ago. It's such a joyful thing!

I'm pretty sure that no two squares are the same.

When I first posted photos of the blanket in progress on my Instagram stories, my sister fell in love with it so I said I'd make her one too. I started hers about ten days ago and this time I made all the inner circles first...

...and then I added the second colour to each one, stringing them in order on a circular knitting needle as I finished them. I got this tip from one of Amanda Perkins' books. There are a hundred squares in the picture below but I managed to fit the remaining forty-four onto the metre long needle. 

I'm currently on the adding-the-third-colour-to-each-square-and-joining-them-as-I-go stage and I have thirty-six squares left to do.

In other news, I've not been running for a few weeks because the last couple of times I went out I came back all stressed out about people who'd given me grief for not wearing a mask. One woman got pretty flipping shirty about it. I wasn't huffing and puffing and I'm super conscious of keeping my distance from people, but still you can't please all the people all the time and all that. After this I tried running in a mask and I got two miles in and couldn't catch my breath. The mask gets absolutely soaked with wet breath condensation and it is zero fun trying to breathe through that. I decided that running with a mask was a no-go so for a few runs after that I stuck to quieter routes at quieter times but people were still tutting and giving me filthy looks so I thought I'd give the running a break until lockdown restrictions are eased and people will be less freaked out by a ploddy-jogging middle-aged woman.

I don't know when lockdown restrictions are easing and frankly I've lost interest in any kind of dates, numbers and what's what with this stupid bloody virus. Sick of it. I went back to the foodbank on Friday for my first shift since my arms malfunctioned and one of the other volunteers who also runs asked me if I was still running. I told him what I've just told you about the angry woman and his advice was to "Just ignore anyone who shouts at you. Get back out there!" and I think that was the boot up the arse I needed to get my trainers on and go for a jog. I did just that today.

Spring is officially here and my run this morning was so springtime with its sunshine, birds singing and this carpet of cheerful narcissi. I ran my standard route and nobody shouted at me and none of the other runners I saw had masks on either. Good times.

I'm off to complete the census now and then tonight is Line of Duty night and I am mighty excited!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

And the winner is…

I’ve just drawn the winner of the heart necklace and that person is…

…Uyen! I’ll drop you a message on Instagram to get your delivery address.

Thanks to everyone who entered the draw. I shall do another one soon.