Play time!

I managed to have a mid-week crafting day yesterday to make up for the weekend I didn't get. I love it when a dreary wet day arrives and I don't need to be somewhere/do things away from home.

I've got an unexpected additional marathon this weekend on Valentine's Day which I hadn't intended on doing but Mike's busy on something, a place became available and that was it - I entered.

Day 1 is called The Unusual Suspects Challenge and we're invited to wear the most vile coloured running vest we have. I'm not sure I can find one that's too ghastly but I do have some nice stripey tights, a tutu and some clashing colours to wear.

Day 2 is The Valentine's Day Challenge where the theme is pink and red so I set about making some decorations for my running cap.

I started with a large crochet heart for the front using Bunny Mummy's sweet pattern which was the perfect size using 4 ply yarn.

Then I made  a teeny-weeny heart for the back, just making it up as I went along.

Cut out some different sized hearts in felt:

Added a bead to the centre of the tiniest hearts and then joined them to each side of my cap using running stitch (how appropriate!).

Perfect.

But there really were not enough hearts for my liking (I love hearts!) and so when I nipped out for the horse feed I popped into a Charity shop (OK, I did make a rather unnecessary detour to get there) and look what I found for £1.99:

Maybe not quite traditional running gear but what the heck, it's just a bit of fun to brighten up the day.

To complete my outfit I shall be wearing either fluoro-pink or red tights and my lovely heart socks - pure class!!!

In full-on perfectionist mode I decided I wanted to change Mike's mitten yet again so undid it all and started again. Yes, this is my 3rd attempt but I'm so glad I did as now I've got something that we both really like.

The pattern has a cuff which is turned over and I wondered if Mike would always wear them like that or if he'd prefer just a longer length going up his arm. After bouncing around ideas we decided that he'd like the option to wear them either way. So I came up with an idea which excited us - a striped section.

Although the yarn is a lovely tweedy mix of many colours with specks of mustard, turquoise and red, the overall impression just seemed too dreary even for Mike who likes things relatively subdued. I decided to pick out one of the colours and insert some stripes. But which one?

Sorry it's out of focus!

More playing with some leftover yarn from this Fair Isle project helped us to choose red and further experimentation with swatches lead to a combination of 2 beautiful reds held together - one bright and one muted.

The 2 reds we chose are 187 Sunrise and  587 Madder in Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift which I used in my 'Autumn Rose' pullover

This is where I've got to on the cuff and Mike loves it. It's flying off the needles now!

I also had time left for a bit of a darning session as there are far too many holey socks languishing around at the moment:

5 pairs of mine and 2 of Mike's

Out came my darning box where I keep my mending mushrooms and spare bits of yarn for each project.

I started with a pair of Mike's where the cast-on edge had been torn and a stitch had run leaving a ladder  that was easy to fix with a crochet hook and finished with a stitch

The heel wasn't quite as simple. The other sock had hardly any wear on the heel so he must have caught this one on something and what a mess it was!

I thought about knitting a new patch for it but decided a darn would work OK if done thoroughly

I started by doing a running stitch all the way round the hole and then out came my mushroom and the darning commenced. I quite enjoy darning and it's amazing what can actually be repaired with just a bit of time and effort.

In fine fettle once again

I've just checked the weather forecast for the weekend and it looks as if we're going to get soaked on Saturday and frozen on Sunday. Hey ho, I'll just have to get the job done whatever the weather!