Our Princess is in Another Castle

A double post today, one personal and one stitchy.

On the Geek-a-long they have a Mario mushroom square. I know that Simon would love a mushroom square but, as great as the Geek-a-long one is, I think he'd prefer a more traditional, rounder mushroom from the earlier Mario games. So I researched a few different types of cross stich patterns and made a chart which should work for both knitting and cross stitch. It's a lot smaller than the designs in the other squares but I think that it looks right for Mario.

Square number 9: Mario Mushroom.

I'm very happy with the way this turned out. I wasn't sure how it would look with a white face rather than beige but it looks good.

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

London Calling

I haven't posted much this week as we've been away. We went to London for my husband's 40th (yes, the birthday's here and the blanket's nowhere near done; at this rate he'll be lucky to get it for his 41st, lol).

London was amazing. I've only been a few times before, usually on a day trip with my mum, so it was really fun to stay there for a few days. We got to be really touristy and walked around until my feet threatened to give up and leave me.

As you know, we're big fans of WWE here and when I was researching the area our hotel was in, I discovered that there was an independent wrestling show being held around the corner on our first night there. So that was the first night sorted and it was amazing! We've never been to a live wrestling show before and it was so much fun. The crowd were so into it and yelling the most hilarious chants. We're definitely going to keep an eye out for more independent shows in the Bristol area.

The next day was the real touristy one. We went to Covent Garden to check out the market and all the Christmas regalia.

A giant silver reindeer to match the silver glittery one on my desk but then we spotted...real mini reindeer!

Seriously, how adorable are they? I wanted to feed them but they were only letting the kids do that; foiled again by those pesky kids ;)

Our final night was my husband's big birthday present; his favourite band, Carter USM, had their last ever gig at Brixton Academy. I don't have any photos from that because the last time my husband went to a gig there, he got pickpocketed, so this time we didn't take anything but our tickets, enough cash for a couple of drinks and ourselves. It was possibly the craziest concert I've ever been to and that's saying something.

So that was our trip away. We had a great time and will definitely doing it again.

Speak Friend and Enter

I'm still not feeling great but at least the all over aching has stopped; it all seems to have moved into a headcold now so I'm still snuggled in my sofa blanket nest and demanding Lemsips (I don't know why they taste better when my husband makes them, they just do).

I am feeling well enough to get back to the knitting now and also to tell you the saga of my new phone. I mentioned a few posts back that I wanted a new phone to play WWE Supercards on, well besically I just wanted a phone that would let me download any app or game and will also pass along all of my text messages instead of those the phone wanted to. My phone is actually in my dad's name due to a package deal he got a few years back on phones for me and my mum so I had to wait until we could go to a shop together and get an upgrade. While my parents were visiting, I upgraded to a Nokia Lumia because I wanted a phone with a really good camera. We traded in my old handset as part of the deal and then my parents went back to Wales and I went home.

The guy at the shop mentioned that I may need to use my old sim card until my new one kicked in so I opened the back of the phone and realised that my old sim card didn't actually fit in my new handset. No problem, I just had to wait until my new sim card started working. Except it didn't start working. I had a quick Google and realised that I just needed to talk to my inetwork provider and get the sim card switched over (either they guy in the shop hadn't done it after all or something else had gone wrong along the way).

My husband was in work so I couldn't phone them as all I had was my not-currently-working mobile phone so I emailed them, explaining the situation and asking them to switch my sim card on. I didn't hear anything back from them for two days then got an email saying that they'd been trying to call me and couldn't get an answer...obviously. The gist of the rest of the email was that they couldn't deal with me because the phone's not in my name - which isn't a problem I've had before because I am listed on the account. So I emailed my dad, asked him to call them and when he did, he got told 'Where have you been? We've been waiting for you to contact us to turn the sim on for days'!

Ahh well. It's probably a good thing I didn't have a phone this week anyway, I would've just called my friends and family to moan at them about how ill I felt, lol.

Really long rant over, lets talk about the next square. For this one, I went back to the Geek-a long blanket. I wanted to have a Tolkein related square and I thought their design was really clever.

Square number 8: The Lord of the Rings

This square features the word 'friend' in elvish as in the riddle on the Doors of Durin.

The photo is a little washed out but in real life the square is a lovely sage green and buttermilk yellow colour. I was really pleased with this square, it turned out great.

I hope that you're all staving off the flu and having a better week than me (end of the week, at least). And here's a fun fact before you leave; did you know that the Nokia Lumia is a Windows phone that, it turns out, doesn't support the WWE Supercards app?   ;)

Trees and People Used to be Good Friends

I officially have the lurgy. This is this first time I've been able to leave the nest of blankets on my sofa since Wednesday. I know that the whole 'catching flu because you got soaked in the rain' thing is an old wives tale but I did get drenched in a downpour on Monday night during my parents visit and I could barely move on Wednesday so I'm going to blame the rain anyway.

Obviously I haven't done much knitting this week, what with the visit and being sick (I've never been so ill that I can't knit before) but I'm still posting squares that I made previously so here we go.

Square number 7: My Neighbour Totoro

We finally got around to watching this film earlier in the year and absolutely loved it. I originally wanted to do a Catbus square but when I found this chart of Totoro I knew it would be perfect. The only thing I changed was adding a little more to the bottom of the chart so that we could see the markings on Totoro's belly.

Sorry this post is so short but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Now I'm heading back to my nest with a mug of lemsip.

Instead of Shooting Where I Was, You Should Have Shot Where I Was Going to Be

Today's post is going to be a short one as my parents are visiting and I get to go shopping and pick out our Christmas present - I just hope The Range still has the Odessa Baskets in stock or I'm going to cry and it won't be pretty.

Time for the next square on The Blanket of Doom. We've had sports, TV shows, books and an RPG so it's time for a video game and I had to go old school. I found the exact chart I need on Molina's blog although she has since moved to this site and you should really check both out because she has some great charts, especially if, like me, you're a Supernatural and Stargate fan (I will be using loads of her charts if I ever get around to making my own blanket).

Square number 6: Space Invaders

Obviously I have chosen not to use the borders, mostly so that I could get the design to fit the 45x57 square but I still think it looks great. Despite my camera making the square look like it was knitted up in black and yellow, it is in fact a gorgeous lime green (also I know the first pic makes the square look out of shape, that's just the weird placement I apparently put it in when I took the photos).

Okay, I'm going shopping for goodies, wish me luck.
xxx

SQUEAK

My Andy emmulator has died and I can't play WWE Supercards today (I really need to get a new phone so that I can play it like normal people instead of making my computer pretend it's a phone). So instead of crying over my dwindling People's Champion score, I'm going to post the next square of my husband's blanket. 

For the next one I decided to go to Discword. My husband is a huge Terry Prachett fan and the bookcases in our living room have been overtaken by his books. In hunting for a Discworld related chart I discovered the amazing stephieface who has a few Terry Practchett projects and some other great charts too so click on the links and check her stuff out. I couldn't decide between her Grim Squeaker or DEATH of Rats charts and eventually went with the Grim Squeaker even though I had to change it slightly - I adapted it to work with just two colours instead of three and also enlarged it in order to do this. Looking back, I regret changing it and wish that I'd gone with the more straightforward DEATH of Rats chart. I may go back and redo the square if I have time later on in the project but even if I don't, I think it still works (just not as well as stephieface's original chart).

Square number 5: Discworld's The Grim Squeaker

I hope you have a great weekend and get lots of crafty stuff done, I'm certainly going to try :D

Yeah, I've Got Nothing

I've just found out that my cousin has her christmas tree up already and not just one but nine christmas trees dotted around her house. I'm so jealous; I want to put my tree up but it takes up a lot of room in our small living room and with my parents visiting next week, it'll be a bit of a squash. I'm putting it up right after that though, you see if I don't.

It's time to post the next square of my husband's Blanket of Doom. After the dizzying heights of the World Series winners, it's time to bring it home with a square dedicated to his favourite british sports team - which means a football square.

I am not a football fan in any way, shape or form and will usually watch some kind of detective drama on my computer while it's on the TV but my husband is a life-long Arsenal FC fan and has listed the team among his five favourite things along with Carter USM, The Manic Street Preachers, Zombies and Star Wars (notice that I'm not on that list?). So, an Arsenal square it is.

Again, I struggled to find a chart small enough to fit in the 45x57 space so had to make my own.

Square number 4: Arsenal FC

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

Hunter Pence Has Already Finished His Christmas Shopping

The third square for my husband's blanket is actually rather timely. About six years ago ESPN America appeared on our TVs over here and gave us baseball. Immediately my family became a bit obsessed with the game and whereas my dad latched onto the New York Yankees, my husband went for the far more crazy San Francisco Giants. Obviously, my husband's pick was the better choice.

ESPN America may have left our TVs again (and I really miss Around the Horn) but we're still able follow baseball online and my husband is still a huge Giants fan. So the decision for this square was rather obvious.

One of my first knitting efforts when I first started back in 2012 was to make him a pair of Giants themed fingerless gloves.

While the gloves themselves fell apart after a couple of months, I still have the chart I used. Just the logo seemed a little plain though and I remembered that I'd seen a load of knitted hats being worn at the games which had the Golden Gate Bridge on them.So I found a couple of photos of similar hats online and then figured out my own chart.


Square number 3: San Francisco Giants

This is a design that I made for my own personal use and is not endorsed by or being used by Lamas and Lattes or the official Geek-a-long blanket. I am merely a fan of their project and have decided to make my own version. Don't forget to visit the Geek-a-long page to show your support for the official Geek-a-long blanket project which is raising money for a great cause and if you'd like to donate to that cause then please visit The Child's Play Charity here.

A Song of Blankets and Yarn

Housework is done so now I can sit down with a cup of coffee and show you square number two of the Blanket of Doom.

For this square I wanted to do something from Game of Thrones as the husband has read all of the books (so far) and loves the TV series. The challenge was finding something which fit into a 45x57 square. Then I stumbled across the amazing i crochet things They've made a bunch of charts for the Game of Throne houses and they are brilliant; you really should check them out by following the link below.

I decided to go with The House of Stark design in grey and cream. The design is actually 44 stitches across so I knocked a stitch off the backend of the direwolf so that it fits the size I need, leaving one stitch in the background colour on either side of the wolf.

Square number 2: Game of Thrones -House of Stark

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and eat all those leftover sweets from Halloween ;)