Friday 19 April 2013

Making for the baby - Part 2

It's finished!

I can't believe it's finished!

I started it so long ago I didn't actually think I'd get it done, but once I knew I was adding in pink for a girl I had a sudden burst of enthusiasm to complete it.

You know what I'm talking about don't you?

The blanket!

The baby blanket for our little girl! I finished it!

Woah, need to calm down on the exclamations. But I am a little, teensy winsey, tiny bit proud of myself :)

Without further ado, I give you my first ever crocheted blanket - especially for my first born. *drumroll*



What do you think? Do you like it? Do the colours work? I was a little unsure about the pink at first but now I love it. Joining the squares was really fiddly and I think I need more practise but I couldn't find a decent tutorial anywhere, it's as though everyone just *knows* how to do it. Well I didn't!

I wasn't too sure what to do for the border, I wanted it to work quickly so I did a row of trebles to add depth, then a row of doubles. To finish off I wanted something a little but fancy, I though about a scalloped, frilly edge but thought that might not be good for a baby blanket. Not sure why, but it didn't feel right. Instead I went for a reverse double crochet stitch which has given the blanket a lovely ropey edge, still nice and soft but it looks finished.

One picture just isn't enough to show you how proud I am of this so here's some more.









I know there are some parts which don't look the best but I'm still a beginner here! And as my first ever blanket I think it looks pretty darn good. I just hope she likes it too.

Oh and if you'd like to try your hand at the teddies, the link to the pattern can be found in Part 1

Sunday 14 April 2013

Making for the baby! Part 1 :)

Woohoo! So I've actually been making things for the baby :)

I've been making this particular item pretty much since I found out I was pregnant, but I couldn't finish it until we knew whether we were having a boy or a girl. Now we know that she's a she I'll be able to finish it!

Using my new found crochet 'skills' *cough* still very much learning *cough* I decided I wanted to make a crochet baby blanket for the little one. My fiance's nan was always in charge of crochet items in his family but she sadly passed away a couple of years ago - someone needed to pick up the hook so I'm going for it! I'm not the best at granny squares as I get bored too quickly and I was determined that I wanted to make something that was clearly for a baby so I decided to try my hand at fillet crochet :)

What is fillet crochet I hear you ask? Well to be honest, I don't have a clue! I saw a pretty pattern here, decided I wanted to use it for the blanket and then found out it was called fillet crochet! My best definition would be that it's a way of making pretty pictures within your crochet.

Teddy bears seem to be perfect for the blanket, they're cute and cuddly and could be for either a boy or a girl - as long as I picked the right colours!

Following the pattern, I had a bit of trouble - it just wouldn't work, but this is probably due to me reading it wrong somewhere rather than the pattern itself. Feeling determined that this would be the pattern for my baby I didn't give up, instead I enlarged the picture and copied it! Spaces were made with tr-ch-tr and then the 'block' parts were just straight trebles.

Clever right?

Here's one of the squares!



Argh, I'm so proud of it!

I chose an apple green and a lilac yarn to begin with, planning to add in a blue or a pink once we knew. Now that we do, and with a huge thank you to a competition I won with Abakhan, I've gotten more green yarn and lots of pink to finish off the blanket!

This is how it's looking at the moment :)



What do you think?

I'm pretty darn proud of it! I'll be using the pink to join the squares and make the border :) Though that will probably take me another month!

EDIT:

I've just noticed that at some point I made a mistake with the bears and carried on making them that way! Whoops! I hope it's not too noticeable? Kinda hope it adds the handmade-ness of the blanket....eek!

Saturday 6 April 2013

Cakes, chocolate, caramel...Give me it all!

I love to cook.

I really do. I especially love to cook things that people think are really difficult and impressive but in reality just take a lot of chip-chopping and preparation. In other words...I like the glory that comes with producing a good meal almost as much as the eating itself!

Strangely enough, throughout all the sickness the one thing I don't have a problem with is cakes and chocolate! Hurrah! Although I'm not sure this will work in my favour when I go for my gestational diabetes test...booooo. Anyhows, with Easter fast approaching (last week *cough*), I decided I wanted to whip up something scrumptious for the big day.

Enter the Mary Berry book.

Oh how I love my brand new Mary Berry book! All the classic recipes are there along with scores of new ones :) One of the things I LOVE about the book is that it has sections telling you exactly how to prepare foods and present them. From how to bone a chicken, to the exact times and temperatures for roasting meat, to how to perfectly fold and present a Danish pastry - I LOVE this book!

Within 5 minutes I'd found a delicious chocolate cupcake recipe, decided to knock up some caramel for a topping and I was away in the kitchen. With no sickness woo!

After making the caramel I decided for a bit of flair I'd add it to some buttercream to make, what I believe to be, a rather pretty and impressive cupcake display.

There were lots of 'oohs and ahhs' when the cupcakes were revealed :)

What do you think?





And now they're all gone!

Friday 5 April 2013

It's a.....!!

So I think I may have slightly underestimated how sick I was in my last post.

I expected to be back to 'normal' within a week and making, baking and nesting like a maniac for the next few months. The truth is I've been stuck on my backside feeling sorry for myself, struggling to find food I can keep down and becoming exhausted after even the smallest of tasks. I was ordered a week of bedrest by my fiance when I came out of hospital but that has pretty much turned into a months worth. I've been out of the house probably a grand total of 5 times and have started to need naps.

I know people say 'you're pregnant, not sick' but in my case...I'm both!

Anyway, this wasn't a moaning post, I do have some news! One of those times out of the house included another trip to the hospital, this time not because I felt like I was about to keel over but for my 20 week scan!

I was absolutely terrified before the scan. I was certain that me being sick so much, becoming so dehydrated and losing weight instead of gaining was going to have done something terrible to the baby, but I needn't have worried. The baby looked great! The sonographer was lovely and explained everything she was looking at and why and what it meant. She found nothing unusual and all of the measurements came up within the 'normal' ranges for a baby of 20+4.

Now, some of you may know that a 20 week scan is your opportunity to find out what sex the baby is. From the beginning my fiance and I had been adamant we wanted to know, until a week before the scan! We started wondering if a surprise would be better? Would we regret knowing? Hmmm, hard to say really. So we came up with a slightly unusual plan.

Instead of having the sonographer tell us at the scan, we asked her to write down the sex in my diary so that we could find out at home, snuggled up with a cup of tea (well, hot chocolate in my case) in a nice, relaxed and homely environment :) So... in caseyou're wondering (and haven't found out via twitter/facebook yet!)...take a look at the picture and see!



Isn't SHE beautiful?! I know, I know, everyone thinks that their scan looks amazing and most look the same, but look at her little nose! Tell me that isn't the cutest nose? I'm so excited to be having a little girl! I think I would have been just as excited to be having a boy but I cannot stop smiling whenever I think of her. She already has a name but we're keeping that to ourselves for now.

So that was a couple of weeks ago :) The bump is growing so fast now that my coat is struggling to stay done up! Not good in the snow (Snow in April - still not impressed!)!

Here's a little pic of the bump at 22 weeks :) I've stopped losing weight now which is great too :D



Right! That's enough rambling! Time to start planning all the pretty pink things we want to buy and make for our little girl!