A Mugful Of Crochet

     Hello👋😄      And so here we are! The last day of Blogtober 2025! We got there in the end, although there were moments when I wondered if we would!😳      It seems like most of these October days have been on the grey and wet side of things and today was no exception, apart from a brief sunnier interlude in the early afternoon.      I got a better shot of those Rowan leaves🍂:      And we had even more of the Acer🍁 leaves down on the patio too:      And, because it was there and I had camera in hand, I took a photo of the Blue Sky:        We were going to have a chippy at lunchtime but plans were changed, which was a bit of a shame as I quite looking forward to a Battered Sausage or two! Mmmmm, Battered Sausage!😋      I'm seriously thinking about ordering some yarn from ebay , even if it does work out quite expensive, as it doesn't seem like I shall be goi...

       Hello👋😃      I thought we'd have a photo📸 day today!      🌳The Rowan Tree hasn't really performed well this year but the colours of its leaves at the moment is just brilliant!             🍄Finally we have some Toadstools that look as they did last year! The others we've had have all been much paler, almost sickly, and after the drenching they got on the 18th/19th of October they all went black!           🍁🍂My Mother and I were only saying yesterday that we hadn't seen many of next door's Acer Tree leaves, and then today - loads of 'em on the patio! Well done wind!      🌺Despite the season and the weather many of the Fuchsias Plants have beautifully waxy buds and the flowers are still opening!        🎨Art. Sometimes nature knows exactly what it's doing! See you tomorrow👋😃 

     Hello👋😀      Today started so weirdly. I somehow made it to the kitchen for breakfast to find that the light was wrong. I looked out the window at the grey and cloudy sky and noticed that the light was actually coming from the wrong direction! So, instead of the light coming from behind me or to my left, it was in-front and to the right! It really was quite eerie looking.      Coupled with that was the almost complete lack of traffic. The road is usually quite busy in both directions at that time of day, but this morning it was as if no-one was bothering to go anywhere. And that carried on more much of the day. Most odd!😕      The cloud cover lasted all day and we did get some rain, but by 7pm when my Father and I were putting the bins out, the sky was mostly clear, with lots of stars and a bright bit of moon! A chilly night me thinks!?      We watched an old Audie Murphy western🤠 in the evening - " Dru...

     Hello👋😀      I imagine that a lot of us have already started thinking about crafting for Christmas, some may have already got some things made, others may still be in the deciding zone. I'm in the latter. Not yet finished!      There are a few things that I would like to make this year, mostly decorative, but I am undecided on what exactly to do and in what order to do them. I'm also not sure about gifting anything this Christmas. It sometimes strikes me as unfair that I might make something for one person but not another, but I also don't like being overwhelmed with descisions about what to make for whom. It's bad enough choosing presents for people most years anyway! I think my Sister made these?      One thing I will be doing is making my Christmas Cards early. I say it every year but generaly don't, this year I am determined to get them made before December! I have everything I need, including new stickers, so all I ...

     Hello👋😃      Only five more posts to go! I'm surprised I've made it this far to be honest and I'm looking forward to having a rest from it but I'm going to try and make these posts count!      Today my HobbyCraft order arrived! I've never ordered from them before but getting to the shop itself has become a little difficult so it seemed like a good idea. Especially so as I discovered that a few of my Hobbycraft Gift Vouchers were getting near their expiry date! I hadn't even realized I'd had them so long!😲      So, what did I get?      First up is some Purple Ribbon which I am going to use on my Drum Stool Cover to tighten it on the stool. The ribbon I had used wasn't quite what I wanted it to be so I took the opportunity to get something different.            Some more Return Of The Mac yarn now. I got a couple of balls last year with the intention of making a sturdy shoppin...

     Hello👋😄      It's been a rather peculiar Sunday, sort of normal but not really. If you see what I mean? We all got up late for start which is never a good thing, there's usually something that someone was going to do, and as the clocks⏰ went back last night all the light values during the day seemed wrong too. I suppose we'll be back in GMT rhythm soon enough.      Sundays are generally the one day of the week when I have Chocolate Hob Nobs with my morning cuppa🍵🫖. And they do seem nicer for it although I couldn't tell you why. I suppose part of it is the hit of chocolate - a nice treat for the end of the weekend.😋      Dinner was a family favourite - Mince & 'Tatoes!😋 Top tip to make it even better, a tin if Taco Beans ! That is one good meal, especially on a colder day like today was.      While we ate we finished listening to a greatest hits CD of The Eurythmics . Gosh they did some Good ...

     Hello👋😀      How's your Saturday been? Mine's been generally naff and a bit chilly, but there has been a fair amount of sunshine🌞 which has at least made the day brighter.      We watched another episode of "Morning Before Evensong" at lunchtime. At the moment I'm not really sure what's going on, there are obviously secrets that will no doubt come out before the end but how they all tie together is not yet clear.🤔      Saturdays are usually Chinese Take-Away day for us but unfortunately our regular place is closed as the owners have gone on holiday.😞 And not just for a week either. Oh well, we won't starve. For example, today my Father made a very tasty Pasta Bake for dinner.😋 We serve it in bowls so it stays warmer longer, with a slice of toast on the side, and there's always enough for seconds! Yummers!      Our film this evening was another excellent choice - "Cowboys And Aliens" starring Daniel Cra...

     Hello👋🥶      Over the last 24hours it has suddenly become quite cold here. Cold enough, I decided, to put another crochet blanket on the bed. That brings the total up to three. At least one stays on the bed all year, with another added when Autumn starts. And the blanket chosen for this sudden chill? My version of Attic24 's Hydrangea Blanket ! Hydrangea Blanket      I made this a few years ago - it took me a couple to make it too - and it has been a feature of my Autumn/Winter bedding ever since! It's quite heavy and there is quite a lot of yarn here all taken from the household stash. It was supposed to be as per the pattern but I think I went wrong on the stitch count, because it very obviously got too wide. So I decided to work into the other side of the starting chain, meaning that my stripes go up the bed, rather than across it, and I decided to mirror the colours I'd already done on the other side. Mirrored Stripes    ...

         Hello👋😁      Yep, I missed another day. Not my fault I can assure you, sometimes "things" get in the way of others. And one of yesterday's things was very nearly BIG.  My Father noticed that the floor immediately under the washing machine, was wet!😱      Unfortunately he didn't notice until the evening, which meant that not a lot could be done about it - but he still gave it a thorough investigation anyway! Fortunately, he discovered that the machine itself was okay and the problem was probably an old washer in need of replacement in one of the hoses at the back. He was very relieved! Hopefully it will get sorted sometime tomorrow  today.      I did manage to do that Hobbycraft order I mentioned!😃 And I was able to use some gift vouchers to pay for it, which was just as well because I found out that they were fast approaching their expiry date! I didn't even know they had one! I'll share what ...

     Hello👋😀      We actually had proper sunshine this morning!🌞 And I have to say it made a great difference to see blue skies and fluffy white clouds !      It clouded over in the afternoon of course and was raining proper by dinner time, but we were expecting it - the weather on the telly got it right for a change!😮 Apparently over the course of the night, another named storm is going to come across the country soaking us all something silly, and it has been called "Benjamin". I don't know why. I don't know why they bother naming storms anyway -  it just seems daft to me, I mean is any one in a few years time going to say they remember Storm Benjamin ? The date of the storm yes ( 1987 anyone?) but not the name.      It looks like those tiny white insects I mentioned to you recently are nothing more than Whiteflies , the things that can cause havoc with your plants and veg during the summer. I was hoping for someth...

     Hello👋😀      Well yesterday was pretty much meh, but hopefully this post will make up for it.      Hooks! I can't imagine any crocheter not having a thing for hooks. Adding to the number they own whenever possible, even if it is "just to see what they're like"!      I couldn't tell you how many hooks I actually have - far less then some people! - but I know I have several of a few sizes, and only a couple of others. I also have Tunisian Hooks , some of which are handmade.      I have a few plastic ones, quite a lot of aluminium ones and a small selection of wooden ones. I don't like the plastic ones. I didn't like using plastic Knitting needles either, especially the thicker sizes! I found that some of them were hollow and were actually quite bendy, which with my tight tension , didn't make for a good working experience!      My current "go to-s" are ones I got from Aldi which are aluminiu...

     Hello👋😟      There's only 5mins of the day left and I have nothing to write about! It's been one of those days where nothing has happened! No birds to speak of, no profusion of delivery vans going next door - they often have loads of deliveries -  and nothing on the telly!      Oh well, Bye👋😐   

     Hello👋🫩      Gosh I'm tired. I really do feel knackered today and especially right now. But I've still got things to do so no bedtime for me just yet.      It's been dark, wet and gloomy all day and the lights have been on in any rooms that have been used, and this probably hasn't helped any of us feel awake or motivated.      I somehow managed to drop a stitch or two in my crochet this evening but I'm going to wait until tomorrow before trying to correct it - it's always easier in daylight anyway. If we get any.      I don't have anything else to say so I shall bid you goodnight. Goodnight!👋😴   

    Hello👋😐      Well, it hasn't been the best day but it hasn't been as bad as others recently either. It could have been a lot-LOT worse, but thankfully it wasn't.      I shall skip to end of the day when we enjoyed watching the 2016 re-boot of " The Magnificent 7 " starring Denzel Washington . I don't care what some reviews may say or how many stars it gets, I think it is a brilliant film and we have watched it multiple times and we still thoroughly enjoy it!😃      Have you noticed lots of tiny, bright white flying insects where you live? We have had loads over the last few weeks and we're not the only ones who have seen them. I had a closer look at one earlier and I can't make up my mind if they are a really tiny moth or a gnat/midge of some kind. I shall have to do some investigating!🤔      See you tomorrow👋😴   

     Hello👋😀      Another short and quick post from me today.      We had a BT/OpenReach engineer come today to connect us to this new fangled Digital Voice service which is replacing the old, and some would say much better and more reliable, analogue service.      At first we weren't sure if he would be able to do what was needed because we live in an older property where there aren't as many plug sockets as newer ones may have. (And don't mention mobile phone signals - we don't have one!!) But thankfully in the end, it was all sorted.😌      Later, we had a Chinese Take-Away for dinner.😋 I had Beef, Mushrooms and Onions with Egg Fried Rice.😋 It was very enjoyable as I hadn't had it for a while. I could eat rice every day!      I haven't been able to finish the project that I wanted to finish for the weekend, but if I had it would have been rushed and probably would have looked like it too, an...

     Hello👋😃      How's your week going? Have any of you had any meaningful sunshine? We nearly did, but it didn't last. Despite that, it did seem a bit brighter in the afternoon so I took a few photos of my current project.      Now, I know what you're thinking, but this is not the finished project. This is just the first stage. I'm making an 🍂Autumnal Cushion Cover🍂 with a ball🧶 of variegated yarn from Poundstretcher, bought years ago. This is the front and it's taken the whole ball! It's about 18" across and it was originally going to be a square cushion, but when the square was complete I decided that there really wasn't enough of the yarn left to use elsewhere in any useful way, so I opted to continue stitching and make a rectangle.      Interestingly I had no idea that it would end up striped! The ball band was mislaid some time ago but I don't remember anything about it being self-striping, but I think it has worked...

     Hello👋😀      Just a very quick one from me today, before the clock strikes twelve!      I've had a good day of crochet today with the first part of a new project finished, and I've made good headway in the project that needs to be finished for the weekend. Will I get it completely finished? Not sure but I'm going to try my hardest!😣      Hopefully I'll have more time tomorrow for a better post. Byeee👋😀    

     Hello👋😀      Have you seen the new film version of " Red Sonja "? We watched it for the first time this evening - yet more football to ignore - and I reckon it's pretty good! Yes, there are faults with it, but I think you can say that about a lot of films these days. It would have been nice if the actress chosen to play Red Sonja had a more commanding presence and a voice you could take notice of, but that may improve in the next film if they make one. And there's a small hint at the end that there might be. Personally I think that they should because not enough " Sword and Sorcery " films are made these days, which I find odd given the computer graphics available now.      Anyway, it's worth a watch if you fancy it.      Despite a bit of brightness and a patch of blue sky this morning, today was another grey and dull one - not at all inspiring - so here's a few autumnal pics from the last couple of years to lighten th...

     Hello!👋😀      Golly it's been a dark one today! I almost didn't bother opening my curtains it was so grey and gloomy out.☁️☁️ And unlike previous days where we've had cloudy mornings and brighter afternoons, today was just one long grey day. I just hope that we haven't seen the last of the sunshine, it certainly makes things a lot cheerier.🌞      Today was also hair cutting day. This involves me doing some ancient form of kitchen gymnastics while trying not to drop the cordless clippers on the floor, in the process of taming the haystack on my head and making it look a little more presentable. This is then followed by doing a similar thing with my Father's hair (I think there's enough of it to call hair) which is, admittedly easier, because I can actually see what I'm doing! I've been cutting my own hair for donkeys, long before the lockdowns of 2020, mainly because it meant I didn't have to leave the house to get it done. It's also a...

     Hello👋😃      Well, today has been a lot better than yesterday! We even had a bit of sunshine, and not one sighting of the cat! Perhaps it has finally got the message that it's not welcome here?      We had a very tasty dinner consisting of Salt & Pepper Pork Meatballs (from Lidl), Mash Potato, Peas, Carrots and a generous helping of Bisto Gravy made by yours truly! My secret is to add Black Pepper. And not just a little either!      Do you still have Sunday dinner at lunchtime or have you ditched the tradition? We still do, in fact I don't think we've ever had it at dinnertime. It's part of what makes a Sunday a Sunday, don't you think?      Later on we watched the last of the "Dr. Blake" box set which is actually a story that he isn't in. (The actor Craig McLachlan was in a bit of professional bother at the time I think). It is pretty good though and it's a shame that more weren't made. What'll we wat...

         Hello👋😐      Today has not been a great day. It started rather flatly with very cloudy skies and just got worse.       The parents went out for their seasonal Flu and Covid jabs and of course came home with complaints of queues and waiting, and as the day progressed, pains in their arms. They tell me these things like I can do something about it.      There's a cat that visits the garden to stalk the birds. It's becoming a real regular and I've had to chase it off twice today. Why can't people keep their cats inside? It's safer for them and everything else!       We watched the first episode of "Murder Before Evensong" at lunchtime. Well, my Father and I did, Mother slept through most of it, and Father doesn't like it when she does that. I thought it was quite a good opener though, so shall look forward to the next episode.      Then there was dinner time. OMG. I won'...

     Hello!👋😀      Yes, it's me! Again! And look, we're in double digits now!      I thought today we'd have a break from the crochet and have a 🌺Floral Interlude🌻 instead, just so that we can remember that Summer🌞 was here. For a little while.      Cue gentle summery music, and...                                   That was nice weren't it? It was so hot and dry during the summer I'm surprised much flowered at all, but at least we had something.   Bye for now👋😃