Do you remember the summer of 1982? No? Well then, do you remember last week? Cause I vaguely seem to remember declaring it the week of crochet. So what has happened to that?

Well... uhm... there was some crochet being done. Here's the evidence:

The bulk of the front of a big size pillow, being 25 squares or perhaps the beginning of a small blanket. Still not very sure. Why not?

Well, this knitting kinda got in the way...

A snowy white cardigan for little Snow White. It was a quick project done in a mix of récup 'Fleur de Sel de Guérande and plumette 'écru'.  I used a tutorial that can be found here at Une poule à petit pas. I did make a few modifications. Not only did I make the sleeves longer, I did the collar in the same needle size as the body and I did not put a button on the collar. It makes for a better fit on my Snow White. Now let the snow come, we'll be warm!

If only you could take a look into the hardware of my computer, you would instantly know that I am keen on our family camera. I'm not the type however to walk around with the camera all day long -perhaps I would if it wasn't so big and heavy and rather impractical swaying from your neck... who can tell- but nonetheless I own many pictures. Most of them feature my children. And to be honest it wasn't until they were born and we got a Canon Digital Rebel that we started to accumulate all those pictures.

It's all just so easy. You can take hundreds of pictures, throw out those that are no good, perform magic by means of Photoshop or leave them as they are. You can just store them on your PC as a sort of backup memory or you can print them in hundreds of ways to make them a tangible part of your life.

Personally I keep loads of them just on my PC.

Then every year I create a couple of albums with a selection of our most treasured shots. I use Blurb for that. "Why?" you ask? Well, first of all they are the only company that will print more than 120 pages in a book. And yes, I surpass that amount of pages without effort. Secondly, they are professionals with high quality products and not unimportant, they actually ship orders destined for the EU from within the EU so there are no import taxes to be paid. 

I also make a number of scrapbook layouts -digital, hybrid and traditional- throughout the year depending on my desire to do computery stuff.

And lastly I use some of them to scatter around the house in the shape of homely decor.

This is a good example:

It's on old type case -after all I am the daughter of an antiques dealer - that has been filled with a vast amount of pictures and some embellishments from my scrapbook stash. Getting the type case to look like this was quite time consuming. First it needed to be cleaned. The old type case came with some seriously old dust. Then I varnished it to give it back it's sheen and to prevent it from becoming too dusty again. At that point in time I measured out the dimensions of the squares and resized and cropped the dozens of pictures that would be going in it. Once they returned from the printers I cut them all out and did some tweaking to the dimensions with an exacto knife. Old type cases, as all things old, have the tendency to be a bit uneven and crooked in most places. Once the pictures did fit, I glued them in place and brought some variation to the overall case by using small embellishments in a number of squares.

The result is a cheerful and random glance into our daily life of 2008. 

It was hanging on the hallway wall ever since. But last week we redecorated that wall and put up some magnificent wallpaper on the wall in question. And whilst the wall looks brilliant now, the type case needs to move as the two don't match. For now it's patiently awaiting some repairs -mostly new glue on the pictures- on the floor of my workspace. 

The discussion on where to put it is still very much alive and although we are open minded there's one constraint. It needs to be in a place where the children can see it. They like nothing better than to sit back and reminisce in front of it. 

Where would you put it? Any suggestions perhaps?

It sounds a bit like a foreign destination one would like to travel to. But however disappointing it might be -to you and me- it's not. It's the name of a knitting pattern. A sweater. Not a town. But it's a sweater that you could easily imagine wearing while traveling to that foreign destination. Not so disappointing any longer, hey?

And it's a great sweater. It's roomy, it's airy, it has a great flow. It has pockets waiting to be filled with little gems. It has a wonderfully cute brooch to close it. It looks fab closed or open. Actually it's the kind of sweater that can be worn all year round and will be worn all year round, I'm sure.

For this beauty I used a yarn by La Droguerie called 'récup'. And récup it is... the yarn consists 100% of recycled fibres. It feels a bit like a cotton tweed. It's soft and rugged all at once.

The pockets are positioned exactly on the right height. It's just a matter of time before they will get heavy from all those glittering stones that our little lady collects from every drive way we pass...

The raglan sleeves give it that nice flow and make it a sweater in which kids can move around freely without being restricted by numerous seams on their arms and shoulders. It also gives the sweater that indicative and decorative edging at the seam of the raglan.

And little lady is especially taken with this mouse brooch. It's the cookie that does it. Now I want a brooch like that for my own sweaters.

Perhaps it's time to make one in an adult size....

It was sitting on top of a cake stand and it was meant to become something rather attractive to look at. Technically speaking it will always remain a bunch of felt but from now on that felt is shaped into a luscious fruit cake. Behold:

Plenty of fruits served with whipped cream.

A small slice already cut for you to take a bite.

And enough choice of fruit for everyone's liking.

Can you tell that I am really happy with the outcome? I was asked to make this cake as a gift for a wedding reception based on a small cake that actually looks nothing like this. I upgraded the size of the cake to fit snuggly on the stand and made it higher and much richer. It's a fiddly process but it's awfully rewarding to see the cake filling up as you add more and more fruit to it. It also works up quite an appetite...

Felt is lovely to work with. It doesn't fray and it's easy to cut. There are just a few pointers that you can keep in mind to end up with a nice finish.

First, it's worth getting the 100% wool felt. And pick the variety that isn't too floppy. I work with Japanese felt as I find that it comes in the biggest array of colors.

When handling felt, don't pull it. It's still a flexible material and by pulling at it, you'll pull it right out of shape and your measurements won't add up anymore.

Also I find that in order to get a good definition of the colors and shapes it's worth stitching just about every piece and every seam. Occasionally (for example the strawberry leaves on this cake) it works without a stitched seam but in most cases when colors are combined, stitching improves the effect.

Lastly, use tiny stitches but don't go too near the edge or it will tear as you pull your thread.

So with this cake delivery done and dusted I'll head over to my vacuum.

Himiko