Spring swap arrival!

Look what arrived in the post today! My parcel from the Spring Washer Swap! Kate from Foxs Lane ( she has an amazing blog!) knitted the most gorgeous greeny leafy lacey washer for me, it's such an intricate pattern, she's a very talented lass! I also received some lovely soap that smells divine, and some great purple oak leaf lettuce seeds which will be delicious this summer. It all came wrapped in a lovely piece of wrapping fabric that was edged and all! I'm going to use it for a nice table runner! My boys were fighting over who was going to use mum's new washer first, so it got the thumbs up from them!
So there you go, thank you so much Kate for all your nifty knitting and for swapping! Thanks to Jodie at Jellywares for organising this swap, it's been a lot of fun. I highly recommend trying a swap if you never have, it's a different type of creativity!

Lucky me!!

( I would have posted links to Kates blog , but the boys have been O.D ing on the Xbox live and World of Warcraft and we have used up all our downloads so everything is sooooooo slow, Gary is not a happy camper! Posting is a tricky exercise at the minute!)
Have a great day!

Hand made Christmas Challenge......

I noticed this challenge on Knicky Knacks blog recently, and thought I'd by up for a bit of handmade Christmas action, so I'm joining in this week, I have made presents before for people, with mixed results ( I made a bag for someone once,(who shall remain nameless), only to have the same bag regifted back to me 2 years later! There was a nice bottle of wine in it, so I guess I did alright out of it, but I don't think she thought much of my bag pressie!! boo hoo.)
Having said that... I'm going to have another go this year and try and make a few pressies and support other handmakers.

I made these little washers for a swap I'm taking part in, and thought they might make a nice little pressie with a bit of interesting soap or something along those lines. Maybe for the kids teachers.
Please tell me if I'm deluding myself and they scream hokey homemade crap! I think they are cute and a little bit retro, and I have a few other gorgeous colours to try them in, I like the little granny inspired edge the best I think.
Anyway, I found the pattern by googling "washer patterns crochet'' ( I think), sorry can't remember the exact site, but the pattern is called 'Crochet Dandy Dishcloths' (cool name don't you think).
I hope my swap partner likes them.

Check out what other people are up to in the Homemade Christmas Challenge here

Spring swap!

I have signed up for Jellywares Spring Washer Swap, and have recently received my partners details, so I had better get cracking on a couple of washers! I made an attempt last night, but somehow my 31 stitches grew to 42 by the time I had done the required number of rows! I am still pretty new to crochet, and crocheting a piece of fabric is quite different to doing a granny square.
Soooooo.... I started again, and I'm keeping a close eye on the stitch count this time! Seems to be going ok so far. Maybe I'll knit a couple instead, I'm much more confident in my knitting ability!!

It should be fun to post off my little parcel, I haven't been in a swap before so I hope It works out alright! I'll try and have a photo tomorrow.

Have a great day!