Of blankets and other things...

It appears I may have gone a little mad on the blanket front this year.  I have started not one, not two, but three blankets!  Hannah's rainbow ripples are coming on, I've nearly got to the halfway mark with the ripples themselves.  I took Steph's blue and green diamonds to Anglesey and got quite a few of those done too.  And then there is a third granny blanket which I'll talk about another time when I've done a bit more of it.  I must be mad! (I think we knew that anyway.)  Not only have I three blankets on the go, I have still got two jumpers to make too, but those are knitting rather than crochet.  The pile of projects beside my chair was getting rather silly, so I've had to sort it out and find homes for them, but not too far away as I never know what I might fancy working on...  I know I have always had 'startitis' (I love the idea of a new project!) but I think I might have taken it to new depths this year.  Ah well, it'll keep me occupied, especially as my back isn't good at the moment.

Around this time of year I usually get the urge to re-read The Lord of The Rings, and this year is no different.  It took me a long time to get round to reading it a few years ago, but once I'd seen the films I was hooked and swiftly read the books.  So this year, before embarking on LOTR itself, I'm wading through the Silmarillion first.  I'm really enjoying the stories but its written more like biblical history than fiction so its a bit tricky to get the hang of at first.  That, and a lot of the characters have similar names!  Thank goodness for the glossary at the back, and the maps (we do like a good map).

So between Tolkein, crochet and knitting I am well occupied.  Not a bad life, eh?

Anglesey

We've been on holiday!  We went to Anglesey for a short half term break, and had a lovely time.  The weather was calm and not raining, good for this time of year, and we even managed some time on the beach (all dressed up of course, ski suits are great for this).  We visited South Stack lighthouse on the calmest day possible (very unusual) but nobody felt like going down all the steps, so we just enjoyed the view from the top.  The light was on which was a bonus - look Mummy, the lighthouse is working!

We also had a lovely meal at the Oystercatcher at Rhosneigr - they have a chef academy for training local young people, so Chris had the 'Cadet's table' menu where for each course the cadet who had cooked it came out to explain what they'd done. They were very good with the kids and had some brilliant decor too. The children really enjoyed the swimming pool and games room where we were staying, and we had a couple of very lazy days.  I took lots of photos, mainly mountains, sea views, beaches and a church or two.  I loved all the texture and patterns that were around as well as the beautiful scenery.

[I've discovered the joys of MosaicMaker - great fun and I love the results]

I've been tangling again (no, not tangling up wool, that's not fun, Zentangling I mean) following a visit to a show at EventCity last week and a workshop with Alison from Old Hall Crafts.  I've brought back some stones to try tangling on, and all the textures inspired me to come up with a new (well, maybe reinvented, but new to me anyway) tangle or two, which I'll try to scan in sometime.  The Oystercatcher in particular was full of inspiration in its decor - the middle picture on the bottom row of the mosaic is the lamp in their stairwell, which is ceramic fish hung on lines round the bulbs, and it tinkles slightly in a breeze.  It was two storeys high (long?) and I Want One!

There were loads of things we wanted to do but didn't get around to, hopefully we'll go back one day.  I know north Wales quite well but not Anglesey so it was good to see new places as well as old favourites.  Our main priority was to have a relaxing holiday (well, as much as is possible with three excited children) and we did just that.  We should be all refreshed now for another half term, at least I will be when my back recovers from doing rather too much :-s .

[If you want to see more of what we did, I have a 'story' on Google+, made with much (slightly scary) help from Google.]