Festive Throw

Cooooeeeeeee!!!
My my my! Where has the time gone? I cannot believe - although the shops and TV adverts remind me otherwise - that Yuletide and the end of 2013 are soon upon us. And that I have been absent from BlogLand for so long. The bonus is, I now have tonnes of your wonderful writings to catch up on over the festive downtime. I have a whole pot of hot chocolate and some home-made ginger biscuits waiting to join me as comment away.

It has been a bit of a funny old year for me with lots of beginnings, some heart breaking endings, new friends made and crochet skills stuffed under my hat. That said, if it's an actual crochet hat you are after, my repertoire only stretches to roses, granny blankets or a combo of the two. I am reserving anything more trying for after the wedding.

The wedding you say? What wedding? You would be forgiven for forgetting all about this post last year when The Beard and I decided to make this whole living-together-thing legal with a bit of a do and a nice frock. We have been busily preparing and doing all sorts of things in the background which I have been storing up and shall share with you after the big day.
I have been so busy crafting, thrifting, thinking, gluing, sewing, planning and twitching (not twerking) about it all, I think it only fair to share once it has all been done and dusted. There shall be tutorials and the like, plus some "this is how we did this on the cheap" posts, all under a new spanglesome heading up there on the top bar. That is the plan in my head, anyways. But for now, I am just doing.

Getting it all done and nestled away in various old suitcases. There is a wee way to go yet, but May 3rd will be here soon enough.
In-between all the wedding shizzle, I have also been chilling out with some granny-square goodness. If you follow me on Instagram (@landgirl1980) you may have spied some of it.

Well. Now I can say with an un-subtle sky-punch that my Festive Throw is all finished. Blocked, bound and - most importantly - joined together. With no less than a massive thank you to Carina and her fab tutorial - something that I was dreading became a breeze. The bit of it all that may have made me want to leave it in the work basket and forget about it was made a delight by her simple, yet pretty method.
I am sure that I may very well learn other ways of doing it, but this one'll do me for right now.

Despite going beyond the pail... becoming slightly obsessed by... we now have miles of the stuff... a little over board when buying the wool (I panicked that it might sell out, heh), I now have 24 big ol' squares in red (5 rounds) white (4 rounds) and olive green (3 rounds and join). They have kept me busy - and if not a little sane - whilst all the nuptial necessities have been flying around my mind.
Just like embroidery, I have found that wool, that hooked stick and my fingers combined bring with them a kind of stillness. And if I so happen to have something right Christmassy at the end of it - so be it.

And - hey - waddya know? It's just in time for the season.