Doily Afghan

This is what I made my wonderful mother for Christmas this year. I was very nervous as to whether she'd like it or not (particularly the colour) but thankfully she loved it and it has taken pride of place draped over her lounge chair. 

The pattern was called "Dreamy Doilies Afghan" from Crochet Today's 2010 special issue 'Must Have Gifts'. I did a quick google and this is it http://shop.futureus.com/special-issues-2/crochet-today-2010-special-must-have-gifts.html

The Afghan is worked in separate doily motifs and joined as you go. A wonderful project to work on in front of the TV as it's not too complicated and I found that once I'd made a few of the motifs I had the pattern memorised, speeding things up a fair bit. 

I used Panda Cotton Blend 8 ply and used about 13 skeins I think (lost count oops!). It was very easy to work with and not too $$$$ which is important when you use that many skeins.

Of course it wasn't ALL my work- I had some very talented helpers and quality control officers....

Once upon a time there was 1 lonely doily.

The doily's began to multiply and the wee Gandalf grew tired...

We had to bring in the reinforcements! 

Pudding the Great to the rescue!

But little Gandalf the Meek soldiered on (with some more help)....

and in the end was proud of his handiwork. Princess Leda Fluffy Butt, the most discerning lady of the land, approved and all was well. 

And...

Gandalf!

My partner Nathan also works in Animal Welfare and one day he was looking after the adoption cats when he met this little scaredy cat hiding in a scratching post. Now he's usually the one saying to me "No we can't have it" when I want to adopt everything, but this time he came to me because he'd fallen in love. Gandy was that sweet and cute that he melted his 'cuteness immune' heart as he calls it.

We were nervous how Leda would react and she was a bit of a bitch for a week but then they became the best of friends. He is still very nervous around strangers but he is getting much better. 

Introducing.....

Leda (aka Princess Leda Fluffy Butt)

Leda came into my life when I was unsure of my future and didn't think I was ready for the commitment of a pet. At the time I was fostering kittens for my work and when the ambulance rescued her with a large collar wound. She needed to go into foster care to heal before being adopted which I was told would be a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks had gone and there was little improvement so I took her in to the vets who took one look and said 'No, that's going to take months to heal!'. Over the next few months she weasled her way into my heart until she got very ill. Basically I was given an ultimatum- say I'd adopt her and they would spend the money to do further tests knowing she definitely had a home, or not and she would be put to sleep... what could I do!? After the decision was made they did expensive tests and the little bugger just got better on her own.... I think she planned the whole thing. But I'm glad she did... 

Hi there!

Wow, my first venture into the blogging world!

I know I'm a little late to the scene but this is just more for me than anyone else- plus I think people are getting sick of picture of my cats on my Facebook :/

Th is blog will be dedicated to my 3 C's: Cats, Craft and Cups of Tea. These are what keep me sane in a world of craziness. 

I work in animal welfare and we see a lot of sad, scary and frustrating stuff- so these are my comforts, my distractions, my loves.

I will introduce my babies in the following posts, you will be seeing a lot of them...

But for now I am off to bed
:)