I have started a YouTube Podcast . . .

Hello all ! and thanks for hanging in there during my long periods of absence.

After a long time wanting to do a video podcast I finally took the plunged and beat up that fear that

was keeping me from doing it.

Now you can see all things I'm currently making but it will be me showing them to you, in my channel (click above).

Please subscribe if you like it and like the video to show me some love, which is much needed in this new beginning.

After giving it a lot of thought I decided to do it in English since I wanted my international friends to also understand it, I'm sad my mother won't be able to understand it but she has me in real life to explain things to her and she has seen everything in the planning, making and the finished objects.

I have to plan a structure for the podcast yet and show notes will follow.

Please feel free to ask me anything you want to know about what you see in the podcast in the meanwhile. Remember you can also find me on Instagram, Facebook and Easy. I'm CountryMaison everywhere. . . .

I look forward to your feedback on my first episode !!

Thank you all in advance,

xEva

Evolve. . . . knitting, hand dyeing, new projects...

Hello !

Anybody there ??

First thanks for the followers that have not clicked the 'unfollow' button :-) and the ones who have, well, I totally understand them.

I have been away from my little space here for so long. . . so much has been happening in my little creative and crafty mind. . . I have evolved into so many things. I still feel I 'm trying to find myself if that makes sense ?

I like trying everything I get my eyes on, I'm curious by nature and want to know how things work, how is it done, I like solving misteries. . .

I learned to knit socks because it was an utter mystery to me. . . often times once I resolve the mystery of it I go on to something else. . .

Crochet stayed in my life for a few years and in fact all my life on and off. . . and knitting seemed to be just out of reach. I learned to knit when I was a child, I must have been 10 or 11 ? I can't really remember but I remember it not being a nice experience. I knit a scarf in 2x2 ribbing. . . how did that happen ? I wonder when I rescued the scarf from a bag with old things. . . .

The thought that I could not get passed knit and purl stitches stayed with me and so the idea of doing just that bored me.

Anyway, I picked up my knitting needles again 3 years ago and knitting has stayed with me and crochet was abandoned there and then (not forever though) but 3 years on I just can't put knitting down. . .

I have made cowls, hats, a cardigan, 3 shawls, socks. . . not very much to be honest as I'm a slow knitter and I spend more time ripping back than actually knitting on something :-)

I have now started the so called 'cozy memories blanket' although for me is not about memories but about using scraps or 'minis' I have dyed myself. . . I have been experimenting with dying yarn (yet this is another mystery solving for me). . . . the colour creation has proved fascinating for me, so much fun (I need to write a post about this). And yesterday I could see this also reflected on my kids.

Yesterday we had one of those nowadays rare free afternoon . . . .and we all needed calm and a quiet time. We made 'homemade' painting using corn flour, water and food colouring. My kids loved mixing the colours and try to get as many different colours as possible. Once the colours were mixed they were done with it, the fun was over. Mixing the colours is supposed to be only the preparation so that they could paint with them afterwards, but no, no painting happened.

I leave you here a few pictures of my blanket and the newest shawl I have started, and also the plan is to start this week this cardigan for my daughter.

Above is the French Cancan Shawl I have made for my mum

These are my first hand dyeing experiments, using food colouring which I will talk more about in the future, as I have also now have started selling full hanks hand dyed by me in my Etsy Shop

This is green ball is one of my favourites, the colour is not as bright as it looks on my screen, it is bright but not as much

 This is how my hand dyed yarn blanket is looking . . . so far

This mini here is also one of my favourites. . . .not sure why but I got lots of these pink/lilac minis, my hands and mind just seemed to mix the colours into these most of the time. . . 

And this is the new shawl I've casted on. . . I started this 3 times so far. The yarn is lace (2 ply) and I'm not used to working with such fine yarn. I was knitting with 3.5mm needles but the project did not call me, I was being put off . 

I changed needles to these zings 2.75 mm and I'm loving it !!

the pattern is this one. 

And just yesterday I bought this pattern in Ravelry to make it for my daughter. . . .

That is it from me for now, hope to post sooner this time :-)

Thanks for reading !

xEva 

Project Bag - a quick hello !

Hello all !! 

It has been a long time but I miss my little blog but summer seems to be always really busy for me. . . shouldn't summers be long lazy days ?? - not for me. . . but I do dream about those days. 

I was telling my husband today that I miss reading Country Homes and Interios (I had a subscription to it for years. . . :-)) What do I miss from it ??

Looking at lovely houses, relaxed settings and lots of lovely things, recipes, and what not. 

And more than anything because it made me dream. . . dream that one day I will be able to relax a little bit in a house like those of magazines, in a garden like the ones I see in there. . . 

Maybe I am a fool but what I know is I am a DREAMER and I will never stop dreaming. 

Ok, enough babbling now. 

See that little bag in the above picture ?? Cute isn't it ?

It is actually a project bag I made myself. For my knitting. For my current sock WIP. 

I needed a bag to carry my kitting and I wanted to make it myself, out of my favourite fabrics (or at least some of my favourite fabrics. . .)

And I love the expose zip. I wanted to make a different project bag and I had not seen any with exposed zips. It adds a very romantic touch to it. . . I feel !

I have even toyed with the idea of making some for my Easy Shop. . . but the idea vanishes in my mind as it fills up with my busy work life and the crazy months ahead of me. 

And so we will see. . . do you think people would buy it ? - I'm always insecure about things like this. 

This bag started when I was playing with my fabric stash. . . 

And I'm making socks and shawls. . . shawls ??? me ?? A beginner knitter ?? 

Yes !! and I want to learn more and more, knitting is so addictive that I have neglected quite a bit my crochet. . . :-(

I bought these sock yarns in Barcelona back in June . . . lovely, aren't they ??

and I'm making socks for my daughter . . .  

and I'm doing the Fish Kiss Heels for the first time. . . the pattern is only $1 in Raverly. 

The sock pattern I'm using is the Everyday Socks by Erica Luder (a free pattern in Raverly)

 And that is all I have to show you for today. . . I hope to be back soon to show you my shawls and other lovely things. .  .

What have you all been up to lately ?

xEva 

Garden Granny Blanket. . .

Hello dears !

I can finally show off my new blanket, 

which I have called Garden Blanket, because of the flower motifs. 

I started this blanket ramdonly and not knowing 

what I wanted it to be. Well, that is not true. 

I knew exactly the idea I wanted for this blanket, 

I just could not picture it, but I knew what I wanted. 

One thing is sure, I kind of wanted to make a Cath Kidston inspired blanket. . . .and I'm not sure if I achieved my goal. . . and to be honest I could not care less now because I just love the result !! 

This blanket is a gift to a very special baby. . . .(but tell me, is there any baby in the world that is not special ??) 

I mean special because she is my cousin's daughter. 

This cousin has been very special to me throughout my childhood, but about 15 years ago we kind or grew apart. As it happens in many families, there were some family problems. . . at the same time I moved abroad and we lost contact. . . 

We have met again in February and it was an extraordinary day full of emotions and memories. 

I made this blanket mainly with my yarn stash. . . from the yarn I used to make this blanket I made for my daughter. It is a 50% acrylic 50% wool yarn. I buy it locally and a couple of skeins of some colours left. . . I started using green first. . . . instead of the baby blue...

Then the shade of green was just not right, I thought. 

I also bought red and turquoise to give it a boost of colour. . . 

For the border I did a single crochet round in white. Then I used the 2 first rounds of border #120 from the Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman book. 

And to finish off I continued with border #105 from the same book. 

The final round of the border was done in red as I think it kind of frames the blanket and finishes it off. 

Blankets have a lot of history in them. . . I made this one while dealing with a lot (more than I bargained for. . . ) family emotions, good and bad. . . I also made it while traveling to different places for work, pleasure.... and also and mainly watching a fabulous tv series called Gran Hotel (Spanish production) which I have loved !! 

I also made this blanket in a record time (for me). . . 

I started it in February and it was finished on April 5th 2015, 

so about 2 months. . . . wow !!! I'm amazed !! 

I never thought I could make a blanket in 2 months ?!?! 

Now I suppose you want the details ?? 

It is made with Solid Granny Squares (this is a very simple pattern, that can be easily found in Google or any pattern site like Rarely) 

The flower motifs are the Waterlily square from the 200 Crochet blocks by Jan Eaton. 

It has 29 solid squares and 11 waterlily squares. 

It measures: 29' x 45' aprox (74cm x 114cm)

It weights: 438 gr

This means over 6 skeins of 50gr balls (200 cm per skein) = 1,752 metres of yarn !!

And now I leave you with some more pictures to enjoy !! 
I hope to write again soon. . . and be more regular on this little blog of mine. 

Take Care for now, 

xEva 

Pom-pom little girls knitted cowl and other late makes. . .

Hello to all and thank you for being there during this long absence.

What have I been up to ? 

The months before Christmas it was busy at work and involved some travelling

and I just could not keep up with work, the house, blogging and my online shop and what all that involves. 

I have lately had that dilemma about juggling so many things in my life and sometimes some things take priority and others have to be put on hold. That is the way life works, isn't it ?

In terms of crafting we have been up to a lot around here. 

My latest creation has been this cowl. 

I made it with the yarn leftover from another cowl I had made for my daughter here.

The cowl, I made it for a friend's daughter, and she loved it. 

I improvised the pattern and this is something I had been wanting to make for a long time: 

a girl's cowl that had a pom-pom closure. 

I think the result is very sweet. 

Then, if you follow me in IG, you would have already seen these pictures. 

I make lots of crafts with my kids, daily if we can. 

I try to make them as crafty and creative as possible as this is something I love and it is part of my life. I cannot think of my life without the creative part. And I believe creativity opens the mind to many other things in life. 

and so here below we made some hamma beads coasters. . . 

The blue one is a CK crosshatch pattern and the white one was our own creation. . .

the kids can spend ours doing that. 

Here below are some pretty things I also posted in IG. 

I lately have something for Liberty Fabrics. . . I just love them ! 

Below is my new knitting/crochet corner in our living room. And a cushion I have also recently made. 

 Below is another IG picture. .. :-) 

This was one of my quite afternoons. . . .it's funny when you see a picture like this you dream of a quiet afternoon, enjoying your tea and some knitting/crochet and also a few moments enjoying a good recipe book ! Far from reality....I took this picture and had literally 10 mins of quiet before picking the children up from school. 

My 'me' times are that . . . .literally 10 mins in the afternoon if I'm lucky and then I might get a couple of hours at night.  

But those evenings are often lacked of energy and I just need to put my brain on a side, put on my favourite TV series and crochet or knit for a little while. 

I'm not a night owl and have always been a morning person and so it is in the morning when my energy is at its highest ! 

And those granny squares you see below it's my current WIP. I cannot show you too much as it will be a surprise present for a 1 yr old baby. She will be 1 in May and so I don't want to spoil the surprise for her lovely mum, that happens to be my cousin. 

And below a funny snapshot ! 

My kids always find different fun uses for my crochet blankets. . . one day they can be a tent, another a picnic blanket, a princess or queen's cape, a boat. . . the imagination of a child has not limits !! 

 Well thanks again for being there and for reading my blog. 

I hope to get back again to the routine of writing often as I really miss this little world. 

I have found wonderful people in it and I love the 'positive' vibe and good energy it is surrounded with... 

Love, 

Eva 

Crochet Rug with T-Shirt Yarn - Alfombra de Trapillo

Hello dear readers, 

I seem to be away from my blog a lot  now. It is all about priorities and time in life, isn't it ?

I have been crocheting a lot lately and I'm enjoying it so much, and I find it hard to find time to blog about it. . .

I have finally finished this crocheted t-shirt yarn rug I started a while ago for my daughter. I mentioned it here.

Queridas lectoras, 

Parece que este verano estoy un poco desconectada de mi blog. Todo es sobre prioridades y tiempo en la vida, verdad ?

He estado haciendo mucho ganchillo últimamente y disfrutando mucho de ello, sin embargo no encuentro el tiempo de ponerlo en el blog. . . 

Finalmente he terminado esta alfombra de trapillo que empece hace tiempo para mi hija. 

Os lo conte aqui

 

It has taken me sometime...

Crocheted Curtain Ties - Recoge Cortinas a Ganchillo

Hello dears !!

Hola a todas !!

I hope you have been well. . . I have been a little bit out of blogland and concentrating on other things. 

Espero que hayáis estado bien. . . yo he estado un poco apartada del mundo blog y concentrada en otras cosas. 

Instagram is handy, quick and there is where you can find me lately. 

Instagram es muy rapido y conveniente, en cualquier sitio o momento puedes poner algo o echar un vistazo a lo que otros pone y es donde me podéis encontrar últimamente. 

I have also been very sad. . .on 11th May I was having a look at the blogs I follow and I read this post from this blog ... and I cried. 

También he estado triste. . . el 11 de Mayo dando un repaso a los blogs que sigo 

lei esta entrada . . .y llore

I have felt a very deep empathy with both mothers but specially with Jacqui at BabyBoyBakery as she is also in Instagram. 

He sentido una profunda empatía por ambas madres pero especialmente por Jacqui de BabyBoyBakery

Why ? - I have a boy 4 months younger than her Ryan and so he is of a very similar age, we seem to do very similar things with our kids. . . and the very scary fact that sometimes no matter what you do you just have no control over what can happen to them...

Porque ? - Tengo un hijo 4 meses menor que su Ryan, hacemos cosas muy parecidas juntos.. . 

y lo que mas miedo da es a veces no importa el cuidado que tengas de ellos que simplemente no tienes control sobre lo que les pueda pasar. . . 

Why do I follow her even if eve

ry time I read something I cry and feel incredibly frustrated,angry and sad at the same time about something bad ever happening to a child ?? 

Porque la sigo si cada vez que leo algo de ella me siento increíblemente triste, enfadada y frustrada al mismo tiempo ? todo esto por el hecho de que algo malo le pase a un niño ?

She asked from day one through her best friend for support , help , prayers for her and her family to deal with the loss and she asked for her son to never been forgotten. . . when a mother is so humble to ask for all of this I could not do other than offer what I could. 

Desde el primer dia podio a través de su mejor amiga apoyo, ayuda y oraciones para ella y su familia. Para poder sobrellevar la perdida y podio que su hijo nunca fuera olvidado. . . cuando una madre te pide algo tan humilde yo no podia hacer otra cosa que ofrecer lo que pude. 

All I can give her is Kindness and sweet words. I only leave her messages on IG or her blog. . . it is all I can do to help them and I know at this moment she needs to feel the love of people around the world and that Ryan will not be forgotten. 

Lo unico que puedo ofrecer es Amabilidad y dulces palabras. La dejo mensajes de apoyo en Instagram o en su blog. .  .es todo lo que puedo hacer para ayudarles y se que en estos momentos necesita sentir el calor de la gente de todo el mundo y que Ryan no caiga en el olvido. 

As for the sharing part they have also asked for, this is my contribution and I share it with my dear followers: YOU 

Así que esta es mi contribución, compartir la historia con vosotros y la vida de Ryan

It is hard to change subject but in the midst of all this I have also finished my curtain ties. 

Uff !! Es difícil cambiar ahora el tema, pero en el medio de esto también he terminado el recoge cortinas que empece en Abril. . . 

The inspiration came from lovely Sandra at Cherry Heart's Garden Curtain Tie backs. By the way, have you seen her Crochet Corner ??

La inspiración viene de Sandra y su Recoge Cortinas. 

Por cierto habéis visto su Crochet Corner ??

To be honest I started this without knowing where I was going. I also really, really , really wanted to make the crochet puff flowers. . . and use them somewhere...somehow. 

Para seros sincera empece este proyecto sin saber muy bien donde iba. 

También tenia unas ganas tremendas de hacer las florecitas de punto puff

y queria usarlas en algún proyecto . . . de alguna manera. 

For the crochet puff stitch flowers there are lots of videos in YouTube and I have now forgotten which one I have used. . .

Para las flores use un video de You Tube pero ahora no me acuerdo de cual . . .

Then I kept seeing crocheted hearts and I really wanted to make one. . . after several tries I found this one and I loved it. 

You can find the pattern here

Después vi muchos corazones a ganchillo y quería hacer uno . . . después de probar varios encontré 

este y me encanta.

Podeis ver el patron aqui. 

I have used Natura Just Cotton Yarn, 100 % cotton yarn. 

You can buy the yarn at my Esty Shop

He usado hilo de Natura Just Cotton, 100% algodón. 

Podeis comprar Natura en mi tienda Etsy. 

I then added some wooden beads from my daughter's necklace making set. . .for some weight 

Después añadí algunas cuentas de madera del juego de hacer collares y pulseras de mi hija. . . para que tuviera un poco de caída y peso. 

And this is how they look on the curtains. . . 

I could not get any decent picture. If I opened the window there was too much light and if I closed the shutters it was too dark . . . 

They do brighten my window in my home office and I love having some crochet beside me. . . 

Y así es como han quedado. . . 

No he podido sacar una foto en condiciones. Si abría la ventana había demasiada luz

pero si cerraba las persianas era muy oscuro. . . 

Pero si que alegran esa esquinita de mi oficina en casa y me encanta tener algo hecho de ganchillo mientras trabajo. . . 

Now I will have a wonder around your beautiful blogs. . . 

Durante estos dias ire visitando vuestros preciosos blogs . . .

Thanks for visiting once again. . . 

Muchas gracias por visitarme de nuevo. . . 

x Eva