No excuses - just

nothing much to say! And since the blog is called 'the crochet year', I can't really talk about knitting. Julie showed me a new book by Louisa Harding and I couldn't resist!

But I'm still crocheting, don't worry. We had a Crochet-along at the shop on Saturday to work on Christmas wreaths. Mine was 'The Holly and the Ivy'.

I really enjoyed the workshop. Apart from how to do the basic wreath cover, we played with:

pine cones - great fun, if rather fiddly. I think Sandie is so interested in the technique that she's planning on a scarf using it.

Then 'the holly bears a blossom,

As white as lily flower ...

Three slightly different ones; I wanted to get a cupped effect. They are all short of their green stamen things in the centre.

And of course, 'The holly bears a berry,

As red as any blood':

These were a nightmare to sort out, but they are a lovely holly-berry red.

Of course, for Christmas you have to have bells. This one looked more like a doll's bonnet:

But these are OK.

I want them in groups of three, 'open' like this; Caroline has promised to try and get some bells to go inside; the ones we had in the shop were too big or too small.

And you have to have mistletoe depending from the wreath, of course:

You can't see the assembled wreath because I gave my covered frame to one of the other ladies, so I have to make another cover.

I have this idea for a sort of picture wreath - snowy, with trees in the background, a house, a snowman, and maybe Santa's sleigh driving across the top. Any one want to comment?

A little shop news to report. Julie and Caroline went to a presentation day with Theo Paphitis, to get their small business award:



And the big reveal finally took place last Sunday, after Caroline presented the cheque to Anne at a dinner-dance for the Felix Fund:



We raised £2,550 pounds by making and selling poppies. That's an awful lot of poppies!
So here's to:
Avril, poppy-maker extraordinaire,
Caroline the creative,
Jules the willing leaf-maker,
Maureen, late joining but prolific, and
Doreen, who cheerfully sewed leaves and pins onto poppies by the hundred.
We had a little help from Sandie, but basically the six of us made all this money. Wow!