Bee blocks. Actually make that crochet.

When I started to type the title for this post it was going to be about two lots of bee blocks I've made for our Monday Modern group - but when I went to find the photos they weren't there. I have no idea where they are, I know I took them! I had a bit of trouble the last time I downloaded from the big camera and I'm wondering if they got lost somehow, hope they're still on the camera! What kind of blogger loses photos of projects? You can see others' versions on our Flickr group.

So on to some crochet I've been doing. Before Ollie came along I had a bit more spare time, and I filled it making odd but charming things like decorative frills for the jars I often use for flowers. The pattern came from Simple Crochet, but I adapted it to fit the jars I had. They didn't turn out quite as nice as the book's examples but it was fun and I think I'll do it again but just use some of the edging patterns I have in various crochet books and nicer cotton yarn.

I've also been working on some motifs from the same book using Perle 8 and mercer thread no.20 which is a lot more fiddly but very satisfying when it comes out nicely! There's a nice little collection growing for a particular project I have in mind. I've also conquered the slip ring start which has been a struggle for me up till now.



And lastly, there is Ollie, who at 13 weeks continues to be both delightful and gorgeous along with seriously annoying and a pain-in-the-butt. At least once a day he get deposited rather unceremoniously into his playpen after biting too hard one time too many; but is then reprieved after a short while by being so adorably cute. Often I think the issue is just too much excess energy for us to burn off. Luckily Helen's boxer Woody is very fond of puppies and it turns out that Ollie is very fond of him too and two dogs can expend a lot of energy in a backyard. Here they are on their first date (and no, Woody is NOT doing anything untoward to Ollie, which is what my husband suggested, they are simply sharing a water bowl). You can really tell there is pug in boxer breeding can't you!



And here is an arty black and white Ollie early one morning seconds before he leaped wildly towards the camera.