A ta-dah and a plea for yarn

Well, lookie here....it's a completed African flowers make.  Yippeeee!

Yep, it's done and dusted (and you thought all I'd been doing lately was spreading paint around the place).  This was a funny old project - I plunged into it in my usual 'feet first, engage brain later' way - I bought the yarn solely on the basis that I loved the colours and it was half price, then got it home and thought 'uuuuhhhhmm.  Okaaaay.  I wonder what happens now, then?'  Then I found the pattern for the African flowers (here) and fell head over heels in love with it; and before I knew it, I had a pile of hexagons and still not a clue what the heck to do with them!  I kept scratching my head thinking 'hmmm, maybe a bag?  Or what about a baby blanket?  Right, erm, I could make a....'  You get my drift?  But in a moment of un-inspired clarity I decided to make a cushion.  And here it is:

Oh, hang on, the crochet ninja's getting in on the act again...

And I'm jolly pleased with it too.  It's lovely and soft, and it's also squishy, and I do really, truly love the colours, and those little hexagons are a dream to make - I thoroughly recommend making them (though perhaps with a little more purpose than I had while I made mine).  

So there you have it: my African flowers cushion.  Ta-dah!

So, on the 'what's in the pipeline' front we have, firstly:

this rather sweet, but slightly un-loved child's rocking chair that I was given by a lovely lady that I used to work for.  My plans involve a lick of paint (even as I write those words I'm thinking 'whaaaat MORE painting?  Noooooooooo') and this stripy little beauty (oh, that looks suspiciously like another cushion in the making):

At the rate I'm going, the children will be afraid to sit down and watch television for too long for fear that I might decide to give them a lick of paint too - nothing in our sitting room is safe from me and brush.  Actually, thinking about it, even the thought of being covered in white eggshell probably isn't enough to impel my boys to get off the sofa and actually do something.  It might actually do some good for baby n, however; it would cetainly cover up the muck at the very least:

Hmmmm - what do you get if you cross a Calippo that's been taken out of its tube with a very dusty play park?  Sticky little toes, natch...

And the second, even more exciting thing in the pipeline involves this (just brace yourselves, how much excitement can you take in one blog post?):

Now, here's something I learned when I ordered this yarn: it's hard buying yarn on the internet if you haven't seen it in the flesh previously.  I couldn't see the colours grouped together when I ordered them, and I saw immediately I opened the package that a) the greeny colour is just wrong and b) I need more blues.

Anyhoo, I placed another little order and now have these lovely colours to play with.  And you want to know what I'm going to make?  Why, it's another blanket that's tickling my fancy.  This one is for my new-look sitting room (the springtime throw has now been relegated to the kitchen sofa - it just wouldn't look right with the grey walls, you know).  I wanted to make it with cotton, but couldn't justify buying Rowan yarn (though it is my absolute favourite), so I thought I'd give Rico creative cotton a whirl.  I bought it from this website here and I can thoroughly recommend them as their service has been very quick and friendly.  They did slightly mess up my order and sent me four balls of one colour and none of another, but when I told them about it, they were great and immediately sorted it out for me.  So I have another shade of blue to add to the collection above, but at least I've got enough to be getting on with (me and my instant gratification).  

And this is where my plea for yarn comes in (please don't have fallen asleep by this point, I know this is a waffly old post - I did warn you that my mojo's deserted me).  The mint colour has been discontinued and they only had one ball left and I need two!!!   Eeeeeek.  Does anyone have any of the mint colour knocking about, that I could have?  Pleeeeeease.  I will pay for the yarn, I will pay for the postage, I will write lovely things about you on my blog, and karma will surely repay for your kindness.... x