The Happy Hoopy Wool Junkie

Its all about the cakes

2011-09-01T13:54:00.000-07:00

It's all been a bit cakey here recently. In the teeny weeny tiny bits of spare time I manage to get nowadays I seem to have been making cakes, of the edible as well as the woolly variety. This is just a short but sweet (geddit?!) post to share with you my cakey bakes and makes. George had fun decorating these yummy fairy cakes which were for Freddie's 2 birthday party. He did a awesome job, I was most impressed, not bad for a 3 and a half year old!

And then these crochet cake creations I made for selling at the art trail stall I have coming up in October. I plan to make enough to fill my lovely cupcake stand which will then make a very pretty display :-)

So, there you have it. Cakes! I hope they haven't made you too hungry! x

How to spot a fake ERGO baby carrier

2011-08-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

Can you spot the fake?

So, I decided to buy an ERGO baby carrier as I had hear so many great things about this carrier but previously had been put of getting one by the very high price. Now we have three children I decided it really would be worth getting one and so I started my search for a secondhand one as new they retail for approx £90 new which is a tad out of my budget! I found a lovely secondhand black and cranberry one on eBay and got it for £50. The seller said she had bought it 4 years ago but for the last 2 years it had been sat in her wardrobe and she now no longer needed it. Sounded perfect for me! It arrived quickly and was in lovely condition and I was very impressed with it as even putting my 3 and a half year old in it it felt very comfy and distributed the weight nicely to my hips and shoulders without pulling awkwardly. In fact I was so impressed with the carrier that I decided we needed a second one as as soon as little one is about 4 or 5 months I will want to wear him in one on my back so we will need a second one to then still be able to carry one of the other two when out and about without the buggy. So, ERGO carrier number two was purchased. Again from eBay, secondhand, and again I got it for £50. When this one arrived (which was the black and camel colour combo) I noticed a few differences between the two carriers. This got me wondering if one of them was counterfeit as I had read online that there are fake ones about but I thought I had been careful in picking the eBay auctions that I did. I avoided any that said 'brand new in box' for far too cheap prices, I made sure there was a photo of the actual carrier (not just a stock picture from a website), and I chose sellers with 100% positive feedback. I also made sure the sellers descriptions were genuine sounding reasons and not just the carrier specifications. Anyway, after looking at some online discussions about counterfeit ERGO carriers I was pretty sure the black and cranberry one was the counterfeit and the black and camel one was the genuine one.

I then contacted ERGObaby Europe with photos of the carrier I was querying the authenticity of and they confirmed it was indeed a fake one. I thought that I would take photos of the differences between the two carriers and post this info to try and help other people avoid ending up with a fake secondhand carrier as you will know what to look out for and if you are buying online you will know what questions to ask the seller so you can then make sure you are buying a genuine one.

The information I receieved in my email back from ERGObaby said these are the things to look out for......

Waist band and shoulder strap padding is thinner
Warning label is smaller and located on the body of the carrier, instead of being on the waist band
Number and quality of hood snaps is different
Buckles are different, especially the chest/shoulder strap buckles
Zipper pull of the rear pocket does not have the ERGO logo
No serial number in the front pocket, the one meant for storing the hood

That information on it's own still makes it difficult to tell a fake without photos of the actual differences so here are photos of my genuine and fake carriers. The genuine carrier is the black and camel coloured one. The counterfeit carrier is the black and cranberry coloured one. They are very similar at a glance but of course the fake one will not have been tested to the high ERGO standards.

The two carriers side by side viewed from the front, they look so similar like this you wouldn't be able to tell from a sellers photo if it was a fake.

The logos on the two carriers are different to each other. The camel carrier says ERGObaby whereas the cranberry carrier says The ERGObaby Carrier. I am not sure if both these versions are used by ERGO so I cannot say whether or not this is a way to tell or not. Photos of the two logos are below. The first logo is from the genuine black and camel carrier and the second one is from the fake black and cranberry carrier.

The inside of the carriers shows the different positioning of the warning label. The genuine carrier has this label on the waistband whereas the fake has it in the middle of the body of the carrier. The genuine label is larger and in two languages. The fake label is smaller and in just one language.

This is the genuine warning label (above), despite being very well worn it is still visible that it's in two languages. There is then a small additional tag with the washing/care instructions.

This is the fake label, smaller and not a warning label really, just the washing/care instructions!

The next difference is in the waist buckle. It should say 'STEALTH' on it. The fake one I have says 'WARRIOR' instead and looks quite different as it doesn't have the extra bit of plastic shaping. The photo below has the fake buckle at the top and the genuine buckle below it.

Waist buckle on the fake carrier (above). It says WARRIOR on that middle strip but the camera hasn't captured it very well.

Waist buckle on the genuine carrier (above). See where it says STEALTH on the middle strip.

The zipper on the front pocket should have the ERGO logo embossed onto it. The fake carrier I have just has a plain zipper with nothing on it at all.

Genuine zipper with ERGO logo on it.

Fake zipper is plain with no logo on it.

I was told by the ERGObaby customer service person to look for a serial number on a label in the hood pocket on the front of the carrier. In the cranberry fake carrier the label just says 'Made in China' and there is no number. The genuine camel carrier says 'Made in China' and also has a serial number.

Genuine, with serial number.

Fake, without serial number.

There is a difference with the chest straps and sleep hoods on my two carriers but this could be down to the fact that there have been slight changes in the design of the ERGO carriers over the years and I think my fake one has been modeled on a previous ERGO carrier version so this is not helpful in determining a counterfeit carrier.

I hope this will help people avoid getting stuck with a counterfeit ERGObaby carrier. Just be sure to ask the seller a few questions about the things above to make sure you are being sold a genuine carrier. Maybe ask for a photo of the inside of the carrier (to check the warning label is on the waistband) as well as asking for the serial number.

Happy babywearing everyone! x

Nice Mice

2011-06-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

I was recently sent a postcard from my sister with some really sweet knitted mice on it that had huge ears and I thought they were so lovely that I wanted to create some crocheted cousins. And so began project Nice Mice. I sketched out how I wanted my mice to look and based on the drawing I started to crochet to match the shape I had drawn.

I am really pleased with the finished mouse, he is super cute with those mahooooosive ears! They are very slightly bigger than I intended but I think it suits Mr Mouse and adds to his appeal! I will write this pattern up shortly and will then need a kind soul to test it for me, so if you like mice and want to make an oversized eared one let me know!

On a completely different note, while sewing (with lovely shiny golden thread, not showing well in these photos) the felt hearts onto Mr Mouse this afternoon I had a cup of tea and some Cadbury Caramel Nibbles, which I have never tried before but highly recommend, they are lush! x

Flower power

2011-06-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post as it's late and I really need to go to bed! I just wanted to share this little guy with you. I made a flowery cat of great cuteness as a thank you gift for a friend and he turned out quite sweet. He'll be off to his new owner on Monday so I gave him a quick photo shoot this afternoon.

I have also been spending some time this evening adding my recent projects to my Ravelry profile as I had never bothered using that feature at all before. Quite time consuming to do but I can see how it is useful, especially listing the exact yarns used (brand, shade, dye lot etc) as that info is then stored for future reference (whereas I normally just chuck the ball band in the bin then panic when I need to get more wool the same colour and have forgotten the brand and where I got it from!). Right, I must sign off now before I turn into a pumpkin. Night all xxx

I'm back!!

2011-06-03T05:33:00.000-07:00

It has been aaaaaaaages since I put anything on my blog so I will try and be better at keeping up to date from now on! I have been keeping rather busy though, and I have also grown alot........

This was taken today and I am 33+ weeks pregnant and feeling rather large! So only 6 weeks 'ish to go and baby number 3 will be here :-) This week a shop assistant described my bump as 'nice football!'. More like beach ball maybe!

I have been doing quite a bit of crocheting lately so here are a few photos of recent projects. First here's the blanket I made for the new baby, inspired by the wonderful Attic24 (you should really check out her blog as there are some amazingly colourful inspirations to be had!) I am now addicted to making granny strip blankets and I will be making many more! I initially made the blanket far too big for a baby so the boys now have a fab snuggly-on-the-sofa-blanket which they love. I then made a smaller version for the baby but in the same super lush colours.

I have also been making some little Pointy Petal flower brooches, very cute, colourful and fun. I used a pattern from the blog Crochet with Raymond (another one worth checking out!) These are quick to make up and I thought it would be good to have some ready made up to sell at the Art on the Hill arts trail I am going to be a part of this October (I'm getting stuff made early as in a few weeks I will be very much time restricted!)

Other little projects recently have been cats which I had been asked to make as orders. Here are the little moggies I ended up with.

And lastly, another granny stripe blanket, made for a custom order for a baby with these wonderful colours in her nursery so the blanket will match in nicely :-)

So, there's a little catch up on my recent activities. I promise to be more active on here in future! Right now though it's time to make some lunch then sit in the sunshine out in the garden to eat it while to boys create havoc with their sand pit and ice lollies (bad combination!). Oh, one more thing that is worth a mention...... I got some fab coasters made up the other week with photos of our little family. The online photo company Snapfish had an offer on of 50% off photo coasters, so how could I resist! I used photos taken on my phone with the Android app Retro Camera (using the Pin Hole camera setting) and they arrived a few days later and are really well produced and good quality coasters! For £4.99 plus postage I am a very happy bunny and the boys love them too!

Anyway, I have taken up enough time and space with this post so I'm off for lunch in the sun. xxx

Fun with Fire

2010-11-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

I have been a bit slack on the crochet front recently. I have started back at work, only part time, but it's surprising how much quicker it makes the week go! On the hoop side of things I played with fire on Monday which was awesome, fire hooping is amazing.....if a bit hot and slightly scary...in a good way! It was only my second time hooping with fire. Here are a few pics...

....and I love the one below of me with my LED hoop. I was trying to keep my powers of invisibility on the quiet up until now, darn, my super-hero secret is out!

The crochet love is spreading :-)

2010-10-06T16:54:00.000-07:00

Just realised I haven't posted here for a little while, ooops! I keep up with my Facebook page but seem to forget this one a bit! Anyway, the crochet love is spreading! I had a stall in my neighbour's house this past weekend as it was my neighbourhood Art Trail (Art on the Hill) and my neighbour was displaying her paintings and kindly offered to let me have a spare table in there! I sat in the corner crocheting away and it was great to have people looking at my crochet things and overhearing their comments! Lots of very positive vibes. I also sold a few bits, including 2 of my cats and a bunch of animal kids hats. I also got a few orders for hats in sizes/colours I didn't already have made. I also have a few orders from friends so I am super busy making owl and fox hats this week :-) I have also just listed the Strawberry 'n Cream Cupcake pattern on Etsy, thanks to Joan for testing this for me and picking up on my typo's!

Also over the weekend I went to a very fun fancy dress party. Ended up staying out very late and hooping with my led hoop (and lots of friends with their led hoops) in a bar with a pretty small dancefloor. I thing the drinkers in there thought the circus had come to town.....

Oh, and on a hooping note, I have uploaded another video to my YouTube channel. It's of the final practice before our routine at the Bristol Festival BrisFest. We are all dressed up and were practicing in the park right in the centre of the city, got quite a few looks from shoppers and passers by! Check out my gold leggings......bling! Excuse the talking part way through, Mark was watching with George and Freddie and I thing George was trying to put his very sticky lollipop stick down, then he was asking for more lollipops, ha ha! He obviously wasn't at all interested in watching his mummy hoop!

Pumpkin!

2010-09-26T02:24:00.000-07:00

Last night I made a pumpkin for the Itsy Bitsy Spider Pumpkin Patch crochet along. It worked up really quick and I love it! Now I just have to decorate it to enter into the best decorated comp! I have so many ideas for decorating, I am going to have to make loads more I think! The kids will have lots of them to play with at Halloween ;-)

Hooping and a crochet cupcake giveaway!

2010-09-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

Just a short one tonight as I seriously need to go to bed now as I am doing a hoop performance tomorrow with the rest of the Bristol Hooping Mad hoopers! So if you are heading down to the BrisFest festival (Bristol harbourside) tomorrow afternoon then come to the Street Stage at 3:45pm to see us hoop our fab routine in all our sequins and sparkles!

On the crochet side of things, check out Sarah Dickson's blog for the chance to win one of her delicious crochet cupcakes (blueberry flavour, yummy!). Sweet :-) x

Home sweet home :-)

2010-09-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

I had an amazing holiday with a week of fantastic weather, lovely food and drink, and loads of fun with the boys. The kids were really good on the journey but it did make me laugh when I asked George if the liked the plane or the bus best and he said the bus! I really thought the plane would have been much more exciting to a 2.5 yr old!

I am now nicely refreshed and ready for the lovely English Autumn.....and to get hooking more hats for winter! I finished 3 hats while away and the fourth is half finished. I also crocheted a sweet little heart for the maid who so cheerfully cleaned our apartment every day. We were running low on Euro's to leave as a tip but I had lots of wool left and I thought she might like something a bit different. I didn't have any paper to write on though so used toilet roll for the little thank you note, not the most classy choice but it did the job!

Holiday, yaaaaaay!

2010-09-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

I will be away for a week now, Portugal here we come! I will get on to posting items up in my Etsy shop when I return. x

Pattern, Etsy, Holiday & Hooping :-)

2010-09-13T15:43:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to typing up my Cat of Great Cuteness pattern and it is now a lovely pretty .pdf document, wooo! One down, now to do the alien and rabbit. I have two kind people who have offered to test the pattern out for me and I can't wait for their feedback, hopefully I won't have made too many blinding errors and they will be able to follow it ok! Once it has been tested and any corrections etc made it will be going up for sale in my Etsy shop! Yes, I have set up shop! Nothing in it yet but I hope to get the patterns in it when I get back from Portugal (wooo I am going on holiday Thursday morning!). This will be our first time abroad with the boys so that will be interesting. Freddie will NOT sit still on my lap for more than 10 seconds so a 2hr flight with him supposed to sit on my lap will be very .....erm......entertaining :-/ I have lots of episodes of 'In The Night Garden' loaded onto my phone and fingers crossed that might work for at least some of the time!

Oh yeah, I also set up a Facebook page to replace my Facebook group as it seems I should really have done a page to begin with but I didn't know that then. Oh well, I think that's pretty much everything sorted for now.

I had a great hoop session at class tonight with Emma (our teacher) just back from Burning Man festival in the desert in th USA! Lots of new tricks, new tricks! I am looking forward to some hooping in the sun in Portugal, heaven :-) Right, back to crocheting hats now. x

Alien creation and super cute hats!

2010-09-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

Today, in between breaking up squabbles between my two boys over a remote controlled fire engine they both wanted to play with, I sewed the last few stars on to my latest creation, a cute little alien. I now have 4 creations ready to sell.....I really must get around to opening an Etsy shop! Here they are waiting to find new homes...

I also decided I want to start making some cute hats for the boys for winter so set about searching for some good patterns. After a long time searching online I found the cutest crochet hat patterns from the Inner Hooker. I ordered 3 patterns for $10 (£6.66 when converted to pounds) and I can't wait to start making them! The email with the pdf patterns came nice and speedily :-) I am going to be taking one of these as my holiday project next week when we go to Portugal! She has amazing animal hats, I ordered the Fox Earflap pattern and also the Owl Earflap hat pattern. The other hat pattern I got was the Long Tail Stocking hat one, soooooo cute! So go check out the Inner Hooker Etsy shop or join her Facebook page.

Hoop practice....8 months in :-)

2010-09-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

A hoopy post today instead of a wooly one! Last night at hoop class we had the wonderful drummers back in to dance to, amazing! So, I thought I would get a video clip on my phone. Well, I managed to really bodge up the video in all ways possible! I balanced the phone on my cardigan (which completely muffled out the sound of the fab drummers, doh!) so I have had to add some music to the clip. Also I had pressed record whilst focusing on something close up to the phone (probably the table or the sound-muffling-cardigan) so when pointed into the room the focus is all soft and fuzzy :-( Oh well, better luck with my next recording but in the mean time click here for the YouTube link to see the video of me practicing at class, 8 months into my hooping.

Woooo, it's pumpkin crochet along time!

2010-09-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

If you have never done a crochet along (CAL) before then why not join in with this one! It is being hosted by the lovely Karla of Itsy Bitsy Spider and she has written a beautiful pumpkin pattern especially for it. If you sign up then you will get a free copy of Karla's pumpkin pattern and the idea is to make at least one (but as many as you like) and then decorate it in whatever way you want. Then at the end of the crochet-along there will be a pumpkin 'fashion show' where people can vote for their favorite and the winner will get a prize! The pattern only involves being able to do single crochet, decrease, and half double crochet (but the majority of the pattern is single crochet), so nice and easy! Read Karla's introduction post more details.
I have signed up and am looking forward to starting! I did Karla's Great Owl crochet along and it was so much fun so if you love crochet then JOIN NOW!

My stock so far....

2010-09-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

Woooo, I now have a stock of 3 creations to sell! I am really enjoying making these critters :-)

Bank Holiday Monday creativity!

2010-08-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

My second creation! I used the body pattern I wrote for the cat, altering the head shape slightly so it wasn't quite as pointy and feline as the cat one. The arms are just a couple of rows shorter and of course the ears are completely different! I made huge ears, still in a round, but not stuffed at all. So they have a nice weight to them :-) He also has a tail and a flower on his ear, cute! What will the next variation be?! ♥

My new creation :-)

2010-08-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

Here is it, my finished creation! My very first attempt at writing a pattern. I made it so the legs, body, head and ears are all in one piece. I am not a fan of sewing body parts together so this way it meant all I had to sew on was the two arms, woooo.....although I then spent ages sewing the felt pieces on....but that's different, fun! I am going to make more, with variations so they are all unique, and get a stall together for the Art on the Hill Windmill Hill and Victoria Park art trail that takes place in my neighbourhood at the beginning of October. EXCITING!

A creative weekend!

2010-08-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

I have written my first ever crochet pattern, woooooo! Well, I say written.....it's still a bunch of notes scribbled on lots of paper with ALOT of crossing out! But it's mine, I did it! I have made and stuffed my creation and I am just adding the finishing touches. All will be revealed soon :-) It was so much fun and I have plans for more so I might have to set up my own Etsy shop to sell patterns soon......or am I just getting a bit ahead of myself....whoa Heather, slow down! First I need to type my pattern then follow it to make sure it's right and easy to follow. Then I will need to find some testers to make sure it makes sense to people other than me! Also does anyone know how to copyright a pattern?

I've been featured!

2010-08-14T02:25:00.000-07:00

Woop woop, my pink flower monster got featured on another blog....one with lots of followers.....wow, little monster's gonna be famous ;-) Check out Feature Friday by the lovely Karla of The Itsy Bitsy Spider. To a newbie blogger like me this is VERY exciting stuff!

Pink flower monster!

2010-08-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

Check out the cute pink monster I finished today (seen hanging from my ceiling light.....naughty monster!) She has a flower in her hair to make her more girly as she is a pressie for my cousin's new little baby girl, Florence, and I don't want to scare her! Surely every baby should have a monster of their own to play with! I used the Bobbly Wobbly Bear free pattern from Demonstrative Amigurumi Bears and Friends as a base for the monster and then added the cone horns and the little flower etc.

A whole new world!

2010-08-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

Helloooooo! Yay, I have a blog! I am very excited about this....but at the same time it's all a bit new to me so bear with me while I get into the swing of it!

Today I received a little brown box in the post from The Itsy Bitsy Spider, very exciting! I took part in my very first crochet-along (The Great Owl Crochet Along hosted by Karla Fitch of The Itsy Bitsy Spider) and in the parcel was the owl I would get to keep from one of the swap participants! On opening the package I was greeted by a beautiful bright red owl as well as his travelling companion, a pretty little blue frog! There were also two gorgeous skeins of yarn, some stickers and a badge! As my 2 year old excitedly took charge of the stickers I opened the card to find out who had made my lovely owl. Well, I was very honoured to find out that Karla herself had chosen to keep my owl out of all the ones sent in to her, and in return had sent me 'Big Red'! A very successful first crochet-along, I am looking forward to doing another one soon. Me and the boys took Big Red to the park this afternoon to show him a little bit of his new hometown (he came all the way from the USA so had been cooped up in his box for a fair few days!)