You can never own too many bags 😂.👜🎒

This one came with the Scheepjes yarn pack for the blanket crochet along, it's just a tote but big and strong with one inside pocket. Could be used for anything.

This shows the pink Artbin tote alongside the one I bought from eBay which was the exact same design as the ones everyone was buying back then but only around £12.

I think I paid about £15 for the Artbin one, and it was the one I bought first. At them time they were being advertised and raved about and mine came from the USA. It is lightweight and the one I grabbed to go to the A&E (emergency dept) every time I had to take my husband. It has a carry handle on the top, and a shoulder strap that can be attached in two different ways - or it could until one of the plastic D rings broke early on. I should try and find a replacement.

This tote comes in other colours and is widely available in the UK now. It is just one compartment inside, with a pocket on the front. It's lightweight and can hold quite a lot, but yarns do get tangled.

  It also comes with a detachable pencil case sized bag, this can be very annoying when full of hooks as it bangs against you or the bag and rattles as you walk.

It has two slots in the top with rounded ends for yarn to go through without opening it, unfortunately the yarn jumps out through the slots often as you crochet, things can fall out when it's carried sideways, and dogs can take yarn out through the slots as can children (so you could be sat next to kids somewhere and never know they have taken your yarn). It also has no ridgidity so flops when not so full.

This organiser has 6 compartments of clear pvc, divided by clear pvc which is not sealed at the bottom, so things could move possibly. three of the compartments have zipped openings at the front so you could shove more yarn in, or untangle jammed yarn I guess but not for all the compartments. It has a clear pocket either side, a shoulder strap but no carry handles apart from that, and there is a storage compartment behind the yarn compartments. The problem with this design is that if you are working on a project and it is attached to the yarn there is no way of putting it in the storage compartment without cutting the yarn and taking it out of the holes. I knew this was an issue when I bought it, but wanted to organise my Persian Tiles blanket yarn, that blanket is still unfinished by the way.

The lid has 6 holes to feed the yarn through to work. The lid doesn't fix down in any way and is rigid, as you work if you don't rewind your yarn into cakes or have centre pull yarn the yarn will jump out of the organiser, there is nothing to stop it, the lid just pops up. Also the clear pvc can build up static or a sort of stickyness and stop the yarns moving so freely.

A bag and box line up. Despite owning two lovely yarn bowls and these totes I am working out of the pvc storage bag at the very back which was in a pack of two for £2.99 from B&M lol, mainly to keep the dog away from the yarn!

I thought I would take some photos of the new bag with the iPad to make them easy to add to blogger - Nah! iPad photos not an option to add so I had to retake them.

It is by Teamoy and I got it on Amazon, no discounts or freebies for me but I keep hoping! These come in black or grey dots, and I kept adding to the basket, thinking about it then finding they were sold out again. I kept missing them. Then I could have had a black one, which strangely cost more. This one cost £27.99 and I had a voucher to use, the black one was £32 at one point but I waited until this one came back into stock and grabbed it right away!

It has pockets all round, front and back spotty pockets zipped, and each side one clear pocket and one spotty.

The top is clear, and has a clear zipped long pocket one side that can hold knitting needles or Tunisian crochet hooks, or just more crochet hooks.

It has two carry handles and a shoulder strap with attactive matching padded bit.

The front pocket contains more pockets and loops for crochet hooks or tools. The side pockets are large enough to take a magazine.

The yarn compartments are material, and each one is totally seperate, no gaps at the bottom of the dividers. The clear lid on this half zips closed and has 6 grommits to feed the yarn though, it also has little velcro straps on the edge to keep the yarn in place.

One of the best features is the storage compartment next to the yarn, behind the yarn if you like, is large and has it's own seperately opening clear lid, the one with the needles compartment. This is fixed by two poppers. I might add a bit of velcro to the centre which is not fixed at the moment, but it kind of overlaps so might not work, as there is a velcro strip already for the yarn loop holders a small bit with loops would be all that I need to add. This bag is so well designed and addresses all the problems that the other two have, the only issue will be the weight of this. It's fairly heavy with my pure wool blanket CAL in it, and I haven't added all the crochet hooks and tools. It would be great to take on holiday with everything you need in one place.

While I was looking for previous photos of the bags I found the previous photo I blogged of me wearing the cardigan and I though I would show them together so you can see the difference.

  

I was thinking of frogging it back then.

The belt thing not quite working lol.

I can see a difference and it fits better now but I've still got a way to go on my Slimming World journey.

T for Tuesday by the bag lady.

 I'm strangely excited by this new bag described as a knitting organiser. I'm going to post more details in a comparison of the bags I have so far.This is the new bag and my lovely sheep mug full of raw cacao hot chocolate. There seems to be a shortage of ground vanilla at the moment and I've nearly run out. Can't buy it anywhere! It's time for T on Tuesday at Elizabeth and Bleubeard's place and I have to apologise once more for not visiting all the lovely people who left me comments last time.

This was supposed to be a comparison shot, might have to redo these.

Sooty just had to be in the picture!

After the heatwave of the last week we had to have thunderstorms and torrential rain. Trapped in the greenhouse Luna decided to sample the bamboo which might have been a bad idea because she's now got an upset tummy!

I bought some cravats for the dogs which donates money to the D.O.G rescue charity in Cyprus and they badly need funds to pay the kennel fees for all the dogs in their care.

We went to another fun dig show and both dogs won a rosette this time. Sooty was so proud of his!

Finally some crochet. I made this cardigan from an Inside Crochet pattern ages ago and now I've lost more weight I like it. It's supposed to be worn with a narrow belt but I think I want a few buttons. I've done this post on my secondhand iPad and I now know it's not easy!

T for Tuesday

I took my lunch and peppermint tea out into the garden today, it was such a lovely day, warm while the sun was out anyway! I made a prawn curry, Slimming World recipe. I haven't joined in T for Tuesday at Elizabeth and Bleu's place for such a long time (and I have missed it so much) but eating outside like this reminded me, and I thought I would pop on over. Also I have never linked up from my new crochet blog, only my paper crafting one!

When I had finished my lunch it was still nice so I grabbed my WIP, which is the Persian Tiles crocheted blanket and another mug full of peppermint tea, and I want to get on with this blanket for reasons that will become clear later! I have been so ill with a nasty virus for over two weeks, I still have it a bit now but I am so much better. Before that I had really painful sciatica for a couple of months, I couldn't stand for long, or walk more than a dozen steps without really suffering and having to sit down, I was on Tramadol in the end and that wasn't helping totally. Suddenly it stopped and gave me a break - in time to go down with the virus!

Week 1 of the virus I spent most of the time sleeping in bed, only getting up to feed the dogs and get myself drinks, I hardly ate a thing. Apart from a really sore throat and ear I felt like my head was in a washing machine, it only stopped a bit when I lay down! Week 2 was a bit better but it went into my sinuses, I had a different kind of sore throat, cough, sneezing, then I got an infected eye. That's when I went to the Doctor, who said it would probably go in a couple of days - it didn't, it spread to the other eye but it was a lot better, still not totally gone though. I did get a script for antibiotic drops but he said don't get it unless it doesn't get better, because I told him I would have an allergic reaction to them which would cause extreme pain - catch 22 or what! 

I'm crocheting them factory style, I think that is what they call it, doing all of the centres (badly) then all of the next row, and so on. I was doing the copper row here, yellow is next. This is because the rows are all quite complex and this way I can remember what I am doing (hahahahaha), but because of what happened before I haven't sewn in any ends at all! I calculated how many ends I will sew in and there are 1020 in total for this blanket, something I hadn't really figured on when I decided to make it! See the finished one at the back?

I'm making progress, really have to concentrate. Luckily I can crochet with my sun glasses on, bog standard sort, reading the pattern when I needed the next row was a bit more difficult haha! I stayed out all afternoon, why you might ask? Well apart from it being lovely I was recently told my Vit D levels are low, and that is despite taking a supplement so I thought it might help. Didn't wear a hat, maybe I should have. Anyways I sat on the patio crocheting until my right arm got frozen, we get a mean draft up the side of the house! Thinking I should move onto the lawn in the sun, but I don't want to put the tote on the grass (we have two dogs, if you know what I mean). Then I thought if I move two chairs over there I can put the tote on one, but the grass really needs cutting..... so I got the petrol mower out. I don't normally do this, well hardly ever and if I do someone has got the mower out and started it.... I had trouble starting it, tried the clutch in different positions but I thought I was probably not pulling the string fast enough, couldn't seem to do it. It was hurting my hand so I went to get my leather gardening gloves, posh ones from the National Trust shop last year! That was better and I put everything into pulling fast and - finally it started! So off I went cutting the grass, after poop picking first! It was ok, when I stopped to empty the collector I couldn't pull the string at all, thought I had broken it, but in the end I worked out there was a wad of grass and reeds (I cut down the dead reeds on the pond last week and there were some all over the grass), and managed to get it going again and finish the job.

The circles - they are the centres of the octagons I am making, and there was a gap between the first ones and the rest due to stopping to make Easter toys, then the two weeks sick in bed with the virus! I know what I am doing, I know this part of the pattern I thought, and got stuck in making the number up to 15, then I looked at the pattern for the next row - I had used the wrong hook!!! There are two sizes of hooks used in this pattern, so my middles were different sizes. I made another, it was 5cm (2.5inches?), tried to work out which were big enough - in the end common sense prevailed and I measured them, some were 4.5cm, too small, some were nearly 5cm - I've used them, I think that as they are only a tiny bit and there is a lot more to go any tiny variation here between exactly 5cm and just a little under will work out fine when they are blocked. I hope so anyway! The worst thing was that before discovering my error I had sat and sewed in the ends really firmly! This is something I never used to do, I would only crochet over them, and sometimes sew them in if I couldn't crochet over them. But now there is so much information online I have learnt the right way to do it securely.

 This was an accidental photo on the phone but I left it in to show you the lovely sky today, not a great photo I know!

 While I was cutting the grass, and sweeping up reeds from the paths I realised that the top patio (aren't we posh, it happened because we had a much larger greenhouse that we changed for a child friendly one with safety glass and ended up with a space near the pond) was a lot warmer than the lower one, so I moved there to continue with my crochet after the grass cutting exercise (and I do mean exercise)!

I had planned to spend the afternoon doing more cleaning, but yesterday it was pouring with rain and today - no rain! Sunday we had hail stones and sleet! So tomorrow if it rains I might get to the cleaning again.

 Thought I better feed the fish, and tried to get a photo of the monster Ghost Koi, we had two but one vanished, the remaining one has outgrown everything else. See him below, the silver one...

....under the wooden beam...

 ....more of him, he is a bit camera shy....

 .....swimming away again....

 ....that's him - bottom left, well a bit of him/her!

When I moved to the top patio I had done all the copper and started the daffodil yellow.

 I feel I have made a lot of progress, after the yellow rows come the fans, they are not done in rows and they are what I need the smaller hook for! In fact I've now done all the yellow rows!

View from the top patio.

I did loads of housework yesterday, cleaned the lounge and hall like I haven't for a very long time, I kept looking at things and thinking how dirty they were so went for a Spring clean, and all because I was feeling kinda guilty for buying this...

It is a Lux kit for a Scheepjes CAL (crochet along) called Dance on the Beach, and there are three variations. Mine is called Dance in the Sea. It came in the Lux kit, which 50% Marino wool yarn, the tote, gorgeous scissors and some stitch markers, and a sachet of some stuff to wash it in I think. You could also buy a cheaper acrylic kit without the tote and scissors. For every kit there is a donation to MIND, because the person who started these designs was Marinke Slump, a lovely girl who used crochet to get her out of depression, but sadly lost her battle with it and took her own life. Her friends and colleagues completed this in her memory.

I thought it was quite appropriate because my hubby is suffering depression (well that is my excuse though he might be more depressed if I told him what I spent on this lol), due to his cancer. He really hasn't been well for a couple of weeks and I was quite worried about him, but today he felt up to going to work this afternoon for a couple of hours, and seemed a lot better, he had his cancer treatment yesterday. It is his second sort of Immunotherapy and we don't know if it is working yet. He will have a scan in a few weeks to find out. That is also why I didn't want him to cut the grass, the cancer spread to the lymph gland sitting above his stomach and so he is finding it difficult to eat much, and it hurts him to bend down. When he came home again he said he had been thinking of trying to cut the grass!

I've even taken Sooty for a short walk, two evenings running! Poor dog, we were taking them both to Barton Farm, as you can see in previous posts, but Sooty went down with a nasty bug - unless he ate something nasty! By the time he recovered I had sciatica, then the bug! He is so happy to be going out again, I just hope it doesn't trigger the sciatica or anything else! We have to sneak out or Alfie gets upset, and he is really too old to go walking now, he has gone all lop sided and his balance isn't great, I think he might have had a stroke. He is over 14 years old now though, and he seems happy enough.

Yarn totes, new stash and infinity scarf.

Storage is always a headache when you collect yarn and other craft supplies! Some people are very disciplined, I can't resist a bargain every now and then!

I have had the ArtBin yarn tote for around a year now, the large black tote is a recent acquisition, as are the Baaag and blocking board, and the Furls yarn bowl has only been here a couple of months.

I think I will review each of them but not tonight! I can give an opinion of the yarn tote, but not the newer black one - that needs some "road testing", I have used it a little so far.

So the reviews will come along later.

When I saw this bag at an introductory price from Eweniverse I just had to have a couple (mini flock), and if you love sheep and punny gifts you should check it out! One might be a present for someone, unless I stash more yarn in them both!

Remember the gorgeous 100% hand dyed Marino wool I bought from Woolly Wonders Yarn? Well this is how it looks made up into a summer infinity scarf. I will take a better photo soon, and I'm trying to decide if I should add a crocheted flower like the pattern shows, and if so what colour. The scarf pattern is a free one by Elk Studio and has a very interesting waffle like stitch throughout. To make a flower I have some chunky 100% Marino wool in cream and in black, or I have 50% Marino wool in several colours - decisions.

 The blocking board underneath the scarf arrived from Wool Warehouse yesterday. I've never done any blocking with a proper tool, only with pins on the ironing board. This particular board is Dutch and you can buy it direct from the makers, who make it in several colours including purple, they even make one with a photo of your own on it! It is called a Granny Block station.