The terrifying UFO

Possibly this top doesn't look too terrifying to you... but when I look at it my heart always skips a beat and I run screaming from the room. Hundreds of loose ends to work in! Hours and hours more work trying to crochet together the motifs on the bottom edge not to mention needing to finish the whole thing off with some sort of single crochet border to give the work a bit more strength.

This top also fills me with guilt every time I look at it, it was meant to be a Birthday present for my sister and is now looking like it is going to be almost a year late. Well I'm trying to be better at working at it when I have a spare moment or too but the work is still going slowly. To try and help me motivate myself into finishing I've made a pact with myself not to start a new project until it is done, which is part of the reason why I've not joined in the SEWN giveaway and made anything for that (the other reason is I really have no idea what to make!). Once this top is done though all bets are off and I'll try to host a giveaway with something cute and homemade - any suggestions?

I've already got another sewing project lined up for when the top of doom is finished and that will be using this lovely fabric from Ikea which my husband picked out. This is to make a custom pillow case to fit his oddly shaped ergonomic Ikea pillow. Not too sure whether I'll try something as complicated as making a specially fitted cover or just stick to a simple case that is a little smaller than the normal sized pillow cases.

This has also been a great week for magazines with me getting a chance to read both issues of the new UK crochet magazine "Inside Crochet" and receiving the new issue of "MixTape" through the post.

Inside Crochet is the new UK crochet magazine, in fact it is the only UK crochet magazine being published at the moment and it is fantastic. For some reason I was unaware of it's existence until a couple of weeks ago when I noticed it on the shelf of my local WHSmiths and I very eagerly picked it up. I held off reading it though until my trip up North to visit the in laws as I was trying to justify spending the £5 but after reading it I thought it was well worth the cost. There are some lovely patterns in there (and a couple of not so great patterns - but really the good to bad ratio is very high) that I can't wait to have a go at, I may even make my first piece of crochet clothing (the top of doom doesn't count as it is embellishment to a shop bought top) from it. The second issue I snapped up as soon as it appeared in the shops and there are even more patterns in there that I like. As well as some lovely patterns there are a number of well written articles - some even by people that I know of from the blogosphere. Hopefully I'll be able to wangle a subscription for my Birthday next month as I really don't want to miss an issue.

MixTape is a little crafting magazine from Australia that features loads of inspiring articles and one or two little craft projects. This issue is the second of my Mother's day present subscription and it made my day when it hit the doormat yesterday morning. I've already almost finished reading through it and there are a number of articles in this issue about Craftivism - doing craft for good causes as well as articles on eco-crafting and crafting with kids. All great stuff well written and in the lovely new all colour format that really brings this little zine to life.