Well, there’s a few new things going on around here at the moment.

To start with, I have a pattern for a collection of Trick or Treat bags listed in my online stores. There’s a spider, a bat and, of course, a cat. This has been a couple of years in the making but after stopping and starting, getting distracted, sidetracked and then running out of time before last Halloween, I’ve finally got them done! It’s still a little later than I would have liked for this Halloween but I have a good excuse this time, which I shall reveal more about further down the post <<< (Teaser alert!)

For these bags I used the classic Halloween colour palette of orange, purple, green and black, combined with a heap of stripes to give them a recognizably seasonal look. I’m really pleased with how they turned out, I hope you like them too!

They are sturdy enough for the most rigorous use on any candy conjuring trip and can store enough goodies to keep you going until Christmas!

This really has been a dipping in and out of pattern. More often than not I do see my ideas through to the end but always with plenty of other projects shoehorned in along the way. I’m never going to be a one thing at a time kind of girl and I’ve made my peace with that at last. A much more laissez faire attitude to the WIPs mountain is definitely a good thing for me. ‘If you can’t beat it, add to it’ is my new motto!

This photo was taken around this time last year when I was testing through the first draft of the pattern. This version of the bag is still unfinished and stuffed in a drawer but I have every faith that it will see the light of day sometime in the near to distant future when it will be lovingly pieced together (probably).

All these bits below were eventually assembled into the finished articles, so I know I can do it when I set my mind to it.

With eight long legs for the spider, four medium ones for the cat and two short ones for the bat, plus three handles and the bags themselves it’s a good job I’m a fan of working stripes (I especially love how you don’t need to bother with a stitch marker to know where each round begins).

I’m thinking about Christmas now and have several jolly pattern bundles in mind for tree decorations and parcel toppers or just tiny gifts that are super quick to make, so watch out for a Moji-Moji Christmas Fest coming your way soon! (I thought it only polite to get Halloween out of the way first before I photo bomb you with elves, angels, robins and wreaths!)

On other crochet news – I have been steadily working towards completion of my Winter Greys Hexie Blanket, just in time for snuggling up as the evenings draw in and the weather gets colder. I started this blanket a couple of years ago and the final few motifs were finished last week.

The joining of the hexies was studiously overseen by Mojo and Rubick.

The blanket was tested for comfort in various positions from sitting to lying down and passed with flying colours. Or maybe that should be flying monochromes.

But it has taken me longer to finish the border than I anticipated. And the purrfect excuse for my crochet tardiness? Our feline family has recently grown again!

These cheeky sisters were born to a very young cat in a household that, for various reasons, couldn’t really cope with them (thankfully the mum cat is now spayed so no more accidental pregnancies for her!)

They needed a new home where they would be safe and loved so I went to visit them at their temporary foster home (my son’s girlfriend’s house – which is how I came to know about them) and decided to take on Lyra because she has some special needs (she’s the one on the right in the photo above) as we thought it may be tricky to rehome her elsewhere. She was born really small and with a squashed up rib cage and strangely bent legs which needed to be treated with a special jacket and some physiotherapy.

Here she is at 5 weeks old after her legs had straightened up a bit once she started walking on them.

You can see how I fell in love so easily! But there’s more to tell yet…

Whenever we visited at her foster home she was always particularly close and pally with Luna (below) and it didn’t seem right to split them up, and so I agreed to take them both.

After a few more visits I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Loki on her own and so, inevitably – as I’m such a soft touch when it comes to furry, purry four legged fluffy things, I ended up with all three!

Could anybody seriously be expected not to bring her home too if they had the chance?! Just look at that face!

After losing two of my beloved cats – Pogo and Minnie – to cancer last year I vowed ‘never again’. I couldn’t go through that loss if I didn’t have to, but sometimes fate intervenes and cat’s simply scamper into your life when you least expect it. It’s been a while now since they arrived and I’m not regretting my decision. Not one little bit. Someone has to love them now they’re in the world, so it might as well be me 😊💓

I turned the lounge into a kitten nursery, installing all the toys and baskets I could find and shifting the sofas around to accommodate the cat tower that Rubick no longer favours.

It didn’t take long for the little lovelies to settle in.

Naturally enough, the kittens severely complicated any yarn based endeavours…

… but I finished my blanket with them mostly snuggled inside it.

So that’s three more feline fans of my woolly creations. It sure feels good to have an entourage so appreciative of my handiwork!

Round and round I went with the lovely zigzagging edge taking shape. After a touch of embellishment with some surface crochet it was pretty much ready to add to my store of winter throws.

I was originally intending to add tassels to the pointed ends of the hem but decided it might be a better idea to wait until the kittens get a bit bigger and slightly less pouncy or they’ll be attacking them every time I move the blanket around!

They’re certainly not always as sleepy and compliant as Luna is here… and it didn’t take her too long to wake right up and start chewing on the hook once I got crocheting again.

Oh well – I’m content to make progress with my crochet when I can, and play with the kittens when I can’t. They’ll be grown up and lazy snoozers like the others soon enough and then there’ll be plenty of time to do what I like.

Occasionally they’re happy to sleep somewhere other than my lap so, letting sleeping kittens lie, I’ve been able to sneak off and get a bit of pattern writing done here and there. Not as much as I would have hoped but enough to keep my hand in for now.

Mojo, Rubick and Laddie are slowly taking to the new arrivals and they are providing us all with hours of entertainment with their high jinks and acrobatic antics. Rubick is  happy to sleep on the sofa knowing the girls are close by.

Mojo prefers to observe from a height where he feels safer.

Naturally the window spot is everyone’s favourite place.

But Mojo still sneaks back into his basket when he can.

My poncho has been growing. This has been yet another slow burning project but I felt much more motivated to finish it once it wasn’t so mind-bendingly hot outside anymore.

While I wasn’t working on those soothing granny stripe rows the poncho has been doubling up as a cat blanket for Rubick whenever I was daft enough to leave it lying around. Mmm, nice and hairy before I even get to wear it. Sneeze, sneeze!

I’m very close to finishing this so, cats and kittens willing, I’ll share the Ta-dah moment with you next time.

It’s been wonderful to spend so much time snuggling with our new family members and I’ve squeezed in a fair amount of knitting while they snoozed on or around me. As a result I should have a finished jumper to share with you…

…and as I’ve been making mittens with kittens too I’ll be able to reveal the finished mini masterpieces in my next post (I love the way they look so far and will be making more of these before the winter is out!)

After that I’ll be in full on Christmas mode. Time is ticking by, in the most pleasant way it has to be said, but I don’t want Christmas to come and go without getting my new festive patterns up like Halloween nearly did!

Happy Trick or treating to those of you taking part. May your bags be full of sweet treats and your winter evenings full of crafty projects. I’m really hoping mine will be!