End of May already

So the May socks are going extraordinarily slowly. I think i've lost the love for them, but am nearly finished on the first one so haven't the heart to frog it and choose another pattern. Whatever happens they ain't gonna be finished for May!

We also seem to have acquired 3 new chicks.

These little lovelies have already had so much bad luck thrown at them..They were abandoned at 18 days by my broody silkie (chicks take 21 days to hatch) and the eggs had gone quite cold.  As luck would sort of have it, I had another broody - an old Welsummer (She's 5 or 6 years old and has never gone broody in her life until now) So we put them under her in the main hen house just in case.  And on day 23, just when I was going to empty the nestbox and get her sorted out, these little ones appeared from under her!  (There was a fourth but it didn't make it :( )

It all caused a bit of a dilemma, because firstly, Welsummers are renowned for being bad mothers. Secondly Silkie was in the broody coop, and she can't go in the main run cos she is so much smaller than the other girls and gets beaten up, and the cockerel is still recovering from his hen-pecked injuries in the 2nd run. So what the heck was I going to do with these. I couldn't leave them with the Welsummer, even if she had been a good mother they couldn't stay in the main run with all the other old biddies.  So, they are currently in a recycling box in my spare room, with a heat lamp for warmth. I think the poor old cockerel will have to go to the Freezer, and Silkie will go in the 2nd run. Hopefully when the chicks are a little bigger they'll go in there with her, but we'll have to see.

I have also made a couple of cushion covers. 3 down, another 3 to do at least (although I have 10 inserts as it was cheaper to buy them in 10's!)

In the meantime, I am furiously knitting and lovely the sock yarn blanket. I had forgotten how much fun it was to knit.

Return of an old friend

I made this sock yarn blanket in 2007. Finished just after my 2nd nephew was born. Well I always knew it would need making longer and the time has come. It now needs to be at least 1m50 in length cos the little man is now a wonderful 3 1/2 year old and this doesn't cover his toes any more. It's kinda nice to have it back!

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Time flies

Well spring (or maybe summer) is here, and as always my little blog gets a bit neglected while I juggle gardening, knitting, sewing and generally slobbing around in the sun.

But just a quick post to show you that I have chosen my May Sock-yarn challenge:

It's Opal Winterberry (that I got as part of my CTnY Christmas swap) to be knit in the Slippery Socks pattern. I've started them - and changed the pattern to toe-up cos I'm radical like that. So am halfway up the first foot.  I'd have got further but I'm also knitting a camisole which I've had to re-do the top of 3 times now as it's coming out way to big. I've stopped measuring it now! 3 times is already too many to re-knit the same thing.

Other than the knitting, life goes on as normal chez Noo. A few trips to Hayling, gardening, sewing (I'm about to make some new cushion covers) a little bit of work (least said about that the better, I'm going to be made redundant so am looking for another "work from home" part time job, not easy to find cos obviously that's what everyone wants to do!) And watching the sparrows and the blue tits that are nesting in my garden.

I also have 4 eggs under a broody silkie, and we've had to separate the cockerel from the rest of the hens cos he's being picked on (well pEcked on actually, they're pecking his comb to the point of bleeding.) I have a horrible feeling that he's not going to be able to go back in there either as he just isn't dominant enough to stop them :(

Raceforlife training is going ok - I'm up to week 5, the 8 minute intervals, so should finish the programme in time to run the whole 5k raceforlife.

And finally if anyone has any rain anywhere in the country could they blow it this way a bit?  We did have two nights worth last week, but there's nothing much now to show for that. Water butts are all but empty, and the lawn is brown and cracked :(

Right, I really must have some breakfast............. I think my patio is calling me.

Baby Quilt - Finished!

Oh my, ! I have just finished this, and now realised how much I'm going to miss doing it!  It's lasted a while, not bad entertainment value it must be said!

Now on to the nitty gritty:

The fabric is a pack of 10 Fat Quarters "Fresh 2" by Kaffe Fasset, bought from Remnant House

I cut the FQ's down into 5" squares, and first made 9 patch blocks.  I used the traditional layout for the outer 8 patches, in that they were 2 designs alternated round the outside, and then used a different square in the middle - this was mostly to get the least wastage out of the FQ's. I then cut each9 patch block in 4 to make disappearing 9 patch (also called a whole host of other names but this was the first name I heard for them so it's what I'm sticking with)  I then put them all together randomly.  The random bit was necessary because of the number of different fabrics. I couldn't quite make a proper pattern, and in the end just loved the sunshiny way that the randomness worked.

Once the top was finished, I basted it with 2oz poly wadding (it's for a baby, it needs to be washable!) and backed it with lemon fleece. The reason for the fleece backing was so that it can be used as a garden/picnic quilt, and will be water resistant if the ground is damp.

I quilted all the large patches with stitch in the ditch first. Mostly because the fleece backing had made the quilt quite thick and a bit unwieldy, so I wanted to do something to hold it together a bit better than safety pins!  Once I'd done that I free-motioned all over, starting in the middle, with a large stippling type effect.  I had wanted to do a kind of travelling daisy, but it turned out too hard on this thickness of quilt.

Then made the binding out of the scraps. Was one length short but had a batik jelly roll with a bright orange that I thought would work ok, and although I can tell it's different, I think it works ok.

So, you wanna see photos???

Really?



Ok then!

 (They're not the best actually, cos it's so sunny, you either get my shadow or slightly washed out photos, but here's the best of the bunch!)

I have to say I have totally loved making this, and I think another will be on the cards very soon. There's a tiny part of me doesn't want to give it away. (It looks awesome on my new deck) But I'm sure baby and mother will love it and it will see many happy days.