Perfect Sunday ....(and what I has been up to!)

So here am I, sitting in the garden, with my laptop on my lap! I can't see a thing on the screen, but I'm hoping to get the gist of a blog down, and correct it later (or maybe just leave it for the heck of it!)  The weather is fabulous, a spring chill in the air, but warm enough to be sitting out in just a cardi and track suit bottoms (Sundays are for slobbing a little aren't the?) Spot is at my side

(and just as I typed that she got up and moved! LOL - she sooooo has to have the last word) and I'm noticing that it won't be long before i have to start mowing the lawn.  I can see a robin sitting on the edge of my incinerator (mostly used for red-mite infested bedding! - sigh) and the church bell is tolling 2 o'clock. I also started (well started isn't quite right as it was 11 o'clock) but I "started" my Sunday with the most perfect brunch courtesy of Attic24, and her recently posted instructions on how to poach an egg.  As a chicken keeper i do love a poached egg on toast, and mine often come out ok, but sometimes really don't, Turns out I had all the right ingredients (water, eggs, vinegar) but in slightly the wrong ratios. - Poached eggs on toasted homemade seed bread is a good way to start a Sunday:- All pretty awesome eh?

So, the week has been pretty busy. Started on Monday with a trip up to the NEC to the CHSI trade show. (as per my last blog post!) Not much for a small trader to be able to get as all the minimum order values were really quite high, but it was good to look around and see what is available, and how the coming seasons are being interpreted.  And the feedback from the magazines was really encouraging about the Crafters' Barn, so that made me feel good about that too. (it's always so scary thinking about starting a business and then realising how much it's going to cost - It makes it a bit easier when other people think it's a good idea too!

On Tuesday, i went to visit Bruce at SKD to get some yarn for my latest commission. This is something that has been on my order books for a while but I haven't been able to source good yarn for it, as it needed to be super-bulky, specific colours, and non-itchy! Not much of a task then?! Luckily Bruce and Birgitte have just started with a new range of yarns from Sandnes-Garn and their Easy Merino fit the bill perfectly.  I decided to drive over and see SKD though as it saved on postage and meant I could have a bit of a squish of some of the rest of their range. (Who can honestly resist the opportunity to squish??!) - I also came home with 2 balls of Alfa, and 2 balls of Kashmir/Alpaca - just for research *ahem* (The kashmir/alpaca is soooooo soft and lovely, I couldn't stop picking it up and stroking it)

Finally, yesterday I went to Unravel. - Fab day, met friends, had lots of hugs, lots of squishing, and not much purchasing (which was good as I really am running out of yarn storing room!)  Saw a fabulous new range called Ruth and Belinda, really lovely yarns and accompanying patterns, well worth a look. And relented on a 24mm pair of knitting needles so I can use one for some broomstick knitting and crocheting trials.

The granny squares throw has been finished. - Would you like to see photos?????...... No???........ well look away then cos I want to show this off! :-)

(Actually not the best photos as the sun has gone in every single time I've got this baby out to photgraph it, but you get the gist!) - It's big enough for a double bed, and is crocheted in Rowan Renew.  As per usual Rowan got the pattern wrong and i sent back (luckily I finished it quickly enough that the same dye lots were still in circulation) 2 balls of Digger, and 2 balls of Trailer. I needed 3 extra balls of Tractor *rolls eyes*.  I've told Rowan, as the quantities in the book in hindsight can't possibly be correct due to the colour sequencing, and if you wanted to take your time over this project (which would be understandable as it's huge!) you'd be a bit stuffed at the end to find all the qty's are wrong. Rowan have apologised and acknowledged the mistake, so it should be in the errata soon.

Right, this post is becoming a little too epic, so it's time to draw to a close for another week or so, before I bore you all to tears. Have a good week everyone, and I hope that a little spring comes to you all this week one way or another.  'Til soon ♥

ooh P.S. Just 2 days left to vote in the poll below, please do if you haven't already. And if you have..... thank you everso x

Just one photo for now

It's dull here today, grey, blustery and not very exciting at all. This has made it particularly difficult to photograph my latest finished object!! (yep, ladies and gentlemen, the blanket is finished)

So in the interests of not keeping you waiting here is a not very artistic shot of it.  Hopefully I will manage to get some nicer ones before it's all parcelled up.  There are a few ends that need sewing in tonight, but other than that it's good to go!

I've totally loved making this, the pattern is easy but not as boring as stocking stitch! I am somewhat disappointed in Rowan's technical editing though. The pattern had more mistakes than I would consider acceptable. Made worse by the fact that the mistakes were in the second and third panels which were obviously then copied and pasted down for the other panel instructions.  At one point the pattern said to repeat the last 8 rows when it meant the last 12, and at another point it said to knit rows 46-48 of pattern B, but pattern B finishes on row 40! it's not rocket science and whilst I appreciate that errata are totally understandable in something that doesn't actually make sense unless you knit it, I really think a company the size of Rowan should be able to do a bit better than this. It was an incredibly simple pattern so there shouldn't really have been any errors.

Anyway details as folllows
Pattern: Tweed Throw from Rowan Purelife Home book.
Yarn: Rowan Renew
Colours as pattern.

Knit on 6mm Knitpro interchangeable circs (longest cord I had!)
No mods made to pattern other than where it needed correcting!

Hopefully some more arty shots but this little beauty needs to be parcelled up and sent on her way.

D, I really hope you have cold winters where you are, my heating bill is likely to go up considerably now I've finished knitting this! ;)

Update on lace sleeves sweater

Just wanted to share how this is turning out - i am loving it! - obviously being 4ply it's slow progress (and I'll never make it again in 4ply ;) ) but it's gorgeous so far:

I need to add more length then there is a lace panel that goes on the bottom, and the sleeves need to be knitted (they're lace, but given the name of the sweater that shouldn't be a surprise!).  I'm knitting this in Twilley's Freedom Gorgeous 4ply

Also i wanted to show you this finished Cami, I had forgotten to take a photo of it finished. it's stretched a bit on the straps so i need to stitch some ribbon or binding in them to hold them a bit tighter, but i love it and wear it loads.

pattern: Beaded Cami, heavily modified though with help from other knitters notes on ravelry! (and without the beads!) Knitted in King Cole Bamboo Cotton, colour Opal.

Colour!

Today I have finished two blankets (like buses, none for ages then two at a time)

First there is my nephew's sockyarn blanket. It was made originally when he was born, but he's now nearly 4 and it needed lengthening, so here is a Big Boy's Blanket!

Made from sock yarn scraps, it's just mitred squares of 31 stitches, with a slipped stitch edging so once the first row is done you can pick up and knit on.  It's about 5ft long now, should last him a couple of years!

Secondly I have finished my blanket of sunshine:

It is the Willow Block from Jan Eaton's book 200 crochet squares. Made in Rico cotton in 15 colours. Each colour took each position in the square twice, so there are 30 squares, and 4 rows of DC around the edge.  I have more yarn to do more edging and I may well at some point, but for now it's finished!  I haven't measured it but I'd say it's around 4ft x 3ft 6.

 The garden is also really colourful at the moment, with the marigolds particularly showing their form:

There they are above, bordering my rampaging vegetable bed. Any minute now those yellow flowers will be joined by red runner bean flowers and ripening tomatoes, and the yellow courgette flowers.

The petunias are also pretty awesome now, they have a gentle fragrance, and a neon colouring - fantastic:

The photo doesn't do them any justice at all, they are deep and bright, like a perfect velvet. Amazing colouring.

I'd have taken photos of the Gazanias too as they are also beautiful colours, but they have not deemed it sunny enough today to open fully - I love how they open what they consider a sensible amount for the day - rain, and they stay tightly closed, cloudy - and they open just a tad, full on burn your bits sun - and they turn their faces up to the sun as wide open as they can be and enjoy the warmth on their petals. - It's all very clever.

I have also chosen my July challenge, but it's tucked away in my Lovely sock project bag. (Mine has meeces on, it's super cute and awesome!) and quite frankly I'm too lazy to get it out to photo - especially as I haven't even cast on yet. It's waiting for me tho'!

So there you have it, colour on a Sunday. And now the evening sun has come out and is at the best it has been all day - I feel a little garden knitting coming on, while I listen to the blackbird staking his claim to his territory!  Hope you all had a great weekend.

May Challenge, which became June Challenge. Now Finished!

Got in a bit of a state with these - for no reason other than I'm a bit lazy,and knitting needs to be "in front of the tv" type stuff really.  These had two pattern charts, one 24 rows and one 20 rows, plus I re-wrote the pattern to be toe-up instead of cuff-down.

But once all the moaning was over with I got on with them, and now have a fab pair of socks to show for it!

So, they took me two months instead of one, but hey - it's summer and knitting time is sorely reduced by gardening and other sunny activities.  I'm sure I'll catch up later in the year!

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.

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.

It's all about the finishes lately. - Happy!

Happy is the colourway of these gorgeous socks in fyberpsates sock yarn.  The pattern is Charade (ravelry link)

Aren't they just "Happy"?

Finished Mitts

Just a quick photo of my finished mitts. - One of the reasons I needed to choose my March challenge yarn was to encourage me to finish these!

Pattern: Northman Mittens
Outer knitted in Drops Karisma, inner in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK

Right, really need to get on with some work now!

February is for Finished Objects!

Already the month is halfway through, but at least I have something to show for it. 2 finished objects!

The first is my lovely CanCans as previewed in the last post (and yeah all you funny people commenting on how cold my toes will be! ;) - it's a Sock YARN challenge! - but you did make me laugh )

I really like this pattern. The arms are nice and long as is the hand part, not quite over the knuckles, but long enough to actually keep you warm, which strangely not all mitts are!

My second FO is my 2nd window quilt, and Oh My, am I happy with this one. I am pleased that I did learn lessons from the first one, and that my sewing and confidence have grown.

With this one I did all the quilting free-motion. Starting in the centre panel and outlining parts of the illustration (but leaving the sky for a soft, sunny, billowing effect!), and then moving on to the border.

The pale green border fabric actually has little leaf stems on it, so I used these as a very rough template for the free motion quilting - wanting to make that border a little less lofty and thereby allowing the centre panel to take more attention. - It worked well. And I'm pleased with how my first free motion went.

I still have plenty to learn, and can improve a hundred fold - but isn't that always the way with crafting, - there are always lessons to be learnt and that's why we love it so.

Drops Sweater Dress

Sometimes I have to laugh at myself. I started this last year, and nearly completed it for Christmas, but then Christmas knitting took precedence, and anyway I didn't (and still don't really) have anything to wear under it, so I put it in a bag to finish after the festive season........... Only........... I forgot! - Totally and utterly forgot about it. It was only when I was checking through my ravelry projects (thank you again ravelry) that I realised I had put it away! - *doh*.  Anyway here is all its glory is my Drops sweater Dress, made from 2 strands of Fabel sock yarn, which means it's totally machine washable! *YAY*.

It's fairy time

My first window quilt is complete. It has taken ages, and i've learnt many lessons along the way - but isn't that always the way with crafting, there's never a time when you don't think "I could've done that better" or "next time......." but that's part of the fun. I 'm really happy with the way this looks despite there being areas for improvement, so all is good.

I have two more to complete. And when they're done they will be hung, during the winter, in my conservatory to keep the drafts out, and the heat in!

Latest crafting accomplishments

A quick roundup of my latest creations

Firstly 2 of the 3 window quilts I need to make for my conservatory.. These are only the front panels, they need to be actually quilted yet - but as I'm new to sewing I'm pretty chuffed with these so am showing them off now (before I ruin them by getting the quilting wrong!  I've tried to edit that bra out of the background but Photobucket is having none of the cropping today (it may miraculously crop at some point of it's own accord because the original has been) But I'm saying that I did it on purpose as my final salute to Breast Awareness Month, and you'll never know whether I'm telling the truth or not!)

And my Girasole Blanket. Pattern by BrooklynTweed, (available here under home and accessories)
This is the aran version (as I guess you can see by the size) and it's glorious. Just what you need on an autumn night to keep the chills at bay. The little gap at the bottom is where I ran out of yarn (*doh*) I was seriously considering undoing the border and the last pattern repeat and then reknitting the border - but it was 2 weeks worth of knitting all told, and in the end my common sense prevailed - It's a blanket!!! No-one will ever know when they're snuggled up in it.

It was knitted in Forsell Touch of Silk, 1 cone in colour Basalt, on 6.5mm needles (I think, I've taken them apart now as I used interchangeables, but I think that's what they were) and it's already one repeat short of the final pattern chart, so if anyone else is making it in that - beware!!

All in all i've been quite productive of late. ;-)

Cameo

Well I'm obviously on a bit of a roll lately! Here is the newest finished article from the Doris Chan Everyday Crochet  book.

The Pattern is Cameo, made in 5 1/2 balls of  Drops Cotton Viscose (very splitty yarn :( ), on a 4.5mm hook.  If I made this again, or any of the variations on this pattern, I would stop the body just below the bust, and go back and do the armholes and straps as it'd be  much easier to get a good fit and try it on along the way then. I made it longer than the original pattern, and added one set of hip shaping as in the pattern Somnambulista which is based on the same design.(and which I think may be my next "must-have") I also needed the straps way longer than the pattern - an extra 10 stitches, and it still could have been longer. (But then I have always known I was a bit "thick set" around the shoulders!!!!)   All in all very happy with the finished article. The yarn had been frogged, and I also had to re-do a few bits of this (mostly the straps to get them the right length), and it became very very splitty because of that. But it's made up nicely.

Finally,  I have made my first sunshine square:-

After a few false starts I have decided on the Willow Square from the 200 Crochet Blocks  book.  I should have enough yarn to make 30 squares, which will make a throw 48" x 40" - It's going to be a slow process tho' so I'll just mosey along with this as and when.

Now I'm off to watch the British F1 Grand Prix - I won't be moving from the sofa for a few hours!

Jewel in the Crown

This is Jewel (Ravelry Link) by Doris Chan   (blog link!).  Fantastic pattern and the first quite complex crochet pattern I have followed.  It's crocheted top down with raglan sleeves. i had a bit of trouble to start with as I was over complicating the pattern, but once I understood the way it was written I was well away.

This won't be the only pattern I make from this book!

It Worked!!!!!!

 
How pleased am I?!

The latest Christmas present ever!

My poor sister finally got her present the other week and has taken a photo for me to post. 

This became a bit of a chore half way through (and having frogged 3 times) because I just couldn’t get a nice tension.  The tension on all the patterns I was using was for 2 strands of Drops Alpaca, knit on 5mm needles, but the stitches were very uneven, and loose and generally not very nice looking.  Eventually I gave up on the patterns and used sweater wizard to get a pattern using 4mm needles, which gave a much nicer effect. The edges are all done in moss stitch as again all ribbed variations looked untidy.

I really fell in love with this again whilst knitting it this last time.  The tension is beautifully even on 4mm’s (knitpicks harmonies!!) and it feels warm and wonderfully soft.

Bex has graciously allowed me to show a photo on here.

Flicca

It’s been a while since we had any knitting content on here. This has been finished for some time just waiting for some buttons, but finally here in all its glory is…. Flicca! 

 

I love it!  It needs to be worn and loved a bit so the ribbing at the bottom opens out and drapes a bit more.  It is made in Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky in colourway Alaska.  Mods to pattern:  Changed top section from 1 x 1 ribbing to stocking stitch.

Makes my bum look a bit on the wide side, but what do I care, it’s snug and soft and warm and wonderful. I love it!

Having Hope - Having Faith

 

I've had this yarn for ages - 2 skeins of Bushcraft that I bought in the early days of the Yarn Yard.  When n sold this yarn she donated £1 from every skein to the Everyman Cancer charity, and that is a charity close to my heart in the last couple of years.  After staring at it in my stash for the best part of 2 years, finally the perfect pattern came to light.

Having Hope was designed by Diane Mulholland, and the pattern is being sold in aid of Cancer Research.  (It's also available on ravelry here)  

These have been knitted for a birthday present for a very special friend of mine, and there are a thousand reasons why this has all worked well right now.