Wednesday 25 May 2016

Happy Mail

 in my post box this week.

The date for posting the Swap that I had joined had passed and my parcel had been sent off to the good old USA , and hopefully will be there before this weekend arrives.

MY parcel did arrive. All wrapped with some pretty vintage lace




Lucky Me !!! This gorgeous 241 Tote  made from lots of pretty fabrics and selvedges.


 Beautifully made, with some extra little goodies inside.

So after a morning in the garden I used some of the lace and that sweet ribbon and made a cushion to for my newly covered chair

 That handsome Hare printed on lines was purchased at the Festival of Quilts, two (or three!!) years ago. Definitely time to use him.




 Which made me think about a Fat Quarter Bundle of fabrics that I had stored in my cupboard. Not forgotten about, just hadn't had the right project come to mind.  Sticking to the animal theme, I pulled out Fancy Fox and Hazel Hedgehog patterns and proceeded to pull the tie on that bundle!

6 Years !!!
 Couldn't believe it when I searched the fabric design out. I have had it SIX years!!!

 So a bit more gardening and then into the sewing room to crack on. 

 At this point they were shown to Mr T.
Q " What do you think?"
A "Hmm Nice"
Q "What is it " 
(panic panic) "erm ... An Elephant?" (hastily looking over the fence for support from the neighbour)
Me - " No DEAR - its a Fox!!!
Him " Oh yes! I see that now!!"



 So the next two blocks were sewn.
Q "what do you think about this one?" 
A "It's the same as the other isn't it?"
Q " You mean a FOX!?!?"
A  "errrm ... Yes?"

Why do I bother !!!!!!!  He says it was because the sun was shining in his eyes!  *******!!
 

 I have put this on hold for a few days. I think it will be finished to go in Little Miss' wigwam but I am thinking off making a "Puff Quilt" to put on the reverse, so that it will be squishy to sit on.


The weather has been quite kind, so yet MORE gardening has been done. I have to do it in smaller timescales than I used to. The back you know  (sad face)

I was given this sweet planter for my birthday last year.   I planted it up then, but it was left unattended whilst we went away on two separate occasions and had dried out completely, so I emptied it and put it away till this spring.

I have used some caret wool to crochet what I hope will be a small planter that should hang on the fence. I will show you if it is a success ( and if not - I will show anyway!)

 I am dying to make the Spindrift Shawl   
but the yarn that I was intending to use ...
 was making up far to dense, and I felt it would not have the drapey effect that I wanted, so that was undone and another ball caked up.

 Nah!!!  This wasn't right either.

Another hank pulled out of the drawer
 Pretty but still not happy....

All of these were 4ply yarns which was what the pattern called for.  

Time to break out the big guns.  This is a lace weight and was purchased to make a crochet shawl the pattern for which I cannot get the grasp of so tested out on this.....
 Much better.


So now that I am happy, I am going to hopefully speed through this before the first pattern in the Shawl Society is released. (already know what I am going to use for this!!)  I have just over two weeks. I can do it !

Friday 20 May 2016

Another Week Has Flown By...

And I think that might be because we are waiting for some news.  But the news has come and we can get on with normal things for a couple of weeks.

I wound up this ball of yarn ready to cast on A Spindrift Shawl
Its a fabulous colour "Pokeberry" from Knit Picks (bought in a sale )  and I wanted to make this as a gift for a friend.
 It's a lovely squishy 4ply yarn but using the needles in the pattern it was knitting up quite firmly.  so I upped the needles size, once, twice, three times, and I was just not happy that the shawl would have that "drapey"  look. So it has been pulled back, wound up again and put away for a different project.


On to the sewing machine to make a start on this month's Mini Mania Challenge, which is Cathedral Window.

It's coming along nicely, but I have to decide on my inserts now.  Need to think about these as my first idea didn't look how I had hoped!

 Lots of time has been spent in the garden.

Potatoes coming up, beans planted. Courgettes, Squash and Pumpkin plants have been mixed up so those that have been shared will get a surprise!  They are in and are all marked as Marrow, as Mr T likes marrow but doesn't like Courgettes - go figure. I just let one or two grow oversize and tell him they are small marrow. He's happy - Bless Him!!!


The Delphinium started peeking through in late January and I was sure that it would suffer, but no , it's just as lovely, though maybe less flowers than normal.


The Peony is looking fabulous.  Normally, as soon as it blooms, we have torrential rain, and gale force winds that knock those lovely flowers about but it seems to have flowered a little later this year and hopefully will keep,it's glory a bit longer 

I love to see the fern fronds unfolding



At my Patchwork Group this week we did a workshop "Collage Creation"
It was great fun, using a huge bag of Liberty scraps that the teacher had brought and I have made two picture mounts that will surround some sweet embroidery designs .

The embroideries are not finished but in the meantime, I will use the pattern  in the frame because I love how they have turned out.

 A little bit of trimming and into the frames they will go.

We have a fairly quiet weekend (Mr T will want to watch the football, uninterrupted, tomorrow)

I have machine the binding onto 6 baby quilts that are to be donated to the local Maternity unit

So I have plenty of hand sewing to keep me quiet

And a friend brought over some "spare" yarn that she no longer wants. I LOVE the colour so am now searching patterns that will fit this amount of yarn. 




Thursday 12 May 2016

I Am Busy!

Really!!!

Life sometimes has events that take up a silly amount of time. But I am still working on simple things when time allows

I did complete (just in time) my April Mini Mania Challenge

Drunkards path was the design for April. There were some lovely offerings again and you can see them all here 



I popped into  the Yarn shop in Kimbolton  and was generally browsing when I heard Jacqui explaining to a customer that a shawl sample in the shop was simple, and you are just casting off three stitches every 10 rows whilst increasing on the other side.

Casting off I say?  Are you sure?

B*****B***** B***** 

I am knitting that pattern and have been casting on instead of casting off!!! (I had thought that it was not making the shape I thought it should have been!)

So home I went and did this


 Until I got to this

Which was where I went wrong!  Note to Self! Read the Abbreviations!!!


But Saturday was sunny and we were going to be at home all day so I did get all of that undone yarn re knitted, and a bit more besides.


knitting whilst catching up with some podcasts



I did have one sewing project that was done bar sewing the handle of the bag on but somehow just wasn't feeling the love.


So Saturday night I cast on this .....

And off to Darling Daughters for a BBQ on Sunday, which was lovely. I showed her the progress. This was the yarn that she brought me from her trip to Iceland.

 Got home and carried on and before bed had got to he end


because we all need a woolly hat in 24 deg!




 A while ago our sunken sink had lots of "activity" which resulted in a huge amount of frog spawn. We have lots each year, but last year it all disappeared.
I'm not sure if it is because there are newts in the sink too but I maneuvered some of the jelly spawn out of the pond and into a bucket
 The bucket if full of tadpoles


But the sink has NONE!

Hopefully these will progress into little froglets. I may have to re locate those newts!





Tuesday arrived and I bit the bullet.  Lets get that pesky strap made!
 And I did!

The bag complete ready to post out to my swap partner. filled with some extra goodies.





And by chance found out that evening that my swap partner was adopting a new born later in the month!
So I grabbed some 5" squares and sewed the top together before bed, and quilted and bound before bed on Wednesday!

its for a baby boy

So you see, I am busy - really!

Sunday 1 May 2016

Do You Ever Do This?

 

 Procrastination......

I just cant seem to get my mind focused onto getting on with things, And I have MANY things that I want to get on with. 

So we have been doing (too much) of this


 I got Mr T (who has been told not to play golf for a while)

 to use my new yarn winder to cake up some of the carpet yarn that on of the Crochet girls had acquired
he is so patient with me


 I have had an idea to use some of this, and it does seem to be working- but I will show more of that later.

A friend popped round with these lovely Tulips. Love them!



I did finish my Waiting For Rain shawl, and am very pleased with how it turned out. When I saw these colours, I immediately thought of my DIL, and when we met up for (another) lunch, I showed it to her. She loved tt so it now has a new home, and I am looking for some soft grey yarn to make one for me 
It's a lovely shawl to knit , I used the alternative bind off and it took HOURS to complete, but I am so glad that I did. 


 Back in February I had cast on my first ever pair of socks, I knit them two at a time, and got to the heel turn quite quickly. I have avoided going any further since then, but this week, I have pulled up my big girls panties and have now finished them!
and they fit me too!


 Not sure I will actually wear them, as I certainly don't need anything to keep me warm! But they are actually quite easy to do with not too much to think about
 so I have cast on another pair! Its a good job the children (they will always be) like hand knit socks.


And so to this months Mini Mania Challenge.

Drunkards Path

Not difficult

More Procrastination

Get on with it!!!

So I did

all it took was and evening of cutting out and sewing
 and an evening of Quilting and Binding

And it's done!!!

 I remembered seeing this (or a similar )layout ages ago and for once I could recall the image

Now onto May!!!

We are off to the seaside for a couple of days so I hope that the sun shines, though I have an idea that someone wants some help with some decorating.........