Sunny Days and Happy Knitting

What sunny days we have had lately, very cold, but lovely clear blue sunny skies.  I ventured out into the garden for the first time this year and had an enjoyable time pottering around tidying up and marvelling at the multitude of tiny shoots bursting through the soil, getting ready to fill the garden with colour, despite my uselessness as a gardener.  Isn't nature wonderful?

I won't show you any pictures of the garden - it's not something I'm good at, I just about manage to keep it tidy [2015 Resolution - do more gardening!].  Instead I'll bring you up-to-date with my WIPs.
 
When I'm having a crafting session, I like to sit on the floor, on my lovely floor cushions and spread everything out around me.  I like to alternate between the various WIPs so that I feel I've made some progress on all of them.

I've been working on my crochet blocks for the BAM CAL 2015.  I'll do a separate post on this month's blocks shortly, but I also made three more small squares to add to the January blocks.

I decided to do two colourways and do two of each so that the four small squares would be the equivalent of one of the big ones.

I'm still working on the Miette cardigan.

I'm on the sleeves now.  I've been having to use DPNs but my preferred method of knitting in the round is to use two long circular needles.  I only had one circular in the size I needed until yesterday when I popped into town and bought another one - should move along a bit quicker now.

Finally I'm making another bear.

Grace bought me the Mrs Bakery Bear pattern for Christmas and then she bought the Mr Bakery Bear for herself.  She sent me a copy so we're both making him.

Grace has finished hers (which is called Rufus) and is just waiting for me to show her how to do the cabling for the sweater.

I've only got one arm and the sewing together to do.  I should get his shorts done before I see Grace, so we can have a nice knitting session together working on the sweater.

In return for showing her how to cable, she is going to show me how to do Kitchener stitch properly.  For some reason I can't get my head round it - I understand the logic, but can't quite pull it off.  I love it when we have our knit and natter sessions.

I'm at that lovely stage now where I can see the finish for the two knitting projects, so I'm already thinking ahead and browsing new patterns on Ravelry.  The sun is still shining and the knitting is good.  I hope you are enjoying your day.  See you soon.

Bargains and a Plan of Action

I've been shopping - I don't really shop that much - but when I do I like to come home laden with goodies.  Yesterday was the first time I had popped into Liverpool since completing my Christmas shopping in mid-December, so it was good to just look for stuff to treat myself.  

I work on the basis that if you see wool you should buy it, especially if it's in the sale and even if you already have more wool than you can use.  I pretty much apply this philosophy to any craft item - you just can't have enough!

So I was very pleased to pick up six balls of Rowan Pure Wool Worsted which was half price in John  Lewis. 

What makes it even better is that there was only a choice of two colours in the shop and one of them was my favourite.  This colourway is called crimson, isn't it delicious?

I also picked up some dress fabric [ * New Year resolution to do more dress-making * ].  Again I got this pretty print for half price.  Wonderful. 

What I need to do now is stop accumulating dress fabric and start the actual dress-making! 

As well as stocking up on those "essential" craft bits and bobs, I also bought this book at a reduced price.  

I've only tried one sock pattern before - just a plain ankle sock - but I could be persuaded to try something more fancy and there's plenty of ideas in this book.  

So that's good - lots of goodies and treats - but my New Year resolution is to "do more" rather than to "buy more"!  So now I need a plan of action.  

On the needles at the moment is an aran cardigan.  

The pattern is my Kim Hargreaves from this ancient book (it's from 1998!).  The pattern is called Tide.  

I'm adapting the pattern so that I can knit the body in one piece (late into the evening the maths can be a bit perplexing).  I've nearly finished the body, so only the sleeves to go.  Should have that finished next week.  

Then I've this gorgeous wool that Grace gave me for Christmas.  

This is destined to become a scarf / shawl - I haven't decided which pattern to use yet.  

After that there's the new Rowan wool - another cardigan I think.  

In between these knitting projects I intend to finish the skirt I started sewing back in October- only needs a waistband.  And of course make some dresses.  There's the crochet cushion cover and the patchwork tablecloth and, I mustn't forget the embroidered tablecloth that was supposed to be finished last year but I absolutely, most definitely intend to finish it this year.  

Oh dear!  This isn't a plan of action - this is yet another wish list.  They'll all get done eventually - so why worry.  My plan of action will be to do what is most appealing at the time - I don't think I can really do better than that.  I'd better get off and start "doing".  Bye for now.  

Dream Big

It's that time of year again when we think about what we want to achieve in the coming year.  I always work on the basis that the more goals I set, the chances are I will manage to attain some of them.  This year, in particular, I want to do more dress making.  I'd like to do more embroidery as well (this one is carried over from last year!); I'd like to find more time to do even more knitting and crocheting; the garden deserves more attention; I read a lot of novels so maybe this year I will read more non-fiction books -  basically my New Year resolution is to do more of everything - and obviously, this coming year is the year that I get organised!  You have to dream big is my philosophy!

If you're not interested in making resolutions then, how about this.  Eve came across a great idea for the coming year on Buzzfeed - it's called a Rememberlutions Jar!  We thought it was a wonderful idea.  Basically, you get a jar, personalise it and then throughout the year, you write down all the fun, exciting, interesting things that have happened to you and put them in the jar.  At the end of the year you have a jar full of amazing memories.  You can read more about this idea, here.

So here is my jar -

It's very me - yellow, pink, woolly and sparkly.

I added a blossom flower and some lace and pearls - very pretty and girly.

I've already started putting my notes in - by the end of the year I'm hoping it will be overflowing.

I hope that this coming year will provide lots of lovely memories for everyone and your dreams will come true - especially the big ones.  2015 - it's going to be awesome!

Getting Ahead of Myself

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, one of my New Year resolutions is to be better organised.  Obviously the New Year hasn't arrived yet but I'm getting ahead of myself and starting early, whilst I'm still enthusiastic.
I've sorted all my double knitting yarn into colour groups and put them in pretty storage boxes on a new shelving unit in the spare bedroom.

To distinguish the different boxes, today, I've made labels so that I can locate the colour I need swiftly.

Rather than write on the labels I thought it would be fun to glue on coloured buttons.

So now I'm feeling very smug and organised.

It's debatable whether or not I can keep this resolution going beyond the end of January, but for the time being it's going well!

A Little Bit of Embroidery

I'm getting in on my New Year resolution a little bit early but, today, I felt the urge to embroider something.

I grabbed some scrappy fabric, some embroidery threads and then I had a doodle.  This is what I came up with.

I'm now thinking that it would be fun to combine this with other bits and pieces of embroidery to make an interesting collage to hang on the wall.  I'm thinking, ribbons, beads, more embroidery and anything else I can add.

This could be an interesting project to develop during 2014.  I could definitely run with this idea.  Pinterest, as ever is responsible for this inspiration.  Where would I be these days without Pinterest?

50 Projects in 2011?

I have previously mentioned that I designed and made a hat over Christmas. I was just about to type up the pattern for you when I had a change of heart and decided to rip it out and almost start again - the shape wasn't exactly how I wanted it. I've now reknitted the hat and I'm happier with the shape - so the pattern should follow shortly.

I've been thinking about New Year's resolutions - I don't tend to make any specific ones but usually I just aim at a general 'being better'. This year is my 50th birthday (which I'm really looking forward to) and so I wanted to mark it out as really special. I thought I would make a resolution to complete 50 knitting and crochet projects in 2011. I counted up the number of projects I completed in 2010, just to see if this was a viable goal - I actually completed 85 knitting and crochet projects in 2010 - so to complete 50 in 2011 is hardly challenging. I'll leave the resolution at 'being better' - and see how I get on!

In the meantime, here's a really quick and cute knitting project.

These mini aliens take about 20 minutes each to make. They are only just over 1 inch tall and are knitted in one piece - the arms are actually little bobbles.

The pattern is by Barbara Prime and is available free here.

A friend on Ravelry recommended this pattern to me and I'm glad she did. She also drew my attention to a cute knitted pig pattern - I'll be trying that one soon.

New Year Resolutions

I don't really make New Year resolutions - I rarely keep them. I find it's more important to welcome what opportunities come your way. This time last year I had no idea that I would be introduced to the world of blogging.

This was the major opportunity that came my way last year. I have always knitted and consider myself reasonably competent, but when I discovered all the wonderful knitting blogs and sites out there, especially Ravelry, it gave me confidence to take my skills further. 2009 was the year I discovered that I don't have to rely on patterns for knitting and crocheting - I can use my skills and experience to design my own. This has given me such a wonderful sense of achievement and a drive to improve and take things even further.

So if I am going to make a New Year resolution for 2010 it will be to design more - and sharing these patterns is one of the delights.

With this idea in mind, I finally used up the aran yarn that had been sitting around for some time. It had started to be knitted up as a Kim Hargreaves pattern, but I lost interest in this. It was nearly knitted to a Debbie Bliss pattern , but again, my enthusiasm waned. So I let the yarn do the talking, and designed this little cardi myself.


The pattern is called Charlotte (I was reading Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks at the time I was knitting this). I used Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed and 5mm needles.
It has a scoop neck, a diamond border pattern around the edge of the body and plain sleeves.
It took no time at all to knit up and is very snug and versatile. It will be wearable throughout the year.

I'm pleased with the result, however, I knitted it up so quickly that I didn't write the pattern out properly as I went along. This has meant that I have had to spend longer typing up the pattern and checking it than it did to actually make the cardi!

The pattern will follow shortly.