Exciting Times

September has proved to be a very eventful month so far.  At the beginning of the month my husband retired.  It was something we've been planning for quite some time, but even so, it's a big change in our lives which we are going to have to get used to.  The plan is for lots of holidays and days out, but I'm sure we'll settle into a slower routine over time.

As a celebration of his retirement, we had a holiday away with our daughters for a week. It's been a while since we've all been away together.  As a reminder of holidays gone by, we booked a holiday cottage in North Wales, in Pwllheli to be exact.

It was a wonderful week, I enjoyed every minute of it.  We had some lovely walks around the coastal paths on the Llyn Peninsula.  The landscape is amazingly beautiful and rugged.

Hell's Mouth

Mynydd Cilan

We had a paddle in the sea at Abersoch.

So cold!

And I was quite emotional at finding the gravestone of one of my ancestors in the church yard in the village of Llanengan.

Llanengan Church

Lovely old pub in the village of Llanengan

It was all over far too quickly, but now that work is a thing of the past, I'm looking forward to lots of time away.

Our holiday cottage

The cottage we stayed in was lovely, but the internet reception was poor so I'm trying, this week, to catch up.

Before I went away, I finished my Fair Isle cardigan.

I love the colours, but I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't check my gauge properly.  The cardigan is a lovely slim fit, but maybe a bit too snug on the sleeves.  Never mind, it's still wearable but would be just that little bit better if there was a little bit of ease around the arms. Details of this project can be found on Ravelry, here.

I also completed the button-through skirt I had been wanting to sew.

I used leftover fabric from a dress I had made last year and buttons recycled from an old dress.

I was so pleased with how easy the button holes were to make.  I'll definitely have to make more of these skirts.

It's less than two weeks to go until Yarndale and I'm so looking forward to it.  My knitting mojo has deserted me lately and I suspect that the stash busting has had an impact on this.  It will be lovely to have an injection of new yarn.  I'm sure that will get the creative juices flowing again.  In the meantime, I'm knitting up a cardigan in some frogged yarn - not very inspiring but I've only got one more sleeve to do.  I'm now busy dreaming of the new yarn that'll be coming home with me shortly.

Have a good week everyone.

Happy and Productive

Hello Everybody, I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  I had a wonderful Easter break with both of my daughters coming home to visit.

We visited grandparents, had a lovely meal out, baked brownies and made an apple crumble.

We visited the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery and we watched the recent film Suffragette.

We had a night out at the pub and ate lots of chocolate.

And my lovely girls took me out for a feast of cakes at one of our local cafes.  All in all an absolutely perfect weekend, why did it have to end so soon?

And obviously there was plenty of knitting done.  Over the past week, since finishing Eve's cardigan, I've managed to make excellent progress on other WIPs that were lying around.

First of all, here's a picture of me and Eve in our twin cardigans.

Eve was delighted to receive her own version and wore it most of the weekend.

I completed the grey version of my Olivia cardigan pattern and wore it most of the weekend!

The yarn was recycled from this cardigan which I never wore.  You can see details of the project on my Ravelry page, here.

I also completed my socks for March.  I used a plain coloured sock yarn for a change because I wanted to knit a lacy pattern and felt that self striping sock yarn wouldn't show the pattern up properly.

The pattern for these socks is the Petunia Dursley Double Eyelet Socks by Erica Lueder, a free pattern on Ravelry, and it's so pretty.  I'm entering these in a Harry Potter KAL that's currently running on Ravelry.  Details of my project are here.

I have also caught up with the Block-a-Month Crochet along that I'm following.  Here are my March squares.

Tiptoe Through the Tulips Square

Starburst Square

Tears from Heaven Squares

I now have the equivalent of 8 large squares in total.  The plan is to make 16 squares for a medium sized lap blanket.

All this activity has meant a significant reduction in my stash.  I'm looking forward to totalling it up at the end of the month.  I also managed to off-load over 500g of acrylic DK yarn to Grace for her ripple blanket - although this felt a bit like cheating, but if it gets my stash totals down I shouldn't complain.

I've still got a few other WIPs lurking around but I think I can treat myself this week and cast on a few new ones.

Wow, uploading a blog post and sorting the photos always seems to take more time than you think - as least I'm up to date now.

Enjoy your week and I hope it's a good one.

Knitting For My Big Girl

Today is my daughter Eve's birthday.  My baby is 22!  How did that happen!

Lucky girl has gone to Barcelona for the weekend with her boyfriend.  I'm sure they'll have a great time.

For her birthday Eve asked me to knit her my Kate cardigan.  Here is the original cardigan I made back in 2014.

I love this cardigan, and so does Eve.  Whenever she's home, she always borrows it.  So when she was home at Christmas I offered her the cardigan to take back to London with her.  Instead, she asked me to knit her a Kate cardigan of her own in exactly the same colours, and it would be her birthday gift.  No problem.

Now I have to confess that I'm rather a selfish knitter.  I'll happily knit most things but I'm more enthusiastic if I'm knitting it for myself than if I have to knit for someone else.

It would have been tempting to wrap up the existing cardigan and pretend it was a newly knitted version!  She wouldn't have suspected a thing, would she!  But no, I started off in January, all keen, knowing I had plenty of time to finish it.  But then, other projects kept popping up and distracting me.  And so March came and I realised I didn't have as much time as I thought.  All I can say is, it's a good job she's gone to Barcelona this weekend and doesn't come back to Liverpool until next week because I only just finished it this morning.

Here it is, although at this stage it hasn't been soaked and blocked.

Since taking the photos, it's been soaked so all the stitches have nicely relaxed and it's now drying.  So it will definitely be ready for Eve's visit home.  Full details of the project are on my Ravelry project page, here.

And just to prove that I didn't cheat, here are the two cardigans together!

I'm going to link this cardigan with Linda's Crafty Corner Stash Busting Party and I'm pleased to say that the cardigan has reduced my stash by 317g.  Have a good weekend. Bye for now.

Happy Mothers' Day

Happy Mothers' Day to you all - a day to celebrate, not just Mums, but all women - because we are so wonderful!

I hope you are having a good weekend.

As part of my Mothers' day gift to my Mum, I made her a crocheted coat hanger.  This one has lovely rainbow stripes.

I added one of my floral embellishments, which I think finishes it off nicely.

I have partly typed up the pattern for the floral embellishment and I will finish it and publish it shortly, but you will have to forgive me this week - as it is my birthday week (how many days in a week?  eight, nine?) I am busy treating and spoiling myself.  Normal service will be resumed shortly - well, at least whenever I decide that the birthday week is finally over.

May your week be filled with treats, even if it isn't your birthday.  X

Finishing off the Year

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas.  It was wonderful having the girls back home, catching up and doing all the things we love doing together.  Eve has gone back to London now, but Grace and her boyfriend are still here for a few more days.

It's been a lazy few weeks and I've enjoyed plenty of knitting and crocheting time.

I knitted these mittens for the girls for Christmas.  They're lovely and snug.

Full details of the pattern (which is a free one) and the yarn used can be found here.

I also made some socks for my husband.

Full details of these, here.

I finished the crochet shawl I was making myself - another hot pink one!  I need to branch out into some new colours.

The yarn is gorgeous and soft and the pattern a nice easy one to work with.  Full details on Ravelry, here.

Grace and I cast on some socks on Christmas Eve.  I wanted to try something different than the usual recipe I use, so I made these toe up, using Judy's Magic Cast On, Fish Lips Kiss Heel and Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off for the cuff.

I love the colours in this yarn and I particularly enjoyed the toe up construction of the socks.  I will be using this recipe again when I cast on for January socks.  Full details of my socks can be seen here.

And my final project for 2015 was some more fingerless mittens.  No particular reason for making them apart from I love the colours in the yarn which was leftover from some socks Grace knitted me earlier in the year.

Full details of the project are here.

We have nothing planned for tonight.  A few beers and a cosy evening with hubby looking back over the year.

It has been a very good year.  Nothing sensational happened to me,  but I've been happy and busy and I finish this year on a contented note - the best way to end the year.

I have my jar crammed full of happy memories of the year and I'm looking forward to reading through them all this evening and reliving the happy times.

Whatever celebrations you have planned for tonight, I wish you a very happy New Year.  Here's to another jar full of memories for 2016.

A Break from Decorating

Decorating!  Why did I start?  It always takes so much more effort than you think it will - and also takes longer than you think.  Fortunately everything is going reasonably well and I should have the hall and landing finished this week.  I shall be glad to get back into a normal routine.

Thankfully, at the weekend, I had a break from the stress of decorating because hubby and I had a night away in Tewkesbury.

2015 is the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of the hotel chain Travelodge.  In order to celebrate, Travelodge offered a free night in one of their hotels to any couple celebrating their thirtieth wedding anniversary this year.  So count us in!

We could choose any hotel, so we eventually settled on Tewkesbury, a place we have never visited before, but after this weekend we are planning another trip there and for a longer stay.

We had a lovely meal in Ye Olde Bear Inn, the oldest pub in Gloucestershire, dating from 1308.

We walked along the River Avon.

Admired the beautiful old buildings along the High Street and Church Street.

And we're stunned by the simple beauty of the Abbey - the second largest parish church in the country.

So thank you to Travelodge for the freebie and after a lovely relaxing weekend, exploring the sights of Tewkesbury, I guess it's back to the decorating!