And It's Over in the Blink of an Eye

The three weeks of the Tour de France just flew by.  I've spent the time, whilst watching the cycling, concentrating on my stash busting and I'm pleased to say that it's been an enjoyable three weeks.

In my previous blog post, I showed you the first six projects I had completed.  I'm pleased to say that I managed to complete another six projects by the end of the Tour.  That's one better that last year.

I blitzed the Schmancy Shawl that I had started knitting.  It blocked up beautifully.  For this project I was using up some frogged Rowan 4 ply.  You can see full details of this project on Ravelry, here.

The edging blocked out beautifully and I love the drape of the shawl.

The next project completed was a crocheted basket.  I had two balls of rather rough cotton which I used doubled and it created the perfect fabric for the basket.

Next, some mittens.  I used some beige 4 ply for the cuff lining and the main body of each mitten was knitted using some unidentified yarn that I had picked up in the charity shop very cheaply.  These should be lovely and snug when it gets colder.

Some leftover angora yarn made a colourful and fluffy yarn bag.

And some leftover lace weight wool & silk yarn became a mini shawl and a doily.

In total I used 603g.  This was less than last year but in my defence, I was using much finer yarns than last year, so I reckon the yardage used this year was higher than last year.

So all in all, I'd say that Chris Froome and I have had a very successful 2016 Tour de France.

With all this successful stash busting, I'm joining in with Linda's Stash Buster Party once again.  I must admit, it has been a great incentive to me over the last few months and I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel (or even the craft room).  Next month it will be six months since I had my stash weigh in and I'm planning on getting the scales out again to see how I am progressing.  At the moment I reckon I have busted over 6kg of stash, which is one third of my starting total.  I have a few works in progress that I'm hoping to get off the needles in the next few weeks and reduce the total even further.

In other news, we had a lovely weekend down in London visiting Eve.  We went down on Friday and came home yesterday.  The weather was hot and sticky but we manged to get out and about with Eve every day.  We had a great trip to Greenwich on Saturday - so much to see and great views across the river to Canary Wharf.

It was lovely to see Eve again and to be able to explore more of London.  There's still so much more we'd like to visit, so plenty more trips down to London  are definitely on the cards.

Well the Tour de France may be over, but we have the Olympics to look forward to very shortly.  I haven't decided if I'm going to do a themed knitting and crocheting challenge for this, but whatever I decide, I'll be glued to the television for the duration!

Have a good week.  See you soon.

Only Eight Weeks to Go

Yes, amazingly, it's only eight weeks today to my birthday.  I love my birthday, I love doing lots of special things - so much so, that it's impossible to fit everything into just one day.  My birthday celebrations, over the years have expanded into a week and then a month.  I like to start planning in January so that I can savour every moment.

With "only" eight weeks to go, I've made a special entry in my journal - an eight week challenge - to do 54 things before I'm 55.  I usually write a list for the year of what I want to achieve in that year, I've mostly completed the 54 things I wanted to do when I was 54.  Now with "only" eight weeks to go, I've come up with a supplementary list, of smaller tasks and treats.

One of the problems of getting older (besides the obvious ones) is that each year you have to try to think of extra challenges to make up the numbers - I might struggle to think of 87 things to do when I'm 87, but I'll worry about that nearer the time.

For now I've written out my 54 things to do before I'm 55, but I had to add flaps to the pages to fit them all in.

Some of the challenges aren't challenges at all, some will be easy to do, others may be more interesting to complete, but the point is, that it will be fun.

Maybe as part of this challenge I should have added - think of a list of 55 things to do when you're 55!!!

Embroidery Catch Up

I bet you had forgotten all about my embroidery squares project - I know that over Christmas, I had.  My mission is to complete 54 little squares of embroidery which will be sewn together to make a wall hanging.  The significance of the number 54 is that it is my age, so one square for each year.

Now time, as usual is flying, and I'm concerned that before too long I will be 55, in which case I will have to make 55 squares.  And if I don't finish them next year, the total will go up again.  I fear I may have to be making 87 squares if I don't get a move on.

I'm not even a quarter of the way through yet, so it's probably a bit optimistic to expect to get all the squares completed by early March, so I'll set the deadline as the end of March and see how that works out.

I picked the 54 topics that I would use for the squares in advance and I do a lucky dip when I start each square, so that it's completely random.

This weekend, I disciplined myself to put the knitting to one side and focused on embroidery.  It really is a most relaxing pastime, which I always feel I should devote more time to.  Well, hopefully over the next few weeks I will be spending more time with the embroidery needle rather than the knitting needles.

So here are my latest squares.  Firstly "pink" -

The next topic was letters - but I decided to go for a single letter J.

That one was certainly quite time-consuming, so for the next topic of "sunflower" I kept it simple (and quick) with some felt, beads and minimal embroidery.

This last one is my favourite of the four.  The topic is "key" and I used blackwork to create a rather fancy key design.

So still a long way to go but it's a lot of fun and it's good to see the squares starting to pile up.

Have a good week.

Waiting for Tomorrow

The past two days I've been busy painting.  I'm decorating the hall and landing.  I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle the high bits above the stairwell but I didn't want to get anyone in to do the work.  I did originally get a quote for the job but was told it would take a full week and I don't fancy having a strange man in my house for that long (is that just me being paranoid?).  So it's down to me to get on with it.

All the rooms in our house are very colourful with various shades of yellow being the most prevalent.  The hall was a bright daffodil yellow, I think the colour was actually called sunshine, but this time round, I'm going for a more subtle pale gold.  It's actually more of a buttermilk colour and so far it's going well.

In the evenings I've been working on my English paper piecing quilt.  Still loving this.  It seems to grow quite quickly without feeling rushed.

I love the randomness of it.  I'm using about forty different fabrics but they all seem to work well together.

Today is the last day of my "no knitting" month.  A very productive month it has been.  I've forgotten to mention that I've also made a dress this month.  It's amazing how many other things get done when knitting and crocheting are not on the agenda.  I think I'd like to have the occasional "no knitting" session in the future, but maybe a week at a time rather than a whole month.

So tomorrow I'm back knitting.  I'm so looking forward to it.  I'm pleased I've managed to stay so disciplined, especially after all the lovely yarn purchases at Yarndale.  I've written my "to do" list for tomorrow -

1. Knitting.
2. Knitting.
3. Eating.
4. Knitting.
5. Sleeping.
6. Knitting.
7. Knitting.

That sounds good to me.  See you again soon.

Still Not Knitting

Well, September has been a long month.  My "no knitting"  month has certainly been enlightening.  I've had to adjust to finding new crafts to fill my evenings and I've enjoyed the challenge.

One thing I wanted to try this month was spinning with a drop spindle.  I have had a spindle and some wool waiting to be spun for years, but I've never got round to trying it.  I wasn't sure of the credentials of the spindle I already possessed, so I bought a beginner's spindle when I was at Yarndale.  The wool I have hasn't been carded and looks a bit like roadkill!

I thought that if I can work out how to spin this I'll be ready to tackle anything.  My first attempts were pitiful - the good bits are when Grace was having a go, my bits are the lumpy blobs.

So I re-read the instruction leaflet I'd been given and tried again.

And what do you know, something must have clicked into place and it all seemed to go much better.

So now instead of blobs of chunky wool, I'm managing something that could pass for 4 ply.  I still need to work on achieving consistent thickness, but I'm getting there.

What joy to learn a new skill.  I'll keep practising with this old stuff and then invest in something colourful to spin.  Who knows, I might one day be able to spin enough to make a pair of socks.  How about you?  Are any of you proficient spinners?

This month, I've also been working on my 54 squares embroidery project.  I have another three squares to share with you.

For the first one, the prompt was flower.  I didn't want to just embroider a basisc flower so I thought I would use some ribbon embroidery as an alternative.  So here is my ribbon rose.

The next topic was fish.  I thought about embroidering a colourful tropical fish, but then I remembered that my star sign is Pisces, so of course I should do this.

The third new square I've completed had the prompt sequins.  So a simple trail of floral sequins was what I came up with.

I'm so enjoying this project.  It's fun to pick each topic at random and the number of squares is growing quite quickly.

My English paper piecing quilt is also growing very nicely, I'll share some progress pictures of that tomorrow.

So plenty getting done, despite not knitting.  But Thursday can't come soon enough now.

Still Not Knitting

We're well over half way through September and despite a rather shaky start, my no knitting month is going well.

I've settled into a nice routine now and whilst I'm looking forward to resuming my knitting and crocheting next month, I'm getting plenty of other work done.

I've dipped into the frog pond and three out of the four cardigans and sweaters have been frogged, ready to be reincarnated into something new.

I've written up one of the two cardigan knitting patterns that have been on my conscience.  I'll have to get on with the second one and then link them into this blog.

I've been working away on my family tree research and I've been writing up a report on one particular branch of the family to share with family members, which I should get finished this week.

I'm continuing with my embroidery squares and I've completed another two, which I'll share with you soon.

There are still some projects I haven't tackled yet.  I'll be dressmaking this week and I'd really like to find time to try spinning with a drop spindle.

But best of all, I'm loving my English paper piecing patchwork.  I've started work on a quilt.

I'm using hexies again - they are so pleasing to work with.  There's no particular pattern, just a random assortment of fabrics.  I think this gives it a wonderful homespun feel.

I'm learning through trial and error and I think I've got a nice little routine going, based on cutting, basting and joining.

The joining is definitely the best bit.  It's great to see the fabric growing and transforming as each hexi is added.

I've bought myself a powerful LED table lamp so I'm finding it much easier to sew in the evenings.

What joy such simple pleasures can bring.  I hope your day is also filled with joy and simple pleasures.

Embroidery - My First Love

Day four of my "no knitting" month and it's not easy.  Usually I knit or crochet everyday, not just in the evenings but anytime I have a few minutes spare.  So not having that occupation is really hard.  I am getting plenty of jobs done around the house, especially de-cluttering, which is much needed.  However it's the evenings that are the hardest.  I can't watch television without having something in my hands to work on.  I have far too much energy to just sit still, so I need to find something to occupy me - I'll have to sort something out soon or I'll be climbing the walls!  At the moment I'm reduced to frogging old knitted cardigans!

One of the activities I want to spend more time on this month is embroidery.  I love embroidery, it was my passion before knitting took over.  Now my older eyes can't cope with sewing for too long, and then only in very good daylight, but if I can manage little and often I shall be happy.

Last month I completed an embroidered tablecloth.

I bought the cloth in a charity shop in Chester, many many years ago.  As you can see, the previous owner had made a start.

Every year I would promise myself that I would finish it, I'd sew a bit then it would be put away again.

This year, thankfully, I have fulfilled my promise.  And I'm very happy with the finished cloth.  Especially as now I can start a new embroidery project.

I'm very excited about this new project.  Inspiration came from Pinterest (as always).  I'm going to embroider little squares and then join them together to make a wall hanging.  I will make 54 squares in total - one for each year of my life - and I've already decided the subject for each square.

To make it more interesting, I making it into a lucky dip, so that a subject is picked at random.

Some of the subjects are open to any interpretation, so it gives me freedom to play around with ideas.

I don't expect to get this project finished in a hurry - embroidery has a very leisurely pace - I will embroider when the mood takes me.  I have completed my first square.  The subject picked out of the jar was "insect".  So I couldn't resist embroidering some bees.

I'm happy I've made a start and looking forward to the next square.

Today I'm going to start planning some sewing projects, I've set up my sewing machine and I'm itching to get started.  I think this is going to be a very productive month.