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.

A Busy but Unorganized Sort of Week

You wouldn't think that the simple task of packing up Eve's belongings to load into the car to take to London could take so long.  Eve is now in London, she went by train on Thursday with enough stuff to last for a few days.  All the rest of her belongings are still in Liverpool waiting to be driven down.

So I have spent the last few days, sorting, packing and loading up her stuff.

There was a time when I thought it wasn't going to fit into our small car - but I did manage it.  I think a love of jigsaw puzzles helped me to fit everything in and some super vacuum bags that compressed all the bedding and towels down to a manageable size.

So we're ready for the off, to drive down to London so that we can reunite Eve with her belongings.

I feel that I haven't caught up with myself this week, there seems to be a lot of unfinished business.  Knitting and crocheting have been neglected and it's been difficult to find time to blog.

I'm hoping that next week will be different.  I'm definitely planning on being organised next week!  I have serious plans for September.

In the meantime, I'm feeling very indifferent to my current knitting project.  It's the Dancing Bees shawl.

Each section of the pattern represents something different.  The first section is the bees in the hive.

The second section is the honeycomb of the hive.

The third section is the bees a outside the hive.

The fourth section is lavender flowers.

And the fifth section is a trellis.

The final section will be the border which is more flowers.

I'm just not liking the different sections, I don't think they flow into each other very well.  The lavender section doesn't do anything for me.  The shawl is also very large, far larger than I would need, and that was after doing a reduced number of repeats.

I may give the border a try and see how it looks, but I've a feeling this shawl is heading for the frog pond.  We'll see!  What do you think?

Family Matters

I hope you all had a good weekend.  Our weekend was special because it was Grace's birthday and she came over from Sheffield to stay with us.

It was just like old times.  We sat and knitted together and talked about knitting and watched Formula 1 on the television.  Perfect.

Here's the card I made her.

I really enjoyed drawing and colouring the owl.

Besides giving her plenty of knitted related presents, I knitted her these socks.

They have little owls worked in cables.

I learnt a new technique in the process, adding beads with a crochet hook, a very useful technique.

It was so lovely to have all the family together.

This week is going to be a busy one as Eve is moving down to London in a few days time.  She starts work there next week.  Very exciting for her.   This week will be spent packing up all her stuff and transporting it to London.

It will seem strange - this weekend a full house, next weekend, just the two of us!

Sunshine, Strawberries and Lots of Smiles

What a joy to be able to share important milestones in your children's lives.  Friday was Eve's graduation from Cambridge University.  The sun shone, the drinks flowed and the day was more magical than I ever imagined it would be.  It seems such a short time since Grace's graduation.  And here we were doing it all again.

First there was a group photo of all the graduates in the college.

Then a procession through the streets of Cambridge to the Senate House.  We even went through the shopping mall where the shoppers stood and applauded the students as they went through - my eyes were welling up at this point.

With the Master, Dame Fiona Reynolds

After the ceremony (no photos allowed), which was conducted in Latin and involved holding fingers and kneeling before the master of the college, we returned to college where we celebrated with glasses of prosecco, a delicious buffet and strawberries and cream.  And more photo opportunities.

The history graduates

The Master of Eve's college is Dame Fiona Reynolds, the former Director General of the National Trust.  She is such a lovely woman, warm and friendly.  She made an effort to sit and chat to all the families.

The history graduates with the Master and tutors

I took so many photos of the day, well over three hundred, and it will be wonderful to look back over them all in years to come.

I apologise for the number of photos, but it was a fabulous day and I'm so proud of both my girls and all they have achieved.

Eve's Birthday Makes

Celebrations are still continuing for Eve's birthday, well you're only 21 once!  Today I thought I'd share with you the things I made for her.

Firstly, because she can't have a birthday without me knitting her something, I made her a shawl.

It was a delight to knit.  I loved the lace pattern.  The colours range from a purple/blue to a rich brown.

The pattern is called Kuura.  You can see full details of the pattern and the lovely yarn I used on my Ravelry page, here.

I also made this mini suitcase from a matchbox for Eve's dolls house.

It's really cute, I might make one for my dolls house next.  The inspiration for this came from Pinterest.

To celebrate her 21 years, I made a booklet with a photo for each of the 21 years.

Finally, you can't have a celebration without some bunting, so I spent a happy afternoon cutting out hearts to decorate the dining room for her birthday.

It was good fun making these presents, and even more enjoyable to give.

And just in case Grace might feel left out, I knitted her some fingerless mittens to match some socks she made herself.  Details on Ravelry, here.

Now that the birthdays are out of the way, I can sit down and plan some "me" knitting.  The sun is shining, the daffodils in the garden are in full bloom and I've got an afternoon of knitting to look forward to. I hope you're having a lovely weekend where ever you are.

Oh Me Oh My

What a wonderful day we all had yesterday with Eve celebrating her birthday.  It's a lovely feeling at the end of the day, to sit back and be able to say, it was all just so perfect.

As I mentioned, Eve and I had booked to go for afternoon tea in Liverpool.  Eve had chosen an independent teashop called Oh Me Oh My, which we hadn't visited before.  Tucked away in West Africa House, opposite the Liver Building, it didn't look very exciting from the outside.

But inside it was charming, retaining some of the grandeur of a bygone era, with a lovely bright and fresh modern twist.

There was unlimited tea, with six special varieties to choose from.  We started with Champagne and Cassis white tea - and a glass of Prosecco.

The sandwiches and cakes were heavenly.  We were like excitable children, full of wide eyed pleasure.

After our leisurely tea, completed with a refreshing cup of peppermint tea, we wandered down to the water front before returning home.

In the evening, Grace came to stay, lovely to have all the family together for the occasion.

A lovely, memorable, fun day.  Cheers to Eve...

...may your days be filled with many, many lovely memorable and fun moments.