Living the Dream

A lazy relaxed morning...
An afternoon walk through woodland..
or through picturesque valleys...
Followed by an evening of knitting and reading..
or maybe spent with a pint or two of good beer in an atmospheric old pub -

This is my idea of a perfect day.  Lucky me, I've been able to spend seven such days on holiday with my husband in one of my favourite counties, Shropshire.

We had our annual holiday to Church Stretton.  Usually we go Spring / early Summer time but this year we were able to enjoy the delightful Autumn colours.

This dog does not belong to us!

It was lovely to have a mix of slow paced relaxation with some vigorous mountain climbing.  It's just a pity it was all over so quickly.  Never mind, there's the return next year to look forward to.

I took a variety of knitting projects on holiday with me, but ended up just concentrating on my Fair Isle cardigan.

It's looking lovely and colourful and it's such good fun to knit. Hopefully it will be finished sometime this week.

Before we went away, I managed to complete a pinafore  dress.

It's sewn using my favourite dress pattern, Simplicity 2444 and the fabric is a fine needlework.  I just love the raspberry colour.

Because I'm working monogamously on my Fair Isle cardigan, I haven't managed to finish any other projects.  I did complete a shawl a few weeks ago but as it was a gift for my Mum, I haven't been able to show it to you until now.

My Mum's favourite colour is yellow, and as it is also my favourite colour, it was a delight to knit this.  You can see details of this project over on Ravelry, here.

So now I'm back home, and we may not have scenic mountains and dramatic valleys, but I'm lucky that my days are relaxed and filled with pleasant moments... and plenty of knitting!

So Proud

Yesterday, my husband and I had a trip down to London.  We only had three hours there, but it was well worth the visit.

We met up with Eve and walked to the Brick Lane Gallery on ... Brick Lane.  The reason for our trip was to see the exhibition entitled East End, the place we call home.

The exhibition is only at the Brick Lane Gallery this weekend.  After that it goes on tour around Tower Hamlets.

We were very impressed with the colourful pictures and captions that told the story of the East End over the past ninety years.  The story was told thematically around the idea of building and providing homes for East Enders.

There was also a very interesting film in which residents talked about what the East End meant to them.

The exhibition had been formally opened on Wednesday by the Duke of Kent and I understand he was very impressed with the display and enjoyed meeting many of the people who were included in the film and who contributed to the exhibition.

And one of the main people who has worked on this exhibition for nearly a year is my lovely daughter, Eve.  I feel so proud of all her hard work and what she has achieved.

It was just a shame that we weren't able to spend more time with Eve, but hopefully I'll be able to get down to London and see her again soon.

We might have only had three hours in London, but we certainly had many hours on the trains!  On a positive note, this did give me some extra knitting time.  I have started knitting up a Fair Isle cardigan using leftovers of Jamieson and Smith 2 ply jumper weight yarn.  This is as far as I've got on the sleeves.

I'm using 14 different colours so it will be a riot of colours and patterns!

The Fair Isle was too fiddly to take on the train, so I cast on a shawl with some of the yarn I bought at Yarndale.

I love the way it's knitting up and I'm tempted to carry on knitting this now but I want to concentrate on the Fair Isle so the shawl will be put to one side for now.

October is going to be a colourful Fair Isle month.  I've already made some mittens this month, using up tiny bits and pieces of Rowan Fine Tweed.

I ran out of yarn on the tip of the last thumb!

This yarn has been a favourite of mine since it first appeared five years ago.  Sadly it is now discontinued, no idea why Rowan have done this.  It's so annoying when they constantly change their yarns.

Anyway, I'm getting back to my colourful cardigan.  Have a good weekend and if you're in London see if you can get down to Brick Lane!

Working My Way to Gold

How are you?  I hope that life is treating you well.  Have you been watching the Olympics?  I've tried to catch as many events as I can but it's a pretty packed programme so it's difficult to fit everything in.  There's been some very impressive performances, you've got to take your hat off to the dedication and hard work that all the participants have put in.

I thought about trying to have a themed knitting and crocheting event to coincide with the Olympics, but in the end I decided I just needed to get my works-in-progress progressing!  As it turns out, I'm actually doing a triathlon.  I have three projects I'm working on.

The first of my triathlon projects is a knitting one.  It's my Fair Isle cardigan.  I'm trying to get this off the needles because it's a summery cardigan and I'd like to be wearing it sooner rather than later.

It's slow going but I've reached the armholes on the body and one of the sleeves.  I need to work out my shaping of the armholes and hopefully hit the home straight soon.  I have a horrible feeling that I'm going to run out of my main colour but I'm putting that to the back of my mind at the moment and just concentrating on getting as much progress made as possible.

My second triathlon project is a crocheting one.  My Mandala Madness blanket has been hibernating for quite some time now.  I put it to one side whilst I had a sock blitz and then there was the stash busting blitz, so it has been sadly neglected.

Having picked it up again, I'm loving working on it.  At the moment it's my project of choice.  Such fun picking the colours for each round and seeing how it all comes together.  There's still quite a long way to go with this project, but it's a super way to use up my acrylic yarns, so it all helps to reduce the stash.

Finally, the third triathlon project is a crochet pattern I'm hoping to publish shortly.  It's for a colourful mandala that I designed last year.  Grace kindly tested the pattern for me  but I've been very dilatory in completing the pattern.

At the moment I'm working through the pattern again and taking round by round photos to support the pattern.  Every time the pattern has been worked, the variety of colours used creates a unique interpretation of the pattern.  It's such fun to play with the colours and see the effects produced.

All these projects will take some time to complete so there will be nothing off the needles for some time.  They will eventually make a significant dent in the stash, so that's good news.  I did finish my August socks last week.

Again these are toe up socks - firmly established as my favourite way to knit socks.  The pattern is called Fine and Dandy and you can see full details of this project on my Ravelry page, here.

So, now I'm back to my triathlon projects for the duration of the Olympics.  I hope you have a good week and I'm looking forward to picking up my gold medal shortly!

Lazy Summer Days

The weather is warm and the days are long and I'm feeling oh so lazy and relaxed.  There's definitely been a lull in activity in blogland, myself included.  I appreciate the efforts of those who have soldiered on and continued with their regular posts.  You have my admiration.  Every day I think to myself, I'll do a post today, but it never seems to get from my head to the blog.  So I'm making an effort today, to catch up with what I've been up to over the past two weeks or so.

Since I last posted, I've a few finished objects, plenty of works-in progress and I've had another weigh-in of the stash.

So let's get started, and here are my finished projects.  Firstly this shawl.

I just adore the colours.  I wear pink and grey more than any other colours, so this shawl is perfect for me.  I love the gradient colour changes.

The shawl is lovely and I used all of the 200g I had bought of this yarn, so it's a very generous size.  It's Ullcentrum 2 ply sport weight yarn and the colourway is Sky Pink.  It was the first yarn I bought at Yarndale last year and I'm surprised it's taken me this long to knit it up.  You can see details of this project on my Ravelry page, here.

Next up is the Block a Month Blanket I started back in January.  I decided to just crochet 16 squares for this one.

Each square is 10 inches square, so it makes a lovely lap blanket.  I added a fairly simple edging and I'm very happy with the result.  Details on Ravelry, here.

Another crochet project, a much quicker one, was these cute little flowers.

They are made from a free pattern by Ali Crafts Designs.  The pattern can be downloaded from Ravelry, here, and it really is a simple but very effective design.

My dressmaking is going well.  Yesterday I completed my pink dress.

I'm not sure that the mannequin is showing the dress off very well, so here's a badly taken picture of me wearing it.

The dress is very simple, it has princess seams, a side zip and a gently flared skirt.  It's New Look 6020 and I've made the pattern several times now - a very wearable dress.

I've treated myself to a new dress pattern, the Vintage Shirt Dress by Sew Over It.

It's the first independently designed pattern I've tried, the instructions look very detailed and helpful, so I'm looking forward to giving it a go.  Before then, I want to make a button through skirt (a bit of practice at buttonholes!).  So I need to make some time to get on with these.

And having finished my pink dress, I thought it deserved a pretty coat hanger, so I crocheted up this one, using my Floral Embellishment pattern.

It only took a couple of hours to complete and I think it looks great.

On the needles at present are my Fair Isle cardigan.

Some, but not a great deal of progress there.

A pair of socks.  No photos yet but they should be off the needles in the next day or two.

I also have my crochet Mandala Madness which hasn't made any progress and is in desperate need of some love and affection.

So plenty to keep me busy.

Finally, it's been six months since I decided to be brave and weigh my stash (inspired by Linda from Linda's Crafty Corner).  In February the stash weighed in at a bouncing 18.2 kg - wow!

After being on a crash diet for six months I'm pleased to say the stash now weighs a more healthy 11.6 kg, that's even allowing for the 850g of yarn that sneaked its way in when my back was turned!.

There's still a long way to go and with Yarndale coming up at the end of next month, I need to clear some more works-in-progress, but I feel satisfied that things are reaching a more manageable level.

Well that was a packed post!  I'll be back shortly (no more laziness) and hopefully with some more finished objects.  Enjoy your week.

I'm Ready, Are You?

It's been an interesting few days.  My husband and I had a lovely two nights away in Oswestry, but since we got back, I have not been well for a day or two - achy and shivery and no energy.  It sounds like a bug to me but my husband reckons it could be an allergic reaction to the countryside!  Today I'm starting feeling more normal again - the bounce is slowly coming back.

Oswestry was a fairly last minute decision.  And it worked out so well.  The weather was gorgeously hot and sunny.  We had picnics in the park, a walk around Oswestry, we visited Chirk Castle, lots of pubs and ate far too much.  On the way home we stopped off in Rhuddlan and visited the castle - you can't beat a Welsh castle.

Chirk Castle

Embroidery Exhibition at Chirk Castle

The Fox Inn, Oswestry

Rhuddlan Castle

Today, I am taking it easy, watching the cricket (third test match against Sri Lanka), watching some cycling (Criterium de Dauphine) and catching up with my knitting.  You know you're ill when you don't even feel like knitting!

I've been knitting an aran cardigan (in this heat!) to use up some yarn that Grace had leftover from a hat she made.  I started it on the 1st June and by the end of the 2nd I had completed the back and two fronts.  I was fairly optimistic that I would get it finished within five days, but sadly I had to eat and sleep, so not quite possible.  I didn't take it to Oswestry with me, so I have only just picked it back up today.  I just have the sleeve head on the last sleeve to do - not sure I have any suitable buttons, but apart from that it will be finished this afternoon.

For my car journey to Oswestry knitting, I frogged a shawl I made a while ago and started knitting up a scarf with the yarn.  The yarn is Sirdar Crofter in lovely pinks, purples, cream and grey, so in theory some of my favourite colours.  Sadly every time I knit it up, I'm never happy with the finished article.  Prior to being a shawl, this yarn was a sweater - it has been multi- frogged.  This is its last chance to please me.

Scarf is knit on the bias

In our house, we are all ready and waiting for the football tomorrow.  The European Championships kick off tomorrow evening and then after that there'll be at least two matches a day for a considerable time.  There will of course be lots of other sport that we will need to fit in, the US Open golf championship is on next week, there's a Formula 1 Grand Prix race this weekend and the Tour de France cycling race starts at the beginning of July - whew, that's a lot of knitting time!

For the duration of the Euorpean Championship, I have decided to knit socks - I'm hoping for a minimum of five pairs.  I have three unused quantities of sock yarn, plus I would like to use some older leftovers.  Each pair will involve a technique that I haven't tried yet - can't wait to cast on and get started.

I'm not going to just knit socks though.  I would also like to start a new cardigan - Fair Isle - yes please.  Look at those pretty colours.

So that's the plan for the next month or so.  Will you be watching the football?  Who will you be supporting?  I will be cheering on Wales (Land of my fathers!).