Beginning of October - Getting Very Autumnal 🍁🍂

 

I love the stitch pattern on my Lewes fingerless mitts that I used this as my monthly marker. 

I didn’t have any knitting to take with me to the local Knit and Natter group so I took some yarn from my stash to start to knit a pair of mittens for my granddaughter as the day went on I finished knitting one! 

The pattern is from Sirdar’s Bumper Book of Accessories, no. 2, with gloves, mitts, socks (2 needles and seamed!) and leg warmers. I’ve used the remains of some plain blue DK and Aurora from the last jumper that I knitted her. I’ll start the left mitten ready for this week’s K&N.

Another thing I’ve picked up recently has been the Yorkshire Blanket, which I decided had been hibernating for long enough!  This is a pattern from Ravelry by Emyleah Newbery of Meemamakes. I started the squares last autumn to use up some Stylecraft Special DK yarn from previous makes and ended up buying four balls more while away on holiday in Amble last year.  I had one half finished square, which I finished off (the red) and then started on another square (the green).

I’ve enjoyed the different techniques in this blanket, very textural which has taken me a little out of my crochet comfort zone.  

Let’s hope I can make some progress on this blanket.

End of September

 A month of finishes and almost finished.  

For the finishes - I finished of my ‘Crème Egg’ socks, so called because the yarn colours looked like the colours of the Crème Egg wrapper. Plain vanilla socks, didn’t need to be fancy. The yarn is by King Cole, a Zigzag colour that is no longer available.

I also started and finished a pair of fingerless gloves. I bought the pattern from The Southern Wool Show last month and it’s by The Wool Barn, called Lewes. It’s a great pattern for small amounts of yarn. (But lots of ends to sew in!).They’ve been washed and blocked so they’ll soon be ready to wear.  There might be more pairs of these.

A knitting nearly finished is my cardigan with just the front bands and sewing up the side and sleeve seams.  I hope to get this done before the end of the week.

A crochet finish this month are these two blankets. They’re lap sized versions of the Canalboat blanket design by Lucy of Attic 24.  She is changing websites so there are no patterns available currently.  These blankets hibernated before I got cracking on finishing the borders.

I have been busy sewing too as I’ve been working on some quilting squares to make into pouches.  Some have got as far as having the zips inserted and others are awaiting sew in. 

This is what they will eventually become. Ready for charity sales next month.

I made a vinyl pouch for my sister’s birthday, along with a little felted dog, similar in colour to one of her dogs. The felted dog was a small kit by Corinne Lapierre

And I also made a square bag for taking away with us as not so much is supplied at Premier Inns so we can take extra mugs, tea, coffee etc.  It is basically a bottle bag, the pattern from a book by Susan Briscoe.

As a change from the knitting and sewing I have made a card, a demonstration on a Zoom call.  This is a tower cards

I also made an ATC the subject being Hobbies.  I didn’t send it in time, so I’ve kept this.  David’s hobbies, volunteering on the local heritage railway and model railway making.

So that’s September.  For October I’m taking part in a Halloween themed knit along mystery gnome.  There are two options -pumpkin coloured Gnumpkin ( or the more witchy Gnettle). My needles and yarns are ready 

A busy week and a bit…

 Of finishing things and starting new projects. Since coming back from our few days away I’ve finishes off socks. These I call my Crème Egg socks as the colours in this old King Cole Zig Zag yarn look similar to a Crème Egg wrapper. I added heels and toes in Attic Spin Dye yarn in Plum.

I finished a vinyl fronted pouch (useful for medication) and also a little dog dangly. This was a kit from Corinne Lapierre, but it was small and fiddly so I was pleased to get these done ready for my sister’s birthday earlier in the week.

Another little finish was a bookmark from the Tabby and Tweed weaving kit that I bought at the Southern Wool Show two Sundays ago. Not the nearest of work, but I mastered the hem stitch at the beginning and end of the bookmark.  Quite an enjoyable project using scraps of yarn, nice to pick up and put down. There may be a few more.

Having had our stay away, we decided we would put a going away kit together, with mugs, drinking glasses and extra tea, coffee, tea towel ame any other bits and bobs. We were disappointed that there are only two glass mugs, so often washing them out.  Anyway to that end I decided to make a bag.  This is the bottle bag instructions from the Susan Briscoe book of 21 Sensational Patchwork  Bags. I made one some years ago for my late father, so this is only the second time I’ve made this.

I went a bit off with the instructions as I quilted the panels before joining instead of quilting the two layers and joining with a separate lining, but I worked around that.  

Another new project is a pair of fingerless gloves using a pattern I purchased from The Wool Shed at the Southern Wool Show.  It was the first item I bought so I had to make these. Using scraps of yarn I started on one then realised they were better worked concurrently so I started on a second one.  I’m quite enjoying this pattern so there may be more.

A project that was made and finished the same day was a book at Dorset Creative Embroiderers with tutors Karen and Sue. It seemed we needed lots of stuff, my bag was certainly heavy. I painted a picture and added free machine embroidery (using one tutor’s machine, I didn’t have my own with me). It was Bondawebbed onto a black background and signatures of pages were stitched into the cover. Being the rebel that I am I didn’t cut the picture to size but tore it instead! 

A fair bit of out and about going on too. A day on the bus from Poole to Swanage for lunch and back again. I didn’t take scenic photos.  On Friday I was taken out by a friend to Wimborne to see an exhibition of work by the late Tiggy Rawling, who loved India and her and her husband had many trips out there.  She was a very knowledgeable textile artist and teacher and her work is lovely and she will be much missed. More photos on the link above.

Some beautiful work. It was lovely to see.

So it was an action packed week and a bit.

Trip to East Devon

 Now we could have done this in a rush in one day, but decided on a short two night stay and take our time. David and I stayed at a Premier Inn in Seaton so we could have time to explore the area. Firstly we visited Pecorama, the site of Peco a company that makes rails for model railways, in Beer.  As well as a miniature railway, on which we had a ride, there are beautiful well kept gardens on the hillside overlooking the village of Beer, between Seaton and Sidmouth. The weather was rainy but it soon cleared and our next couple of days were glorious.

Above is a view down to Beer and the sea from the gardens. Just to prove we’ve been on the railway…

And the gardens

After there we went to Beer village, which is very pretty but found it too steep to go down to the sea (it’s not the going down that’s the problem, it’s the going up from the seafront that is). So we admired the scenery instead.

The next day, we travelled by bus (yes, we are bus pass oldies!) to Sidmouth and got off near the town centre and found a sign for a toy museum.  This is housed in an old chapel in the back streets and was a lovely reminder of the toys in ours and our children’s past (and even before our time!).

Look at the teeny tiny dolly in a matchbox and the other Dollie’s aren’t much bigger

I used to have a Betta Bilda kit similar to this when I was young.

A teddy bears picnic

Not far from there was a town museum. That too was fascinating with all sorts of memorabilia, including more recently a ship that ran aground and the goods from that coming ashore with the locals helping themselves, which made the national news. 

Being not far from Honiton, the area is also associated with lace and there is a gallery devoted to that as well.  Queen Victoria wore a lot of Honiton lace similar to lace piece (not sure what the garment is called). 

After museum visits it was a wander around the town and the obligatory ice cream on the sea from before going back to Seaton on the bus.

Our last day and return home included a visit to Seaton Tramway, just a short walk from our hotel. After breakfast at a nearby cafe I went off on my own for a short walk uphill to the local park.

The clock tower and a butterfly flower display.

The labyrinth crazy golf with pitch 

With a dinosaur egg!  There was also a sensory garden and a greenhouse 

With some koi carp along with some exotic plants

On to the Tramway.  These smaller trams travel from Seaton to Colyton along the (river) Axe Valley

It was a beautiful morning and a lovely ride out before our travel back home.