Where did January go?

Already one month down in 2013, I cannot believe where the time goes.  It is good that the evenings are getting lighter and I come home from work and it's not completely dark.

This past week I've been influenced by Kate North's blog post here (and there are more posts in January too) where she made some Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks, for which instructions are on Bonnie Hunter's blog (link in that post).  So here are my blocks that I made this week, 4 so far

 I also went on a strip cutting session too, not sure of how many I've cut up but it hasn't made much of a dent in my stash. I am trying to use up my older fabrics.

Another project on the go was some baby quilts from some fabric I was given by a member of Bourne Quilters and I think these two will be Linus quilts.  I managed to make 2 small quilts but ran out of blue gingham fabric, having asked if there was any more I was given a lot more fabric so my small quilts might get bigger. I hope to aim for cot size quilts if I can. This is a challenge for me as I don't go for "cutesy" baby stuff.

Having said that in the last few weeks I've taken to knitting in the evenings watching the television.  I had baby wool from when the grandchildren were, well, babies.  The wool never got knitted up and now they are older, so these baby knits will go to charity so will have to look for a cause that will take baby knits. So here's what I've done

 Cardigan and beanie hat

 a slightly smaller beanie hat (I quite liked making these I may do some in bright colours)

 Another cardigan, this is the back which I've now finished and done one front too.  All the above came from a Family Circle pattern from a number of years ago and the front cover had crayon scribbles on it from when one of the children were small so that dates this by about 20 odd years!  The designs don't really look out of place today.

It took a few evenings to make a big adult hat (making a change from the little items)

This pattern is a bit more up to date and in one of the recent knitting mags.  This is knitted in the round with double ended knitting needles.  This is for me - it fits ok and did keep me warm in the bitterly cold weather.  

I don't know how long this knitting lark is going to go on for, but I have got a fairly large collection of yarn that does need to be used or got rid of and decided to use.  I have got enough of one type of yarn to make a cardigan as I couldn't get to grips with the pattern to get it done, so I'll choose something simple to make another design.

As it's the first of the month I'll link up with Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet here



Have a good weekend