It's October!

I don't know what happened to September - its flown by so quick! I've kept busy though, with sewing, knitting, days out and a weekend quilting retreat (more of that in another post) which all took place last month.

First of all it was my sister's birthday and I had gifted her the crochet blanket that also doubled as a housewarming present since her, my brother-in-law and nephew moved into their bungalow a few months ago.  I was pleased to get this finished and she was delighted with the blanket.

This was the Woodland Ripple blanket designed by Lucy of Attic 24 which I wrote about in this post here.

Remember the Summer postcard that I made for the UKQU postcard swap of that theme for the West Country Quilt Show?  I received the swap postcard which was made by Norma Hasham with hand drawn and sewn scenery with lots of little owls on the branches of the tree.  It was gorgeous and a really good swap.

My collection of owls could not be missed out of the photo here.

On the knitting front I had a go at making double knit socks.  With thicker yarn, bigger needles and less stitches these took less time than normal 4 ply.  I took this green yarn (I wasn't bothered about the colour) these turned out lovely cosy socks, just right for the winter evenings to come.

These were a close fit and although they will do my small feet nicely I may go up to the next size needles if I make more.  I used the stitch pattern from Hermione's everyday socks, which is my go to pattern to help keep track of rows when using plain coloured yarn.

I've also received the second of a current subscription box from A Little Box of Crochet which featured a design of mini Granny Squares with small balls of cotton yarn to make into a notebook cover for a crochet project organiser. Love the colours

David and I had a trip to the Isle of Wight - an early start to the day driving from Poole to Lymington to get the ferry - but the day was bright and we had a brilliant day.  Visiting the Garlic Farm for breakfast and a wander then onto the Isle of Wight Steam Railway which was really delightful.

The train services run from Haven Street station to Wootton at one end of the line then back to Haven Street and onto Smallbrook Junction, the station that adjoins the railway to Ryde pier. There is also a museum and a carriage restoration workshop where we found the Victorian carriage that was restored of a Channel 4 programme shown earlier this year.

When the railways were drastically cut on the Island, a few of the old carriages were used as homes or holiday accommodation.  Near the museum was this carriage to show how this was done in 1950's style.

I also liked seeing the collection of railway posters too, nice to see the designs of ages ago are not lost but reproduced for people today to enjoy.

There has been plenty of sewing action too most of which I share in another post but I will share this now, some blocks that I made for a Siblings Together block drive, so I made and sent these off to the coordinator.  I enjoy making quilt blocks so I made these in no time at all.

So that's nearly all for September other than the Sewing Shindig which I will follow with a separate posting.  October is seems to be a quieter month but I'm sure it will get busier as time goes on.