Crochet, Knitting and a Chance of Quilting

Since my last post the Vintage Sweethearts Crochet blanket has progressed with all the units sewn in. I haven't, as yet, got onto the border, but here it is to date

Please forgive the darkness of the photo.  The light can still be a problem this time of year.  I'm pleased how this has turned out and hope the border will use a significant of yarn as I do have quite a bit left in the net bag.

Instagram can be a bad influence on me as I see things that others have a go at and this was a photo from The Crochet Sanctuary (@thecrochetsanctuary) who held a retreat where I saw some ladies winding giant balls of yarn which turned out to be a workshop for a rainbow blanket.  Here's the link
I had a go with using 4 balls of yarn as I had a smaller hook (1.2mm), which is the largest that I have, and wound yarn until one of the colours ran out.

I used a half treble (UK) stitch into the back loop of the previous row so it created a ridge pattern but as you can see my stitches are getting less in number so there is something I'm not doing right, but it was just to have a go.  I love the texture on the colourful effect of the mixed yarns.   The pattern is by Lottie and Albert.

Yesterday and today I've done some piecing and quilting.  Last year I took part in a block swap with UKQU block swap group and sewn some blue crosses on a low volume background.  I sent off 6 blocks and received 6 in return.  I blogged about this here .

I used the 6 received and 3 of my own blue cross blocks

I used whatever blue fabrics I had to sash and border the blocks.  I had some oddments of wadding which I pieced together.  I had just enough backing a white with coloured stars and used some blue/green/yellow batik for the binding which I've had for ages.  The photo above shows the quilt so far with thread ends to be sewn in and binding to be slipstitched down.  This will be a Linus Quilt, which I can add to a collection of 3 quilts from my Mum for Project Linus too.

I mentioned knitting in the title and there is some knitting content.  I've almost finished the body of my top down jumper and will be able to show that next time when I've finished the ribbing.  I haven't tried on yet, but fingers crossed it will fit!  However on Wednesday I started some socks...

I used Judy's Magic Cast on, (You Tube video) which is a brilliant cast on and because the yarn tail is inside the knitting, the marker on the bottom is to mark the front stitches.  The two blue markers are to mark the pattern repeats.

By Wednesday evening my sock looked like this.

Then yesterday evening I tackled (new to me) short row heel shaping.  This took some patience and I'd already done some un-knitting and re-knitted to get it right, but I got there!

 And it will be ready for some pattern knitting up the leg until I reach the cuff.

 The pattern is a free one on Ravelry by Mel-Tran Designs called Chevron socks and the yarn I'm using is Stylecraft Head Over Heels All Stars in the Saltaire colour way.  The heel is the sandy colour of Salts Mill in Yorkshire but I'm not sure where the pink and heathery mauve comes in.  I'm guessing that its not too far from the Dales and the designer picked up on the flora that grows in the area.

I'm off to Unravel yarn festival tomorrow.  Never been to a wool show before so could be interesting. This is held in Farnham and we also catch up with David's brother and also our friends too.  Should be a good weekend.  Hopefully I have some photos from the day and some yarn to show too.