March Makings

Not an original title, but not sure what to call this post.  This last week has been more about knitting and crochet than sewing.  The little sewing I have done has been to glue and sew more hexies for my Kingfisher quilt now that I have added a border.

 This is the border fabric, bought (and washed) last Friday

I've placed the hexies onto the border to get an idea of how they would look.

I took the hexies to sew together in blocks of four (as you can see above) to a Sewing Saturday to celebrate International Quilting Day.  It was a small gathering but it was celebrated with cake!  This was a lovely decorated cake that one lady brought in which was made by her friend.

On Sunday I finished my jumper!

This is Winter Wine, knitted in Drops Air in Rose.  It was knitted top down, from the neck with raglan increases.  The sleeve stitches were placed on waste yarn while the body was completed, then knitted down afterwards.  I found when doing the ribbing to the sleeves that the smaller circular needle stretched the stitches, so I switched to using a larger circular using the magic loop method which pulled in the stitches.  I am pleased with this, but I have 3 balls of the yarn left!! So the yarn requirements were way out - as Drops Air is a very light yarn there's a lot of meterage than in a heavier weight yarn.

I now have another project on the needles and it is another top down garment, this time a cardigan.  The pattern is one that I bought at Unravel in Farnham, a few weeks back and I bought the yarn (Jarol Heritage Wool Rich DK) in cream from a local wool shop.  This is where I am with this.

There are a LOT of stitches in this and there are still more increases to go until splitting off the stitches for the sleeves!   The pay off will be that there will be no seams to match up but it will take quite a while.

Meanwhile I've done a bit of crochet, having succumbed to buying a magazine yesterday.  Inside Crochet magazine had a supplement of a few cactus patterns from a new book by Emma Varnam.

 I made a start on a String of Pearls and also made the 'soil' to 'plant' the strings into.  Had a go at one.

By yesterday evening there were more strings!!  I got carried away that theres even a red string of bobbles which I attached with double crochet every few stitches on a twiddle muff that I was making for the knit and natter group!

I've been out in the garden today, the weather recently has been really dull and dreary, but there are several signs that Spring is here.  The daffs are passing over now, though they have done well and tulip buds are appearing so they will flower soon.

 This a blue Zebra primrose, but it seems to be losing it's stripes

 The white Stellata Magnolia is starting to blossom

And even David's Gunnera plant (must be all the recent rain) has started sprouting leaves.   Its good to see signs of life in the garden, must get out there when its drier and tidy up.