Furtling in February

In spite of the extra day February goes quite quick.  But then I have been busy with 2 Saturdays of sewing the Linus quilts I made this month are in my last post (here) and spent the evenings either knitting or crocheting. So keeping busy does make the month go quicker it seems!

First of all a ta-da moment. Finished last night is the Dahlia crochet blanket - woohoo!!

Fifteen balls of yarn in a bag (from Wool Warehouse)

 Turned into this

Not easy to take a photo laid out on the bed, so here's another with it folded up so you can see the border, which looks sort of heart shaped.

As with Lucy's (of Attic 24) patterns its simple enough to create interest but its the combination of colours that just makes it and you just have to smile at the cheerfulness of the colours.

Sarah wanted this blanket which was the deciding factor in joining in the Crochet A Long because I'd only join in if there was a home for the blanket.  Her daughter, my granddaughter Flo loves it so she's grabbing it for her own use and cuddles it when she see's it.  I am thinking of making a mini Dahlia blanket for Flo when she's in her car seat and using a different arrangement of the colours to use up the yarn in the pack.

I didn't do the whole 99 colour change rows but stopped at 80, which gave a blanket of 64" x 51".  Having laid this out on the spare double bed the length is just right and the width just covers across the top (but it is meant to be single bed size anyway).  So its been really enjoyable to make.

Just as much fun was this little bird.  Last weekend's stormy and wet weather didn't make us feel in the mood for getting out so I had a go at this.  A book and kit that I purchased last September at Yarndale.

Isn't he fab?

 This was a partially constructed bird when I stopped for lunch.

The pattern is from a book called Sue Stratford's Knitted Aviary and has a variety of birds including gulls, kingfishers, pigeons even flamingoes.  Also ways of displaying from making felted nests and twig branches to making embroidery hoop perches. So a good book for display ideas and not just for making birds.

This week I went on a Dorset Federation TG (Townswomen's Guild) Spring Break and much fun was made that we going all the way to Bournemouth (just a few miles away)! It was only a 2 day break, but it was enjoyable time away with entertainment and speakers.  The dinner on the first evening our group dressed as flower people, not in a hippy style, but wearing flowery clothes and giving out paper Japanese Kusadama flowers to each delegate there.

This was me dressed up for the occasion 

And see my bag just to the left?

I had an almost fat quarter of this 'Cool Groovy' fabric and thought I'd make a bag.  It has a flower button on but that's just for show.  Really pleased with that little bag.

Whilst away some simple knitting came with me.  I made a couple of baby hats.  Poole Hospital's baby unit had requested some boy and girl knitted hats, so far just 2 baby boy ones. I was looking in my novelty fabrics for a suitable background and this safety pin one was just right.  I don't know whose pattern it was - its just a general one we were given to knit with a deep fold over rib and a few rows of stocking stitch before decreasing for the crown.

Sweet, aren't they.

Joining Mini Archies's February Furtle in the Blogosphere