A January Furtle

 I survived this month’s lockdown and staying at home with mostly knitting and crochet with a bit of sewing here and there. I caught up with finishing a couple of knitting WIPs which I’m pleased about and made another pair of socks.

Here’s my purple cardigan which was left with the sleeves sewn in and the buttonhole band done.  I cracked on the end of the week before last sewing up the rest of the cardigan and the button band so it was finished last Sunday.  It even has buttons as they were bought before the previous lockdown.

Another finish on my list, just finished yesterday morning is this pink cardigan.  I made this for one of my older granddaughters when she was 5 and she is now getting on for 12 years old!  Fortunately I have 2 younger granddaughters so one of them can fit into it later.  

I think I got fed up with all those flowers as there should have been some on the sleeves but I just did rows  of colour stripes instead.  Only the right front needed to be finished and after the purple cardigan I was on a roll and figured out where I was with the patterning and the snapping of the neckline.  The button band is in moss stitch and starts from the buttonhole side and goes around the neck and down the left front and took a while just knitting on 7 stitches.  Of course there is nowhere open to get buttons, so I dived into my button box to get odd contrasting button instead and they look good.  I have no idea what the yarn is, it’s just acrylic yarn and the pattern was from a Woman’s Weekly knitting magazine.

Oh yes, a pair of socks. I repurposed some Stylecraft Head Over Heels yarn from a pair of toe up socks that didn’t work out and made these. 

They are Easy Cable Socks, a free pattern from Winwick Mum.  Can never have too many socks 🧦.

One the sewing front I was digging through my scrap box and made some strips similar to what I made in 2019 when I had 4 blocks left over from that scrappy quilt.  But I have more blocks left after putting this top together than when I started - argghhhh! So a choice now whether I add to this top or make more to do another - decisions, decisions....

I also made a couple of blocks for this month’s Bee Mama for Sibling Together, but I didn’t take any photos (I thought I had) so I can’t show those here.

I also put the finishing touches to the Sew 4 the Soul book, which I’ve written about here , so pop over and take a look. 

The local West Country Embroiderers group does Zoom meeting once a month with a small project emailed beforehand and a demonstration in the meeting.  This month it was through the trees, using scraps of fabrics onto a stabiliser, like Stitch and Tear and adding free machine to the background and then onto the trees. Here is mine, which I mounted onto black felt, which I think gave it good frame.  I really enjoyed making this little piece.

I’ve sporadically (that’s a big word!) taken part in the 30 day Sketchbook Challenge, this month.  I don’t think it will be a regular habit, but I have enjoyed drawing, colouring and some painting too with the bits and bobs of pencils, pens and paints that I have.  It has been fun but I lost it towards the end, but the prompts have been something to look forward to each day. Here are just a few of my pictures.

Let’s see how February goes. I’m hoping for a bit more stitching, knitting and crochet.  I don’t think there’ll be much out and abouting. I’ve got a new book and will start with some helical knitting.  That’ll be interesting.  

Joining in with Mini Archie’s Furtle Around the Blogosphere.