An April Furtle

 Another whole month gone and where to??  It’ll be 1st May tomorrow so I think it’s a time to round up what I’ve been up to this month.  

I’ve been knitting (and still am) and finished a cardigan for Cecily and another pair of socks.  Not quite finished Sarah’s cardigan as the sewing up has been a problem, but I will get it done.

I loved this Sirdar pattern with the Stylecraft yarn.  Mustard seems to be a popular colour at the moment and this shade, Mellow Yellow, was really lovely.

I made these toe up socks from The Knitter magazine, which, once I got the hang of the pattern was really lovely to work on.  I wrote about this in my last post but I learnt about using short row shaping to create the toes which I’d not done before.  Another new skill to add to my knitting ‘tool kit’.

I’m on another knitting project from A Year of Techniques book and making Alex the Mouse.  This involves another new to me technique called Pinhole Cast on, which is used for the nose and legs. With some colourwork.  This is how far I’ve got. 

The main part, head and body took 3 days and then I’ve been working on the plain parts like ear backs, an i-cord tail, and an arm, the ear fronts have colourwork and the legs.  A second arm is in progress (no, he’s not going to be a one armed mouse!). There are projects on Ravelry  to see.  It’s another small project to extend my knitting skills in between making larger items.

Another little item that I’ve made is this little mandala mat, which I gave to a friend of mine as a belated birthday present. I love this pattern (by Sew Happy Creative and have fun choosing the colours for each round as I go.  It’s made in Rico cotton.

As for sewing I knocked one quilt off Quarter 2 of the 2021 Finish a Long. I bought fleece backing from Seahorse Quilting and used a wavy stitch to quilt.  I found this orangey-yellow fabric in my stash to make the binding. Yay for finishes.

Some blocks for April’s Siblings Together bee were made and I loved playing with the arrangements for the photos.

And this month saw the decoration of the dining room.  Well, while in lockdown thought we might as well use the time to get that done as the room hasn’t been decorated for about 12/13 years we think.

I was at last able to get a haircut.  I don’t like going to the hairdressers so nothing fancy, just a wet cut.  My hair is so fine it dries quickly so it doesn’t take long.  But I feel much better for it. 

Last but not least.  Since I retired 3 years ago, I started to go to a Knit and Natter group at the cafe in the locality where I live. One of the ladies there, I knew from the quilt group, so I’d known her, but not closely, for a number of years.  She’d began to show signs of dementia but kept going, and knitting little teddies for local RNLI charity because she knew the pattern so well.  She died a few weeks ago so I knitted a teddy in her memory as that’s how I remember her.

After such sad news, we learned another knit and natter lady became a granny for the first time!

So April has been an eventful month, to say the least.  Here’s looking forward to May. Joining in Mini Archies Furtle Around the Blogosphere.