May Musings

 I finished my latest knitting make Alex the Mouse last week and posted pictures on Instagram.  The mouse is a pattern from the Year of Techniques book by Arnall Culliford Knitwear .  I really enjoyed knitting the mouse,  but think I could have been braver with my colour choices, but he’s a mousy colour.

The body and head are knitted as one piece with the other parts being knitted separately and sewn on.  The fronts and backs of the ears are joined together with an I-cord cast off. The addition of button eyes completed the look.

Here he is with the other animals of the top of the unit in my room

The animals are a variety of sizes and Alex is a big as Luna rabbit and much bigger than the pink sock cat.  Also much bigger than the owl (in real life an owl would eaten a mouse!)

But I’ve had a knitting fail and about to ‘frog’ the hat that I’ve been working on. From the same book is a Lacy beanie hat knitted in the round and keeps slipping off the dpns and it’s been frustrating trying to make sure that all the stitches are there.The hat is here .   I’ve got as far as row 33, and it’s a shame to rip it back.

As for sewing, I’ve caught up with the latest Siblings Together blocks, a couple of quarter log cabin blocks.

I’ve also started a small hand sewing project, a small A4 size a Kawandi (or Kwandi) quilt.  It uses small pieces or fabric so I’ve raided the scrap box. There’s a blog post here

I started with a calico base and finger pressed a turning of about 1 cm.

Adding fabric scraps for the first round.  Fabric scraps are added from the outside towards the middle.  Let’s see where this goes.