Furtling in June

 This month has been about crochet with a bit of knitting, cross stitch, going to visit gardens and catching up with family members.  

There’s been a challenge between 3 of us in the knit and natter group to make a waistcoat using the stitch pattern of the Cosy Stripe Blanket (by Attic 24, of course) two have been completed but I’m left with mine, with has been crocheted up to the armholes in one piece and I have to work out the split of stitches for the fronts and back, which I haven’t done.

I’ll have to work that out and give it a go.

Meanwhile on the crochet front I’ve made 5 cowls from some super chunky yarn called Indie.  This was discontinued years ago and I acquired this from someone’s stash about a couple of years ago.  Rather than making the balls into one large blanket I made the cowls out of them instead and I intend to take them to Salvation Army as warm items to wear.

Being super chunky they needed a large wooden hook 10mm, but took no time at all to complete.  The yarn was in a variety of colours -  black/orange, brown/orange/yellow, blue/brown/yellow and I mixed them up.  I will wash them first (because the yarn came from the stash of a smoker and I’ve only aired the yarn) and pass them on. The pattern I used was one I had with some yarn few years back from the Woolly Beader in Okehampton, which isn’t listed on their website so I think may be discontinued. 

On the knitting front I’ve made a dishcloth and washcloth.  I didn’t get why knitters and crocheters wanted to make these, but they are quick and easy to make in between larger projects, also for knit and natter where there’s something that didn’t much thinking about.

The pics have been uploaded the wrong way round, but the one above I finished on Tuesday is a free pattern from The Kitchen Sink Shop on Ravelry.  It’s part of the Year of Dishcloths patterns, which I heard about through the Crafty Cleggs You Tube podcast. I’ve knitted this in King Cole Cottonsoft Candy. It is so soft that it’s too good to be a dishcloth so it’ll be a washcloth to use in the shower (I now think I should have made a hanging loop). There’s a lot of this left after making one, so there’s going to be more of these made.

The one I finished earlier is Gramma’s Dishcloth by P J Allen, also a free pattern on Ravelry, knitted in Lily Sugar ‘n’ Cream.  This is proper dishcloth yarn, quite coarse, not sure if it does soften up with use. The yield is just one cloth as there’s not enough to make another, unless I get another ball for a second and the remains of both to make a third cloth.

I’ve made 2 lots of blocks for Siblings Together this month.  Jenny asked for quarter square triangles for the Bee swap

Then there was a mini block drive on Siblings Together blogand I could not resist making this block, so much so that I made 4.  It did cost me extra in postage, so note to self, check the weight first! But I did like making this and a handy block pattern to keep as it made large 14” blocks.

Oh yes, the cross stitches have been rediscovered this month and I finished these two, which only needed back stitching detail, cleaning and finishing. I wrote about it here

They’ve been hibernating for years! It was good to get them finished off.  But then lurking in my yarn storage drawer was an envelope (dated 1997) with this.

This, believe or not, is an Arsenal shield, with only the wheel of the cannon sewn.  This has got to be done, so I made a project bag to put it in and I wound the stranded cotton onto bobbins. I wrote about it here, but since then, by doing a little bit each day and this is the progress by Sunday (27th June). The cannon still looks like a tractor...

A few new things have been tried.  An ATC, artist trading card, in a group run by the Townswomens’ Guild internet group. The theme was red, white and blue and I was inspired by this Makower fabric. I made 2 cards, one to keep and one to swap.

And I had this lovely embroidered one from Tricia in return.

David and I have visited a couple of gardens not far away. Kingston Lacy is just outside Wimborne and a favourite place to visit. The pictures below are of the big old gnarly Wisteria that grows along the length of the greenhouse.

Another, a bit further away in Cranborne, in the countryside between Wimborne and Shaftesbury. The garden is around the Manor and has a garden centre attached.

The second picture has beds of pinks and roses in a walled garden, the smell was just intoxicating, lovely. The manor garden is only open one afternoon a week but worth the visit.

Last but not least, another postcard swap came up of the UKQU postcard Facebook page on the theme of As You Like It, so anything goes.  At the same time I saw a post by Seasalt on Instagram of one of their artist pictures by Megan Glenister and I took a screenshot 

And made this postcard

It probably looks nothing like her picture, but that’s ok, it was the inspiration that I was after.  I added some free machining and fancy stitches as well as the wavy lines for the sky and the sand. I used a bit of glitter glue for the sparkling sea.

 Phew, that was a busy month.

For July I’ve got two cut out Project Linus kits to make up. I want to finish off the Tubix quilt with some stitching in the borders.  I hope to start on a larger knitting project too.  Still keeping busy...

Joining Archie the Wonderdog for Mini Archie’s Furtle Around the Blogosphere. Click on the picture to link