Furtling in April

 It’s been a busy month a few trains rides (on different occasions), explorations, a few quilt blocks, a few washcloths, a finished cardigan and a pouch in the making. 

First of all a finished cardigan - tada! 

This the Harvest cardigan, a free pattern by Tin Can Knits . I knitted this with Aran yarn by King Cole, Fashion Aran Combo, which I bought in a wool sale at the end of February.  I didn’t need as much yarn as I thought so I have one 100g ball and a few bits left.  It was nice to knit with and didn’t take me long to do (I was knitting other things in between).  I’d like to make another.

I’ve been making washcloths and a dishcloth too. I couldn't see the point in making pretty dishcloths before, but I have enjoyed making these from the Kitchen Sink Shop on Ravelry Garlene has a newsletter to sign up to for free patterns, or pay for a collection of patterns on Ravelry.  But I’ve also made a plain corner to corner square one with plain dishcloth cotton from Poundland (though it’s £1.50/100 gram ball, not £1.00!).  

These are the pretty patterned ones.  The yarn used is Hobbycraft's Only Natural yarn.

Here's the plain dishcloth one.  The theory is that it can be washed in the washing machine with the teatowels, table cloths, etc. This has taken 35 grams, so making 2 others slightly smaller than this size I will get 3 cloths out of the ball.  Hopefully this will be a greener solution to the J-Cloths we currently use, though they last longer than they used to and can be cleaned in the dishwasher from time to time.

To knit this dishcloth I start with a single stitch and increase by knitting front and back into the 1st stitch in each row until I reach about 50 stitches (the one I made was 54 stitches), or the desired size.  Then decrease by knit 1, knit 2 together at the start of each row and carry on until down to the last 2 stitches, then knit both together.  I've knitted squares in acrylic yarn before for charity blankets.

I nearly forgot, but I made a cake! It amused the ladies at Knit and Natter when I was asked what I was making.  This is a pattern from 50 Toys to Knit magazine on Readly and is a pattern by Lynne Rowe.  I made this for my cake stand and hope to made a few more. There is a crochet cupcake, but I don't know where I got that pattern from.  I will need more cakes I think.

On the sewing front I haven't done very much.  No progress this month on the black/pink quilt, which is hibernating at present.  I have made a couple of Siblings Together blocks for Kayleigh.

and made some blocks for the current block drive

They look pretty! I'm thinking this a good one for using larger scraps.

But I have started a small project from Instagram (hashtag) springmysteryproject by Stitching Notes and Nordic Crafter and have got as far as stitching a tiny ladybird.  There is a little more embroidery and the zip to insert too and hope to get that done this weekend.

Also in progress is my stitch book and I have made a yellow page.  This is two pieces of log cabin joined together and tacked into the book.  I have added a Suffolk Puff and there are a couple of hexagons to add that are currently clipped to the top of the left page.

So that's all the knitting and sewing for this month.

Now the trains - 2 miniature railways in one week - Moors Valley Railway near Ringwood. This was my youngest granddaughter, Cecily, enjoying the ride

Then we went on a ride on the railway at the Bath and West Showground, which was a surprisingly large layout.  Lovely to feel like a kid when riding on these little railways.

We went to London and hadn't been on the Docklands Light Railway before but we have now. We were right at the front!

More of that in another post.  

I'm linking this to Mini Archie's April Furtle Around the Blogosphere.