A June Furtle

June had some finishes, but not of the quilty variety, but knitting and crochet ones.

I managed to finish off Flo's cardigan in my last post has details about that.  Also did a short ptroject making chain bunting for  Yarndale.

I finished a pair of socks.  There were the Moonstruck socks a patron pattern by Kay Jones of the Bakery Bears.  I had some pink West Yorkshire Spinners yarn, which saved me buying new yarn.  I liked the instructions, which were backed up by tutorials and I knitted the socks two at a time.

Another knitting finish, just completed a few days ago is the Spindrift Shawl, a pattern by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade. This is a free pattern available by signing up to her newsletter.  The yarn is by Lay Family Yarn, from a few years ago (2017, I think) when they dyed a colour way called Crocus.  I started to make a shawl and then frogged it.  I started on the Spindrift earlier this year and it hibernated for a while, then just a few weeks ago I picked it up and got it done.  This will go nicely with the yellow lining thats in my navy raincoat.  In the picture below its been washed and blocked, though I've still to weave in the ends.

A section of the knitting, with its lovely purple/orange speckles will be on my July marker.

Last Friday I started a sparkly new crochet project after I saw it on the Wool Warehouse website, called Flora's Fauna. I purchased the small blanket in the Meadow colour way

(image from Wool Warehouse)

On looking at this further this designed by Rosina Crochets and is a technique called Mosaic Crochet (more details via her website) with demonstrations on You Tube.  This is a CAL (crochet a long) running from mid June to August.

My progress by Wednesday, was to have finished the lady birds, which was the first part. 

The second part of the pattern was released last Friday featuring snails and hedgehogs, which is quite a large section of which I'm just 7 rows in.  It does take a while to get the hang on this as I'm following the charts and written instructions to make sense of it, but as a first attempt at this technique, I think I'm doing well.

Embroidery this month was a Tree of Life pattern by one of the ladies in the Poole group.  Unfortunately just after the demonstration of what we had to do, I had a phone call to collect Flo from Pre-School as she wasn't well.  But doing a bit each day over a couple of weeks I got this sewn and mounted onto mount card, so I'm pleased I've got this done.  Flo is ok now but she was on antibiotics all that week.

My ATC for this month was on the theme of Desserts.  My take on this was a Strawberry and Blueberry Pavlova (after trawling through Pinterest for inspiration.  I used some white tissue paper for the rough meringue and dots of painted red and blue paper for the berries.  It did take me four attempts to get what I wanted but it turned out ok.

Another crafty thing I tried was making a bottle light with the Hotchpotch crafts, which used acrylic paints  decorative serviettes, Mod Podge glue to stick and seal the decorated bottle and a LED lights.  The little group of us impressed ourselves with what we made.

And it looked more impressive at night

So that's what's kept me busy in June.  I hope you've had a busy one too.

I'm joining in with Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere with Archie the Wonder Dog.

Mid June Musing

 This month so far has been a strange one.  We didn’t join in any Jubilee celebrations.  Had a flying visit to South Wales to go to a funeral. Last week had a few trips to Dorchester as granddaughter wasn’t well (but better now)  and in between have managed a few things here and there.

I finished a cardigan for Flo.  I thought I lined up the stripes well on the fronts but they just wouldn’t play ball when getting the button/buttonhole bands done,  but she like it so that’s ok.  I’m making another, in different yarn for Cecily so I shouldn’t have that problem.

I’ve also make some crochet chains for Yarndale’s community project, which raises funds for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.  The cost of postage was really expensive so I think this may be the last time I send anything like that again, but I had fun making the chains, quick and easy to make.

Another thing that took a while to make and is my latest ATC in a swap organised by the TG internet group.  The theme this month is desserts and I came up with the idea of making strawberries and blueberries Pavlova.  It took 4 attempts to get to one that I liked to send! The first isn’t shown here. Below is the one that I sent to swap.  I used white tissue paper, torn and layered onto card with blue and red dots onto a pink colour wash card.  

This was one of my attempts from earlier, so I can keep a record of what I’ve made.  The other two were didn’t work out, but that’s they way it goes.  What you have in mind doesn’t always work out practically.

Another thing I’ve made this week has been decorating a bottle and I’m really impressed with this. 

Our local Townswomen’s Guild group has a little subgroup called Hotchpotch crafts and this used acrylic paint, a napkin (with the butterfly) and glittery Mod Podge. It was a really enjoyable workshop and we were all impressed by what we’ve made.  Even more impressive was the glow of the lights inside when it was dark.

And yesterday another pair of socks was completed.  These Moonstruck socks designed by Kay Jones of the Bakery Bears.  I had enough of the pink West Yorkshire Spinners yarn in stash to make these.  I am a patron of the Bakery Bears podcast so this pattern with accompanying tutorials was for patrons.  I had to work the pattern from a chart, which was easy once I got the hang of the symbols used, so a good pattern.

I’ve now picked up a shawl project which has been hibernating for a while so I’m cracking on with that.  I hope I can share that soon.

The Story of Gnocchi

 Since making the Christmas gnomes at the end of last year, I received an email in April that there would be a mystery Gnome KAL, called Make Gnome Mistake and decided to make another gnome.  The pattern is by Sarah Schira of Imagined Landscapes, and the complete pattern can be purchased from Ravelry.  

It started at the beginning of May with the pointy hat.  Using the charts provided the instructions were really clear. The colourwork is on both sides of the hat.

Next came the beard knitting a strip of 2 colours then dropping stitches. That was a bit weird but it worked. Some people added beads to their beards, but I didn’t have any suitable so there were knots instead. 

Next was the body. This is worked knitted downwards by picking up stitches. In no time at all it’s beginning to look gnome like.  There is some more colourwork at the bottom of the body.

Just one more thing to add - the nose! This is what gives Gnocchi her name (in spite of the beard, the gnome is a she).

There were no arms in the instructions, but she insisted on having them, so I obliged, with a pair 6 stitch I-cords. They didn’t take long to do.

And here she is with her gnome family - Gnomebleberry and Gnewt. 

The yarns I’ve used were the remainder of a set of mini skeins from Lamington Lass (on Etsy) for the cream, green, and orange and the purple yarn was from a set of Shetland wool mini skeins by Wee County Yarns

So that’s the story of Gnocchi.  I finished her at the end of May but had to wait a bit before sharing on the blog.  

So Where Did May Go?

I started this blog post on 1st June, but only noticed yesterday (4 June) that I hadn't posted it!

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It’s 1st June

 The marker for this month is from my one and only attempt at Tunisian crochet, a pouch made a few years back from a Little Box of Crochet kit, which I dug out last week and made a lining for.

Feels it could be more useful with a lining inside.  I’ve finished off another pouch.  This was the from Instagram (hashtag) springmysteryproject by Stitching Notes and Nordic Crafter, which I started in April.  It just needed the bottom gusset ends joined together with binding inside and I finished of the embroidery. So this is how my pouch looks. It was mostly hand stitched with machine sewing the background fabric and the gusset.  A lovely project to make.

What else have I made in May? Well there there seems to be a lot of almost finishes, but not quite there yet. One finish I can’t show either until later this month. I could not resist joining the mystery as I enjoyed the two gnomes I made with the previous mystery.  There may be more gnomes in my life!

There were more Siblings Together blocks made at the beginning of June, though not a lot of other sewing has taken place.

A couple of knitting projects on the go. Another cardigan for Flo. This is a Sirdar pattern that I’ve used previously with King Cole yarns that I bought in a yarn sale.  Just the second front band and sewing up to do.

Another pair of socks for me.  Working on the Moonstruck socks by Kay Jones of the Bakery Bears (Patreon pattern) but waiting for the tutorial for picking up stitches but perhaps I should get on with it as I’ve worked with patterns on the sides of socks before.  I just want to get these done,

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5 June

Yesterday I started to "Fettle a Finish" (hopefully) on the black and pink quilt.  The top was done a while ago and I had to piece together the backing so set to yesterday afternoon.  Using 3 pink fabrics with the some of the remaining pink from making the quilt front together with a metre of black fabric.

As a reminder, this is what the front of the quilt looks like

I layered up, pinned and tacked the quilt this morning and have started the quilting.  I have some variegated pink thread and will use black in the bobbin. I will outline quilt the blocks.   I have enough of the main pink fabric in length to bind the sides and width to bind top and bottom.  I didn't have enough to do the continuous binding so sides, top and bottom binding it will have to be.

While on the sewing machine yesterday, I made a sew and flip pouch.  Haven't made one of those for ages.  All the strips are from the scrap drawer.

I also made a couple of handles for my big bag that I take to workshops and can almost get the kitchen sink into as the old handles were worn.  Good to give that bag a bit of TLC as its done a fair bit of service over the years.

As this weekend has been Platinum Jubilee weekend, I'd like to share a cushion cover that I made for a Golden Jubilee challenge 20 years ago, when I was a member of Quarterback Quilters.  I remember that there was some gold fabric to use in it.

I used it for shadow appliqué for the 50 in the centre, with gold colour organza on top

As well as hand embroidering the letters, in the purple border I free machined "God Save the Queen"

I must have used fusible webbing for the gold crowns in the corners.  They've kept attached quite well.

And the gold fabric was used for bunting in between the flying geese 'flags'.  There were also pieces of gold fabric in the Suffolk Puffs too.

I was pretty pleased how that turned out.  I didn't win the challenge and it doesn't see the light of day that often but I thought it good to share at this time.

I think that's that May and beginning of June.  I hope you've had and enjoyable long weekend this weekend.  Joining in the Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere for May