Christmas in …. March?

 I’ve now finished off my cardigan, it’s had a wash and is now drying out with ‘sort of ‘ blocking. Laying out into shape between 2 towels. More about that at the end of the month Now that’s off the needles, time for something else.

With the stuff that needs doing before last Christmas and watching Advent vlogs, I was looking forward to the new Bakery Bears Advent pattern and wasn’t that keen it was a knitted Christmas stocking.  In our house David and I have never had stockings, although our children have and as they’ve left home theirs went with them.

Anyhow I had the yarn colours ready so I thought why not? I’d also printed the pattern, called Scrooges Stocking and it is a good sampler pattern of different techniques and the sections are named after parts of the A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

I started with the lace. I quite liked this pattern, which was followed by a green and cream braid (Estonian/Latvian?), then started a colourwork section with the yellow and cream.

Then I made an error. I picked up the pattern where two small charts that looked similar were on the same place on 2 following pages so when I finished the yellow and cream section above, I went on to knit the green and cream slip stitch pattern, whereas I should have knitted a Fair Isle pattern section. Not wanting to undo what I’ve done I knitted about half the slip stitch bit, put in the Fair Isle and knit the other half.  You may be confused but I think I’ve worked it out!

Here is how it looks so far (photo taken yesterday)

You will have noticed there is and extra row in the middle of the slip stitch section and I will include that in the next section of the slip stitches.

Despite this I’m quite enjoying the making as it’s something different, even though Christmas has past and it may get used for Christmases future, or may not get used at all, who knows. It’s nice to work on a bit of frippery with yarn that might of been hanging around in the stash.

As mentioned above, the yarn is from stash - Stylecraft Special DK in Spruce (green), and Dandelion (yellow) from other blanket projects along with a DK yarn in cream (not sure of the brand).  The pattern is a Patreon pattern from Bakery Bears, so not available for sale, just for patrons of the channel of which I’m a member.

Mid-ish March Musing

 After going out and about the previous week, Monday last week I went to the monthly meeting of West Country Embroiderers where the tutor, local embroiderer Angela Tigwell, did a workshop called Strips and Stripes. Using sari strips, which is a waste product of making silk saris the end product is to make a small drawstring bag with the strips and adding embroidery stitches.   Here is a picture of a couple of her samples

The one above was set in a frame, below is a blue bag and a tissue case.

It was a lovely time of slow stitching and chatting. Also learned about preparing the skein of strips (I bought mine last year from The Silk Route at one of the exhibitions. They are best taken apart (I cut the little knots joining the strips) washed and ironed while still slightly damp.  I did this the next day and they felt a lot better to handle. Anyway back to the class, and the strips started to come together on my background fabric. Here’s a picture of our collective pieces.  Mine is the third from bottom on the left.

I got back to working on this on Saturday morning and deciding that I would use my piece as a cover for my stitch book.  I’m nearing the end of that project (there will be a separate post later, probably next month). I did some machine stitching and added some sequins for a bit more bling before cutting to size. I have some ribbon yarn with metallic thread through with which I edged the top and bottom of my piece and have now got to the point of sewing the sides to the front and back of my book.

The result of washing and ironing the strips, here’s one I’ve done that too and the lovely colours really show well, so it was worth the effort. Look at the lovely red and green in the weave.

I’ve also finished the cat, but it’s wrapped up!  So no picture to show here so I’m hoping that my son will take a photo next week in time for the monthly Furtle.  I’m pleased to have that project finished and continue with knitting my cardigan.  On the second sleeve so not long to go now….

Also finished another dishcloth/washcloth.  This is called Biscotti, pattern from The Kitchen Sink Shop, whose newsletter I receive at the beginning of each month, along with a recipe to go with it.

A lovely twisted knit stitch to produce this cable, knitted in Paintbox yarn in a pale blue colour. It’s a nice yarn to work with and I may get some more in different colours.

And yesterday evening I went to my friend’s house to join others for Hotchpotch crafts and this time it was making Easter Baskets. Sorry a bit of a dull picture. I shall take better one to show at the end of the month.

I also made a purchase this month with a couple of books

The Crochet Garden by Chris Norrington, whose Instagram I’ve followed for a while now. Just gorgeous pictures, and a knitting book I’ve wanted for a while too on Gansey Knitting, which will be a good resource book too. Lots to delve into.

I’m looking forward to the clocks going forward and entering British Summer Time.  

No Events For Ages and Everything at Once.

 This week had two events after none for ages.  The first was West Country Embroiderers Dorset Day, which involves a gathering of members from the Dorset Groups, with traders, lunch and an afternoon speaker.  I’ve been to this annual event for a few years now and is usually an enjoyable day, meeting and catching up with people, but there is a feeling there may not be much more of them as some groups are getting smaller.  The afternoon speaker was Sandra Meech, who had problems getting to the venue due to snow in Somerset (there was no snow here in Poole, but it was very wet that day).  She is an art quilter who spoke about her process of creating her textile pieces. I took a couple of photos 

A quilt with printed sections

A textured example, looks like the the surf washing up on a stony, littered beach.

Having been fed lunch and the slideshow in a darkened room it was a struggle to stay awake, my brain tends to think it’s time to go to bed!! Although presentations are often made this way, I find it difficult to concentrate on the subject.  Anyway generally I enjoyed the day and hope that this annual event will continue.

I was out and about places on Thursday and Friday, but Saturday I went to New Milton, Hampshire, to join friends for the The Quilters’ Guild Region 3 day (I live in Dorset, so in Region 4) but New Milton is closer than a lot of events in the region. It is a similar day of traders, speakers, meeting people.  

The first speaker was Brian Taphouse, the founder of Lewis and Irene fabric brand, which is run by his family.   He has worked in the fabric industry for many years before Lewis and Irene and explained about how they source the fabrics and mill they use to print fabrics, and how going into the future are bringing in another couple of designers. 

The afternoon speaker was Joy Harber (née Salvage), who is a younger quilter (she’s 32) who discovered patchwork while doing a machine knitting module as part of her textile university course. Her quilts have really small log cabins. Here is a photo of her next to a quilt composed of blocks of small log cabins, pineapples and Court House Steps.

There were quilts we could ohh and ahh over due to the smallness of the blocks but unfortunately we were not able to have a good look after as I had to leave with my friend to get back to my car as the parking was about to expire!  That was really frustrating. Her talk started late in the afternoon as she had trouble getting to the venue. Other ladies from the Isle of Wight had to also leave part way through her talk.  She was staying in the area to run a workshop for members the next day.

There was a group of ladies who made some crazy quilted elephants 

This beautiful appliqué quilt was hanging in the corner of the hall

One of the ‘show and tell’ quilts were a quilt by the maker and her swap quilt.

And believe it or not, I’ve bought fabric at the two events.  11 Fat quarters! I’ve not bought that much fabric in ages!

That’s February Done!

 And March can only get better.  

I have solved the phone frustrations of my last post and got another SIM card with another supplier, and within a few minutes I had a fully working phone - yay! I did have to sacrifice my old phone number but that’s ok and I’ve informed all those who need to know.  But enough of that and on with my makes for this month.

As you can see from the photo above I have crochet a daffodil. I’ve finished this on the last day of February as 1st March is St.David’s day.  As I explained in my last post, this is one of a set of kits of mini flowers by Toft, which I could not resist buying as there was free postage one weekend.   I love daffodils and as soon as they are available I will buy a bunch of daffodils from the supermarket as they bring some cheer to the full winter days.  They are now in flower around the neighbourhood which is lovely to see and a sure sign spring is on the way.

I’ve also been crocheting a cat, pattern from Emma Varnam’s book Cute Crocheted Animals.  I finished the cat last weekend, and she has shoes, but I have to make her a dress. The pattern instructions are really clear and there’s plenty of variety of clothing for the animals. I had to get hold of 1 cm eyes and I found a local shop, which is a doll’s workshop and an Aladdin’s cave of all things dolls and toys, She will have one or two items of clothing as well.

Another finish this month is this my Fair Isle hat.  This was a yarn kit from Lucy Locketland called the Lombard Tam.  I’m quite pleased how this has turned out and I think I might do a bit more colourwork in the future.

Progress has been made on my cardigan which I had to rip back at the beginning of February .  I’ve now got as far the garter rib at the bottom of the cardigan, which is really good.  There will be sleeves to knit but I’m hoping it’ll be finished next month.  

I haven’t done much sewing this month, but felt the need to sew something postcard sized.  Having made  a Julia Gahagan kit last year, I took the idea to made this mini quilt inspired by snowdrops. I took scraps of blue fabrics for the background, appliqué white and green fabrics for the flower then free machined the other details and the word snowdrop. That took a lovely couple of hours.  Thinking of a daffodil one next….

At the West Country Embroiderers group we learned about Shibori dyeing.  Annabelle, the tutor, died the dyeing part but we were able to do the stitching in preparation. The photos below show my two pieces of fabric. Not sure what I’ll do with these pieces.

Another make this month has been a necklace at the TG craft group.  Having made this and pleased how it turned out, I think it will be a craft I won’t pursue as it was quite a strain on the eyes, especially with small rings and beads. 

This week I made an ATC for the monthly swap, the theme being childhood toys.  Having seen that Flo had a spinning top that inspired my to make this picture, I think I should have made more movement in this as I was trying to show to was spinning fast, so it hums.

It looks like I packed a lot in for February. Surprising as it was a short month.

For March I hope the cardigan will be finished and the cat will be fully clothed. I have another flower to crochet.  I also have a quilt as you go quilt to join together and sew up so that will keep me busy in March.

Meanwhile I’m joining Mini Archie’s March Furtle around the Blogosphere