That Was Easter

 It came and went, though bank holidays are not as special as they once were, when I used to work and looking forward to the long weekend.  David and I had a quiet weekend though we did have a trip to Southampton, where we’ve not been since before the start of Covid lockdown. It was good to the the buzz of a lively city centre, though the noise in West Quay shopping mall was terrifyingly loud it was good to have a mooch around the shops and even IKEA (no, didn’t spend anything there but did come away with a few ideas).

One of the shops we visited was the Lego shop.  I never had Lego as a child, but bought much for the children and grandchildren and was very tempted by a couple of small kits, so at the age of 67 I bought my first Lego! 

 

There’s a set of 4 daffodils, so now I can see daffodils all year round. Another was a heart shaped flower wreath.  I’m taking it slowly in making up both kits as I’ve made 3 of the 4 daffodils so far and working my way through decorating the wreath, but enjoying dipping in and adding more pieces.  It’s surprising how many kits are aimed at adults now.  Although there are expensive ones like models of iconic cars, there are more reasonably priced ones too. 

We’ve mainly been working on our own crafts David on the model railway in what was our garage and in my room finishing off some projects. One has been the quilt as you go quilt, which I finished on Friday.

Here it is, all finished and on the line, and I’m pleased how it’s turned out.  It took a while to get the design right and then re-arranging the blocks so to get the back looking ok and it’s not looking too bad.

The challenge though is getting the back strips caught down while sewing the front, that was frustrating and in the end I tack stitched by hand before machining, which worked ok,

A second quilt I’m working on is the ‘$tack and whack’ which has been in hibernation again, but I managed to get the binding on, slip-stitched down and taken the tacking out.  There are some threads to be tidied and trimmed but that’s nearly done, so I’m pleased about that.

My Christmas stocking is done and that’s worked out well. Not sure where that’s going to be stored until this Christmas. I’ve used Stylecraft DK leftovers from previous projects in Dandelion and Spruce, with cream colour being a different yarn (not sure what make).  Using some lace knitting, slip stitches, fair isle, twisted stitches along with braids at the top and before the toe it’s quite a good sampler of techniques. I did veer off the pattern a bit (see photo below), where I have the ‘brick’ pattern above and below the fair isle because I was at the wrong point in the pattern,  but rather than take that out I made that brick section shorter then added another short section underneath and it doesn’t look too bad.  As someone once said ‘it’s not a mistake, it’s a design opportunity’ .  The pattern is not for general sale as it was a Patron only pattern as a patron (subscriber) of the Bakery Bears video show. 

 My next knitting project now will be a cardigan for David, which I stated on last week.it’s in double knit so it will take a while,  but I aim to get this done in a couple of months (so takes me to beginning of June, hopefully in time for holiday).