Pay Attention Suzan!

 I have so many things on my mind at present that it needs clearing!  It’s so easy to commit to doing things and taking part in things that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. So I’m having to take stock. 

I missed the coffee morning for Project Linus this month as I didn’t have completed quilts to take because I ran out of time to get them done before holiday and only got back a few days ago. Since then one quilt has been completed and I hope to get a second one done in the next week or two.  The next meeting will be in September, so may be there might be a chance of a third quilt? Anyway here’s the completed one.

This is the Mr Men and Little Misses quilt for a small child which measures 34” x 40” in lovely cheerful colours. Happy, I’d say. It’s good to get this done.

Another finish that I’ve done is a small embroidery which has been several months in the making when I’ve been to embroidery group. Please excuse the creases.  It’ll need a good iron.

It was a workshop from earlier in the year called Moon Gazing Hare (not really looking at the moon but enjoying the flowers).  It was to be a needlecase, but for me a bit big, so it will house a small sketchbook, about A6 size. So that clears another work in progress.

I have got some outstanding things to finish off yarn-wise as I have 2 Canalside lap blankets to finish and the Yorkshire sampler blanket from last year to finish, but meanwhile something had caught my eye that I had to have a go at.  This is a ten stitch blanket, which is knitted, going round and round log-cabin style. There’s a pattern link here . I seemed to have gone down a mini rabbit hole since mastering the mitred blanket! 

There is some garment knitting too his mother to add to the mix as I’ve started a cardigan for myself in James C Brett Emotions yarn, that a bought a few months ago.  It’s wound into a loose ball that falls apart, so I’ve had to rewind the balls.  The yarn splits as well, so it’s not a lot of fun to work with although the colours look amazing.  I’m using a Stylecraft pattern for the stitch count.

As a patron, I’m following the Bakery Bears Summer of Stitching from which the mitred square blanket (I’m pleased a made a sample and not a full blanket!), the second part, which I’ve made this weekend. 

If anything could go wrong it did, but I got there in the end.  The instructions were well explained it was my impatience to get it done that held me back (more haste, less speed).  It will be the perfect size for the cardigan as it get bigger. 

Another bit of overwhelm is a mini quilt for my assigned partner on the Facebook quilt group.  I have an idea in mind and must draw up the design for approval by the team leader.  I wish I wasn’t committed to that but…. It is time I paid attention to myself.

It’s July

 

June went  very quickly and it’s the beginning of July and above is my monthly marker for this month.  I made this knitted mitre sampler as part of The Summer of Stitching by the Bakery Bears Patron project during June.  I’d not made a knitted mitre blanket before and this pattern was really neat and I enjoyed making it.

June saw me getting stitches of a different sort as just before going away and getting ahead of the washing when I tripped and fell as I was going back into the house. I caught my forehead on the sharp corner of the brickwork by the door frame cutting it open with a deep wound.  A visit by the paramedics followed by going to Accident and Emergency, then a long wait in the afternoon to be seen and receive 4 stitches. I had bruising to the forehead and around the chin, which fortunately went down after a week,

Then yesterday, while I’m away on holiday near Durham, I went to Peterlee Hospital’s Urgent Treatment Centre to have the stitches removed. I’m pleased how well the resulting scar is healing. This month I will be getting my eyes tested and some new glasses as the specs were a casualty. Although they have been repaired (hing was bent and the nose pad also bent out of shape). 

Anyway, what else have I been up to last month?  The Knit and Natter Group were asked to make baby hats for Bournemouth Hopital’s new maternity wing, so I contributed 2 hats.

I have been sewing before going away making quilt tops. One was one from my stash and the second is a Project Linus quilt kit.  They have been layered up and will be ready to quilt during July but it won’t be ready for the next Project Linus coffee morning this month.

I used what I had of Mr Men and Little Misses fabrics along with other fabrics to tone in with them. I didn’t want the seams to match, but somehow in the bottom row matches with thw row above. But they are cheerful fabrics,

The PL kit seemed to have my name on it, so I had to take it.  Again it’s layered and waiting to be quilted.

I made 2 ATC’s this month, one a bit late for this month and the second a bit early to get ahead! The first one was summer and it made me think of strawberries 🍓 . I used watercolours to paint the card.

For my July ATC the theme is red and I found a piece of fabric with a pattern that fitted the size of card. With a piece of felt underneath I embroidered with red thread and attached to red card with blanket stitch. I added a bit of sparkle with stick on gems.

So that was June, very brief.  I haven’t kept up with blog posts of late but I hope to catch-up next week,

It’s June

 And has been for the past week!  We went away on holiday last month and had a week of catching up since then.  I’ll do another post about the holiday next time.  Meanwhile I seem to be working on some ‘odds and sods’, using up bits and pieces.

I sometimes get small bundles of mini skeins from dyers when I’ve been to Yarndale or ordered.  I’ve wound them a while ago and keep them in a zipped pouch.  As a patron member of the Bakery Bears podcast I am following The Summer of Stitching which started this month.  There’s a knitting project and a sewing one to follow next month. There’s knitting project is a mitred square blanket, which comes in useful for the minis in making a mini sample.  It started with the purple square in the bottom right (there is a bulb pin in that square to remind me where I started). I don’t think I could make a big blanket in this method as much prefer to crochet, but a sample for the technique is useful as I’ve never made this before.

I like that the decreases go in different directions for a zigzag look. I have also tried a square in double knitting so maybe there’s a chance of using ‘odds and sods’ of DKyarn to make a blanket out of, who knows?

I’m also doing ‘odds and sods’ of embroidery projects.  At the monthly embroidery group there was a Catch Up Day this month and I finished off a Dorset Feather Stitch sample (on the left) to put in my sample book as well as the project last month called Faces so the face made was put into the sample book too (on the right). This was a project taught by Fay Maxwell.

There is also a needle case underway, which was entitled Moon Gazing Hare, even though there are spring flowers and not a moon in sight!! Still adding stitches but I’d like to get it out of the way. Excuse the hoop lines, it will all be ironed out after it’s finished.

I’ve taken to cutting out lots of squares, having been inspired by a a few pieces of Mr Men and Little Misses fabrics, which we part of one of those Hobbycraft fat quarters bundles from a few years ago. I had used some of the fabrics a couple of years ago in book bags for my youngest grand daughters. My thought is to offset each row so that I don’t have to match up the seams. This will become a Project Linus quilt. Starting to put the squares together it seems that the characters are creating their own mischief!

This year I’m taking part in UKQU Facebook group’s Mini Quilt Swap. I know who I’m swapping with so it’ll be a case of finding out clues before I start making.  There was a post asking about quilts made in previous swaps and these where what I received in 2015 from Mary Norman, who now runs a quilting shop in Bodmin called Patchwork Dreamer.

Another in 2017 from Helen Dickson, who very skilfully made a steam engine emerging from a railway tunnel.  I must have posted a lot of heritage railway photos that year! 

In 2017 I sent a quilt but it was the second attempt as it was the wrong size so I remade it and kept the original.

I’m hoping for some inspiration for this years swap and I know one set of colour choices matches mine so that’s a start.

End of May

It’s been quite a month to get things cleared before our holiday in the latter part of May (only came back on Tuesday).  There’s been knitting and sewing done and a bit more crochet progress too. Still keeping busy!!

Anyway, during April and into the beginning of May was the mystery Gnome knit along, Professor Fungi, by Sarah Schira of Imagined Landscapes. I’ve taken part in gnome knit alongs previously and really enjoyed making these, so much so that I’ve now succumbed to buying her book, The Gnomes of Grimblewood from World of Books.

There’s always some new techniques to learn from these little gnomes so they are a clever make.

I also knitted a pair of socks, the original Sockalong from Winwick Mum, who recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of this pattern. Finished but still not washed are these blue socks. A slightly crinkly appearance as I knitted them with previously knitted yarn.

I started on 4 and finished on 15 May and has to be the quickest pair of socks made!! The yarn is hand dyed but seconds so it has no name but contains speckles of purple, yellow, green. 

While away on holiday I took some small knitting with me, a pair of fingerless gloves for David in a West Yorkshire Spinners yarn made for Yarndale, which I bought last year.  It’s a pattern I’ve used a lot of times before, called Fingerless or Not.  I’m on the second glove but found an error with the first (which was not quite completed so no much to take back and rectify.

As for sewing I managed to finish off a cushion cover (the appliqué and border fabric was already on) with the quilting  and backing.

Took a quilt top and quilted and backed that for Project Linus. These were odd blocks in mainly blues and the fish themed backing fabric was just the right size.

And another. The blocks were made by my Mum and the green fabric was hers too. There was just enough of the backing fabric futon finish this off.

 

So that was May and I left the blog there.  It’s now 7 June as I post this and if my few readers here have been eagerly awaiting this my apologies!! 

Onwards to June

Sock in a Week?

 Not quite, just a bit longer.  These have been finished today.

I used the Winwick Mum Sockalong Basic Sock pattern.  The Sockalong had recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.  I had aimed to make a pair of socks in a week, but in the end it took 9 days, which is still not bad.  I also chose to take photos to record the making.

I started on 4 May. I find 2.5 mm needles as recommended too loose for me so I used 2.25mm needles and 64 stitch count. The main needle used is a short circular needle, which took a bit of getting used to after always using magic loop with a longer circular. Along with the short circular I also had some double pointed needles to take the extra stitches around the heel and instep. I used a long tail, thumb cast on method and as per instructions I knitted the first 2, 2x2 rib straight before joining in the round.  I found that worked really well with no twisted stitches. 

The yarn is some blue yarn that I purchased at Yarndale a few years ago and used this previously for a jumper and I was going for different blues to make a jumper with a ‘fade’ but I didn’t like it.  I didn’t wash the yarn after unraveling, which is why it looks crinkly.

After 16 rows of rib is was onto the stocking stitch leg. Below shows my progress the next day.

The day after I did the heel flap and turn and at that point I picked up stitches to do the gusset for the instep,

By Thursday 8th I had a finished sock! And the second sock on the needle.

Most of the leg on the second one was done by Friday

Saturday saw the sock getting to the gusset stage.  I didn’t take any photos on Sunday or Monday but this morning I took a photo about halfway along the foot and as you can see below the socks were finished this evening.

I enjoyed making these socks and it was useful to know how long it takes to knit basic socks. 

Professor Fungi

 Last month I took part in a Gnome mystery knit along but I couldn’t show until 9 May. So here is the gnome, Professor Fungi, complete with basket for collecting mushrooms.

Above is the header for the mystery gnome

And here is Professor Fungi

And here’s the Professor with the others in my small gnome family.  These were from previous mysteries. I enjoy learning new techniques to knit these characters.

The pattern is by Sarah Schira of Imagined Landscapes.  She has also released a book, so the gnome family may be getting bigger. I ordered the book yesterday from World of Books, with will arrive later this week.  

May

I chose a photo from Kingston Lacy’s Japanese Garden and the new bright green leaves of an acer against the bright blue sky.

 The first weekend of May is a bank Holiday weekend and some of this weekend has been spent sewing and another quilt had been finished. The quilt top has been made from squares made by my Mum.  From some of the fabrics that I have in my stash I was able to make the larger green blocks.  The dark green fabric was enough not only to make the border and also the binding. This quilt is 37” square.

I had enough of a multicoloured fabric to back the quilt

Last week I’d quilted a cushion top and today I went of to make the cushion back and attach to the cushion front, so that will go back to Bourne Quilters. The cushion cover was an appliqué project from before the pandemic but never made into anything and as cushion covers they will go to the housing association where the group meets.

I’ve started a new sock, this time on short circular needles.  I’ve had this yarn, which I bought at Yarndale about 4 years ago, had used in a jumper that frogged earlier this year.  It doesn’t have a name but it’s blue with pops of darker blue, yellow and purple and it looks pretty and delicate.

This is the state on Bank Holiday Monday evening (5 May) with the heel flap and turn done.

That day also saw another quilt top layered, quilted and with binding sewn on (though not slip stitched down).

I had just enough of the fishy backing fabric and I added a couple of fish themed appliqué pieces onto the top right and bottom left of the quilt.  This will be another quilt to go to Project Linus and another quilt soon to be completed.  

But it’s not all about the sewing and knitting.  It was a somewhat chilly Bank Holiday Monday morning that I went out to Poole Park and a little beyond for a walk (my bad knee suffered after, though) and spotted this lovely mermaid tail, which is a sculpture trail through places in Poole and Bournemouth. It’s not the first one I’ve seen and I may share on here any photos that I take in a future post.

I hope you had a good first weekend of May.