February Furtling

 Blimey, the end of February already.  I’ve only posted two posts this month, but I’ve not been idle. I’ve been busy with knitting and sewing this month, even digging out a UFO which may be finished the beginning of next month.  David and I have even managed a break away last weekend after Storm Eunice blew over.

I’ve knitted Flo not one, but two cardigans.  This blue one finished at the beginning of February, this was a combination of using an old Sirdar pattern, which a stitch pattern from a hat on the bottom of the cardigan.  She loved that cardigan and it fitted well. 

So I started on the next one, with rainbow yarn from Poundland which she chose herself. I bought another Sirdar pattern, with the parts being knitted individually and joined together at the yoke.  I finished that on Friday.  The colour changes worked out really well, and I found enough buttons in my stash.

In trying to clear unfinished objects (UFO’s) I got out a pair of socks, of which the second sock’s toe went wrong and the pair hibernates for a while. I think they were abandoned in November, which when I last posted about them. I finished these yesterday.

The pattern is Winwick Mum’s Easy Lace socks, but instead of an all over pattern, I used 2 sections down the side of the leg and one along the outside foot. 

I started knitting another small shawl.  I’ve had some yarn for 4 years now to make a shawl that didn’t work out, so I frogged that and started a Spindrift Shawl by Helen Stewart (a free pattern by signing up to her newsletter) as the first one I made is worn a lot.  Here’s the start

I’d taken this as travel knitting, so it’s grown a bit now,

Another hibernating project has been the black/orange quilt.  I originally started the quilt way back in 2018.  I’m not sure who will be the recipient of this but I really liked the thought of doing a teenage quilt.  It’s a 16 patch quilt and I quite simply wanted to machine stitch across the quilt with serpentine stitch.  I don’t know why it hibernated for so long, but last week I decided it had to be finished.  I made a border from the remnants of the fabrics used and I also used another fabric to prepare the binding.  So the pic below is how it was the week before last.

Today I’ve quilted the quilt at long last and will share as soon as it’s finished.  

Away from the knitting and sewing, I go out for walks on a daily basis and couldn’t help but notice the spring flowers popping up in my neighbourhood. The image below were from photos taken at the beginning of this month.

Even in the garden there are small daffodils, and in this pot hyacinth buds are getting fatter

David and I managed to get away for a couple of days to Gloucester, though the place he wanted to visit was closed.  We managed to see the cathedral, military and town museums, and the former church where Sunday Schools came into being,

The canal comes up from the River Severn and is quite a wide canal to bring goods up to Gloucester and although the warehouses are no longer used, it’s now turned into apartments, shops and restaurants now.  But one morning we came across a lifting bridge actually lifted. This looks almost like what would be seen on European canals,

There was some textile interest here at St Mary de Crypt as there was a collection of quilted wall hangings by a group of makers 

The church was the site of the first Sunday School and was run by Robert Raikes.  

So that’s it for February.  March will see a new cast on but continuing to try and finish those hibernating projects. 

Joining Mini Archie’s Furtle Around the Blogosphere.

Mid February Musing

 I was going to sort out my room, but I found a quilt top (which has been on previous years’ finish along lists) and decided it needed sorting.  

I already had the backing (the orange swirl fabric) but the quilt top needed a border, binding and wadding. I made up border strips of remaining black and orange/yellow fabrics from making the quilt top. Sunday was a rainy day and and ideal day to do that. I was able to get some wadding from my local quilt shop, Seahorse Quilting.

Yesterday I sandwiched the quilt together and tack it.

So after a few years hibernation it’s ready to be quilted next week.  

There’s also been progress on my granddaughter’s latest cardigan, joining the pieces to knit the yoke.

But not satisfied with getting this done, I’ve started a new knitting project.  I really like my Spindrift Shawl that I made a couple of years ago, so I thought I’d make another. This time I’m making it in yellow from yarn I bought back in 2018.  The Spindrift shawl is by Helen Stewart, of Curious Handmade, a free pattern by signing up to her newsletter.  The yarn is Crocus which was a hand dyed yarn by Lay Family Yarns as part of the Flower Power Fund fundraiser for Marie Curie charity. I only started this yesterday so it doesn’t look a lot. Apart from patterning at the beginning and end of the rows the rest of each row is stocking stitch and ideal for travel knitting as (hopefully) we’re away this weekend.

On my walks locally there have been signs that Spring is on the way

Crocuses and catkins.  Daffodils are starting to flower too but I’ve not been near to take photos.

The photo below was taken outside the local library

And finally on a trip to Salisbury I found a couple of postbox toppers.

February Finishes and Beginnings

 

The above marker is my Crazy Patchwork piece that I started at West Country Embroiderers and is still a work in progress and fun to dip in and out of.

It’s February and somehow for me it seems a time to sort stuff out.  Sorting out the airing cupboard and spare bedroom and tidying.  Three bags of things to take to the charity shop and one job done. I’ve got a folder with recipes collected over the years and they’ve been sorted too.  I have knitting/crochet patterns that are all over the place in my room, so this morning they were gathered up and sorted into categories and now put into two files.  Old patterns that I’m never going to make have been removed and gone into the recycling bin.  So what’s next?  I’m sure I will think of something.

Anyway, I have a finish 🎉. Flo’s blue cardigan is done and on Friday started another.

The pattern is an old Sirdar pattern and omitted the stitch pattern going up the fronts and instead put in a stitch pattern from a magazine hat pattern.

 Now I’m making another cardigan with yarn Flo chose in Poundland. She liked this rainbow yarn

This is another Sirdar pattern, which I bought from Wool Warehouse as a pdf pattern. In fact I bought 3 girls cardigan patterns as I also have Cecily to knit for too.  The hand thing about pdfs is that you can print one good pattern and write notes all over another print out.

I’ve also been sewing (Shock, horror) and made a couple of blocks for the Siblings Together Bee.  These are Pop Art blocks which is a pattern from Jo Avery’s book Patchwork and Quilting Basics, for which Jo had given the Block Mama permission to use.  There is a picture of the quilt on the cover of Jo’s book.  Anyway here’s mine. Fun to do and loved the bright colours and they are winging their way to the Mama.

Something that has gone by the wayside is my reading so I’m back onto my half hour read, putting the timer on my watch to read a chapter or two.  It’s good discipline for me.

The coming week will see me getting my haircut.  That’ll be another thing sorted.  You can see how my February is shaping up! 

January Furtling

The last of day of January, which seemed like a long month. Two weeks of this month not very well but over that now and ready to bring in a brighter February.

This month I finished two waistcoats, one of which was Luna sized and sewn, the other knitted.

Having watched the celebrity Sewing Bee programme just before New Year I realised I’d never sewn a waistcoat, so Luna’s was a good place to start and the pattern was from the original Luna Lapin book.

The second waistcoat is for me and knitted (though I’ve not worn it yet) is one made from chunky yarn

I’m back to making some Siblings Together blocks and made two this month, rainbow strip blocks

 What is really getting me going this month is some slow stitching.  I really enjoyed making the Sew 4 the Soul book from 2020, which I finished this time last year and thought of making another stitch book. before then at West Country Embroiderers there was a workshop on  Victorian Crazy Patchwork which I really enjoyed and since added bits onto. The piece below is 9.5” wide x 8”long. It was a joy to pick up as and when to tune into a You Tube or listen to a podcast and sew.

So my stitch book has 12” x 6” ‘pages’ of wadding, which is made up of scrap pieces sewn together and re-cut and i joined the signatures with blanket stitch. I’ve decided to theme the pages by colour and use some use other some elements, such as the themes of Roxy Creations Journal of Stitching for ideas. Let see how it goes. For this month and into February I’ve decided on pink.

I’ve also been enjoying some paper craft making ATC’s. Earlier this month the theme was Teatime and I made this custard cream biscuit card.  I started with a drawing and copied that to paint the biscuit in ochre paint. I’m pleased it looks almost edible! 

I received a card in return. When I make ATC’s I usually make 2 one to keep and one to send.

The card for February has been sent  for the swap and the theme is Winter.  I wasn’t inspired but found one of the Christmas cards has a winter scene so I copied that and added some sparkle and paper snowflakes and mounted onto blue painted card.  The original card design is by Lucy Grossmith for Museums and Galleries. 

One last quick make this month is a wash cloth of a dishcloth pattern from last year by The Kitchen Sink Shop, on Ravelry.  I subscribed to the mailing list to receive a monthly pattern.  This one is called Double Dutch, really quick to make I used King Cole Cottonsoft DK print. Far too pretty to be used in the kitchen!

So that’s it for January. Let's see what February brings.

Joining Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere, link here.

Mid January Musing

 I have a finish - the chunky waistcoat 

It was a King Cole pattern and being chunky it didn’t take me long to.  It only cost me £2.50 and it’s very warm.  Bargain!

I’ve picked up a blue cardigan for Flo from before Christmas.  I’d done the back and most of one front. The second front is under way. For some reason, I knitted the first size not second on the back so I've had to frog back and start that again.  It won't take me long to catch up though.

A new start, which I hope will progress through this year is a new stitch book.  Based on the Sew 4 The Soul book I made year before last.  I’d sewn wadding scraps together before 8 pages cutting to size.

I’ve still yet to decide what the pages will contain, but I have started stitching, albeit that it was joining the  centres of the pages to create a spine. But I was encouraged by working on Victorian style crazy patchwork and enjoying the slow stitching.  The piece I've made is a little to big for the book, but I can make another to fit.  Meanwhile I am enjoying adding stitching and other elements to the original piece.  Below are how it looked last week...

And how it looks today...

There are several reference for me to look at for inspiration and that is Pintangle by Sharon Boggon, who runs an annual Take a Stitch Tuesday and I've also found a book called Crazy Patchwork by Janet Haigh. Most things are from my stash apart from the rose print and the red velvet (below the purple strip), which was from the tutor's, Pat's, collection.

I've also sewn 2 blocks for this month's block mamma's request for the Siblings Together quilt bee.

Happy rainbow blocks.  Put in the post today. Nice easy bit of strip cutting and sewing.

Happy-ish New Year

 

This year for me has started as the old one finished, still full of cold and coughing well but now I’m getting better and taking it easy until next Monday when the normal pattern for the week/month starts.

First finish for this year has been an ATC for the TG Swap, the deadline comes up by the end of this week, The theme this month is Tea Time. I had thought of making a scone from fabric but that didn’t work out, so I came up with the idea of a custard cream biscuit instead. After a Google search with some images I came up with a couple of drawings and used the one on the lower part on the white card.  I scanned in the image to make 2 copies.

When I’ve been making the ATC’s I usually make two, one for reference and one to send.  I painted the image in ochre watercolour paint and shaded the edge lightly with ochre pencil. The pattern is highlighted by brown fineliner pen.  I mounted it onto pink card, which was the inside of the wedding anniversary card.  I've cut another small piece from this card as I that might come in useful too.

Having watched the Great British Seeing Bee just before New Year I decided to have a go at making a waistcoat, not an adult one, but a rabbit sized one!  The pattern is in the first Luna Lapin book and is for Luna’s brother Alfie, but as I don’t have Alfie, Luna has modelled it instead.

I made this from some blue denim, with blue patterned fabric lining. It only took the afternoon to make. It is a bit different to an adult one as the bottom seam remains not sewn to turn out the waistcoat.  In an adult waistcoat one of the lining seams is left not sewn.  So now I can say Ive made a waistcoat!  You never know I may make Luna a new outfit.

In my quiet time Ive taken to doing some knitting and I bought some yarn in a craft sale back in October.  It was 7 skeins of chunky yarn (long discontinued) and I wondered whether it would make a cardigan or not, so I picked a pattern that a friend passed onto me quite a while ago.  Having knitted the back and fronts I have found it won't. However this pattern is a waistcoat too (there seems to be a theme with this blog post...) so it will become that.  The pattern is King Cole 4716, which is cardigan/waistcoat with a cable edging. I have a feeling that 2 of the skeins were incomplete and also found that a sleeve would take more than the one and a half skeins left, so there was no way of extending the yarn further, but I am quite happy with how its turning out.

I'm very tempted to make the new free sock pattern by Winwick Mum, which is in mosaic colour work, which looks really effective.  I had a go a this technique before with a hat using plain lilac and a multicoloured yarns.  Lets get the waistcoat out of the way and get going with that.  I'll have to work out what I have in stash first.

Lucy of Attic 24 is doing another Crochet A Long, the Harbour Blanket, but I've resisted temptation for this one and sitting this out.  But the colours are soooo lovely and bright, especially given the gloom of this time of year.  But unless I have a home for another blanket, I won't make one.

So this has been my first week of the New Year so far, a bit of artwork, a bit of sewing, a bit of knitting and just easing myself back into the swing of things.  I hope you are too.