All About the Finishes

This last week the weather has been a bit up and down so this gave me the opportunity to finish some quilting, knitting and crochet.  I have a thin curtain rod in my room so I can change around wall hangings and give some an airing.  My Dazzling Diamonds quilt is now displayed.

This is alongside a rainbow wallhanging which was in our bedroom but changed for another wallhanging and a small blue bargello quilt which was made for the Quilters' Guild conference back in 2003.

I also finished the blue crosses quilt which I bound last week

That will go to the local Project Linus very soon.

I also finished my toe up socks.  These are my second attempt at toe up socks.  The cast on is easy once I got the hang of it and I also had a go at short row heel turning, which does need some concentration. The only snag with these is that the socks are a bit tight when going over the instep as there are no extra stitches before doing the heel turn, which one would have when making top down socks.  Another thing to watch is the casting off which I did doing a k2p2 rib and adding a yarn over stitch and cast off after each second purl stitch in the rib.  As you can see I didn't match up the yarn repeat, but it now looks as though I have reversed it with the second sock!  Funny how that turned out!

 The first pic was a 'sockfie' as requested by my sister, which I put on Facebook!

I also finished off my Vintage Sweethearts crochet blanket on Saturday evening and shared this photo on Instagram on the (tag)saturdaynightcraftalong which is hosted by a few Instagrammers including Lucy from Charm About You.

 I did change the colour order of the last 4 rows of the border on this as I didn't like the grey suggested in the pattern.  I felt it needed something more defined so I went for the purple colour, which then brought about different colour choices for the rows before it!  The pattern is by Sandra of Cherry Heart which was a crochet a long on Crochet Now magazine.

Both the socks and the blanket will need a wash before using, but I'm pleased to get these two items done.  I'm halfway down the sleeve of the pink jumper so that is in progress, which is just as well as I have bought some yarn for a cardigan!  I'll show that in the next post, but first I've got to do a tension swatch.

I went to West Country Embroiderers on Monday and there was a workshop with quilter Rosemary Yeoman who demonstrated her seasonal wall hangings.  I took my small Janome machine as the Juki I normally use is too heavy.  In spite of the Janome being a simple mechanical machine with not many bells and whistles it is surprising what it can do.  I even attempted to put thick thread in the bobbin case to sew from the back so as the make the bobbin thread feature on the front, which did work for a while!

Here are two of Rosemary's panels (of which we were invited to take photos)

Here are the panels produced that day (mine is the far left, bottom row)

Yesterday was really rainy so what else was I to do but sew.  I got my panel finished!

I was able to add some fancy stitches on my home machine and having added the yellow piping and binding along with the green border it does look spring like as it didn't seem to say it earlier.

Links will be added later to this post.

March Musings

Into March and it seems that the weather has turned a bit colder and wetter, in contrast to the unseasonable warmth at the end of February.

Today we ventured out to the Oceanarium on Bournemouth Seafront, which for this month is offering half price admission for local people.  We saw various sea creatures and animals.

And yesterday while in the kitchen I saw this bird, which I think is a Sparrow Hawk, which sat on the fence for several minutes.  I didn't take much notice to begin with as usually some wood pigeons will perch there but realised it wasn't a pigeon because of it's stillness.  I should think it could be a female looking for food if its nesting nearby.

I managed to do some sewing yesterday afternoon and made this square in a square block for Siblings Together.  I liked how this block went together..

The dark blue that I used was from Janet Clare's Aubade fabric line and I like the selvedge that was cut off from it.

Hope you're having a good weekend.

Furtle Around February

Another month gone in a flash!  Its good to see Spring arriving as things are waking up in the garden - including the weeds.  So a spell of gardening in the unusually warm February sunshine does lift the senses and make me want to get on with everything.

February has been a productive month as I'm finishing of a quilt, just a hanging sleeve and a label to do on the Dazzling Diamonds Quilt

Last week I took the opportunity to get out some block swap blocks from last year and use fabrics that I already had in stash to make a small quilt that will go to Project Linus.  Machine quilting outside the cross shapes and inside the larger squares with some wiggly stitching in the sashing and border.  I took the quilt to Bourne Quilters last night to finish slip stitching the binding.  Now to sew in the ends, so that'll be a quick quilt done.

I also made the February blocks for the Siblings Together quilt bee group I belong too.  I'm usually quick to get started and post off, but I ran late with these and send in the post yesterday!  This is surprising for me as it's such a simple block but I did agonise over the arrangement of the squares - silly really.

With the crochet blanket I have managed to sew all the units together so I now have a blanket.  I have yet to do the border rows around it so this will be done in March.  This is the Vintage Sweethearts blanket which you can read about in my previous posts.

I've also been knitting too, which I usually do in the evenings while watching the tele.  My Winter Wine jumper has now got a sleeve, so its not totally armless!

Since that photo was taken the ribbing cuff has now been done, so my needles are free to pick up the stitches for the other sleeve and I'm pleased that's going well.

And some sock progress too as I'm now got to the point of shaping the heel.  I'm trying toe up socks again which this time is going well.  I've had an issue with trying to find the right point in the yarn at which to start the sock, but as there is a large repeat I decided to go with matching but not matching, if you see what I mean.  I only started the first sock last week so that I have some car knitting for last weekend.

Last weekend I visited Unravel at Farnham Maltings.  I took money with me but of course it doesn't go as far with yarn as it does buying fabric so my purchases were modest.  This was the first time at a yarn show as there aren't many in the South.

 I bought some self striping yarn (the one in the ribbon) some mini balls and the Giddy Aunt Yarns has some sparkle in it and I could not resist buying the Industrial Kingfisher colour of Stranded Dyeworks (which looks even lovelier than on screen).

I bought a cardigan pattern (another top down knit), stitch markers and tin, tension square and rings for Dorset Buttons and a drop spindle.

I took some pictures of other sites around the Maltings. Please excuse the last the photos being at a quirky angle!

So that was my Furtlings in February.  Linking up with Archie the Wonder Dog, have fun seeing what other bloggers have been up to!

Crochet, Knitting and a Chance of Quilting

Since my last post the Vintage Sweethearts Crochet blanket has progressed with all the units sewn in. I haven't, as yet, got onto the border, but here it is to date

Please forgive the darkness of the photo.  The light can still be a problem this time of year.  I'm pleased how this has turned out and hope the border will use a significant of yarn as I do have quite a bit left in the net bag.

Instagram can be a bad influence on me as I see things that others have a go at and this was a photo from The Crochet Sanctuary (@thecrochetsanctuary) who held a retreat where I saw some ladies winding giant balls of yarn which turned out to be a workshop for a rainbow blanket.  Here's the link
I had a go with using 4 balls of yarn as I had a smaller hook (1.2mm), which is the largest that I have, and wound yarn until one of the colours ran out.

I used a half treble (UK) stitch into the back loop of the previous row so it created a ridge pattern but as you can see my stitches are getting less in number so there is something I'm not doing right, but it was just to have a go.  I love the texture on the colourful effect of the mixed yarns.   The pattern is by Lottie and Albert.

Yesterday and today I've done some piecing and quilting.  Last year I took part in a block swap with UKQU block swap group and sewn some blue crosses on a low volume background.  I sent off 6 blocks and received 6 in return.  I blogged about this here .

I used the 6 received and 3 of my own blue cross blocks

I used whatever blue fabrics I had to sash and border the blocks.  I had some oddments of wadding which I pieced together.  I had just enough backing a white with coloured stars and used some blue/green/yellow batik for the binding which I've had for ages.  The photo above shows the quilt so far with thread ends to be sewn in and binding to be slipstitched down.  This will be a Linus Quilt, which I can add to a collection of 3 quilts from my Mum for Project Linus too.

I mentioned knitting in the title and there is some knitting content.  I've almost finished the body of my top down jumper and will be able to show that next time when I've finished the ribbing.  I haven't tried on yet, but fingers crossed it will fit!  However on Wednesday I started some socks...

I used Judy's Magic Cast on, (You Tube video) which is a brilliant cast on and because the yarn tail is inside the knitting, the marker on the bottom is to mark the front stitches.  The two blue markers are to mark the pattern repeats.

By Wednesday evening my sock looked like this.

Then yesterday evening I tackled (new to me) short row heel shaping.  This took some patience and I'd already done some un-knitting and re-knitted to get it right, but I got there!

 And it will be ready for some pattern knitting up the leg until I reach the cuff.

 The pattern is a free one on Ravelry by Mel-Tran Designs called Chevron socks and the yarn I'm using is Stylecraft Head Over Heels All Stars in the Saltaire colour way.  The heel is the sandy colour of Salts Mill in Yorkshire but I'm not sure where the pink and heathery mauve comes in.  I'm guessing that its not too far from the Dales and the designer picked up on the flora that grows in the area.

I'm off to Unravel yarn festival tomorrow.  Never been to a wool show before so could be interesting. This is held in Farnham and we also catch up with David's brother and also our friends too.  Should be a good weekend.  Hopefully I have some photos from the day and some yarn to show too.

Its All About the Crochet

Way back in June 2017 I started a Crochet A Long (CAL) published in Crochet Now magazine, which was designed by Sandra Paul of Cherry Heart Blog/podcast, which was called Vintage Sweethearts.  The crochet were a variety mainly V-stitch or Granny square in pale vintage-y colours.

I blogged about this here and duly ordered the pack of yarn from Wool Warehouse.  This was some Scheepjes acrylic yarn, which is a softer, bouncier yarn than the Stylecraft I'd usually use for a crochet blanket.  In my enthusiasm I made the blocks up whenever a new magazine came out until I got to part 9 and things must have wavered.  The crochet blocks were loose in individual plastic bags inside the Wool Warehouse net bag,

I dug the project out last Monday and set to with starting to join the blocks together and at the end of last week started to crochet the remainder of the Part 9 blocks and have just finished crocheting Part 10, ready to sew in ends and join together.  There are 12 parts, the last being the borders around the blanket.  I'm giving myself until the end of March to finish this, although I didn't add this to the Finish A Long list.

So here is my progress - up to Friday...

Part 9 blocks sewn together

Part 10 in progress (with 1 large block similar to the blue one above, yet to be made

I'm experiencing trouble with my photos at present so don't have much to show this time.  iCloud has decided that I'm running out of storage for photos and won't load any more when I do have plenty of of cloud storage.  Not sure what is happening, lets hope normal service is resumed shortly.

January Round Up

It's now February!

January seems to have lasted an age - being a cold, dark month - but there were one or two bright days and on Monday went with other TG ladies for a walk around our local country park, which was really lovely.  Contrast with today which is snowy and cold.  No snowy pics here as the its not very impressive (go back to posts at the end of 2010 to see more impressive snow when we lived up North!!).

Anyway because there's been more time indoors than out I've managed to get quite a bit done on the sewing and knitting.

I finished off this...

 Carry all caddy (more about that on my last post)

And this...

Dazzling Diamonds quilt.  That pic was when I'd put the binding on.  As I'm hibernating indoors today that's now been slipstitched down.  I will make a sleeve to put on the back for hanging.

So that's 2 finished items on my Finish A Long list.

Started and finished items...

 An EPP journal size quilt

And a Zip Up Tray pouch.

I've also made some blocks for the Siblings Together Bee - some Wonky Cross blocks in assorted sizes from 4.5" to 8.5"

On the knitting from I've made 3 pairs of fingerless mitts

 Above is my first attempt, knitting straight across the fingers.  This was a pattern by Nicolette Kernohan.  These were for David but he wanted 'half fingers' so another pair were made, see pic below.  Both pairs were made with the same yarn but photos are taken in different light.

I enjoyed making the gloves so I made a pair for myself.  That small ball of yarn is all I had left after making these. The pattern is by Paula McKeever and called Fingerless or Not Gloves.  Both the fingerless glove patterns are free to download from Ravelry

I've now started making myself a jumper.  It's been a long time since I made one and this one is a bit different as its a top down, all in one jumper

As you can see I've started from the neck and done some ribbing and well progressed with the raglan shaping.  Soon to do the scary bit of splitting off the stitches onto waste yarn for the sleeves while the body is knitted.  The yarn is Drops Air from the Wool Warehouse and the pattern is a free one from Drops which is called Winter Wine

I try to keep my Ravelry page updated, when I remember, but I keep forgetting! So you can have a look at my projects page here.

I follow other blogs on Bloglovin' including Archie The Wonder Dog, who not only has revived her blog but also started a monthly round up of blogs called Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere.  This is a bit like Fresh Sewing Day that Lily's Quilts used to run each month which I joined in with from time to time, which finished a few years back.  So I'm going to link this post to the Furtle Around and hope you will have a look at other blogs Furtle-ing Around too!

So that was January.  I'm hoping that February will be more progress on the above jumper.  Being February is Valentine's month I am hoping to layer up and start quilting the Hearts quilt which is on my Finish A Long list this quarter.

Mid month for the first time I will be going to a Fibre Festival - Unravel at Farnham Maltings.  I will be going on the Saturday and really looking forward to it as there aren't many yarn exhibitions in the South.