May Musings

 I finished my latest knitting make Alex the Mouse last week and posted pictures on Instagram.  The mouse is a pattern from the Year of Techniques book by Arnall Culliford Knitwear .  I really enjoyed knitting the mouse,  but think I could have been braver with my colour choices, but he’s a mousy colour.

The body and head are knitted as one piece with the other parts being knitted separately and sewn on.  The fronts and backs of the ears are joined together with an I-cord cast off. The addition of button eyes completed the look.

Here he is with the other animals of the top of the unit in my room

The animals are a variety of sizes and Alex is a big as Luna rabbit and much bigger than the pink sock cat.  Also much bigger than the owl (in real life an owl would eaten a mouse!)

But I’ve had a knitting fail and about to ‘frog’ the hat that I’ve been working on. From the same book is a Lacy beanie hat knitted in the round and keeps slipping off the dpns and it’s been frustrating trying to make sure that all the stitches are there.The hat is here .   I’ve got as far as row 33, and it’s a shame to rip it back.

As for sewing, I’ve caught up with the latest Siblings Together blocks, a couple of quarter log cabin blocks.

I’ve also started a small hand sewing project, a small A4 size a Kawandi (or Kwandi) quilt.  It uses small pieces or fabric so I’ve raided the scrap box. There’s a blog post here

I started with a calico base and finger pressed a turning of about 1 cm.

Adding fabric scraps for the first round.  Fabric scraps are added from the outside towards the middle.  Let’s see where this goes.

The Kingfisher Quilt

 As I’ve just finished this quilt I though I’d dedicate a blog post about it.  Looking back at Instagram it seems that I started this in July 2018, so its been less than 3 years in the making (I have got ongoing projects that are older!). I had made a few projects with English Paper Piecing (EPP) and I’d seen this quilt on Tales of Cloth website.  It was a quilt along and as I’d recently retired I thought it would be a good project todo.  Rather than joining lots of hexagons together these were hexie’flowers’ on a diamond shaped background, the diamonds are then joined together. Here’s the link to the blog Stitched in Color  here.  The link to Tales of Cloth is here and there is a lot of inspiration for other EPP shapes. If you look on Instagram at the #kingfisherstitchalong you will see some lovely quilts made using this pattern.

I’ve used whatever I’ve had in stash wherever possible.  I bought a few low volume fabrics for the backgrounds as I went along too.  The border fabrics was purchased but the binding fabric was a half metre piece in my stash that juuusssttt about went around the finished quilt.

Here are some progress pictures 

The first few blocks

I had a lovely folder for my EPP blocks given to me from Marie at a retreat I went to back in October 2018. She’d included a hexie flower and that’s in the quilt and a few papers too, which came in useful.

The pictures are in the wrong order, but anyway this picture is of the blocks sewn together and the one above is showing the low volume hexies to create a contrast to the border.  The border needed a ‘something’ and a chance to make more hexies! I enjoyed the cutting out of the shapes and although I used a glue stick to turn the edges over they still needed to be hand sewn together and appliquéd onto background.  

Summer last year I had backing fabric (a rather pale yellow) and wadding to layer it up and baste (tack) it together but hadn’t any idea how I was going to quilt it.  It did hibernate until lockdown this year.  It had been on my Finish A Long lists for 2019, 2020 and this year.  With not going out anywhere it was a good chance to get stuck in and get it done! 

I decided to hand quilt using fine perle thread.  I have several skeins of thread, some solid coloured and some variegated and chose colours close to the theme of each hexi flower.  The narrow cream border was also stand stitched and the edge triangles too in a plain cream.  The low volume hexies were quilted around with a dusky lilac colour thread, which toned in well with the grey border fabric.  

So all that was left was the binding.  I did cut that at 2.25” wide and got just enough from a half metre of a grey mottled fabric that I had in stash.  That was machine sewn and I slips stitched that on Monday. All that remained was to take photos and a label (that’s still not done, but it will be).  

Above I’ve hung it on the washing line to photograph and it’s now on the bed! 

There are 322 coloured hexies and 128 low volume ones, so 450 in total. 

It’s 61” wide x 59” long.

Now to catch up with other UFO’s!

Start of May

 

The first week of May has bought about a finish (yay!) and some going out and about, in spite of the cold and sometimes rainy weather.

First off is Sarah's cardigan.  It is a long cardigan in aran weight yarn which was started back in February. I'm pleased it didn't get to the hibernation stage as the collar didn't go quite right to begin with (changed to half size larger needles to make it 'drape' better. Then there was the button/buttonhole bands, for which I had to use 2 circular needles to get all the stitches on.  But it is done, washed and being blocked and there is a whole ball of yarn left to make something to go with it. So that's a tick off my Finish A Long list.

Talking of lists, one of the many email newsletters I receive is from Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade. 

I signed up last year and made the Spindrift Shawl which is a free pattern.  Anyway she has a list of 20 things to make in 2021 - #knit20for2021, for knitting different items or techniques.  I decided to list my own knitting projects so far this year and I've listed 10! 

Gosh, I didn't know I'd knitted so much!!  I must keep up with this on a personal level, not to join in with on the Revelry group.  It's definitely taken over from the sewing and quilting as I've not used the sewing machine at all this week and the Kingfisher quilt's hand quilting is going at a plodding pace.

As for out and about this week I met with Sarah at Dorchester market, which is an open air market held every Wednesday, which is lovely to have a wander round.  On Thursday heading in the other direction to near Alresford near Winchester, David and I went to Hinton Ampner to meet with his brother and wife.  Managing to dodge showers it was a chilly day but made the most of having a picnic lunch, a good walk 

followed by tea and cake.  On our walk we were entertained by some lambs (two sets of twins, it looked like) jumping on and off the trunk of a fallen tree and we having a lovely time until mum of one set of twins called out to them.

Earlier a robin wanted a share of our lunch

And we saw a scarecrow family among the tulips.

Have a good week and hope the weather improves 

An April Furtle

 Another whole month gone and where to??  It’ll be 1st May tomorrow so I think it’s a time to round up what I’ve been up to this month.  

I’ve been knitting (and still am) and finished a cardigan for Cecily and another pair of socks.  Not quite finished Sarah’s cardigan as the sewing up has been a problem, but I will get it done.

I loved this Sirdar pattern with the Stylecraft yarn.  Mustard seems to be a popular colour at the moment and this shade, Mellow Yellow, was really lovely.

I made these toe up socks from The Knitter magazine, which, once I got the hang of the pattern was really lovely to work on.  I wrote about this in my last post but I learnt about using short row shaping to create the toes which I’d not done before.  Another new skill to add to my knitting ‘tool kit’.

I’m on another knitting project from A Year of Techniques book and making Alex the Mouse.  This involves another new to me technique called Pinhole Cast on, which is used for the nose and legs. With some colourwork.  This is how far I’ve got. 

The main part, head and body took 3 days and then I’ve been working on the plain parts like ear backs, an i-cord tail, and an arm, the ear fronts have colourwork and the legs.  A second arm is in progress (no, he’s not going to be a one armed mouse!). There are projects on Ravelry  to see.  It’s another small project to extend my knitting skills in between making larger items.

Another little item that I’ve made is this little mandala mat, which I gave to a friend of mine as a belated birthday present. I love this pattern (by Sew Happy Creative and have fun choosing the colours for each round as I go.  It’s made in Rico cotton.

As for sewing I knocked one quilt off Quarter 2 of the 2021 Finish a Long. I bought fleece backing from Seahorse Quilting and used a wavy stitch to quilt.  I found this orangey-yellow fabric in my stash to make the binding. Yay for finishes.

Some blocks for April’s Siblings Together bee were made and I loved playing with the arrangements for the photos.

And this month saw the decoration of the dining room.  Well, while in lockdown thought we might as well use the time to get that done as the room hasn’t been decorated for about 12/13 years we think.

I was at last able to get a haircut.  I don’t like going to the hairdressers so nothing fancy, just a wet cut.  My hair is so fine it dries quickly so it doesn’t take long.  But I feel much better for it. 

Last but not least.  Since I retired 3 years ago, I started to go to a Knit and Natter group at the cafe in the locality where I live. One of the ladies there, I knew from the quilt group, so I’d known her, but not closely, for a number of years.  She’d began to show signs of dementia but kept going, and knitting little teddies for local RNLI charity because she knew the pattern so well.  She died a few weeks ago so I knitted a teddy in her memory as that’s how I remember her.

After such sad news, we learned another knit and natter lady became a granny for the first time!

So April has been an eventful month, to say the least.  Here’s looking forward to May. Joining in Mini Archies Furtle Around the Blogosphere.

Revised List, Finishes and Acquisitions

 Before the 8th April, I had to list outstanding items on my Finish A Long list and I also updated the list on my sidebar for the next quarter, though not much has changed apart from the completed Sew 4 The Soul book and the purple cardigan.  There has been recent action on the Kingfisher Quilt (see the March Furtle post) with just 11 of the border hexagon clusters left to quilt around.  I had found in my stash a half metre piece of a neutral fabric which is just enough for binding,  so it’s looking as though the end is nearly in sight.

Another quilt on the list is the Scrapbusting 2 quilt. This will have a fleece backing, so it won’t be a ‘proper’ quilt.  I bought the fleece this afternoon from Seahorse Quilting as non essential shops have been open for just over a week.

I’m working on Sarah’s cardigan and last night picked up stitches on one front.  Counting up I required 232 stitches and used 2 circular needles to do this.  I did 233 stitches - 1 stitch extra - which I though was not bad, so I’ve managed to lose that stitch. The top circular is a bit old and is very curly, but using two needles was the easiest way to spread the stitches.  This is the right front that I’m working on here so there are buttonholes on the top patterned bit. So that’ll be the more complicated band out of the way.

I have a couple of knitting finishes. Cecily’s cardigan was finished last week as I was at last able to get some buttons.  I was pleased how that turned out and really loved the colour.  This is a Sirdar pattern and the yarn used is Stylecraft Bambino in Mellow Yellow.

A second finish was my Alder socks.  The pattern was in the Knitter, issue 161, and designed by Helen Kurtz.  There is the addition of beads at the top of the socks, but decided to leave those out.  They are knitted in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature yarn in Foxglove (patterned) and Honeysuckle (plain) for heels, toes and cuffs. It is a toe up sock with short row toes.  

As for the acquisitions I treated myself to more West Yorkshire Spinners yarn specially made for Yarndale as I loved the colours of the Barbara (left) and added the Hope yarn (right) to my order. The project pouch has Barbara sheep on it. Not sure what I’m going to make with these yarns yet.  Watch this space....

As the non essential shops are open I went to Wimborne on Saturday afternoon and it was nice to have a mooch in the shops, even though you’re very aware of having wear a mask, sanitise hands and keep distance as much as possible, doesn’t make the experience as pleasurable but it’s a start.  I bought myself a couple of tops in Seasalt including this lovely shirt with paint tubes! Haven’t bought new clothes in a while.

I’m now looking forward to next week and a good haircut - not usually something I look forward too, but after lockdown is definitely needed! 

April Musings

 

I used this picture of some of the blocks I made last month.  I loved these colours so it seemed a good image to use.

The beginning of April saw us decorating the dining room, which is the last room in the house to be decorated since our return from Yorkshire over 10 years ago.  I reckoned it had last been decorated about 13 years ago so the previous wallpaper has lasted well.  We saw a wallpaper we liked at B&Q but when David went to buy it was out of stock, so we bought a similar design at Homebase instead. The old wallpaper was stripped on Friday, and new wallpaper on Sunday. 

We’re just putting everything back together as the books from bookshelves were still scattered around the living room, to be sorted before being put back on the shelves. Pictures have now been put on the walls, but less cluttered than before.

Here are a few of the flowering plants in the garden and it was good to see signs of spring.

Some plants are growing in the greenhouse - sweet peas, tomatoes, pelargoniums grown on from last year. The temperatures go from cold to normal so not reliable enough to put any plants out.

The non essential shops start opening from 12 April (next Monday) for the first time since before Christmas.  It’ll be good to see different shops from the supermarkets.  I’m also looking forward to having my haircut towards the end of the month.

A March Furtle

 With the clocks going forward from last Sunday and being able to see people outdoors from Monday, by today I’m feeling a bit tired having been out and about.  After these weeks of lockdown I’m not used to it! But it has been great to catch up with some family and friends.  I think it was a shock to my car being used everyday this week after some weeks when it’s hardly turned a wheel!!

This month has seen a lot of progress on a quilt that’s been hibernating for long enough (it has been on my Finish A Long list for at least 2 years). This is the Kingfisher Quilt, a design by Jodi of Tales of Cloth , hexie ‘flowers’ on low volume diamond shapes.

I’ve now hand quilted around the 'flowers' and quilting around the borders is in progress.  Just by doing the quilting bit by bit I’ve pleased with the progress I’ve made with this but I’m not quite sure what I’m going to use for binding.  More than likely I won’t be able to get the grey fabric on the border and there isn't any in my stash, so while I’m quilting I’ll have to think of how I’ll deal with that.  There may be some auditioning of fabric or maybe an online purchase if I see the right fabric. No hurry (yet).

I haven’t don’t much other stitching apart from making blocks for Siblings Together, which I wrote about here. I like making blocks, it’s the best bit of making quilts for me.

Knitting is still going ok with Sarah’s cardigan as I’ve joined the front to the back at the shoulders to make the ribbed collar, which is quite deep and took a good few days to do and I wasn’t sure it was draping well.  However looking at the pattern part of the front bands have stitches picked up on the collar so it may pull the ribbing out, so a little think to see if that works..

In between working on that I’m also making a cardigan for my youngest granddaughter, Cecily.  Her Mum wanted this in mustard, and I bought some Stylecraft Bambino in Mellow Yellow.  I've already knitted the back, fronts and today (1st April) I finished a sleeve during the knit and natter Zoom meeting.

The pattern is Sirdar 4493, which goes in sizes from newborn up to 7 years. which has a shorter cardigan (which I'm making here) or a longer 'coatigan'.  Its a good pattern with a fair bit of detail and the yarn is lovely to knit with.  The garter rows at the beginning of the pieces curl up a bit but I hope a little steam blocking might help uncurling.

Not content with these two knitting projects, I made a start on some socks.  These are toe up socks but using a provisional cast on, which I’ve not done before and wondered how that worked, but followed the instructions and it went quite well on the first sock that I started.  This is a pattern from The Knitter by Helen Kurtz and yarn I've used is West Yorkshire Spinners in Honeysuckle and Foxglove.  The second picture below is an photo from the magazine

I’ve still got plenty to keep me busy!

Joining in this month with Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere.