October Out and About

 Last weekend on Saturday David and I visited Kingston Lacy near Wimborne to see the autumn colours.  There is a Japanese garden which has some lovely acer trees which turn into some gorgeous colours this time of year.

The next two photos are in the tea garden.

Going to the kitchen garden, it was lovely to see late summer flowers 

And harvested pumpkins in the greenhouse 

On display between the tea room and shop

On Sunday, an early start from Wimborne, I went with the Quarterjack Quilters on a coach trip to the Knit + Stitch show at Alexandra Palace in North London.  It’s quite a trek from Dorset (about 3 hours each way).  It has a variety of needlecraft suppliers, with workshops (I didn’t take part), demonstrations and exhibitions. 

I enjoyed the Anne Kelly’s exhibition.  The stitching on objects, like embroidering over and old quilt

Adding stitching details to a work box and cases

The Embroiderers Guild had an exhibition of the works of past embroiderers in their collection 

On the exterior walls of the gallery were artworks by current members of the Embroiderers Guild, on the theme of Land and Sea

I love the texture in the photo below

Near the entrance was the exhibition of winners from the Festival of Quilts, here are a few below.

An enjoyable if a shattering Sunday. I made some purchases including some Christmas presents.

It was lovely and sunny so I had time to enjoy it before heading home on the coach.

Beginning of October - Getting Very Autumnal 🍁🍂

 

I love the stitch pattern on my Lewes fingerless mitts that I used this as my monthly marker. 

I didn’t have any knitting to take with me to the local Knit and Natter group so I took some yarn from my stash to start to knit a pair of mittens for my granddaughter as the day went on I finished knitting one! 

The pattern is from Sirdar’s Bumper Book of Accessories, no. 2, with gloves, mitts, socks (2 needles and seamed!) and leg warmers. I’ve used the remains of some plain blue DK and Aurora from the last jumper that I knitted her. I’ll start the left mitten ready for this week’s K&N.

Another thing I’ve picked up recently has been the Yorkshire Blanket, which I decided had been hibernating for long enough!  This is a pattern from Ravelry by Emyleah Newbery of Meemamakes. I started the squares last autumn to use up some Stylecraft Special DK yarn from previous makes and ended up buying four balls more while away on holiday in Amble last year.  I had one half finished square, which I finished off (the red) and then started on another square (the green).

I’ve enjoyed the different techniques in this blanket, very textural which has taken me a little out of my crochet comfort zone.  

Let’s hope I can make some progress on this blanket.

End of September

 A month of finishes and almost finished.  

For the finishes - I finished of my ‘Crème Egg’ socks, so called because the yarn colours looked like the colours of the Crème Egg wrapper. Plain vanilla socks, didn’t need to be fancy. The yarn is by King Cole, a Zigzag colour that is no longer available.

I also started and finished a pair of fingerless gloves. I bought the pattern from The Southern Wool Show last month and it’s by The Wool Barn, called Lewes. It’s a great pattern for small amounts of yarn. (But lots of ends to sew in!).They’ve been washed and blocked so they’ll soon be ready to wear.  There might be more pairs of these.

A knitting nearly finished is my cardigan with just the front bands and sewing up the side and sleeve seams.  I hope to get this done before the end of the week.

A crochet finish this month are these two blankets. They’re lap sized versions of the Canalboat blanket design by Lucy of Attic 24.  She is changing websites so there are no patterns available currently.  These blankets hibernated before I got cracking on finishing the borders.

I have been busy sewing too as I’ve been working on some quilting squares to make into pouches.  Some have got as far as having the zips inserted and others are awaiting sew in. 

This is what they will eventually become. Ready for charity sales next month.

I made a vinyl pouch for my sister’s birthday, along with a little felted dog, similar in colour to one of her dogs. The felted dog was a small kit by Corinne Lapierre

And I also made a square bag for taking away with us as not so much is supplied at Premier Inns so we can take extra mugs, tea, coffee etc.  It is basically a bottle bag, the pattern from a book by Susan Briscoe.

As a change from the knitting and sewing I have made a card, a demonstration on a Zoom call.  This is a tower cards

I also made an ATC the subject being Hobbies.  I didn’t send it in time, so I’ve kept this.  David’s hobbies, volunteering on the local heritage railway and model railway making.

So that’s September.  For October I’m taking part in a Halloween themed knit along mystery gnome.  There are two options -pumpkin coloured Gnumpkin ( or the more witchy Gnettle). My needles and yarns are ready 

A busy week and a bit…

 Of finishing things and starting new projects. Since coming back from our few days away I’ve finishes off socks. These I call my Crème Egg socks as the colours in this old King Cole Zig Zag yarn look similar to a Crème Egg wrapper. I added heels and toes in Attic Spin Dye yarn in Plum.

I finished a vinyl fronted pouch (useful for medication) and also a little dog dangly. This was a kit from Corinne Lapierre, but it was small and fiddly so I was pleased to get these done ready for my sister’s birthday earlier in the week.

Another little finish was a bookmark from the Tabby and Tweed weaving kit that I bought at the Southern Wool Show two Sundays ago. Not the nearest of work, but I mastered the hem stitch at the beginning and end of the bookmark.  Quite an enjoyable project using scraps of yarn, nice to pick up and put down. There may be a few more.

Having had our stay away, we decided we would put a going away kit together, with mugs, drinking glasses and extra tea, coffee, tea towel ame any other bits and bobs. We were disappointed that there are only two glass mugs, so often washing them out.  Anyway to that end I decided to make a bag.  This is the bottle bag instructions from the Susan Briscoe book of 21 Sensational Patchwork  Bags. I made one some years ago for my late father, so this is only the second time I’ve made this.

I went a bit off with the instructions as I quilted the panels before joining instead of quilting the two layers and joining with a separate lining, but I worked around that.  

Another new project is a pair of fingerless gloves using a pattern I purchased from The Wool Shed at the Southern Wool Show.  It was the first item I bought so I had to make these. Using scraps of yarn I started on one then realised they were better worked concurrently so I started on a second one.  I’m quite enjoying this pattern so there may be more.

A project that was made and finished the same day was a book at Dorset Creative Embroiderers with tutors Karen and Sue. It seemed we needed lots of stuff, my bag was certainly heavy. I painted a picture and added free machine embroidery (using one tutor’s machine, I didn’t have my own with me). It was Bondawebbed onto a black background and signatures of pages were stitched into the cover. Being the rebel that I am I didn’t cut the picture to size but tore it instead! 

A fair bit of out and about going on too. A day on the bus from Poole to Swanage for lunch and back again. I didn’t take scenic photos.  On Friday I was taken out by a friend to Wimborne to see an exhibition of work by the late Tiggy Rawling, who loved India and her and her husband had many trips out there.  She was a very knowledgeable textile artist and teacher and her work is lovely and she will be much missed. More photos on the link above.

Some beautiful work. It was lovely to see.

So it was an action packed week and a bit.