Sunday 19 February 2012

getting crafty with red and white gingham

Woke up to blue skies and sunshine and let's not forget the hard frost! So it was off to the allotment shop to stock up on supplies and then  to the allotment with dog and hubby in tow! Hubby to be the fixer of all things needed on the allotment that is not to do with the actual growing of green stuff and Missy to bark and whine at any cats she might see (even though she lives with three cats!) Me...I did some digging! Lovely though the day was it was perishing cold especially when the sun went down.
From growing stuff to putting it on the table, I have been looking for a round table cloth for ages now and eventually bought a red and white gingham one which ticked the boxes, but the new problem was none of my place mats suited it. Problem solved! I had some suitable fabric in my stash to make a couple of place mats. Managed to find a place mat to use as a template and then out with the scissors cuting out two pieces of gingham and  one piece out of some wadding.
I then  stitched all the pieces together with the wadding on top, leaving an opening at one end, then turned it inside out through the opening and closed the opening with some slip stitches.
Finally I marked out diagonal lines and using embroidery thread quilted all three layers with a running stitch....voila

Perfect for the table!


Tuesday 14 February 2012

decisions decisions!

I finally made my mind up as to what I am going to knit next. It will be the long line diamond and bobble jacket! I spent absolutely ages browsing the online shops looking at wool trying to make a decision, it was so hard, in the end I decided upon a wool that was 100% British and 100% wool in aran, then I had to decide on the colour, was it to be stone or was it to be pigeon? The problem with buying online is that the colours are not reproduced accurately which can be disappointing. I am that person waiting impatiently and excitedly for some wool to be delivered only to discover upon opening the parcel that the lovely pastel green I thought I had ordered was in fact a lime green colour not at all in keeping with project I had in mind, oh dear how disappointing! In the end I decided upon pigeon but emailed the retailer first to make sure it was what I call a soft grey and not a harsh steel grey. Hooray the postmen delivered my bounty today and I wasn't disappointed!
Can't wait to get started but first I have to finish some wristwarmers I am making out of some leftover wool.
This pair I made without a thumb and  knitted in double knit and I am just finishing another set, with thumbs, to my own design but in the same wool Sirdar Crofter DK


Friday 10 February 2012

Snow and Redwings

It's lovely to get up in the morning and look out the window and lo and behold there is crisp white snow, but that's where it ends for me! I get so excited when the snow is falling but absolutely hate it if I have to drive in settled snow. And of course this week the last snowfall has frozen and together with the black ice it makes for some pretty dangerous walking and driving. Having said that this weather does present some pretty photo opportunities and I dashed out with the camera and took some piccies of my garden.
                                               my back garden looking out on to fields
My mum has recently undergone a major operation and thankfully she was discharged this week so I have spent some time with her in Northamptonshire recuperating. One of the things she was really worried about was feeding the wild birds in her garden while she was in hospital.....to the rescue came my brother Ian, who whilst making sure the house was ok spent time stocking up the numerous bird feeders in Mum's garden. As the garden was so well stocked up with different types of food,Mum and I spotted a handsome bird we had not seen before feeding on the berries of a Malus Gorgeous tree, he was sorta like a Mistle thrush with a spotty breast but also had red feathers under his wings and white markings like eyebrows  around his eyes. We were excited and referring to hubby's trusty RSPB app identified it as a Redwing! Neither of us had seen one before, another box ticked!
I have been desperate to find something special to knit and have been scouring the internet for patterns and wool and I think I will knit either an aran cable throw or an aran diamond and bobble cable jacket, both patterns I have already in a couple of Sirdar pattern books. In the meantime I have loads of wool leftover from other projects and I am determined to make some use of it.Watch this space!

Friday 3 February 2012

bye bye Bun

My lovely little French rabbit, Bun went to Bunny heaven this week and needless to say there were lots of tears!
In fact it has been a rotten week but I am not going to bore you with the details. Tomorrow is another day and it will be the start of the weekend, hooray! I must admit I haven't been able to set my mind to doing much at all this week but I guess next week will be better!
I did make this bunting last week from some really pretty quilting fabric in 100% cotton. I made it double sided as I do with all my bunting and the tape is white bias binding.
I think this would look lovely in a baby's bedroom especially as the patterned fabric is designed for a baby. I think the two fabrics complement each other beautifully.