Sunday, January 10, 2010

Keeping Warm.






My experts in the field of keeping warm were not willing to comment, so I left them cuddling up to their quilts. Needless to say neither Coco (top), or Felix have been very impressed by the weather outside this week. Visits to the outside world have been very brief and they have demanded cuddles to get warm again once back inside!


This is the view from my bedroom window.

As I write this, Felix is snoring on the chair I use for working on my sewing machine. Coco is snuggly asleep on my bed.

The next photos show things I am, or shall be working on in the next few weeks. The first is a part-made quilt top which I started some time ago. It started out as an autumn quilt, but didn't continue beyond this size (20 inches square). I rather fancy making this up as a large lap quilt with a fleece backing.

The next fabrics are those I shall be using for a quilt for my mum. She asked for a quilt to cover her leather chair. This will have a fleece backing and will be around 72 inches square when finished.


The floral fabric at the bottom of the photograph is the upholstery fabric covering the main chairs in mum's livingroom. This is my next big quilt project.



The next item which really just needs to be assembled is the lining for this cotton fabric shopping bag. The bag does not have a lining and is rather floppy. I shall be using some heavy-duty interfacing between the lining and the bag to make the bag stand up. This will make it more useful to me when I take it shopping.



I have been busily working on finishing this little project over the past couple of days. This is a little needle case kit which I was given by some friends when I left my teaching post in the summer. I shall use it to house my collection of needles. These are in a tin which does not close properly at the moment. I was prompted into starting this when my needle tin fell onto the workroom floor............ You can imagine the resulting mess. The tin is quite a large one. It used to hold my sketching pencils.

This is the second of two hats I have made this week. This one is double sided, so I can wear it in a number of different ways. The design is "Very Warm Hat" by Elizabeth Zimmermann from her book "Knitting Around." It certainly is cosy and warm to wear.

The green yarn was already in my stash, left over from a lovely thick aran jacket I knitted some years ago and still often wear. I bought the cream aran weight yarn as a contrast.

My latest knitted project is the delightful sock design Widdershins by Brooke Chenoweth Creel.
I have been using the bamboo yarn, Happy by Wendy in the colourway Pisces.

This is the gentle cabled design on the top of the foot.


The bottom of the foot looks like this. I just love this self-striping yarn. It is so pretty.
The design knits up really quickly too. I started the first of these socks yesterday evening and its already just over four inches in length. Perhaps I shall be able to finish them both before the weather improves.

6 comments:

Margaret said...

Your title should be 'Keeping Warm and Busy' since you are working on so much. Even if you do have to deal with cold and snow, at least it looks lovely out your window. We lost our snow soon after Christmas and now it is just cold. Fish pond ice is at least and inch thick! All your projects look like find and I love the socks - how is the bamboo yarn?

Mandy said...

I take your point, Margaret. It should be busy in the title too.
Now, the bamboo yarn. It is really softand nice to handle. The only disadvantage I have found is that it tends to split. Not too much of a problem, but irritating if you have to rip back a section........
Bamboo is not as warm to wear as wool, but still cosy. They will also be nice to wear inside my walking boots in the summer. I made a pair of these last year. That pair doesn't seem to have stretched or done anything silly despite being washed a few times.

Unknown said...

HI Mandy,
Thanks for visiting my blog and your kind workds regarding my hat. I love your blog, I have copied one of your photos for inspiration for a 15cm x 15 cm piece I have to do. I thought the cobweb photo was so lovely. Your house looks like a picture. Hope you are surviving the big chill OK. We have been melting here in South Australia. Better today though.

Mandy said...

Thanks for adding your name to list list of followers.
I do hope that the photo helps with your new piece. It was good of you to let me know you would be using it. Could you let me know about the finished piece? I really look forward to seeing it.

Anonymous said...

I love the hat! Definitely going to make one of those myself.

Mandy said...

Thanks so much. It really does keep my ears warm. Certainly useful when going for a walk!