Better late than never

It has been a really busy few weeks since I last posted here on the block. I have completed two pairs of socks - this orange and browny-purple pair and another pair in shades of grey and white. There are two projects on my needles at present. The first is a knitting kit picked up in a charity shop.

Although it looks blue in this photo, the yarn is actually a rather silky off white with brown flecks. The kit only cost me £1 which is amazing. It is the Winter Jumper kit from Aldi which was available from the stores earlier this year. I must admit that this project has been stalled over the past few days since I found the most delicious silk and merino yarn from the Sheep on Mars  stand at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate. I bought three yarns and just had to start knitting with the first of these once I had completed my grey pair.

I have knitted this same pattern which was free with the XXL sock yarn I bought some years ago. It is a very simple design which is perfect to showcase these patterned yarns. This time I have used a ridged heel instead of using the stocking stitch heel from the pattern.

These are the other two yarns I bought. I really just couldn't walk away and leave one of them......

Also purchased at the show - some gorgeous lining fabrics. I fancy making a new jacket at some stage over the next few months.

My haul of needles and general bits and pieces from the show.

This was my collection from the Cone Exchange which had a stand. The fabric is furnishing weight and will be used for some cushion covers I need to make.

After the Show I went round some charity shops with my sisters. Silk fabric and silk tops along with more buttons and some books to read. The book at the back is about Heath Robinson. I just love his illustrations.

Whilst in Harrogate we were lucky enough to find a Vintage Fair in a rather beautiful Methodist Chapel. This was my haul. The magazine dates from 1952. I couldn't resist the vintage patterns and the cotton fabric inside the vintage paper bag was quite a find too. I think I will frame the bag rather than discard it. The cotton fabric is a rather useful cotton lawn. I don't think it was ever taken out of the bag. Just £4 for the lot. I picked up some leaflets about future events.

These two fabrics - the peony and crane design and the stripe are both jerseys. The floral design seems to be a ponte roma with a lovely sheen whilst the stripe definitely feels like cotton. I found these on a charity stall at one of the textile groups I attend. There is enough to make tops with both these fabrics.

The green jumper I mentioned last time is complete and now sits waiting in my wardrobe.

At the start of this post I mentioned that I have been busy. One of the groups I attend regularly is the Moulton Sewing Group. In December the group will have a stand at the Craft Fair in the village. I have been busy making items for the stand.

There have been mug rugs - shown above; pot holders; heat packs (microwaveable fabric bags holding pearl barley) and also a couple of cushion covers. The cushion covers and mug rugs are now complete and the last of the heat packs need some hand stitching to finish them off. I just have another six of the pot holders to complete and then three table runners that were added to my list last week......... I'd better get going since I only have until the 7th December to complete this lot. I do have other things which I should be sewing for other challenges, Secret Santa and so on. Why does everything need to be completed at around the same time?
Ah well, I am off to grab a cup of tea and then get an hour or two of sewing before the dogs demand their tea and an evening walk.

Completed items and work in progress

Completed aran waistcoat

This past week has been quite busy. I finished the waistcoat and have been wearing it around the house. Nice and cosy.I decided to start a second one. This pattern is another one I have had for some time. Since the 1990's, I think.

The next project - a shaped waistcoat

I am knitting this in a deep sage green green. The shaped bottom of the fronts is what attracts me most. The cable pattern is proving to be quite challenging. I have resorted to writing out each line of the pattern so that I don't get muddled.

Completed shirt

I managed to get both of my shirts finished too. Both have been worn and are very comfortable and nicely warm for the wet and windy weather we are currently experiencing. I now have five shirts to this same pattern. One of them is fitted whereas the rest are not. I like both versions of the pattern, but am especially grateful that I remembered to add the extra couple of inches to the length of both the sleeve pattern piece and also that for the body. This makes all the difference.

Another completed shirt

I haven't progressed any further with the quilt this week, working on other projects which I cannot show you at present.

Is it possible to have too many projects on the go at once?

Freshly printed fabrics - own dyed cottons.

Spent a very pleasant couple of hours or so yesterday printing these fabrics. I started out just getting some ready to add to a quilt I am putting together. As usual, didn't know when to stop. These are mostly commercial thermofax prints. The floral design is a lovely wooden block which I bought from Art Van Go.

Quilt pieces placed before stitching starts

The photo above shows the quilt I am currently working on - most of the fabrics shown above are from Tracy Fox, The plain black, red and cream are from Ikea. The funny little "aliens" are my own dyed fabrics cut out and ready to be bondawebbed in place. The working title for this one is "African Crosses". The shapes come from a workshop I went to back in 2010 with Magie Relph. She had brought some gorgeous Tuareg and Ethiopean crosses for us to sketch. Such a delightful day spent in good company. I intend to use some of the engraved detail as inspiration for the quilting.

Did I say that there were a number of projects on the go at once? I have also cut out three dressmaking projects. The first will be this pinafore dress.

Vintage pattern from 1983

Pinafore dress waiting to be assembled

The other two projects use the same pattern - Hotpatterns HP 1052 Classix Nouveau Great White Shirt. I last made this design here. Sadly, the pattern now seems to be out of print.

Another Hotpatterns shirt - this time using some Liberty-type fabric.

Yet another Hotpatterns shirt - using up some chambray.

I use the three shirts I have already made such a lot. Such a very useful, classic, shape. You can see my first two attempts here and here.

A ribbon weaving sample waiting to be made up into a pin cushion.

This is one of those UFOs which should have been finished ages ago. I need an extra pincushion too! All I need to do is to stitch around where I have already marked and stuff it. So silly not to have finished it already.

My current knitting project - a waistcoat.

Lastly, I have made a start on the cabled waistcoat I mentioned last time. I'm not altogether sure I have enough yarn, so I'm hoping #I have enough. If not, I may have to redo the back without the cables. We shall see. I am enjoying knitting cables for a change.

Season's Greetings!

Now where did December go? Its been rather hectic here - a number of concerts in a number of venues.

The first of these was a performance of "Zadoc the Priest" by Georg Handel and Vivaldi's "Gloria". Such wonderful music to sing. These were performed by the Hartford Choral Society on November 28th alongsideside instrumentalists from the Grange School, in the Grange Theatre. This was in aid of Action Aid and their work with African Aids/HIV sufferers.


This was then followed by a short concert performed by my class at the Old Friends Christmas Concert in the village. This is a group of the retired villagers who get toether each Tuesday afternoon. My class have been invited along to sing at their Christmas party for the past few years. The children love getting to meet the elderly at the party. Each year they are enchanted by being fussed over and chatted to. The Old Friends are such a wonderful audience and enjoy the singalong we do after the children have sung their songs. We share christmas carols and fun christmas songs like "Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer". As we walked along back to school afterwards, one little boy came up to me and said "I didn't think I'd like that. But it was fun wasn't it."


For two successive Saturdays, I joined the Vale Royal Recorder Players to perform in Tatton Hall as part of the Christmas Celebrations there. We performed a number of recorder arrangements of Christmas Carols both old and new. This is the Recorder group I regularly rehearse with. Such a lovely group, so friendl.y. We have a lot of fun together.


Then, last Saturday, the last of the concerts I have been involved with. It was the wedding of one of our past members. She left the Recorder group last year to move away for work. She returned to the church she used to belong to for her wedding. Such a lovely event to be a small part of.


Amidst all this, and teaching too, I managed to complete my aran cardigan.





You'll notice that I have forgotten the buttons on this one. I just did not fancy buttons and buttonholes. It will be interesting to see if I can live with a cardigan fastened by a brooch. The brooch is made up of three different buttons fastened together. I did not make this, but it is an idea I may copy myself at some stage.

A lovely time of year, even when the weather is not so good.


Season's Greetings to you all!

Good weather.

Its so frustrating that I can't share any photos of my surroundings. Sadly, my dear little camera had an accident during the week. It had been borrowed and fell on some hard tiles............ a rather sad accident.


So no new photos for a while.........


All this when the weather is so nice again. Truly Autumnal weather, chill mornings warming up later into glorious sunshine.



At present I am prevaricating. I should be getting on with the ironing. Not my favourite occupation.





I have started knitting again. A red aran cardigan. I had planned to design one of my own - something I have vague ideas of. However, I need this cardigan rather urgently. The design work can wait until I have more time. This yarn started out life as a different cardigan. Sadly, I just did not like the design when I started knitting it. The buttonholes just seemed huge, so I ripped it all back. This design has pockets and will far more practical. Just what I need.







The quilt I showed in last weeks Blog has now been collected in and will be given to St Lukes Hospice soon. It was nice to see all the quilts together. We had our photos taken with them.

At school, I have started a Craft Group. The projects we shall tackle include knitting, sewing, felt-making, card-making, and many others. Last week I started showing them how to knit and start French knitting and making woolly bobbles. (Like the one on the pink bobble hat shown.)

It was so nice that some wanted to take the French knitting away with them! One or two took the knitting needles off with them too. They have relatives who can help with teaching them to knit at home. Very excitingly, I have two boys in the group. One of them was delighted to take one of the home-made bobbles home with him. I do hope they enjoyed themselves as much as I did. For next week, I have bought some more French Knitting Bobbins. These are in the shape of little people. Such fun!

Knitting and cats.

Well, Liz has just taken possession of her new v-necked jumper. I finished it last week. This is the Dickinson Pullover.






Coco decided she just had to have her photo taken - she had watched me take photos of the jumper shown above. This pose is not just an invitation to tickle her tummy. She is seeking attention and admiration.






This is my new project. A rather nice fitted jacket design from Drops. It is knitted on circular needles, but not in the round. The knitting goes forward and back. A rather interesting project since I have not used circular needles in this way before. I couldn't resist the bright red.






This is another project. It was ongoing, but I ripped back the four squares I had already completed yesterday. I just wasn't happy with them. The three squares I have completed since restarting yesterday are far nicer. I rather like the curved pattern of holes I have accidentally made while increasing.






The ruler gives an idea of scale. This project is part of the Elizabeth's Year group. Its the April project from "The Knitter's Almanac" by Elizabeth Zimmermann. The original design asks for a much thicker yarn, but I decided to go for the double knitting weight instead. This will lead me to need an awful lot more squares to make it the same size as thhe project in the book. As you can see, I am using the remnants of yarn left over from Elizabeth's pullover shown at the top of this post.

An interesting day.

This morning I woke to a really fairytale sight. Snow had fallen overnight - only a light snowfall, but everywhere looked so pretty. The photos were taken at 7am, when the light was really lovely, almost pink.

Felix was not impressed. He doesn't like getting his paws wet.

The snow was not destined to last, after only a few hours it was gone.

This afternoon, we have sleet. Not quite so pleasant. Good weather for knitting and getting on with bits and pieces, though. Here is Liz's second jumper, the Dickinson Pullover. The front is now finished and I am well over half way up the first sleeve. Aggie is looking after it for me since pinning it up like this keeps it safely out of the cats' way. (I don't fancy pulling black fur from such a pale coloured aran pattern.)

My sewing machine is back and working beautifully once more. I went back to collect it yesterday.