The bauble completed.

A quick post to show the completed Christmas bauble. The first photo shows the knitted base. The second, the filled bauble hanging from the shelf above my desk.

New work and other silliness.

I woke to a glorious morning today. A real lift to the spirits after all the rain we have been having lately. Sadly, it is just beginning to cloud over again - do not feel down-hearted since this will not dampen my spirits. Not after such an enchanting wake-up call.

The rest of the day will be rather silly, in that my dear husband is working on the plumbing and the water connection to the house has been switched off. No possiblility of housework using the wet stuff. Goody, goody, more time to play in between helping with the D.I.Y! (Do-It-Yourself) We are so fortunate in this household that my husband is extremely good at things D.I.Y. However, I do end up as the maker of cups of tea, general assistant, finder of missing items and first-aider. So if the post today seems a little disjointed, please forgive me.

The next few photos are of a Elizabeth Zimmermann project I started earlier this month. This star design comes from the August chapter of her book, the Knitter's Almanac. I decided to stick with the star shape and turn a number of these into a bauble, sewing these together with a few beads. Everything here has come from my stash, which is a good thing since I am fast running out of space in which to stash my various stashes.

This picture, showing the loop on the top of the bauble shows the true colour of the yellow acrylic yarn I have been using. Each star is 2 inches tall and the bauble is around 3 and a quarter inches tall (not including the loop, which adds an extra inch and a quarter).

Since the sides gape rather a lot, I have knitted three of these four-sided stars based on EZ's pattern for the five-sided star. The whole shape will then be filled by this enchanting stuff seen in the bag below. It came protecting a gift I received at Christmas. The bag I will keep to use again one day.

The next photo shows the pile of filling next to the partially completed bauble.

The delightful little snowflake is attached to one of the long lengths of filling. I shall use it in some way too.

The last picture shows one of the gorgeous flowers in my garden at the moment. I really wish I could share it's exotic scent with you.

New work!

Here are the felt pieces I made yesterday.

The blue/green ones will probably be used for fish pictures. Why fish? Well, I have this fascination with an image of two Koi carp.

The next photos are also to do with feltmaking. I mentioned yesterday that I was going to start making a bag with this pattern:

I've now got to the 90 row stage. There are now markers at each end of this row - probably to help with the construction later.

I think I'll have a go at making the flower, but perhaps add a button or large bead for the centre.

Making felt.

Well, its a wet day here. What better way to spend a morning than making felt?

I bought two 250g mixed colour packs of Merino 64s from Wingham Wool Work earlier this month. The colours above are from the green/blue range I ordered. Below are the colours from the yellow/orange pack.

There was also white and chestnut brown to add to the colours available to me. I haven't made any felt recently, so really enjoyed myself this morning. I made four pieces of felt, but will post the photos of these when they have dried out a little more. Two were on a blue/green theme and the other two used the browns, yellows, white and yellow colours.

On the UFO front, I completed my blanket. This is currently in my younger daughter's bedroom. She snuggled herself up in it watching a film last night and I haven't seen it since. It might have found it's new owner.

The work on the charity quilt for the Hospice is continuing slowly. I made the mistake of enjoying myself with the free-machine-embroidery. Never mind, theres not much left to complete before sorting out the binding.

Whilst all this has been going on, I have started a new piece of knitting. This is the Ribbed Top by Vladimir Teriokhin, from the Spring/Summer 2008 edition of Vogue Knitting.

Its a really interesting pattern to knit.

However, I'm badly tempted to start yet another project. This is to knit a little bag for felting.

This whole idea started because I'm planning to start a Craft Group at school next term. It would be such a nice project to aim for, for those who want to learn to knit. I bought some more colourways in this same yarn to try out too.

I only intend to make samples with these two. I just could not resist the little bag pattern when I saw it. Why pinky/purple? I just loved the colour as soon as I saw it.

Finishing off those UFOs

I've decided to work hard this week on completing things.

The knitted mystery blanket is continuing. In fact I have now completed the border and am steadily filling in those holes. I managed to get rid of the lacey centres I was not happy with - almost without incident. I did manage to drop rather a few stitches ripping out one - but then was able to repair the mess. A bit of a heart-stopping moment.

However, I find myself aided and abetted by a new visitor. Seb belongs to my younger daughter and he has been sharing my workroom for some days now. My dear daughter tells me he is too noisy to share her bedroom, so he is here with me. I seem to have taken over cleaning duties, since I cannot bear to have unpleasant smells around me. Hot iron - yes, smelly rat - no!

Seb's cage after he has rearranged it. He always does this after I have cleaned it for him. He has moved monkey, a small toy, into the box and made a nest.

In return for the daily tidying, Seb keeps me entertained - I keep hiding things in his cage for him to find. He entertains the cats too. Coco, however is unimpressed. She is disgusted - but then she's the effective hunter and sees rats a prey. Felix is fascinated - he seems to be convinced that the cage is a new cat TV!

In case you are wondering, Felix's idea of a good hunt is a visit to a nearby barbecue after everyone has left. He brought back a sausage from his last expedition. I didn't have the heart to remove it from him.

I only found out about this exploit because Felix was so proud of himself. I heard a series of loud cat shouts and went to investigate. I was so relieved that it was just Felix with his "find".

Needless to say, when the cats are around, Seb is confined to his cage. I refuse to deny the cats access to my workroom, since they are used to keeping me company when the mood takes them. However, the door is firmly shut when I am not in here - just in case................

The second UFO I am currently working on is for the local Hospice. This photo shows three of the four strips completed by other members of Hartford Quilters. The pieces of fabric top to the left of the picture were being auditioned for my own addition.

I have completed my section (extreme left) and now just need to sew all the pieces together and quilt it. Each of the strips above will be seperated by a stripe of plain cream. The backing is a cosy cream coloured piece of polyester fleece. I'm intending to use a form of quilt-as-you-go, stitching each piece to the backing fleece and not just to each other. I'll let you know how I get on. The whole piece doesn't need much in the way of quilting.

Only two UFOs? Well, to be honest, there are many more. I felt if I limited myself to just finishing two I might just be able to reward myself by starting something new.

Back again!

Well, its been an eventful few weeks here, hence the lack of posts.Finally, I am able to get back to the stitching once more.

My dear husband and I have been able to get a few days away in North Wales. A short, but very welcome break.









These first two photos are of the Clive Engine House which was standing next to the site where we were staying. We later found out that this interesting building had housed one of fifteen steam engines which were used to drain the Talargoch Mine which closed in 1884.



We were staying near to Dyserth which has a most beautiful waterfall. A delightful place for a walk. My own photos just could not do the area justice.



On one day, we went to visit Llandudno. It was beautifully sunny, but with such a very chilly wind! I took a number of photos of the textures and patterns in the metalwork on the pier.











The second photo was of a disused section. I just loved the colours of the rust on the white paintwork.







Another day, we went to visit Conwy. The photo here just shows some of the wonderful colours of the stonework in the castle. If you visit this next site there is a stunning aerial view of the castle and two famous bridges.

Conwy is a walled town and is really marvellous to walk around - lots of interesting buildings.







I found the rooflines particularly exciting.



Whilst here, we visited a rather wonderful tudor house called Plas Mawr. It has been beautifully renovated and its so interesting to learn about how the family used the house all those years ago. The building was completed in 1585.



Whilst in the area, we had a glorious few hours in Bodnant gardens. It is looked after by the National Trust.











We saw these pine cones growing on the largest Blue Pine I have ever seen. It is over a century old and would fill my tiny garden garden............

Such a wonderful place to visit - so peaceful and seemingly empty with just a few people walking around. An illusion since the gardens are well-loved and there were a lot of visitors that day, judging by the busy car park.



Ah well, back to earth again. We had a marvellous few days in Wales. Not a long drive from here, but so nice to get away from the phone..........







As you can see, work has been continuing on my blanket. I have just completed the third border and have still nine of the "holes" to fill. In trhe end I completed 35 squares and the whole blanket is roughly 42" by 52". I shall remeasure it when it has been blocked. I will not show the other side - it has so many ends to be sewn in!

Surfacing briefly

Its been a very busy few weeks, so my apologies for no new posts.

I've been a bit naughty - I managed to get rid of quite a few books recently................. but I have also added some new textile books to my collection and some CDs to my music collection. Ooops! In my defence, I ws taking advantage of a sale that Amazon were having and the local Library's Big Book Sale. Here are some of them.

This is the first of the books. It has this gorgeous dragon inside as well as a wealth of amazing textile pieces. You might not be able to read the title, since the cover is rather too shiny to photograph well - it is "The Shining Cloth - dress and adornment that glitters" by Victoria Z. Rivers. Published in 1999 by Thames and Hudson (ISBN 0-500-28374-5), I just love the fantastic illustrations.

The next one may seem an odd choice, but it contains some interesting information about how drapes and curtains were used in the past.

I do enjoy Library sales, you never what what gems will turn up.

These are some of the items I ordered from Amazon. At the time this photo was taken, two music CDs had not yet arrived. There was a DVD too - a collection of Jane Austen videos which I love watching when I have the chance. Pure self-indulgence.

The next few photos were taken recently in the garden. Today is a really windy day, best suited for staying inside and getting on with things. The day I took these it was sunny and everything looked gorgeous.

A climbing rose, I think it is called "Schoolgirl". Gently scented, its really pretty.

This is my favourite. A thornless climber, it is called Zephrin Drouhin (sorry about the spelling, not sure if that is correct.) The scent of this rose is unbelievably rich and wonderful. I wish I could record it and send it to you.

And now the Crown Imperials - these are tall and quite magnificent plants. I just love the colours of the flowers.

The same day I took the flowers, I managed to get some time knitting quietly in the garden, listening to the birds. As you can see the blanket has grown. I now have a further three squares to add. I shall run out of the cream colour soon, so at that stage I shall start adding a border.