A day of plenty

Hello there,

Firstly, thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post.  In the (too long) break from blogging, I pretty much stopped taking photos at all, but in coming back to the fold I realise just how much I enjoy it, and how important a part of blogging it is for me.  Taking photographs makes me really see things and I love it.

Secondly, welcome, welcome to my new followers.  It's lovely to have you here.

So, today, I have lots more photos of a market.  Because finally, I have uploaded my images of the vintage market I went to recently in Woodbridge.  Oh, my!  You know there are some days when you visit a flea market or vintage fair, when you traipse around scanning ahead from stall to stall and reach the end and wish you hadn't bothered?  Well, this was the exact opposite of all that.
  

It fell on a crisp clear day a couple of weeks ago and wandering around felt like being in the South of France.  Yes, really.

And even as I look through these photos, I see all sorts of things that I somehow missed ,and want to go back to.  But before you feel too sorry for the opportunity lost, let me show you what I DID buy....

I started slowly with this sweet little dish, made of Welsh pottery.  Love the flowers.  Love the dots.  Love everything about it really.  (And it didn't cost a lot.)

Then I spied these two lurking in the shadows.  No House by the Sea should be without them.

Then I happened upon a stall selling tiles made locally in the 1950s in my favourite colour of the moment.  (Can't seem to get enough of mustard...). 

By this point I was giving myself a stern talking to about the Age of Austerity ruling in the House of NKK etc, but the woman in the bird's nest hat simply smiled.

And that was my final purchase.  Final final.  Until I saw this.

Really, I shouldn't be let out.  Clearly, I cannot be trusted.  But in my defence, I defy any of you to have walked away without this beautiful blanket.  I know I should just have gone home and whipped one up myself.  But we all know how long that's going to take...  And this is made of pure wool.  And in such lovely colours.  And I couldn't buy more than a few of balls of yarn for the price I paid for it.  So really, it absolutely had to come home with me.  Don't you think?

So, now I need some advice, please.  As you can see, it's a little too small for our stupidly big bed (for which, I have Mr. P to thank).  And I am wondering about the best way to add to it.  I know I could just add to the border.  Or I could make granny squares in a single colour (probably either red or navy to tie the room together (in a non matchy match way, hopefully) and sew these in a sort of mega border around the outside, expanding the blanket by a granny square width all around, which I think might do the trick.  

What do you think?

C.x

PS the lovely Rebecca from Posh Yarn was there and I chatted briefly but then ran away in a fit of shyness (more of that another day).  Sorry.

More blue than blue...

Thanks so much for all your lovely comments on my bag.  I still haven't quite got over the fact that I made it, and have it hanging by my bed so that I can see it when I wake up in the mornings.  (I used to do that with shiny new shoes when I was a kid...)  And welcome welcome to those who have visited noknittedknickers for the first time in recent days.  Lovely to have you here.

So, after the excitement of the bag creation, I thought I'd update you on progress with my granny squares.  (Spurred on by my fab new hook roll, I had a go at ripple at the weekend, but made the foundation stitch too short to be much of anything, so will not be blogging/bragging about that just now...)

I couldn't figure out why I wasn't as enthusiastic about the granny square business as I might be.  I thought it was because the inner circle is still a bit of a struggle, and I've had to rip each centre out and start again several times before it feels right.  (I really need to sit down and watch the videos again.)  But then I worked 6 centres one after another a couple of weekends ago until I got the hang of it, so I knew that wasn't really it.  In truth, I was having doubts about my colour choice.  Somehow, it looked a bit, well, lacklustre to me.  I was wondering about adding the odd splash of red or pink to liven it up - sooner or later red or pink creeps into pretty much every colour scheme in my house.... But then on Saturday, I spied this bright light blue yarn  (centre right)...

... among the more sedate blues and greys in the yarn shop and I knew I'd found the solution.  All that was needed was a pop of colour to set off the more reserved palate.  Before I knew it I'd finished off the 6 centres and finished my first ever ball of white (see it looking a bit lost and forlorn in the top left of the picture?

So, now I'm back to feeling enthusiastic about it all.  Doesn't it look suspiciously like the beginnings of a blanket?  And isn't that bright light blue just the thing that was needed?  I think so.

I have 17 squares now.  Not brag-worthy, but maybe the beginning of something big.

And no need to remind me of my bragging about sewing in the ends.  I've promised myself I'll do that when I finish my first white ball of yarn... (no, really...)

For now, I'm quite happy to make a pancake stack of the squares and marvel.

My new favourite...

The bright blue is Cascade 220 in Anis (colour code 8908).  And it's delicious.

C.x