Photo post.

Just a couple of photo's from our trip

I don't often like photos of myself

Will loved his new cot blanket

 I only used half the yarn I purchased, so plenty for another project. 

 

Now I will finish my 2nd sock, I marked on paper all the rows so matching the size should not be a problem, I want to do more on my cross stitch and read more.
I am spending most days inside with our doors shut, flies and smell make our garden off limits, I check the greenhouse twice a day, but gardening is on hold. I prefer to be inside when it is so hot outside, I am not comfortable in this heat, but it is a shame I can't open my patio doors.
I do still walk 3times a day, but much earlier and later on two walks trying to avoid the heat of the sun. My lunchtime walk is now always the shorter of the walks.
The garden is looking good, just a couple of small fails, I’m going to have to rethink the planting on mums old bird bath, I will look at Alpines which don’t require too much soil. My three tier planter is full of French marigolds worked well, hubby is really pleased.
Later today we are driving to Somerset, not a planned trip, but hubbies brother is requesting we meet up on Saturday, our worry heads are on alert, fingers cross it’s not anything bad.
I have finished reading The Glovemakers daughter, I have read mixed reviews on this book, but I really enjoyed it, nothing beats a good book. My youngest daughter is now reading The Handmaids Tale, I am enjoying the second series on channel 4, the story line is not unlike 1984, both were wonderful reads.

New projects

I have completed the inner design

 We have a local charity shop, which has a great craft area, it's a short drive to get there, but always worth it. I try and pop in often, they has stuff for every craft. I purchased the fabric below last week, it's cut long and thin, and will make a couple of shopping bags, lined in black. It cost £2.25, so a nice price, but I have noticed the prices increasing in the shop, still good value, but someone now sees the value in what they are selling. I am thinking of stitching colour into the fruits, just one small bust of colour, in French knots. 

 Well I have everything I need to make my 1st pair of socks, thanks to Jo, for her help and inspiration, I am following her advice and using this pattern from Warwick Mum's blog. I have googled sock sizes, read loads and now I feel ready to knit. 

Postman just knocked my door

 What a lovely surprise, I helped a friend of hubbies and used my sewing machine to sew 7 badges onto a leather waist coat, took less than an hour and I was happy to help. This is his thank you. 

So once again loads of crafts to do, it's exciting to start something completely new to me, every time I mention knitting socks to hubby, he gives me the strangest of looks.
I have been asked to make a mixture of bags, my sister is starting a new craft business, and is looking for local crafters to buy stock from, she will have any sewing I want to make, and she loves the different bags I make.
Yesterday afternoon was another rainy day, and the fore caste is wet for the rest of the week, I know it's April and we should expect showers, but really!
Our lawn was again pink with Magnolia petals this morning. Again I have a head cold and cough, I can't blame Will this time, it's so hard to decide each morning what the afternoon is going to be like and dress accordingly. Nothing to do in the garden, I am itching to plant things, but it's far too early, so I am going to spend the day at Will's house, mummy will pick me up after Will has finished his swimming class.

Knitting finish

It's finished

 Yoke, I changed this design

there should have been grey in the darker brown

 Close up

 Another change

the cast on row should have been mid brown,

 but I thought the dark brown looked better

 I'm not sure if you can see this

it's the cast off rows along the raglan

 I love this design

 Not to waste this grey wool, I purchased a second ball and will make my 1st pair of socks. 

The design of the jumper is a snug fit, which I love, I never wear baggy clothes. In truth it is a bit tight for me, but I am in the process of loosing weight, so by winter later this year it will be good. It is the same size as all my clothes in my wardrobe. I did lengthen the sleeves, I felt this design required a full length sleeve, and I also added a few extra rows on the body of the jumper.
This is the first thing I have knitted for myself in years, I really enjoyed every stitch, and I am planning more knitting, firstly a pair of socks. I am unable to wear lambs/sheep wool, I have an allergy to lanolin, so finding Alpaca wool has been a pure joy for me it is so soft to touch,  trying on the finished jumper without any itching, gives me the confidence to knit more clothes.
I enjoyed stitching on circular needles, the neck was harder due to the reduced number of stitches and using four double pointed needles, I got a longer set, but still felt it was all points sticking in everywhere. I am hoping when I make my socks, the smaller number of stitches will be easier on four double pointed needles. The plus side of knitting in the round was I had almost no sewing together, the arms were also knitted on the round, so the only sewing together was under each arm. I found the decreasing at the neck easy, as it was Incorporated in the pattern, so I found it easy to know where I was at any point. A plain jumper would have made it much harder to keep the decreasing neat.

One finish and another almost there

Final stage of knitting

 This is better than I hoped

 Not fully followed the pattern, sorry for the fuzzy photo

Hubby is very happy with this new bag

 Red lining with a phone pocket

 Black sides and bottom, this is a bigger bag.

 Pleased to have enough fabric for match handles

I am knitting at every spare moment, I don't enjoy watching TV, neither does hubby, so often we spend an evening quietly together, he reads and I knit. I am really good at picking up the pattern for each row, so knitting so many repeats I find relaxing. The blue row marker on my work is the start/end of the row, this helps me to keep things neat. The design is not too tight, with having so many stitches I have room to allow the threads at the back to be correct. The decreasing rows are done in pattern, so again it was simple to follow.
In truth I have not picked up my cross stitch, but I have started reading a book, Bring me back by B A Paris, but the enjoyment from seeing my knitting grow, keeps me picking it up. I have 2 x 50gms of grey 4ply Alpaca wool which I will knit into a pair of socks, but nothing new will be started until I have finished this jumper.
Sunday was dull all morning, so I did all the housework, my floor steamer was not working too good, so hubby took it apart and descaled everything, we have ordered a new hard water filter. We also found online some plastic stretch pot covers, these are reusable and the hope is they will replace stretch and seal, we have a pack on order, another one use plastic removed from our home.
I enjoyed making the guards bag for hubby, it is much bigger, but with the lining it will take a full load.  I have other things cut out, just need another sewing moment (day).
Monday was Will's day, so at home all day, we did pop to the village and through the park, but as the children are at school, it was empty, but we did enjoy the sunshine.
Today I have sign language class, yes I remembered this week, later I am having my hair cut. I hope to have a bit of time in the garden, but I do have a sewing task, I am sizing a kingsize quilt cover down to a single size, for use in our camper van, another money saving job.

Alsorts

I love these flowers, I had some years ago but after a very wet winter I lost them, it will be great to have them back in our garden. The scent is fantastic and really does smell of chocolate. 

This blanket is now a good size, I will do 1 set of each colour, finishing with the green, which will make it 45 inches long, perfect for the cot. With the left over wool, I should be able to do another 1 or 2 rounds of each colour on my big granny square blanket. Every time I pick it up it feels like spring in my hands. 

 Will's cot covers are looking good together.

  Sorting my very small yarn stash, these should go together well.

My dear hubby drives mini buses a couple times a week for a local community service, mainly taking disabled, elderly and school children, to clubs, day centres and school. On Thursday he took some ladies out for the day, having to spend over three hours at the site, so I went with them, it was a Market Garden, I was disappointed with the tiny garden section, but the shop, bakery and butchers were good. There were loads of shoe and clothes shops, most of which we passed, but we looked at the sale in Edinburgh Woolen Mills, we both got a couple of items, the prices and quality were too good to pass.
Will slept over last night, he was good and slept through, woke at 6.30 this morning, after a good breakfast and a small play he is having his morning nap, I will wake him at 10.30 if he is not already awake. Mummy is picking him up at 11am, they are then out for an early lunch.
My sewing is going well, still not able to show my finished items, they are all for Will's 1st birthday next Sunday, so photo's will follow.  I love my sewing machine and I'm very happy with fabric, scissors and an idea in my head, I can work happily without a printed pattern, most of my skill I got from my mum, we would work together and she encouraged me to make my own clothes, I made my first skirt at the age of eleven, from that point I was hooked.
My crochet is fun, I do it most evenings, I found the grey and pink mix yarns in my tiny stash, I think they should work well together, I am going to make another granny square blanket, they are so easy to make and very useful, Will already loves the first one I made, so a second bigger blanket would be useful. Once I have used these balls of yarn, I only have bits and bobs in my stash, I will be looking for some sock wool.

New start

My test strip

this gives me the information I require to know how many chains to cast on.

24 chains = 11cm

 240 chains = 110cm or 43 inches

 Just started my 5th shade

 I followed advice and tucked my ends in for neatness

 It looks tidy. 

I followed a video from Bella Coco for me this was the clearest video, I could see her hands and hook and the sound was good. Using the double crochet was good for me as it's the same stitch as I was using for my granny blanket.
I did a test strip as I had no idea how many chains I would require, I did know the width I wanted, depending on how far the wool makes up, this has two possibilities, I would like a blanket for my lap, but it could be a cot blanket to be used here when Will sleeps over.
I took care casting on 240 chains, and on the first row, but I noticed on the second row two tiny errors, both I was able to correct without unpicking, neither was in the front of the blanket.
Each row feels really long to me, but the design is simple enough to do whilst hubby has TV on.

The shade are beautiful, very pale, but the yarn is 100% Acrylic, so keeping it clean won't be a problem.
Paula made a comment regarding the wool I am using, most of the yarns are not in fact wool, I have a allergy to lanolin, so I do not use wool, in my last projects I have used, alpaca silk, 100% cotton, and Acrylic, so bear with me when I say 'wool'.

Stash

Ordered late of Friday, arrived on Tuesday

 I fancied to use some pale wool and got 3 balls of each colour 

 This is for a ripple blanket

It's like looking at spring, I chose this brand of wool, only because they had the largest selection of pale colours, Patons Baby smiles, 4ply, 100% Acrylic, it also was a decent price, I love doing crochet with 4ply, it feels better in my hands. I now have to decide the order of these colours. I have 3 x 50g balls of each colour, my hope is to have a beautiful blanket when it's finished. I have added the cost to my stash list for this month.
Monday the day improved and we had a sunny afternoon, so I managed a lovely walk. Tuesday after sign language class it was still dull and wet, but I did manage to get out for a small walk.
I did sew in all the ends on Will's blanket, once I got going it was not so bad, I used a small latch hook (just like the ones used for making rugs) much nicer than threading needles all the time.
I have been on youtube looking at ripple blanket video's, I have decided on my patteren, made a small test run, and worked out how many stitches to an inch, all I have to do is decide what size, it won't be full size as I'm not up to that challenge yet.
On Tuesday I was a bit of an idiot and deleted a couple of comments instead of saving them, I always love to read your comments and would never knowingly delete any, so if your comment is missing, I am sorry.

Second finish of the year

Crochet finished, it's a good size for a cot.

 Daughter requested the colours, I chose the shades. 

 Both together, using different 4ply yarn

 Both are really pretty

 I still have loads of ends to stitch in

I am really pleased with Will's blanket, it is a good size for his cot. The Drops, You is 100% cotton, which is thicker, but feels right for this blanket, it works up well, the navy did separate often, but with a little bit more care, I did not have a huge problem. I just have those pesky ends to weave in, because of the colour formation, I found it easier to cut off each colour at the end of the row.
My blanket is for use here at home, it will be good for on the lawn this summer when Will is playing, I am sure it will find load more uses.

Now on to my next project. 

Under test conditions Wills blanket works.

Brr!!

No snow here, but at 9.15am still just below freezing

 We have a lovely blue sky, but it's so cold

Typical winter day, we often miss all the snow, it does not take much to bring us to a stand still so we are happy to be snow free. It is really nice not to be out early in the mornings, my plan is a day at home. 

 I have two flowers forming

 This is finished, it was never going to be huge. 

 I love all the neat patterns, the colours remind me of heather's. 

 The final row is navy, I have stitched in all the navy ends for the colour change, the random I did not cut, it only had one level so I could keep it neat. 

 Will's blanket is giving me loads of ends, 

I use a hook and thread them along my work. 

I popped to my greenhouse and covered some of my tender plants last night, I do not heat in there, but it is in the most sunny spot in the garden, everything looked good when I checked this morning.
Sign language class was good yesterday, I was pleased I had already learnt the alphabet, numbers and a few greetings, we covered colours, some I already knew, we had to list a colour, add an object and two descriptive words, RED-CAR-YOURS/MINE, plus we had to add facial expressions, after class we shared lunch, there are seven ladies in the class and we take in turns proving the lunch. I am looking forward to going back next week, my friend Chris and I will get together to practice later this week.
I sat and finished my blanket last night, Grace my cat sits on my lap, so I was jiggling the blanket to keep it away from her, she does not attack my wool, so whilst a bit slower is was good, both the cat and the blanket kept me warm. 
I'm off got my kitchen cabinet tops to clean, not a great job, but once it is done I can relax and do some fun things.

Blooming marvelous

The day after placing my wool order it arrived

I love this shade mix

 Amaryllis time again

 Hyacinth's doing well for the 1st time

 This spot is so full of hope

I am really amazed on the service for my wool order from Wool Warehouse, I have purchased from them before, I placed the order at 2.30pm and received the wool next day.
My Amaryllis is beginning to flower, the stems and buds are not as big as I have had before, I love these huge blooms. The Hyacinths, are a nice height, now I just need buds to form. Flowers from bulbs at this time of year is always a bonus.
We sorted our small attic on Friday morning, it took ages and we have recycled loads of empty boxes, many items had been taken to our local charity shop in previous sort outs around the house. Our attic is only tiny, as our bedroom extension has taken most of the space, it's is very easy to get into from a door in our bedroom, so we use this space for storing all the extra household items purchased at bargain prices. I can now get to my fabric stash, I have one box full of old pairs of jeans, ready for me to make new items, my brother would like a couple of big cushion covers.
I have decided not to read this month, it's not an easy decision to make, I am a book worm, but I am using my reading time to do other things, starting different crafts.
This morning we have sunshine, first in days, we do not have much to do, a quiet day at home, later we are out to friends house, they are having a eat all the Christmas leftovers party, sounds good fun, we have a couple of things to take.