Welcoming a new O'Sullivan

I have a new great neice/nephew due on the 3rd January. My Mum would be thrilled at the idea of another great grandchild due on her birthday. I don't know if it will be a boy or a girl so I have hedged my bets and made garments in pink and blue. These socks are made from tiny balls of Regia yarn. The colours are very short repeats so perfect for baby socks.

 

 

WAW memories

We have spent the last four years following the Wild Atlantic Way route around the west coast of Ireland. We have been to every beach on the mainland and photographed most of the rusty signposts. These are not popular with lots of people but I love them.  The best bit has been sharing it with my man and spending time on such glorious beaches.

 

I have produced a photo book of our travels and my next task is to make a granny square blanket to keep me warm in winter as I dream of returning to some of those beaches. Each granny square will have four colours and each square will be connected with the dark blue. I have eighty squares to do so I had better get started.

 

Here are the colours I have chosen and a few photos from our travels.  

 

 

Hat'sGalore

I have made this hat a couple of times for Ryan. He never wore hats but when he moved to England I thought he would need one to protect him from the east winds that come from Siberia. After his first winter there he asked for a 2nd hat. I have now made him his 3rd hat. I enjoy making them so much that I have made 4 more including one for my brother's 60th and one for my neices partner. The pattern is from Ravelry and has the wonderful title "Hat most likely to Suceed". It takes 3 balls of Drops Big merino. The men in my family certainly seem to like it.  

 

 Here is George all ready to head out on night duty.

 

 

 

Adding to my stash

I was disappointed to see how much Tenterden has changed since I was last there. Many of the lovely antique and specialist shops are gone. There are now eight charity shops. This was fine for me as I was fabric hunting but not good for the mix of shops in the town. The Pilgrims Hospice shop was interesting.  It is styled as a vintage shop and the quality and prices were higher than normal. It was a real pleasure browsing there and I got a gorgeous green silk scarf for £6. It will get some wear before it joins the fabric stash.

 

 

 

A fine collection

In the end I made seven cardies for my new great neice. They range in size from 3 months to 2 years. I am really enjoying the patterns by the Australian designer I found on Raverly. A good investment.

This pattern is still my favourite though.

 

A new great neice/nephew is due in January so I have started knitting for them now.  

 

 

he parents don't want to know the sex this time so I am doing boy and girl cardies. I might even do a gender neutral one but not lemon.

Lace and more lace

I found some gorgeous dark blue fabric with alliums on in the patchwork shop in Rincon de la Victoria. I could see hedgerow flowers just before night fell. I restricted myself to just using lace for the foreground. Some of the lace was bought in Spain. I have called it "The Gloaming". I think I will do more like this.

 

 

 

A new great-neice

I am really enjoying having a baby girl to knit for. Kevin's Mum and I loved this stitch pattern. She had knittied jumpers from it in the 1940's and continued in later years. I discovered it as a child's pattern and knitted it first in 1978. Katie had one in yellow when she was little. I have also used it for scarves.

 

I was thrilled to find this mini version. I knitted it in the Drops baby yarn. I was so pleased with the end result that I knitted it in a larger size in red.

 

 

Working together

I was not thrilled at the idea of our stitching group working together on a piece. It might have been because I was away when the discussion took place and I felt a bit distant from it.  I did a bit of stitching on it when I got back but it did not excite me.

 

 I was stitching it one day when someone offered a suggestion and before long four of us were working on it. That ignited my interest and from then on there were always a few people working on it. We are all very pleased with the end result of our common threads piece.  

 

 

I love Learning

I booked myself into a workshop to learn new stitching techniques. I really enjoyed learning how to machine embroider. There were lots of other tips too like using (emulsion!) paint to fill in fiddly bits.

 

The end result looks ok but my lettering still needs lots of practice. I should have stopped at the end of the letter h and not tried to go backwards. I will also be using the pen that irons out as I am not ready for freestyle yet.

 

 

Threads from Canada

 

 

I came across someone in Spain using these threads and thought they were lucious. I ordered these and can't wait now to use them. They came from colourcomplements.com and one of my stitchings gets a mention on her blog. Search for freeform embroidery and you will find it.

Keeping Ryan and Tania warm

My winter crochet project is finished. I will take it out for lots of picnics this summer and then it will be full of sunshine when I hand it over to the little ones. Tania choose the colours to go with her decor.   

 

It is 10 squares long by 8 squares wide with five colours in each square. It took 9 balls of Stylecraft DK and I used a random calculator to sort the colours. I used just under 3 balls in lavender grey to join the squares. 4 colours were used in the border along with two stripes of the lavender and then it was finished with a V crochet edging.

 

 

Littorell

This is the theme of our exhibition this year. I have completed two pieces and hope to do a night sea scene. I found the flat sparkly pebbles in Spain and I think they are great for the foreshore. They are not easy to sew on!

 

 

Sea Stitchings

Spending so much time on the coast has made me want to do more sea stitchings. Here are two backgrounds that I have recently completed. I need to do some stitching in the sea and lots of work on the tideline. These are for our summer exhibition. I think I will do one more moonlit one and that will be me done.