Bo goes walkies

Bo the dog is having lots of nice walks. Lyla is very fond of her scarf and she tells him all about the birds she sees on her walks. Bird is her favourite word at the moment.

 

 

 

Circle challenge

My stitching group challenged ourselves to take a photo every day during February. We were given a prompt for each day and the results were so different. I missed it in March so when I came across this challenge I had to have a go. The challenge was to take 9 photos of circles  where you were that day. You were not able to go outside. I really enjoyed this activity which only took 15 minutes.

 

  Here are the results.

 

 

Toasty warm

I made some socks for two of my favourite people to keep them warm during this difficult time. Beautiful hand dyed yarns that were a joy to knit with. The green one was called "Swampy" but I prefer to see roadways filled with montbretia. The sea one needs no explaining.  

 

 

Present for Maisie

Maisie had a new sister in January. I did some knitting for her but I couldn't forget little Maisie either and made her one of my little jumpers. It has my favourite (easy!) lace pattern on it and a nice simple neck. I choose this blue to match her gorgeous eyes.

 

 

 

Regatta

 

I found a beautiful new yarn from Stylecraft. It's a cotton mix in gorgeous colours. There were lots of bright ones but I choose this muted mix for a simple little baby cardi with short sleeves. My baby box was empty after three new baby girls so it is nice to start filling it up again.

Texture and more texture

I knitted a textured throw from a KAL pattern in Simply Knitting in 2019. There were 28 bands of stitches with 12 rows in each. The individual rows were not difficult but they were nearly all different. I lost concentration through too much sea and mountain gazing so there was a lot of ripping out. my favourite stitch was raisin stitch. A few rows would make a lovley border round the edges of a plain baby cardigan.

 

The finished throw looked good and the plan is to give it to my sister as a lap blanket. There is a slight hitch because my suitcase with the throw has gone missing so fingers crossed it returns from its travels soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coping with a large needle

I did a sashiko workshop while I was in Spain. Jill talked us through the history of sashiko and showed us some interesting samples. We were then given a sample to stitch. I struggled to make tiny stitches with a big needle and 8ply thread after using a beading needle and very fine thread. We stitched on the diagonal and then moved to the next line. We left loops of thread on the edges of the fabric on the back. This meant we could pull the stitches if our tension was too tight.

 

After a delicious lunch and chat we tried reverse applique. We drew some flower patterns on bondaweb and attached this to the back of our fabric. We then stitched on the bondaweb side  with small stitches and larger stitches on what would be the front of the fabric. A few of us struggled to get our heads around this, but it came eventually. 

 

We were given a choice of 4 kits and I choose the Iris one which included the pattern and the fabric. I didn't really enjoy the reverse sashiko but loved the classic geometric patterns. The Iris pattern will be winging its way to Madelaine and I have ordered a cushion kit. This will be my holiday project next year.  I LOVE trying new things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting ready for Christmas

My knitting group is planning to make a huge christmas tree that will be displayed in the centre of town. They need about 600 squares so I did a few while I was with them. The plan is that they will make lots of ornaments to go on the tree and they will then sell these for the dog charity.