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.