Little and Large

Little hats for Innocent drinks from odds and ends.

And a large Coronet hat from Knitty for me. (modelled by DD)

I re-used some of the aran weight yarn that I had lying around after frogging some of Rene`s less successful work, and having decided that it does fit and I do like it, and more to the point it looks half decent on me, I now feel justified in buying some nice yarn to make it with.

It is ages since I have done any cables, and I had forgotten how satifying they can be.

Other than that I have been busy getting sore fingers replacing the zip in my favourite jeans. Hateful job! Next time I think about doing that, will someone please tell me to go and lie down in a darkened room til the feeling passes, and send me shopping to replace them instead!

Not my own work

In fact all I did for this was the blocking. The squares were knitted by Rene , then Mum sewed them together and knitted the border. I think she has made a lovely job of it too.

Boot Fail

No, it isn't a typing error, it's how I feel about this mornings efforts. I only do one, or at the outside two, Boot Sales a year, and decided that I really, really must make the effort and clear the clutter so DD and I packed the car last night, got up before the crack of dawn this morning, and spent several hours in the field only to find we had brought home the princely sum of £34.45! We sold lots and lots of bits - but they were exactly that, 10p bits 20p bits, the odd 50p and even rarer £1 bits. So I guess I shouldn't be too put out as I do have more space in my garage now. But it really didn`t help matters that by the time we were ready to come home, one of the major roads near by had been closed and so my best route back was now a 7 mile queue of solid traffic going nowhere and not even moving - so my only alternative was a 20+ mile detour :-(

On the bright side though, my one (and only) purchase was this...

1500g of Lopi Chunky (plus needles) for ........£5!!! I`ve been wanting to make a felted bag for some time - ok the colours aren`t that exciting but for that money, it`s a great way to try and see if I do like felting.


And here's one I made earlier.....

and which I intended to post a picture of for ages. In amongst the items I cleared from Rene's I came across this little chap that I knitted for her many, many years ago. It was lovely to think that she liked him enough to keep him all that time. He`s another of Jean Greenhowe's designs, and I thought he was just perfect for a knitting artist.

Actually enjoying socks!

I don`t know where the time goes, it only seems 5 minutes ago that we were breaking up for the summer holidays and suddenly I have been back at work for a week! I really enjoyed the break and DD and I had a lot of fun, so now we are counting down to half term.



One of the things we did was to play with Kool aid, and in the dish on the right (no it`s not spaghetti, I know I had a photo of a pasta dress recently, but I`m not that creative) is DD`s sock yarn dyed with blue raspberryade, lemon and lime, lemonade and berry blue Kool aid. She decided to call this Hawaiian (sp?) Beach because it has the blues of the sea and sky, the green of the palm trees and yellow sand! So, having got her interested in the dyeing, I had to do something with the yarn. Some of you may know of my reluctance to knit socks, and having until now only grudgingly completed one and a half pairs, I am not sure what made me try again, but I treated myself to two addi circs and to avoid SSS, knit Two at Once, Toe-up socks

with short legs at DD`s request, and guess what, I actually enjoyed making them! So much so, that I know have another skein of sock yarn to dye for me, and I have bought myself Sensational Knitted Socks (not that I really needed to put a link to that, I don`t suppose there is anyone out there who hasn`t heard of that book).

I had a lovely letter from Val at the Baby pack project last week. I had enclosed an envelope and reply coupon just so I knew the pack had arrived safely, I only expected a brief note or compliment slip, but received a long hand written letter - the work she and her co volunteers do is just wonderful, and to take the time to write like that left me feeling humble. I have the next pack nearly ready to go, and here is the toy for it.

This is one of Jean Greenhowes Rainbow Babies from her free charity patterns, though I changed it slightly to have bare feet as I thought the little ones in Africa might identify more with that - mind you if it is hot enough for bare feet they probably wouldn`t wear a woolly hat and scarf, but there you go, I obviously didn`t think that through properly.

And finally, a quilted bag. DH brought me home a copy of the Popular Patchwork magazine, and I just fell in love with the bag in it, I knew I had exactly the right piece of material in my fabric stash so over the bank holiday weekend I got stitching.

I would be already for the beach if there was any summer left. Oh well, there is always next year.