We're All Going On A .... Summer Holiday !

I'm off on holiday tomorrow morning - hip hip hooray - Jacob and I are driving down to Devon with some friends, where we have rented a cottage for two weeks. James is staying home for the first week for work and then joining us for the last week and a bit.

I'm really looking forward to going away and getting some quality knitting time in - my knitting is all stowed away in the car, safe and sound, ready to go - what am I going to do tonight ???!!!

So, have a lovely couple of weeks everyone - I'm hoping for good weather for us all.

Yarn Anyone ?

Weekend before last a friend of mine asked me if I would like to knit a few bits for her two children - I naturally jumped at the chance - doing knitting and having the yarn paid for by someone else - how could I refuse. One of the bits we decided on was this little tank top. I said I'd have a look at home and see what All Season Cotton I had lying about since we only needed the 0-6 month size. So then on Sunday night I thought I'll just have a look. I found a few bits and so thought I'd just cast on and see how it went - 4 hours later and well past midnight - I'd finished the knitting - I sewed in all the end the following morning and it was on Nathan's lovely little frame that afternoon - wow - I made my own head spin with the speed of that one ! It was so quick I didn't remember to take a photo of it, I have asked my friend to take a modelled shot and hopefully I'll be able to post that soon.

So Monday afternoon it was off to Bluewater to buy the rest of the yarn for my upcoming projects and I got this yarn to knit this little jumper.


Yarn for Maddy's Jumper


This All Seasons Cotton to knit this little jacket.


Yarn For Nathan's Jacket

And this yarn to knit this little cardy. As you can see I have already nearly finished the back - I just need to cast off the centre stitches and shape the other shoulder then it's onto the fronts. The whole of this jumper is supposed to be ribbed - back and front, but when I knitted it for Jacob I found that by ribbing it all over it tends to be way too pulled at the front - so I do the back in stocking stitch and leave the ribbing for the front - it looks lovely when it's done.


Yarn For Maddy's Cardy

All of these are quite plain colours, but they are meant to be summer jumpers that go with everything, if there is such a thing !

I have sent my first parcel to my Secret Pal now and I'm waiting for her to receive it - I really hope she likes it.

Blog Comments

I have had a few people let me know that they couldn't post comments to my blog. I mentioned this to the lovely Andrea and she suggested that I try adjusting some of my settings. Et Voila, all and sundry should now be able to post to my blog. Please feel free to post comments at will, I love getting them. Thanks Andrea for your help.

I'm Sooooooo Excited !

Look, look, look what came in the post this morning


Lucky Me !

I'm such a lucky person - this Secret Pal thing is fantabulous ! Thank you so much for all those lovely bits Secret Pal - you're fab. And here is a picture of Jacob enjoying some of the package.


Happy Jacob

As I opened the package all Jacob could say to each bit was "oh Cool " and he's only two and a half ! He particularly loved the lip balm - mmmm chocity ! He thinks the sheep is his - I shall have to sneek it away from him while he's sleeping - ahhhh I'm a cruel parent !

Thank you again - you fabulous Secret Pal you !

Stripey All Done

I've finished the little stripey set that I was doing on a whim and it's turned out quite nicely in the end. Not as perfect as I would like, but I can work on that for future attempts. I'm quite pleased with it, and I'm going to add it to my gift box for my friend, she may as well enjoy it.

So here it is - stripey - again !


Stripey

Sorry the quality of the photo isn't great, I wanted to take one before I gave it away and I'm seeing her first thing in the morning, so it had to be a night shot, never the best.

Gardening Ruminations

Are these my favourite plants in the world ?


Hosta

You know I think they just might be - I once searched for over a year for a "Big Daddy" Hosta - I found one and it was wonderful and then it got killed when we moved house. Still, this one has survived - I'm not sure which one it is, but I love it. Look at these fab leaves.


Hosta Leaf


Another Hosta Leaf

But - for something really blousey and beautiful, showy and gaudy, you just cannot beat the good old Peony - look at this beauty !


Beautiful Peony

I have to say though I do love a good lavender and I have never been to a garden centre quite as beautiful as this one - Downderry Lavender, it is just down the road from us and I have to stop myself pulling in there every time I go past - I have already managed to kill several lavenders that I have bought from there !

I used to love gardening, then we moved and the garden wasn't mine and the house needed so much work that the garden has been neglected and I'm sorry about it, I would love for it to be gorgeous, but gardening is a lot of work, and when you have got a house with flowery wallpaper or bare plastered walls, it's about priorities !

I have nearly finished the stripey little jumper that I started the other day now - I have been having problems with the front band. I am adapting a pattern for my own purposes and the front band on the pattern is ribbed - I'm doing moss stitch, so I've been having trouble working out the right number of stitches to pick up down the front so that there aren't so many that it's all wrinkly, and aren't too few that it's pulled smaller than it should be - I've done it four times so far - hopefully the next one will be the right one !

Hello Secret Pal

I have received two lovely e:mails from my secret pal and I'm already enjoying the experience!

She has asked me a couple of further questions, so I thought I would answer them here, to keep the spirit alive !

What do you buy when you want to spoil yourself / cheer yourself up / relax? what do you use to really indulge yourself?

Well usually what I buy first is yarn to knit with. I put on quite a bit of weight when I had my son and I'm still trying to loose it (not all that successfully) so I don't really buy myself clothes. I'm not into make up so I don't buy that. I do spend money on getting my hair dyed - which needs doing badly right now - I'm getting too grey ! God I sound about 90 ! I'm really into ear-rings right now - I love dangly ones and I've got long hair, so I tend to buy myself nice hair bits and pieces like these. I also love, love, love shoes, especially flip flops like these, the ones with the flowers on them - mmmm - I love the ones in Monsoon. Is that enough waffle for you ?!!!

Are there any yarns you'd love to try but have never gotten around to?

Yes absolutely - I would love to try this Sari Yarn, Noro Silk Garden, this beautiful silk yarn especially in the "Surf" colourway and some of the SCH Socka Cotton Stretch, it's from Kangaroo yarns, but I can't do a link directly to it - sorry . I'm sure there are lots of others too, but I can't think of them right now !

Are there any knitting things that just make you want to stop knitting? allergic to bamboo needles? eyelash yarn make you feel ill? etc

Well I'm not too keen on anything that splits easily, and as you know I hate acrylic - but other than that, I'm happy to give most things a go as long as I've got something to make them into.

Anything else you'd like to add but there wasn't space for on the questionaire?

I'm mad about gingham - especially red gingham - I love anything to do with the sea - I love the colour blue, especially checked. I love things that are bright and I love fresh air and thunder storms. I love the summer and I adore swimming. I read loads of books and I love Desperate Housewives. I love baking, espescially fairy cakes - I'm a pudding aholic, hence the inability to loose weight ! One of my favourite things to do is lounge in my hammock in the sun reading a book while my little boy is at nursery, but I also love getting down on the floor and playing pirate ships with Jacob. I'm bored of diy and wouldn't mind never doing any again. I wish I could draw and paint, but I'm dreadful at it !

I can't think of anything else to say really. So I hope that is enough information.

Photos

I've finally got around to adding a few more photos of some of my completed projects to my photo albums - I've been trying to do this for ages, but our camera takes photos that are of such a huge size yahoo had trouble uploading them. So I took the time last night to re-size them and now there are, at last, more than a couple of photos in my albums.

Unfortunately I don't have photos of everything that I made last year, so I'll just have to have an incomplete record and try and take photos of things that I've made for people as we go along.

At least it doesn't look like I've hardly knitted anything before anymore !!

SP5

Oh my word - so we are off on a magical journey that is called SP5 - I think I may have a heart attack before it is all over. I am so desperately worried to do it right. I'm terrified I'm going to give my identity away within an hour or two of starting ! I have no idea who is spoiling me, YET !!! I hope the person I'm spoiling, isn't disappointed in me ! I can only do my best I guess.

Hip Hip Hooray

At last - it's all done and dusted - all my baby bits are done and I feel much better for it.


Archie, finished at last !

I need to just give the cardy a once over with the iron and then I'll be happy that it's done. I have to say that it isn't finished as perfectly as I would like, but once it's ironed, it will look fine I'm sure - I think I'm biased because this project has been so hard won - why ? I think because I decided at the beginning that I didn't like the pattern, that put me in the wrong frame of mind and then it was all down hill from there. In fact I didn't make any mistakes at all, and when I got on with it, it all went very smoothly. Still I certainly won't be doing it again - there is a lot of sewing involved because all the edges are double, so it's very fiddly and akward. The instructions for the collar were totally useless - it told you to knit a collar X number of stitches wide, and 12 cm long, double it over and then SEW it to the cardy - what ???? I followed the instructions, it didn't fit at all and would have looked dreadful - so I abandoned that and just picked up stitches, knitted a collar and then folded it in two and sewed it in place to cover up the neck edge - it looks much better - where do they get these ideas from ?!

Here is the finished Lucky Cardy


Lucky

And Scottie in a better light


Scottie

And here is the whole package - I think it looks lovely


The Final Package


I'm much happier now that it is all done - it's a weight off my mind and I'm brimming with ideas for future projects. I started a new baby cardy last night - which is looking fab - I've done two sleeves and most of the back, but I ran out of yarn - so I'm off to C&H Fabrics this morning to get some more yarn and I suspect I'll finish it in no time - I may even give it to my friend with the new baby, if I finish it as quickly as I think I will, here is a picture of it so far.


Stripes - again !

I recently bought a few balls of dusty pink cotton glace to combine with some white that I already had, I want to try and re-create the lovely poncho that I saw in Whitstable - unfortunately I can't afford to buy Hemp at the moment, so I'm using stash. I've knitted up a swatch, and I don't like the colour - aghhhhh - it looks too Adidas - do you know what I mean ?

So I need to go back to Bluewater and change it for a limey green I think. That will look much better. What do you think ?


Too Adidas

I have also decided to knit the two needle socks in Rowan Calmer from the latest Simply Knitting, for my sister for her birthday, so I'm going to get that yarn today as well - I've not knitted with Calmer before, so I'm quite looking forward to it.