WIP Dilemma

I have been in a bit of a dilemma today.  I want to finish the Ten Stitch by Friday so that I can take it with me to Stamford, BUT whilst at work this morning the sun put in an appearance and by the time I got home I just felt I had to go out into the garden.  I would have felt too guilty to stay in and knit.  Add to the fact that I woke at 5:20 this morning and managed a couple of hours knitting before work, the garden won.

So this is the progress since yesterday on the blanket, the pale blue round finished and the dark blue well on the way.

The garden - this is what I have cleared today - so much rubbish from the Willow tree )-:
It just gets everywhere, long whippy bits which thread themselves through the plants.

Just look at the messy borders, these will be tackled tomorrow, we are promised more sun

But hiding amongst the mess

a promise of puddings to come.........

Welcome & Thank You

 

I see that I have some new followers to the blog.  Hello and welcome to you all.  I hope that you find something here that you enjoy reading.  Please let me know your opinion if you have the time.

You may remember these little dresses from the other week.  Rachel handed them over yesterday along with a couple of hats that she had knitted.

Here is an excerpt from an email she got today

Rach, a big THANK YOU TO YOU AND YOUR MOMsie

Honestly, those dresses (and hats) are so adorable. I LOVE the colour, the pattern, the home-made-ness and everything about them.

I love to receive messages regarding my knitting.  I have a lovely collection of baby photos and thank you notes, yes I keep them all.  Makes it all worth while

A weekend of knitting

How was your weekend?  I spent mine doing what I enjoy the most knitting.  It was cold, too cold for gardening, so apart from a quick visit to catch up with some relations and a grocery shop on Saturday, and a brisk walk on Sunday the rest of the weekend was spent tucked up on the sofa in the garden room.  Hubby supplied drinks and even cooked dinner on Saturday.

I achieved lots.  Firstly I finished and blocked the Childry Shawl.  I thought it would be a good idea to do a picot edge on the cast off.  I must have been mad!  Picot on 625 stitches, so that's cast on 2 cast of 5, took me about 1.5 hrs as I needed breaks for my aching wrists.  I think the end result was worth it though.

I then worked on the Ten Stitch - once I have completed the last side in the pale blue mix it will measure 50" square, so I think one more round in a dark blue mix should just about do it.

Then as I had 80 grams of the King Cole Riot left from the shawl and a copy of the Baktus Scarf pattern handy I cast that on too.  This will be an "as and when" project.  I decided not to knit into the back of the yarn over, thus giving me a hole pattern down the edge.  I have lots more of this yarn so will see how far I get with thew started ball.  I love the colour of this yarn, I just wish it didn't split so much.

Sharing the wealth

You may remember back a few weeks ago I was given a new stash.  I have been through it and ended up with two large bags that I knew I wouldn't knit with.  To that end I took it along to Medway Craft Group yesterday afternoon and asked the ladies to take what they wanted.  This yarn will be going to lots of new homes.  One lady knits for her local church charity, another for an African baby charity.  Another is taking yarn to the local KnitLit group as the ladies there are knitting scarves for charity.  Yarn will be going to the Fusion Holiday Activity Scheme in Huntingdon, so as you can see it is all going to good homes.  So thank you Cherry

I'd like to share with you something that the Group is working on

MEDWAY CRAFT GROUP - Links with Jack CECUP School. Lusaka

Back in July 2012 Medway Craft Group (MCG) had a stall at the Unity in the Community day at Huntingdonshire Regional College. At this event we met with David Bale who told us about Wiseman Banda, who is partner to Cambridgeshire’s Worldwide Connection Project. He also told us about Wiseman’s intentions to set up a sewing group for teenage mothers. After some discussions at our next meeting we decided that this was something we would like to learn more about. We then got back in touch with David Bale and invited him to one of our meetings to tell us more about the project.

Education in Zambia is compulsory, yet there is no funding for vulnerable children. The school has just five classrooms for its 500 pupils who attend in shifts according to age and whose teachers work a ten hour day. Mr Banda and his volunteers work tirelessly, without pay, for the benefit of underprivileged children. It was this selfless dedication that has drawn us to developing links with his school.

During his recent visit to Huntingdon, in January, Wiseman kindly visited MCG to enlighten us further regarding his “teenage mums sewing project”. He told us that his aim is to set up a teenage mothers sewing group which would provide young mums with a skill that would enable them to support themselves and their children. Initially the project would involve making school uniforms for both their school and others.

photograph courtesy of David Bale

We are in the process of making a quilt for each of the teenage mother’s children. These will serve a dual purpose – to keep them warm on cold nights and to give them ideas as to what they could perhaps make to sell. We would also like to include knitted items as the group has a number of experienced knitters. These could also provide them with ideas for things they could make for themselves and to sell. Everything we send will be accompanied by simple instructions.


If you would like to help us to encourage this group to become self-sufficient we are collecting the following items:


* PINS
* NEEDLES
* SCISSORS (Embroidery and Cutting Shears)
* TAPE MEASURES
* KNITTING NEEDLES
* CROCHET HOOKS
* THIMBLES
* THREAD (cotton etc)
* UN-PICKERS
* PENCILS
* TAYLORS CHALK
* SEWING MACHINES (electric or hand)
* COTTON FABRIC
* WADDING
* SAFETY PINS
* DONATIONS TOWARDS POSTAGE
* BUTTONS
* PRESS STUDS

Please contact Mary Adlam on 01480 453219 or Helen Hollington on 01480 456505 for further details – you may like to pop into one of our twice monthly meetings at the Huntingdon Medway Centre, Medway Road, Huntingdon, PE29 1SF


We were pleased to meet two new ladies yesterday, If you would like to join us at Medway Craft Group these are the upcoming meeting dates:


2013

7th and 21st March
4th, 18th and 25th April. The Medway Centre is in use as a polling station on 2nd May.
16th and 30th May
13th and 27th June
11th and 25th July
No meetings in August
12th and 26th September
10th and 24th October
7th and 21st November
5th and 19th December


2014

9th and 23rd January
6th and 20th February
6th and 20th March

I am working on a gift for a friend as well as the Ten Stitch blanket.  Its the Childry Shawl, I am using King Cole Riot, which is double knitting yarn in 30% wool and 70% acrylic.  Its extremely thin double knitting yarn, so is working out fine for this shawl!

Shelley Bay and pots of sunshine

I completed Shelley Bay and am very pleased with the end result.  The buttons were from the charity shop just a few pence each.  The yarn was from a friend, so I think the total cost of this cardigan was around £3 and I still have the pattern to knit again and again.

I love daffodils and these are particularly lovely, they smell good too. One vase in the dining room the other in the scullery.  They certainly brighten the place up.

We managed to get out in the garden yesterday.  Peter completed the boarding of the wood store and I cleared the drive and borders of weeds.  I now need a month of good weather to tackle the back garden, its a mess!!  I have prepared 4 meals for this week so that I can go out after work if the weather stays nice.

Everyone likes a bargain

As you may or may not know it was my birthday on Thursday.  I got a super new lens for my camera, which will allow me to take photographs of Rufus, without him hopefully noticing.  He has a real problem with cameras these days,  unlike his little brother who just loves the camera. In fact I can sneak up on all the family! I plan to go out and try the lens around the lakes and garden tomorrow, weather permitting. I also got a new carrying case and spare battery, all very handy.

see the pretty nails

Check out my beautiful birthday card from the boys.

 And so to my bargain.  Rachel and I were in Dunelm this afternoon and she spotted this book.  I had been planning to buy it on Amazon the other week, then talked myself out of it.  So was pleased to find it here for £5.00 reduced from £19.99.

Imagine my surprise when I got to the checkout to be charged just £1.00 for it!!!  I even asked the cashier if she had made a mistake and she said it must be my lucky day.

I see lots of Fair Isle knitting in my future

Wednesday's new WIP

First some food....

I just made this tart - Goats cheese, red onion & sun dried tomato.  I wish you could smell my kitchen right now.  I will have some of this with salad for my dinner.

I have a new WIP this week.

Its Shelley Bay by Sarah Ronchetti, you can find her on the Ravelry Group - Sezza Knits or on her blog.  She is currently doing a KAL for this pattern, so I decided to join in.  The yarn is some I was given recently - Chevy Aran - 50% wool and 50% nylon, not a yarn I know but it seems to be knitting up OK.

One thing I have noticed however is that I have actually got my front mixed up, so the pattern on my cardigan will be leaning the other way!  I'm certainly not going to rip it back and change it now.  That will teach me to read the pattern properly, I know exactly what I've done wrong.  I'm sure Sarah will forgive me

On the mend

This week I am happy to report I am feeling so much better.  I still have ringing in my ears but no nausea and just occasional dizziness.  I am waiting for a call from the doctor to decide if I can go back to work tomorrow. Thank you for all the kind comments and good wishes, it was very much appreciated.

Thankfully by Thursday afternoon I was able to undertake small amounts of knitting and by the weekend I was back to my normal output, phew panicked me there!!

I have finished the 2 Smockies  and I am very pleased with how they turned out







We spent some time with the boys over the weekend

Granny you need some makeup on!!

don't you want to pinch those chubby thighs?

I spent some time working on the Ten Stitch, and have decided what colour the next round will be



Having struggled with my long needles on this blanket, I asked hubby, any chance you could cut these down for me?  5 minutes later he was back with the perfect length needles.  I now ask myself why didn't I ask before?



We have a cold, wet, grey day here today, odd snow showers which hopefully won't develop into anything long term, I am so over winter........