Welcome to my Craft Room

I have no excuses now for not getting on with my quilting.  I have taken over a corner of one of the guest bedrooms.  Not that any guests will have anywhere to put anything away, as I've taken over the wardrobe and the chest of drawers.  What do you think?  Peter shelved out the wardrobe for my yarn and associated oddments in the bottom.  Its so great to see my yarn at a glance and to not have it falling out every time I opened the chest.  The chest is now home - in the top cupboard to all my wrapping paper, ribbons and bows etc.  Then the next two drawers are fabrics and wadding. 

The bookcase is home to all my knitting magazines, pattern and reference books.  The folders hold all the free patterns that I have obtained from Ravelry and the web. I also have Peters' granny's old Singer hand sewing machine which still works beautifully and I enjoy using it.  The table was re-topped and painted as in a previous post.  The button jars (old coffee jars), the cotton thread jars (old pickle jars).  I took some old picture frames which I painted then made into pin boards, just using some wadding and fabric, easy.  I think they look good and cost practically nothing.  In fact, the only things bought was the wood for the table top, shelves for the wardrobe and the corner shelves.  I did all the painting and pretty stuff and Peter did all the woodworking and drilling.  What a team!

Now for something completely different - thought you might like to see this magnificent dragon fly who visited with us at the weekend

And finally the bath mat which I knitted for Rachel's bathroom.  Think I should have gone round a bit more before doing the graduated cast off.  Still by the time I had spent three hours sewing on the toweling back I was past caring.

FO Hat Trick

Good morning ladies,

The Ten Stitch Twist is finally completed, the last round ended up a bit skimpy due to the fact I was running out of some of the yarns but overall I am pleased with it.  It weighs in at 1520grams and the yarn used was an assortment from the local charity shop and some cones acquired many moons ago, so no idea what any of it is.  My stash is coming down nicely.  One of these days I'll get round to having it all out and sorting.

The next finished project is a Cotton Beanie for Rufus.  His mum wanted me to recreate a hat I knitted him when he was first born and this is a close approximation of it.  The yarn used was Cotton Kapok DK by Sublime Yarns in Tin Soldier and Milkshake, with a few oddments from stash to make up the other stripes.

Next on the list is the Kiddie Cadet Hat also for Rufus and also knitted in the Cotton Kapok DK - colour Tin Soldier. This may be a shade on the big side but I figure he will soon grow into it!

This is all my WIP's completed apart from a pair of socks which are in hibination for now. 

So what to knit now?  Maybe a few summer hats for the little girls I know? A couple of cardigan's for Baby Jones due at the end of July, though still plenty of time for those? A summer top for me?  I bought a cute skirt last week when the sun was shining and thought I'd knit a cotton top to go with it.  I have narrowed it down to these patterns from the Sublime 2nd luxuriously exotic soya cotton hand knit book.  Let me know what you think.  Hubby likes Siam, but I am drawn towards Morroco.

Siam

Mojito

Morroco

So do you have plans for the Easter weekend?  We have lots of garden projects, some of which involves paving slabs, hammers, nail, wood stain and brushes.  Whatever you are doing don't eat too many bun or chocolate eggs, and if you do enjoy

In the mood............ finished

At  last I hear you cry!!  So the details:

Short-Sleeved Cardigans (In the Mood) by Sirdar Spinning Ltd - published in the Simply Knitting magazine issue 79

 

Sirdar Country Style DK - 300 grams - this yarn is lovely and soft, though it did have odd bits of white and black running through which I managed to tease out, missed a bit on front edge before taking photo but gone now.

 

I am now working on finishing the ten stitch twist by the weekend then I can start some new projects, I've stuck to my plan not to start anything new during lent, but have a pile of patterns just waiting to cast on.

Here it is Joan (-:

WIP Wednesday

another Wednesday comes around and I'm still working on my In the Mood cardigan and my Ten Stitch Twist. Nothing new has been started. I'm not sure I will press on with the socks, these will either go into hibernation or be frogged.

The In the Mood as you can see is coming along, back and sleeve completed, left front up to neck shaping. I would really like to have this out of the way by next Wednesday or at least Friday so I can show it off.

On the reading front - I am currently reading Sister by Rosamund Lupton which I am enjoying, then after that my book club read is The Elegance of Hedgehogs by Muriel Barbery, which apparently has nothing to do with prickly animals.  I sometime wonder if they give books odd titles just to make you pick them up.

Last night I went to the cinema with my youngest to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a very enjoyable feel good but thought provoking film.  Not sure I fancy going off to India in my twilight years, but it certainly looked better than some of the alternatives - old peoples retirement developments? Tell me why would you want to live with a load of other old people?  I hope I am able to stay in my own home for as long as possible, but even if I'm not I'm sure I would prefer to downsize and be in the community at large.  I'll let you know if and when the time comes.

With that I'll let you go off to enjoy some other WIPs with Tami and Yarn Along

WIP Wednesday

Just a short post today.  

I am now concentrating on finishing this Ten Stitch Twist, then it will be the In the Mood cardigan and the socks, BEFORE I start anything else. 

This is what I decided to do for Lent, nothing new started for 40 days until WIP's are all done.  I hope I can stick to this as I printed off Frankie Brown's latest offering the Button Quilt

For more WIP go over to Tami's

more signs of Spring

Now the snow has gone, there are clumps of Snowdrops popping up all over the garden, a few Hellebores also showing through the general mess that is my borders. 

A couple of completed cardigans for my future niece

And my WIP's - I have never had so many, I really am getting into bad habits

Snow on snow.....

The old wives tale about "sitting snow is waiting for more" came true yesterday.  We had a whole load more during the evening.  We had still got a good covering in the garden from the weekend, though the roads and paths have been clear.  We woke to a sunny winter wonderland.  Thankful that we are still poorly and not going to work.

On the illness front, Rebecca is still feeling ill, totally exhausted and back in bed.  Tim, doing ok.  Me, doing ok and feeling much more human today.  Peter, looks rubbish, its all on his chest and he is bringing up, well you just don't want to know!!  Rachel has finally succumbed, bless her she called round yesterday with lemons, paracetamol, Lucozade, ginger cake and crumpets, much appreciated.

The only good thing about being off work sick is that I can indulge my knitting habit.  This is my first Ten Stitch Twist, which as I said I made into a bath mat. I lined it with an old bath towel, waste not want not.  I have a second Twist on the go in chunky yarn, which I plan, if I have enough yarn, to make into a rug for one the the spare bedrooms.  I will line this with hessian to make it a bit more robust.

I also did a few more rows on the back of the In the Mood cardigan, but the Irish Moss stitch is getting boring and there is no shaping on the back so its just plain rows.  I have 3 pattern sets done on the front, but my head hurts too much to concentrate at present.

Keep warm and stay healthy