Nearly two months since I last wrote a blog post - I keep meaning to do it but then the extreme weariness that is one of the many delights of Long Covid stops me. So .... let's try again. I've sorted out a folder of photos, let's see if I can link them all up.
I am still making things, mostly very slowly but it's surprising what you can achieve in tiny bits of time. And I do mean tiny. I've been working on a 3D cottage shaped box for months now. It was originally going to be called 'Spring Cottage' but now will have to be 'Summer Cottage'. I'm determined not to have to turn it into an Autumn cottage though! I sat down to work on it yesterday, drew a few rough sketches of flowers for the walls and then had to give up - see what I mean?
Anyway, these are probably the fiddliest, most aggravating things that I've knitted for a long time ... and I made two sets of them!
These were Easter presents for my two grown up children and they were very pleased with them. If you don't know the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel, you need to read them at once. The pattern for the knitted creatures came from Frog & Cast and is very true to the original illustrations. It's not a pattern for beginners though; there's lots of detailed shaping and the knitting is done on very small needles so it's hard work. Then there's the cutting holes for the eyes ... nerve-wracking every time. I am pleased with the finished animals though.
Much easier to knit was this lovely dressed hedgehog from Knitted Animal Friends by Louise Crowther.
This was a very well designed animal - I was particularly taken by the way the foot was shaped - and the clothes have lots of pretty detail. All the animals in the book are based on the same basic body shape so the clothes can be mixed and matched. My hedgehog, who was made for a friend's birthday present, is actually wearing the pig's clothes from the book.
When I ordered the yarn for the hedgehog, I also ordered enough to knit myself this owl, although I haven't started work on him yet.
I particularly like his lace up shoes and his duffle coat. Louise has written other books, including another toy animal one, Knitted Wild Animal Friends which is very tempting.
Having knitted the hedgehog, I then made a bag to put it in; presents are always nice in a homemade bag I think. This one was a mixture of vintage barkcloth, charity shop finds and buttons.
On one of my occasional visits to Orinoco, our local scrapstore, I bought two sample books of velvet squares. They had very sticky metal stickers on each piece but, with the help of my trusty Sticky Stuff Remover (I was impressed that it worked on velvet), I ended up with lots and lots of velvet pieces.
I used just a few of them to make myself this bag. Velvet is a a pain to sew but it turned out well.
I've made two more bags for presents recently: this one to hold my Mother in law's birthday present ...
... and this one to hold presents for a new baby (more of that later).
I've lost count of how many tote bags I've made from this basic pattern over the years. If you'd like to make one (or lots) yourself, you can download the free pattern from the link under 'My Free Sewing Patterns' on the sidebar; it's the reversible tote bag.
There's one present that I've been working on for months though and the end is still not in sight. This is the quilt for my son's (big) coffee table which is the biggest quilt I've made. It went quite quickly until I started the hand quilting but that is taking me ages. Never mind, I'll get there in the end. This picture was taken just before I started the quilting.
Admittedly, it's not exactly the weather for hand quilting a large, heavy quilt. I also had a break from it to make this little quilt - much more my normal size - for the same friend I knitted the hedgehog for. It has old family photos on it which she gave me to scan years ago so I thought it was time I actually got round to turning them into a quilt. I enjoyed working on this.
That's my Pippi Jacket, hat and bootie set, together with a Lazy Vee blanket and a Paddle Ball. These things are on their way to baby Lucas who is five days old now. His parents are friends of my son's; long time readers of this blog might remember me knitting these bride and groom bees for their wedding cake a few years ago.
As soon as I'd finished making things for baby Lucas, I started again, this time for the baby of my daughter's friend (due in August). I've just finished another Pippi set.
Now I'm about halfway through another blanket. Again, I'm using the Lazy Vee pattern but, this time, with King Cole Bramble DK for the contrast colour. I really love this yarn; I'm using the brightest shade, Loganberry and I'm really pleased with how it's working out.
You need a yarn with a long colour run for this pattern; short ones just look too busy and you lose the effect of the stripes.
As well as all these things, I do actually have finished stuff ready to write up and publish. Actually, there's a bit of a backlog. Normally, I'm quite quick to publish a new pattern but ... I've been writing up the pattern for this scarf for weeks (by which I mean I wrote a few pages last month and then forgot about it).
It uses all 92 solid colours of Stylecraft Special DK but without having to sew in all the ends. I really must get back to that.
This is another little scarf, well two actually, the idea being that you can knit several in different colours and wear them together. I need to take more photos before I can start writing this one up.
The photos are holding me up with this very colourful crochet shawl pattern too.
This is it blocking but, when I took the final set of photos, I couldn't be bothered to get my big lights out ... which means I've got to do them all over again. The yarn for this is a ball of Scheepjes Whirl in a shade with the wonderful name of Rosewater Cocktail. Isn't it pretty? Also, it matches my new velvet bag!
So, am I getting on with all these patterns (or finishing some of my many unfinished projects)? Of course I'm not. I am however starting new ones. Firstly, I was tempted to design a Lazy Vee shawl, using the same technique as the baby blanket - one row stripes without cutting the yarn - this turned out to be much more complicated than I'd expected but I think I've cracked it now.
The coloured yarn is Bramble again, this time a new (to me) shade called Victoria Plum; the main colour is white.
Then, the other day, I got sidetracked by discovering African Flower crochet designs. So I played around for a while and came up with my own version, using some yarn I had in stock.
I'm using cream for the flower centres and background, Hayfield Spirit DK in Sundown for the flowers and another shade of the same yarn, this time Casper to edge the hexagons. Of course I needed to crochet yet another blanket!
I have actually managed to finish one blanket that I started years ago. This one is Tunisian Crochet and is a rainbow entrelac, worked in the round. I had terrible trouble crocheting the border as, because of the way it's constructed, the outside edges are actually on the bias (I think that was the problem anyway) which meant my crocheted border kept flaring dramatically. In the end, I reduced the number of stitches drastically and then gave it a very serious blocking.
That's one of my WIPs finished but as I've started several more, I can't really say I'm winning!
Meanwhile, I have been enjoying sitting in my garden. I haven't been well enough to do gardening this year as I did last summer but my son and daughter have rallied round, cutting the grass and dealing with the most invasive growth so that I can sit out there without worrying about it. Luckily, it is meant to be a wildlife friendly garden. At the moment, the bees are enjoying all the ox-eye daisies.
And I'm enjoying my roses. You can never have too many roses in a garden and no, I don't have enough yet. This one is called Buff Beauty ...
... and the rose we planted in a cage last year is growing well too.
I don't know the name of this red one but, as normal, it's showing off, spreading its flowers all over the patio.
What looks like the paw of a dead cat is actually Linnet, relaxing in the sunshine. She is very laid back sometimes, considering she was very badly treated as a young cat. This was her indoors this morning, waiting for the rain to stop so she could go outside again.
Meanwhile, Tolly cat likes to think of himself as a fearless hunter, stalking through the long grass but he's nothing of the sort. He likes me to be with him when he's in the garden, just in case a bee or a spider should suddenly frighten him.
You can just see him in this photo too, guarding my pot of tea while I take a picture. A pot of tea in the garden is one of my favourite things.
Speaking of which, I've been writing this for hours now and the sun has come back out so I think it's time to put the kettle on and get back out there. I hope you've enjoyed reading this.
