A Bit of Work and a Lot of Roses

Those of you who despaired of me ever publishing another pattern will be glad to hear that I've started working again. I'm only doing about half an hour at a time but it's a start. All this week I've been writing up my pattern for a lace version of the Ten Stitch Blanket.

It's hard going as a) I knitted it a while ago so it's not fresh in my mind, b) my notes for it are scattered all over my current notebook and c) it took me a while to remember how to use my pattern writing software. I've got as far as the garter stitch I cord edging now though so the end of the first draft is in sight.

I've also just started work on a new bunting pattern to go with my Spring, Autumn and Christmas bunting patterns (no links for these as they messed up my formatting). This one will be inspired by Summer and, so far, I've sorted out the colours I'm going to use and knitted the first of the twelve flags.

I used my cross stitch Summer sampler from Little Dove Designs to find the colours for this one as they're probably going to be displayed together.

This is a straightforward project at the moment as I can just copy my pattern for the flags from the other patterns. The tricky part will come when I have to design little knitted motifs to represent Summer. So far, I've though of an ice cream but I can't decide whether it should be an ice lolly or a 99 cornet. For the non-British, this is a vanilla ice cream with a chocolate flake stuck in it. Personally, I would never touch the whippy sort of ice cream often used for these which is the work of the devil. 

While I'm on the subject of ice cream, you might like to try my late Mother-in law's lemon ice cream which has got to be the easiest recipe ever. You take equal quantities of lemon curd and double cream (I use a 300g jar of the curd and 300 ml of cream), whisk them together until they're well mixed, pour into a container and freeze. That's all there is to it. You don't need to take it out of the freezer in advance as the spoon goes into it straight away and it's very, very tasty. The amounts I use fill one of these square 750 ml boxes.

Now for a rose update. No sooner had the first one flowered than all the rest decided to get their acts together and join the race. I give you ...

Kew Gardens

Buff Beauty

and the wonderfully named Tottering-by-Gently

As you can see, this last one is in the front garden by the railings, showing off to passers by. Just along from it is The Poet's Wife which isn't in flower yet but is absolutely full of buds.

Meanwhile, the first rose of this year has got lots more flowers on the way.

Lady of Shalott

I love my roses but I'm also fond of the common flowers that some call weeds. The grass out the back is getting long and tatty now but it can't be cut before the ox-eye-daisies have flowered and they're very nearly there, along with some woodland buttercups. Any day now ...

The Little Things

Hello everyone. I thought I would squeeze in one last blog post before Christmas. I find the extra work and change of routine involved with the festive season puts extra pressure on my already fragile health which, for someone who has always loved Christmas, is rather sad. The greatest pleasure I get at this time of year is from the quiet times when I don't have to deal with people or, in fact, do anything much so I thought I'd share some of the little things that are helping me at the moment.

I love all the decorations that I've collected over the years, many of them made by my children or myself. My daughter spent a day the other week putting them all up for me and I'm really enjoying them. The tree in the picture above is my 'special' tree which is in the latest room to be decorated. When I say the latest, the rugs arrived a day before the tree went up. It's basically a spare bedroom but, as you can see, I've saved a cosy reading corner complete with my Mum's rocking chair.

One of the most exciting things about finishing this room is that we've finally been able to get all my Mum's quilts out of the bin bags they were languishing in and on to the big set of shelves we bought to house them. I'll start showing them to you in the new year but, in the meantime, I've been able to put some of the Christmas ones up on the wall at last. This one, behind the rocking chair, is my favourite.

Opposite the reading corner, in the alcove by the fireplace, is the little stained glass robin quilt Mum made us years ago which I love.

The dolls house on the table below it is one I've had for many years but have never had time to decorate and furnish. I'm hoping to make a start on it next year now that I've got a space to work on it. For now, Father Christmas is trying to work out how to get down the chimney.

We have always had baskets of Christmas picture books out at Christmas. There are two more baskets of them under the piano downstairs but I have got one basket up in this room.

After a bit of a struggle, we managed to hang my Christmas Bunting above the fireplace and then Rose decorated the mantelpiece with pretty things and gingerbread men lights. I'm not sure what the lace knitted fairy thinks she's up to.

Tolly cat isn't a little thing and he's definitely not just for Christmas but he does make me smile. He loves the patchwork coverlet I've put over the bed (to keep cat hairs off the clean bedding underneath). Here he is in a quiet moment in between hunting all those little hexagons. And yes, he really does do that.

As well as the quilts, I have a lovely collection of Christmas stockings that my Mum made me - a new one every year. We hang these on doors around the house. This one is on the front room door this year.

It was one of the first ones Mum made and, as you can see, it's a collage of photos of the children at Christmas when they were small. I also have this beautiful cross stitch stocking which Rose gave me a while ago - this one's on the airing cupboard door.

There's another tree in the front room and more decorations. It was a bit dark to take good photos this morning (it's gloomy most of the day at this time of year) but here are an assortment of knitted things on the piano.

You might recognise some of them as old patterns of mine. The round candle quilt above the piano is another one of Mum's and the little knitted cone snowman was a present from my friend Pat a few years ago.

The front room mantelpiece is pretty too. It's a mixture of old, treasured things, some new and a bit of knitting.

That's my Christmas Wreath hanging between photos of my much-missed Granny as a toddler and on her wedding day.

I've been enjoying my cross stitch this year and there are two new ornaments on this mantelpiece. Here you can see my pyramid shaped Christmas tree; the tree is different on each of the four sides.

I also cross stitched what was called a Christmas pincushion but decided to use it as an ornament stand instead ...

The village scene continues round all four sides and then there's a big snowflake on the top. Again, my apologies for the bad light in these pictures. You get the general idea though. At the other end of the mantelpiece are my cherished tiny crib, a cross stitch gingerbread house and a very pretty old tin. The tiny quilt propped up by the radio is another one of Mum's. She made them into fabric postcards, complete with a terrible poem on the back.

Something else I'm really enjoying this year (as I do every year) is getting out my Christmas china to use. I've collected so many pretty festive mugs that they don't all fit on the shelves. You can see a few of them in this picture.

Choosing which one to use each time I put the kettle on makes a cup of tea a bit special. The teapots on the dresser have their Christmas cosies on too ...

... and I've knitted new ones for the smallest ones this year. Here they are on the tray I use every day which I've lined with one of Mum's Christmas placemats so it's ready for Christmas too.

As a family we really enjoy our advent calendars and, this year, we've each had three different ones. We share pictures of them every day which is nice as we are all in different places. Firstly, we have paper advent calendars. Mine this year was a Brambly Hedge one. Here it is on my bedroom fireplace.

There's a bit of a competition each day as to which of the three of us has the prettiest picture but with festive mice I think I'm winning this year. While we're in this room my little criss-cross shelves are Christmassy too.

My little beaded Christmas village has grown again this year. I think I need to make some stands though so that the houses and things can stand at different heights. New to it this year are (I think) another building, some trees, a post box and a couple of street lights. Next on the list will be a church I think. I'm also very fond of this book which I read again the other day ...

We always have an advent jigsaw each year too. The pieces are divided between 24 envelopes and put together one day at a time. There was much hilarity when Jack's first day consisted almost entirely of white snow pieces! This is how my puzzle is looking after nineteen days.

The third set of advent calendars is the result of my concentration this year on improving my tatting skills. Over many months I tatted three sets of 24 snowflakes, three in each pattern. We have one set each (they're different sizes) and we add one to our snowflake trees each day. I'll write about this project properly next year but here's how my tree is looking today.

So, I may not be able to do very much or celebrate with friends and family as I would have done before the Long Covid but, when I think about it, there are lots of little things around me that make me smile and give me comfort. I hope that wherever you are and whatever your situation you all have a Happy and peaceful Christmas.

Autumn Bunting Pattern

After a glimpse of my new Autumn Bunting last time, you might like to know that I've got the pattern written up and published. You can download it for free on Ravelry. As normal, if you like it, I do encourage you to make a donation to the Children's Liver Disease Foundation, the charity that I support through my work. I started doing this back in 2008 and, over the years, knitters and crocheters around the world have helped me to raise over £25,000 for this very deserving cause. You can donate directly to the charity or via my fundraising page here.

So ... would you like a closer look at the new pattern? Like my Spring Bunting, there are all sorts of details to find.

It's a very long pattern - 24 pages - the proofreading alone took hours. What you get though is lots of little patterns: two sorts of flags, the knitted letters and then five decorations. These could be knitted separately and sewn on to scarves or hats or, in the case of the hedgehogs, used as toys or ornaments.

I got a bit carried away with the hedgehogs and, as well as the slightly flat one used on the bunting (think road kill, only less kill and more mildly squashed), I included a pattern for a smaller hedgehog too so that you could make a family of fatter ones as little toys.

I rather like the toadstool too. It's not easy to design something small and simple to knit that still looks like what it's meant to be. The trick with this design is not to make it too regular; it turns out that a leaning toadstool looks much more natural than a straight one.

My favourite part of this pattern though has got to be the fox's head. This was the most challenging thing to design; in the end I built it up in knitted layers and then added embroidery to bring it to life.

I hope people won't be put off by the embroidery; it's really not that difficult to do. Those fur-like little stitches around the edges of the knitted shapes make all the difference. Before I added them, it could just have easily been a deer's head.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this latest variation of my bunting patterns. Next year, when I've recovered from writing such a long pattern, I'm hoping to complete the set with some Summer and Winter themed bunting.