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.

New Things

Amongst all the monotony there have been a few new things here lately which I thought I'd show you. The first one isn't very exciting but extremely necessary.

My laptop Mabel (all my laptops are called Mabel) suddenly stopped working last month and, after  over a week at the repair shop, they came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth mending. Getting a new one was easy enough but it was hard work putting all my software and stuff back on it. It's all done now though so I'm able to get back to work. One good thing is that the new Mabel has a dark keyboard. I made the mistake of getting a silver one last time which meant I couldn't read the letters at all. My touch typing isn't bad but it is nice to be able to actually see what's written on the keys. Does anybody else have this problem?

Much more interesting was the arrival in January of my new recorder.

It's a Yamaha Bass and I bought it from Just Flutes, a woodwind specialist shop who for some reason sell it for a chunk less money than everywhere else. I first realised there were different sized recorders when a group visited my primary school with what were then called Descant, Treble, Tenor and Bass recorders. Now the two smaller sizes are generally called Soprano and Alto. I remember telling my Mum all about them when I got home and thinking maybe one day when my hands were bigger ...

My hands still aren't very big but I've had the first three of these sizes for some years now although I struggle with the reach on the tenor. I've been following Sarah Jeffery's Team Recorder for years (which I thoroughly recommend by the way) and she says that the reach on the bass is actually less than the tenor because it has keys for some of the holes. And she's right! Despite it being so big, I can reach all the notes much more easily on my new recorder and the sound is beautiful.

Mind you, working out how to play it without hurting my back took quite a bit of trial and error. I've ended up wearing the sling across my body rather than just round my neck and that, as well as constantly checking that I'm sitting up straight, seems to have done the trick.

The bass recorder, like the alto, is in F so you can play music written for the alto on it but I thought I'd challenge myself to use music written in the bass clef which is what is used in orchestras. It's harder to find but I ordered several books from Recorder Music Mail who have a very comprehensive catalogue.

As I've played the piano for over fifty years I thought reading bass music wouldn't be too much of a problem. Turns out I was wrong. I'm getting there though. At the moment I'm alternating between the bass and the alto every day so I do sometimes find myself playing the notes for the wrong recorder but it'll settle down eventually.

There's exciting news on the tenor recorder front too. Kunath have just brought out an amazing new recorder called the Sigo which is about the size of an alto recorder but sounds like a tenor. Isn't that exciting?. I am resisting the temptation but one day ... It's also very reasonably priced. If you'd like to know more, Sarah Jeffery did a great review of it on her channel - Sigo Recorder - and here's a little sample of what it can do.

Right. More new things. Isn't this the prettiest notebook ever? 

This notebook is the control centre for my 'make all the birthday cards I send in 2025' project (I know, catchy title) I had a lovely time going through all my saved patterns and kits, working out what to stitch for everyone on my list. I've ordered lots more threads which is always fun and I use my Sizzix machine to cut aperture cards as well as bobbins for all those new threads. 

I stitch most evenings and am really enjoying it. I've only got about three cards to go now and that's despite having well over twenty on my list - not to mention the two people who were inconsiderate enough to move house this year. I can't show you most of them as they haven't been given yet but here's my daughter's birthday card from February ...

... and those two new home cards ...

I did sneak in a bit of my normal cross stitch while waiting for a thread order so my Hogsmeade picture now has another building and a lamp post ready for Hedwig to sit on.

As well as cross stitch, I've used blackwork, ribbon embroidery and counted canvaswork for some of the cards which I've really enjoyed. The source for these patterns is often my collection of old 'New Stitches' magazines. This was unusual among stitching magazines in that it included lots of different techniques rather than just cross stitch. I'm gradually collecting old issues when I can find them and, just before Christmas, I bought a big pile from ebay.

One type of embroidery that I discovered through these magazines is Lagartera which is a lovely counted thread technique from Spain which can be used to make very nice geometric designs. And no, I can't show you the lagartera card I made yet. However, Mary Hickmott, the editor of 'New Stitches' published several booklets on different embroidery techniques (I have the hardanger ones which are very good) so I've been keeping an eye out for the one she wrote about lagartera. Then, a few weeks ago, I found not only the booklet but also a materials pack to go with it.

It includes all the fabric, threads and finishing bits and pieces to make everything in the book. I can't wait to make that bell pull later in the  year.

Now that I have a working laptop again I'm also trying to write up new patterns as there are a lot of finished things waiting to be published, not to mention an awful lot of half finished designs. Anyway, the next one will be this yellow garter stitch lace scarf, the first of far too many scarf patterns either in progress or waiting to be written up.

I'm also trying to tidy up my craft room after the avalanche of new Stylecraft Special colours which swamped my yarn storage system. I'm slowly getting it back under control. Theoretically, I know where all my craft things are now and this normally proves to be the case apart from ... when it doesn't.

For years I've been looking for a doll from the 1960s who reminds me of one my brother gave me one Christmas. Her name is Kelly and she came as an offer with Kelloggs cereal. One of the reasons I wanted her was that I have a booklet of knitting patterns for her clothes that Patons published specially for her and I though it would be nice to knit some of them. Anyway, I finally got lucky (ebay again) and, after re-stringing her arms and a bit of a tidy up, here she is.

She was only ever a cheaply made doll but I think she's rather nice and she came with her original clothes too which was a bonus. I bet you can guess what's coming next. I went to get the knitting booklet out and it wasn't there! Where have I put it? Who knows? So Kelly will have to wait a bit for her new clothes.

One more new thing which is not at all nice is that I've made a start on the next room in the house to be re-decorated and sorted out. This time I'm having to do it in two halves so, this morning, I made a start.

All I can say is that it looks worse in real life than in the picture. This was the damp corner and those dark patches are where the plaster crumbled as I took off the lining paper. So tomorrow I shall be up the ladder filling them all. That's if I can track the filler down. It will be better when I get on to the painting. At least you feel you're making progress then rather than going backwards.

Lately I've been ...

 ... sorting. Again, or should that be 'still'? The endless sort and re-decoration of the house continues. Having done the two rooms on the top floor, now it's the turn of the middle floor. These rooms are going to have a less specific purpose so it's a question of what will fit where and what we need to buy or move. 

The biggest of the two middle rooms will be a spare bedroom but with space for me to craft in too. To be fair, I'm factoring in space for me to craft in just about every room, with the possible exception of the bathroom. This room is also going to be the home of my Mum's quilts too which are currently piled up in bin bags. We're hoping to get a deep wardrobe with shelves to house them in a much more dignified way.

The smaller room is currently my sewing room and will stay as that. It's where I keep my modern sewing machine and all my haberdashery. 

I built this desk and the cubby holes many years ago but I'm now in the middle of making storage boxes that fit each of the holes so as to fit more into them. The fabric boxes on the bottom two rows hold all my sewing threads, sorted by colour. These used to be spilling out of baskets all over the place so it's nice to have them properly organised and stored. 

I decided to use some of the cubby holes at the top to hold things that were bulky but light. For these, I've made card boxes out of old sheets of mountboard that I used to use as backdrops for photography, stuck together with paper tape and covered with pretty coloured card. They're rough and ready but they do the job.

The card boxes may be quick to make but the same can't be said of the smaller boxes on the row below. These are rectangular knitted boxes with plastic canvas inserts and they take ages to make. They are, however, really useful for all the little bits and bobs. Like sewing needles for example ...

The darkest red box holds tapestry and cross stitch needles and betweens for hand quilting. I made the little patchwork bag for my Mum to hold her quilting needles and there are still over one hundred needles in it! All size 10 so, needless to say, I haven't considered using any other size.

Of course I'm still adding things to the two rooms we've already done. The big project at the moment is a pair of patchwork curtains for my craft room. These are going to be unlined and I'm sewing the squares together with French seams so that there won't be any visible raw edges. Just cutting out all the squares took weeks and then I had to lay out the first curtain's worth (96 squares) and work out an arrangement I liked.

I took photos to help with this as clumps of one colour show up better that way. As there were so many squares, this involved a certain amount of climbing ...

I did have two furry helpers though. Here's Linnet checking the final arrangement.

She's getting very brave about coming into that room now. It helps that, being so high up, it's a good place for watching birds - one of her many interests.

Do you know it takes an hour to sew one row of eight squares together and add it to the others? I'm adding one row a day and this first curtain currently has nine rows of eight squares. Here's what the first two rows looked like; from the right side ...

... and the wrong side. See? No raw edges.

When they're up against the window the light will shine through the coloured squares but those doubled seams will be darker, giving a sort of washed out stained glass effect. Well that's the plan anyway.

You wouldn't believe how much thread this is using. I think I'm on my fifth bobbin already. I've just ordered one of those battery operated bobbin winders as I find the threading on my machine fiddly to do. I decided that if there was going to be a time to buy one of these gadgets this was it.

What else have I been doing? Well, there's been quite a lot of knitting of course. I've knitted two sizes of baby hats, based on my Ten Stitch Hat pattern. The smallest one was particularly tricky.

I'll turn these into a pattern when I get round to it. I think the little one is about right for a young baby; the big one is more of a toddler size but who knows?

I've also knitted my daughter a pair of socks, mainly because I thought it was time I wrote up my basic sock pattern and I needed to take the step by step photos. This one I have managed to publish.

Frankie's Basic Socks

There's been quite a bit of cross stitch too. I've finished another ornament from the magazine that was in my Christmas stocking. This one is a Poinsettia Angel.

I'm still working on the Christmas sampler that I started years ago too. I decided that, if I only worked on it at Christmas, it will never get finished so, this year, I've kept it out.

The design is called Christmas Patchwork and it's from the Historical Sampler Company. I think I'm about half way through but it's solid stitching so even the smallest block takes quite a while.

While we were turning out a cupboard (yes, more sorting), I found my Granny's old needlepoint frame and decided it needed to be put to use. Working out how it went together was quite straightforward but then it took me a while to make some tension straps for the sides of the canvas.

This is when all that haberdashery sorting came into its own. I knew just where to find some dungaree clips and a roll of cotton tape to make straps that are easy to move when needed. I also had to make myself a new needle minder (of course I did). Self-cover buttons and extra strong magnets? No problem, already sorted.

I've set up the frame in my new bedroom. It's too nice a room just to sleep in. I can sit by the window and look out over the garden while I work and it stands against the wall in between sessions.

The canvas is a Primavera design called Shaker Village and I'm thoroughly enjoying 'colouring it in'. So far I've done a barn, a tree and a horse.

They also do a winter version of this design called Winter Village. Maybe when I finish this one I could do that one too?

In between all this craft and sorting (or at the same time if it's knitting), I'm always reading. I read a mixture of ebooks, real books and audiobooks, depending on what I'm doing. 

Do you remember me showing you my shelf of Abbey Girls books in my new bedroom? Well, I decided it was time to read through them in order. There are some I've never read and, although I don't have them all, I thought it would be nice to read them in order. I'm following the reading order recommended by the Elise J Oxenham Society rather than going by the date of publication. She re-visited the series later and filled in lots of gaps so this makes sense. 

I'm on the third of my books and am really enjoying them. My daughter has a few I don't have so I shall borrow those when I get to them and I'm hoping to find secondhand copies of the rest. There are half a dozen or so which are prohibitively expensive but, luckily, both the Oxenham Society and the publisher Girls Gone By issued paperback reprints of these. These are now out of print but you can get them secondhand.

I've only just found out that the Children's Press editions of three of the books (published in the 1960s) were heavily abridged, including my favourite The Abbey Girls in Town. I've just order myself an unabridged copy from one of my favourite Etsy shops tygertale. Isn't that exciting? One of my favourite books just got longer. 

Anyway, the other main thing I've been doing (with a lot of help) is gardening. I can only do a small amount at a time because of a) my chronic back condition and b) the Long Covid. In a way though, it's just as well the pain stops me as otherwise I'd be tempted to carry on which wouldn't do me any good at all. 

A few weeks ago my daughter helped me plant my latest purchase in the front garden.

One of three bundles of sticks / bare root roses that we've put in by the railings. One day they will be beautiful. My other roses (no, you can never have too many roses) are all full of buds and the first flower appeared about ten days ago.

This is  Kew Gardens, now a nice little shrub, although this one too was a mere bundle of sticks two years ago. There's hope for the others yet.

One more thing before I go. I've been fascinated to watch the progress of this year's Sheffield Peregrines who hatched the other week. I don't look too closely at feeding time - head of a pigeon anyone? - but seeing the chicks grow is amazing. Have a look.