I don't have the right yarn!

Wouldn't you know?  Julie releases a new pattern and I don't have the yarn to knit it up.  Even though I have boxes of yarn.

These little ones are just so adorable.   Besides the ones I want to knit as gifts I think I should have one for myself.

I have been reading "Blinky Bill" with my youngest grand daughter, Jasmine.  She loves these kind of toys.

This book was her father's, who loved the stories as well.

So, even though I am itching to get started I have to get some more yarn.  Bother!!!

Where I live and planning some more knitting

I am a bit stiff and sore after digging a new flower bed but it is spring and time to get things in the ground to grow. 

My 'feral flowers' this week are all from the bush with the exception of a few lavender flowers I put it for their perfume and a couple of azalea flowers for colour. The rest are considered weeds.   The crucifix orchid also come in a pink, purple and yellow but it is the orange ones that have gone wild.

It has been a sad week with the death of a childhood friend across the border.  There was no opportunity to see her again or talk to her but that is COVID.  My cousin, who is also across the border has cancer, caused by the drugs she was given when she was treated for breast cancer a number of years ago.  Our mothers where first cousins who were brought up as sisters and my mother died from breast cancer and her mother survived.  We know that we carry the gene and Beverly has been the unfortunate one who got the very aggressive form.

Her daughter so wanted children but after years of IVF treatment finally gave up.  Now at 44 years of age she finds herself pregnant.  I just gave away all my baby wool stash thinking I would never need it again.  I should have known something like this would happen.  I can order more wool on-line to knit her a hap.

A Hap is a Scottish shawl that can be used for a babe or an adult.

This pattern is from Shetland Traders.

The Danish Royals left hospital with their twins wrapped in haps.

This pattern is an old Paton's one that I have used before.  You can still get it on-line.

But we know the new baby is going to be a boy so perhaps a blue hap would be better?

The baby is due in January so I might look at knitting it in 1ply yarn?   I can get that from Bendigo Woollen Mills or from Scotland.

J & S knitting mills have a good article about haps.

And as an extra I see that Julie Williams from Little Cotton Rabbits is going to put out a koala pattern.  I must get that.

I need to get my current knitting finished so I can get started.

 

WIPW

I am working on my Kogin class.  I started with an edge to edge design but as I stitched it out realised that the counting would be too hard for some people.  With this in mind I extracted the centre design and have just stitched that part, to begin.  I am also using the very last of my old cotton.  (The manufacturers reduced the metreage in the skein for the new cotton.)  And you know like all older threads it tends to knot, so I will be happy when that is used up.

The knitting is back out of the bag again.  This is being knitted in one piece, no seams.  I put the sleeve onto 4 needles as I think that it will be easier to manage.

The native grass that I planted near one of the bird baths actually has flowers.  So pretty.  I will have to think about that as an embroidery design.  I have that AGM to night and will be glad to see the back of that.

WIPW

Well as you can see from the last couple of posts I am drawing patterns for new embroideries.  I haven't been able to put my mind to this for ages but that Japanese fabric gave me so many ideas.  Then, I walk the dog twice a day and this takes me through the bush.  I never actually 'saw' some of the things that have now claimed my attention.  Amazing what one little thing can start.

So I am working on another small embroidery, this time of some gum leaves.  I was taken by the fact that the colours were the same as some thread that I had in my thread box, this is a Stef Francis thread.  The leaves are just gum leaves but the shapes and colours caught my attention.  It may not work out, but I will give it a try.

My knitting is still here.  It has been unpulled and re- knitted a number of times but now I am up to the sleeves.  As the weather is on the turn I think this will be for next winter, so I have made it a little larger.

And I'm still working on the backing for the quilt.   I have to use the left over fabric so it will be almost another quilt!

WIPW

Firstly, the shawl is finished and blocked.  I changed the pattern slightly so achieve the fit I wanted.  I'm going to get a lot of wear out of this one.

Next, lots of reverse sewing. That disaster quilt just has to come undone and I have to be so careful unpicking it because all the seams are on the bias.

I have worked out how to save it, with the help of my friend Angela.  Lots of text messages later we agreed on this mock-up I came up with.

The extra squares in red on the body are appliqued in place and although the piping in the picture is actually masking tape I was able to get some fabric fairly near this colour.  I intend to bind it in this as well.

And whilst in the fabric shop I saw this display of Riley Blake fabrics.

I have just the quilt for it in my mind, I just have to draw it up and work out how much fabric I need.

Ready to Knitt

As I am still waiting on that Scottish wool and as some of the Bendigo Woollen Mills wool has arrived I have decided to start on this new cardigan.  But you can't start unless everything is organised.  So, with that scrap fabric I made a new project bag.

This time I cross hatched the quilting in a purple thread.  (So labour intensive!)

I couldn't make sense of the instructions in the manual for my new sewing machine so spent a considerable amount of time looking at tutorials for the machine on U Tube.  Computerised machines are great IF you know all the commands for the computer.  All I wanted was to be able to move the needle over.  Two broken needles later I had it all worked out.  The breaking of the needles was partly caused because of the thickness of the quilted fabrics, all those seams joining the pieces together were just too much for the needles at times.

But, I'm pleased with the bag which holds 400g of wool, the pattern and needles.

It is raining here so it looks like a wet weekend coming up. Perfect for knitting.

WIPW

Well HALF the order for wool from Australia has arrived.  No sign of the Scottish one yet.  Now I'm trying to work out what the pattern for the cardigan, that I want to knit, actually says.  It assumes I have so much knowledge that I don't have.  I'm looking for some advice on-line from someone who has already knitted it and I have a fall back pattern just in case I can't work it out.

 

I got my first lot of scraps in order and have quilted some fabric for project bags. I used one piece of my photo transfer fabric and I think I will try other photos of the island as well.  I have a few ideas about how I might develop this design and incorporate re-cycling.

I made another project bag from one of the orphan blocks I had.  It turned out to be a lot of work but as I want the bag to hold a project I'm about to start I don't mind all that work.  It is hard to see the quilting but I used a red thread to cross hatch the surrounds and back of the bag.

I linned it with a red fabric that I rolled the top of so it would show as a piping.  It fits the frame well and has internal pockets for all the other pieces.

This leaves me with just a small roll of left over to use, but, I have just found a couple more bags of scraps in the cupboard.

The quilt is now completely finished.

It was a bit hard to photograph so I hung it from my back  1st floor patio.  It is out of the wind and a sun trap in winter and a great place to work.

Because I use a hidden hemming method for the binding it took a whole day to hand stitch  but I like the fact that you can't see the stitching.

When you write it down I actually did quite a lot this week.

 

 

Taking bets

I had to place an order for some extra wool from Scotland, so I ordered a bit more to make a beret.  At the same time my grand daughter requested a new cardigan and we decided on a Drops pattern.

She is growing up and will be a 11 at the end of the year but I feel the teenage angst already.  She wants this cardigan but in a dark colour because she would like to be a "Goth".  (I've been through that with her aunt!)

So at the same time I ordered wool from Scotland I placed an order with Bendigo Woollen Mills.  They have a nice wool/bamboo yarn that doesn't prickle and is soft on the skin.

Now I have to wait for both wools. 

I have had two Emails.  One from Scotland.

One from Australia.

I am placing bets that the goods from the other side of the world will get here first!!

What are the odds?

 

Along with everything else...

As you have probably gathered I love knitting.  I also really enjoy Kate Davies blog.  At the moment she is looking at the "Blue Stocking" movement, if that is the right word for it.  She and others are working on a book about this and recreating some of the knitted "blue stockings".  This blog post is really interesting and in fact I may even embark on knitting some "Blue Stockings" myself. 

We often use this term in a throw away manner.  "Oh she is a blue stocking".  It will be good to really investigate Elizabeth Montagu and just what made people call her a "Blue Stocking".

You can read more about this project here.

WIPW

I am not quite as well as I thought but I am improving.  I hope to go to Toowoomba this weekend but I will not make a final decision until Friday.  I still have to prepare the work I will take with me, so that is what I am doing at the moment.

There are 2 quilts I want to finish the piecing and then quilt.  The first is made up of Peter Bunny prints.  I have made one quilt from this fabric but still had a lot left over.  These panels are not straight so they need to be unpicked and resewn, then the rest of the panels added to make a quilt.  This will be a donation quilt.

The second is another quilt that I have put away and not finished.  It needs one more graffitti block to be added, I have a dog coming out of a manhole that I want to put in.  Then I have to think about the borders.  But, I might be better without any borders?  I intend to get the opinion of the other ladies who will be there.

And as winter is fast approaching and I don't see well at night I am continuing with my knitting.

I always take too much away with me for these weekends so this time I am being prudent.