Wimbledon tea cozies & sleepy creatures!

I have been busy beavering away trying to stock up for my next craft fair. Here a few things I've finished!

Sleepy creatures!

Tea cozies, cup of tea anyone, perfect for a cup of tea whilst watching the tennis!

This yarn is gorgeous is supersoft Rooster Almerino (50% Baby Alpaca and 50% merino wool), beautiful to knit with. ( I have three tea cozies).

Custom order bunting to match a kitchen..

And lot of other things, more bunting, iphone cozies, zipped pouches, lavender bags, peg bags, crocheted bunting, cuddly bunnies and aprons all of which I still need to photograph! Phew! I am enjoying it though and seemed to have developed a system that works for me of making sure whatever I'm working on is all cut out and ready the night before so that the next day I can sit down and sew straight away in the morning. Otherwise I tend to waste time dithering about what I'm going to make before I actually start doing it. Bags tomorrow!

No Words Friday

A veritable feast for the eyes!

I have been checking the post every day to see if it had arrived... and today it finally did! The much anticipated first issue of Mollie Makes!

I took the chance to have a sneaky read over lunch today. Oops the table cloth looks a bit creased! (A little peek of my placemats and coasters that will be in my new online shop soon!).

Its great that we have a much better selection of craft magazines now than we did a few years ago, so I wondered whether this one would have anything different to add.

I was sooo not disappointed!

Page 2, I have to show you the lovely advert from Loop as it has a lovely Julie Arkell creature on it.

And these pom pom garlands, I really want to make these!

Knitted bunting ditto ! Can see these looking fab in my kitchen.

(It's from Jane Brockets new book the Gentle Art of Knitting which is on my Amazon wish list).

Fabulous frilly aprons, I've got a thing about frilly aprons and some will be appearing in my new shop soon!

I am love seeing other peoples houses and particularly their work space, so I'm hoping this will be a regular feature.

There's also an interview with the lovely Tif Fussell from Dottie Angel. I love her work and regularly read her blog so was really pleased to see her featured. If all issues are as good as this one then this is definitely "my new favourite craft magazine." Have you read it? What did you think?

ps. whilst the salad looks very virtuous it hasn't all been health eating this week... The other night I had dream I had that I ate a huge packet of white chocolate buttons. Reality hit I woke up the next day and found a white chocolate button stuck to my bottom (of my pyjamas!).

Did I say that?

At certain points of knitting the Shalom Cardigan I do remember saying that if I ever suggest knitting something again, shoot me...

So how come only a week after casting off on that project I happened to be passing my LYS and couldn't pass without picking up my next knitting project?!

The yarn! This is the most deliciously soft yarn. Its Rowan Cocoon in Petal. 80% merino and 20% kid mohair. So beautiful, so soft, so lovely against the skin. I really want to wear something I've knitted in it! I leafed through the Rowan Cocoon pattern book in the shop and liked almost everything in it, so even though I spent a few extra pennies buying the book I know I will definitely be knitting more from it.

I plan to start with this as a summer cardigan.

And then this one for Autumn/Winter.

I love that cardigan I can myself wearing it a lot.

And this gorgeous v necked jumper.

On the way home I had The Most Delicious Boathouse Burger. Yum! Highly recommended if you are ever passing Farndon (The Boathouse) a lovely place on the river with lovely food.

Ps. Did you spy the knit pro needles? Ridiculously expensive but I have heard so many knitters raving about them, so I am hoping they will make the process less stressful this time round! We'll see!

I did it, I did it, oh yeah, I did it!

Imagine me dancing around in the garden like a mad woman singing the above yesterday afternoon...

I finally finished the Shalom cardigan! My first ever knitted garment!

The fraught hours that went into the making this, the cursing when I went wrong (notice the two extra stripes?). The painful unpicking a couple of rows stitch by stitch (when I misread the pattern and made a stitch every alternate stitch instead of just once). Almost giving up but carrying on thanks to Debs encouragement!

Its made with Rowan Purelife, British Sheep Breeds Chunky Undyed 100% British Wool from a Steel Grey Suffolk and I'm really pleased with it!!

It probably was a bit ambitious for the only the third thing I have ever knitted (number one, the fingerless mitts, number two, the gaptastic cowl) but I learnt how to "make one" how to "decrease" how to "purl into the back" and "knit into the back". Knitting for me has definitely proved to be a much steeper learning curve than crochet, because if you go wrong with crochet you can undo it and you always come back to "a loop" you can continue from, you always know where you are, whereas with knitting it seems so much harder to rectify if you go wrong or harder to undo.. I suppose that will come with experience.

So despite saying I would never knit anything again, I'm already back on Ravelry looking up my next project! (Which I think is going to be the Tea Leaves cardigan that I saw on Kates blog Foxs Lane, I just need to study the pattern and see if I think I could do it.

As well as finishing my cardigan, this weekend my husband has been busy painting my new workroom, and I've been busy moving everything back in! Can't wait to show you this week when its all ship shape!

Easter & knitting

Phew where did those days go?! We had a super busy half term, after our London days away we have been on an Easter Egg Hunt in the woods,

on a print making Easter cards workshop at the Harley Gallery

had lots of fun sewing and stitching on an brilliant Easter Making workshop with Louise at Hope & Elvis.

Picnicking

Hot tubbing at a friends house (no pictures I'm afraid!), family bbqs, car booting (more of that another day) gardening, and a bit of time for knitting! I've made some progress on the Shalom cardigan. Look...

Thanks for the encouragement Debs I have persevered and you were right - the bit past the cable has been much faster and more enjoyable. I have gone wrong again a couple of times (I'm not sure why I think I must have picked it up back to front or something?!), so I have a couple of unintentional stripes. The thought of unpicking it was too scary, so I have left them in, but I like to think it makes it my own!

Lastly, most exciting of all........ I have a window in my workroom!! I was blown away with my window which replaces two velux windows you couldn't see out of,

when my workspace is reinstated I will have this view!!

and a perfect space for cutting fabrics and patterns!

I can't wait for it to be finished so I can paint it and get all my stuff back in. To do that I will have to sort out all of this!

Thats next weekend's job then! Enjoy your three day week! xxx

Lovely few days down south

We've just returned for a lovely long weekend down south, in our caravan just outside London, which we used as a base for days out.

It was my birthday on friday which was spent at Legoland watching the little peeps going mad in the sunshine.

My favourite bit of the whole park is Miniland, especially Amsterdam

and London.

This year they had set up the Royal Wedding at Buckingham Palace

The next day we visited Windsor Castle another lovely day out (not many pics though as you can't take pictures inside, but well worth a visit, especially to see the fantastic Dolls House).

And who would have guessed that there was a Cath Kidston shop bang opposite?

Of course I had to have a tiny look, I loved how it was decorated inside, especially the patchwork wallpaper.

(I googled it when I got home and found out it is for sale but its a whopping £150 a roll!).

Upstairs was the fabric & bedding department.

I came away with an ironing board cover and some fabric samples (including this one in the middle below) as I'm planning to make some curtains for our new bedroom and recover a headboard (in a different blue floral, below, below!).

Day three, and a day at the Natural History Museum, The Science Museum, and a quick look round the V&A. Again, not many photos but the children loved it and we all wished we'd had more time to spend there.

I took my knitting away with me. I am still knitting the Shalom cardigan from Ravelry but I am not enjoying it. In fact on in the car after a lot of huffing and puffing I would rather sit and look out the window than knit, most unlike me! I think its because I went wrong but carried on anyway because I wasn't sure how to unpick it, and because the rows are so long I'm finding it tedious... The first two lots of ribs look ok, then I had to add lots more stitches and the third lot of ribs look a mess.

I am one third through it and approaching the armholes and am seriously considering undoing it all and giving up. What do you think?

The Gaptastic Cowl

I've just finished my second knitting project The Gaptastic Cowl.

Its from Ravelry and has had hundreds of knitters knitting it. The lady who wrote the pattern made after going into Gap and thinking "I can make that", she counted the stitches and went home and knitted it up. It was a really easy knit for a novice knitter like me, knit and purl in the round, the superchunky yarn meant it knitted up really quickly I used Rowan Drift superchunky 100% merino (3 balls).

Here I am wearing it. (Excuse the rubbish photos).

This yesterday afternoon I started my third project, a cardigan. The pattern is also from Ravelry (The Shalom Cardigan) and looks fairly simple, (although there are bits in the pattern I haven't a clue what they mean, but I figure I'll pick it up as I go along. Thank you YouTube!). Its knitted on circular needles as well.

The yarn (from the lovely Little Wool Shop in Southwell) is Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky Undyed. I'm using the Steel Grey Suffolk a really pretty pale grey. I'll let you know how it goes. I might have to pick your brains!

Ps. (I'm robinredcrafts on Ravelry by the way if you are on there too!).