Things I've been up to

Yes, I've finished the small little jumper. Just going to block it and somehow get it to our friends. I'd rather give it in person as I'd like to see their reaction.


I'm pretty new to this giving of hand made knitted gifts so its rather exciting. I did find the sleeves a bit of a pain as they were knitted on dpns. I have no problem with socks and I find knitting in the round easy, but I had a problem with ladders up the needle joins on the arms so not entirely pleased with them but the rest is fine. I also found that the final amount of stitches before the seed stitch for the neck started didn't seem to be correct for the size I was making, but it didn't matter as I just decreased some extra stitches in strategic places.

I've now cast on (finally) for the mohair cardigan. I've never used Kidsilk haze and I think it's going to be tough. It's so fine I dropped three stitches in the first row which is just knit, and I don't know how to pick up cast on stitches if you drop them. I did try to work it out but it seemed easier to just start again. I knit the row very carefully the second time and didn't drop anything, but I think it's going to be a slow project. I also made an astonishing discovery while knitting my swatches. I have been purling wrong! I've been doing it ever since I taught myself to knit it would seem. Basically I've been wrapping the yarn around the needle clockwise instead of anticlockwise which has caused all my knit stitches to be twisted, but its only doing a swatch in this yarn that's made it visible.


If you look halfway down on the photo above you'll see that every other row from the middle downwards the stitches cross over instead of going away from each other.


Its a lush colour don't you think?

This weekend I went to Bath and happened upon this delightful bead shop. They run day courses and I have to say that although I'm not the biggest beading fan, the beads they had were beautiful and not at all typical beads. They were such good quality and really diverse so I could be tempted to give it a go. Hmmm, perhaps after I've tried spinning which is still waiting for me.
We also went to Chavenage House near Tetbury (we being me and my parents). I thoroughly recommend paying a visit to this fascinating place if you're in the area. The owner of the property conducts a tour of the house and a bit of the gardens which lasted just over two hours for us, and he is such a character the time went by very quickly. He clearly really cares about the property but also giving your money's worth as its not particularly cheap - but it was certainly worth the £7 each! Just make sure you arrive at the time it opens as the tour begins then and lasts the whole time it is open, I believe 2 - 4 pm on weekends and bank holidays, so if you arrive later you could miss a fair bit, although he is happy to go over it all again I think.

Here are some photos I took on a walk this weekend at my parents. How lovely it was to have the sun shining for a little bit.





Last week was my last week of patchwork as I've decided its not really a priority to pay for since I'm not working. I'm still working on a patchwork I'm making out of the fabrics my mum gave me a few months ago. I'm on the quilting now, but doing it by hand due to my dreadful efforts on the Romania quilt which I have still to finish. I have to say I really like working with so many different mediums as you aren't tied down to one project but can pick up whichever one you feel like doing.