Just a few words and a couple of photos

This will be a post of few words, as I have a boy on my lap who wants to do everything his mummy is doing! But I just wanted to to show some photos of my hat, which I finished the other day. I saw some on ravelry which looked like they hadn't been blocked, so I found a salad bowl the perfect size to block it over, and it's come out nice and slouchy.

Here it is...

I'm really pleased with how it's come out, but my one complaint is that the pattern didn't say to add an extra knit stitch at each end for stitching up, so I'd got quite far before I thought, hang on a minute, the pattern's working right to the edges so I'm going to need an extra row to sew it up nicely. Anyway, I couldn't be bothered to rip it out, and it was meant to be a quick knit, so I left it and it sewed up fine, and I guess I learnt a lesson. I suppose lots of people say I should have added an extra stitch as a matter of course, if its a pattern to be sewed up at the end, or I could have just knitted it in the round, but, unlike many knitters, I actually like seaming - I find it a really satisfying way of bringing a project to an end.

I just realized that I haven't written about my finished plied skein of yarn, so here are a few photos of it.

I'm really pleased with the consistency considering it's my first attempt at plying. I've just started spinning some new fibre to ply for, hopefully, some kind of project, but I'm not giving any details, as I have so many projects in my head that so few come to fruition. I have, however, very nearly finished my dining room curtains - just the heading tape to sew on, so photos of those to come soon.

Have a wonderful weekend, whoever's reading.

xxx Sam

Winter evenings

We've been blessed with an incredibly mild winter here in Britain; we haven't even had frost here in South Wales. We had a delivery of four tons of logs a few months ago, which I think I mentioned a while back, and we've barely used any of them. As January runs into February, I'm hoping that the mildness will remain, and give way to the new life of spring without any rude interjections of unseasonal weather, such as snow in April, as has been known here in recent years. So with that intro, you may be wondering why this post is entitled "Winter evenings". Well we have got the woodburner going some evenings, and over Christmas we decorated the shelves in the middle living room with fairy lights, which we've been reluctant to take down yet, as they aren't Christmassy particularly, but they do bring more cosiness to the room on these dark evenings.

Let me explain about our living rooms. We have a summer living room and a winter living room. This may sound very grand, but let me assure you that it isn't particularly. The front, or summer, living room is at the front of the house and has a large bay window. It is open to the hallway and is quite cool in winter, but it as also South facing therefore gets the sun all afternoon. It is painted in Little Greene's Normandy Grey, which is possibly the most relaxing colour known to man, and is perfect for sitting in in the summer months. The middle living room is entirely in contrast. It is heavily influenced by Marno's South African roots and is painted in Farrow and Ball's Babouche, a beautiful, deep and warm yellow, and furnished with dark wood pieces and a dark sofa, as well as housing the log burner. This room also has the original tiled floor, which enhances it's warmth, though the previous owners didn't take advantage of it - the room was magnolia before we got our hands on it! Its is an incredibly cosy room. Well, what seems to happen every year, quite spontaneously, is that we will have spent the winter being cosy in the middle room, then, all of a sudden, when the evenings are drawing out and warmth is returning to the air, one of us will comment that we've not been in the front living room for ages, and we will find ourselves almost immediately migrating to that room, not to sit in the middle living room for months on end. Then, when the evenings are drawing in and the chill returns, the same thing will happen but the other way round. I think its a great thing actually, as it helps us make good use of the space in the house and not to neglect one room permantly in favour of another. It also means we benefit from the advantages of each room in the seasons they are most pleasurable.

So, I took some photos of the middle room the other night, as I said in my previous post, and I have to show them before they become a little unseasonal. Just have a little break from whatever you're doing, and  feel the warmth and cosiness. I hope you can get a little pleasure from it too.

Mmmmm, lovely :)

We still have a couple of things we want to do in here. We are planning another shelf above the sofa, quite high up, and we want a couple of wall mounted oil lamps to go on the chimney breast, with something in between them. We were joking the other night about me painting an old fashioned portrait of Marno; very dark colours with significant objects strategically placed within the painting. Joking aside, I'd love to do something like that. It would certainly be original, in a slightly paradoxical way.

I've just (literally) finished my Moon hat and its currently blocking, so photos of that to come, and I'm also in the middle of making curtains for the dining room. There are the usual unfinished projects on the go as well, so plenty to be getting on with.

xxx Sam

Hearts and buttons

I wish I had more time to blog. I'm finding myself to be quite productive lately, although I do seem to be starting projects rather than getting them finished. I started Kim Hargreaves lovely hat, Moon, over Christmas, and thought I'd easily have it finished by now, as its a quick knit even for me. But before Christmas I'd bought curtain fabric for our dining room to replace the horrible vertical blinds that the previous owners left here, which we've just left up as we've had nothing to replace them with (and I must admit, as much as I dislike vertical blinds, they do actually keep rather a lot of heat in). Anyway, I decided they were more urgent than the hat, so I've been getting them cut down to size and all the hems ironed down, ready for hand stitching, which will take a little while as they are large curtains. I could have knitted later on in the evenings, but we've been totally absorbed in Downton Abbey (we had much hilarity on Christmas day when Marno and I discovered we'd both bought each other both series on DVD!), and as I can't knit lace whilst watching TV, the hat has been put on the backburner. That is rather unfortunate, as it happens, because I left my last hat (at the bottom of the post) at a friends house yesterday, and the weather is pretty atrocious here at the moment. Ok, I do have other hats but that was my go to. I've also realized, going back to that post, that the one photo I took of that hat is pretty dreadful!

Aaaanyway... I made a few things just before Christmas which I'm going to write about today. Way back when I started my blog, my MIL sent me loads of patchwork squares, which she'd cut herself to make a quilt for herself. Unfortunately the quilt didn't work out and she decided to pass on the fabric. I knew she loved these fabrics, so I always had the intention to make her something out of them. Several years later, I finally became inspired to make her a patchwork apron. I'd wanted to make something which would incorporate the yarn her mother had spun which was on the bobbin of my wheel when she gave it to me. There isn't a lot of it, so I'd just wanted to knit a pretty lace border to attach to a larger item, which was when I designed the apron. When I came to knit the yarn however, it knit up very stuffly and was not at all delicate - it actually bent it was so stiff! So I decided to carry on with the apron anyway, and give it to MIL as a Christmas present, and come back to the yarn at a later date.

 The knitted lace was going to run along the join between the patchwork

squares and bottom pink panel.

 

 

I decided to attach the neck strap and waist ties with buttons rather than just sewing them on, to make thimgs more interesting. This one should be rotated 90 degrees to the left but blogger keeps uploading it the wrong way!!!

Modelled by me with the camera on timer.

I'm so happy to say MIL loves her apron, and I'm so pleased. She deserves a special gift. 

Still on the subject of Chrstmas, but of decorations this time, I was at a friend's house a couple of weeks before Christmas and she had up the most gorgeous decorations, mostly purchased from the lovely shop, Nest Vintage Living, in Cardiff. She had some stuffed fabric hearts, amongst other things, which set my mind working on what fabrics I had in my stash with which I could make my own. I had a little raid the same evening, and whipped up these sweet little hearts of my own, which I was very happy with.

You'll see where I put them in my next post, which is going to be a little feature on our "winter living room" which isn't as grand as it sounds, but is so cosy in the cold months.

Well, I wish whoever is reading a happy and blessed new year. 

xxx Sam