Oak Ribbed Socks

A 6 week break in Australia, and I managed to get a few things done (but not too much) This pair of socks was a simple project that I could work on without needing to look at a pattern very often! The pattern is by Nancy Bush, from Knitting Vintage Socks Book knitted on 2.5 mm needles Yarn Tausendschön Handgefärbte Sockenwolle

2008 Quilt #13

Another tumbler for a baby girl, Cayley MacKenzie, just a little bit bigger than cot quilt size.

will these tumblers ever end????

No idea...but I am hoping that by the end of the year, the box of tumbler pieces will be finished....and I have found a super cool pattern to work with 2" strips that I want to tackle next year.

2008 Quilt # 12

Cameron's Blue Churn Dash.

Cameron's favourite colours have always been green and yellow, but he has now changed to blue. So this one had to be altered from my original plan. He is thrilled with it!

2008 Quilt # 11

Alexander's Red Churn Dash. I have been collecting these black and white fabrics for about 10 years, and finally had enough variety to make this.  Red is Alexander's favourite colour, so this is perfect for him!

June Xmas Ornament

The June Ornament for our stitch along with our internet group.

The design is called Merry and Bright by Little By Little Design Co.

Drop Stitch Scarves

These are fun to make, and once you have the pattern worked out, you can do it from memory! This pattern is by Christine This one is made from Alpaca Wool from Fibreworks. Colourway: Happy Wanderer, worked on 4mm needles This one is made from 2 different colour balls of Noro Kureyon, worked on 4.5mm needles. I worked on 2 rows, then swapped to the second colour for the next 2 rows and so on.

Retro Rib Socks

Here is proof that sometimes you can get your knitting needles on the plane! (A good idea to go and ask at the security gates and show them your knitting before you check your bags in, and if they won't allow it, you can put it in your main luggage!) Thankfully with our long delay in the Canary Islands, my knitting was allowed, and I managed to get this much of the second sock completed,it was a very long delay!!!

I love this pattern! It comes from Favorite Socks by Interweave Press Retro Rib Socks by Evelyn A. Clark I love this wool! The wool is from Fyberspates, Alpaca Sock wool, it is so unbelievably soft to wear!!! knitted on 2.5mm needles, 1 skein.

A Hat fit for a Boyfriend

A Hat Fit for a Boyfriend by Stephanie Nicole

This is the name of the pattern, please do not think that I am knitting this hat for my boyfriend, because I don't have one. However if George Clooney, or Harrison Ford come knocking on my door, I might change my mind and have to knit them a hat!

My photo does not do this pattern any justice. It is a brilliant hat pattern, and I will knit this again sometime soon.

I had it finished in 2 days!

Fibreworks 8ply merino 1 skein of "Black Range Blues"

Knitted with 5.0 mm circular needles (40cm long), and double pointed at the top end

2008 Quilt # 10

Another Tumbler..... I played with colour on EQ5 with this one, to try and create opposites. I sewed the entire top, and when I look at it now, I feel like I have made a large mistake by sewing 2 quarters of it the wrong way around. I guess I am feeling this way because the last few quilts I have made with these tumbler blocks was to colour it from the inside to the outer.... I like it! :) I just can't decide which way I want it to hang??  This one is for Libby Hassinalli.

2008 Quilt #8 & #9

I am counting this quilt as 2, because it is double sided! 

I still have a stack of tumbler blocks....I think they are multiplying in the box when I am not looking! I am keeping this one for myself.

Waterlily rainbow jumper

This jumper has been a long time in the making.

This is the second time I have knitted it. The first was last September, over the next few months I lost a few dress sizes, and it was too big.

So, I frogged the entire thing and started again. It had been sitting in the basket beside the couch, just waiting for the ribbon to be sewn on.

Finally last night I stitched the ribbon on. It took less than 5 minutes.

The Pattern is Waterlily Rainbow Jumper from the UK magazine, Knit Today, Issue 6 the yarn is Colinette Tagliatelli Size 7 and 8mm needles

Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern

Pattern by Nancy Bush, from Knitting Vintage Socks book 3.0 mm needles Yarn Tausendschön Handgefärbte Sockenwolle Colorway Engelstrompete I only had 300metres of this yarn, so I had to make them a bit shorter than the pattern suggested. 5 pattern repeats of Row 1-10

May Xmas Ornament

Here is the May ornament that our cross stitch group are working on each month (from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas 2007 magazine)

I chose the Erica Michael's Design. 

I have a lot of these aida strips, and trying to use them up. The design was too large for the width of the fabric, so I adjusted the pattern a bit.

The yellow thread that I used, should have been white, but I don't have any coloured fabric at the moment (that I want to use for these ornaments), so that had to be adapted too.

Fancy Silk Socks

Fancy Silk Sock by Nancy Bush, from Vintage Knitted Socks book

needles: 2.5 mm  Yarn : Fyberspates Sock yarn

Once I finally got the hang of this lace pattern it was fun to do, but I struggled with Row 9 every time I did this lace pattern. It shouldn't have been that hard, but I mucked it up every time on the first sock, and then finally got the hang of it for the second sock!

Calendar Month: April

Here are the latest monthly designs I am working on. April is finally finished!

I don't know why these are taking so long to do (something with my sock obsession I think!). Once I start one, it only takes 3-4 nights to complete.

The top three are Lizzie Kate Flip Its, the next 2 are from Rainbow Gallery and the last one is Bent Creek. I changed the wording on the Bent Creek one, it said "April Glooms", which didn't really sound right when it isn't going to be displayed with the other Bent Creek designs. So I changed it to April Showers, which was most suitable this April, we certainly had a lot of rain in April!

Here are the current finished pieces.

2008 Quilt #7

Here is a blue tumbler block quilt finished. I am stunned with how many more blocks I have of these, and have no idea how many more quilts I can make from them all. This one is for Michelle McLeish.

April Xmas Ornament

Stitched but not sewn into anything yet.

Mosaic Maker

Testing Mosaic Maker , Hey that seemed to work! (Thanks Pennie for helping me out!)

2277 tumbler blocks transformed

All the strips I previously sewed have now been cut down to 3 3/4" strips. That took me ages to cut them all to size. I managed to watch 5 episodes of Desperate Housewives Series 3, whilst cutting ( I set up my cutting board in front of the TV). 

Then I sewed all the strips together. I love Post It Notes. I had labeled the strips in order. There were only a few strips where I had miscounted the pieces, and needed to unpick a bit, but nothing too frustrating. Only once they were all sewed together and ironed flat, did I look at the final top. 

I am thinking of using these 2 as a front and a back. I need to think about the quilting before I make this decision. I will probably want to do the same with the 3rd one, and need to make a 4th top. No problem, I have so many of these pieces left to sew! The above quilt top goes from yellow in the middle to blue on the edges. The bottom quilt top goes from blue in the middle to yellow on the edges. I think this would work well as a double sided quilt. I am not sure about this quilt top below.. When I look at it in the photo, to me it looks like I have sewn the 4 large squares the wrong way. I have to think about this one a bit more.

Clapotis

I finished the knitting of my Clapotis (pronounced Clap-Oh-Tee).

It has been sitting in the basket waiting patiently for my to block it so I can wear it.

Today I found some coated stainless steel wire for 1.40 euro each (bargain! proper "knitting wires", I priced at 30 pounds today on google)

Now I am waiting impatiently for it to dry....I love it!! :)

2277 tumbler blocks

2277 tumbler blocks sewn together into strips = 3 larger than lap size quilts.

I have no idea how these will look yet, I haven't spread them out side by side. I have just been following the colour layout I played with in EQ5, and hope for the best! I will wait until I have all the strips sewn into a top before I look at the finished top..hopefully I have sewn the colours in the correct order.

Here is the "left over" tumblers I still have to play with...I have already made 7 quilts out of these, there must be enough for another 3-4 quilts there!

You should see what a difference I have made in the stash pile though...it is a great way to clear out the "what to do with this" fabric! 

March Xmas Ornament

There are so many things wrong with this ornament, that I am reluctant to actually share it. However, if you don't know what it was supposed to look like, then it probably looks OK. It's from the Just Cross Stitch Chirstmas 2007 magazine A good lesson from this one, is that I really should read the instructions before I start a project, not just look at the picture and graph!

Current Projects

This is what I am working on at the moment. 3 more Tumbler Block Quilts in the strip stage.  There are still enough tumbler blocks for another 3-4 quilts I think). Clapotis, in Noro Silk Garden Yarn. This is lovely to work with! I love the colourway. Fancy Silk Socks, by Nancy Bush, from Knitting Vintage Socks. Look how cute the edges are..I have never done this before! (It took me 3 tries before I got it right!)

Irish Wool

We found some wool shops on the way around Ireland. I really wanted to get green hand dyed sock wool spun from Irish Sheep, in Ireland, but to no avail! I did get these gorgeous yarns though! Aran Wool in green, purple and orange. The green and purple screams out to be 2 Clapotis. Orange is enough for a jumper or cardigan..not sure yet. The green sock wool is Araucania, hand dyed in Chile. The bright skein at the front is Collinette Jitterbug "Jewel". I will keep looking for my green Irish sock yarn, and try and order it from the internet...I loved Ireland, and hope to go back again. 

Monkey Socks

I love this pattern, and I love this wool, unfortunately both together don't seem to work. Perhaps it is because I didn't read the pattern properly, and read the chart wrong! I will try this pattern again, this time correctly with sock wool that doesn't have such a distinct colour change. But I still love them, and will wear them heaps! Monkey Socks by Cookie A. Needle 2.5 mm Tausendschön Sockenwolle - Schlangengift

Little Pumpkin Socks

I am really happy with these socks! "Little Pumpkins" Socks by Sabine Ruppert 2.5 mm Needles Tausendschön Sockenwolle - Goldener Oktober

2008 Quilt # 6

The green tumbler quilt is finished today. Here are my 2 helpers! Tricky to photograph when it is really windy outside! The other tumbler quilt and this one I tried some meandering stippling quilting. I really enjoyed doing it. There are no "toe catchers", and I only crossed over a few times! Even though this takes awhile to quilt, and I need to have a break every now and again. I really like the effect, especially on the tumbler quilts! This one is for Anne Allen

2008 Quilt #5

Another quilt from tumbler blocks...I love playing with colours....I have the next one all planned out on EQ5. I hope to start that next week....but first I have the green tumbler to quilt (back to the sewing  machine now) This one is for the BBS Summerfest raffle.

2008 Quilt #4

This Churn Dash quilt was the 4th quilt I managed to complete this week.

I have been collecting these black and white fabrics for many years. I love the variety of the prints.

Both boys need new quilts to take on the plane when we go back to Oz...the quilts that I originally made them 3 years ago are too small. Their legs hang out the end of the quilts (they are warmer than the plane blankets). So I am thinking of doing another churn dash, but maybe with some extra triangles...I need to have a play in EQ5 to see what I think.

edited: darn it, I have just picked up a mistake in my quilt, just by looking at the photo. It's far too late to fix it. I am sure only quilters will see the mistake! (to the quilters who see it...shhh, don't tell anyone, this is a gift for Phil's 10 year old nephew, Ryan!)

2008 Quilt #1 #2 & #3

This disappearing 9 patch quilt is a great way to use up stash. It's a very addictive pattern. This week I set my machine to quilt the 7 tops I have ready to quilt.  I have 2 friends who are due to have babies soon. Both have been told they are having boys. The 3rd one was from the left over blocks I had made. I only needed to make 2 more blocks to complete the smaller quilt. This is a great stashbusting pattern, and I used up lots of "boy" fabric. One is for Liam McLeish, one for my hairdresser's baby, Enno. The question that puzzles me the most is "Why do I have so much chicken fabric in my stash?" I don't like chickens, and I have never bought chicken related fabric...but there is quite a bit of it in my stash.