Yarn Along......Vintage Knitting Patterns.

 

How are you all doing? I hope you all had a good weekend. I haven't got much to show you today, I've done a few more rows on my Garter Stitch Stripy Baby Blanket. I'm using Rico Essential Cotton DK, which I really like, sometimes cotton yarn can be quite splity but this is fine, you can find the colours I've used on my Ravelry page, just click on the link.

I'm looking through my collection of vintage baby knitting patterns for a unisex matinee jacket. I'm always on the lookout for old patterns in charity shops and vintage stores, most of the patterns I have are from the 50's and 60's. Don't you love the old style matinee jackets, they are so cute on newborn babies and most with matching bootees. Hopefully I will have cast one on by next week to share with you.

I've started a new project, it's the Radiance Shawl by Helen Stewart, it's a beautiful, large lace shawl using a lace weight yarn. It's been a while since I've knit with 2ply, I'm using a Skein Queen Laceweight yarn but unfortunately when I bought it, it didn't have a ballband so I haven't got a clue what base it is or the colourway. The main colour is a gorgeous midnight blue with Stellina, it reminds me of twinkling stars in the night sky. If anybody has recognizes this yarn, please could you let me know.

I saw this great idea on the Pom Pom Quarterly blog, instead of using an highlighter pen to mark off where you are on the pattern, you use Washi Tape instead. I've got the pattern in a plastic Poly Pocket, to protect it and I use the tape directly on the pocket and move it down after every row, it's low tack, removable and each small piece lasts for ages. I've moved it 47 times and it's still as sticky as when I first used it.

This week I'm reading The Butterfly Box by Santa Montefiore, I love her books, I have only just started it but so far it's looking good. I have read another book since last week, it took me three evenings to finish, I couldn't put it down. It was called Tideline by Penny Hancock, it was a very dark and disturbing read and I really didn't expect the ending, a great read if you like this genre.

Check out this weeks Yarn Along and WIP Wednesday, for more Work in Progress, this week.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your week.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

FO Friday..... Hana Hou Tah-Dah.

 

Hello there, my friends, how are you? I'm back today to show you my finished Hana Hou. I'm thrilled with how it turned out, I think this will be a firm favourite, it's so warm and snugly, perfect to throw on when we have those chilly summer evenings and great for winter.

I started it back in March so was a fairly quick knit for an adult size cardigan as I was knitting on other projects too. My favourite part of this design is the collar, I love the shape of it and I love the look of the Copy Cat stitch.

The pattern is by Mel from MSkiKnits, the pattern called for a Sportweight yarn but I wanted to use what I had in my stash. I had a sweater quantity of Rowan Pure Wool DK, so with a few calculations and a swatch, I worked out that if I knit the Small, I would get the Large size using a DK.

I was trying to look sophisticated, whilst Paige took a photo of me wearing it but she kept making me laugh, so this was the result, not very elegant but at least you can see me with it on. I wore it last night to go to Crafty Sew and So's and everyone said how nice it was.

I'm linking my FO over on Tami's blog for FO Friday so check out what others have completed this week.

There's just one last thing I wanted to mention to all the knitters,who are reading this. Did you listen to A Gripping Yarn on Radio 4, this week? It was presented by Jane Garvey and explores the world of knitting from the American Revolution to modern day and how popular it's become again through Socila Media. It includes some great knitting soundtracks that made me smile, yarn bombing and even prisoners who are knitting to reduce their sentence!

It's was very interesting and worth a listen, I'm hoping my International friends will be able to listen to it as well, if the link doesn't work, it's a BBC production so may be able to find it another way.

Thank you for stopping by, have a great weekend.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along.......Striped Garter Stitch Baby Blanket.

 

Hello my friends, I hope you all had a fabulous Easter weekend and the weather was kind to you. We had our usual family get together as we do most high days and holidays!!!!

Jodie came home for the weekend and on Saturday we went to Stourport on Severn, had a lovely walk along the river then had lunch at little pub overlooking the river, watching all the boats, sail by.

My Mom and Dad had us all round on Easter Sunday for tea and had an Easter Egg hunt for Olivia, it started to rain so they had to be hid around the house.

It didn't take her long to find them all, here she is looking very proud of herself!

Instead of an Easter egg, we bought her this cute apron. My friend Lyn makes them and fills the pockets with Crayola's, I think it's a great gift for kids.

As you can see, she was very happy with it!!!!

Now onto the knitting, I've been working on the Striped Garter Stitch Baby Blanket and as I said in the last post, I asked my friends on Instagram to pick the order of colours.

I went down the comments in order and this is how it turned out, I've used all nine colours now, so will carry on picking the colours randomly until I run out of yarn. It matches "baby's" new toy, that my Mom bought. We find out in four weeks, if it's a boy or a girl!!!!!! Eeek, *excited*!!!!!!

The other thing I've been working on this week is the test knit for Sarah from Crafts from the Cwtch, the pattern is due for release very soon and will give you more details with a pattern giveaway.

The only other project that has seen some love this week are my Crocus Socks, I've turned the heel and now on the leg. I've also started a new book called The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. I'm having trouble putting this down, I'm really enjoying it and won't take me long to finish this one.

Check out more Work in Progress over at Ginny's Yarn Along and Tami's WIP Wednesday.

Thank you so much for stopping by, I hope to have a FO for Friday, so see you then.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Happy Easter......No FO's but a new test knit.

 

Hello my friends, I've got no Finished Objects as is usual for my Friday post but I wanted stop by and wish you all a Happy Easter. This sweet little bunny is one of Mary Jane's Tearoom's patterns, her name is Daisy, you have seen her before but thought I'd share her again as she's perfect for Easter.

Over the long weekend, I will be doing a test knit for Sarah of Crafts from the Cwtch's new pattern, due to be released at the beginning of May. It's called Seafoam Shawlette to Shrug, you can see Sarah's finished one here and here. I'm using the same colour yarn, A Fine Fish Yarns "Roller Disco", as my Crocus Socks but in a pure merino base, it's beautiful to knit with and perfect for a shawlette.

It's a one 100g skein project using a 4ply yarn, it's such a clever pattern, you can use it as a scarf, a traditional shawl or a beautiful shrug with buttons, for over dresses and little tops. I cast on last night and have done quite a few rows of the stocking stitch, it grows very quick. I already know this is going to be a favourite and I'm sure you will love it too, one size fits all from 5 years to adult by how you block it.

I hope you are having some of the sunshine we're having in the Midlands, I love relaxing in my conservatory with the sun shining through the windows, no tv just listening to the birds sing, drinking tea, reading magazines and knitting. I think this will be where I'll spend most of the weekend!!!!

The sun was shining on Wednesday so I packed the picnic bag and headed to Bridgnorth with my family, it was glorious, sat by the river watching the kids play.

This is my lovely family, Mom, Dad, my sister and her kids, including my youngest daughter and her boyfriend.

Olivia insisted that the "big kids" played football and play frisbee which she called flying disc, she has us in stitches with what comes out of her mouth.

Adam missed the picnic as he fell asleep but started on the bread sticks once he woke up.

I managed to read my Mollie Makes and knit on my stripy socks.....then it was time for ice cream.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your long weekend.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along......Magic Loop or DPN's

Do you remember these socks I cast on, back in February, my first self striping socks, I was very excited about knitting them but I kept looking at them and just wasn't happy with how they were looking. I usually used two circulars to knit socks but I decided to try Magic Loop for the first time.

As you can see with this close up, the start of each row, looks really untidy, I never had this problem using two circulars. I had a look on the web to see if there was a reason this was happening and by the looks of it a few people had the same problem. The common problem seemed to be pulling the yarn to tight and recommended holding the yarn a bit looser. I tried this but I still had the same problem.

While reading up on this problem a lot of knitters said that they preferred to knit with DPNs so I thought I'd give them a go. I had tried them before but always felt very awkward holding them. I prefer toe up socks so I used a circular needle to cast on using Judy's Magic Cast On and then changed to DPNs, once I finished the toe increases.

It took me a few rounds to get use to using DPNs but I soon got the hang of them and I'm much happier with how my self striping socks are looking. Look at the difference between the two socks side by side, once I've finished my sock on the DPNs, I will frog the other sock and knit that one on them too.

I'm knitting the collar of my Hana Hou and just have a few more rows before I can start seaming together, I absolutely love this pattern and can't wait to finish it.

I'm enjoying my stripy vanilla socks as they are easy to knit whilst out and about or watching TV but I do prefer something with more of a pattern, so this week, I cast on the Crocus Socks by Wendy D. Johnson. I'm using A Fine Fish 4ply sock yarn in Roller Disco, again I'm using Knit Pro Symfonie DPNs. I have just bought some Knit Pro Karbonz to try, I've heard quite good things about them, I'd be interested in what you think, if you've used them.

I haven't worked much on my Miss Winkle and have only knit a couple more loops, I'm over half way through the book I started last week and really enjoying it, it's a great chick lit to read before going to bed.

I've also cast on another new project, I asked Jodie to choice a few Rico Essential Cotton from The Homemakery to knit a striped garter stitch baby blanket, these are what she chose.

I couldn't decide which colour to cast on first, so I asked my Instagram friends to chose for me, the first person to comment chose the Lime Green, so that s what I went with. I'm going to go through the other comments and knitting the colours in order of what they chose, I'll show you my progress, next Wednesday. I know I'm going to enjoy knitting with these pretty Spring colours.

I'm linking to Ginny's Yarn Along and Tami's WIP Wednesday, check out what other knitters have on their needles.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your week.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

A Day in Stratford Upon Avon.

 

Hello my friends, I hope you've had a great weekend, today I have spent a fab day with my friend Pinda at Stratford Upon Avon. She had never been here before so I was tour guide for the day showing her all the sights.

Our first stop was to Sew Me Something to see my lovely friend Gilly, it was so nice to see her again and of course I had to make a little purchase of some gorgeous MillaMia yarn and the latest Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino pattern book.

We walked through the old town, past Shakespeare's Birthplace, browsing the many shops.

I always like to have a look around The Nutcracker Christmas shop, who doesn't like Christmas all year round?

We went to a great little cafe called Fourtea's, a traditional 40's style tearoom, with lots of little vintage touches, like an old radiogram playing 40's music in the background and waitresses dressed in 40's uniform.

Look at the menu!!!!!! It's the style of an old ration book, the sandwiches were so nice and their homemade pickle was gorgeous.

Don't you love the old fashion counter? I bought a replica Make Do and Mend booklet issued by The Ministry of Information in 1943, there are some very interesting tips in there!

We then spent an hour relaxing by the river, watching the world go by, I even managed to get a bit of knitting done.

We then took a short walk to Bancroft Cruisers, where we took a 45 minute cruise down the river and enjoyed an afternoon tea.

I look rather pleased with myself on this photo but I was looking forward to tucking into those scones and cream!!!!

The scenery wasn't too bad either, I highly recommend this river cruise company, I've been on a couple of different ones but this one has been the best, by far.

It has been a wonderful day, the weather was kind to us, it's what we both needed and look forward to visiting again. Have a good week and I'll be back soon.

xxxxDebxxx