Yarn Along.........a wedding but not much knitting

Hello my friends, I hope you had a good weekend and if you're in the UK a good Bank Holiday. I went to a beautiful wedding on Sunday, it was my first outdoor wedding and it was perfect, the weather kept nice for them and the bride looked stunning. I will share some photos with you soon but my daughter has took my gadget to load the photos onto my iPad, on holiday with her!!!!! It was the wedding I made the invitations for, you can see them here and they gave me this beautiful bouquet of flowers at the reception.

Here I am all ready to go, my lovely friends trekked the shops of Chester with me, trying to find a little gold jacket but couldn't find what I was looking for but they'll be happy to know I found one at the local shopping centre!!!!

I've had a busy weekend so I didn't get much knitting done and what I did do I can't share just yet as it's a test knit but this is the yarn I'm using. If you want a little clue of what I'm knitting check out this Ravelry Group thread.

I've knit a few rows on my Mini Cable Jumper and now on the front. What I'm reading this week, I've just finished Fresh Doubt by Eva Hudson and haven't decided what to read next, what I have been flicking through is this little book Keep Calm and Cast on. It's a fab little book full of helpful tips and knitting quotes. I'm linking to Yarn Along, WIP Wednesday and Keep Calm, Craft On.

I have been buying yarn this week, I bought some Jamieson & Smith 2ply a 100% Shetland wool, to join in with Melody, who is running a Shwook hat KAL on her Ravelry Group. It is part of Shetland Wool Week that runs from the 4th October-12th October, you can find the free pattern on the website. I had trouble choosing these colours as there were so many gorgeous shades to chose from!!!!

Have a great week.

xxxxDebxxxx

FO Friday.....two test knit hats.

A short and sweet post today, just to say hi and show you the two test knit hats for Melody, they don't have a name yet but the pattern should be released by the end of the month.

I knit the first test knit hat for Jodie in Cascade 220, it's a very quick knit in worsted weight yarn in garter stitch and a textured panel.

This is the second one, finished this week, knit in The Natural Dye Studio Godivia DK, though it's more of a worsted single spun hand dyed yarn in Amitola. I'm not sure whether I'll be keeping it for myself or giving it as a Christmas gift.

Have a great weekend.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along........Two Hats and Two Shawls.

Hello, how is your week going? This week I've been working on two hats and two shawls, the first hat is a test knit for Melody of Manderine's blog. Check out her blog you won't be sorry, it's full of pretty photos of the Latvian countryside, nature, knitting and recipes, her photos are so tranquil and after reading her posts I always feel very peaceful.

I received the pattern on Thursday evening, cast on Friday and had it finished and blocked by the Sunday. It is a quick knit using worsted weight yarn, a fair amount of garter stitch and a beautiful textured panel at the front. If you follow me on Instagram you will have already seen the FO, modeled by my daughter but I'll share the photos on my blog, Friday.

Jodie kept the hat and took it home with her so I immediately cast on another one for me using a variegated yarn, I should also have this finished by Friday and will give you full details of the yarn on Friday.

The next project I've been knitting on this week is my Leftie by Martina Behm, as I'd said last week, Zena, Rachel and myself are all knitting this pattern with yarn we'd bought from Unwind. Zena and I don't live too far away from each other so we arranged to meet at The Library of Birmingham for a coffee and to knit on our Leftie's. We had a great morning, chatting and knitting away and hope to meet up again soon.

If you are in Birmingham, I highly recommend paying a visit to the library, there are activities going on, thousands of books to peruse, two coffee bars, lounge areas to sit and relax but my favourite part was The Secret Garden.

It's on the seventh floor and is a balcony wrapped around the building with an urban garden and places to sit, this was the view of Birmingham from the balcony. Unfortunately, it was a little bit too chilly to sit and knit up there on Saturday, I'm hoping for an Indian Summer so can go back and sit up there and take in the views.

Shawl two is the Menehune Shawlette by Mel, Episode Three of With Mel is now up with the third part of the pattern which is the middle section of the border.

This is a simple garter stitch section which didn't take long to complete, so I now only have the last part to finish which will be in next weeks episode. This has been such a fun knit, I really enjoyed this week's episode, she took us on a boat trip with her family and of course it's great to sit and "knit with Mel" !!!!!

 

I'm into my thrillers at the moment and have just started reading Fresh Doubt by Eva Hudson, I've not read any of her books before and so far, so good, I'm enjoying this book, the first in a series of books featuring Ingrid Skyberg, FBI Agent.

I'm linking to Yarn Along, WIP Wednsday and Keep Calm, Craft On, I've decided to post it a day early this week as one I've written it in advance and two, Nicole from Frontier Dreams, posts her KCCO on a Tuesday.

 

There is just one last thing I would like to say, Mel has just wrote a heartfelt post and would like some help raising some money for a bereaved family, if you could please pop over and read it, she would really appreciate it. She has just released a shawl pattern called Hapa and to help this family from 19th-26th August, Mel will give all profits from the pattern to this family who's life has tragically been ripped apart. I've bought mine, every little helps.

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your week.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

FO Friday.......blankets and bootees.

Happy Friday, are you all ready for the weekend? I'm back to show you a couple of finished baby projects today.

I've finished the Twinkle Twinkle Blanket by Helen Stewart, this is what I'm calling his "best blanket" and will come out of the hospital wrapped in it.

I used 5 balls of Rooster Almerino DK, a gorgeous soft blend of alpaca and merino which shows off the stitch definition beautifully.

Next up, I've been making some Pom Pom Bootees, I used different weight yarns to get the different sizes.

The white pair are the larger out of the two, I used MillaMia which is a sport weight on 2.75mm, they would fit a 3-6 month old.

The blue pair are knit with Cashsoft 4ply again on 2.75mm needles and have turned out a lot smaller, fitting a 0-3 month old. I decided to add some pompoms for the cute factor and used the Clover Pom Pom Maker in small for the white and extra small for the blue pair. I can't recommend the Clover Pom Pom Maker enough, it's simple to use and you get a perfect pom pom, every time.

That's all for the knitting, the next part is photo heavy of what I've been up to this week. Do you remember me saying on Wednesday, I was hoping the rain kept off so we could take the little ones out? Well it did and we went to Bantock House and Park.

Even the grown ups were having fun.

Then yesterday, my friend Kerry and I went out for the day. We went to Hobbycraft and picked up some Project Life which has 25% off at the moment then had lunch at Pizza Hut, I love the lunchtime buffet!!!!

After lunch we drove to Ironbridge a beautiful Shropshire town by the river, famous for it's iron bridge across the river.

The obligatory selfie by the bridge ;-)

Have a great weekend.

xxxxDebxxxx

 

Yarn Along.....lots on the needles.

Hello my friends, how is your week going? I'm writing this hoping the rain will stay away this morning so we can take my niece and nephew to the park. Well, I seem to have cast on quite a few things this week, including something using these gorgeous mini skeins from Fivemoons Yarns.

I'll start with this project first, though these aren't my usual colour pallet but they jumped out at me at Unwind Brighton. They came in a little wooden box called A Big Box of Sweeties and had 10 x 10g mini skeins of Luna Plus 4ply, 75% superwash merino/25% nylon. I resisted at first and bought the Fade to Grey which I knit my Pebble Beach shawl in.

As I sat in the Pavillion Gardens, knitting on my shawl, Zena said those mini skeins would be perfect for the Leftie Shawl by Martina Behm. I'd had my eye on this pattern for some time and thought what a great idea and those colours I'd been looking at would be perfect, so later that afternoon I headed back to the Marketplace and bought them.

The main colour needs 150g of yarn so rather than having to buy 200g and having leftovers, I started looking for 50g skeins. I found some Artesano Alpaca Silk 4ply which is 70% alpaca/30% silk. It is beautifully soft and has a very slight halo, I love how it looks against the bright colours.

After speaking to Zena, we decided to cast on and knit it at the same time, I then found out Rachel from The Good Yarn Guide wanted to knit it too, so we are having a mini knit along together. We were all just about ready last weekend to start it and I cast my Leftie on Saturday evening, managing to get six leaves finished.

My only reservation with this pattern were the short rows, I've always had a problem picking up the wraps and making it look neat. I looked on You Tube to see if I could find any tips and after the finishing the first two leaves found it wasn't too bad. After avoiding short rows when I could, I'm now finding them not to be a problem. If I need any help with knitting, I tend to use the tutorials by Very Pink Knits, she is very clear and does great close up shots.

My next new project is by Mel, she has a brand new look blog with a new name and podcast, if you take a look at the first video, you can find out the reason for this new look and name, it's wonderful news, you can find the first video here.

Mel is such a warm, kindhearted person and loves to bring people together, she has come up with a great idea for knitting together. On the first episode she encourages us to pick up 100g of fingering/4ply, some 4mm needles and cast on a gorgeous, easy to knit shawl that she's designed especially for her podcast listeners.

She talks us through the intructions and also has them written on the video, so grab a note book too. It didn't take me long to finish the first part and was ready for the second episode.

As promised, Mel was back the following week with episode 2 and the next part of the pattern. I'd got 460 yds of yarn so I wanted to make mine bigger which Mel explains how to do that, leaving enough yarn for the border. She then goes on to tell you the instructions for the first part of the border which I'm just about to start. I just think this is a wonderful idea, the pattern hasn't been released yet, this is just for her podcast viewers at the moment, so go check it out.

I've also cast on a mini version of the Georgie Blanket by Helen Stewert, I've cast on 81 stitches rather than what's given in the pattern. It will be the perfect size for the carry cot and car seat. I'm using some leftover Rooster yarn which is one of my favourite commercial yarns, it's a dream to knit with.

We went up to see her on Sunday, here she is with just 8 weeks left to go.

We took all the baby things up that she'd been storing at ours until the nursery was finished including this sweet little Mose's basket we bought them, you can just about see the first Georgie blanket I knit for him.

Now on to the book I'm reading this week, it's a great thriller that I have on my Kindle called Abducted by T.R. Raglan, it's an on the edge read and I'm loving it. This week I'm linking to Yarn Along, WIP Wednesday and Keep Calm Craft On.

Thank you for stopping by have a great week.

xxxxDebxxxx