Quick as a flash

I can't believe it's February already, January has been and gone in a flash, it always does. As soon as Christmas is over its my little boy's birthday. We had a Lego theme this year and we had some little friends over and had a tea party.

lego pinata

I had an exciting couple of days last week. I went on a spinning course with a lovely lady from near Cambridge. I was the only student and we spun in her little cottage in the country. We had homemade soup and bread warmed in the Rayburn for lunch and visited her flock of rare breed sheep. It was a wonderful two days especially because we got to see the sheep in the snow,it was picture perfect and silly me forgot to take my camera.

Spinning itself looks a lot easier than it really is, she likened it to rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time. I think I got the idea by the end of the second day and I managed to make three small balls of wool. I used fleece from many different sheep- Kerry hill, Manx, Leicester long wool, Wensleydale as well as angora goat and alpaca. The Alpaca was my favourite as it comes in a longer length (staple) and has a beautiful lustre.
I came home with three small balls of wool and promptly knitted a head band to tame my curly locks and keep my ears warm and, a woolly sheep toy.

I have been bitten by the bug and have asked for a spinning wheel for my birthday... I wondered if the birthday fairy will bring one? I have given him loads of warning as its not until the end of March.

sheep pattern on my ravelry  page from Julia @ handknittedthings. Anyone got any idea how to get a ravelry button on my blog? Everytime I do it nothing seems to happen, then I go back to amend it by editing and its blank????

Merry christmas

I have been so busy over the last few weeks that I haven't had a chance to post all my Christmas activities. So I thought I would pop by to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. The chalkboard is one of my advent swap gifts from Julie at tales from toadstool house.

The tree was up quite early in December but it took a few days to get around to decorating it.

 Some more gifts from Julie.

I went to an evening course in a local village pub to make a door wreath and table decoration.

A few handmade gifts were finished off.

Last minutes stockings were made last night for the baby and my sister's new born who is now 12 days old.

Some teacher's presents were made- stem ginger cookies from "The great British book of baking" and decorated with crocheted holly sprigs from Attic 24. I hadn't time to take a picture of them as soon as I had sew the last few leaves at breakfast we had to scoot out of the door to school to deliver them... very close to the wire as always.

A last minute hat was finished for a friend's daughter as a surprise Christmas present. ( free pattern from Ravelry)

I won a giveaway at hand knitted things which now takes pride of place by the fireplace- until I find a more permanent home.

What seems like millions of presents have been wrapped.

Mince pies have been made from the mincemeat I made in November....and devoured with lashings of cream.


I think we are just about ready for the big day. I wish I could have made more handmade presents this year, but time seems to slip away too quickly with two little kiddlywinks to look after. Maybe next year...

Happy Christmas to everyone...
And a Happy New Year.

Advent fun!

I entered in my first advent giveaway this year and I was lucky enough to get Julie from A tale from toadstool house as my swap partner. I forgot to take pictures of the swaps I sent to julie so you will have to visit her to see them. I recieved a huge box wrapped in red spotty Paper and inside 12 wrapped gifts one to open every other day in advent. We felt 24 presents was too many and to be honest it's hard to think of that many presents to give.

This was day 1 a gorgeous advent calendar incorporating all of my favourite things toadstools, owls and snow, it's so cute. And Julie made the cute little robin inspired by something she saw in country living.

Day 2 was a lovely red scarf which I have forgotten to photograph but I have already worn it loads especially in the recent snow.

Day 3 was a lovely candle in a tin tea cup, also super cute.

Day 4 was a Christmas tree pencil topper and some cath kidston pencils.

Thank you Julie I am really enjoying opening these presents.

Good Thoughts

It's a short one tonight, just to let you know Chipper Nelly is sharing a wonderful giveaway on her blog.

 I am not a very religious person but can you all pray and send good thoughts to a very sick little boy I know, who needs help tonight to get him through.

xxx

D'oh

This is what happens when you don't concentrate. I knew I had hand washing to do but whilst simultaneously loading the dishwasher, clearing dinner plates and unloading the tumble dryer I just automatically threw in the washing forgetting to press hand wash. So now I have the sweetest little doll's cardigan.

I have started crocheting again as I miss that cardi.

Hope you all have a great weekend,
Sarah

Knitty Gritty

As the nights draw in and the weather gets colder I always turn back to knitting. I picked up my needles the other day to finish a leg warmer I started in 2008... yes 2008 four years ago. One single legwarmer has waited four years for a partner, well now it's friend is almost finished. I got the matching arm warmers out of the cupboard to discover moths have eaten four holes in them. I have used them alot but its still annoying, I suppose I should make them again seeing as I am on a roll. And then invest in moth balls.

I visited the knitting and stitching show at Ally Pally on the 11th and got inspired by all the lovely fabric and wool. I especially fell for the hand dyed wool. I regret not buying any while I was there so this week I have made it my mission to find some lovely hand dyed wool made in the U.K. I found Tangled Yarns via a post on Little Cotton Rabbits the other day and found exactly what I wanted. They have lots of unusal yarns and were really helpful when I asked for advice. I ordered Tuesday and it arrived on Thursday very speedy indeed, I highly recommend them.

Juno fibre arts is a Devon based yarn and fibre dyeing business. Asti selects, dyes and spins the yarn, what an amazing job. I chose Buffy in the Berries colourway. Its gorgeous, the colours are really rich and it's so soft. I have found a sock pattern I want to try it scares me a little bit because you have to use 4 needles or a circular needle which I have used once before but for a simple bag. I am up for the challenge though. Has anyone else made socks before? I am a little worried they will fall down easily, I don't want to go to the bother of making socks then looking like Nora Batty.

I also bought a skein of a yarn that has been dyed using natural dyes- lac and logwood. It's the colour of blackberries its soft and made of cashmere, baby camel, angora and merino. I am going to use it to crochet a cowl, less annoying than having to keep wrapping a scarf around me. I am going to make my own pattern maybe using a flower motif? Ohh and I also found Andes by Debbie Bliss on sale at my local shop reduced to £4.50 which I thought was quite cheap. I am sure I paid about £8 when I was making the Japanese Flower scarf of Attic 24 fame.

I took a course on digital printing at the show I'll tell you about that next time and some of my other purchases. I will leave you with a photo of the cute knitted village from the show, I love the allotment.

Any tips on socks I would be happy to hear,
Tootles,
Sarah

Busy stitching

 I have been busy making not one but three baby quilts- I think it's two too many. I enjoy making them though and because I am a beginner I want to make more as i keep thinking of ways to improve them.

 This is my munki munki quilt- heather ross, the inspiration is from Aneela at comfort stitching

 I started it last year and just never got around to finishing it.

I am waiting for some Heather Ross fabric that I have had printed at Spoonflower for the backing and I have somered polka dot binding for the edge. It has toadstools on it and I love it. I uploaded it from the Cd in the Heather Ross book I talked about last time.

The second quilt is a pink pack I bought from Kim at Worn and Washed a couple of years ago. I attempted a nine patch design where you have 9 squares that you sew together in 3 rows of 3 squares then you dissect each block by cutting it in 4 even squares then you re- sew in a random order. That's how I understand it but I am certainly no expert. I liked the effect but I didn't bother with it because it was only small and I had no reason to finish it. Then I had my little girl and suddenly had a reason to finish a small pink quilt. It's probably my favourite because it took a little more effort to make and I like the overal effect of the random blocks. Pictures of that next time as i haven't had a chance to take them yet.

Here is the finished one taaadahhh!!

This one is made of old feedsacks, new repro feedsacks, rescued scraps from a scrap bin at my husband's work and old aprons that had seen better days. i hand quilted it with multi coloured thread in zigzags. The backing is so cute it's a sickly sweet jumping fawn print from Fabric Rehab. The binding is a yellow polkadot.

I think I may give this one to my sister for her new baby arriving in December.