Sunday, February 27, 2011

Audrey and other stories

Hello my lovelies,
how has the end of your week been? Mine has been great!!
I finally finished Audrey. I have to say it has turned out really well. However there is one slight technical hitch. When I first started it, way back in September, we had popped into John Lewis and I picked up the 10 buttons that the pattern stated.



Gorgeous hey?Perfect colour? Usually I buy an extra but I was being frugal. Anyway I finally got to the button band and instead of reading the instructions I made it up and yes you guessed it I ended up with 11 of these.




The chances of me going back to John Lewis anytime soon is remote not to mention the fact that I probably wouldn't be able to get another to match. So I will have to go into town next weekend and buy 11 more.

Elenya and Oriana have had the sewing machine out quite a lot and been making headbands. Well Elenya made one and then every time we had another set of friends to play Oriana wanted to make another. Vintage Maddie came over again with hers and Daisy and Oriana now have matching bands as well as matching skirts!
Mario took a few days off before starting his new job so Wednesday afternoon was spent watching Tangled in 3D. Great fun!
On Thursday Loz and her family arrived. Now Loz is like an extra sister we were born in the same hospital two days apart so you could say we go back quite a long time. Though we are quite different we know all of each others secrets and all of each others likes and dislikes. Now I have done bits of of sewing for Loz and quilts for each of her children but I have never knit for any of them because I know Loz hates knitting! When we were little her auntie used to make industrial strength machine knit sweaters for birthdays, Easter, Christmas etc. Needless to say it kinda put her off. But the power of wollmeise can soften the heart of even the most adamant anti-knitter. So when she saw my lovely aestlight shawl at Christmas she put in a request for her own but in turquoise. Thanks to the lovely knitters of Rav I was able to lay my hands on a skein for her and cast on yesterday on the way to builda bear in the White Rose Centre.




Now I have never been into a build a bear before - neither had any of my children. But we decided that her two and Oriana and Inigo would get one each for their birthdays ( very early in the twins case) and they all had great fun choosing an animal, a name, and an outfit for them. Then when we got home Loz asked if I could make her two tae quando outfits for their bears as they had each just graded for white belt.
My sewing machine has great embroidery facilites so I could put the name of their club on the back.


I cut the outfits based on one of the outfits that had been bought and copied down the pattern pieces so that we can make more in the future.




Her two were very pleased and mine are now suggesting what we could make for theirs. Cub outfits maybe coming next.

Arianwen xx

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Mellow Yellow Holidays


Hello everyone,
Do you like the daffodils? Looking at the photo I really must dust the fireplace! They are just at their peek now and the smell is wonderful. I do love daffodils they are my favourite flower. When you see them you know that winter is nearly over. This huge bunch was a Valentine's present which makes them all the more special.

It is again a precious family half term week. Lazy days of knitting, sewing, baking and of course lots and lot and lots of washing! Where does it all come from? My poor little machine has been working overtime this week and I am still not at the end.
Half way through the week and I have two finished knitty items which I think is pretty good going though to be honest I finished Simple City on Friday. The yarn is Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball I bought it before christmas when my self imposed no yarn shopping came into play. I think that the raspbery pink on it is just delicious it looks like sorbet.



I actually made this larger than the pattern stated but I was shocked at how tiny it was. The fabric was also very dense not really what you look for in a shawl. Anyway I gave it a viscious blocking and it is now a delicate little wrap though still very small. If I was making it again I would use a far larger needle size probably at least a 4mm. Sadly, the last few days have been soo dreary, dark and filled with sleet snow and fog that photo taking has been near on impossible! Hence the reason for a lack of Sunday post.
BlueAdt came to vist on Saturday so that we could go and see Doughty's fabric so once we had spent our pennies on gorgeous fabrics ( more about that later this week) and wandered home in the snow it seemed only right to have a good knitting session. Her socks grew a lot from her last blog post and Abi spun a good few inches round the needles.



I finished Abi earlier today, my second intswemodo of 2011 and although the pockets seemed to take forever I am pretty pleased with the result.
I really liked this sweater as soon as it came up on Ravelry and I knew this cone of wool from Coldspring Mill would be perfect for it.


I think it looks like the perfect mummy sweater warm, cosy and practical. I have enough wool on the cone to make another one but I am hoping to do a swap. Swapping is so much better than buying don't you think? I have to fess up that I have sewn the pockets shut as I think it would have been far too tempting to stuff them full of tissues, keys and all the other gubbins that I usually reserve for my jeans.


Have a good week what ever you are doing
Hugs
Arianwen xxx

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Busy Weekend

Helloooo,
how was your week? Mine was ridiculusly busy! I have done some knitting but, I have also done a lot of frogging! I reached the waist on Abi, only to realise I should have decreased by over 50 stitches just after the rib which I hadn't done. There was no way I could rectify this so had to pull it out and start again. Haven't done anything like that for a while. I also finished one sleeve of Audrey. So maybe next week I will get in a Ta Daaa!
This weekend, like the week before it could easily have been swallowed by school and house work. Except that on Friday evening, Vintage Maddie said in passing that Hubby and son were off to watch the football on sat but, she was at a bit of a loose end as far as a great mummy daughter activity ( it is quite difficult to think of anything when you are soo close to having a baby. She had thought of teaching Daisy to crochet but, as Daisy has just broken her wrist this was out. Anyway a light bulb went off! When I went to the Harrogare show I had picked up a lovely cloth kits skirt for Oriana and I to make which we hadn't got around to doing. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for mummy and daughter time and for skirt making.
Saturday morning paper work didn't seem half as bad when I knew I had lovely dressmaking going on in the afternoon.


I had a big piece of lovely soft red baby cord ( excellent stash busting exercise!) which we copied the cloth kit pieces onto there was enough for two - matching skirts. So we have left the cloth kit for another time.


It was a bit nerve racking keeping the two girls cut out pieces separate until I had a brain wave.


I think the girls enjoyed this bit the most, they really enjoyed rummaging around in my threads to find the perfect colour. Afterall it isn't every day that you get to be the designer! We had a great time, Maddie and I chatted whilst the girls took turns in sewing their seams. Luckily my sewing machine has a go slow which was great for a newbie with a broken arm! It only took them about three hours and the only bit they didn't do was the ironing.

I felt really inspired to make something for myself but, today I really did have to spend marking!
Have a good week
Arianwen xxxx

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Ta Daaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Hello my lovelies,

Here it is my first finished garment of 2011. Whitwizzle by Louisa Harding. I have to say I love it!!



The colour is my all time favourite (you will know this if you have ever been to my house)and the yarn is really cosy and soft, a mix of wool and alpaca. So soft you don't have to find cover up items of clothing to go under it in order to stop the wool itch. I love the skirt on it as it twirls- there have been some raised eyebrows from my kids. Apparently mothers really shouldn't twirl but, I don't care it is fun and it makes me happy.

I also finished Ishbel it was beautifully blocked on Tuesday and worn on Thursday but I am not sure that the Sundara Yarn likes the Yorkshire damp as the points no longer look quite so pointy!



I will just have to hope that everyone one who sees it is wowed by the wonderful colour as I really don't want to have to block every time I wear it.
I finished a secret bus knit as well this week but well it is secret:)
There has been a bit of casting on this week. Simple City a pattern I was lucky enough to get for Christmas. The Pattern suggests hacking the ball in half in order to get more obvious stripes but I didn't fancy doing that on the bus and I am actually really liking the subtle colour changes for me I think it will be more wearable.



The photo doesn't really do the colour justice everything is actually a more pinky, squished blackberry purple but my camera refuses to capture that.
I have also cast on Abi a non portable project due to the fact it is attached to a cone but lovely mindless evening knitting.

Which at the moment is just what I need.
I have also dusted off Audrey in Unst earlier today.
I can't remember when I last looked at it. It just needs sleeves and button bands so not much. However, the idea of wrap and turn sleeves put me off not to mention trying to track down a small enough circ. I managed to find the circ before Christmas but, by then I had moved onto other stuff. I have nearly finished a sleeve today it is that simple! The sleeve head is gorgeous looks really smooth I can't really see why I didn't get around to it before. Hopefully get the other one done next weekend.

Arianwen xx

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