Where has time gone?

Hello, I can't believe it's mid November already.  I’ve been so busy recently that I haven’t even looked at my photos on my camera. I sat down and sorted through my photos the other day and there were so many lovely memories, of the summer, of our holiday to Italy, and of Yarndale.

We went on holiday to Italy and visited Venice and Verona as well as Monza to watch the Formula One race.

 

Mum and I went to Yarndale and bought a mountain of yarn each.

We also met the people I met up with last year for another Yarndale picnic.

Rob managed to run his first half marathon – the Oxford Half Marathon and I was there to cheer him on.

Also, I got some hamsters. Two adorable girl hamsters called Juno and Hera.

Finished Object Friday

This week has been productive for finishing projects.

I completed the shawl I started in Finland using my wool I bought from Griffiths Mill on my hooky holiday in April.

It was my first attempt at proper lacework and it took a lot of concentration to follow the charts but I found that using stitch markers between each pattern repeat really helped.

I also finished my purple stripey socks.

These were knit on 2.25mm needles which is why they took me so long but I do love them now they are finished.

Other projects I've finished recently are...

More Clangers:

This time for 2 little girls who had seen the other Clanger I made and wanted ones of their own.

Campside Shawl:

I love this shawl - it's lovely and big - I can't wait to wear it.


And I'm nearly three quarters of the way through making my crochet blanket squares (315 out of 420 made).

Some Sewing Fun

Last weekend I decided that I wanted to have a go at some sewing and make a project bag with a zipper.  I had seen some pins on Pinterest of the kind of bag I wanted but I hadn't sewn a zipper before.  This is the tutorial I used.

The bag turned out really well.  I ended up hand-sewing it rather than machine sewing as I wanted the greater control of going slowly. 

The finished bag is 11 inches x 7 inches because I wanted a nice and roomy project bag and I bought 9 inch zips.  I bought 3 zips from the haberdashery and I have already planned which of my fabrics I want to use for the other two.

Hooky Holiday

When I went to Yarndale last September I met up with some of my Instagram friends for a picnic (I blogged about it in this post). 

Because the picnic had been such a success and we'd all got on so well, we had mentioned about a weekend away together.  We'd talked about it for so long and were all very excited about it.

So, last weekend, 18 of us went to Knockerdown Cottages near Ashbourne, in Derbyshire for a crafty long weekend together. 

On the Saturday, we had a visit to Griffiths Mill where they talked to us about how their business had started and showed us all of the wool processing machinery.

They had a small shop where I bought 2 skeins of Blue Texel wool.

Then they let us cuddle some lambs which was lovely.

We also got a lovely group photo - with the lambs of course!

After that we went to Ashbourne and browsed the vintage craft fair at the town hall and went to lots of charity shops and antique shops - and looked lovingly at all of the beautiful antique wooden furniture.  We visited the Sticky Fingers shop which is full of pretty gifty things.

Apart from that one busy day, the weekend was mostly spent crocheting, knitting, chatting, and drinking gin and tonics (and making jewellery by melting cheap plastic knitting needles).

Because this much wool is perfectly acceptable for 4 days away... (more about the crate soon)

I'm making blanket squares using Grandma's Knickknacks pattern available for free here

But this was the biggest shopping haul of the weekend - including 4 dresses from charity shops which I then was forced to show to the others as a fashion show.

I can't wait to meet up with everyone again at Yarndale this year but until then we've got a bit of a group project - one of the ladies left a bag of crocheted hexagons and 7 of us were crazy enough to volunteer to join them into a blanket to give back to her.

A Visit to Blenheim Palace

For Valentines Day, Rob planned the whole weekend to be a surprise for me.  He had planned a visit to Blenheim Palace and a stay overnight in the nearby village of Woodstock.

I've never been to Blenheim Palace and it was so lovely

The house and gardens are beautiful and we really enjoyed wandering around.  We were able to convert our day tickets to annual passes for free so we will be able to go back again in the summer when it's a bit warmer.

And of course - Rufus enjoyed the day out too.

Stash Enhancements

One of my friends mentioned that he wanted me to knit him a scarf a while ago.  Because I've finished a few things recently I thought it was time to start thinking about the scarf.  I wanted to buy some really nice wool so went to browse LoveKnitting.  I decided to go with Malabrigo Worsted in a lovely dark blue but because I had to spend over £25 to avoid postage costs I also bought some sock wool.

It's not that much yarn!  I had been wanting some purple sock wool for a while now - I quite like making socks.

So this is the wool for my friend's scarf.

The colourway is Buscando Azul.  I wanted a simple ribbed pattern to show off the lovely colour of the yarn so chose the New York scarf which is a free pattern on Ravelry.  This is my progress so far:

And here is the lovely sock wool - I got a few different colours - for delivery cost purposes of course...

Ooh and also a ball of Rico Essentials aran to make another Bankhead hat.

Last week I also cast on a project that I've wanted to make since it was released last year - Mr Bakery Bear by Kay F. Jones . I had bought some Robin Paintbox in the leopardskin colourway. I'm waiting for my Mum to visit to show me how to make the cabled jumper but I've already knit the bear and his shorts

It's such a lovely pattern to knit.  This bear is called Rufus.  I think I'll be making more of this bear in the future.

I said that I enjoy knitting socks - I did manage to finish the socks I was knitting in the last post. They are so good!

And then cast on another pair of socks using West Yorkshire Spinners signature 4ply in the Bullfinch colourway.  These have grown so quickly - while I've been sat watching films and Sherlock on Netflix.

I used the same pattern as my previous socks - the Vanilla Latte Socks by Virginia Rose-Jeanes and they are nice and simple.