Knitting news

Hello there, hoping you've all had a good week. Wednesday was a very warm sunny day, very nice at knit & natter. Quietly knitting and chatting in the pub conservatory. Cold temperatures crept back in again on Thursday, not so good... it was the cold biting wind that shocked the most. 

I have a few finished cloths and one nearly finished Fish & Chip Vest today.

A washcloth (flannel) knitted in Aran weight Sugar 'n' Cream in Mistletoe colourway. 4.5mm needles.
The pattern is Broken Rib from 'Knit Yourself Calm' book by Lynne Rowe.

A dishcloth knitted in Sugar 'n' Cream Aran weight, Potpourri colourway. This pattern is by Garlene of  The Kitchen Sink for April. It is called Nancy Drew. There is a book to read-a-long with it if you wish. The book is The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene. Have a look on Facebook, or instagram  'thekitchinsinkshop' if this interests you. 

I've started slipping the first stitch purl wise and casting off the last stitch like 'Very Pink Knits Youtube' to make a neater finish. Sometimes I forget to slip purl wise and don't always go back to correct it.   

Fish & Chip Jumper or Vest

I've made these before, some of you may remember my dear QT (sadly passed away a few years ago) modelling one to show sizing. There are two sizes, just change needle size as they're both knitted in DK yarn. The vests and hats are sent to charities in Africa, for the purpose of wrapping babies up before they go home. 
They're requested to knitted in bright colours, no pastels and very little light shades. Cheerful is the aim here. The neck hole is basically a large button hole. 

The net bag with its zip is a laundry bag. It means that I can swap out projects in their net bags and take two or three to knit & natter, in just one bag. With the chattering, it's hard to concentrate on any tricky bits. I have several projects on the go for this such as: Wash cloths, dishcloths, charity knits and socks if I'm on the sections without shaping. 

Angus in his conservatory bed having a snooze. His bed is tucked under the clothes horse drying a towel. Poor dog with his crumpled cheek. 

What are you knitting at the moment?
How do you feel about mistakes in your knitting/crochet, can you leave it, or do you have to correct it? 

Ttfn 
Take care

KAL (knit-a-long) Progress

Hello there, happy Friday! Thank you for your comments last time, I'm glad you liked my photo... thanks Nat. The real photo of me was in blue, front of chair exercise. Here's another Friday Catch Up link party. I'd love it if you wanted to join me, please simply leave a comment on this post, and link your blog post below. 

Some cheerful Tulips from Aldi. 

I decided to have another go at the Lent KAL (Knit-a-long). If you knit the pattern in chunky yarn, it'll make a cosy lap blanket. Or like mine, if you choose a DK yarn, it'll make a table mat. I have a few of these now including the Advent ones, along with the Lent scarf. A lady at Knit & Natter suggested spreading them out on the bed, see what I have and start sewing them all up together to make a blanket. I don't really want a lot of knitted table mats and the scarf rolls up, so wearing it isn't a joy as you can't see the design. 
These two swatch samples are a practice at tension and bobble stitch. I have collected several swatch samples from many other projects, including crochet samples. These will all be added to the large blanket. 

Each day has about 4 or 5 rows of knitting to do, with a short devotion to read. I confess that I get behind and then have a catch up session. This particular KAL is designed to be knitted in one solid colour, with no colour changes. I'm using up yarn I already had - Jarol Heritage Classic DK - Wool Rich
55% wool, 25% acrylic, 20% nylon. Each week I'm changing colour. 

Knitting so far. I needed to buy circular needles as the mat is quite wide. These are Knit Pro Zing interchangeable needles. I had spare cord but the size 4mm knitting needles were in use on the blue jumper. 

I always have a small simple project to take out with me, a flannel / washcloth is perfect. I took this with me to the village coffee morning this month. They served toasted tea cakes (fruit roll/bap/bun) with tea or coffee in the tiniest daintiest cups and saucers.
This pattern has become my favourite go to pattern, it's called Broken Rib Square. One row knit stitch, the alternate row k1, p1. repeat both rows until a square is knitted. The yarn is Rico aran weight 100% cotton 

A crazy Angus sporting a left eyebrow, achieved by rolling on the grass.  

We bought a new king sized duvet 7.5 tog, so until we take our old 'roasting' 10 tog duvet to the tip, Angus has it as his bed. We've put his bed (shown underneath) on top of it, so he has a very tall bed at the moment. I've tried investigating recycling it but the service isn't available in our area. Animal sanctuary's don't want them, neither do charity outlets. A shame but we can't keep it, it's too big and bulky.

I'm off to catch up on the knitting

take care and Ttfn
Cx

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Yarn News :: Five on Friday

Hello there, this week on Five on Friday, it's all about yarn. There are a few WIP's (work in progress), a finish and some hand cream to help with the knitting. 

I usually have several projects waiting to be worked on - a washcloth, a garment and a pair of socks are the main ones. If I crochet a blanket, or join the knit a knit-a-long for Lent or Advent, that changes things. I also have a cross stitch waiting to be finished too. It's simpler to concentrate on 2 or 3 and leave the rest waiting. 

1) Blue Jumper - originally knitted in mauve acrylic. I was persuaded by the yarn shop (many years ago), to knit this in a cheaper yarn. I was inexperienced at choosing materials and felt that it was a poor choice. My tension was likely very loose as it was far too big. I've started again in the correct yarn content 50/50 cotton & wool... it's lovely yarn, soft but holding its shape. You do need to concentrate on the pattern, as there's lots of counting throughout.  

2) Purple Washcloth - A finish, knitted in 100% Rico cotton. A good project for taking to Knit & Natter.  

3) Washcloth - knitted in broken rib - 1st row knit, 2nd row alternate knit & purl, repeat both rows. I took this with me to the village coffee morning (monthly). It's in the church hall, the volunteers serve tea & coffee in dainty cups & saucers. They always serve some baked goods, either toasted tea cakes, scones or other cakes. This week it was a delicious cheese scone, with lots of butter. 

I'm the only one that takes my knitting, one month I took the purple socks below to work on. 

4) Socks - King Cole purple self patterning 4 ply yarn. At the moment, I'm still knitting Winwick Mum's Sock-a-long by staying with the basic sock, I'm improving the fit of the sock each time. 

5) Hand care - recently my hands have been dry and cracked, particularly around my thumb. Previously I've used foot cream with Urea in the ingredients. It helped but I was hoping for something a little more natural. I've tried natural beeswax and the Aloe Vera plant rubbed into my fingertips. I've also tried drinking more water, as it seems if our bodies are dehydrated, the fingertips suffer first and can crack open. In the end, I purchased some O'Keeffe's Working Hands hand cream, it's not natural but promises good results. 

Overall taking care of hands, helps with the whole knitting experience. 
I was getting up early to spend 20 minutes knitting, before the day starts. It was nice and quiet, a time to think before the rush of the 'to do' list. It's something that I need to get back to. 

If you have any tips about taking care of yourself to improve knitting, do let me know?
Also any tips for not getting overloaded with projects waiting to be made?  

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'January-ing' :: Five on Friday

Hello there, I hope you are all well. The temperature in the UK dipped to frosty again today. We've been lulled by the mild wet days recently, it's nice to see the sunshine though. Yesterday at Knit & Natter, it was roasting hot in the pub's sunny conservatory. Such extremes of temperatures. 

On today's Five on Friday I'm wrapping up the month with an 'ing' post... all the things mixed together and happening this week!

1) Enjoying :: beautiful flowers in my kitchen. A gift from Nat and his fiancée. It's been a while since I got my camera out, note to self - remember the camera. The camera takes much better photos than my phone. Sometimes it's easier to load photos up from my phone during the week before I forget. Either way, natural daylight is definitely better for taking photos. 

2) Cleaning:: and de-cluttering. It's taken a while to settle on a suitable cleaning method for me. With low energy levels, thanks to underactive thyroid and Ibs complications, I also help a few lovely 80yrs ladies to clean and de-clutter their homes as needed. The last thing that I want to do when I get home, is get the cleaning going. However needs must... I heard a podcast by Gemma Bray, The Organised Mum talking about a lady on her Facebook group, she takes 2 weeks to do 1 week of housework. Phew! I can probably manage that. Having a Goldie means that the Hoover is out everyday anyway.

De-cluttering:: I've been following along with Orjenise on Instagram De-clutter One Hundred items for January. I've still got Jewellery and some magazines to sort through but so far I have de-cluttered 

74 items. I'm taking that as a win, whoo hoo! 

These children books were the last 9 that I had stored in the bottom of my wardrobe, I'm pleased to be rid of them. I started selling Usborne books for about 4 or 5 years, when the boys were small. I then dragged them out a few times a year to sell them at half price, it was a slow painful slog. Mark is relieved not to have to attend sales opportunities with me too. 

3) Cooking:: Baking Sourdough & the menu plan for this week. The Sourdough recipe is from Elaine Boddy's  book She's on instagram and her youtube video's are helpful too. There are lots of experts online but this recipe works, so I'm happy with it. I may try another lady's method on instagram, as she uses some Spelt flour in her recipe and it looks good. I've tried baking sourdough with spelt flour and ended up binning it, as it was very flat.  

Monday - Leftover beef joint, mushrooms, spicy creamy coconut milk with rice

Tuesday - Hunters chicken & chips

Wednesday - Crustless cheese & onion quiche, large mushroom and homemade chips
Thursday - Jacket potato, homemade mackerel pate & salad 

Friday - Fish & chips

Saturday - Roast chicken

Sunday - Leftover chicken, chips & salad

4) Knitting:: Flannel / Washcloth for one of my lady's. I gave her a pink one last year, she loved it so much that she's asked for another. She likes green, so as it's my favourite colour, it went to the top of my craft list. I'm also knitting her a shawl, it should've been her Christmas present, oops! Christmas is always hectic and thankfully she wasn't expecting it anyway. 
Before Christmas I was getting up early and taking 20 minutes or so to sit quietly knitting. Nadine Medina Podcast 'Knit Your Stress Away for Beginners (The Knitting Mamas) is on Spotify. It was her idea to carve out some time at the beginning of the day to knit. I need to go to bed earlier and start this 'early habit' again, it's very relaxing.

5) Reading:: Picked up my library books... there was more in the stack but I've decided to return them to the library for another time. The top book is my own book, given to me by a lady at Knit & Natter. I've just finished it, so another for the de-clutter bag. It's part of a series of books I may look out for the others one day. It was a slow gentle read with a dramatic flood, the storyline inspired by the Boscombe flood years ago.
The Agatha Christie Challenge... I've decided to give that a miss this year. I'm keeping the AC The 13 Problems as it sounded interesting. I have a shelf and a half of books on the bookcase that need reading and de-cluttering. That is a far better challenge for me this year. There are 2 non-fiction books to dip into as well but I've not included those here. 
There will be a book for the February book club to add to the pile, it's Verity by Colleen Hoover. 

=================

How about you, what are you reading or making at the moment? 
Take care and do join me for Five on Friday if you can. 

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Craft Show & Tell - Five on Friday

Hello there, I hope you are well? If you've been following my blog for a while, I just wanted to thank you. I appreciate that it's been a bit of a stop start of regular blogging. Over the years I've struggled to feel well, I'm still trying to sort IBS issues. So with other commitments and feeling rubbish, sometimes things have slipped. I've recently found another thing that I'm intolerant too, or at least, one that I'd not thought to check on labels. In Aldi's hot chocolate there is a chemical ingredient that upsets my stomach. Google it if interested, it's called Carboxymethyl Cellulose. I knew about it in bread wraps from the Co-op, so only purchased wraps from Aldi. I was treating myself on bad days, to a nice hot chocolate. It makes me mad all this label scrutinizing.

Anyway onto nicer things. We went out for a meal on Wednesday evening to celebrate my son's 24th Birthday. Happy Birthday Nat, a favourite photo of him and Zola (his cat). To think that I once held this tall handsome young man, just like he's holding Zola - he's taller than me now and I'm 5'11". I'm proud of you teen1 Son, love you always x

This week's Five on Friday is a bit of a 'Show & Tell' 

1) A Christmas Bauble. A lady called Carole taught me to make these at the Village Craft Afternoon. It's simpler than it looks, starting at one end building up layers of folded 3" square pieces of material. Lots of pins are involved to secure each point. This one has a thin ribbon to hang it up as a decoration. 

2) Another Craft Afternoon, this time it was at a church ladies social. There were several craft options on offer to try out. Making Pom-Poms, with pattern ideas to make characters. Button necklaces, Macramé, knitting and making these Crochet Wind Spinners. There are some Youtube videos online if this interests you. They will stay in better shape if hung up and free to twirl. 

3) A simple restful portable knitting project. A washcloth, flannel or dishcloth knitted in Rico Aran 100% Cotton yarn. Front and Rear view, (not blocked). The pattern is called broken rib from this book: Knit Yourself Calm. I borrowed the book from the library. Lots of simple projects to inspire knitting to help calm.

4) A Dishcloth - For the Lent KAL (knit-a-long), following along on a Facebook Group. The official KAL was to make a shawl. I've knitted a shawl before and didn't want another, so I went for the alternative dishcloth - pattern on Ravelry. Each week is knitted in a different colour in Sirdar Happy Cotton yarn. The yarn had been donated at the church Craft Group. I will block it and probably use it as a table mat.  

5) A pair of socks for me. These caused me lots of unpicking... not surprising my husband would say. These are knitted in WYS 4 Ply, Blue Lagoon. The yarn started life being knit into a KAL shawl several years ago. It had beads along the edge, sadly I grew impatient with it, all the knots/bumpy edges you needed to add along the edge. So I unpicked it and continued my sock journey of  'improving each time.' These fit snug, though due to a difference in stitches picked up around the heel, one sock had a different finish point for decreasing. When I tried to match the row count for the feet length instead of  a measurement... it was completely too short! Cue another unpick session. Each time I knit socks, they are a better fit. I feel like I can get it right next time... I hope. Pattern on Winwick Mum's blog - Sockalong tutorial. 

I have a few projects on my needles at the moment, so I need to finish those first before I tackle another pair of socks. 

A) Knit a Helicopter - WI competition for May

B) Rainbow Cardigan - WI craft group - charity request

C) Vest - Fish & Chip jumper/vest

When I've finished these, then I can start another pair of socks, another washcloth and finish a Jacket/Cardigan. 

What are you making at the moment? 

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Knit & Natter - Show and tell

Hello there, I hope you are all happy and well. Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post. Today is a bit of a show and tell of finished knitting & crochet projects. 

First is a Fish & Chip Jumper, the details are here, I've spoken about these before, several posts labelled in the cloud (right side of blog). My church run a Craft Circle, essentially a Knit & Natter session once a week. Some people knit strips of 2 x 2 Rib, changing colour after about 8" of knitting. The colour change is repeated until it's the length of the Communion table - around 130cm. The lady in charge (not me) takes all the strips home and sews them together to make blankets. 
If anyone wishes, they can knit the Fish & Chip jumpers or vests as they are sometimes called, with a matching hat, these are all collected by the Salvation Army. They are sent abroad to Countries in need, for babies that would've been wrapped up in news paper. 

Second is a Knitted Miss Marple Scarf, I knitted this for myself but as it is knitted in Aran weight yarn, it is very thick and large in size. 

I wanted to photograph each section of the Lent Scarf with its description. I have blocked each piece but the ends are rolling in already. The reflections on Lent tradition of fasting or giving up, are rooted in Christianity. I'm not going to copy out the full reflection, just a simple explanation of the pattern and what it represents. If you wish to knit your own Lent scarf, here is the free pattern on Ravelry. 

The red square was the sample piece to check tension. The tree has since been enlarged by the designer to make a stand alone Place Mat or dishcloth/washcloth pattern on Ravelry here to purchase. 
I chose to do all my sections in different colours, some choose one colour, the best one I saw was in 3 colours with different coloured dividing holey rows.

Dark blue - Dove representing Peace.

Light blue - Diamonds representing - Glimpse of light. 

Cream - Stars and Sea, Wonders of  Earth's Beauty.

Gold - Fence - Justice, hope.

Lime - Growth, Tree woodland, creation, good.

Jade (the colour looks blue but it's a green/blue) - I Am, Jesus

Grey - The Cross 

Happy Easter 

The 2 knitted dishcloths are from this pattern book. 

The mauve crochet cloth is a mat, being half acrylic it's not suitable as a washcloth or dishcloth. 

I'm off to knit another dishcloth. 
Bye 
Cathy x

Grandmas-dishcloth-grandmothers-2nd-favorite