Six new babies

Six new blooms opened in my bouquet overnight.
How can I tell?
The minute I spot those dangly stamens I whip the little darlings out.
I don't mean to go on about it, and I have had nice flowers before, but what's impressing me about these is that so many are fresh and in their prime at the one time.
I've a funny feeling I'll be back at the Willie's Lilies stall.
http://www.willieslilies.com/

P.S. I moved the stitch marker. x K

Cheer up bouquet

What do you think of my back-to-work-cheer-me-up bouquet?
I got these on Saturday at
Partick Farmers Market
from the Willie's Lilies stall.
Aren't they beautiful?

The more observant among you will notice a small green padlock to the left of the grate- yes a wanton stitch marker.
It's strange the way I see things so much more clearly in photographs than in real life. Maybe I should walk about with a view-finder.
Please understand I am not in agonies that a stray stitch marker is lying around my otherwise immaculate home- oh how we laughed. It gives that extra knitters' appeal anyway. ;-)

Flower Basket Thank-you

Thank you for all your kind comments about my Flower Basket Shawl.
Now, what to knit next?......

Flower Basket Shawl

A picture (and a few links) speaks a thousand words...

Orkney Angora St. Magnus DK shade Dark Olive

K1 Yarns

Flower Basket Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark at Fibertrends

Get Knitted, scroll down

Kiri shawl in same yarn in bright pink

Jaeger Beads J3001006, scroll down

DH's two favourite ladies model the Flower Basket Shawl

DH will be in passion overdrive when he sees this post!

His two favourite heart-throbs in one posting, hee hee.

One is Caitlin Fitzgerald, Pam Allen's daughter, whom you will doubtless recognise from many an Interweave publication and one is li'l ole me looking coy in my stunning new shawl.

Plenty of pics and specs to come in the next few days, but for now I'll leave this uncluttered for J to feast his eyes.

Falling in Love Lace Scarf

Thank you for your kind comments about the shopping bag and the lacy gloves.
My next FO is the Falling in Love Lace Scarf by Evelyn Clark at Fibertrends. I bought the pattern from Get Knitted
and thoroughly enjoyed making it. Although I occasionally hand to tink back a few stitches and the odd row, it was a lot easier to keep control of 41 stitches than the usual 250+ or 300 you usually have to tame when doing this designer's shawls. (Trust me on this one, I'm approaching the edging on a largish Flower Basket Shawl.)
The yarn is Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift in colour Cherry. Not all of the pictures show it, but Cherry is a good name, it's a nice rich pink and I was left with about one metre of the third ball after the picot edgings, so I was pleased my arithmetic worked out.

Bought the yarn in the Wool & Needlecraft Centre in Argyll Square, Oban, after checking in for the Mull ferry crossing.

Felt a bit funny doing a garter stitch-based lace, and I kept wondering why she'd gone for that, but the design pops out nicely plus it lies good and flat, it could be that.
You do a provisional cast-on at the centre then knit side one and go back and do the second side identically so that the hearts are falling downwards on each side.
This has been the nicest week of weather of the summer so far- must knit pure wool Shetland scarves more often. :-)

I forgot the freakin' rose!

In the first picture we have my version of the Falling in Love Lace scarf, done in Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift.

In the second, the publicity shot.

I must have subconsciously been copying the picture as it appears on the pattern.

Of course, I forgot the rose, which is okay as I may have been taking the imitation=flattery thing a bit far.

Crochet shopping bag

Here's something I finished off on holiday- a bag made from my haul of Sirdar Indigo cotton yarn I got at the SECC in 2005- I'm slowly but surely working my way through it.

This took 3 balls of the Dark Denim shade and one ball of Light Denim. I hadn't really planned on having the light colour up at the top again but the fact that I was on Mull and my stash was in Glasgow meant that I had to tweak my plans a bit.

It really wasn't a problem with this style of bag, but I really must start to make sure I have the right stitch count after each row. I think I am not stitching into the last stitch of each row on a consistent basis. It probably looks pretty much deliberate because of the way the handles pull the top in, but the pieces are parallelograms, not rectangles as originally planned. Edit- not parallelograms- trapeziums/ trapezia?

The handles are Rowan bamboo ones. The denim yarn is starting to take on that weathered look after a vigorous 60 degree wash.
Nice for swanning around the town shopping with. Happy crafting. x K

I left a generous opening unsewn at the side of the bag, so it had a nice wide mouth for all the essentials.

Close-up of the crochet fabric- I call these trebles, what do you call them?

Crochet shopping bag

Simply Lovely Lace Gloves

Sound a big hit for myself in the title, don't I?

Just because these are actually the Simply Lovely Lace Socks from Interweave Knits Spring 2006.

They started off life last summer as the socks in question. I knitted the "legs" of both, they languished in a basket for months, and then were re-discovered this spring when I decided that I would convert them into fingerless gloves.

I always wear pink lacy gloves with jeans and walking boots, don't you? I was making the most of a brief dry spell to take outdoor pictures.

Don't ask me how I adapted the pattern it was "do this, fudge that, make it happen".

The pattern is very nice, but rather sloooow because you're always knitting into the back of each plain stitch, which is probably why they never made the final cut as socks for me.

Here they are on the "distressed" picnic table of our holiday cottage. I'll tell you , the table wasn't the only one distressed at the grotty cottage, but I digress.

They were made from a dusky pink colour of Opal Uni which I bought from Get Knitted last spring. I feel a bit like Fagin from Oliver when wearing them, but they're nice gloves nonetheless. x K

Been fishin' !

Hi there, I've missed you!

Safely back from our island adventures now.
Had a nice holiday, although the accommodation was a let-down and to be honest the weather wasn't up to much either.

We did manage to get out and about every single day, such as on a boat trip to the Treshnish Isles where we spotted this fine specimen who had caught some yummy sand eels for tea. (I love the way they are always laid out in such an orderly fashion in their beaks.) There are loads of puffins on Lunga and we took dozens of photos of them so that at least some of them would be good.

Also knitted or crocheted every single day, so I've got a few things to show you once I'm organised.

Off to read the blogs now. Call back in a couple of days for more details and pix. K x

Gone Fishin'!

Thanks for all the warm wishes about our new arrival, baby Oscar.

I won't be around for a couple of weeks as we are off to the Isle of Mull for a two-week break tomorrow.

We won't have any internet access, but I'm sure we'll manage to fill our time with our island adventures.

Take care of yourselves and see you in two weeks' time.
Have a brilliant time at Woolfest, you lucky devils who are going.

Happy knitting. x K

New addition to the family

Ok, I'll spill the beans without leaving you wondering any longer- my beautiful niece has had a beautiful baby boy. He made his bold entrance last Thursday. He is my second delightful great-nephew.
Isn't he lovely? He receives the Oscar for being the most adorable Welsh baby, since, let's see, his gorgeous big sister, Miss Cola.
He'll soon be receiving the lilac wavy blanket I showed you last month.


I'm being quite serious here- please don't say if you wrongly guessed the good news was that I was expecting. Thank-you.

Shoo-Fly

Supergran - are you "Canadian" or "Welsh"??? Either way, you are very welcome.

Some people take you at your word.
Some people like photographic proof you've been doing your patchwork!

Here are the four Shoo-Fly blocks I've made so far from the leftovers from the blue and white as-yet-unnamed quilt top.
I'm moving up in the quilting world as I have progressed to triangles with this one!
Don't worry if the triangle edges don't seem aligned to the edge of the blocks- once the 1/4 inch seam allowances have been sewn into the seams they should be bang on.

I don't know why they're called Shoo-Fly blocks, even though I borrowed a beautiful book about Amish quilts from Partick library.
I think they will become part of a storage bag for the blue and white thing when it becomes a quilt, rather than just a top. Or maybe a jammie case to sit on top of the bed. (Why does a grown woman need so many pyjama cases?)

The other side of the storage bag/ p.j. case will be done in another square and triangle pattern block, but I can't remember its name at the mo.
Each of these blocks is one foot across.
I'm getting the feeling that the patchwork/piecing is more of a draw to me than the quilting btw, but it's still early days.
Strange as this may seem, I do not want to establish a fabric stash, so I want to use up as much as I can as I go along.
I have even included a pic of the reverse side of one of the blocks for you madsters who immediately turn over all embroidery/ fair-isle/ patchwork to look at the back.
I got some brilliant news this week which I hope to share with you in my next entry. In the meantime- feast your eyes on my Shoo-Flies.

Balcary Bay

Unfortunately I've had to block comments on the last post due to a rogue commenter. I may have to find out how to enable comment moderation. Apologies if you already said something sensible, I'll try to copy it over if I can. x K

Balcary Bay

Quite often on this blog I give you a view from Balcary Bay. I don't think I've ever given you a view OF Balcary Bay before because of its location.
Well, here is a rare view of good old Balcary Bay!
Last weekend we went out in a boat (glorified rowing boat really, don't be picturing me on a luxury yacht) to Hestan Island and this is the view looking back. If you can see a yellowish beach on the left, that's where I usually stand posing with shawls etc, it's strange for me to see it from this perspective. The water is the Solway Firth at high tide.

Ok, craft content. Knitting? Check. Interminable ribbing on a Twilley's Freedom Spirit Cardigan. Crochet? Check. Making a bag from Sirdar Indigo, one side complete. Patchwork? Check. Have made four "Shoo-Fly" blocks from the leftovers from the blue and white quilt top. Dress-making? Not this week, does buying fabric count?

I hope to show you some nice FO pix soon. I am really quite uncharacteristically stressed at work at the moment and haven't had a chance to really get tore* into my projects this week.

I know get torn is grammatical, but get tore in is the idiom.

Have a good crafty week. x K

Cardonald Cottage?

Hee hee, I did my course at Cardonald COLLEGE, not Cardonald Cottage as my previous post claims!

I kind of like the sound of that- sounds like some historically important location or something.

Thanks for all the lovely comments about my skirt.

Glad you approve of the new sewing machine too, yes girls, go and dust yours off, let's have some sewing fun this summer. x K

Coming clean

Thank-you for all your lovely comments about my quilt top- now get working on yours, you skivers!

I've been holding out on you, Part the Second.

I've been attending a Dressmaking Course at Cardonald Cottage. I've just completed Course F and thoroughly enjoyed it. I got a lot out of the tuition, as you do, but also I learned tons and got a lot of inspiration from my classmates. (This is nothing to do with my quilting, which I've been plugging away at with the help of books and the internet.)

I've been holding out on you, Part the Third.
I've made myself a skirt! It's in a linen and cotton blend and I made it from Butterick Pattern B4557 (scroll down, she's wearing a black top and a patterned black skirt) at my class. I'm going to make myself at least one more, using some patterned black fabric, (another linen with white surface embroidery) I'm a sucker for advertising.


The photos are 1- front view 2- back view showing darts and zip 3- waistband, couldn't get matching bias binding so I went for a toning colour.

According to the quilting books you can make your own bias binding in the matching shade, but this is a beginner project, I've never sewn anything to wear before.

Unlike some lucky people, I don't have a Vianne or Dianne or Leeanne or anyone to stand very still for me while I fix the hem or photograph the finished product, so I have to stick with a humble hedge.


I've been holding out on you, Part the Fourth.
I've recently been treated to a
New Sewing Machine !!! It's model 3210, the simpler, blue one. I love it! I'm even learning to use it properly.

No more revelations to break at the moment.

Happy crafting and I hope you enjoyed World Wide Knit in Public Day. x K

Not a tutorial on how to make a quilt top

I've been holding out on you, Part the First.

I've made a bed quilt top behind your back. I did most of it during the Bank Holiday weekend last week, and I did the border today.

This link is not a tutorial on how to make a quilt top.

It's not "How to make a quilt top" it's "How I made a quilt top".

I come with great big L plates on at the moment, although I really enjoyed it and I am pleased with the results so far.

You can find out how I got from pencil and paper to full top by looking at my KEDkrafty's Patchwork Quilt Top Step by Step on Flickr.

If you know nothing about quilts, the top is the big sheety bit at the top. I haven't touched the layering and binding, and oh yeah, the actual quilting bit yet.

It's quite detailed, if you get bored just look at the pictures.

I would love it if you would leave a comment, either on Flickr or on here.

Do you happen to know the name of that diagonal layout I've done? If so, I'd be much obliged if you'd let me know, I'm having a hard time finding out.

Thank you my friends, and Happy Crafting! K x