Happy Easter Everyone!

With very best wishes for everyone this Easter. x K

Funny doll

This is a wee doll I made for the Children's Liturgy at church at the beginning of December.
I had committed to do it and I did as much as I could although circumstances changed big time between me saying I would do it and the due date.
I handed it in in bits and the lady organising it had to sew it all together before the 15th when they were doing their Nativity play.
I think this guy looks like he would be a good Innkeeper.
Yes, his hair and beard ARE supposed to be that bushy!
This is a dodgy mobile phone pic of it taken at the last minute.
I used Patons Diploma Gold DK which is a wool-synthetic blend, as it had to be washable. 2 balls Cherry, 2 balls White, 1 ball Cocoa and 1 ball Soft Caramel.
Apparently it was very well received and I'm on the list to help again next year, which is a kind of a compliment I'm sure. x K

Not late for Christmas '09, just organized for Christmas '10.

Here's another Christmas holiday make, this time it's for my new five-year-old niece who joined the family in December.

It's a stocking of about 28cm tall and 22cm across the foot.
It's not pieced, it's just fancy pre-printed faux patchwork cotton fabric I got at the SECC Hobbycrafts in 2007. The boot shape for you to cut round is printed on the cloth, and there are still three more boots of different designs left on my fabric piece.

The lining fabrics are gold on green, one having decorative smudges and the other "merry christmas", all lower case.
The wadding is a re-purposed padded pillow protector, and I machine quilted it with straight stitches along the grid pattern of the design.

The hanger is a little strip of spare fabric with musical notes on it which was an off-cut from my main piece. That little hanger was a devil to turn the right way out, even with sock knitting needles to help!

The recipient wasn't exactly enthusiastic, but I was showing her it on New Year's Day, maybe next Christmas when it's stuffed with goodies it will come into its own! As she joined the family in mid-December I didn't have the chance to finish it in time for the big day.

I hand-stitched the red bias binding round the top. It wasn't exactly quick but it has given it a good finish.

There will be more patchwork and quilting in my coming posts this week, but don't worry if you're all Christmassed-out, there won't be any more Christmas projects for a while yet. x K

Christmas Quilt

Back home in Glasgow to find the snow still here!
Long gone in Dumfries and Galloway, although they did do a great line in ice and black ice down there.

Took advantage of the Christmas holidays to do some sewing. I made this quilt from William Morris Christmas Cat fabric purchased at John Lewis in Glasgow.
I'm not a cat person, I'm not a pet of any description person, but these guys looked very festive and because I am crap, sorry, inexperienced, at sewing I thought the linear pattern would help my sewing and especially my quilting. (Plus, it was on special offer.)

I'm quite pleased with it overall and it doesn't bother me at all that it wasn't finished for Christmas Day- we've been getting the good of it over the Festive period, and will continue to do so for many years ahead.

Pic one is on the red armchair made famous by the Siesta Blanket .

Pic two is a close-up of the cat pattern and the buttons added to the centre for decorative reasons, and to help tame the wadding.

Pic three is of the complementary backing fabric.


Pic four is a little detail shot of the edgings and quilting. I added the black binding to cover my raw edges, then I added the gold ribbon to dress up the edges and frame the cats.

It wasn't all easy peasy, but we can admire it and snuggle up under it for years to come.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone.
Best wishes to you all.

Look how we brought in the new year, it was cool, a first for me!
Ok, so I only looked at the moon, but in much better detail than I'd ever seen it before.

You'll see from yesterday's post that it was a very moonsy night.
J persevered a bit longer and saw some stars and planets but the fact that the moon was so terrifically bright was working against him there.
What a way to bring in the bells!
Some neighbours were on the beach having a bonfire and we thought of joining them at one point but we got so carried away star-gazing the time went by.

With very best wishes for 2010. x K

Night falls on a decade

Just in case you're wondering, THIS IS THE MOON!!!

Couldn't resist getting the tripod out and taking a picture of the moon over Balcary Bay and Hestan Island. It's casting such a magnificent glow over the water and wet sand. It's so bright you could knit a couple of rows by it.
A neighbour lady called it a blue moon because it's the second full moon in a month.

I'm including a shaky hand-held picture so you can believe me it is the moon.

Can it really be ten years since we geared up to celebrate the dawn of a new millenium?

This decade has seen a lot of tears, but I don't want to dwell on that, I'm just going to linger on the thought that this decade brought me my beloved Jonathan, and for that I will be eternally grateful. And by that I mean, eternally. x K

Spoiled again this year!

There is a very uplifting tinge to Christmas this year because of a new addition to the wider family. A beautiful five-year-old has joined my in-laws' family, who as well as being someone to knit for, has also really enhanced Christmas. It really IS Christmas when there are little ones about, and I grab any excuse to release my thinly-veiled inner child. What fun.

I also feel very spoiled with my beautiful gift from DH, which was membership to the Old Maiden Aunt yarn preview club this winter. There were three instalments (Oct, Nov, Dec) and we got a foretaste of some of next season's colours on a variety of sock-yarn bases, as well as some extras and members' goodies thrown in. It was great fun, and the best bit is if I love any of the colours (which I do!) I can buy them in the normal way next season. Thanks DH for a marvelous gift. Old Maiden Aunt Webstore

Before I give the details of the goodies I mustn't forget how generous my in-laws were too. As well as giving us a joint household gift, I was also given a wee special voucher for the Outback Yarns section of the Gem Shop in Castle Douglas, a small but well stocked yarn department about the size of your broom cupboard. I must've been not too naughty this year.

Ok, these are the details of the yarns lying loose on the frost, in the third picture.
The range is the forthcoming "I made you this mixtape".

Back l-r
(Orangey) "Put on the Day" in Superwash Merino 4-ply
(Purply) "Derelict Daughter" in Merino-Cashmere-Nylon 4-ply
(Turquoisey) "Seen the Ocean" in Merino-Cashmere-Nylon 4-ply
(Greeny) "Bitter Bug" in Merino-Bamboo 4-ply
(Browny) "Midnight Owl" in Superwash Merino 4-ply
(Weirdy) "Strange Rock'n'Rollers" in Merino-Bamboo 4-ply

Hope Santa was as good to you all as he was to me. x K

Christmas Greetings

Happy Christmas everyone!
Here's to a peaceful one.
Lots of love, K x

Happy Saint Andrew's Day!

I haven't blogged in ages, there's a good reason for that, but in the meantime I would like to wish everyone a very Happy St. Andrew's Day.
God Bless Scotland, and God Bless You! x K

My end of the bargain

Here's what I made for my swap buddy for the Veiled Knitters' Exchange.
I can show you this now, knowing it has been well-received.

When looking for something to knit it was very important to read the questionnaire to find out what my recipient, yarndoggie, would like rather than knitting something I wanted, so I tried my best to make pattern, colour and yarn choices which suited her needs.

I made this Fallen Leaf Scarflette which was designed to be worn as a neck scarf, although yarndoggie may choose to wear it as a Chapel Veil. The pattern's by Cotton and Cloud.

It's made from the discontinued Rowan DK Soft and not Kidsilk Haze, which is the yarn called for. I do have some KSH but yarndoggie did not want a yarn which would shed, so I thought the DK Soft would be nice to keep the slight fuzziness while addressing yarndoggie's concern.

I can really see one of these in the future for myself because I really enjoyed making it and the result was very satisfying. 'Twas a little tricky reading the pattern from my screen as I had no access to a printer, but it was very much a fun knit which presented very few problems.

Yarndoggie says she is a girly girl so I added some beautiful Old Maiden Aunt sock yarn in Fraoch to appeal to her love of all girly colours Linky and to let her see the talents of Scottish based independent dyer, my friend Old Maiden Aunt . Must get some of this beautiful colourway for me me me! I was silly and forgot to photograph the yarn before sending it, but hopefully these links will keep you going.

I also threw in a wee tartan dishtowel, just for fun. x K

The rest of the goodies!

Here are the rest of the goodies from my parcel from America.
You can see that Dawn picked up on my love of blue!
In the foreground there is some Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in shade Midnight, which is the same yarn my two hats were made of.
Then there's some Cascade Yarns Fixation, which has 98.3% (yes really) cotton and 1.7 % elastane to give it that stretch for ribs etc.
They are fab because they are not yarns I could get hold of all that easily here, but my favourite is some local yarn which wenchciara bought at the State Fair. It's 100% lightweight wool (4ply-ish?)
from Sandy's Sheep Shop in Walkerton Indiana. The colour is a heathery shade called Lake Blue and has 44o yds in the cake- I can see a shawlette in my future.

Veiled Knitters Exchange on Ravelry

First blog post in a month! This work thing fairly gets in the way of hobby-time, doesn't it?
Well, the first post back after my break is about a pleasant subject- an international exchange on the Veiled Knitters Group on Ravelry .

I'm not a veiled knitter as such, but I do have a penchant for head-scarves, kerchiefs and all sorts of head coverings so I fit in there.

Here are some pictures of parts of my generous gift from wenchciara in Indianapolis.
What I can't show you at the moment are the yarn goodies she sent ie. some Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, Cascade Fixation and some beautiful artisan yarn from the State Fair. I forgot to bring them away with me to photograph. :-(

I can show you my two heid bunnets, worn as intended (as snoods) and as slouchy berets.
I love them! One is Lacy Starfish Snood by berrymama and the other is a simple hat with very nice tailored looking decreases on the crown.

I have posted my offering off to America (to a third party) and I hope it doesn't take too long to arrive so I can show you my handiwork. In the meantime here it is all wrapped up in Scottishy paper. x K

Old news

This scarf has been ready for a couple of weeks now.
It's a sideways scarf in Patons Australia Jet, a yarn I was not familiar with until I saw it in the bargain bucket in the Gem Shop in Castle Douglas.

It's a very pleasant yarn to knit with, and I'd be happy to use it again, but it's discontinued and I think I scored some of the last stock the Gem Shop had. It's a wool-alpaca blend, chunky weight, and splices really well, so I expect it would felt like a dream.

The colours blend nicely in my view. The "rosewood" (my name) shade in the solid colour is continued as a core thread virtually all the way through the variegated colour and the shade of the solid blue colour is speckled regularly through the variegated colour. Nice forethought in my opinion.

The intended recipient for this scarf doesn't care for it, so it has been set aside for the time being.

Just my luck!

On Ravelry I have been appointed as a guest moderator for the thread-

Is racism alive and kicking?

in the remnants forum via their Mod Attack scheme at the moment.

Couldn't I have been appointed to-

Are six-week old pandas cute?*
or
Is learning a foreign language worth it?*
or
Is lace knitting addictive?*

*Sadly these threads do not yet exist. Maybe that's why I haven't been appointed them.


Have any of you readers been asked to guest mod something on Ravelry? x K

Sometimes you have to believe your eyes....

A larger than the published large size of Ishbel.
This is what I managed to get out of my 300 yard skein.

Remember, this is a me-sized T-shirt.

Nice and wrinkly, but good for scale compared to the other photo.

....rather than the pattern.

Remember, this would have been one row away from completion.




Small sized Ishbel, what the pattern would recommend for my 300 yard ball of yarn. x K

A Photo Essay about a Lovely Large Ishbel

Ravelry link to Ishbel pattern
Link to designer Ysolda Teague's blog
Ravelry link to the page for this divine yarn
Link to Old Maiden Aunt online shop

Candytuft Fairy

How sad is this?
Photographing and blogging this card just so my beloved can see it?

It is to the layout specified in Clare's Challenge of the Week over at docrafts.

Leapt through hoops to get this card together because my card-making stash is out of reach.
Had to be a bit more resourceful and use things like a fairy from some wrapping paper, beads and button from my knitting kit and I even stamped my own FAIRY paper.

x K

Reconciled

It didn't take long to become at peace with the fact I had to rip out a portion of Sea Ishbel.

I've now re-done more rows than I frogged, which is always a good stage, and I got a chance to weigh the skein when I got to the bit where the shawlette would have ended.

48g left
48g!
48g!


Ok, you get it, it would've meant "wasting" almost half a ball, and that isn't going to happen, so onwards I plough with the rather lovely, if I may say, Sea Ishbel.

I'm not in a very linky mood, but my ripping experience is nothing compared to the recent frog-fests of merinomills, tigerlilith and kariebookish, so no more will be said about my measly couple of dozen rows. x K

As Others See Us Exhibition

We thoroughly enjoyed a photography exhibition we saw in Kirkcudbright town hall last week.
It's part of the whole Year of Homecoming celebration here in Scotland and consists of portraits of important and/or famous contemporary Scots who have chosen and excerpt of Robert Burns' poetry and expressed what it means to them.

This link
should take you directly to the artists' page, giving some examples of the portraits and the tour dates. Click on any of the thumbnail portraits or any of the sitters' names to see more.

The photographers Ross Gillespie and Tricia Malley take some aspect of the chosen lines of the poem and portray it in the portrait. Definitely worth a look if it comes to venue near you. x K