Miss Winkle - part ii

Well, I'm up to the 23 loop mark on miss winkle

Wanted to get some further but things got in the way!  I am loving the pattern - nice and easy to memorise but with a little interest so not to be boring.  Also really loving the yarn.  I knew I was waiting for the right thing to use this variegated yarn on, and this is it.  I now really wish I had bought some more for A Stash Addict before she closed up - hindsight!!

It is a lovely sunny day here in the South East with a bit of breeze to dry the clothes on the washing line.  This is something I longed to be able to do when I lived in a flat for 5 years, now I can't get enough of it!!

Tomorrow we are going to Brands Hatch to see the start of the British touring Car Championship which all my boys love so I am going to use this as an opportunity to do some more Winkling (as I believe it is now termed!)
By next week I hope to be nearly finished - some people on Ravelry (Knitalong with Crafts from the Cwtch) are reporting 40 odd loops, others 35ish - I think I am about half way through my yarn so I am thinking 35 loops.

Year of Projects Update - PPP

Progress, progress, progress (the PPP!)
I have made lots of progress this week, but no FO's :-(
Never mind!  I have made progress on my poncho for Lily

Am up to the 17th Loop of Miss Winkle - wanted to be at 20, but 17 will do!!  Might reach 20 by the end of the day.







I have made 3 more glasses cases and a medium purse.

And have made progress on my pins:

The bunting is ready for letters and top stitching



And I have measured myself to cut the fabric for my skirt.





So despite neither of these being finished, I feel I am ready for 2 new pins.  I have gone for these:

The first I'm going to achieve today, hopefully, as the colours for some cupcakes I'm making for a sale.  The second is a bit hopeful, but I should be able to make small steps towards it over the next few weeks.
               

Next week is the start of the British Touring car championship at Brands Hatch which we will be partaking in (watching it that is!), so will not be updating, but hopefully, will be able to bring you some photos and FO's the week after.
Hope you all have a lovely week!

Midweek Inspiration

I have been awake in the early hours of the morning lately!!  I have had a lot of thinking time about my current obsession with sewing - fueled in the most part by the Great British Sewing Bee on the BBC on Tuesday nights.  

I am really liking the current fashion for pastels, especially since the boys are not into these they lend themselves to projects for me!  Absolutely love the colours here, but don't think I am a wearing pastel kind of girl! - I am sure this would lend itself to some lovely cupcakes (Iam baking for a sale on Tuesday!) and soft furnishings.






Found this on Thursday from laura oliver - now the colours in this are right up my street - I am thinking skirt/top, maybe even knitted items although I think they look particularly good in the more sheer fabric.

I was also reminded of a picture from my garden - with the pink and yellow



And look at this:
           

These are images from a shop in London run by Lisa Comfort - a sewing  cafe nonetheless called Sew over it in south London - I love the dress.
Of course I have yet to finish a sewn garment (have made a project bag - below but no garments) but I can dream!

A Year of Projects Update

 I thought I could do with another challenge this week!!  Not content with steadily working through making products to sell (have put a few of these on the products page) and knitting my poncho for Lily (progress below), I decided I would quite like to take part in a KAL with the Cwtch on Ravelry knitting Miss Winkle.
I wasn't going to as shawls really aren't me, but I was stalking the thread and I was reminded of a skein of A Stash Addict yarn that I have in stash awaiting a purpose.  And so I succumbed, here I am on Friday

and this is how far I had got on Saturday evening

This is the progress on Lily's poncho so all are doing well!

I also took receipt of some Madelinetosh pashmina that I have been hankering over for a while from a destash - not sure what it will become yet - and I have ordered 2 skeins from Mellifera yarn as she had a 15% off sale yesterday.









Notice that in all of this I have not mentioned my pins!!  I haven't made any progress on either the bunting or the skirt - but hopefully today?

Have a nice week!

Miss Winkle

Ok, so I was quite happily going about my business being a fairly monogamous knitter.  I am trying to slowly build up my stock of products for the craft fair in June and I am knitting a lovely stripey pinky poncho for my niece as some interesting knitting in between.  I have been keeping my eye on the Crafts From The Cwtch group on ravelry, as I did a great KAL with her last year with a Boo knits which I loved, and I have become hopelessly obsessed with 'The Great British sewing Bee' on BBC.  So when the spring KAL with the Cwtch came up, I wasn't sure, as although I love knitting them, shawls really aren't my thing.  However, I have been watching the thread progress and have been sucked in by the lovely yarn choices!

So, the pattern is Miss Winkle and I have chosen my yarn from stash.  I have a lovely A Stash Addict yarn in Witches Brew that has been waiting for a purpose, and this is it!

After school today I have been excitedly preparing for CO tomorrrow - I have my pattern printed, my yarn out of the box and needles chosen - on a lovely sunny afternoon as the sun goes down I am set.

A Lazy Sunday!

It has been a glorious Sunday here in the South East.

We have spent some time in the garden.  The boys were playing with cars

I painted my pots and potted all but one up - the last is waiting for Basil that is currently developing on the windowsill













I cut some of the daffs that have opened up today















I have cut out all of the triangles, rectangles and letters for my bunting.  Now all I have to do is sew them together and add the lettering!!  I haven't cut the fabric for my skirt but the pattern came this week so I am ready to go.










I also made the cookies from the picture - they don't look like the ladies in the blog - I think this is because I didn't have almond butter (I don't think we can get this in the UK).  I tried to improvise with ground almonds, but they looked a bit different - still taste nice though.

Year of Projects Update - progress!

Yay, progress has been made this week.  I finished my top for work and wore it to work, two days running!!  My first garment that I can wear all day!  I need to block/iron the straps, but I was too excited to do that this week and couldn't wait to wear it. Please excuse the very dirty mirror I took this in.

I have since CO my poncho for my niece in these colours.

On the Pinterest front I have bought the material for my skirt and a pattern (decided not to wing it!) and bought fabric and cut out triangles for the bunting.  So the pins stay the same -

        and        

 but I have made progress on them and added these:

  and the material bought for the 2 previous pins!!

Just as an aside, the weather has been stunning the last couple of days, so we managed to go to the beach yesterday and am spending today in the garden - heaven after the weather of late.  Hope the weekend is treating you all as well :-)

Inspiration - Spring

One of my goals this week was to use Pinterest as inspiration to progress on 2 projects.  So this week my 2 pins were:
                          and                             

As a result I have been out today to get material to carry out these projects.
1) Material to make my very first sewn garment - a skirt

2) Material to make some bunting - I have the material cut out for bunting for my boys rooms already, and now I have some nice pinky colours and cake fabric to make aknitandacake bunting for my craft stall.

On a slightly unrelated point I finished my top for work and wore it to work today - yay!!

A Year of Projects Update

Thought I would start with the list today, but as you may be able to see, I have made little progress just added projects!



So, my current list for 2013/2014 is as follows:

Firstly, gifts for Christmas

For Daniel and Lily - a bag for Lily and will knit Daniel an elephant later in the year

For the sisters in law - wristwarmers - finished 14/08/13 

For my mum and brother - pot covers and mug hug - another change of plan - scarf for mm and gardening things for my brother

For Thomas and Luke - crocodile scarf  - finished 20/12/13

For my mum and mil - dishcloths and bag - finished 01/12/13

Then, there's all the projects just for me

Finish tote bag  - hurrah - finished 04/07

Hat for me - finished 09/08/13

Socks for me - definitely using my A Stash Addict yarn

Placemats - in time for Christmas I hope! - next Christmas!!

Scarf for the husband - for dad finished 

Shawl for me - Dragonfly wings by Boo knits - will be my next project - finished 14/07

Winter hats for the boys

Additions!

Little Gradient for Thomas - Finished

Hexipuffs - more made

Bonnet for SCBU - finished 14/08/13

Vanilla socks as first sock project - yarn bought from Mellifera yarns

MKAL  with One skein - scarflette - finished 26/07/13

MKAL with Boo Knits - Morticia - start 01/10/13 - finished 01/11/13

MKAL with Amy Miller group - start 01/09/13 - completed 2 cowls - 2 more to go

September MKAL with One Skein - nearly finished - changed into scarf and finished

Poncho - Lemonade from lemons -Linda Blakeley - finished 11/01/14

Learn to crochet - for Ravellenics

Willow boot socks - possible Xmas gift for SIL - finished 25/12/13

Sewing - make myself a project bag - finished 30/01/14

Sewing - make bunting for the boys rooms

Knitting - design various purse patterns

Knit purses and glasses cases for craft stall

Top for work - started January 2014

poncho for Lily - yarn bought 

See You There - top for me - yarn bought

I have made some progress on my top for work and hopefully will finish this week.  I have also added my purses to the list, and on that note have made a batch of wedding purses, to which I am going to affix crochet flowers.

In other news, I made and delivered the cake on Saturday.  Much as I love baking and creating, it reminded me why I couldn't do it as a job - it is way too stressful!!  For this one, I am used to quite polished cakes, so I had to keep checking it was what the bride wanted!

I was reading a blog post by Sandra (Saminar) yesterday and have decided to take her lead and use pinterest to inspire myself and spur myself on to achieve a few goals.  To that end, I'm going to pick 2 pins a week to do something about.  Last weeks pin was:

And the pins for this week will be:

             
Both sewing based but I will try to finish my top for work and complete a few more purses as well.

Wish me luck and have a lovely week
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