Stitchy Pickings

Hello everybody.  

I've been trying so hard to get around all of your lovely blogs in the past week but time just seamed to run away on me. But this week I hope to have a lot more me time to knuckle down and get some serious blogging done!  There is so much that I need to catch up on.  I feel like I've been living in a bubble for the last year while everybody else was getting on with some seriously beautiful crafting. 

 I'm so far behind that only last night did I get to watch The Bletchly Circle.  

I SO loved it.

I was having a girlie night in with my mother and catching up on some much needed relaxation and down time, I noticed that the two series were up on Netflix and we sat down and watched every episode. It was two in the morning before the last episode ended and I was glued to the screen the whole time, interrupted periodically by my Mum telling me to close my mouth and stop drooling over the clothes.  

The clothes. The clothes.  Oh the clothes!!

They made me want to take out Cissy, my trusty sewing machine, and get making right away.

If only I was that talented!

One thing that I could do last night in peace and quiet was to sit down with my knitting tucked neatly on my lap.  I much say that I love this little stitch pattern.  It is not as boring as stocking stitch but not too complicated that you have to concentrate it all the time and not be able to watch a bit of telly at the same time. 

 It is a Stylecraft Alpaca pattern and has a lovely vintage feel to it.  I think that it'll be the perfect little cardi for a summers evening or a walk on the beach.  Can't wait to see it finished.

This is the other little baby that I'm working on at the moment. It is from Rico Designs in Melange Glitz Chunky.  It is an absolutely fantastic yarn to work with, so soft and tactile.

I wanted a quick knit after Christmas, to get my knitting year off to a good start but this has taken forever to get finished.  I ran out of yarn just as I was getting to the top of the back piece and have been waiting for the right yarn to be delivered since.  It's such a joy to knit that I'm sure that it won't take too long to finish once it arrives.

Just before I go, I thought that I might introduce you to the newest member of our clan, Fred.

The poor little fella was abandoned in the middle of the countryside when he was just a small pup.  He was found by a relation of my husband's and taken in but he couldn't stay there forever but I begged and whined and cried and when that didn't work, I throw a temper tantrum until the Hubby gave in and agreed to let him come live with us. He's been cursing me every day since then.

The least i can say is that Fred is a whirlwind of destruction.  never to be left home alone lest he eat toys, furniture, yarn or his favourite of all, books.  He takes them out of the bookshelf and nibbles on the cover and even if he's stopped and the book put away, he will always go back to the same book until it's totally destroyed. 

 Go figure!

And the worst of all?? 

He always, always eats the end of the book first!!

Hope to chat you all on your blog's soon,

Rosie

Swapped

First of all, I would like to thank everybody for their kind and caring comments about my sons illness.  They were truly welcome and helped to cheer me up no end to know that I have good bloggy friends out there.  Patrick is doing so much better now and even though he is still getting some headaches, he has been able to return to school and even played a GAA match for the school team on Sunday!  He scored a goal and he was smiling from ear to ear for a whole day after.

Just as I needed something to cheer me up after the stressful previous week the postman arrived with a neat little package from my Bobo Bun Swap partner, Ethel from Eco Ethel.

It contained four lovely pressies, all wrapped up in music sheets.  i loved the wrapping so much that I tried my best not to tear when opening them.  For colour there was a lovely "cake" badge, that is now sitting happily on my rucksack.
Vintage was a beautiful pink table mat with applique flowers.
For handmade Ethel sent me a sweet little button necklace, purple in colour.  And handy enough I had just bought a new jumper and I was looking for a necklace to go with it.  This one just suits the bill.
And finally my favourite, for handmade there were two Dandy comic buntings.  I just loved comics as a child and if I'm honest I still do.  So this was a perfect swap idea.
Thanks Ethel.  Your pressies cheered me up no end and it arrived just at the perfect time for me.

This is what I sent to Ethel:

For colour I made an apple and pear pinny.

For handmade I knitted a chunky handbag.  Perfect for carrying knitting WIPs.

Vintage was a small little coin purse.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the childhood pressie.  I thought that a wooden cup and ball toy would keep Ethel entertained.

For a first swap, I must say that I enjoyed it most thoroughly.  I will definitely do it again.

Do you enjoy swaps?  Did you get anything nice?

Rosie xx

Knitting Nutter

My energy levels have been at an all time low over the last few days.  True to my promise to myself, I've walked the dog every morning.  Unfortunately all I was fit for after that was to surround myself with yarnie comfort and knit and crochet to both calm and sooth.
I managed to finished another Christmas present.  This cute little bag was such fun to knit.  Being the twit that I am, I lost the pattern but I think that it is one by Louisa Harding.  I used Lambs Pride Worsted and Irish Tweed.  It's a slip stitch pattern which I think is the best for things like handbags because it forms quite a robust material.  I lined it with a lovely dark green cotton that was a lovely contrast to the outside.

I also finished a cute little colourful mittens for my son.  He's been asking me for ages to make these and even bought the wool himself.  I've been doing the 'Mittens and Gloves Galore'  by Marly Bird on Craftsy.  As I've said before, I love doing craftsy courses.  It is great to be able to follow it at your own pace and it also comes on a mobile app. Brrriliant!  So waiting for the kids outside the school or long journeys in the car is now a lot more interesting.  Unfortunately like everything crafty, it gets addictive and I keep finding new courses that I want to take and new things that I want to learn.  Even things that I had never even heard of before and hadn't previously known that I want to know it!!!!!


Before I go, I need to ask for a bit of help with something that's been driving me loopy lately.  I'd love to know how to put in breaks between topics in my post.  I've seen some blogs that have gorgeous little hearts or stars or the like but I just do not know how to put them in for my posts.  Are your posts written on Word?  Is there something that I'm missing out on in my toolbar.  I'm not the best at computers and since I started this blog I've learned so much and  I'm hoping to keep on improving it all the time.  A little help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Rosie xx

Going Vintage

Chaos has reigned once more on this little house of mine.  After labouring to clean all of the linen in our hotpress, or airing cupboard to everybody else, after the builders left the house caked in cement dust, my heart sank this weekend to discover that the pipes in the house next door had burst and the water had seeped into our hotpress and destroyed all of the contents once more!  Much screaming and pulling of already thinning hair ensued!
So to cheer myself up a little, I headed off to the local antique fair.  And with my beady little eye I found a beautiful set of dessert plates just begging me to bring them home.  They may not be perfect with their little chips and cracked glaze but I love them more for their little imperfections.  I shows that they were well loved and used plenty.  And they are certainly going to be well used here too.

This is the cake plate.  It may be a little cracked and warn but just look at the beautiful detailing on it.  Who couldn't just fall in love with it!












There are five cake plates in total and the design on each is completely different.








I was also going through some of my material stash because I've started my chrimbo present sewing and I found an old tablecloth that my mother used to use in her house a lot when we were growing up.  Because some naughty little mouse had a nibble one or two corners of it, it was put aside to be made into a bag of some description.  But when I saw it, it brought back a lot of memories and I no longer have the heart to take the scissors to it.  I love it just the way it is.  Perfect!

Well obviously it could do with a bit of an ironing!  But I never did say that I was the queen of the rubber glove and feather duster brigade and I am severely allergic to the iron.  Well that is what I tell the Hubbie anyway!

I also finally managed to finish my purple waistcoat from the pattern by Kyoko Nakayosho.  I really struggled to find a button that I really liked for it.  The only problem that I had with the pattern was that the number of stitches for the arm ribbing was very small and I had to rip them back and pick up extra ones.  Other than that it was a great challenge and now I am quite happy with the final result.

The light wasn't great today so sorry that the pic isn't that good.

Oh and one more thing I forgot to show you the finished mittens.  I really love them.  I knitted them in fine merino and they are so snug and warm.  I'm wearing them all the time.  I decided to cast off the top and thumb a little snug on them so that they don't get all baggy and loose because that is one thing that really drives me batty.  So far it has worked!

Well that was my weekend.  Eventful as ever.  Hope that you had a good weekend too.
Rosie xx