The months go flying by....

So summer has gone ... no blogging due to various things like work, and holidays and oh yes I had to move out of my flat because the one above me went on fire and living in a smokey, ceiling damaged place is not a lot of fun... So here's a quick catch up of summer '10! I spent two weeks with mum, which we spent walking on the beach... eating cake...making cakes (don't try to eat these ones!) ... making felt (and a mess) in the kitchen ... mum liked this wee bowl...

I took a stall at the Stranraer show... my sister turned 50 so we had a party (and more cake)...

Christmas knitting! (And beyond...)

Well the pressies have all been given out long ago now so here's a few things I made for family this Christmas: This was a bowl I made for Mum from the felted (intentionally!) remains of Colinette jacket I knitted when we were on holiday one year, but it just kept stretching and growing and was pretty heavy so I flung in the machine to see what came out, and what came out was pretty thick! I also made a brooch out of hand dyed tiny skeins I got on Islay one year, with alpaca yarn for the leaves. Also lurking in there is a small 'stand' I made using my lucet for a large African egg which will now not be rolling all over her dressing table!And this a handbag for my sister - made of Noro Kureyon and kind of a booga bag but not exactly! I put in a snap fastener in the middle and hid it with the felted flowers on either side. And so to me.... draughts are now excluded from my flat! And I have regained a large area of the cupboard previously full of quilt polyfibre wadding stuff which is now fulfilling a useful function in life. And of course, another pair of socks - for me these ones - yay - yarn is blue face leicester from Fyberspates.

But I do have some place to go....

So why is it still snowing?? Why didn't it wait til everyone was where they want to be at Christmas and then snow... Harrumph. I have become a real woose about driving in snow and bad weather but my sister's is a couple of hours away over some moors etc so here's hoping that the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday really holds up and the snow lets off. This is the matchbox I sent off for our team swap on UKS - surprising how much you can get in a matchbox!

The big red bag

Yes it was big when I was knitting it .... It was big when it was ready to felt.... and it's still big! Yay for a big red bag. Of course if I fill it with things it might be too heavy to lift ... and I need to find a big zip to finish it off, but it has used up a huge pile of lopi wool that I got on ebay and I've wanted to try this pattern (Noni Adventure Bag) for ages. So I did. Other knitting updates are that the blanket is finished (ie I knit up all the wool I had) It's not quite a single blanket size but good enough for snuggling under on the sofa watching telly! If I find more suitable wool at some point it might enlarged. I'm trying to finish off wintery knits at the mo so as to be ready when it comes - almost done the back of the Shetland stripey jacket though on looking at the wool I have left it might become a gilet instead. And at some point soon I will sew up the lacy Donegal Debbie Bliss jacket that has sat in bits since last October.....

Ooh I felt that!

Time is flying on again - and I've been busy of course - hols on the Northumberland coast were great - lots of time on the beach with kites and rock pools and walks, lots of knitting (a disastrous pink thing which got frogged) all the Harry Potter films (on various nights) and i got my blanket finished (well I ran out of wool so there's no border on it yet). And sadly I had to go back to work and it's been a hectic August so far but here's a few things to catch up on.

French Market Bag

From this to this! My take on the French Market Bag on Ravelry - knitted in lopi. It's come out rather more square than I thought it would, but I like it anyway! Now I just need to find something to do with it! But it's certainly eating into my stash (which is good...)

Birthday card and cozies

I know it's still wintering out there, but it's my mum's birthday tomorrow and I felt that with all this illness and wintery weather we could do with something a bit cheerier and almost spring like - so did this card for her. I don't do that much embossing but it does make the stamps stand out better so think I'll keep on with it. (And just try not to get too messy...) And I wrapped up all these felted cosies to keep your knitting needles all snug and tidy - they're from Cat Bordhi's Second Treasury of Magical Knitting, which is a great book, though I still need to learn how to do the whole Moebius thing... maybe next week! Anyway hope mum doesn't see this til she has guessed what they're for!

Bowled Over!

Last week was great fun - my sister went off to Rome with her hubby and I stayed at her's and got up to all sorts of mischief with my mum and two nephews. We went to the gem rock museum, an adventure farm park, the barbers(!), played Dungeons and Dragons for hours (I'm a halfling rogue if anyone is interested), watched lots of DVDs, Harry Potter and Night at the Museum were fab. But the best bit was making bowls. I'd been knitting each day so by Friday we had some strange hat things which we then dunked in hot soapy suds and really cold water and thunked about for hours. The younger nephew just loved it, so much so that I had to knit more so that we could do it again on Saturday! Well, we each now have at least one felted bowl, though I have to admit I have no idea what to put in mine! I've never done any felting (intentionally!) before so we got a bit better at it the second day, as we were much less gentle by then. It seems strange doing all the things you've been programmed into not doing to handknits, but great to see the material change to something else. Think I'm hooked!