RSC flimsy

 I put together a Ticky Tacky House baby flimsy using some of my RSC blocks alternated with 3.5” squares from stash. Quickly sewn as all the pieces were to hand.

It will be quilted and donated to our local hospital’s Maternity Unit. I don’t know if they have now bought larger cots but the required size has gone up from 15” x 20” to 24” square. The arrangement of  8 rows x 8 columns comes to pretty much the new size.

Just going to find a suitable piece of backing fabric from my stash so I can baste it ready for machine quilting.

I sent off my 10 Sunshine Lotto blocks to Tammy in Texas and knitted a dozen poppies which were used as part of a decoration at church for a Memorial service on Friday.

I knitted another baby cardigan, finishing yarn leftover from making a cardigan for my great niece Maggie earlier this year. There was JUST enough left!

Knitting another garter stitch striped baby blanket, using up odds and ends of yarn and also some extra small balls bought from one of the Charity shops we have in town. We had so many of these shops pre Covid but one big one closed just before the first Lockdown in March 2020 and two others haven’t reopened since the Reopening of shops in July. Another of them is only operating for part of the week- I assume that’s because some of their elderly volunteers have decided to call it a day. 

So, quite a busy time since my last post.

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC blog.

An RSC flimsy in the making

 Now my Sewing Room is tidy and I know where things are I decided to see how many Twinkler Blocks I had - a lot but I thought I needed a few more of some colours to add a little more variety.

Made two Ticky Tacky houses along the way - sorry the photo has turned out sideways!

 

I put the blocks out on the Design Floor and managed to sew the rows together before it was time to cook the dinner.

This will be an Incubator cover for the hospital.

I still have 38 Twinkler blocks left so enough for another cover.

I also knitted another pink cardigan this week.

And I’m halfway through knitting a baby blanket in lavender - the colour on the wrapper says “Wisteria” which is a very apt name.

Linking with Angela’s Soscrappy RSC blog.

RSC Bringing in The Reds

 I never have a lot of red in my stash, even scraps, so I always struggle with the Red Month

However I treated myself to 3 red FQs from my LQS and during the week I made 10  Wonky Stars.

14 Easy Breezy blocks,

Looking at the photo I took of all the previous Easy Breezy blocks  I had made, I noticed two sewn together incorrectly so I rectified that:

I also knitted another baby cardigan using up yarn passed onto me and adding a little of my linen coloured yarn in stripes in the sleeves so I had enough to finish the cardigan. Buttons from my stash,  which were passed on to me by my daughter’s  ex colleague when her mother died.

This is going to Great niece Maggie.

Rounding up the Blues

 I have had a productive Blue month. Just made a total of everything I’ve sewn this month.

First of all, those already written about this month:

Blue Patches Cat Quilt 

Cool Strings Quilt

15 Wonky Stars 

12 Easy Breezy blocks

24 Ticky Tacky Houses (17 shown last week, 7 more made yesterday)

Underneath the latest Ticky Tacky houses are 2 piles of Pink and Green Easy Breezy blocks.

I discovered 8 cut out and kitted up Pink ones when I was looking for something else in my stash and then decided to cut out and make some green ones. Before I knew it I had 14 Green ones too.

Laid out all 34 blocks to see what they looked like together:

I can see the blocks will need some careful laying out eventually, those with strong deep coloured diagonal blocks will need to be placed in the same direction for a good effect.

And I also knitted another little cardigan for Seren, my 6 months old Great Niece.

The buttons came from my stash and were ones I inherited from either my Mother in law or her sister in law, Aunty Gertrude. Both were relatives on the same side of the family as Seren’s Mum, my niece Philippa, so it’s nice to keep the buttons“in the family”.

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy RSC 2021 blog.

Finished baby cardigan

 I’ve finished the baby cardigan requested by our niece Cat for baby Maggie.

I made the largest size, 20” chest.

Popping it in the post today.

A lovely compliment

 About a year ago I knitted this baby cardigan along with another one using the same yarn and a baby blanket in an effort to use up leftover yarns. When our baby Great niece Maggie arrived in October I added this cardigan and the blanket to the quilt especially made for this much longed-for baby.

Our niece Cat was so thrilled with all the gifts and we have had regular photos of Maggie snuggled in the blanket, lying on the quilt and then, when she grew into the cardigan, ones of her wearing it. Cat had been really pleased with the cardigan because it has seemed to “grow” as Maggie has grown. I think it’s probably because the yarn is acrylic and stretches more easily than wool or cotton would have. Well, whatever the reason, Maggie is still wearing it!

I had a lovely text from Cat yesterday saying that the cardigan had been such a great success, would I please be able to make another in a larger size, blues or greens this time. Well, I was so pleased to be asked, and even more pleased to be able to pop to the  Local Wool Shop this morning and buy a couple of balls of yarn. I like these variegated yarns and bought blue as there weren’t any greens. The pattern has 4 sizes: the original cardigan was Size 2, I’m making this one Size 4 so I hope Maggie will get as much use out of this one as she did the original one.

A hot day today, overcast now but great to sit outside in the garden knitting.The style I’m knitting is the one in blue on the pattern.

More knitting - 2 for the price of 1!

I have been enjoying knitting for my friend Amy's expected baby. Only about 5 weeks to go now.
Knitting all done, now I need to concentrate on the baby quilt.

I bought a couple of new knitting patterns and I started with the hoodie in a lovely variegated grey/white acrylic yarn. Nice to knit with and very soft, ideal for a baby.  I think acrylic yarns make sense for babies as their clothes are always in the washing machine!

Not used this yarn before but my local wool and sewing shop stocks it.  They had little cardigans knitted up in the various yarns and I loved the way this one knits up, making a pattern which almost looks like Fair Isle.

It's called CHERISH, baby double knitting from King Cole.  This is a Skipton (Yorkshire) company but the yarn is actually made on licence in Turkey!  A bit ironic as Yorkshire was the seat of the woollen industry all the time I was growing up until perhaps the 1970s.

Anyway, when I was part way through knitting the hoodie my neighbour came round for coffee and admired the yarn so took a closer look at it and immediately spotted two joins in the yarn, not far apart, which I would soon have to be knitting and working around.  I had already found one join so my neighbour suggested I took the knitting yarn back to the shop and ask for a new ball. I would never have thought of doing this. However, I did and was given another ball. So I then had 3 balls instead of the 2 I had purchased. Of course I carried on with the old ball of yarn and finished the hoodie.

Here it is:

 

As I had the rest of the 2nd ball and a completely unused new one I made another cardigan using my old tried and tested  pattern (like the previous blue/yellow/white striped one) but knitted it in the next size up.

 

Ta da!

 

 

Interestingly when I rewound the small amount of yarn left I found another 2 joins in the yarn, only a metre or so apart!

 

So, two baby jackets for the price of one.  I also sorted through my box of white and cream buttons and found sets for both items. I also made lots of other sets of buttons up, ready for future projects.

 

Here's all four knitted jackets:

 

I am really pleased with them.  I have so enjoyed knitting again!

I have an hour or so this morning to do some sewing so I will be concentrating on the Cat baby quilt, also for Amy.  I went to the LQS yesterday but they didn't have any cat fabrics in the colours I wanted but I did come home with another FQ which I think will tone in so I can replace a few of the 5.5" squares and get a little more variety and colour into the quilt.

 

Apostrophe misuse - does it bug you too?

As a retired teacher incorrect grammar irritates me intently.
The current craze for using the word 'myself" instead of plain old 'you' drives me crazy on a daily basis! 
A good example of that misuse is when waiters are taking orders at your table and as they come to each person they say 'And for yourself?' When it should just be 'And for you?'

But my biggest bugbear is the misuse of the good old apostrophe!  People litter them around like confetti.  My husband knows my utter dislike of this and yesterday pointed out the following clip in our daily paper:

 

Sorry, it's a bit pale but I hope you can see the TWO apostrophe errors! ( Gift's For Teacher's' ) !!!!!!!!! 

Waitrose is a very up-market supermarket here in the UK and if their staff don't know how to use them correctly, heaven help the staff in other stores.  I expect someone in their Marketing Department dreamed up this advert, no doubt has a University Degree, let's hope it isn't an English Degree!

 

Then, as I was tidying up some knitting bits and bobs last night the heading on my new knitting pattern caught my eye.............. 

 

'Babie's'!!!! Drives me mad!  Think I might see if I can find out where to send complaint emails about both of these howlers.

OK, rant over!

More interesting things:

I have finished another little baby cardigan for my lovely friend Amy's expected baby.  This little thing didn't cost me a penny to make: wool was an almost complete ball left over from another project and the buttons were from my button box, a set of 10 buttons which were in an old Button Tin donated to me by a girl my daughter used to work with years ago.  Her mother had recently died and Frances was clearing out the house and somehow knew I was a button freak so the whole box was given to me.  I have used so many buttons from that box and now 5 more dear little yellow ones finish this little cardigan. And I still have another 5 to use another time!

I had wondered how well this variegated wool would work making such small sleeves, fronts and back.  I feared the stripes would come out so randomly on each piece that it would look odd. However, although each front is different I think it's worked out OK.  Also the sleeves have a different placement of stipes but not annoyingly so.  Hope you agree.

 

Busy knitting

My young friend Amy's baby is due in August.  She and her husband know if it's a boy or girl but are keeping that secret until baby is born. I wanted to knit a couple of cardigans/hoodies for her and asked for colours. Navy and grey were two of the colours mentioned so here is the cardigan I finished a couple of days ago.

I haven't knitted for a while and decided to buy some new baby patterns.  I have real problems with spacial awareness and found the knitting instructions hard to follow. I knitted the Left front OK but when it came to the Right front and the pattern just said "Reverse instruction of Left front" I got in a mess.  Fortunately one of my Patchwork friends who is an expert knitter came to my aid and I managed to finish it.  Don't think I'll be using this pattern again though!

However, I was pleased with how it turned out.  A hooded jacket is next - a different pattern - which I hope I can cope with.