Flowers to lift the spirits

Flowers are always a bit of a luxury in our house, I don't often buy them as they're not on the 'essentials' shopping list and I must admit to forgetting to water them on a regular basis!
So when I'm lucky enough to receive some as a gift, it's always a lovely treat and I was very lucky at the weekend to get these from my other half, not because it's Valentines Day but just because, ahh!

This weekend I have been wrestling with the pattern sheet from this months Sew Hip,

My youngest liked the dungarees so to be actually 'asked' to make her something is a rare privilege, so I photocopied the sheet at work on Friday, then sat down for a cutting out session on Saturday morning.  It was then that I actually looked at the pattern and realised that one copy was not going to be enough, in usual fashion the pattern pieces are all overlaid and a real nightmare to 'de-tangle' visually, I realised I should have made multiple copies.  This faff with all Sew Hip's pattern's is a real bug-bear of mine, it's such a long winded process to copy the right pieces, even with a photocopier, I much prefer the pattern layout from 'Sew' magazine, the copy price is similar so I do wish Sew Hip would convert, or just not overlay everything into a dis-organised jumble, colour coding is worth nothing on a b/w photocopy!
Ok, gripe over! And I should say that I prefer the actual things to make in Sew Hip rather than Sew!

Well I was in the mood to finish this, so I had to go old-school and crack out the pencil and greaseproof paper and get tracing!

No light-box but a large window!  After all that when we went into our local fabric shop I couldn't find any material that a) daughter liked or b) was a suitable thickness!

Will have to trawl the interweb, but it's so hard to gauge fabric/weight on-line, I may wait until I go to the NEC in March for the 'Sewing for Pleasure' show.


Speaking of Sew Hip, here finally is a pic of the mouse I made for my sister for Christmas, I was quite pleased how it turned out, the eyes were a bit wonky though!

After a gorgeous sunny day yesterday, I was very proud when my youngest came home from school to show me what she'd been practicing at school...

At four & a half she has learnt to ride her bike with no stabilisers!  I was so proud of her, she didn't want any help but gamely went back and forth, wobbling around looking very pleased with herself.  One of those milestone moments that makes you realise how time is passing.

Have a good week!

Quiet week

I have a bit of a quiet week, feeling under the weather and I haven't even wanted to knit much, so I can tell my energy levels have had a battering.

I did manage to finish the cashmerino baby hat, but I got a bit carried away and knit too much so had to rip back at one point!  So now I can see a small imperfection in it I'm wondering whether to send it to the intended recipient or make another one?!  I think my mattress stitch is improving though, but again it gives me cold feet about gifting something I've made to someone else who may not realise what work went into it and just see a boring knitted gift.  We talk about knitting having a revival but has it really in the general masses?  There is still an adversion to hand-knitted gifts out there I feel by people who are not 'in the know'.

Speaking of handmade gifts, I finally got a picture of the tree decoration I made for my Mum at Christmas, I think she's liked it, as it hasn't gone away with all the other Christmas decorations!

I got the free pattern from the lovely Lupin over at: http://bugsandfishes.blogspot.com/.  I got the felt from her shop too and it's lovely stuff, the range of colours are fabulous.

Have a good week!

Still Knitting...

        
 I've got a new addiction, Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino yarn!  It's so lovely to work with, all soft and silky and I'm loving the smallness of baby patterns!  I've finished two pairs of the simple baby booties, very simple and quick, the only thing I wonder about is how they'll fit and if they're comfortable, I need a baby to try them on!

 Next up is a hat to match, again in the neutral cream, again another simple pattern, all stocking stitch.

 The pattern is from the Baby Cashmerino 2 pattern book, which I got from eBay last week, it has some great small simple projects, I'd like to try a cardigan at some point.

I have started the moss stitch rabbit but I have say I've got a bit in a pickle with 'pkp' !  Need a bit more practice with that one!

I've also completed the cotton DK hat from Claire Montgomerie's book 'Easy Baby Knits', the pattern was really easy but I'm not sold on the yarn, it was like knitting with string!  I'm going to give it a wash to see if it softens up as it seems quite heavy and rigid for a baby item.

Now all I need is for the recipients to actually arrive!  Fingers crossed for the mums.