Many thanks for all your birthday wishes. Had a lovely family meal out on the day to celebrate the three birthdays and a wedding anniversary which come in the same week. Excellent meal and the sun shone.

We are now at day 9 of May and here are my first nine days of the Stitch Journal.

Four days of Chevron stitch and four days of Buttonhole/blanket.

I have spent a bit of time this weeke shortening this beautiful prom dress for our grandaughter. It has been waiting on the back of the door for a few weeks while I plucked up courage to attack with the scissors.

I still need to cut the net - 3 layers eeek! - but the dress itself has been done. I had to herringbone the lining to the skirt and it is a long way around!

Remember the partly knitted jumper I showed you last week that I was planning to unpick? Well, that idea lasted about 5 minutes! Fortunately there were plenty of balls of wool in the bag so I cracked on with my crochet basket which grows quickly while I am watching TV.

I think it is going to hold it's shape nicely once it is a bit taller.

The garden is growing beautifully after some nice steady rain last weekend followed by some warm, but not too hot, sunshine. The runner beans are in - always a major highlight for Philip who loves runner beans. And the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are in their growbags in the greenhouse. The blue tits have been busy feeding their young this week and there is a lovely family of blackbirds feeding regularly on the green at the front of the house. Spring is well under way.

Have a good week everyone and happy stitching.

Been there, done that!

 Yes, I have finished the snap pouches, but I doubt I will make any more! Much as I am pleased with the results, I think I prefer zips and it's not that much more faff.

Anyway, Chookshed Challenge #10 came in as a finish on Wednesday, so a day before deadline day, and here they are.

Four sets which have been put away to fill with goodies for Christmas gifts. I was playing chicken with the measuring tape - just had enought for these and I one I made earlier as a test!

Our challenge for May is #1. My challenge is to make something with the eco print fabrics that I bought last year at FOQs. Inspiration has yet to strike! Therefore, as time will be limited this month as we are going away, I am putting the fabrics aside for another time and will concentrate on another couple of jobs that need to be finished and maybe baste a few hexies for when  #5 comes along. When I was looking for a safe place to store the snap bags I came across this bag.

In it is part of a Kaffe Fassett tunic and lots of wool. It has been in that bag for many a year and would probably not fit me if I finished it now! So I plan to undo what is there. It is worked using one strand of DK and one strand of 4ply so aran weight I think. I have had a fancy to crochet a basket for a while so once all that yarn is unravelled that is what I plan to do with it. But no hurry, this will not be finished this month. I also have a picture that needs framing and this will be a separate post when I get there as it is rather special.

So, what other news from this week. Well of course being the end of the month there are pictures of my Stitch Journal month.

And yesterdays start on May.

Chevron stitch could be my focus for the next few days.

Two sock finishes this week. First up the Ryegrass socks from Winwick Mum are finally a finish.

These were knitted using West Yorkshire Spinners signature 4ply, Amethyst and Winwick Mum Wildflowers which I think are a gorgeous combination. Love the pattern although, as you can see, I chickened out halfway along the feet!

The second sock finish is this one.

Winwick Mum basic 4ply sock using Stylecraft Head Over Heels Colours of the World in Sacred Earth. Number 2 is underway.

Now, tomorrow, May 3rd, is a special day and not just because it is my birthday! It is also the Winwick Mum Sockalong birthday. Every year Christine asks us to let her know how many pairs of socks we have knitted in the last year, using her basic 4ply sock pattern. You can pop over to her blog here to read all about it now or tomorrow, if you have used her pattern, to add your sock tally - there is a giveaway!

Well, I think that is enough waffle from me for one day. It is raining here - and much needed as it has been dry now for several weeks. We have all our planting done and some nice gentle rain will help all our plants settle.

Happy May.

A Sunny Week

 Yes, the sun has made a happy return and although there has been a chilly wind at times and a light frost most nights, overall it has been a lovely week. Yesterday and today with temperatures over 20 degrees it has been gorgeous. We have been busy in the garden and yesterday bought tomato and cucumber plants for the greenhouse. The growbags are in place so no doubt they will be planted up this week.

The garden furniture has now been either painted or oiled so is looking very smart and I even put up the umbrella this morning.

Stitch Journal progress for this week.

The patches are hiding a ruck in the fabric and are held down with varietes of cretan stitch - always a useful stitch.

I now have a clutch of snap pouches awaiting their snap.

and there has been knitting progress with both socks now on the home run - there seems to have been a lot of football this week!

Right, I am off to the garden - lots more to do. Hope you have a great week.

What have I done this week?

 Was what I was wondering - then I looked at my diary and saw that we have had quite a busy week!

Monday saw the first day of the local Rotary book sale which happens twice a year in a pop up shop in Wellington. I say book sale but in fact the books are free - you are just asked to leave a donation. So it is all very tempting. Some times I find lots of books, others not so many. I came away with two older cookery books by Felicity Cloake whose writing I love and this novel.

A murder mystery and clutter - got to be good.

While on the subject of books,I have just finished reading this delightful one about the residents of a small apartment block in Chennai threatened with being demolished to make way for an ugly new and larger apartment block. Lovely characters and lots of references to delicious Indian food.

At the other end of the scale I have just started reading this book which was published this week. It follows a family in Nazi Germany in the mid 30's and is a follow up to last years 'The Crooked Cross'.

Written and originally published in the 1930's it should have been a wake up call to those outside Germany who had no idea of what was happening.

On to happer things and my stitch journal for this week.

I have been busy with my Chookshed Challenge - the snap top bags. I cut out 8 earlier in the week, added iron on batting to the outers and marked them up for quilting. Yesterday afternoon I got out my machine and did all the quilting and have added the linings to the fronts.

Not a very exciting photograph. The next stage is to press open those seams and then I can sew up the sides. Each pair matches - but you cannot tell that from the wrong side!

Also this week I have been knittting in the evenings. Of course I managed to reach the heel of both socks at the same time! Obviously I worked on the easier one of the two first🤣🤣

In other news we have had two excellent meals out with friends - one at a new to us pub and the second at an old favourite. Good to try somewhere new though.

I think that is all my news for now - good weather ahead so looking forward to getting out in the garden, There are a table and chairs requiring paint and pots to get out of the greenhouse and plant up.

Have a good week everyone.

Summer!! came and went

 Yes, for two days this week we had temperatures of 23/24 which is very pleasant summer weather and we all cast off our woolies and socks and basked in the sun. Then spring/winter came back with a vengeance and we were back to 11 degrees along with winds and April showers. 

We have had a quietish week at home with a few short outings - it's Easter holidays so we tend to avoid anywhere touristy/child friendly. But I have been cracking on with a few projects.

First up my Stitch Journal - here is April so far.

Chookshed Challenge - this is to make some snap top bags for Christmas presents. I plan to make 8 with 4 large and 4 matching smaller ones. Not having made these before I thought a trial run would be in order. So having finally found a tape measure of the right width and ordered it, I pulled out some fabrics to make myself a small one. These pretties fell into my bag at Quilt group sometime last year and have been looking wistfully at me.

So I chose two to work with.

And made this little pouch - all by hand as I couldn't be bothered to pull the machine out.

It still needs it's 'snap' but the tape measure only arrived this morning, so that is a job for this afternoon. Once I am happy with my pouch I will pull ot fabrics for the rest and have an assembly line session with the machine later in the week.

I have been a good girl and kept up with my 'one pattern repeat a day' on the Ryegrass sock and it is coming along nicely.

I have also made a start on another Winwick Mum basic sock using some of the yarn very kindly sent to me by Stylecraft.

This is great TV knitting and I am pleased with how the colour repeats are looking. A pair for the Christmas box.

The garden is starting to grow at pace.

Grand National day here and like us, Liverpool are experiencing April showers. We just watched an earlier race happening during a hail storm! Not nice. The spectators had all disappeared inside, unsurprisingly. Fortunately our showers have just been of rain.

Have a good week everyone.

April - a new month

 And they are coming around pretty quitckly now. But first, a look at the end of March.

I completed the March section of my Stitch |Journal.

And the bottom quarter of the panel is complete.

So I have moved on to the next section and here are the first four days of April.

We did have a lovely day out on Tuesday visiting Killerton where we met friends who had travelled across Dartmoor to meet us. Fortunately although they left home in thick mist, they arrived to lovely sunshine, which we had had all the way.

A few photographs of the house and lovely gardens.

And just look at these gorgeous Crested Fritillaries!

Killerton houses one of the National Trust's textile conservation studio's so upstairs in the house there is usually some sort of textile exhibition. This year there is a lovely selection of ladies garments from the Victorians up to the 60's which are beautifully displayed and well worth a visit. Hopefully I will get another chance to look around later in the year.

And finally for today - yes, the crochet cardigan is a finish. I am so glad I changed the border and cuffs as it gives the garment a smarter, more of a jacket feel.

I have a feeling that the top corners of the front band may iritate my chin and so I am going to be looking out for a couple of buttons which I can use to just stitch down those points to the front. But otherwise I am really happy with how this has turned out.

No movement yet on this months Challenge - snap bags - but I have got out my Ryegrass socks again and am determined to complete a pattern repeat a day to get them finished this month.

So, a long post from me - if you made it to the end then thank you very much and I will see you next week. Have a very Happy Easter.