Birthday girl

That would be me. To be honest I feel a bit long in the tooth to be celebrating my birthday but I will say that some lovely things happened.
Both my little girls gave me the loveliest handmade cards. I so love their drawings. My big girl Emily gave me a beautiful coloured in card based on a Mexican drawing but the best things is that she wrote a very funny poem/ditty. Love it. It has become her "thing" and I think is great. Long may it continue.
Martin made me the funniest card which I will have to photograph at my friends 'cos my camera is not good enough.
So it's a picture of me knitting straight off a sheep which is standing below me but the the funny thing is the speech bubble coming out of her mouth and she's saying "ridiculous" . loved it.
So I'm pleased that I had a celebration otherwise I wouldn't have received those wonderful gifts.

Things that keep me humble

I am so absolutely determined to get good at lace. I have now embarqued on a challenging lace shawl project. I am doing a pi shawl as per Elizabeth Zimmermann intructions. I was just going to make it plain in between increases but as my friend said..."it's not that hard you know" so I took that as a challenge and here goes. I hope to finish it this year so that when my eldest daughter Emily decides to start a family she will have a shawl for the baby and it can stay in the family as an heirloom.

I am knitting it in a natural thinner than 2 ply wool. Am not really into natural colours but I might be able to dye it later.

I will have to keep blogging aboot it so that people don't think I've forgotten about it.

Aran style hat

I knitted some winter hats for the kids but Sofia's was a little too snug. I was trying to finish it quickly but somehow when I try to do that it just makes me slower. So here it is. It's an aran style with asymmetrical cables, knitted in the round and I managed to do the decreases in a really smooth way. I reused some wool that had been a cardie for her. I decided that it just wasn't pretty enough for me to keep for the grandchildren so I unravelled and here it is. I just love the colour. It really brings out the colour of her eyes.

I'm really pleased also with the fact that now I just knit things without the need for a pattern. I have a better idea of my personal and the children's taste and also I am more willing to take risks. I designed it to go with her mittens.

The old hat is now keeping her cuddly tiger warm.

Hope your are all keeping warm out there.

Reading group

My daughter Sofia said to me that she wanted to start her own reading group. I though it was very sweet but I wasn't sure it would be possible. I don't know another girl her age that reads as much as she does. I have belonged to one for most of my adult life (although I'm not in one at the moment) and thought she might have heard me talk about it.

Well her first meeting was yesterday, I baked biscuits and bought them some nice notepads and a pen each. Their first book to be discussed was The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall. They had a great time and want to carry on doing it. they are going to meet once a fortnight and they will discuss five children and it by Edith Nesbitt next.

I have to confess that I'm slightly envious. I haven't been in a group for just over a year. I am reading lots but miss talking about them.

Incidentally I've just read Over by Margaret Forster. I think she's a brilliant writer. I read it in less than 5 hours today. I achieved nothing else today. It was so interesting and so well written. I am also reading the biography of William Blake at the moment which is also good but somewhat heavier going.

Well I'm off to re-knit my daughter's hat as it's too small. ...I definitely knit tighter in the round.

I made it

I really wanted to make a felted crown for Cristina for her birthday. I didn't think I would have the time but I did. I used a grey blanket as a base, double thickness and I lined it with some lovely old soft cotton fabric so her forehead wouldn't itch. I embroidered her initial in gold and also a whale and a dinosaur. You can see what she likes. I'm really pleased with the result and I have already cut the fabric to make for Sofia. I took the idea from the book the creative family by Amanda Soule. I was too disorganized have thought of keeping a pattern but I'm pretty sure she includes one in the book, in any case as long as you get the idea it's pretty easy to do.

Incidentally she loved the dolly's clothes I made and in true Cristina fashion was really happy to share with her sister. I had also made a wool mattress which I quited with big stitches as you would see in Gee's bend quilts and made her a top and bottom sheet and a pillow. They are both really happy playing with the goodies.

More hand stitching

Here are the lst few bits that I sewed for my daughter's birthday.


The sun really burns in New Zealand so dolly needed one long sleeved dress. The beautiful crochet trim is from a damaged table cloth. Look at the nice wooden buttons.

A high collar will also protect you from the sun.

You can just about make out the topstitching done on the bodice with 6 strands of embroidery thread. The fabric use to be a bed sheet. Note the pretty shell buttons.

I so enjoyed all the sewing. I had toyed with the idea of not buying the sewing machine that I have and commit to hand sewing. This project made me realize how lovely it is to do something completely by hand.

Every dolly needs old fashioned knickerbockers. Note the recycled trim from a pair of troussers that both the girls wore for a couple of years. It's satisfying to know that there was a reason for me to spend 1/2 unstictihing the trim.

And an apron of course. This was a pillow case in a previous life.

This is the cardigan and hat set complete. I used 100 % wool that had been given to me. Although it didn't say it had any other content; it was a bit hairy. It looks nice though. The contrast band is grey mohair. I think Cristina will like it I was trying to make it a bit different. Every little dolly wants a pom pom.

Above is a picture of the cardie just after I cut the steek. I wasn't thinking of the photo when I cut the steek so there is nothing to record the snipping.

Late picture

We'll I've finally managed to get a picture of my friend's knitting needle roll. She came round yesterday and we chatted and whilst she knitted I tidied up my knitting needle roll and took a picture of hers. She developed a serious case of dpn envy. She couldn't get over how many I had.But I explained that most weren't second hand from the op shop. I find that if someone wants to learn sock making it invariably involves me "lending" a set of dpn's long term! So I need spares.