raspberry roses

A busy week at work, Dan and Gemma moving back to Manchester,  the most awful rain every day, and Dan's 21st birthday present a new bike bought last Thursday and stolen from outside his Uni on Monday meant it wasn't the best of weeks.  However, I have had some nice crafty moments with another completed jumper.  You've seen this before.  This is a jumper from Knit Red, a book of patterns to support women's heart health  - one of Debbie Bliss' patterns.  It hasn't turned out quite as expected but it's OK.   The pattern has an added bow, but I decided to try a different decoration.  This is my first attempt at intarsia and it went quite well (except lots of ends to sew in).

This jumper is knitted in 2 pieces a front and back and you join the shoulder seams by a 3 needle cast off.  Here it is being blocked.  Only 2 seams to stitch up.  (Sorry about how dark the photos are - absolutely no light at the moment).

And finally finished.

Hoping to make some wide leg vintage trousers which I think will go well with it.  I have so many ideas about things I want to make that I think I'm sorted for the next 12 months, so thought I might share a few plans with you.

I get Mollie Makes every month and love the fantastic photos but, as yet, I haven't made a single thing from it.  In a recent edition I was very taken with some Michael Miller Paris Ville fabric made into a retro pinny and I managed to find the fabric (with some difficulty - mostly available in the USA) and I'm planning to make it this weekend.

In the background you can also see a new magazine I picked up called Sweet which I'm absolutely loving.  The photos are beautiful (a la Mollie Makes) and some very enticing recipes.  I caught by accident an ITV programme on Sunday afternoon at 3.40 called The Home of Fabuous Cakes which actually demnstrated some of the recipes from Sweet.    Better get on with the pinny and a bit of baking!

I'm also planning another 2 small quilts for on the settee.  I've been collecting some lilac fabrics for one

And I've also managed to get a pack of Tlda Flower Garden remnants to go with my Modo Papillon fabrics for a duck egg blue one.

Very disappointed with the light in all the photos above - so I thought I'd finish with just a spot of sunshine on the ripening blackberries.  Till next week and just a bit of notice that I'm planning a giveaway on my 50th blog.  Thanks for your lovely comments.

Yorkshire ramblings

This is the latest I have been in terms of blogging and in part it is because we returned on Monday from 3 nights in Yorkshire at Brinham Rocks; a late decision to tardily celebrate Dan's 21st and to have some fun before Dan and Gemma's return to Uni next weekend (sob,sob).

We had a lovely time.  Some great weather though very windy!!

We stayed at Brinham Rocks Cottages which were really sweet and had an outside hot-tub (and yes we sat at night in the cold wind in the warm waters!) and a lovely swimming pool.  Will definitely go again.  There is so much to do in Yorkshire as you can see!  We enjoyed Brinham Rocks

At Pately Bridge we found a lovely sweet shop

Though not all the sweeties were appreciated!

We visited Harewood House

... and enjoyed some late colour in the garden

Had tea at Bettys (not for the faint hearted in terms of cost!).

The odd desert!

.. and the marzipan fruits in the window, gorgeous

We visited Fountains Abbey, 

Rosie imitated a statue (can you spot Dan hidden behind gently encouraging her to stay)

Ripon cathedral, Harrogate and finally big kids that we are the Forbidden corner which is about finding your way around and spotting clues (would be great for 7-13 year olds). 

Phew!  I have returned a little exhausted but I do love Yorkshire.  I'm a Yorkshire lass and the rugged beauty does pull at my heartstrings and I love the moors.

As we left Yorkshire the rain was pouring and the moors were pretty wild.

So I've returned to a very busy week at work and a bit of a desire to run back to Yorkshire.  Fraid I've nothing really to show on the crafting front.  I will make up for it this weekend though with plenty of updates and new fabrics.

rippling along

As promised here is my finished ripple blanket, orginally started at Christmas.  It probably wasn't wise to pick such a big project as my first attempt at crochet, partly because of the change in my tension over time, but also how long it has taken me.  Still I am pretty pleased with the result and looking forward to a bit of a snuggle as the weather gets colder and as I have used Debbie Bliss Baby cashmero it meant I could collect the wool over time without knowing what you have actually spent.  And I've learnt to crochet - great to learn a new skill.

As mentioned before I learnt mostly from Lucy's website.  I learnt how to "fill in" the "hills and valleys" to get an (almost) straight edge from Shanti's instructions and then just double crocheted a row in duck-egg blue.

I didn't know what to do with the edging so I've just settled for a row of double crochet and then an edge in green.  More rows would probably have looked better, but it was almost a ball of wool and an evening's work each time!

I blocked  the blanket on my bedroom floor using my floor steamer!  A bit unconventional but it worked quite well. 

So here are a few views to show off ....

.... a here in its new spot demonstrated by my furry friends.  It looks pretty good with my Kiss cushion.

Thought I'd also give a quick up-date on my current knitting.  This is a raglan sweater and knitted in just 2 pieces, so more in a few weeks.

We had a rather nice Sunday in Morecambe.   First the weather was great and it was a vintage day!  There were fantastic sandcastles ...

Lots of old cars ....

.... plenty of camper love

..... and vintage icecream vans.

The Platform was filled with stalls and we bought lots of vintage teacups which we are collecting to be the favours at the wedding next year.  And one just for me ....

We admired the wedding cakes

... and of course a pop-up vintage tearoom with just a few small cakes and scones!

Later I am afraid there were further cakes from the yummy cupcake  shop. Why don't mine look like that!

A good weekend all round.  Sun, vintage, cake, puppy-fun, some knitting, material shopping, a couple of films and family still at home! Wish it had lasted longer.