Month: July 2020

Blue sky….thinking and reality

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It is a lovely evening as I write this post, made all the more special because it has been very grey and dull again here. I have had a very nice week though with lots of blue sky thinking about possibilities as life gets back to normal.

I went out on Saturday, for the first time in 16 weeks, to have a pizza at the lovely Katie’s Kitchen in the village. It was so nice to be able to sit and chat to my friends and we had a lovely face to face catch up. I have seen some of them briefly in real life in the village but not for any length of time. We are hoping to have a Wool and Wine meet up again this week at another friend’s house who has a large covered patio area and barn.

This will be the last post for possibly a while as we are off for a series of holidays (hopefully) to Whitby this coming weekend, then camping with my sister. We would have been going to the Whitby Steampunk weekend but decided that, since we had already booked and paid for our hotel, to go and support the local economy. We are planning some nice meals out, afternoon teas and a trip to two National Trust sites.

I am still hoping to go to Spain as well at the start of August, fingers crossed that all stays ok for that but hopefully with lots of positive blue sky thinking all will be well.

We finished the planned decorating last week and Ellen decluttered my wardrobe so it was all very productive. The jacket has been tacked together but needs some serious size adjustment so that is on the list for this week.

The rest of the time has been concentrating on the knitting of the Little Cotton Rabbits animals. I am making up one of the mice that I have in stash but decided to knit some new body parts to co-ordinate with the outfit. I have this lovely variegated wool so this is the body and the top of the tights.

LCR Mouse body 1

The tights themselves are striped and use the same wool as the shoes, as well as the variegated wool.

LCR Mouse shoes 1

I am also going to be using the darker lilac wool for the top of a romper suit. This is a modification of two of the patterns.

I am modifying the modified pattern a little (if that makes sense!) to try and get a ruffle round the leg. I have done a 2 x 2 rib for four rows and then decreased by knitting two together every four stitches to try and get the effect of a frill which seems to be working.

LCR Mouse romper 1

LCR Mouse romper 2

These are not going to have pockets though the original dungaree pattern does and may have a fancy top half if I can work something out with the dress pattern section. It will keep my brain working to experiment anyway.

Work is officially over on Wednesday for three whole weeks! When I come back we shall no doubt have to have some more blue sky thinking to be creative in working out how we teach in very different circumstances, but we shall see what happens in late September. At least it will be good to have a nice long break, I am so tired at the moment and really looking forward to it.

I hope that you have all got nice things planned for the summer, either staycations or going somewhere relaxing. I think we all need a break now, just some time to stop and appreciate things and take a deep breath and relax.

Take care and stay safe what ever you are doing and thanks for visiting.

What the well dressed mannequin is wearing today

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More exciting news in the (hopefully) life returning to something like normal is that we may have a Steampunk event to go to on August Bank Holiday. The lovely people at the Ministry of Steampunk, who run the Lincoln event, have booked a beautiful historic house hotel to run an event in the grounds, with a socially distanced market and picnic areas. Fingers crossed that all goes well and it can go ahead.

So that means that I have made a start on the peacock inspired jacket that I bought the material for at Christmas. Ellen cut it out for me when she was up last week and I am going to tack it together tomorrow ready for a fitting when she comes up again this week. I am very pleased, although always a little nervous about making clothes as fitting is always a challenge for me. However, practise makes perfect as they say.

Peacock jacket 1

I am using the pattern that I used to make my sister-in-law Amanda’s wedding jacket but modifying it to make it a little shorter.It may have a collar but I have not yet decided on that but it will have (hopefully) beautiful double layered sleeves with the organza layer on top of the satin.

Peacock jacket 2

My plan is to use various bit of applique from the sari set on the bottom of the jacket then more organza and the jewels and peacock feathers on my purple hat. It will be fun experimenting with all this anyway.

Peacock jacket 3

Peacock jacket 4

I love peacock feathers and they go so well with the gold and blue organza, it is such a pity that we don’t get to wear things like this every day, how fabulous are these colours?

Peacock jacket 5

I have finished the clothing for the little elephant. Say hello to Egbert looking very smart in his stripy jumper and dungarees. I had quite a challenge with the jumper as I have never knitted one top down before but it worked out ok. It is a little loose but I am very pleased with how neat it is.

Egbert elephant 1

Egbert elephant 3

All of these patterns are by Little Cotton Rabbits again and are available from her Ravelry store, link on her blog here. I am now on with a new pattern, an adaptation of the dungarees to make some rompers. This adaptation is available from the Little Cotton Rabbits Facebook group and you will need to have the dungaree pattern and the textured dresses pattern to make the rompers. They will be for a little mouse. I appear to have the parts knitted for at least two mice already so will be working on that over the next couple of weeks.

Decorating went well last week and we have more planned for this week. My wonderful daughter was such a star and things are getting well underway. I did feel the effects of it all afterward so was very glad to have a quiet weekend on the sofa knitting and watching the very thrilling Manifest. There has been lots of snuggling under the fleece again as it has been cold and wet here.

I hope that you have a nice week ahead, I will be back next week with hopefully at least some progress on both jacket and mouse! Stay safe, take care and thanks for visiting.

A little progress…with life as well as crafting!

stitchesoftime4 Comments

I don’t know where this week has gone to but it has really flown by. I had two days off work this week. Ellen came up again to celebrate my birthday and we went for a little bit of charity shop browsing in a local village.

I think we were a little too early for reaping the benefits of everyone’s decluttering as they seemed to be having a lot of donations to deal with, but I did manage to get a blue blouse and lots of books. We were really keen to put some money back into the coffers of all of the charities as we know they will have been hit really hard by the lockdown closures.

We also went out to my brother and sister in law’s house and had a great evening. They have their own pizza oven that they built in their garden so we had a lovely time, sheltering under a large umbrella as you do in June in the UK, eating delicious pizza and catching up.

Pizza oven

 

We would have all been in Spain together and I would have had a chance to see their fabulous cave house but we will have to try and do that another time. They bought it a couple of years ago, and go over regularly. However, we have never been there at the same time as they go out of school holidays. Hopefully next year when I retire we can arrange that, if not before.

The rest of the week has just been lots of admin and many, many more meetings. Hopefully we are getting to the stage that everything is sorted for the new term, at least the planning we can do now. The rest will just have to wait and see until nearer the time.

The weather here has been less than summery. I was lucky enough to get out for an hour this afternoon to plant up the things I bought with Ellen but we are now back to torrential rain, thank goodness for being inside under a fleecy blanket!

I have finished some projects, the vintage embroidery hoop is done and I am very pleased how this has turned out. I love the simplicity of it and am looking forward to doing a companion piece for the other little cousin for her birthday.

Vintage dog completed

Vintage dog detail

I am doing well with the knitted animals. I have put together one of the elephants, excuse the lack of eyes, that is on the list for later today.

LCR Elephant front

LCR Elephant back

I have been knitting some dungarees from one of the new patterns that I bought this month from Little Cotton Rabbits on Ravelry. It has pockets and little button holes on the bib. How cute are these!

LCR Dungarees 1

LCR Dungarees 2

LCR Dungarees 3

Next to knit is a stripy t-shirt to go with it. I have been taking my inspiration from the Facebook page again and am really looking forward to using the other new patterns that I have bought. Look at those little trainers, so gorgeous. All photos from Little Cotton Rabbits on Ravelry.

In other exciting news my sister and I have booked a few nights at a campsite in the dales for the end of July. Ellen will be joining us for one night in a tent. We have three nights at Aysgarth where there are some fabulous waterfalls which are some of my sister’s favourite things. We are so pleased to be able to do this and are going to have a few walks and even a meal in a pub! Such a lot to look forward to 🙂

I have another busy week planned, more admin and then a couple more days off with Ellen coming to help me to do some decorating. Now there is officially less than a year left of the retirement countdown I need to start sorting things so that I can put the house on the market next year. It does not need too much doing, just really freshening up but I am looking forward to all of the steps that will bring me closer to moving to Spain.

I hope that you have had a nice weekend and have a good week ahead. Take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.