Hello! How are you? I've just popped by to show you the photographs of my finished Briar Rose. I knit it exactly to the original pattern using Rowan 4-ply wool and I do love how it has turned out.

It was such fun to knit the fairisle pattern although it would probably have been a (lot) quicker to knit it in the round and, I daresay, a lot less confusing when following the pattern. Much easier to have the right side facing all the time.

I pleated the sleeves as per the pattern instruction and I really love the shape that it gives. A proper square shoulder.

That's all for now. Speak soon.

Cheerio!

Hello! How are you? It's feeling decidedly spring-like here in Cornwall today as proven by the little chap above (it actually might be a chap-ette). After a visit from the beastly Mr Fox into our chicken house a few weeks ago, we've been anxiously watching our egg incubator for signs of new life. We lost five chickens - actually I say 'lost' but the horrid fox doesn't actually take them away so there's not enough a scrap of comfort thinking that they provided a hungry animal with a meal. He just kills 'em. On the brighter side, five chicks hatched and are noisily engaged in seeing who can eat the most and grow quickest. They are a joy to watch and, fingers crossed, will all grow up to be layers of some beautiful blue eggs.

Apologies for the fuzzy photograph - it's extraordinarily difficult to capture something so small effectively. Maybe I need a chicken wrangler.

This is the completed back of Briar Rose, unblocked and with her ends showing. It's surprising how quickly the 4-ply knits up but I think the fairisle pattern is so encouraging of 'just one more row' that it's hard the needles down.

I managed to make a right royal mess of estimating my yarns for this one. I have quite the large bag of Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply (enough of the black, white and greys to knit Moor which, of course, is sleeveless). Plus an array of other colours. I just hadn't allowed for how much yarn those sleeves were going to take to knit. Luckily, thanks to Ebay, Ravelry and, more importantly, to the very generous Clare at Crafty Cocktail, I do now have enough yarn to complete this sweater as I see it in my mind's eye. I'm really keen to keep the vintage look of this sweater so I'm trying to knit it as per the pattern.

Well, that's all for now - I have to go and check on another new arrival on the farm, a darling boy calf who is all of three days old. Seems fitting that the sun should start shining!

Cheerio for now.

Hello! How are you?

I'm really enjoying my latest project - little colour motifs on teeny, tiny needles. It's the Briar Rose vintage pattern with the patterning from the Moor tank top from A Yorkshire Fable. (Ha! I've just picked up my copy of A Yorkshire Fable and noticed that the cover photograph is the exact little dotty patterned sweater I've been trawling around the internet looking for. Note to self - always check the pattern books you've already got.....).

Back to Briar Rose...... I'm not sure if I've got enough black for the sleeves and thought that I might use one of the fairisle-y pattern bands just above the cuff of the sleeve to eke the colour out a little. I wonder if the red and white pattern might look too much on the sleeve? I guess that I could hunt down some more Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply in black and perhaps just do a plain black sleeve. A fairisle body with a black sleeve? Would that even work?

Oh, I do like to be making knitting plans!

Cheerio for now.

Hello! How are you? Have you had a busy week? I seem to have spent an abnormal amount of time in front of my laptop, tapping away when I'd much rather be clicking away with the knitting needles.

I have managed to finish up a long-term project which I am rather pleased about despite the expression on my face in the photograph - hours of knitting on Kidsilk Haze on tiny needles! It's been a peculiar yarn-y torture. It's the scarf in the above picture - Monette from Vintage Knits. I rather like the Vintage Knits book, several of the patterns really do seem to capture a certain vintage essence which isn't always apparent in some vintage-style re-workings, is it?

I imagine it's because we re-visit the vintage patterns through our modern sensibilities. The way that a 1980 film about the 1940s looks so different to a 2010 vision of the 1940s.

Talking of vintage knits, I've joined in with a Vintage Sweater knit-along over at by Gum, by Golly. I've got quite a collection of Rowan Harris 4-ply that is crying out to be made into a dear little sweater. I've been looking out some tiny needles ready to get started there. I've already got the perfect skirt to wear with it....

Cheerio for now!

Hello! How are you?

So, this week I have been making cupcakes of one kind or the other. What did you make this week?

The cupcake hat was made using this Cup Cake Hat pattern on ravelry. The edible cupcake was made using a recipe from Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book (my most favourite cake recipe book).

Cheerio for now!

Hello! How are you? I'm feeling quite chipper here largely thanks to the daylight finally starting to stretch out a little tad every evening. Just the thing to start lifting the spirits a little I find.

Knitting for my little Pixie also lifts my spirits - she does love a bit of knitting! We picked out the yarn for this little cardigan (pattern from a recent Rowan children's book, can't just lay my hands on the title...) when we were shopping together a few months ago. Pixie liked the feel of it - it's Rowan Calmer.

Surprisingly, it's only the second time I've used this yarn. The first time was a Shedir hat which, as I recall, was knit on fairly small needles and necessitated a lot of tight, twisting cables. Didn't endear the yarn to me and I'd rather avoided it since. BUT knitting this cardigan was a revelation to me - soft and lovely with beautiful stitch definition, the knitting literally flew off the needles! Well, that plus the cardigan IS tiny - quite cropped but very pretty, I think. I'm a new convert to Calmer, can you tell?

My eldest daughter has requested a knitted cupcake hat so I'm off to trawl through the stash yarn to see what I can find. I'll let you know how that goes on....

Hope that the sun is shining where you are.

Cheerio!

I have done a little sewing and managed to insert a zip into my Lopi cardigan. It didn't take too long but it's definitely not my favourite task. I've snapped a picture of the cardigan being worn by my mannequin - I think it does look better on a real person though... The zip looks to be wibbling in and out but it doesn't feel that way when I'm wearing it.

Doesn't look dramatically different to last time, does it? It did have a bath (and spent two days drying) before I cut open the steek so the stitches were pretty sticky and entwined. Plus the Lopi is very hairy and entwining so no real danger of anything unravelling very far.

I finished off the inside of the zip by sewing some Scandinavian ribbon over the raw edges - I like the effect of a little flash of unexpected colour in clothing, don't you?

It's a brilliantly snuggly cardigan, thick enough to be called a jacket really. The yarn is a tad on the scratchy side though, best worn with a long sleeved top underneath unless you're not bothered by that kind of thing.

Righto, enough yapping from me - better sign off as it's time for me to cook some food here. Cheerio and have a nice weekend!

Hello! How are you?

I've just finished the knitting on my Lopi cardigan AND taken the scissors to it. So far, so good. I have a zip ready to be sewn in and I'm just taking a run up to it. I do like to have a thing worked out in my head before I start. Is that how you work?

Just for the record, this is how the edges look currently:

Next time you see it, those edges will contain a lovely, useful zip!

Cheerio for now.

PS. Lovely to hear from you too!

Hello! How are you? Knitting anything interesting? I'm working on a lovely Lopi cardigan just now. I adore the construction of the sweaters - body in the round to the underarm, sleeves in the round to the underarm and then all joined together to work a patterned yoke. Which is what I'm working on right now (as you can see in the teeny picture above......new camera.....). The yarn is brilliantly lofty and warm and works up very quickly on 6mm needles. Actually, I'm not sure if its the 6mm needles or the cold weather which is making this cardigan go rather fast. I'm simply longing to wear it.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Cheerio for now.

Hello! How are you? Long time, no see but life just gets busy sometimes, doesn't it? I wanted to pop by to just show the little knot bag I've just sewn up. It was knitted from a pattern by Get Knitted - I was lucky enough to get a quick visit to their shop when I went to Bath a couple of weeks ago with Pixie (who has just turned eleven - such excitement!). We had a lovely time, interspersing educational visits to the Baths and Costume Museum with a little shopping and sitting in coffee-shops. Such a luxury!

A little simple garter stitch project was just perfect for the train journey. I like how knitting is such a conversation piece when I'm traveling about. My favourite conversation was with a very conservative-suited business lady who positively lit up when describing her own knitted project. I know how that feels, don't you?

Cheerio for now. xx

Hello! How are you? Keeping well, I hope?

I'm another year older since we last spoke - it was my birthday on Saturday. I celebrated in fine style with a beautiful meal cooked for me by my husband. He was so sweet - made up the menu and everything. The funny thing was, he told me that he was recreating a surprise Valentine's Day meal that he'd made for me about, ummmm, twenty years ago although I remember that meal being a delicious nut roast not the Homity pie that I was eating on Saturday. Memory ain't what it used to be.......

My darling daughter, Faerie, made a bracelet for me. I think it's called Peyote Stitch? I'm very proud of her because she taught herself how to do it and stuck with it to complete the bracelet. AND she used all my favourite colours. Perfect. I love the way the beads feel - that sort of cool slither.

Elfine and Pixie clubbed together and gave me this beautiful necklace so I'm feeling extremely well accessorised at the moment. Also, there was a voucher included for breakfast in bed which I might take advantage of this weekend. Lucky me.

It's also been half term since we last spoke and, without going into details, it was quite simply the most extraordinary half term I've ever spent. We've had to re-evaluate a number of things and take some decisions. Nothing dreadful but just thinking about change has shaken us all up somewhat. We're all feeling a little discombobulated at the moment.

I snatched a few moments to make some more granny squares for my colourful blanket (must think of more imaginative name...). Small steps just now until I get my mojo back, I think.

Cheerio for now. xx

Hello! How are you? Feels a little odd to be writing on a Sunday but it feels like the right day to show you these few photographs. The bits and pieces from last time? They became the clever little "I Heart U" pattern from The Knit Knoodler and were a gift for Elfine. Do you like her alphabet letters with faces and background stories? Aren't they fun?

Another pile of knitted pieces became this (ghastly) little knitted bear from Knitables. I've put this photograph here deliberately to show that it's not all sweetness and light around here - sometimes I have knitting disasters, ahem. Toys with faces are astonishingly difficult (for me) to make. I couldn't attach the ears in such a way to look appealing and I thought that I'd make up for the weird ears by giving him big eyes - because big-eyed creatures are usually appealing, aren't they? - but then his eyes just looked TOO big and his snout was funny and, oh...... He does have heart though - embroidered on his chest instead of horns - he was a little Valentine's gift for Pixie. She likes him although did request arms.

Just time for one more - a knitted cuff for Faerie who's big into bracelets and such. I had to brush up my intarsia-in-the-round skills for this one. Phew, little knitted gifts always seem like a good idea but, in reality, take up quite a lot of time. Maybe I'll stick to chocolate next year.

Hope you're having a lovely Valentine's Day!

Cheerio for now. xx

Hello! How are you? Keeping well, I hope.

Just a quick post today - I can't show what I'm knitting right now because it's SECRET. Things for Valentine's Day for my girls because I'm soppy like that. There has been some speculation here in my house that I'm either knitting knickers or daffodils. Hmmmm. We shall see. Finished pictures to follow!

Have to dash now - hope you have a lovely weekend!

Cheerio for now. xx

Hello! How are you? Good, I hope. It's perhaps a little optimistic to think too much of spring but the days are definitely getting longer here in Cornwall - that extra hour or so of daylight is VERY welcome. My daughter, Elfine, brought me home some daffodils on Saturday which was such a treat. I regularly see flower-pickers in the fields near me - always bent double, usually in the rain - cutting and bunching daffodils to be sent around the country. I have to say that it looks like jolly hard work and I imagine the pleasure of outdoors work pales fairly quickly. My daffodils are beautifully scented which helps my own (small) labour of washing up the dishes move along quite nicely.

I've been working on a little sleeveless wrap cardigan on and off for a few months now. I remember thinking when I started it, "This will be quick - no sleeves.". Hmmm. Turns out that's not true. I haven't especially enjoyed the yarn which is Sirdar Crofter - the fairisle effect is enjoyable but I find the yarn just a bit too insubstantial. I think the picture conveys something of the lightness and slightly candy-floss nature of the fabric - all a bit floaty light. It is actually a double-knit weight - maybe I'll enjoy wearing the lightness of the cardigan.

In the meantime I need to at least produce two fronts that are identical. I tried to sew up the shoulders TWICE last night before finally realising that I had omitted the shoulder shaping on the second front by which time I had only enough patience to unpick the cast-off edge and return it to the needles.

Back to the drawing board again. Second verse, same as the first. At least it's not orange.

Cheerio for now. xx

Hello! How are you? Keeping well, I hope.

I've been doing a little bit of sorting and LOOKING at things this week - usual activity when I've just finished a biggish project - and an ORANGE theme is emerging. When I was small, my favourite colour was orange. Bear in mind, it was the seventies and orange curtains, kitchen appliances and clothing were commonplace at the time. I've subsequently moved away from orange as I've grown because I always felt that a redhead probably shouldn't wear too much orange for fear of being altogether too carroty....

But orange is creeping back and it's making me happy. And I do believe we should have more of the things that make us happy. So here's a little round-up of the orange things that are pleasing me.....

Buttons from Clothkits that gave such pleasure when spilled from their envelope make a jolly necklace (and I'm even wearing orange tights although you'll have to take my word for that).

Delicious orange-packaged chocolate which was a lovely thoughtful gift from my new friend, Nancy. And all I had to do in return was spend a couple of hours crocheting with her. It was a very pleasant way to spend time and now Nancy can crochet granny squares - go Nancy!

Granny's orange crochet which my Mother gave me last week. Granny was a beautiful crocheter but was not the best teacher....

Delicious orange jelly tot beads that Pixie and I made into a bracelet.

This month's orange stripey sock knitting.

Some new orange hairclips for Pixie.

My beautiful orange handbag for special occasions.

And, of course, the solitary orange which comes home in the packed lunch box everyday......

I'm away now to make (orange) butternut squash soup in my (orange) Le Creuset pan and will use my (orange) hand-blender to puree the soup.

Cheerio for now. xx