The sewing machine has been taken out of the cupboard and dusted down so that I could make a couple of summery skirts for my girls. Inspired by the Twirly Skirt tutorial, I used some Kaffe Fassett spotty fabric for the skirt above with a contrasting green fabric for the waistband and hem. I had to make a few alterations to size as my girls are a little older than the original tutorial's recipient but nothing too strenuous as it's mostly all about rectangles.

This version of the skirt used Alexander Henry fabric (called Petit Fours, I think). It's such a pretty fabric

We had fun raiding the ribbon stash for some jolly polka dots.

Now, where did I put my knitting needles?

The train knitting for last weekend's visit to London was Shedir, a chemo cap for the BB. I used the suggested Rowan Calmer and was impressed at the handle of the yarn on smaller needles. I love the look of the cables but next time I'll be sure to brush up my cabling-without-a-needle skills, it might speed me up a bit. It took me a fair while to knit the hat - in true knitterly spirit, I did pack another hat project and bought the yarn for a third hat whilst away, anticipating returning home with three completed hats but it was not to be.

I knit furiously throughout the weekend's train journeys whilst the daughter read Agatha Christie .... "Someone's died!"......"Someone else has died!".... and was kept guessing whodunnit right up until the last few pages. Oh, the joy of Agatha Christie. Only another 79 crime novels to go......

That's the BB right there - playing with her Hama beads

I finished up the hat last night and it fits beautifully, warm and snug yet breathable. I did have to fudge the last few rounds at the top though. My yarn was picked up at a yarn sale ages ago - a single ball of yarn marked down to 50p - and it had the look of having become unravelled a little on the shelf and then rewound. I'm suspecting that somebody might actually have knit a little and then snipped off some of the length as there wasn't quite enough to finish the hat as written. Other people all over the internet have managed to easily knit the hat out of one skein so I'm sure it's possible. I'm still pleased with the finished result.

That's all that was leftover. Talk about cutting it fine.

Just returned from a weekend away in London with my eldest daughter. Last Wednesday, I became the mother of a teenager and it is a joy. We travelled up by train on Friday evening so that we could get an early start on Saturday. Armed with a list of places to visit, we quite literally pounded the streets of inner London in search of interesting destinations.

First stop was Borders on Oxford Street - mostly because it was the only place open at 9am (at home, I have most of my shopping chores done by 9.15am!) - but it turned out to have a very comprehensive craft section stocking all kinds of knitting books which haven't made it as far as Cornwall. Surprisingly, I came away empty handed even though I did see a couple of titles which have featured large on various blogs and have piqued my interest. Funny how you can tap into the enthusiasm of a knitter but not be especially thrilled by the book itself .....

Next up was Liberty, always a treasure trove. I like to enter the store through the florists and then spend time wandering through the various departments working up to the fabrics and haberdashery. Lots of interesting yarn on sale but I didn't succumb. I've become a stash queen of late, preferring to pick out little gems which are hiding away in my yarn cupboard.

I really enjoyed All the Fun of the Fair which is in a little arcade just off Carnaby Street. Lots of fun, knitted cakes and biscuits and interesting little knitterly goodies. I did buy a little yarn here - Hemp for Knitting in a beautiful spring green colour - a skein of DK and some 4-ply.

I'm going to knit up the heavier DK weight into a hat, possibly another chemo hat for the BB as she has now lost most of her hair. I've read that hemp softens with wear and washing and I'm sure I've also read that it is suitable for use on sensitive skins. Also, I anticipate that it is a breathable fibre which will be useful in the hotter weather. We'll see. Plenty of other heads around here if it's not suitable anyway.

Wandering a little off the beaten track, we came to The Cloth House which I adored. Lots of vintage-y French type fabrics, linen, floral sprigs, beautiful ribbons, charcoal grey woollens - it was an absolute delight. I even enjoyed the music that was playing - Edith Piaf's greatest hits. And that was despite having sat through that Piaf film at the cinema last year - I was simply exhausted at the end of the screening though you have to admire the woman's tenacity.

The Button Queen was a little sparse looking - guess I wasn't in the market for buttons today. I'm a big fan of Duttons for Buttons in Harrogate already. Too bad that they don't expand their business southwards. VV Rouleaux which is just up the road, was lovely but, in picking out our favourite ribbon, we managed to find one that cost £35 per metre. Maybe for the right project?! We left empty-handed.

A taxi ride took us to the British Museum and then we walked over to Persephone Books. I was pleased to see that Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day is back in stock although the more familiar Persephone-grey version is going to take a few more weeks. I'm looking forward to reading it although my daughter has earmarked our copy already.

Gosh, what an pretty exhausting day, lots of walking but I like to walk in cities. We kicked off our shoes and collapsed in front of Doctor Who with a big bag of sweeties from our favourite sweet shop, Hope & Greenwood. We needed our rest in advance of Sunday's sightseeing.

I like being the mother of a teenager.

***aargh - just had to close comments as spam is reaching ridiculous levels. Back soon***

What can I say? It's been a complicated month. But we're all still here and - thank you for the concerned emails - all doing okay. It was a little rocky there for a while but we're back on track now.

My little BB turned nine years old whilst I was away from the blog so we celebrated with a birthday beach picnic, accompanied by the glamorous mermaid above. She's based on the mermaid in Dream Toys by Claire Garland although I did take a few liberties with the pattern. So liberating to do that - I haven't had so much knitting fun in ages. I knit in sequins and beads (although they don't show up terribly well in the photograph) for maximum touchy-feelyness and raided my stash for silks, cottons and tweedy yarns (that's a Summer Tweed tail) so that she feels as good as she looks. She's a textural delight.

I've had a lovely time knitting this blanket - my great thanks to Kay for inspiration and practical help. The last time BB had a course of chemo, I knit her a shawl - admittedly in cashmere - but an undoubted shade of grey. I thought at the time that something colourful would have been better so I've put it right with this cotton blanket.

I used Anchor Magiciline which is randomly striped throughout so I can claim no credit for the colour combinations of each mitre.

I used a little discretion in placing two of each colourway within each 'four' square - I think it makes the colours hang together better.

I mattress stitched the four mitres together which gave the best finish.

It became a little more problematic when sewing the four larger squares together - mattress stitch looked messy plus the seams became bulky and heavy - not what I wanted for a soft blanket at all. I ended up crocheting the long seams - I guess it was just a single crochet chain through the cast-on loops of each square for want of a better technical description. Seemed to work well.

I picked out a couple of colours from my basket of Rowan Handknit cotton for the border. I like the way it brings everything together.

The edging was done in the round using two circular needles and markers for each corner. I increased either side of the corner stitch on every knit row. I guess I could pin it out to be entirely straight but I'm happy with the way it looks. (And yes, that is my camera strap in the corner of the picture - iphoto just would not play nicely at that point.)

I love the way that the placing of the squares gives new surprises when it is sewn together. Other squares and combinations appear.

Sitting in the sunshine outside - the BB (who is blind, remember) has pronounced it "soft and full of triangles and squares".

Job's a good 'un.

I'm busy knitting a little sunshine into our lives currently inspired, as ever, by Kay's fabulous mitres over at MDK. I've had these Anchor Magic colours in my stash for some months thinking that I'd like to make a Babette blanket but that of course would mean me refining my crochet skills to a much higher level than single crochet which isn't happening right now.

The real sun is shining which always makes everything just that bit more bearable. Thank you for your kind wishes and no thank you to those pesky spammers!

I'm going to make strawberry sorbet this afternoon to combat a horribly sore mouth - the BB's medicine has such unpleasant side-effects. Lollies, ice-cream, sorbet perhaps....sunshine food.

As you can imagine, life has been just a little hectic of late - but I am STILL knitting.

So March wasn't exactly the best month all things considered. Storm damage and 'flu about sums it up although it doesn't go anywhere near describing the sheer awfulness that has been March. Some good things happened as well - lovely visits from friends and family, the Easter bunny and, wait, no.....that's it.

I did finish up these fabulous stripy socks and to say that I am pleased with them would be a massive understatement.

They make me smile when they are worn.

I'm such a sucker for any kind of faux effect - these are kind of like knitted trompe l'oeil.

The stripes make the knitting go faster - even on such a long sock.

Pattern: Top down construction - my own charting for the shoe effect.
Yarn: Regia Nation Color (the red and white bit) and St Ives sock yarn (the black bit)
Needles: 2.5mm

Note: this page was really useful in working out how to do colour-work in the round

Some progress on Autumn Rose. It's rather slow going currently although the second (top) half of the rose is knitting up very satisfactorily. The colour changes are an absolute delight but I must confess that I am longing for the far simpler 2-colour bands between the rose motifs.

This adaptation of K M Peyton's Flambards trilogy was made in 1979. I remember watching it avidly when it was televised originally. The books have long been favourites of mine and I have enjoyed passing on my dog-eared copies to my daughter who in turn has shared them with her friends. Timeless stuff.

Imagine, also, my delight when I discovered that book number four was published a while ago. Did it all really end happily ever after??!

I've knit just the ribbing and the first few rows of the body so far. Casting on was a Herculean task - 250+ stitches on 3mm needles. Much use was made of stitch markers and "sshh - I'm counting" in order to end up with the right number.

I'm struggling with a torn ligament around the collar bone - a case of overestimating my own strength whilst manoevuring the BB around town in her personal chariot. I managed to do it whilst negotiating the steep steps into my local health food shop of all places - should have gone to Tesco....

Consequently, I'm taking pain-killers which have reduced everything to a somewhat numbed state that impairs my concentration a little. I was completely foxed by the pattern chart for Autumn Rose last night - must work out a better system for following the colour changes. I was reduced to whispering furiously "black square means left-hand colour - white square, right-hand" which I guess is okay if you are alone at the time. I'm hoping it will get better once the pattern is established.

It's the half term holiday here this week - it seems so early this year (that's because it is - a whole week earlier than normal). My thoughts have been a bit scattered which is where sock knitting comes into its own for me. I've been playing around with some Regia stripe - just a wide red stripe followed by a wide white stripe and it bothered me that the pattern would be broken up by the heel. I toyed with the idea of different coloured heels and toes and in the end came up with this solution:

What do you think?

My book, Simply Shetland 4 and the yarn arrived this week - I have the knitting needles lined up ready to dive in and start knitting - wish me luck!

I know that I am definitely a convert to working with more than one colour - I am looking at fairisle type designs with new eyes now - I have actually placed an order for another Eunny Jang design. I loved knitting this slipover and am rather bereft now that I have finished it. Still, at least I get to wear it.

Pattern: Eunny Jang's Deep V Argyle Vest
Yarn: Rowan Rowanspun DK, 2 x 50g in Goblin (shade no.736) and 2 x 50g in Snowball (shade no. 730). This yarn is now discontinued - I bought mine ages ago.

I've been having a lovely knitting time lately with Eunny Jang's Deep V Argyle Vest. It was a personal challenge to try out some colourwork and, to be truthful, I haven't had this much fun with my knitting in ages. There's lots of information with the pattern and the whole thing is charted which makes it very easy to follow. I'm particularly enjoying the very definite nature of the work - knit 1 green here, knit 2 white, decrease on this row - no ambiguity at all which is pleasing to me.

I've knit the body of the vest so far and am about to start tackling the steek issue. I'm currently ensnared in clumsy crochet - my grandmother tried many times to teach me how to crochet but two sticks always felt right to me, one stick not so much.

Most of this was knit in the company of Terry-Thomas. I was lucky enough to receive a new clutch of excellent black and white films for Christmas. Make Mine Mink is the current favourite - a priceless comedy which has me rooting for the 'bad' guys all the way through. It doesn't half make the knitting fly along. I'm thinking that Terry-Thomas would not have been averse to a little argyle patterning - probably on his socks (or his golf pullover...).

Here's the back, looking slightly puckered pre-blocking and with the steeks as yet uncut:

So, cutting steeks next ..... I say!