Ginx Woolly Linx Party August

 

I seem to have been very distracted this month, and somehow have posted nothing since the last link party. That has not happened for a long time, but I will be showing you something I made for a customer on Etsy for a birthday, and did not want to possibly spoil the surprise. I also am very busy gardening, and will post about my little vegetable plot soon too.

July seems to have been nearly all about animals.

Tonna of Sew Crafty Crochet has made a cute bee for a friend, and it has been hanging out with her morning glory and sunflower on her porch.

I love seeing handknit socks, and Carolyn of Flickensalat has been taking part in a sock challenge. Hard to know which ones to pick, but I liked the subtle grey of this wool.

Liz's daughter, of Howling at the Moon, wanted to give her teachers crochet versions of their own dogs. What a thoughtful gift, they really must have been delighted with this.

And finally Eli of Ovillo de Eli has made a little swallow, and also shows the photos of the real birds that inspired her.

So please link up to show me what you have been working on in August. I hope you might have had the chance to get away somewhere, and craft in a different location. That is quite difficult at the moment.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Ginx Woolly Linx Party July

Thank you to everyone who joined in the June party. Some lovely projects, and very hard to pick my features this month.

This family of teddy bears from Lalka Crocheta are just adorable, and photographed so cleverly.

This Terra Madre crochet top by Liz of Howling at the Moon is just great. I love everything about it - the colour, the wool, the sleeves with tassels.

Sandra of Hakelfieber has made this great little monochrome shoulder bag from a granny square.  

And finally Maya of The Little Treasures has made crochet buttons with some lovely embroidery flowers.  

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Garden Diary June

Seedlings at various stages

Sunflowers, Peas, Runner beans and Mr Scarecrow guarding the Sweetcorn

I am a little late with my garden diary, and it is going to be rather brief this month. I am in London, and so have got these photos from my husband. It is lovely to see some of the planting that I did not that long ago is coming along.

He has had trouble with a pigeon, who has been enjoying pecking up some of the plants. He had a bit of a feast on some swede plants, and the strawberries that had looked so good before. So that is why Mr Scarecrow has been made, and he has tried to protect some of the plants with wire and netting. We think it is just the one pigeon, and guess we were just lucky last year. There are also a lot of rabbits around, but none of them seem to have worked their way through the fence that surrounds the vegetable plot. I find the scarecrow a bit spooky, especially as he seems a bit back to front. 

Final picture is of one of the apple trees. These don't seem as laden with fruit as last year. We think that perhaps a lot of the blossom was blown off. In a week I am off down to Cornwall, and hoping to get my hands on some of the weeds.

 

Still a few days left to join in Ginx Woolly Linx Party for June.

Sloths are Trending Again

Sometimes I like to return to my own patterns, just because it is reassuring to reknit them and check that they are still workable. So I decided to make a few sloths, as all the originals in my Etsy shop sold fairly quickly. And despite selling a few of this pattern, I still have not seen any sloth projects. Although this doesn't mean sloths haven't been made, it is always very reassuring to me when I see successful projects from my patterns.

So it seemed really funny that I was sitting working on a sloth a few weeks ago, when a section came up on The One Show, saying that sloths are once again becoming fashionable. The One Show is a UK early evening magazine show, that sort of covers everything.

These little sloths are heading to my Etsy shop. I usually try to make my little animals in realistic colours, but I thought for the sloths it was fun to use some bright colours in slightly fluffy wool that I had in my stash. I think that kids would love to have them attached to a bag or keyring. If you fancy making your own sloth the pattern is available on ravelry, and is a fairly quick make.

 

 

Still lots of time to join in Ginx Woolly Linx Party for June.

Vintage Caravan

 

I love Julie's version of my Vintage Caravan pattern. She has used really lovely pastel colours, and added a row of bunting. She says she now has a more modern caravan in Wales, but spent many happy childhood holidays in a van more like this. If you have made anything from any of my patterns I would love to see it, and get any feedback.

 

Still lots of time to join in Ginx Woolly Linx Party for June.

Ginx Woolly Linx Party June

 

Welcome to the June Ginx Woolly Linx Party. I hope you are all enjoying a bit of nice weather, in your part of the world. Here in the UK we have a bit of relaxation of the covid rules, but stiil trying to keep safe.

I love this preemie out fit from Linda's Crafty Corner. The stitch is called mosaic crochet, but to me it looks like a waffle.

Eye Love Knots has reviewed the pattern for this Cross-Pollination Bag. So pretty, I would really like a bag like this.

Flickensalat has made this beautiful wavey long jacket for summer. Isn't it beautiful?

and finally I really enjoyed seeing this crochet light shade from Howling at the Moon. It is nice to see home decor projects.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

Quiet Moments Cardigan

You may have noticed a lack of knitting posts, which is because I have been making myself a cardigan. Made from Quiet Moments Jacket from Drops Design, and I used Drops Flora wool (colour 04). I have used this wool before, and it is a mix of alpaca and wool. It was bought from Woolwarehouse, and was very reasonable.

I am a slow knitter, so this has really taken me a while. It is knitted from the top down, and I had three starts on the yoke. I nearly gave up, but then my husband spurred me on, by saying how can you not be able to knit something when you design your own pattern. So I gave it another go, and although I know there are one or two faults if you look closely, the leafs around the top is my favourite part of the pattern.

I didn't completely follow the pattern when it came to the cuffs, and ribbing.  The pattern has a tapered wider cuff, but I thought these would be a bit annoying. Once I started the cuffs I realised I had to make them quite deep for the arms to be long enough, so then decided to make the ribbing around the bottom the same depth. So the cardigan is much longer than on the pattern, but I like a bottom warmer. 

The only thing that I didn't like on this pattern was that for some of the increases and decreases, it just says increase x amount of stitches evenly across your row.  I can see this is simpler for the pattern writer when you have different sizes, but I didn't like having to do the sums, and then decide what to do if it didn't work out exactly. Too much maths!

 

I still only used 6 x 50g balls of wool, which is 50g less than the pattern recommends, despite it being so much longer. Can't work out why, but perhaps a leafy hat is in order for my 2 leftover balls of wool.

Still lots of time to join in Ginx Woolly Linx Party for May.