Bit of a Knit !

Goood Morning Bloggers - I caught a glimpse of sun early this morning, it then disappeared and black clouds were yet again on the horizon.  We have sunshine again now and I hope it sticks around for a while, but this may well be the pattern for the day - mixed sunshine and showers.  I just hate the dark days of winter but at least seeing some sun today makes me feel that we are heading towards Spring, at least the days are growing longer.

No paper crafting projects to share with you today, but I do have a knitted project for you. 

Having had a couple of not so good days, I just needed to find some crafting to do even if I couldn't manage to get to my table of craftiness or my sewing machine.  What else could I do but sit comfortably and dig my knitting needles out. 

I had a couple of balls of this sock yarn in my (rather large !) yarn stash and thought it would look pretty knitted up as arm/wrist warmers.  Being fingerless they are a doddle to knit and needed very little concentration and both were knitted from one ball - perfick!  So, here they are in all their 'glory'

 

used my trusty 'hand model' for this shot !

 

the wrist warmers all alone !

 



This is very 'clever' yarn and as knitted forms itself into - what looks very like - a fair isle pattern, but much easier to knit than real fair isle.  I just knitted a tube in K2 P2 rib to a length of  20cm, cast off for the thumb hole and cast back on in the next row.  They may well come in very useful as, according to the weather forecast, it looks as though we might be in for some colder weather soon.

Today I have a little more energy and although the 'great Craftroom sort out marathon' continues, I plan to spend some time crafting and need to get at least a couple of cards made today. 

Might even fit a bit of sewing in if my energy levels last, I am making a baby quilt from soft and cosy flannel fabric for a pal whose little girl is due to arrive any day now.  I've done all the preparation work on it and have just machine quilting and binding to be done, so will try and do some of the machine quilting if I can.  I'll share pix when it is completed.

Following the advice given by my Rheumatologist, I need to learn to pace myself -  rather than keep going well after my body has told me to stop - to try and reduce the number of days when I barely have the energy to get out of bed. 

This is proving a real trial to me as there are so many things I'm itching to do - none of which are remotely associated with housework I might add LOL.  As I'm booked into a Needle Felting workshop this evening I need to monitor my energy levels, it would never do to 'drop off' whilst brandishing a sharp needle or two would it ! 

So, although I have lots of plans for today, I'll see how many things I get crossed off my list and learn not to worry about the ones I didn't get around to - there's always another day.

I hope you've enjoyed your visit today, I should have a card to share with you in my next post.  Have a great day whatever you have planned and thanks for taking the time to drop by here to see what I've been getting up to in Stamping Grandma's crafting space. 

Pretty Pink Cardies

Just before last christmas I received a lovely comission from a sweet crafting pal, to knit a pink cardi for her little girl.  She had a favourite pink cardi which was far too small for her to wear any longer which was making her unhappy.  I managed to find a knitting pattern which was a close enough match to the original cardi and some lovely soft yarn in the right shade of pink, so set about getting it knitted over the christmas holidays.

Here's the finished cardi ready to be packed up and shipped off to it's new home.

 

and here's the cardi being modelled beatifully by it's new owner

 

 

I think the pretty flower buttons were a great hit judging from this next pic

 

 

 

After finishing the cardi there was almost half of the yarn left over, so I decided to knit an extra 'surprise' in the form of a Ballet Wrap top.

 

Here it is finished and ready to be posted out

 

 

and here's a very happy young lady modelling her 'surprise' extra

 

 

 

Now who wouldn't want to knit pretty things for this gorgeous little one ?  I really enjoyed making these for her and so happy to hear that she was delighted with them when they arrived.  Thanks for sending me the stunning pix Katie.

 

Thanks for stopping by to check out my latest projects.  I think I'll share a card with you next time, so until then, keep on crafting !



Vacation Crafting - I'm Back......

Hi everyone, I'm now back home in Cornwall after having a fantastic trip to Florida.  We were so fortunate to be able to use our friends' home in Orlando for our month-long stay,  and the trip was made even more special by having our Son join us for the last two weeks.

My regular readers will be aware that it has been my habit in recent years to either knit or crochet a blankie whilst I am away.  This means I am able to fit a little crafting in whilst I'm away from home to prevent me getting craft-starved and also I have my own warm blankie to snuggle under during the flight home.  I received the pattern in a FaveCrafts newsletter a while ago and thought it would be a great project to work on during my vacation as each leaf shape is knitted separately then stitched together.  I took the pic in the Florida Room of the home we stayed in which overlooks a small lake (complete with it's own pair of alligators ! although they are still fairly small at the moment).  We saw one or other of them 'slinking' along in the water most days and it was fascinating to watch them and the other wildlife in and around the lake.  I wasn't too keen to get very close to the waters' edge though as I wasn't exactly sure how big the 'gators actually were and didn't wish to find out !

There were some really fabulous highlights of our trip - one of which was to be standing in the Kennedy Space Centre whilst the latest SpaceX Dragon 9 Rocket was launched on it's way to the SkyLab Spacecentre. 

It gave me goosebumps of excitement standing there in the dark (launch was at 8.35pm) listening to the launch countdown over the tannoy.  It was so fabulous to see the dark night sky turn as bright as daylight as the full force of the rocket engines fired for lift off, feeling the deep rumble through the ground and up into my body and hearing the roar of the engines, even though we were 4 miles away from the launch pad.  The red light from the burning fuel was almost too painful to watch with the naked eye as the rocket made it's fairly slow progress directly up and up until it was so high it passed from sight.  A really amazing experience which I feel so priviledged to have witnessed. 

Another breathtaking experience was watching a fabulous sunset from Key West.  The second pic was taken a short while after the first, the sky was changing colour and the cloud pattern changing for around half an hour - it was magical to see.

I am happy to be home again now though and reunited with my craft stash - plus I have all the new goodies I acquired in Florida to play with of course !  I'm also looking forward to meeting up with my crafting pals after such a long time, although it was fun crafting along with my pal Kathy (Purple Princess Diaries) whilst I was in Florida - thanks for sharing your table of craftiness with me Matey. 

Hoping to have some cards to share with you in the next few days.  Thanks for dropping by today.

What a Knit Wit - A Life Less Organised......

Things have been a tad stressful in my 'neck of the woods' over the past three weeks, mostly the 'joys' of having a new kitchen fitted and coping with the major disruption to life that this entails.  No cooker for the whole time, just microwave, kettle and toaster in the conservatory, quite a challenge to try and prepare meals I can tell you !  We've frequented our local pub for evening meals on more than one occasion.

With the whole house upside down and huge amounts of dust everywhere, I adopted the route of least resistance and spent lots of time knitting and cuddling my little dog Tilly who has been upset by the upheaval.  With no space to craft and everwhere so dusty and dirty, knitting is the only crafty pastime I've been able to indulge in.  No point in trying to do any housework with all this going on - well that's my excuse anyway LOL

Here's a warm and cosy jumper I knitted for Tilly, she was feeling the cold a lot during the recent frosty spell, especially as she had her hair cut short the week before.  Her new jumper has kept her nice and warm and the added benefit is that it used up some of the yarn that had been lurking at the bottom of my knitting bag for a while.




Here she is wearing her jumper and posing for the camera !





I've also knitted a couple of little shawls, well this one is a shawl which you can wear tied at the back and it just fills the neckline of a jacket, or over the shoulders in the usual way. 

The other one is more of a cowl or collar and should have been knitted in the round on a circular needle, but my needle was too long, so I adjusted the pattern to be able to knit it on a pair of straight needles.  It turned out OK and looks like the picture on the pattern anyway !  Hard to photograph well though, but at least you can get an idea of the lacy pattern.

Although the kitchen is not fully complete yet, at least my cooker and washing machine are in place and working, so life has suddenly got a whole lot easier, just got to wait for the builders to come back and replace skirting boards and do the final fixings and we should be back to some sort of normality.  It's driven me crazy with no space to do my papercrafting.

Here's a piccie of my lovely new cooker, got to get used to using an electric hob though as I've had gas ones for most of my married life.   Thanks for dropping by today, I hope to have some cards to share with you all very soon.  There are a few challenges around which I want to enter and I need to get back to working on my DT projects as soon as I can.

and there's more..... !

Today I'm sharing piccies of the other knitting projects I've completed while I've been unwell, there is one more garment that I'm still working on, but these are the ones I've finished so far.

This one is knitted in Aran weight yarn and is the same pattern as the one I inadvertantly knitted in too big a size to fit me so gave to a friend.  The yarn isn't the same as the one I gave to my pal though, that was in a pale blue flecked yarn.  I'm wearing this tunic today and I have to say it's really cosy - perfect for this rather chilly morning.

I had a little of the gorgeous Baby Alpaca yarn left over so knitted these fingerless mittens to use it up.  The pattern was a freebie in a knitting magazine and I also knitted a pair for my Dad who was staying with me over Christmas and just after.  I know he gets cold hands when he's working in his craftroom, so thought they would be ideal to keep his hands warmer but still leave fingers free for crafting !  It's a lovely pattern and takes next to no time to knit up.

The final project for today is the mitred squares I'm knitting up using the pale blue flecked Aran weight yarn left over from the cabled tunic I gave to my pal.  I saw the instructions for knitting mitred squares in a magazine and changed the number of stitches and needle guage to make the size of squares I wanted.  When I've knitted enough, I'll join up the squares into a throw and maybe add a pretty crochet edging to finish it off.  I haven't done mitred work before but it is really easy and gives a great finished look I think.  I shall probably stitch them together in this pattern when I've knitted enough of them.




Just one more knitting project to share with you once I've finished it, I'm starting to do a little cardmaking again, so will have a couple of cards to share with you over the next few days.

This evening hubby and I are meeting up with my lovely crafting pal Kathy who is visiting Plymouth with her hubby.  We are heading off for a meal at a local Chinese restaurant this evening and it promises to be a great evening of catching up and crafty chat !

Thanks for checking out my post today, I hope I haven't bored you with all this knitting!  I think I may be recovering from my knitting 'bug' a little as I don't have a new project in mind for after the current one is completed - gasp !

Anything but Cards !

Since getting sick at the end of November, I haven't been able to do much of my cardmaking and papercrafting, but I have been knitting - lots !! 

I currently have my sixth garment on the go since November and thought I'd share a couple of piccies with you as I've been asked exactly what I'm knitting. 

This is the first jacket I made, I'd previously made one using this pattern in darker colours and liked it so much I thought I'd do another one.

As I had been well and truly bitten by the 'knitting bug' I then bought some gorgeous Baby Alpaca yarn and knitted this longline jumper with an asymetric hemline.  I just loved working with this super soft yarn and it's great to wear as it keeps me warm but not overheated and is remarkably light.  I do plan to knit more garments with this fabulous yarn.

The final project I'm sharing with you today is not quite finished as I need to press the parts before stitching up and knitting the roll collar.  I am still not able to do ironing (shame!!) so can't complete it until I can.  I put the pattern into the picture to show what the finished garment will look like.  The yarn this time is a mixture of Alpaca, Silk and Wool - nice to work with but nowhere near as soft as the Baby Alpaca, although may be a little more hard wearing.







I knitted an Aran weight short sleeved tunic with lots of lovely cabling on the front but when I'd finished it I realised it was far too big for me and should have knitted a smaller size.  So, I gave it to a friend who was delighted with it.  I have knitted myself one now and will share a pic of that another day.

Hope you've enjoyed seeing some different projects today, thanks for dropping by.