Excellent B&B, Would Recommend.

Sunshine and showers in lovely Shropshire. This bed and breakfast is fab. I especially love the room with this gorgeous quilt. I'll post a link to Hopton House when I get home as I'm struggling to do it on the phone.



This morning I had scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on brioche - delicious. Tomorrow it will be French toast with maple syrup and summer berries.

I'm loving this.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Interchangeable Knitting Needle Cosy

I have been wanting to make myself one of these for ages. My interchangeable needles are all over the place and I badly needed something to store them in. As this was a try out, I used fabric that I didn't like very much in case it didn't turn out. I now need to make one in funkier fabric.

There are pockets for the needles themselves, with tape that I can write on to indicate what size needle is in the pocket. I think I have made too many pockets but no matter, I can always have more of the same size. Also three large pockets for the cables, my tape measure, sewing up needles, row markers etc. Three smaller pockets for for the needle stoppers and the turny thing for getting the needles on to and off the cables.

It folds into three and rolls up and is secured with ties to that nothing falls out! I'm really surprised at how well this has turned out. I used paper to make a pattern using the needles and cables to make sure I had the right size. I must make another one in prettier fabric. The fabric I used was Fabric Freedom William Morris designs.

Baby Bibs

With grandchild number one expected in a week or two I thought I'd make a bib for him.  I got carried away! Well why make one when you can make three. These came together really quickly and it gave me an opportunity to revisit my button hole attachment on the sewing machine, not something I use very often. I've lined the bibs with flannel rather than towelling as I  think it makes a neater bib. It will wash and wear just as well. I'm chuffed to bits with these.

Lined with blue spotty fabric

Lined with solid red.

Posy Baby Cardigan

The pattern for this little cardigan is now available here and in my 'patterns and tutorials' page.

London 2012

Last Tuesday I was lucky enough to go to the Olympic Aquatic Centre to watch the men's qualifying dives for the 3 metre springboard. It was fantastic, I have to join in with all the people that have talked about the atmosphere and the support of the crowds, it was awesome. The actual venue was interesting as the roof dips over the pool so if you are high up, which we were, you can't see the audience on the other side which made it a little claustrophobic, the centre of the roof where it dips though looks like a sperm whale which was cool.

The whole venue was huge and packed with people, the atmosphere was brilliant, everyone was smiling and enjoying the day, the volunteers where everywhere and so helpful and cheery, even at St Pancras and Stratford International stations they greeted us with a smile.

The buildings, some temporary and some permanent were works of art, especially the velodrome and BMW car centre. It blew us away as it had water falling all round it and into a pool.

I had seen on TV the planting in the gardens in the park but was really impressed when I saw them for real. The look was of meadows of flowers, really informal except that they were in colour families. I loved the warmth of the yellows, golds and oranges. With the pop of blue of the cornflowers.

And the delicacy of the blues, pinks and whites. It was all so pretty

We had a great day out and I'm only sorry we were only able to get one set of tickets for one event, it was so frustrating walking near the main stadium and hearing the roaring crowds and not being able to be in there. I think I might try to get tickets for a para-olympic event just to get into the main arena to enjoy the atmosphere.

Posy Baby Cardigan

The hydrangeas this year are just lovely so I couldn't resist photographing the baby cardi in amongst them. I'm really pleased with the way this has turned out. It's a top down all in one construction, so no seaming. I used a circular needle throughout and magic looped the sleeves.

Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino was perfect and I am becoming a real fan of this yarn, it's so soft and the stitch definition is really good. I created the pattern myself having made top down all in ones for myself many times, both cardigans and jumpers so making a baby one was a piece of cake. I'm going to write the pattern and put it on Ravelry. I was thinking of putting together kits for it and putting them in my Etsy shop. I'm just looking for the perfect fabric to make the bag for the kits out of, I'm not sure about the red stripe or indeed the tote bag, I think a drawstring bag might be better. The other thing I'm not sure about is whether to include the buttons. If I were making the cardi from a kit, I would want everything I needed actually in the kit. But the knitter would then waste the buttons if the cardi were for a boy if I put pink ones in and vice versa. Any comments anyone?

I'm off now to put all my pattern notes into a readable pattern, I'll then get my friend to test knit for me. Oh I do have fun!