Not Knitting

I am not always knitting. Sometimes I quilt, and sometimes I do cross-stitch. This lovely Delft Tile of a Rose is one of a series of 3 I am making. I will frame them individually and put them up in my hall.

I have also finished the Chrysanthemum one. The embroidered parts are about 6" square. The final one is an Iris, but I wont start that just yet as I am knitting a sleeveless vest for my grandson.

Actual Knitting Content : )

Actual knitting content for once. I finished both of these last week. The socks are from a random Opal ball of yarn I bought years ago,lost the button band. The fingerless gloves are from yarn dyed by Babylonglegs. Spell checker wants to turn that into Babylonians, which is curiously apt lol

I tried doing the fingers with 4" dpns, but they kept sticking into my palms and were awkward to use, so I went back to my trusty 6" ones instead.

I have now started my Green beret, and am finishing off a cross-stitch picture of a Delft tile.

In search of an interesting topic

My daughters recently pointed out that I have not blogged for some time.

The problem is, I seldom have anything interesting to say, or show. I have no witty banter to share, or hilarious anecdotes to regale people with. I have no deeply moving story to tell or any important political or newsworthy item to discuss. And I'm not sure how my daughters would feel about a steady stream of doting grandma photos of their children.

I am just an ordinary woman. So how do others find something to speak about day after day I wonder?

Here is a gratuitous knitted shawl photo, just to keep the blog alive. Its made from 2 skeins of Artesano DK in Chaffinch.

Size matters

We have had our extension for 7 years. We have not achieved the right size and shape of table during this time. When we bought our tiny terraced 2 bed house it didn't have a kitchen as such. It had a kitchen area as part of the dining/living room. So we built an full width extension to make a kitchen/diner and free up the space in the living room.

But our existing table was too big for the extension so we sort of squeezed around for a year. The MIL was getting rid of her dining table and chairs and we joyfully accepted as it was smaller than our table, and our old table went to Emmaus.

Bad move!! The new to us table is circular and 42" in diameter so the wrong shape and size for sewing or any other craft work. More years of frustration followed.

Today we went to Ikea and bought a rectangular pine table exactly the right size for our extension and exactly big enough for my sewing machine and cutting mat or whatever for dressmaking and quilting purposes. I can do my pyrography without slipping off the curved edge. And putting the felt on the swift feet is much easier as I can do a long strip in one go now.

I am a happy bunny : )

Son and Grandson



Here is DS on his first day in the 6th Form. They have to wear a suit and tie every day. Doesnt he look grown up?

And here is my new Grandson. Announcing the birth of Alexander. He is 9lbs 1oz and is DD2's first baby. So very, very beautiful.

New Website

We have a new website!!! This one has all the new products on it : Mini-niddy noddys, longer swift pegs etc as well as the swifts, spindles and nostepinnes. Plus a new gallery of the available spindle and nostepinne woods on the Nostepinne page.

We can be found here:

http://www.sunflowerswifts.co.uk/

Best wishes, Richard & Claire

The Fruits of my Labour

Back from quilting and i have 2 quilts to show you. The first is Friendship Braid from the Jelly Rolls book. It is 53" x 64" and involves cutting 320 trapesoids out and sewing them together. Once I got the hang of it, it went together surprisingly easily, but took a long time. It will b a lap quilt for me during the Winter.


The second quilt is the last of the Dinosaur quilts I have been making. It is 43" x 52" and I made up the pattern with the bits I had left from the first 2 dino quilts. This is the front:

And this is the back:

It, and its companion will stay at my house for sleepy grandchildren to cuddle into when they come here. The other one and the Caterpillar quilt will be at their homes for snuggling there.

I hve pinned together the front, wadding, and back and will hopefully quilt and bind it this weekend.