River,
originally uploaded by cast on cast off.

Mist is coming along very slowly……found some mohair I’d bought 2 winters ago on sale and thought I’d see what it looked like for River. Not as nice as KSH but is knitting up alright. Decided on 8mm pins rather than the 7mms as it’s slightly thicker than KSH anyway. You can’t really see the pattern forming here….not a very good shot but will take another in a few days when I’ve done some more.

Cleaned up the tomatoes this afternoon and am hoping this will help them ripen. Have loads of green ones……but the weather has been so crap that I’m not expecting them to ripen in a hurry.

I enjoyed making this and needed to make one for a while. I have all my knitting and crochet paraphernalia in an old whiskey tin. It’s a great idea BUT you have to tip everything out when you want to find something. As I’ve been doing bits and pieces of crochet recently, it was a pain to search for a hook. I made up my own pattern and used two fat quarters of Kaffee Fassett shot cottons, sewed them together, bagged it out then folded over what was needed to hold the hooks. Stitched about 1/2″ apart and added the vintage hexagon; one to add a deeper and wider pocket and for a bit of detail. I had some interesting synthetic trim and caught them in the side seams, et voila.

Have done about half of the sleeve on Mist and am pottering along with the multi-directional scarf. Not getting much done during the day as I’ve been visiting friends and going out for lunches! Gotta do it while the summer lasts.

Vintage casein buttons,
originally uploaded by cast on cast off.

Had a jaunt to a charity shop this morning and had a ball. I got heaps of stuff. Loads of vintage knitting patterns, 7m of pale blue ric rac, fabric, felt, elastic and these fabulous buttons. They were filthy when I found them lurking at the bottom of the box. I cleaned them up with some washing up liquid and an old toothbrush. Good as new. I did the hot water test on them and they’re definitely casein. They smell like old socks!

Started Mist last night and is coming along nicely. Doing a sleeve first - just to mix things up a little.

Had a fantastic time at the Festival of Quilts this past weekend. It is always an inspiration. So many talented people there with their work. The highlight was Joan Schulze’s retrospective - mindblowing. I was sneaky and took a shot of Steve Martin’s brain. Got lots of bits and pieces. You can see some marbled fabric in the card I made for a friend. Lots of projects all lined up for the winter!

This is my favourite shot of the festival.

Finito!,
originally uploaded by cast on cast off.

How exciting, have spent most of the day doing the crochet round the edge of Elspeth. I ended up doing two rounds of dc on the sleeves with the picot to finish off but only one round for the body plus picot. I need a bit more coverage in the arm department. I guess I went into the second or third stitch to start the dc but used my eye more than anything particularly when coming around the curve on the fronts. Check out these other finished Elspeths, here and here I love Kristin’s idea of using ribbon for the tie rather than a strand of picot. I quite fancy making another one and extending the body a bit but otherwise it’s a perfect fit for me. I know a few people had mentioned they would knit a size smaller than their usual for this one but it worked out for me. The crochet was fun, mainly because I haven’t done any for a while. Hmmm, what next…………

elspeth update,
originally uploaded by cast on cast off.

Hot day today in London town. Got the grass cut, cleaned the car………boring stuff….basically putting off sewing up Elspeth. A fiddly job but have done half and now about to make a start on the other half. Have read lots of blogs regarding making up and crocheting and that has been very helpful.

Strudel recipe,
originally uploaded by cast on cast off.

I love tea towels! This is one my aunt sent to us from West Germany in the 70’s. It’s folky kitsch and very cute and has a recipe to boot! Need to sew up Elspeth but am putting it off…..not a fan of handsewing, I’m afraid.

Finds,
originally uploaded by cast on cast off.

Had a potter around our local charity shops today and found quite a few interesting bits. I have a snoop every now and again but have never found anything interesting. Also signed up for the vintage swap and am looking forward to that. But am most excited about the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham this weekend. It’s my third visit there and am making a weekend of it with a girlfriend. Am always so inspired and amazed by what I see but more next week….and not to mention the fabric shopping!

Notebook,
originally uploaded by cast on cast off.

I finished Elspeth last night and now have to sew her up. I hate this bit, possibly because I’m not a huge fan of hand sewing. I do sew alot of garments up on the machine to be honest. Mum always did and I agree that it makes for stronger seams but I guess it depends on the kind of yarn you’re using. Anyway, I needed a new ideas notebook for the handbag(s) and it has been sitting there staring at me for the past week. So, I had to put it out of its misery and cheer it up with some quilt fabric and red ric rac. Can’t wait to start using it.

Elspeth update,
originally uploaded by cast on cast off.

Started the right front last night and am making progress very quickly. Got through two Hitchcocks, From Russia with Love and Shakespeare in Love yesterday - no wonder I got so much knitting done. Lots of couch blobbing! (But it was raining and what is a girl to do when she can’t get out in the garden on a summer’s day) Anyway, am very glad I took the advice of so many others to chart the fronts out before commencing. I winged it for the back and didn’t do too badly but wasted alot of time checking and re-counting things to get it right AND ripping back. We all hate to do that, don’t we? It was definitely worth the effort to chart out on graph paper and made it easier to visualise how the shaping would progress as you were knitting. Looking forward to finishing!

The last cherry ripe - oh no!,
originally uploaded by cast on cast off.

Whatever is an Aussie girl to do! The last in my stash is gone……….