Finished River last night at midnight! It’s now blocking on the bed. It turned out that I needed to start a 5th ball for four rows! Thank goodness I had it handy. I’m not enamoured with the colour of it. It looks better in shots than it does in reality. DH doesn’t like it and he always likes things I make. He’s not keen on mohair fullstop, I think. Anyhoo, it was a very easy knit once you got into the swing of the pattern. I only had to rip back the occasional row, mostly when I was engrossed in something on the tele. I used 8mm straights but could have used 10s or 12s to make it more airy-fairy. You only get to see the wavy pattern on certain angles and it is quite large. I think I’ll probably make another using KSH.

King Cole mohair 248 Biaritz just over 4 balls
8mm Aeros
58cm x 170cm / 23″ x 67″

This has been frustrating me quite a bit. The pattern called for a heavyweight interfacing, so I bought the heaviest I could find but it’s TOO heavy making it very hard to turn things out and sew through. After lots of mucking about I managed to get it all together. The mushroom cord used to be a skirt and the lining fabric is a charity shop find. Think it was a tablecloth in another life. For someone who is a sewer, this is taking me far too long! Hopefully, I’ll sort the lining and finishing off tomorrow.

I casually started these yesterday and am really enjoying working on something finer. I haven’t made socks since my teens. Loving the groovy stripes appear but the colour is a tad washed out in the pic below.

Regia Paris Jacquard
Vintage Aero size 12 dpns
Pattern : Basic Regia sock

Loads of rain today but now we have glorious sunshine! Have been busy knitting and sewing today. Here’s my update on River, just over halfway and another sewing project I’ve had on the go but more tomorrow!

I’ve had a good look through the new submissions to knitty and fancy making arisaig, the falling leaves socks and the ella shawl. Jennifer Thurston’s blackberry is great but a bit chunky for one so lumpy these days! :-) Would look much better on my skinny cousin.

I’m officially half way up the River! Woohoo! Not too bad as I’ve only really spent two evenings on it this week.

I’ve been lurking around tie one on for a bit and fancied having a go this month. I have a growing collection of tea towels anyway but found these at Tesco of all places this morning and had to have them. You can’t go wrong for £3.67 for three! Although I forgot to buy some cotton tape for the ties yesterday when I was in a habby shop. I think I’ll make two and cut one of them up for pockets. Have been working on some more needle cases, more tomorrow.

Am looking for some beads to make some stitch markers and found these

Needle case is 4″ x 3″ with orange and pink felt interior and hand stitching detail. Leave a post with your email if you’re interested. I accept Paypal and UK sterling cheques. £7.00 plus postage - 60p to Europe, £1.05 to USA/Canada, £1.12 to Asia/Australia.

River is going ok but I’ve had to stop knitting for a couple of days due to ‘knitter’s elbow’! Anybody else get this? I reckon it started up again when I was crocheting the other week and further handsewing and mouse clicking has just made it worse. Anyway, enough whinging. I wonder if I should’ve used some 10mm needles rather than the 8mm’s. I’ve only got 8mm then 12mms. You can see the pattern from the shot but it’s quite tricky to spot otherwise. Oh well, I’ll just have to finish it and make another in KSH. I bought this mohair on sale in Lancashire 2 yrs ago and have been wondering what to do with it. My best tip for knitting with mohair is to have a lint roller handy!

Apart from being busy getting this new blog up and running with ALOT of help from DH, I was compelled to make some patches for Shanna’s quilt to be auctioned for the Red Cross. The patches uploaded so far are amazing. There are so many talented ladies out there. All with their own interpretations and some with little or no experience of patchwork but want to help. See the patches here.

My patches weren’t really themed. I just did something I liked at the time and I wanted to include some embroidery because I’ve not done any for ages. The brown floral fabric was some hexagons leftover from a double quilt that my Granny made about 20 years ago. I know she would approve that the proceeds are going to the Red Cross as she fundraised for them for many years.