A cowl for Autumn

No stash Note  today but instead I'd like the share with you a finished knit. About two months ago I took advantage of Purl Soho's sale and ordered myself 2 skeins of Madeline Tosh Merino DK. I love Madeline Tosh wool because of their wonderful colours and incredible softness. It is pricy though and it was very welcome to be able to get it 20 % less expensive.

I started immediately on a cowl and knit most of it at the craft fair on the Sunday when it was rather quiet. I finished the rest of it last weekend and have already been wearing it a lot. I have grown rather font of it, so much so that I have started to wear it indoors which isn't a good idea given that it is still fairly warm. What am I going to do when the real cold comes?

The colour is Cove and what I love about it is that it has every now and then a blue thread shining through the earthy colours. The used a free pattern from the Madeline Tosh webpage. The knit itself is a honeycomb pattern which gives the cowl a lovely thickness and the pattern itself is very easy to follow.

Gifts galore

Back in May when I rounded off my US trip in New York I bought this fantastic wool at Purl Soho. I decided to knit a baby blanket for the arrival of my best friends first baby this month. The wool is from Madeline Tosh (first post here) and is an incredible soft Superwash 100 % Merino that comes in the most delicious colours. My friend Leigh, like me, isn't afraid of colour so I thought I choose a variety of turquoise/green and blend them one into the other while knitting. I wanted to make something gender neutral as I don't really believe in the the girl/boy colour division but also because Leigh and Drew didn't want to know the baby's gender until birth. Leigh is incidentally also the person who found the name for my blog but since hasn't really bothered visiting the blog much (grrrhhhhh.....), she is a busy bird and will be even busier now I guess.

The baby blanket was indeed finished some two weeks ago but the baby only arrived this week. So here is my "Oceanside' baby blanket for Anya Louise who I will meet next weekend for the first time. I can hardly wait.

But I kinda thought I can't rock up there without anything quilted so I made a little something that I am actually really proud of and most probably will produce a lot more of in the future for the on-line shop as I think they are so, so practical.
I made a mini quilt that combines as a handy changing mat or baby quilt for all occasion. Perhaps I should call it the 'all-occasion-baby-quilt'.

I used fabric from my stash and a block I made ages ago but didn't really like. I took the block and boldly cut the pieces off I disliked (God that was liberating !) and added new strips to a kind of wonky log cabin until I was happy. Then I embedded the whole thing into some bride summery orange.

 

I have a rather large amount of Kokka cotton/linen meter pieces in my stash I bought last year at Eternal Maker at the Birmingham Quiltshow but so far haven't really done much with them. I always felt they were to precious but when I was looking through my stash for something appropiate for a quilt back I thought these were ideal because they are little sturdier due to their linen/cotton combination. And that is what I want for a small quilt that should be thrown about and used for anything and everything.

 

The binding is a yellow Polka dot also from my stash. The quilt is approximately 22 x 20 inches and I was originally inspired by these quilts here from Fresh Lemons quilt.

 

I quilted it in random straight lines with a wonderful Perle Orange thread. I did this on the machine and was surprise that my Janome took it without to much moaning as it is a rather thicker thread compared to my usual Gueterman Sulky 30. 

As you can see from the Image of the quilt back I added a closing strip with Velcro to the quilt so it can be folded up small to become a portable changing mat or indeed a quilt-for-all-occasions. With this composite below I try to demonstrate how to fold it up. 

Pretty neat don't you think ?

 

Been knitting...

Just a little note to start the weekend. I bought some gorgeous wool in New York at Purl Soho. This shop did take me a little by surprise. I love their Purl Bee blog because it is so inspirational and the shop in Soho is fantastic for wool. I really saw wool there I have never seen elsewhere and that does mean something as I have been knitting since I was little. Not quite as manically as some years ago but I still have something to knit or crochet on all the time.

They also stock fabric but their selection didn't blow me away I must admit. But for wool - they are fantastic.

So bought Tosh Merino from Madeline Tosh to knit a baby blanket for my best friend Leigh's first baby that will arrive in July. The wool is hand dyed and comes in the most sumptuous colours. Here I went for four different greens and turquoise that blend together well. I am simply knitting it purl and blend in slowly each new colour. 

Happy crafty weekend.
PS. I don't forget one more day to enter my spectacular giveaway !!!

Judith

Holiday preparations

I am going in holiday in 3 weeks time. In fact today in three weeks time I will probably just have parked my derrière in the hammock at my favourite beach. The beach in Zanzibar is called Pongwe beach (just in case you would like to know). And yes it really is that lovely, just perfect in my books. This will be third time in 6 years that I am going to my home from home and what really is very funny is that if somebody would have told me that about seven, eight years ago I would have snickered derisively. Travel always involved not visiting the same place twice and more importantly not sitting vegetable style at a beach. I am happy to report none of this seems that important any more when you get beyond 40 (am currently a proud 42).  What a relieve. Does anybody else feel that way ?


But of course I won't be just sitting there for days on end doing nothing. I am compiling a list of books to read. A mixture of ambitious and easy. So far I am taking the latest Ian Mc Ewan 'Solar', Tess Gerritsen latest Crime offering 'The Killing Place' and maybe the latest one from Franzen called 'Freedom'. But I am not sure about it as it is fairly large and I am still reading 'Corrections' from him, which by the way is really good. There is also Maggie O'Farrell's 'The Hand that first held mine'. Does anybody have anymore suggestions ? I am going to be there for a whopping 6 nights which means lots of reading can be done.

But I also need to take some handicraft with me. Now, even I know that I can and should not take a quilt with me. That really would look weird. But I need something to do with my hands in between holding books and letting the sand run through my fingers (yes I am rubbing it in). So I was thinking either crochet or embroidery. For some time now I wanted to try my hand on Japanese Sashiko embroidery here or here.  My idea is to make something along the lines of a redwork project but with Sashiko and than work these squares into a quilt with alternate fabric squares. Similar to Nova's fantastic project she just finished at the end of last year. I am not so good at drawing so Sashiko would suit me fine and I am thinking to do it in navy blue or so. But I am not sure that his is the best for the beach to be honest.


Second option is to start an Afghan. So I bought lovely Rowan cotton/wool mix yarn yesterday at John Lewis (got most of them in sale too).  Something along the line of this or this. The great thing with granny squares is that they are so easily done and one doesn't have to drag a big piece around.

But I am open to other suggestion. So in case any of my wonderful readers has a better idea please let me know.