bootees; at last!!

Okay, I did promise photos of the bootees i have been knitting so here goes:
These are all out of this book:

that I showed you last week, or possibly the week before.  i really want to have a go at the bootees shown here on the cover but haven't got any red 4ply wool in a nice dark shade, so i will wait until i do before having a go.  So these are what I have done:

Arent they so cute?  There is an error in the pattern for the white ones. I noticed, to my very great frustration, that the pattern wouldn't work past row two and after emailing the author, who is very lovely, i recieved a wonderful reply with the error in it. A simple one but necessary to get it right.  She has since emailed me with another error in it; what a shame as this book is just so sweet and lovely; it is a shame that somewhere in the printing process errors have been made.  Nonetheless, I will be pushing on and making more out of this book.  I have some exciting news about Val's next book but you will have to wait for that... (more to come later)


So what next? Well i still have too many things on the go; I did not fulfill the promise that i made to myself at the start of the year to get some finished. And with Christmas coming up I have things to do; some presents for friends, I am also making two quilts for the shop; more on those later (one of them is a secret for someone I know, so shhhhh!. I have achieved many things though this year so am pleased about that.  I tried to take a photo of the Dr Seuss quilt yesterday but it was windy and the camera batteries were flat (it was not to be) so hopefully over the weekend I can try again.  the dark marks have not come out properly but are fading a little each time I wash it.  I am not sure that they will ever go away but all the remedies i tried failed, so I am stuck with it as it is.  They aren't as bad so that is all good.

some knitting

I have been knitting away like a madwoman lately (still no bootees to show you; I keep forgetting to take my camera to work where they are now hanging).  But I have been knitting scarves, as the weather turns beautifully warm, with no need fro scarves LOL!!
This scarf i have finished this morning, it is very similar wool/yarn to the white scarf I showed you all ages ago. This one has been on the go for ages in the shop, I have been using it to show people how easy these things are to make.  But, we need a display one as we have sold all the ones we had made up so I brought this home yesterday to complete.  i do like this one; the colours are so soft and pretty.  I guess it will be off to do one of the brighter ones now.

For myself, I recently knitted a scarf with some beautiful Japanese wool (Noro) from work.  Now i must tell you all that I have never been able to wear wool and growing up I had some beautiful hand knitted jumpers made out of cotton.  But I do love nice wool and couldn't resist so bought this Noro.  Made a lovely little scarf and presto; can't wear it!!!!  Some days I can and some days I can't depends on many things I think.

It is called a tippet and the idea is that it is short and crosses over just in front of your neck; perfect for me as all my shirts seem to be a little lower in the neck and I get chilly.  But it means that this is often sitting on bare skin; and it itches!!!!  So, while this expensive scarf sits idly by, I have started knitting another one over the weekend, this one made out of a nylon/acrylic blend and is oh so soft!! i decided to put cables down it which I think look really nice. Where the one cable stops and the two starts will be hidden where the scarf crosses over and loops through itself.  I can't wait to have it finished, i am nearly on the home straight now. I am just deciding on how long I want it as the pattern calls for one that is very tight around the neck and the purple Noro one I made I did longer.  Now I want this one to be somewhere between the two.

I have become quite addicted to wooden needles and after buying a couple of pairs of bamboo ones that we have in the shop, now i have been buying these ones that are made out of Birch wood. They are lovely to use, they feel so soft, not sure why. So slowly I am replacing my needles with these. I know that they do not have the longevity of metal or even plastic but they are so nice to use, they are worth it I think. And if we enjoy using our tools, we are sure of using them more often don't you think?

before i go, just a quick word on our ride on mower:

Who knew these things were so much fun?????  Honestly, we should have bought one years ago; not even for the fact that they have cut our mowing time down from literally an all day job to an hour or so, but because they are so much fun! I finally got to do our lawns on the weekend and had a blast; doesn't stop the hayfever though: I still got that!  Doing donuts around the clothesline was so much fun I kept doing them (with washing on the line). How often do we get to be kids?? So once in a while I am happy to indulge!!

Show success, and a disaster

Well the show went well last weekend.  My two boys helped out with being stewards this year in the art and craft pavillion. My eldest boy had a section all to himself (a huuuuge section) of kids art and craft. My youngest helped me with the knitting, crochet and needlework (also a large section).  I wasn't sure that we were going to get it all done but as usual, it all comes together and we were done earlier than I thought.  It helped greatly that we both had someone writing out our certificates for us; a job that takes longer than you would think.  I am proud of both boys and of what they managed to achieve.
I did well, and won the needlework aggregate; which is my seventh one. I have to say though, to anyone out there; needlework entries are slowly dwindling. To all of those ladies (and men) who do these crafts but think they are not good enough to go into shows; think again and have some faith.  Without entries, our shows will wither and die.  And it would be such a shame to lose this valuable community event.
My eldest son did well too; he won two rosettes for Best in Section; they give one out to each section to the item that they think is the best overall.  So he got two which he was very happy with.  One for photography and one for woodwork. I told him the photography one should go to me as I was the one who liked this photo and printed it off and made him enter it!!  I am just happy for him.
So, the rosettes look like this:

And my ribbon looks like this:

Very nice things to bring home!

And now to the disaster:
I have had a few people this week turn their noses up when blue washout pens are mentioned. Can I just say that I use them often and have never had an issue with them. I have even ironed over them and still find they washout.  So, i used two of my pens on my quilt to rule straight lines for the quilting. I started doing the quilting without and noticed a few of my lines were not straight.  So i used the pens and did the quilting and then washed the quilt, only to find that the blue pen has bled into the fabric and turned a nasty shade of black. I am devastated. This has never happened before, and as they were not new pens they both had been used here before. But here is the weird thing; it has only bled into all the red. Nothing on the yellow or bue and even the white has no marks whatsoever. I would assume it was the material, the red I used to shash it all together with, only it has also bled into the red Dr Seuss fabric.  Bizarre.  So now I am going to try a couple of home remedies to see if i can shift them.  Any ideas out there?  Yoghurt will be my first port of call today I think.  I was told the other day that it makes a great stain remover so will see how it goes.

So we have had highs and lows in our house this week!  One good thing is that now the show has finished, and the next show I will enter I already have everything, now I can relax and do some sewing, and knitting, that I want to do just for fun.  I have been knitting bootees this past week which has been fun.  And there is a scarf at work that I would love to knit, so with my prizemoney from the show, I will get the wool I need for that.  i think I have promised you all photos of the bootees; hopefully I might get some tomorrow for you.

A quick update

No, I promise I have not forgotten everyone.  As i am sure everyone out there can understand, life is just busy.

So, to the news...
There really isn't much. the ride on mower is going wonderfully well. I really dont know why we didn't do it years ago (exept for the fact that they are expensive little items).  The lawns used to take DH much of the day but now, oh my, it  takes no time at all.  Wonderful.  We even got my younger son to do some gardening with a ride on the mower as a nice little carrot to dangle!!  DH is frustrated though; he is itching to get out into the yard and mow it again but with all the rain we have had this past week, the ground is much too wet.

As for sewing stuff: the Dr Seuss quilt is almost finished. I have a little bit of quilting to go and then the binding and then it is done.
This is what the top looks like (on a windy day)

I am very happy with it; even if it is not what I would normally choose.  The only problem I am having is with the quilting; it is so difficult to do the quilting with a normal domestic sewing machine; the arm is just not long enough. So i have battled away but am not happy with it. If I had rushed it then I would think it was the right result but I have been so careful and still my lines are not straight and perfect enough.  I am hoping that when it is finished everyone will be looking at the pictures and not the quilting!  I am looking forward to using it (and keeping it away from the kids; who couldn't understand the attraction when I brought the material home but now it is almost done seem to be eyeing it off quite a bit. it seems they are not too old for Dr Seuss after all LOL!!!)

I also have this to share; yet another book from the Book Depository.  As usual I had only seen the cover but took the punt and am so glad I did. I bought it a month ago when it hadn't been released and was a preorder.  It has such cute things in it to do.

It came on Friday and I have already made a pair of bootees over the weekend; no photos as they are now hanging up in the shop.  these are what I made though, only I did  a nice white edge around the top; set them off really well IMHO.  I promise to take a photo of the next pair. this is what they look like in the book:

They have used such cute babies (although I have come to the conclusion that they always do in knitting patterns!).  Check out this little gem; don't you just want to eat her up??

Cute as a button!!!

So now I will be spending the next two days finishing off a couple of things for the local show which is on Saturday, but the kids and I will be working there from Thursday onwards. I am hoping to get the quilt finished; I wasn't planning on having it in the show (and with the shocking quilting, maybe I shouldn't!!)  but it is all but done so I will put it in.  And i just have a little lavender bag and a coat hanger to finish, both of which will not take long.
Hopefully the kids have fun; they have been looking forward to being a steward so we will see how that goes.
Have a good week, and i promise not to take so long to come back again  :-)

P.S. Why do i always see spelling mistakes once I have published my blog posts and when i go in to edit them, I can't find them anymore??  You will have to put up with I guess!!

P.P.S. found it!!  Although there may well be more!!