A Little Bit of an Update

Hello there, I know it's been a little while since I last posted anything on this blog, and those who follow me over on instagram, I haven't been there much either. I'm sorry for plunging you all into a little bit of silence these past few months. 

As the pandemic has progressed, I have been feeling less and less like I want to make anything, which is hugely unlike me. I decided to take a break when I was feeling at my lowest, and have been making in little bits and pieces here and there, but most of my projects are lying untouched. This doesn't mean they won't get done, just not right now.  

In addition to the pandemic there has been a few other issues that have made their way to the surface. The recent push in recognising racism, and working to deal with that. As well as the issues with the new Ravelry which has left an awful lot of the yarn community without safe access to something that we all have made a huge part of lives up until now. 

I haven't been hiding away from all of these things. I have been on instagram, reading and learning what I can. There just hasn't been any posts as such. 

If you are someone who is struggling with the new Ravelry then please do be careful when clicking through to links on this blog as a lot of the hyperlinks to patterns and makers do take you straight there. 

With that all said, this time off has given me room to think, and I am going to take a step back from blogging for the foreseeable future. I have very much enjoyed my time blogging, but personally I feel it is time to put this to bed for now. I have no plans to get rid of what is already here online, as it feels a shame to get rid of an archive of a year or two of making. So you can scroll back through the archives if that takes your fancy. 

I hope you can all understand my decision, and maybe you can head over to instagram and give me a follow there if you'd like to still see some of my makes. As for the instagram account, I am going to turn it back into a personal account, and will still be sharing makes there, but in a much more relaxed and unofficial way. 

So please do keep safe in these uncertain times, look after yourselves and keep doing what makes your heart happy.

Finished Object - Nora Jumper

A few weeks ago I took a five day shift off work to use up some of my holiday, and had a long list of sewing plans that didn't quite all come to fruition. But one of the things I did make, was a Nora Jumper. Pattern by Tilly and the Buttons.

Shortened Body

I made it with some fabric I had been given, the same as my Heyday Dungarees. I don't know much about the fabric, but it does have about 20% stretch and was lovely and cozy. So given I had the Nora pattern, and it calls for fabric with 20% stretch, I decided to give it a go, and this was my first time working with stretch fabric.

I went for the full length version, of both the body and the sleeves, as I had enough fabric to make it. But after wearing it for a day I decided that the body was too long for me and I shortened it. I made it almost entirely to pattern although I hand-stitched the pieces where I had to do top-stitching. This was because I didn't have a thread that looked nice on the fabric, and whilst I used the colour that most closely matched the fabric, it wasn't quite close enough that I liked it. So the collar, cuffs and hem were hand stitched with a whip stitch, only picking up the fabric on the inside of the jumper. Whilst you can't see any of the stitching, this doesn't make it invisible, but I am pretty happy with it. 

This jumper has already made a fair few appearances in Me-Made-May and I am really enjoying it. So I may even make a Nora tee soon as well! 

Before Alteration

WIP Wednesday - Peppermint Purple SAL

Now blackwork is something I'm quite new to, and didn't really know anything about until I saw someone I follow on Instagram post about this exact Stitch-A-Long (SAL) and I decided to get involved. 

Blackwork uses backstitches to create a pattern on a fabric, which can be, and usually is, cross-stitch aida. Which is what I used, as I had some of it in my fabric stash, I also decided to try and use leftover embroidery floss that I have from when I had done a sampler for the birth of my Nephew. So far I am really enjoying it, even though I hate backstitching my actual cross-stitch pieces! XD

The SAL is free to anyone who wants to join and is running all year long. Every week a new box is released, and on some weeks there are a couple of options for you to customise your own work. There is a lovely facebook page for support if you need it, and even though we are halfway through the year it really isn't too late to start. 

It would be great to say that I had been keeping up every week, but that is far from the truth. I tend to miss out on a week or two, and then catch up on a day off. As the boxes are quite small they are doable in an hour, and a couple doesn't take too long. I find this is a nice no pressure SAL and by the end of the year will have a lovely piece to frame and put up somewhere.  

Finished Object - Leftovers Shorty Sock

A little while ago, before Christmas maybe? I had picked up a cheap set of 2.25mm DPNs to see if I liked the fabric I could knit with them whilst making socks. Sadly they sat in the needle case forgotten about until fairly recently. So I decided that when making this leftovers sock I would use them and see what I thought of the finished product. 

I cast on 60 stitches for this sock, which was a guess at how well it would fit me really, as I tend to use 60 stitches for a 2.5mm needle and 64 for a 2mm needle. But I think it has turned out pretty well. I knit an inch of ribbing and then started the heel. 

The heel is a little bit different to what I mostly use. During Me-Made-May this year I am wearing all my hand knit socks a lot more and I have been rediscovering which of my socks I like the best. It turns out that my socks knit with a heel flap and gusset I find the most comfy, while the majority of my socks are German Short Row heel. I think this is mostly because I really didn't like doing the heel flap, and the German Short Row heel I had memorised and found easy to do. But seeing as my most recent pair of socks I'm knitting are heel flap, I thought I might as well on this sock too. 

So I pulled out the pattern for Hermione's Everyday Socks and I used the eye of partridge heel recipe in that, which I can highly recommend. In fact the Hermione's Everyday Socks are a brilliant pattern if you are a new to sock knitting knitter. 

The yarn I used for this sock is leftover from when I made my brother a pair of socks for Christmas, and is West Yorkshire Spinners, signature 4-ply in what I think is the Mallard colourway. I've only tried on the sock so far, and it fits really well so I am looking forward to when I have some more leftover sock yarn to make it a little friend so I can wear them together and really give it a road test! 

WIP Wednesday - Chapman Socks

First of all I want to say a huge sorry for the posting schedule going a little off piste this past week. I didn't realise I hadn't scheduled a post to go up on Sunday, and after a tiring week at work, I am only now just getting around to getting some things written. So on with that! 

One of the things I cast on recently was a pair of Chapman socks by Rachel Atkinson from the John Arbon Textiles Annual, issue one. The Annual itself is a lovely little book with a couple of patterns as well as a few fun little activities and I am excitedly waiting for my copy of issue two. 

The socks are cabled with a little wiggly two by two cable, which gives a lovely effect, as well as being really easy to knit. I am making the Extra-Small size (there are five different sizes) which uses 56 stitches, and whilst the pattern calls for a 2.25mm needle I have used 2.5mm DPNs. 

I've now knit one complete sock and am now starting on the second. But there was one false start with the first... I accidentally cast on two extra stitches and didn't really work out why the pattern wasn't working until I had done the entire leg and was about to do the heel. After pulling it completely out and starting again it was very quick to knit up, and really quite enjoyable as the pattern is easy to memorise without too much thinking. 

The yarn used is actually from a little weekend break away I had back last year when I went with my parents to Edinburgh. We had an amazing time, but I managed to pop into the Ginger Twist Studio shop and pick up a holiday skein of yarn. I chose a skein of her sock base, Sheepish Sock in a colourway that really spoke to my heart: Factory Girls. It is the most amazing green (the photo above doesn't do it justice) whilst also being lovely to knit with. I can highly recommend. 

Now excuse me whilst I go knit on this sock! ;) 

WIP Wednesday - Arbor Vitae

Yes yes! Another update on this should-have-been-finished-long-ago work in progress. I have finally managed to complete the body of my Arbor Vitae jumper, and I am pretty excited about it. I was finding the body hard going, with almost endless stocking stitch with a 4-ply yarn. I found that I couldn't just sit and knit on it unless I had something else to distract me as well. 

That being said I did manage to get a fair bit done on it when I realised I could walk and knit at the same time, and I spent a fair few walks in the sunshine knitting as I wandered along. 

I decided to cut the waist shaping short, by doing one less increase repeat. That meant that the number of decrease and increase repeats were the same, but also I found that by the end of the penultimate increase the body was the length specified in the pattern before the ribbing started. So I thought there wasn't much to loose and started the ribbing. 

I tried it on after I had cast off and it was a perfectly fine length, it comes down a fair bit further than my Fern and Feather, and had a nice amount of ease to it. (Not 11" ;P) I then added the neckline and that was practically done in a night too. The neckline also isn't quite to pattern. I knitted the neckline until it was a length I liked, trying it on as I went. That meant that it is actually half the size that the pattern suggests. But I'm not too keen on things being tight around my neck. 

So that only leaves the sleeves and sleeve caps to go. I'm thinking of trying to make them two at a time, which would be exciting to try. So I am almost back to where I was when I ripped back this whole jumper. It has been hard going, and I'm a little unsure now of knitting another 4-ply jumper. But maybe this is just because it is the second time round same pattern, same yarn. I'll see how I feel about another one in the future. 

Finished Object - Heyday Dungarees

I had a few sewing plans for my days off and this was the first of them. The Heyday Dungarees by Made By Jacks Mum. The pattern is a brilliant price and available as a digital download, so you can get sewing almost as soon as you buy the pattern. I printed the pattern at home, although there is a copy shop pdf if you are that way inclined, and I glued all the pieces together and cut out the pattern in my size. What I love about pdf patterns is that I can cut around the pieces of my size rather than worry about saving the larger pattern sizes, as they can be printed again later.

The fabric I have used was given to me by my Aunty and Uncle as they had cleared out my Uncle's Mum's loft and had loads of fabric that needed to be put to use. The fabric was only about 90cm wide and I had 2.9m of it. There was just enough to make the pattern if I shortened the legs a little bit, which was fine as it is my back that makes up most of my height. It is a soft woven fabric that had a sort of flannel-y feel to it, it's cozy none-the-less.

I have to admit that it probably wouldn't have been my first choice for a pair of dungarees, but the more I wear them the more I seem to love them! I followed the pattern exactly, and managed to not go careering off the rails as I seem to often do - I'm not very good when it comes to following instructions or being told what to do. But the pattern was easy to follow and the methods of making the dungos good and straightforward. 

I did add a jazzy front pocket. I wanted a little something to shout out me, and I had the perfect piece of fabric leftover in my stash. The aeroplane fabric I got originally to make a Stevie top for my birthday last year, and I still had a bit left. I am super excited about that pocket, and I really am enjoying wearing these for Me Made May this year. 

Grow - April Round Up

April has now been and gone, and the garden has been a little quiet compared to the last couple of months. There have been a couple of unseen additions though, and things have been taking shape. 

Potatoes

One of the biggest changes is that I have planted a few potatoes. One of my neighbours who has an allotment had a spare few potatoes that he wasn't going to get a chance to plant out or use, gave away some of them, and I planted three rows. They were three different early varieties, and one was a second early I think, so I was a little on the late side in getting them in the ground, but already in the past couple of weeks I have had a few pop their heads up to say hello. Despite next door's cat using the veggie bed as a litter tray... It's a good job I like Mr Pickle (the cat). 

Peppers on the windowsill

The addition of potatoes was not the only thing to get done during April. My experimental propagator has worked its magic and has produced nine quite substantial seedlings from my pepper seeds I rescued from a supermarket bell pepper. I planted them out into three pots and they are now residing on the windowsill in the knitting den. It is the warmest room in the house and gets the most light. They are watered almost every day and are being turned just as often to allow them to grow upright instead of leaning towards the window. I was warned by my stepfather that peppers are notoriously hard to keep alive and reminded me that the battle isn't over just yet! ;) 

First Spring Onions

Most of the other veggies I have planted have been growing well, the first set of spring onions are looking tall and strong as ever. I got a variety pack of seeds with a few red as well as white, and I'm excited to see that the red bottoms of a couple of them are starting to peek through! I'm starting to consider planting a couple of these onions outside to see if that will help them grow a little more. I can't help thinking that them being in a small punnet is slightly limiting, but I don't really have much else at the moment. I am considering trying one or two when they are at this stage too, seeing as the small seedlings which I thinned out earlier last month had some flavour to them. The second lot of spring onions are still relatively small, at about three inches high, so there isn't much to report on that front. 

First Leeks

The leeks however are looking good. I have about five seedlings in the first pot, and the biggest of those are reaching around six inches, which is quite exciting. I think they will be what is next to plant out next month. They do look the spitting image of the spring onions, although less fat when they are at a similar height. I have planted out a second pot of leeks now, and am hoping that they will carry on into the winter. But we will see. The spinach doesn't have as much of a happy tale though. 

Spinach and Basil

The spinach, seen here with the second basil plant, is the second lot of spinach I planted. The second lot overtook the first lot quite substantially, and I decided that having two spinach plants was a little too much for just me to eat all of, even with copious amounts of humous. The time the first plant had spend in the kitchen I think had stunted it, and it wasn't showing many signs of recovery sadly. So I picked the baby leaves off of it to sprinkle on tonight's tea and I then used the pot to plant the second lot of leeks. The remaining pot of spinach is starting to look good and I am looking forward to eating it. 

First Basil

The basil, the last thing left to talk about is going strong. Both the first and the second sowing in fact. They are both now quite substantial and smell amazing. I am now going to start using them in my cooking if I can stop just burying my face in it to give it a smell. I am really pleased that the marmite jar seeds have taken so well to being in there too. I am a little reluctant to move one of the pots into the kitchen where there will be a lot less light and heat than by the back door, but maybe it might be necessary when there becomes no more room! 

The last happy surprise from my garden has to be the mystery bush in the middle of the veggie bed. It was green and spiky when I moved in, and is indeed still green and spiky now. It had a tendency to lean over the small path in the garden and for a while now I've just been walking onto the grass to get around it. Today I tied the top part back to the fence so it stood up a lot more and was covering less of the path. Once I can get hold of a pair of secateurs then I will give it a little bit of a prune to encourage it off the path. But to my surprise a lovely pale pink flower was hiding in the bush. There were a few other buds too so I am looking forward to seeing them all come out in time. 

Finished Object - Tailors Ham

I thought it would be a week or so of Works in Progress for you all, but I managed this sweet little stash buster to help with my future makes. A tailors ham isn't something that I had really thought about before, I've always muddled through when pressing, but when planning out a few sewing projects for my days off it was suggested in one of the patterns that one was needed. So I set about trying to make my own using a helpful tutorial from Tilly and The Buttons Blog, which includes a free printable download. 

I rummaged through my box of odds, ends and scraps and found some thick, upholstery type fabric which would be up to the job. The pattern piece is designed to be cut on the fold, and whilst I had one piece of fabric big enough to do that, my other piece of fabric was such an awkward shape that whilst I could get what I needed out of it, they couldn't be one piece. So I traced the pattern piece out twice and added a half inch seam allowance along the fold edge. 

The pattern itself written on the blog was easy to follow and in no time the ham was sewn quickly up. The next step was to stuff it. The blog talks about using sawdust to stuff the ham, but also mentions that soft fabric scraps could be used as well. As we're in the middle of a nation wide lockdown, and I have no idea where I would get saw dust from in the first place I had to make do with what I had to hand. I thought that the softness of the inside of my ham wasn't too important (more than happy to be corrected on that). I am going to be pressing things around it, not pinning into it. But I did have to bear in mind that heat would be applied during the pressing, so I made sure that what I was going to stuff inside wasn't going to melt or something when heat was applied. 

I stuffed it pretty well, and firmly using a lot of what I had in my scraps. I was pretty pleased with the end result. I have also put it to the test with my latest sewing project (more on that soon!) and it was rather helpful pressing the crotch seams into where they need to be without trying to flatten everything. So overall I'm pretty pleased with it, I also couldn't resist throwing it around like a ball... Can you tell not seeing real life people is getting to me! :P 

Anyway, I will be back later this week with some other exciting things for you. So I hope you are all looking after yourselves in the way that you need. Stay safe! L x

WIP Sunday (?) - Helios Wing Shawl

It has been a busy week at work and there hasn't been much in the way of finished objects, so I thought I would share a new project with you all that has my brain working hard to keep up. A little while ago I won a wonderful pattern called the Helios Wing shawl by Beardychiel Designs. It is a lovely shaped shawl with a mixture of lace panels and plain stocking stitch panels. 

The going is pretty simple and the pattern well written, but the lace sections really do give me something to think about and are perfect for these times of social distancing and allow me to get lost and not pay the world around me much attention. I turned to this pattern, mainly because I was a little bored of what I already had on the needles and needed something new to perk my interest and get involved with. It did just the trick. 

I haven't got too far along with the shawl, as it does require my full attention, but I am about 100 rows in and loving how it is coming out so far. 

I am using the recommended needle size, but the yarn is John Arbon, Devonia DK in the Pollen Gold colourway. The pattern calls for a 4-ply weight yarn, but this DK is so light that the drape of the fabric is lovely anyway. My gauge is also a little on the loose side as well so the two have played into each other and I was able to cast this on using something from stash. 

So the shawl is coming along nicely, and providing a welcome distraction. So hopefully it won't be too long until it's finished! 

WIP Wednesday: Letters From Hogwarts SYOA

Just Before a Frame Move

I fell down a very stitchy Harry Potter rabbit hole a few weeks ago and I haven't been able to look back since. I found a new stitch-a-long via a friend on instagram, and found a whole new type of stitch-a-long.

What I found was a year long stitch-your-own-adventure type stitch-a-long, which frankly is amazing. The lovely person behind Cunning Cross Stitch has created a story in which we follow along at the end of each chapter there is another section of the cross stitch to complete. The amazing thing about this one? You get to make your own decisions in the story, which ultimately determines what elements you end up including in your design - pretty amazing right?!

What is better is that they are offering this amazing cross stitch for free. There is a delightful facebook group for support and I really cannot say quite how excited I am about it. It is taking me a little while to stitch everything up, and I am still working on the introduction charts, and haven't carried on with the story as of yet, but we are now into chapter 3 of the story.

There are also some behind the scenes pages as well on the blog detailing the thoughts and processes behind each chapter. It is all well worth a read if you have time. But for now, here are my progress pictures.

Current Progress

Finished Object: My First Quilt

So a very long time ago or what felt like it, (looking back at the original blog post is was about 2018), I started my very first quilting project. I started off simple with a couple of fat quarter packs from the local Hobbycraft and set about piecing them together to make a top and bottom quilt. And then they stayed in drawer for a few years.

It was only a year or so later when I decided to make a quilt for my Nephew when he was born that I actually decided to get a walking foot for my sewing machine and quilt my first quilt as a practice for doing my Nephew's. It worked pretty well, and then the quilt went back into the draw to be forgotten about.

We are now into 2020 and I have finally got around to finishing the binding on the quilt. It took me to get a bias binding maker and get into the swing of making my own binding to actually do it. So the quilt is bound at the edges using binding I have made from scraps I had lying around. I've managed to match the opposite sides, but I do love the way it has turned out.

The first row of stitching on the binding is sewn by machine, but the second set, after it was turned over the edge I've done by hand. This was mostly because the edges were not that even and it was a little bit of a nightmare trying to get the binding to sit nicely. It was far easier to do it by hand and was completed over a couple of nights sitting watching some podcasts with a brew.

I'm pretty pleased that the quilt is finally finished and can now be put to good use. Maybe next time we'll try a scrappy one.

Finished Object - Hummingbird Handspun

Big wheels have been turning and Tina my spinning wheel has been busy, and I have finally spun my last braid of Pixel Atlantis fibre. This braid was a 100% BFL squishy loveliness in the Hummingbird colourway. I absolutely love the green colour it has come out with and it will hopefully be going with the other braid of Pixel Atlantis fibre I have already spun to make something exciting.

I decided to create this yarn in the simple way that I had created the previous braid, so that there was a more likely chance of them being mostly the same. So the braid was weighed, split in half and two singles spun.

The singles were then plied together in a simple two ply, I did have a little bit left over on one bobbin afterwards, which was a little sad, but I wound that off onto a bog roll tube and am saving it with another few from previous and hopefully when I have enough of them they will be plied up into something amazing - but more on that another time.

When I took this plied yarn off the bobbin I was pretty pleased with how balanced it was, and indeed there were a couple of people who were spammed on snapchat with it! But unfortunately I didn't save the photos.

The final yarn was about 16 WPI, so coming to a lighter sport weight (which is what the other braid is - winning!) and about 180 m. It is now all skeined up and with it's friend waiting for their new adventures.

Finished Object - Dino Apron

As my baking has ramped up recently, and after one particular vegan chocolate cake escapade, I decided it was probably time to get myself an apron for when I'm in the kitchen. Thankfully I only got my work shirt covered in chocolate and not a me made! So time for a me-made that wants to get covered in chocolate.

I've been meaning to get on with making myself an apron, and wanted a full length one to cover my top half as well as my bottom half, so the pattern I used for the spinning skirt was out. I found a free tutorial on The Sewing Directory which you can find here. The tutorial walks you through drafting the pattern and then sewing the actual apron. I used the tutorial for drafting the pattern and loosely followed the instructions for sewing it together as I really wanted to go my own way. 

The pattern uses a small facing along the top of the apron to help insert the neck strap, and the rest is pretty simple too. I made my first apron following the instructions and I think it turned out okay.

I had two old tablecloths that used to be my mothers, which she gave me when I moved out, but which didn't fit my dining room table, so I thought they would be perfect for the job, as they were a fabric that I wasn't going to be too sad if it got covered in food and I had a couple of dinosaur fat quarters which I thought would make a brilliant contrast fabric.

Now I don't actually know what type of fabric the tablecloths were made out of, but I do know now that it is a little thick and almost impossible to get a nice crease out of when pressing. When cutting out I managed to lay out my main apron piece so that the bottom of the apron was along the already hemmed edge of the tablecloth saving me a little work.

The top strap and the pocket I cut out of the dinosaur fabric. Here I deviated a little bit from the pattern. I hadn't actually got enough fabric to create the whole upper strap in one piece, and I had been a little lazy and hadn't cut a pattern piece for it. I knew that I had a little buckle left over from when I made waistcoats for my Mam's wedding, so I thought that I would try and combine this in to the upper strap to make an adjustable one. So I created one short strap and one long strap, but which would both make up the length of the pattern strap, which were then inserted in the top of the apron as the pattern suggested.

The buckle was then sewn on the end of the short strap and the other end fed through to make the adjustable strap. The idea was all well and good, and the strap worked as an adjuster. But my fabric I think was a little too thin and the buckle didn't actually hold in place and would just slide off from around my neck when any pressure was put on it. I solved the problem by pinning the loose and of the strap to the other strap with a Simon's cat pin.

I can't say that straps were my strong point on this apron at all either. My main straps, whilst long enough to tie at the front - which is a must for me on my apron - were made of the same tablecloth and just feel a little to big a bulky for my liking. I think that is nothing to do with pattern but all to do with the fabric I was using.

I realise there is a lot of complaining about how this project wasn't perfect, but not all are. I will say that despite all of these things that aren't perfect with it, I do really enjoy wearing it in the kitchen and I do love the dinosaurs. The apron is perfectly functional, if not perfect in the way that I would have liked it to be.

With that in mind the cogs in my brain were turning and over the next couple of days I had thought up of ways that I would have done the apron differently to make it work, and I decided to have another go. I also had a good friend who wanted a dino apron too!

The next apron I made used the other tablecloth I had, so was made out of the same heavy fabric that was a little bit of a nightmare to work with. I decided that this time, only the main apron front was to be made with the tablecloth. I used a white dinosaur fabric for the neck strap and the front pocket, and used a thinner plain white cotton for the main straps (I had a good long length of this in my stash which was perfect for the job) I had also been toying with the idea of making the facing on the back a lot bigger to incorporate the side straps so they could also be sewn in easier.

Second apron with larger facing

This facing I decided to do with a scrap of light/medium weight cotton I had, to reduce the bulk in the top seam, and I think it worked really well in the end. The second apron I am a lot happier with then the first. The bigger facing allows the straps to be easily installed, and the added understitching along the facing added another strengthening seam as well as encouraged the facing to turn under. That apron will be sent off soon and I really hope it is enjoyed where it is going.

WIP Wednesday - Periodic Table Blanket

I feel it is high time that I gave you all an update on this massive project of mine, which has been going on for what feels like forever (I believe it is about ten years...) I seem to go through waves of really getting into the project, and knitting several squares for it, and then not touching it for another several months.

Recently I reached a new milestone for it! I finally completed groups 3 through 12, the biggest number of same coloured squares. For some reason, in past Lottie's infinite wisdom, I used the most eye wateringly offensive shade of neon orange. I really don't know why, I must have been going through something! XD Anyway, with those squares now out of the way I can turn my attention to the remaining groups on the table. Groups 13 through 16 including helium will be in the same colour. But I don't have a colour picked out for them just yet. I am thinking of looking through my stash and seeing what I already have. I know full well that I won't have enough for all the squares I need, but at least I can get that one ball out of my stash before I get a load more to complete that section of the project.

Now with groups 13 through 16 considered and planned out, the only squares left are the Actinides, these I do actually have the yarn for, and are a delightful hot pink - Again. past Lottie, what were you thinking? - Unfortunately that yarn is sitting at my mother's house, and as I write this we are in the middle of a lockdown amidst a global pandemic. There is no chance I'm getting that yarn any time soon.

That all being said the end for this huge project does seem to be in sight. I think if I kept my mind to it then I could start to work my way through the next set of groups, and hopefully it won't be another ten years to finish this project!

To take the photo for this post, I laid all the squares out on my living room floor, and they took up more space than I actually had. There was also a lot of tension changes, which will be fun to deal with when we come to  trying to join all the squares together.

Finished Object - My Secret Crop

This project was very much started on a whim, but actually perked up my knitting mojo, and I ran with it. It was the first project in a few weeks that I actually really enjoyed knitting on. I follow Jessie Maed Designs on instagram, and she was having a mystery knit along (MKAL) for a new crop top design. She had thought the design up, and hadn't had anyone test it, so was offering it free and making adjustments to the pattern as the MKAL went along with the problems that people were finding. It looked really fun, so after the first couple of days I joined in too.

The project was perfect for that one skein of Malabrigo Rios that I had in my stash that I really didn't know what to do with. I used up pretty much the whole skein and didn't have much left over at all. I knit the small size. As was the nature of the MKAL I didn't know what the final outcome would look like, but I went with it and I am really happy with the finished object.

I will admit the weather isn't really the best here in England at the moment, it may be sunny but I'm not too sure if it really is warm enough to be wearing this lovely crop top outdoors just yet. Anyway, here she is in all her glory. The My Secret Crop, in Malabrigo Rios in the Sunset colourway. A lovely warm crop, which was amazingly quick to knit up.

Finished Object - Leftovers Shorty Pair

After finishing my last shorty sock I needed another sock to knit on whilst on break at work, and I looked at the bits of sock yarn I had left, and one cake was about 50g of Gamer Crafting Yak Sock that I had leftover from when I knitted the lovely Lyne Socks by Dawn Henderson. I thought that 50g was enough to make a shorty pair and not just one mismatched sock. So that is what I decided to do.

I fancied playing around with my shorty socks and not just doing another plain vanilla sock. Which this yarn lent itself to more then the previous self striping/patterning yarn that makes it difficult for a textured pattern to show up. I decided to do something simple and just carry on the 2x2 rib from the cuff of the sock down the top of the foot, and I am actually quite pleased with the outcome.

So I cast on 60 stitches, with my 2.5mm DPNs and knit one inch of 2x2 ribbing for a cuff. I then knit one plain round (bearing in mind the front was still knit in 2x2 rib and the back plain stocking stitch) before starting the german short row heel. This has become my go to heel, but only because it is easy to do and I can do it off the top of my head. But I did wear one pair of my knitted socks that had a heel flap and gusset, and I remembered how well they fitted, so I might have to try that one again next.

After the heel the rest of the sock was knit, plain stocking stitch on the bottom and 2x2 rib on the top, until we got to the toe. It was a simple toe, with an extra two rounds on the end to give a tiny bit of extra room. These socks took a little while longer to knit then the previous two shorty socks, but I did knit two instead of one! These were only knit on whilst I was at work in my break times, so the going was going to be slightly slower.

Overall I'm pretty happy, and have another lovely pair of socks to add to my collection. Now onto the next leftovers.

Grow - March Round Up

Fist Basil Set

As the month rolls into April there is another set of jobs to get done in the garden, and with the sun coming out and it feeling incredibly like spring has sprung I could not wait to get back out there. With the recent Covid-19 outbreak and the lockdown measures in place, a lot of people have been turning to their gardens as a source of comfort and something to do. I am no exception there, I feel that having something to care for and something to think about really does take my mind off what has been happening in this world around us.

It is important to note here that going out to buy gardening things is not classed as an essential trip, people should not be encouraged to go and make those extra journeys, putting themselves and others at risk. That said a few of the things I have done this past month I've done using what I had to hand, and no trips have been made to get supplies. I also know that some supermarkets are selling things like plants and bags of compost, so you can kill two birds with one stone if you really want to get your hands dirty and pick those up on your weekly essentials shop.

Last time I shared the garden with you all I had just planted the first sets of basil, spring onions and spinach. Those three sets are growing well, and three weeks after the first lot, I've planted a second sowing of all three. The Spinach moved from the sunny spot by the back door, to the windowsill in the kitchen where it has been quite happy, and hopefully soon will be ready to provide leaves.

Kitchen Windowsill Spinach

Thinned Out Spring Onions

The spring onions have shot up, and finally been thinned out. I only really thought later on that I remembered reading something about them needing their own space. They had grown like anything incredibly quickly and then stalled. So I got around to thinning them out to about an inch apart. I was a little torn as to what to do with the little seedlings, do I try and replant them in their own space? I was also curious as to what they were like at this early stage, so I tried one. It was actually quite onion-y so I decided to wash this little handful and had them chopped up on top of my salmon that night for tea. I was actually really quite pleased that I had managed to eat something that I had grown for the first time ever!

The basil was a slow grower, it took forever for it to pop out of the top of its pot, and I will admit it did almost lose heart in it, but a little more patience saw it through. The little plant is growing well, and when it is big enough it will probably move into the kitchen to be with its spinach friend on the windowsill. 

In my offshift three weeks after I had first planted the seeds, I set about planting another set of each. This did also happen to be early April and I tackled my garden jobs list as well. I planted another two sets of spring onions. The first set was going into the garden, and is the first thing that I have actually planted outside, and I am pretty excited. I did however plant another set indoors just in case. I marked the area where I had planted them with some twine and a few sticks I found in the garden, for an easy reference for when I come to water them and to just check on them.

I also started off my carrots, these I decided to plant in a pot on the patio. This will hopefully mean that they won't come across some of the other problems they could in the ground. I'm a little worried about my carrots though, I know that April is a little early for them and not having any access to things like fleece to keep them covered is something to think about. I suppose with them being in a pot, if things get really bad outside I can just bring them inside.

I did have to wait another week for my leek seeds to arrive, which I was too late in getting at the garden centre, so had to order online. With the lockdown at the moment a lot of online businesses are working harder then ever so are taking longer to ship orders. I ordered my leeks from Suttons Seeds online and they took just over a week to get to me, which was good. They got planted in a little pot and are now sat by the back door with the other veggies, and hopefully will start to grow. They are being started "on the windowsill" for now and I think I will plan to plant them out in June time.


The second sets of spinach and basil pulled the short straw really, and I didn't have many spare pots for them, so I improvised. The spinach got planted in the bottom half of a milk bottle, and the basil in a marmite jar. I'm being a little mindful about how much I water these two, as the makeshift pots they are in do not have any drainage holes in the bottom, so have a larger chance of becoming waterlogged. But despite that, both the pots have started to germinate and I've got little bits of green poking out of the tops of both of them.

One thing that wasn't on my garden plan, was a little experiment I decided to try out. I was cutting up a red bell pepper when I was making my tea one night, and on a whim decided to save the seeds. I wanted to see if I could grow them. Reading up on how to grow pepper seeds, it mentioned the need to keep them in a propagator at a temperature of around 21 degrees (I'm paraphrasing here, don't take my advice! :P ). With us being in a lockdown, I cannot go out an purchase a snazzy propagator, and the seeds needed planting out pretty soonish. So I got my thinking head on and made a propagator out of an old milk bottle (2 pint), a scrap of cotton fabric and a sandwich bag.

I cut the milk bottle in half and cut most of the handle off, leaving a little bit of it. I then put some water in the bottom half of the bottle, up to the little line. Then cut a slot in the lid of the bottle. I threaded one end of my fabric scrap through the lid a little way. This fabric scrap is going to act like a moisture wick. I then screwed the lid back on the milk bottle and put the top half upside down in the bottom half, with the little bit of handle sticking out over the top to stop it from sliding all the way down to the bottom. The fabric should sit in the water at the bottom and come up through the lid into the top half.

I filled the top half with compost and sowed my pepper seeds. I watered it then, and put the sandwich bag over the top, tied it in place with a piece of yarn I had lying around and placed it on my spare room windowsill.

There was a lot of condensation on the inside of that bag as the weeks went on, but without having to touch it at all. two and a half weeks later I'm looking at a couple of green leaves sticking out the top looking happy. So now that gamble has taken off I need to read up on what to do next! I'm thinking I will keep these plants in a pot other than planting them outside, as they seem to need a fair amount of greenhouse time and hardening off before they can really brave the british weather. We will see what the next few weeks will bring I suppose.

If you really are curious as to how my seed propagator went together, then have a look at the pictures I've posted here, and maybe they'll explain a little bit better than I have with words.

The last unexpected garden happening, happened the most recently, when I decided that the three aloe plants that I had upstairs on the bedroom window had failed. They were three of five babies I had taken out of the mother plants pot. Whilst the other two had thrived these had turned brown, and I didn't know what I had done to them. They didn't seem to respond at all to me giving them more or less light or even varying amounts of water. I thought they had properly died, so I went outside to take them out of their pots and put them in the compost heap, but taking them out of their pots I realised that two of them had developed quite a large route system, and it seemed a shame to not try and give them a second chance. So that's what I did.

I planted the three of them out in the flower/veggie bed in the garden. They went in a section of the bed that I didn't really know what I was going to do with. We will see what comes of them now, as they aren't so reliant on me to feed them right!

That is all I have to say for this monthly round up of the garden. I really hope you are enjoying the blog, as well as the weekly updates from me are happening on both a Wednesday and a Sunday now. My plan is to release these Grow posts just as and when I get around to writing them so I don't have to try and squeeze them in and around all the other making.

So, happy making, happy gardening, and keep safe. I will see you all again really soon!
L xx

WIP Sunday(?) - Railway Working Weekend

We have had a lot of finished objects over the past couple of weeks, so let us mix it up with a WIP. This is not your normal work in progress, but is a little update on the model railway Llyn Fach. As many railway modellers know, a railway is never finished, so don't expect this to become a FO any time soon! ;)

For quite a while, not much work at all has happened on the Llyn Fach, and that is largely due to life getting in the way. The Llyn Fach is a small model railway that my Dad and I are building and have been for as long as I can possibly remember. Recently my Dad came to visit for the weekend and we had a great time planning some things out and getting on with building some scenery for our beloved little railway.

I trawled back through some of my old photos and managed to find some from when I last did any work on the railway. To give you an idea of where we started at the beginning of the weekend. The layout is very bare and there isn't a clear idea of what we want to happen. But we do have a mostly working track. There might be a few dodgy track joints that need to be sorted before ballasting happens, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

So when we started on this working party weekend, we had a bridge, a cardboard cut out of a platform and a plastic engine shed that was just placed around as something to look at. Our first port of call was to draw up some ideas as to what buildings we wanted and where. We decided to concentrate our efforts on the left hand corner with the bridge and the main station. This is where we started thinking of our station building and engine shed, and I got a crash course in scratch building buildings from cardboard.

Dad used his delightful drawing skills to create some lovely sketches of what our plan was and we set to work. We had a plan to make a lift out section along the top of the corner tunnel, as I had to cut that bit out to relay some of the track. So we came up with a removable grassy section. I had some foam left over from my old work tool box that made an excellent base for that, along with a retaining wall and a paved road and car park made from a leftover piece of wet and dry! - Terrible for tyre wear. ;)

That corner was most of the first days work, as well as a little tool/brake van for our wagon rolling stock, which would have received a lick of paint if we had the colours that the wagons were originally painted in. That was the result of our confusion as to where the paint had even ended up in the first place.

The second day, a start was made on buildings. We had a lovely morning of drinking tea and building things in our pyjamas. The station building started to come into existence, and I made a water column - my first ever scratch build! - It still needs finishing off, with some pipes and some water, but I need to have a good think about how to do that one.

Road with removable section.

The new brake van.

Station building in progress.

Arty action shot, water column visible.

 Overall I think we both had a lovely weekend, it was nice and relaxing, and we got a lot of things done. Railway modelling is something we have both done together for a very long time. All photos of the railway after our weekend are courtesy of Dad and hopefully there will be another update before too long.