OPAM

 

Every thing can be fun but sometimes we need a push and OPAM is going to push me to get things done And Enjoy it!

Even when it's raining we can take the opportunity to sit and stitch or sew inside and enjoy!

 

So apart  for the birthday thread exchange I haven't joined anything new this year but when I saw OPAM on Kate's blog, I knew it was for me, because it fits in with my 2014 plan to finish what I have in my WIPs

It's to finish One Project A Month

It's being organised by

KRIS: kris@tagalongteddies.com.au

PEG: pegcoen@bigpond.net.au

But if you want to join up you need to apply right now as the closing date is today!
OPAM

Whew I was just in time!

 

Happy stitching or sewing or knitting or hooking what ever it is you like to do.

 

 

Flash Mobs!

Beautiful. Well worth 3 minutes to watch

http://www.youtube.com/embed/s_IHDJQudmo?rel=0

I have actually sung in a Flash Mob before Christmas when it was Brentwood's Fun Day.

We walked through the main high street singing,' Rocking Around the Christmas Tree' and people were clapping us!

Then we stopped and sang.. 'Last Christmas' (I gave you my heart) and a selection of pop songs..

It's a great choir that we belong to called 'Funky Voices'

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And here are some of our snowdrops growing in a water logged flower bed!

Welcome to my two new followers, I had lost three and I wondered ..'oh dear what did I do??'
And looking through some of  the blogs I follow some have been abandoned, which is sad.
Ah well
Happy days!!

Keeping to my plan

It wasn't a New Year resolution but I made some plans for all my stitching, sewing and knitting.

It was that I would keep stitching one cross stitch design till it was finished instead of rotating my 4 WIPs.

So this is my Cut Thro' Beach Hut. I have started  the back stitching as there is a lot to do. I am determined to get this finished by the end of January.

And then after this I will chose one of my other WIPs and try to finish that too, and then I might allow myself a new start!

 

 

Knitting socks is a pleasure to me and my youngest Grand son needed some to put on when he gets in from school.

 

I still have the quilt on the go for my step daughter and it is looking lovely. I am very pleased with it. But this week at my sewing class, our teacher thought we might like to make some Christmas stuff on the last week of each month so I have started to make a table runner.
Lots to do all the time but just how I like to be... busy!!  Thank you for all your comments about my aunt, she was a lovely lady.
Hope you're all enjoying what ever it is you like to do.

A Sad Time

A sad time for me and my children tomorrow as the last surviving sister of my mother has died.

She would have been 96 last week.

I spent a lot of time with my aunty Ray as my own mother died when I was two and a half, and as she had a daughter more or less the same age as me, I stayed with her every summer holiday.

 

 

I would have loved to have seen her again, but my cousin said she wasn't well and didn't look as she used to and was very confused.

My DD stayed with her for 2 weeks when she had finished her Exams in 1981 and I was teaching.

And on another occasion she came and stayed with us, when my #1 DS came out of hospital after major surgery in 1988 So she didn't just look after me, but my children too.

I have some lovely memories of her.
It was she who told me that the new kittens came out of the cat's 'front bum' I was 11 years old and didn't have a clue what that meant! It was she who introduced me to 'The Archers,'  the radio programme that has been going since 1953. I still listen to it today and even when we were in Australia we listened to it on line!
I have a lovely memory of her trying to shovel up a frog that had come into the kitchen of the stone cottage where they were living. Each time she got it on the shovel it hopped off, and we laughed and laughed and I was only three or four.
So I do have a treasured memories of her and 96 was a wonderful age.

 

Tis me!

To answer some of the questions.

I used

 

Araucania Botany Lace knitting yarn Colour #1948

100g :

Length 410m  (448 yds)

 

 

It feels really warm and I have worn it all day. I had a choir rehearsal this afternoon and wore it there too!

I am knitting a pair of socks for my youngest GS but do intend to make a different pattern shawl and one that is a lot bigger. This morning I went searching for some circular needles that I had off an aunt and found an old stitching/knitting magazine dated 1991 and low and behold it had a huge section on knitting lace shawls!

I can't wait to start another one.

 

Wa-hoooooooo I did it!

So here is it, my Skywalker shawl. The section with the round holey bits called in this pattern planet stitch caused me such stress I undid it 6 times!!

And this is supposedly an easy pattern lacy shawl for a beginner!!

I am pleased with my efforts and am going to attempt a more complicated pattern

 

This edging was knitted side-wards on to the main body of the shawl. It started off with 4 stitches casted on and then as you knitted the edging pattern, you added in one or two stitches of the main body of the shawl, hence using them up!

It does look better once it is blocked out, the tutor  was right!

Bring on the next pattern, I think I could knit anything now after this!!

 

Progress pics at last

My cut thro Beach Hut is coming along nicely although I only did a few stitches over the Christmas period I was just so busy being a mum!

But I do love it and have also bought cut through Caravan so I must finish it. With this in mind, I plan to keep stitching this till it is completed.

 And this is my Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden. I did stitch quite  a bit of this and its beginning to look like the picture at last!
My photography isn't good and I have realised this morning I don't really know the full potential of my camera which I have had for several years. I think I need to dig out the booklet that came with it to see how to take close ups.

And in the quiet moments of Christmas when we just sitting in the evenings with my two step daughters I knitted a pair of socks! My DH has worn them already, in fact this week he told me he is having a knitted sock week! I think I have knitted him 5 pairs so I best get on and do two more pairs so he can have one pair for each day of the week!

 

And this blob is my shawl that I have struggled to make!

The online tutor assures me it will look wow once it has been blocked so all fingers crossed!

 

This was a lot harder than I anticipated and it one section was undone several times so on that basis I am going to wear it every day and every where!! Perhaps I'll take it off to shower! LOL

 

 

Lace Shawl

This is what I am trying to knit, it is called Skywalker.  I bought  Video lessons from Craftsy.

I have always wanted to make a lace shawl but I didn't understand the grid patterns of today.

This was well worth the money as it is well explained,  but still difficult.

In one section I undid what I had done 5 times!! But Laura Nelkin is very good and showed how to do a life line in your knitting. This is where you thread a contrast yarn through a row of stitches so if you have made a mistake you can undo to the life line which holds the stitches.

It isn't easy and I consider myself an experienced knitter, so as well as learning lace knitting, I am learning patience (grrrrr!!) and persistence!! LOL

I am about a quarter way through and will post a pic next time.

 

 I only knit this for a short time because it takes a lot of concentration and I get brain ache!!LOL So I am xstitching in the evenings and doing one design in each week or until I feel I really need a change.

Plans for 2014

 

A New Year begs a new start, but I daren’t start any new stitching as I have plenty on the go and  I am happy with what I am doing altho Chatelaine has been put on hold for the moment!

I am not going to pledge to do anything spectacular like 15 new starts in 15 days. Just the thought of that makes me want to run a mile, so I admire those who can do that.

I think for 2014 I will just stitch steadily as and when I want to.

 I am going to carry on sewing patchwork and quilting, I have my step daughter’s wedding present to finish and lots more designs I want to sew.

  I want to play my piano regularly.

 I need to  do some more walking  to help my weight loss. Christmas piled on a few pounds but all the chocs have gone and although we have some biscuits left I can resist those and a piece of Christmas cake now and then makes me happy.

So bring on 2014, I am ready for it!!!

Chris x