Thanks and Happy New Year

 Thanks very much to everyone who read my blog during 2025 and especially to those who took the time to comment. I know that blogs are less popular now than they once were, but I like to have a record of what I've been crafting and enjoy the contact with other crafters, so I shall continue. May 2026 be a good year for you all. 

Sleeves

 

I've finished knitting one sleeve of my cardigan and started on the next. I was glad I'd done a swatch of the lace pattern so I was familiar with it by the time I had to start sliding stitches back and forth for the magic loop technique of knitting in the round. It turned out that knitting four together was easier than I anticipated, but knitting four together through the back of the loops, not so much. I'm using a fine crochet hook to hoik the yarn through the stitches and that works well. 

A Cardigan For Me

 

 I bought some yarn last week to knit myself a cardigan. The yarn is called Classic Wool, though it's 20% wool and 80% acrylic, which seems a bit of a cheek to me. But I've used it before and know it's a nice yarn to work with and wear. 

I bought the yarn without a specific pattern in mind. I had a look at some of my knitting books and did several swatches for patterns in The Country Diary Book of Knitting, by Annette Mitchell, but none of them made gauge. So I had a look at the patterns I'd saved on Pinterest and eventually settled on a Drops Design pattern, Early May. 

The body of the cardigan is plain stocking stitch while the sleeves are lacy. The chart for the lace baffled me a bit; what does 'knit 4 stitches twisted together' mean? So I worked a sample last night and I think it means to knit 4 together through the back of the loops. That's what I'm going to do anyway. The garment is knitted all in one from the bottom up. I've got to the armholes, now have to knit the sleeves separately and then join all together for the yoke. So there won't be any sewing up to do. 

Merry Christmas

 

Swap

 

I swapped the food net I made recently for two tea cosies. Well, I asked for a flowery one, which I got, but Kath kindly gave me a Christmas one too. So my teapot is now splendidly arrayed for the holiday season. 

I have run out of fabric for jewelry bags, which means I had time to do a test tat. Have a look at Le Blog de Frivole to see the evolution of Joelle's snowflake based on the picture of a real snowflake. 

Contrast

 

Both these keyrings use the same pattern, but the pattern doesn't show up well on the right hand one, because the background colour is too similar. I did suspect that the contrast wasn't good when I was threading the beads, but I still like the look of it, so I carried on regardless. 

Beaded crochet has been put aside again because Anne the silversmith needs yet more bags. Of course she needs them promptly, to catch the Christmas sales, so I'm getting on with sewing another 38.

New Computer

 We finally bit the bullet and bought a new computer. This morning I am reminded again of why I was reluctant to get a new computer. I will eventually get everything sorted and aligned, but in the meantime it feels as tedious as my very slow old computer. 

Luckily, I have things to do in the real world. I've been making some more beaded keyrings.

The blue one has a 6 bead circumference. I really like to use 5 beads for keyrings. While I was working on it, I realised that I could easily change the pattern to 5 circumference. I did that for the second one. Unfortunately, the colours I used don't contrast enough to show the pattern up well. I'll have to make another one. I've also been working on another pattern that has a faulty beading pattern. I've tried to correct it, but so far have been unsuccessful. 

I had to interrupt the beading to sew jewelry bags, after an urgent call from the silversmith. That means she's getting good Christmas sales, which is all to the good.