The Sun Is Shining

 

The sun came out last week, so I was able to wash and dye the wool I'd spun. I've knitted one pair of socks in natural. The pink and green was dyed in the microwave. I'll make a start on knitting this it this evening, after I've finished off another tatted crinolene lady. 

Miss Caroline

 

When I was looking through my tatting files for butterfly patterns, I came across Martha Ess's pattern 'Miss Caroline, the Crinolene Belle'. I thought she would make a good candidate for food covers. I have used her before for milk jug covers, but not food nets. My plan is to make a lady for each corner and then tat something else for the middle. Perhaps a different crinolene lady, there are several of them about. 

I was rather generous when I wound the thread for the first lady, so I made daisy picot daisies to empty the shuttles. You can see that my second attempt I was closer to the mark of thread needed. 

Butterflies And Daisies

 

I've finished the food net. I've dawdled a bit because there isn't a deadline. I've written about the butterflies here.  Did you spot that I used Jane Eborall's SCMR butterfly too? I must have one or two of them! 

Sorting Out A Muddle

 For the last few weeks, we've been sewing at our craft group meetings in a retirement home. First we made felt dolls. I showed the sample here. There's a wide range of abilities in the group, so some people work more quickly than others. Those that finished their dolls first made a bed for them. The plan is to give the dolls to a children's hospital, so I thought children in bed might like to have a bed for their doll.

 On Friday we sewed felt Easter egg pockets. They have a 'window' of net that shows off the Easter eggs inside. Everyone went home with a couple of eggs in their pocket.

Someone else will be running this week's meeting, making Easter cards - no sewing. So I thought it would be a good idea to sort out our sewing supplies. There were scissors in the biscuit box, patterns in the ribbon box, needles stuck in random bits of felt... You get the picture. It took me a couple of hours, but now everything is ship shape. And, I solved The Mystery Of The Disappearing Needles. I retrieved no less that twenty needles from the inside of my big pincushion! 

Butterflies

 

I've tatted a few butterflies for my food net. The one on the left is Butterfly with daisy picots by Jennifer Williams. The middle one is called Together we fly butterfly. It's a collaboration between Claudia Huber and muskaan, to create a pattern for a butterfly by an unknown designer. The right hand one is Mary's butterfly by Maria Pop of maryshandmade.blogspot.com. I made a mistake on the red one, so I tatted another one. It's a one shuttle pattern.  I had all the patterns printed out, but I think you could find them online with a bit of help from Google or Pinterest. 

Daisies and Daisy Picots

 

The weather still isn't ideal for washing wool so it's just as well I don't have any orders. I thought I'd leave the wool on one side make another food net. I was tatting daisies when it occurred to me that I was being rather lazy, just doing the same design as my previous one. So I thought I'd tat some different butterflies. I had a look through my tatting file and found several patterns that would fit the bill. 

I think I'll start with Jennifer Williams's Butterfly with 'Daisy Picots'. First I needed to practice tatting daisy picots, so I made a few little flowers. Just as well I did, because the first one was hopeless! On the second one I didn't pay enough attention to tension. Got it eventually. So now I'm ready to tackle the butterfly. 

Slowly

 

I'm making slow progress on the One Skein Wonder scarf by The Public Knitter. That's because I'm only working on it for a couple of hours each evening. It looks as though I'll be able to finish the ball of yarn and reach the dimensions in the pattern, which is good; I don't want left over leftovers. 

Four More

 

I've spun another four skeins, which I intend to knit myself, but the sun still isn't shining, so they'll have to wait. 

Four Skeins

 

I've duly spun four skeins of wool to hold in stock. The weather here is soggy and cold, so I haven't washed them. I'll wait until the sun comes out. 

Spinning

 

I thought I'd better spin some more wool, so that I have some yarn on hand if someone wants socks or gloves or whatever. I've spun one bobbin full, will spin another bobbin full and then ply the two together. There should be four skeins of plied yarn when I'm done. 

On And On

 

My plan was to use Kath's left over yarn to make That Nice Stitch Cowl. But when the cowl seemed long enough, there was most of a ball of yarn left! So I browsed again and decided on One Skein Wonder by The Public Knitter. 

It's very easy, knitted in garter stitch with a four row pattern, perfect for evening knitting and knitting while chatting. I saw other patterns with similar structures that had pages and pages of instructions. This one suits me very well. 

Quick Quick

 

On Friday afternoon, a friend asked me if I could make a pair of men's fingerless gloves to take with her on holiday to give as a gift. Sure. There was just one problem - she's leaving early on Tuesday morning. Mmm, I'll do my best. 

I had a bobbin full of wool on my spinning wheel that was spun but not plied. I plied it on Friday evening and washed the one and a half skeins. It was tempting to start knitting without washing them, but washing is part of the process and can't be skipped. We were going out to lunch on Saturday, so that gave time for the wool to dry. I started knitting on Saturday evening, did the bulk of the work yesterday and finished off this morning. Phew. They're ready to be delivered and packed.