BLESSED SPEEDY

And a knitting finish as well - this is this shawl  called latice and lace that I test knitted for a fellow member on ravelry I used three irish girls westerly sea sock in the colourway grace kelly (hence the elegance!) The shawl turned out beautifully and I only had just under 5 yards of yarn left, so a close call!

Phew! Tom's quilt is finished- of course I cant show you a full photo YET as Tom hasnt been "presented" with it - that is still to come.  Spent most of my free time in the last few days handstitching down the binding - all 8 metres of it. Listened to a great audiobook while I was doing it though - Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.  Worth a listen/read I reckon. I do hope Tom likes the quilt - Im sure he will!

A month or so ago I finished these socks .  They looked lovely but sadly they are too big for me :( I received the yarn and pattern in a great swap on ravelry called magic yarn ball.  You swap with a partner and you send them a pattern and a ball of yarn BUT inside the ball of yarn are lots of little treasures to be found - of course you only find them as you knit. As this yarn and pattern were sent to me, I do think its only fair that the actual socks are mine....so.....decided today to frog (i.e. unravel) the socks that I had made and use a smaller size needle (2.00mm) and make the size small - think that should all be good!

I was at my Mum's home today and was on the "scrounge".  I needed some blue cotton for a quilt I am making for a certain someone (lol Tom) and asked Mum what she had in her pile(s) of goodies.  It is so good to have a Mum who is a quilter too.  Sadly she cant sew like she used to due to poor eye sight but she is still happy to share with me! Anyway while looking through her HUGE jars of blue thread (yes jars!!!) I came across this cute tiny reel of blue.  Its teeny tiny - Ive photographed it beside a bobbin just so you can see just how small it is.  Asked Mum where it came from and she said from her Mum (ie my Nan).  Nan was a dressmaker - infact I think she might well have been a dressmaker extraordinaire - she is the one who taught me to sew and to knit (Mum did a bit too but it was mostly Nan). Nan always had the most amazing scraps - silks etc as she used to make wedding gowns and evening dresses.  Mostly not from actual patterns but "made up" by her. Hope

Who would be a dairy farmer? I just took this photo and its 7.30am.  Its now a toasty warm 5 degrees and Gary has been up since 5.30 to milk.  Is foggy and icy outside and freeeeeeeeeezing!!!! Being the good wife that I am - I took him up a nice warm cup of tea (actually I do that every morning - rain, hail or shine). Thank goodness my calves are now all weaned so I no longer have to go up and do those duties early in the morning. And yes I do milk - just not this morning! SO - The next time you make a cuppa and add milk, or actually use milk, cheese, butter etc at all - think of the process that it took to get to your kitchen - and the cold man/woman who started the chain rolling!

Ive just finished knitting this vest for Mia.  Used Bendigo woollen mills silk supreme yarn in the colourway petal pink (pink of course!) It was a test knit for a fellow raveller.  I THINK she likes it......lol

Well goodness me! I think I have remembered how to make a quilt (well its actually TWO quilts now).  Sarah's boyfriend is turning 21 soon and has asked for a quilt for his birthday - yes he asked, isnt he wonderful.  Something with 21 on it he said....bit tricky but I think Ive worked out what to do - cant say too much here as Tom might read it - except that I am making shoo-fly blocks as his surname is Shewen (get it?) Well I have managed to make 12 blocks so far and was mindlessly making half square triangle blocks for it and .... well..... it got a bit boring and also my machine kept wanting to "eat" the ears of the triangles.  So what is a girl to do? I had a look on the moda bake shop site and found this quilt  so managed to find some charm squares and have been sort of sewing both at the same time. So... how productive am I?

One of our dogs, the lovely Lassie has gone over the rainbow bridge.  Unfortunately she went under the tractor wheel.   When I first came to Gary's home, Gary warned me that he had this really nasty, vicious dog called Lass and that I had to be careful of her.  When I got here, Lass came straight up to me and sat on my feet.  We have loved each other ever since.  We will miss her ways, her funny noises, her wiggly squiggly body that she wriggled to greet you.  You have been a very good dog Lass and very sadly missed.