Birthday gloves- matchy matchy mother and...son?

My younger son requested a pair of fingerless gloves. Happy to oblige, especially as it is his birthday this week. With no daughters, I can't do the "matchy- matchy" mother and daughter outfit thing, but at least there is a little bit of accessory matchy-matchy here.

Same pattern as before, but without the cabling at the top.

Charity shop haul today, 3 pairs of knitting neeedles, is a new phase in handcraft coming on?

Exhibition inspiration

Few words needed, just photos of beautiful work by members of Richmond and Kew quilters.

.....and then collapse

Over 500 people came to see the exhibition, over 130 quilts were shown, over £1,000 was made for our charities, and this beautiful and intricate quilt was the overall visitors' choice.

Lots more pics to follow, but today I need to catch up with the abandoned family ( quote from Philippa Naylor) and the discarded chores.

Go...........but forget to take your camera!

Over 150 visitors yesterday, and lots more today.

This quilt is on display, but unfortunately in the rush of the morning ( dog walked, younger son given breakfast, washing on, son and husband taken to the Bushy Park run ( new PB for elder son, yay!), mother-in-law visited, gym kit got ready ) I forgot my camera.

Hopefully tomorrow's start will be more relaxed so the camera will make it to the bag.

Lovely to meet the BQL members who made it there.

Ready, steady...........

It' s all coming together...............

Exhibitionism

It is our exhibition this weekend at the Landmark Centre in Teddington. If you want to see these and over 100 other quilts, do come along and say hello.

What to do when you don't feel like sewing - pick up a bigger needle

I haven't felt like sewing anything major for a few weeks, but did want to do something with my hands. A couple of my neighbours have started knitting, so when I found 8 hanks of this 100% cashmere yarn in a charity shop for an unbelievable £2.00, I had to buy it.

In the eighties ( yes, I am that age) I used to knit a lot, and loved the challenge of the patterns by Patricia Roberts . As I was a student, there was no way I could afford to buy the finished jumpers. I was then a bench scientist, and my experiments needed me to to a very repetitive task every 4 minutes, for up to 4h, so there was lots of time in between to knit. This was before the days of ipods, Nintendo DS, itouch phones and the like, remember. I also loved patterns by Sasha Kagan and Christian de Falbe.


So when I decided to knit this yarn, I wanted a bit of a challenge. I found it in this pattern from Cheryl Niamath in Knitty. I've never done a thumb shaping, although have knitted in the round. Lovely beechwood needles from Mrs Moon set me off on the right track.


I knitted these on 3.5 mm needles as I have quite small hands, and also lengthened the main section to 24 rows, rather than 18, as I wanted these to extend up my wrists. The thumb was certainly a challenge, but good photos on cheryl's blog show helped me to understand how to do this.

These fit beautifully, so I think I'll be running up some more in the indigo and cream yarn that were part of the original bargain. What next - a Hanne Falkenberg mermaid jacket perhaps?