Tuesday 20 December 2011

Almost Christmas

It is almost Christmas and I think I am nearly ready.  Just presents to wrap and need to decide what we are eating on Christmas day.  I think I have finished all my Christmas knitting.  Will include some pictures at the end of this post and hopefully some more over the next few days if the weather improves a little better for taking pictures.


Well we have decorated our tree.  This is not a very good picture of it.  But we had great fun doing it even though we had about 4 decorations on each of the lower branches.  Josh can't reach any higher.


Preschool is now finished and this is a picture of the gifts we gave to the preschool leaders.  Hope they all enjoyed them as much as we did in putting them together.



This is one of my latest knits which is done as a test knit for someone on Ravelry, I just need to wait until we get some better weather to take some better pictures.

Over the weekend we went for a walk in the fields at the back of our house and it is looking a lot more wintery.  No leaves on the trees or at least only a few oaks have leaves left on them.  We tried to go out fairly early to make the most of the light and take some pictures.  It is incredibly muddy but alot of fun.






Will try and blog again before the weekend with an update of a couple of other projects I have been working on as presents for Christmas and also some of my current project.

More on those next time.
Have fun.

Morag x

Friday 9 December 2011

Christmas Pudding






Inspired by a fellow blogger - domesticali.typepad.com.  Have made 10 of these to go on Josh's preschool staff's little bags of sweets for Christmas presents.  Think I might also make one to go on our tree.

Morag x

Wednesday 7 December 2011

A Request

Yesterday afternoon I had a request to knit a scarf for a sheep (not a real one - just a wheat filled one that can go in the microwave).  The scarf if possible could it have a logo put on it. The logo was to be the one that my husband and eldest son have for their new business. This was requested about 5 o'clock in the evening and when I asked when it needed to be done the answer was tomorrow if possible as it is the recipient's birthday. So as always I was up for the challenge and here is what I produced within the short space of time I had (and no I wasn't up all night).  Unfortunately not modelled on the sheep as that was at work but modelled by youngest son's teddy.



A closer picture of the scarf the lettering was  sewn by hand onto white and orange felt and then sewn onto the scarf.


Another close up of the lettering.


Oops think teddy had had enough of trying the scarf on and  having his photo taken and decided to lie down.

Morag x

Monday 5 December 2011

December

Where is the time going?  I seem to have lots to do and not enough time to do it.  I have lots of gifts for Christmas to do and I think I am going to run out of time to get them all done.

Last week Andy and Alex had the official opening of their new office block even though they are not finished.  They had to dress up in all their finest.  (In fact Andy had to go and buy a new suit!)


As with all openings plenty of alcohol was available, not sure much work got done that afternoon.  Josh had great fun looking out of the window at the passing traffic and eating all the nibbles that were on offer.

Craftwise I had my first order for 3 flower brooches which I really enjoyed making.



And the latest present I have finished is a jumper for our nephew for Christmas - he is only 2 months old so something knitted will hopefully go down well with the parents.


Well talking of Christmas, have you put up your Christmas decorations yet?  I'm not sure when to put them up.  I am thinking next weekend.   And will probably do it over a few days and I am pretty sure I will have a little helper this year.

Well, have a good week
Morag x

Friday 25 November 2011

Birthday's galore!

Well another week has gone by and Christmas is fast approaching.  But we seem to have been to lots of birthday parties recently - unfortunately they are all parties of 3 year olds but it has been keeping Josh happy though.  Boy does he have lots of friends!

Talking of birthdays I am getting fed up with  buying buying buying all the time.  It seems never ending and Christmas is just around the corner aswell.  So yesterday I decided that for a friends little girl's birthday I would make something instead and everything I used was from things I had around the house.  And this is what I made.



It is a little purse that is made from felt.  The idea came from 'Super-cute felt' by Laura Howard.  A new book in my collection but I think it will be a well used book.  I really enjoyed making this purse and managed to get it done in a day, so there may be more of these for presents.


Thought I would just include a close up.  Sorry!

Also managed to cast off my Karise Shawl this week.  I am yet to sew the ends in and block it but here are a couple of pictures of it anyway.



I think it will look much better once blocked and then it will be ready to give to my mum for Christmas.  Yeah another gift made.  Yippee!

Well now to get on with finishing off a cardigan I started last week for my newest nephew.

Hope you all have had a good week.

Morag x

Monday 7 November 2011

Update

Thought I would just add a few pictures to update my last post.  Well here are some pictures of Josh just before going to preschool this morning.  He is beginning to settle in there a bit better, seemed happy to go in this morning and as far as I know didn't cry until I picked him up.  He seems to cry as he sees me walk in the door and it was a real effort to cry this morning!


We are looking very relaxed, sitting in mummy's washing basket.

Even more relaxed. 

And then I told him to smile while I took his photo.  What a smile!

And I promise this is the last for the moment.  He has his bag on and his ducky in his hand and is ready to go.  

Well I am beginning to get used to not having Josh around all the time but the days he is at preschool the house is very quiet and I do manage to get the housework done in a quick time rather than being interupted by something needing doing or some little man wanting to help.

Over the weekend I managed to get a bit of knitting done on the shawl for the KAL .  I have now completed three repeats of chart A and am about to start on chart B and am still enjoying it and the colour is very beautiful.  Not sure the following pictures really do it any justice as the weather is very overcast here again and not great for taking pictures but I thought I would take some just to keep my photos up to date with this project.



Hope you are having a good start to the week and I may even get to write more than one post this week.

Have a good week
Morag x

Wednesday 2 November 2011

November

As mentioned in my last post, little one started preschool this week.  He went quite well and only had one wobble when they went into another room for a snack but after a cuddle went on to happily play for the rest of the morning.  When we went to pick him he saw us through the window and burst into tears.  It was not quite the reaction I expected but it was lovely to have a cuddle and the tears didn't last long.  Well we have his next session tomorrow even though he insists he has been to preschool.

I have got quite a bit of knitting completed this week, have managed to knit one sock of a pair and am part way through the next one.  It has been a while since I knitted any socks so am enjoying making these.



See almost to the toe.

 I have also decided to take part in a KAL (Knit along) with Old Maiden Aunt Yarns November Small Shawls knit along on Ravelry.  I have chosen to use OMA superwash merino/bamboo 4 ply yarn in red velvet.  I have decided to knit Karise by Karina Westermann.




 Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures but the weather is not very good today to take pictures, it is a bit overcast and grey, was nice this morning but I didn't get around to taking any pictures earlier.  (I also can't seem to rotate my picture.  This is really annoying me at the moment)

Well I hope to cast on for this shawl over the next few days so may have some more pictures next week as soon as I get the sock finished.

Hope you are all having a good week.

Morag x

Friday 28 October 2011

Half term - almost gone!

 Well this week has gone by so quickly.  The next few weeks there are going to be huge changes in our household.  Josh is about to start preschool - with one session on a Monday morning and one on a Thursday afternoon when he gets to take a packed lunch to eat with the other children there.  He has spent the last week insisting that mummy is going to preschool with him.  So come Monday we will see how he settles.

Our other news is that Andy and Alex resigned from their present jobs which neither were terribly happy at and are going to start up their own company with a fellow colleague.  So all change there.  Huge changes for all concerned.  There have been many sleepless nights from the grown ups in the house.

Well we had some other good news recently in that Andy's brother and his wife had a little baby boy.  So in the usual tradition in this house they get something knitted.  I made a jumper from a Kim Hargreaves pattern but decided to do it plain rather than have a star on the front as in the pattern and then add a little patch at the bottom to distinguish the front from the back.

Unfortunately red doesn't photograph very well so please excuse the photos.



Here is the patch that I made and also another picture of the whole thing.


As I said not wonderful photos.  Looking through my camera I have realised I haven't taken any pictures for a while  - must try and do something about that over the weekend.

Any way hope you all have a good weekend and I will try and blog again next week.

Morag x

Tuesday 11 October 2011

What have I been up to lately?

Well a few weekends ago we went to spend a long weekend with Mother In Law and had absolutely lovely weather.  It was probably the last of the hot weather for this year.  We decided to go down to the beach and Josh had great fun building (knocking down) sandcastles and going down to the sea.




Can't believe it was the end of September and we had shorts and t-shirts on. What weather!  Shame it was short lived.  Back to the usual dreary weather.

Craftwise I have also been busy - trying to make a few pieces for a local sale at our church.  These have been fun to make.


This is 'Bella Bunny' the pattern is by Lucinda Guy.  She was fun to make but seemed to take a lot longer than I thought.


These are some keyrings that I have made from my own design.  They are a knitted rectangle with either a heart, or star sewn on in felt and then backed with felt and stuffed a little.


I think this is my favourite it is some 'Happy Birthday' Bunting or at least it will be once I have sewn it onto some ribbon.  The letters are cut out from felt and then handsewn on the knitting blocks.  I have also made one saying Happy Christmas.

And the last thing I have made are these brooches inspired by Lucy of Attic 24, her blog is so colourful and inspiring.




I have finished knitting my Cria but am not very pleased with it at the moment - so until I have time to change it will not finish it.  At the moment I am not sure when that will be as I have two baby jumpers to make and also see if I can get some more stuff done for the church sale.

Well think that is all for now, must get on and take the dog out.  This blog post feels very rushed but I felt I needed to put something on.  Will try not to rush the next post.

Take care
Morag x

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Weather

The weather is all over the place at the moment.  One day it is blowing a gale, the next wet, the next nice.  I don't know where I am as regards what to do and what to wear.

Today has been a lovely day.  Even quite warm.  So this afternoon we went for a walk to the fields near our house.  Josh had a brilliant time running and climbing everywhere, bashing sticks around.


This pig is made from wood and makes appearances in different parts of the woods, you never know where it is going to be so half the fun when we go to the fields is to find the pig.  There were two of them but we only found one this afternoon.


The berries are numerous on the bushes at the moment.  Does this mean we are in for a hard winter?


Even the dog was enjoying being in the fields this afternoon, we spent quite a long time looking for his frisbee which he insisted on dropping in the trees.


The light was just amazing through the trees.  It reminded me of summer. It was very beautiful.


Hope you are having ag good week.  Will try and do an update on knitting projects soon.

Morag x