A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

Happy Halloween everyone! I hop you have been out with your kids and managed to scare the neighbours into giving the kids some chocolate for you to eat when they're in bed put away and keep for them for another day so they won't be sick.

My kids are at a little post trick-or-treat party in their friends' house so I thought I'd take advantage of the peace and quiet to share some pics from my weekend with you! No sewing, not a bit (eek!) but thanks to everyone's suggestions for where my mojo might have been hiding. I've come to the conclusion that it has emigrated to a less busy and stressed climate but I think it might be on the way back after a weekend of chilling out with my family and meeting some friends.

So what did I do? Well, a lot of this:

And a little bit of that:

I have the back done on my cardi and am half way up one side (sitting by my dad's roaring fire is very conducive to knitting). Its not brilliant, my tension is way too loose but I am enjoying it and hopefully it will be wearable at the end. The yarn is a cotton/bamboo mix and just divine to knit with.

The crochet is half a motif from this floating wrap pattern:

                                                                      Source: crochetbyfaye.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Well, its supposed to be a half circle, I know its not but hoping that it will be ok when I put them all together and join them.

When I was pulling those projects out to take some pics right beside the patio doors today to get the best of what little light there was, I found these little cuties at the bottom of my knitting bag. Some crochet coasters I made a while back - must make some more. The pattern is from The Yvestown Blog. As you can see, consistency of tension is not my strong point! I'm not sure what the yarn is, its definitely some type of wool as I know I could only make 2 before I started feeling itchy (I'm slightly allergic to wool - not dreadful but I couldn't knit a full garment with it which is awful, as I love working with natural yarns but have had to stop.)

I also got to meet up with my friend Fi of Patchwork Delights fame and we managed to chat about quilting despite the active participation of our kids in the conversation :-)  Fi has started to sell 100% Egyptian cotton thread which she has sourced in Greece and I picked up two spools from her to try out.

Aren't they gorgeous? And at €5 for 1000yds, great value! She has some lovely colours available so if you're interested, pop over to her Etsy supplies page Threads2000 and have a look.

I also popped into IKEA to pick up some fabric on our way home. I got two 3metre bolts primarily for use as backing fabric for kids quilts - and am really pleased with these.

I've used other prints in the same fabric quality and they are perfect for quilt backing. And at a great price - €6.99 per bolt. Fantastic!

All in all, a great weekend! Hope yours was too - enjoy the spooky celebrations :-)

Getting Knitty

Today was a wall-papering day! Myself and T blithely sailed into uncharted territories when we broke open the pack of wallpaper paste and the (still hideously expensive even though they were in the sale) Laura Ashley Kimono wallpaper in a beautiful duck egg blue. It all looked so simple in the YouTube videos. 5 hours later it wasn't so pretty in our house! But it is done and it looks gorgeous.

So, taking all that into account I didn't get any sewing done today. I did wash fabric to prep it and I wound up my busy day with a little knitting. I'm doing a cardi for myself to a lovely pattern I got in a magazine last month. I'm using my bamboo needles for the first time and loving them. Plus the yarn is gorgeous - it's a King Cole bamboo cotton mix and is soooooo soft. I'm knitting it in a grape purple and am very excited to see how it will turn out!



Nearly finished F's tunic too, juast need to hem and put on trimmings. Fingers crossed by tomorrow I will be done with tunics. I promised D I would sew him a new fleece monster tomorrow so that will have to take 1st priority :-)