So here we go a long term project.........

I made a start on The Beekeeper's Quilt, on Thursday at our Sit and Knit session.  Both Angie and I are going to make one each and I am pleased to say she walked me through the pattern.  I would not have been able to decipher the pattern on my own, so was grateful for her help.  Although I can knit I only really do pretty basic stuff.

I am using the 3.5 mm dpn's (double pointed needles) as suggested in the pattern, along with Paton's Canadiana Yarn.  Angie is using 5 mm dpn's and a similar thickness yarn; slightly thicker than mine.

This is what our first hexie turned out like.  I stuffed mine and it's around 3 inches high, and Angie did not stuff hers.

They come together quite quickly once you get the hang of it.

I also learned some new skills in knitting, so all in all a good thing.  I figure I may need around 400 - 600 of these hexie's so as I said in the title, this is a long term project!

Is it summer yet?

We have had some glorious weather these past few days and what have I been doing, staying inside and sewing........I know I should have been out enjoying the weather, but other than going to the mail box haven't left the house.

I am determined to have as many no spend days as I can; and one way of achieving that by not going out.  I was tempted to go out on Wednesday as I have a $10 gift card for Chapter's that has an expiry date on it.  However I decided that doing more sewing on my quilt was more important.

 

The online shopping diet is also going well. And so far so good with sticking with the menu plan I did at the beginning of the week.  I will be going out today as it's my knitting day.  It costs a whole $2 for the sitting fee, which in turn gets donated to our local humane society.  Angie is very generous that way in donating to the community.  So along with that $2 and $2 for a coffee and muffin at McDonalds, it's a cheap day out for me.

I am not taking knitting though this week, as I want to get the binding hand sewn on the quilt I have been doing.  Here are some photos from it:

This uses a total of nine fabrics, seven for the main body, one for the border and one for the binding.  I bought it as a kit and then did my own thing.  It measures approx, 40" x 44" which is a decent size for a baby quilt.  To my mind it is more of a boy quilt than a girl one.  I have some pale mint green, grey and white fabric that I am going to make the next one in.  That is more girl like than boy like and when we see what "R" has she can take which one she wants or both, it's up to her.

Happy Canada Day and Yarn Along.

Today is Canada Day and it's Canada's 148th birthday.  You can read more about how Canada Day came about here.  As dh is contracted out to a factory and they can't shut down the big mills mid-week, so they are celebrating Canada Day on Friday; he gets a nice long weekend, which I think is better.

I have a couple of small finishes for my Yarn Along post this week.

I made another baby hat for Hannah (dh's co-worker's baby), this time a slightly bigger size; I love how it came out so pretty:

I also made a soft toy using this pattern:

Now please remember I only started knitting the middle of March of this year.  I have a long way to go before I can really say I am a knitter, but for my first attempt this wasn't bad.  I used 100% cotton yarn and this is the father size.  I need to practice my hand finishing as that leaves a lot to be desired.  

Angie at The Knitting Basket made a great suggestion at the Tuesday Knit and Stitch to knit my next one on smaller needles so it is a tighter weave, and that way you don't see the stuffing.  So instead of using US# 6, I will probably use US# 4 or 4.5.  

I printed out the pattern and you will need pages 1 through 20 for the body and pages 2 through 9 for the hat.  It is super simple to follow, I had no problems and it is a pretty quick and easy knit.  I am going to try it with some worsted yarn in a smaller size and in purple for Our Little Princess as that is her favourite colour.

The blue and yellow one I am going to give to Our Little Munchkin, as it reminds me of a Smurf and the blue food colouring "incident"!  Do you remember that?  If not you can read about it here.

I am not reading any books at the moment, just too busy with other things.

For more Yarn Along posts with Ginny please click on this link.

Yarn Barf on Yarn Along

It's one of those terms I had never heard off until I started to knit.  This is what Yarn Barf looks like:

What's even funnier, Gillian was showing us on this post How to Wind a Skein of Yarn Yourself.  Guess I should have read that first before I started knitting.

I have read two books this week.  Rosewater and Soda Bread by Marsha Mehran, you can read my review here.

 Also The Vagrants by Yiyun Li, and you can read my review here.

I have been putting the binding on Our Little Munchkin's quilt this past week.  So very little knitting has been done.  I did go to The Knitting Basket to the sit and knit and got a little more done on my dish cloth:

However I have pulled it all out again, as I got lost in the pattern.  I find I can't concentrate on my knitting when talking.  I know don't talk, but it doesn't happen that way!  This dishcloth is proving to be a tricky thing to knit for some reason.........

So here we are now, just plain knitting:

I prefer the prior pattern and may give it a go again later when I spend more time concentrating.

For more Yarn Along with Ginny posts, please click on this link.

How is my knitting going you ask?

I had my first knitting lesson back on March 12th.  So two months later here is what I have learned:

• I can do a slip knot; albeit looking at instructions on the internet, I just need to do it more often.
• I can cast on
• I can cast off
• I can do both the knit and purl stitches
• I can follow a very simple pattern
• I can "knit in the round."
• I know how to "k2tog," which means knit two stitches together.

All of the above I feel confident in doing.

I have even finished knitting two items that are wearable:

These are toddler knitted hats, using this pattern.  I knit this hat first:

Then this hat on Tuesday/Wednesday, I am finding it a lot looser knit for some reason?

My baby blanket is a work in progress but I am in no hurry to finish it.  I do want to make another toddler hat, so that I have one for each of the grands.  I still have a LOT to learn with this knitting.  I would like to knit a pair of mittens next, but even the simplest mittens knitting pattern confuses me still.

Overall I am pleased with my progress and even if all I ever learn to knit is hats and blankets, both are useful things.  I still go to the knit and sit session on a Tuesday and I thoroughly enjoy myself and the advise they give me is super.  

Remembering........

When I was visiting blogs, Randomosity had a youtube video of The Proclaimers.  Do you remember The Proclaimers?  I think their most famous song is this one:



I love their music and I think I know all the words to 500 miles.  The Proclaimers are Scottish and I am English; our accents are completely different despite what a lot of people think.  However when I sing along to this song I develop a pretty good Scottish accent I think, which I think is very funny.

As for remembering, back in 1988 The Proclaimers were performing a gig at a place reasonably close to where we lived in England, called Kendal.  However we had booked to come over to Canada for a week for dh to find a job and to double check we wanted to come and live over here.  Although bummed because I couldn't go and see The Proclaimers, no regrets at making that trip to Canada, as it was the first step in coming over here to live.

Then this will make more sense to the Canadians out there.  The government has finally caught up with me!!  I still have the red and white health card. Got a letter in the mail a couple of weeks ago to go and get one of the new ones.  As it has your photo on, it has taken this long for me to feel and look human again.  So off I went on Tuesday to get it done; so I am guessing every five years I have to get it redone?  I liked the red and white ones as they had no expiry dates on them.

Was in and out the office in under five minutes and at least half of the time was spent talking about our Ford Fiesta's both the lady in the office and I own!!  Got to love small town living.

I went to knitting also on Tuesday and left early as I was so tired.  So due to that fact I did not get an opportunity to catch up on everyone's blogs sorry.

For Shelley here is a link to the fish cake recipe.

Tuesday's knit and stitch.

I attended my second knit and stitch session on Tuesday and I am pleased to say I didn't have to "stay behind" class to have Angie re-do my work.  Would you believe I managed to drop a stitch and decided in my wisdom to pull out the row and then put all the stitches back on backwards...........I know who knew there was a right way and wrong way to put on stitches????

I have now knit one full ball of yarn in dark gray and have started on the light gray ball:

I'll let you into a little secret, I have "lost" a stitch somewhere as I now have 124 stitches instead of 125........oops.  I bought some stitch markers and boy do they make things a lot easier I have discovered.

"Y" is knitting with some fancy dancy yarn, and I think she mentioned a shawl or something?  She is the best knitter ever and also weaves, crochets.  She also has the funkiest hair ever.

"J" was starting on a pair of socks.  She is fun and was telling us a story about a friend of a friend who has a fish called "DWAYNE," as when he dies that's where he is going...........down the dwayne!!   No matter how many times I hear that I laugh.

Then there is "A" an expert knitter and so quiet, and such a good help when I make a mistake; which believe me is often!  She is knitting a sweater using a yarn with YAK wool in it.  It's super soft:

Finally there was Angie our beloved leader.  Patience of a saint; well she has to have dealing with me.  She was knitting a tank top, but it wasn't going as planned, so she pulled it all out and started again.  Me, I would have cried and had a melt down if that had happened to me, but Angie took it all in her stride.  That is why she is the one in charge!!!

If you want to learn more about The Knitting Basket, Angie has a Facebook page/site, Google it under The Knitting Basket, Alliston, Ontario.

Can't wait until next Tuesday as it is The Knitting Basket's 2nd birthday and "Y's" birthday as well!!