Knitting AND Crocheting

 

I am yarning along again, with Ginny and the rest over at Small Things.  At least it keeps me blogging regularly ;)
This week, for your appreciation, you can see a really cool book I found in a local antique shop, Janet Marsh's Nature Diary.  The title caught my eye, and I grabbed it up to keep it.  It is similar in some ways to the Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, only a bit more modern, and set up a little different.  It is still English though :) If I didn't actually squeal when I found it, I felt like squealing!  The other book, the new Abs Diet for women, has been sitting in my library basket for a while.
As for my projects, well you can see I haven't got very far with my cardigan.  It is in LACEWEIGHT so, not really a surprise I guess!  Here is a nice closeup so you can admire the yarn.  It only took me a few tries to get a good photo.

Isn't it pretty?  That is Cousteau, from Madelinetosh's 'Tosh Lace' range.  I found a lovely online shop that I bought it from- they had it shipped out VERY quickly.  Eat, Sleep, Knit was their name :) and I just wanted to give them a shout out.

 

My other project is more experimental than anything else.  I am sure many of you who crochet have seen and admired the crocodile stitch projects out there.  Well one, very kind person sat through the videos and made up a free scarf pattern (ravelry link) to make one.  It is a fairly easy and fun stitch, with a great ruffled texture.  The yarn, which is Serenity Garden from Deborah Norville's range, is not the best for crochet, but it looks good!
Now, I finally remembered to take a photo of the 1930's lace top pattern I made ages ago.  You can purchase the pattern from the Vintage Pattern Place on Etsy.  If I were to make it again, I'd add an extra inch to the ribbing and an  extra pattern repeat because I would prefer it just a little longer ;).

And finally, I will leave you with a couple of photos from inside the Nature Diary :)  If you want to see more, you shall have to get your own copy ;)

Finished Gloves and a Vintage Knit

So I did NOT manage to get my son's gloves finished in time for Christmas day.  Not that it mattered much, because the weather has been rather warm lately, with temperatures in the 60's (degrees F, that is around 18 degrees C).  Until yesterday, when it was a good deal colder- hovering around the 40's- and today it is sticking close to freezing.  Maybe he will get a chance to use them today!

Here they are with my latest read.  Reads.  That is my Christmas present- an iPad 2, with the kindle application working on it, with several books from the local library's digital site :)  Of course the books are relatively boring looking since they never show a front page, so you have my library screen up LOL.  On the right, is my new project- a vintage pattern I discovered the other day in a small antique shop.  Some Madelinetosh yarn, and a cardigan on the needles.  The yarn is 100% merino, and OH SO soft.  I am loving knitting with it, even though it is a very fine yarn- a 2ply lace weight in fact!  My pattern calls for 8.5 stitches per inch, so this works out just fine, but will probably take me forever!

Here are the gloves in closeup.  I used St. Denis Boreale- a fingering weight wool, USA sourced, made in the USA.  The colours were chosen because they are my son's favourite.  The pattern was chosen by him- or rather PATTERNS were chosen by him.  The griffin comes from one pattern, which wanted me to knit the fingers top down.  OK that ended up being too fiddly, and they were knitting up a bit small at that.  So instead I adjusted it and used a secondary pattern, into which I added the griffin.  And mixed up the griffins and put them backwards, so they face out instead of in!  Oh well.

I tried to get a closeup of my yarn, but it came out blurry.  Instead you can have a closer look at my knitting and the pattern- I am making the cardigan from this twin set.  I have been unable to date it at all, but suspect it to be quite early.  It is a 'Target' pattern by George Lee & Sons Limited.  At some point, the company is billed as Lee Target, but I have one that says just Target.  Apparently they are a Welsh company... who appear to still be around.  I shall have to do more digging :)

Yarn Along with Ginny over at Small Things :)