Poncho-to-be

It's nearing completion. 

It started off as a very simple poncho, but then I added a front central cable.
And then a horizontal cabled border.
And then a cable around the hood front.
And a slice of tree branch button closure.

So now it's nothing like the original pattern.
I just have to finish the hood, and a little bit of the horizontal border, and attach the button.
I started it at Center Parcs, and I want to wear it for the first time when we go back to Center Parcs in January.

I'm using my favourite New Lanark wool in chunky. (Why use anything else? It's cheap, it's pure wool and they deliver next day). 

Please go and see more WIPs from other folk at http://tamisamis.blogspot.com/2011/12/work-in-progress-wednesday-73.html

Earflap hat

Here is Sarah modelling an adult-sized earflap hat. 
I knitted it in a multi-stripe yarn, edged in blanket stitch, with a fat tassel and plaited ties.

Wonderful weekend

Center Parcs.
Sigh. We all want to be back there.
We went for a long weekend and had such a lovely time.
We stayed in a posh villa in Sherwood Forest with a sauna.

The highlight was seeing the girls overcome their fears of the water slides. Sarah has real anxieties over such things, to the extent of trembling at the suggestion, so this was a major step forward.  Rachel, however, has no such fears, and they don't build a slide big enough to worry her. She went abseiling and conquered the aerial adventure, showing some older boys how it should be done. They were a bit scared. I'm sure they felt better when an 8 year-old girl told them it was easy.

Of course I did some knitting, I started a poncho, but I'm saving that for WIP Wednesday.

Here is my FO Friday thing:

I said a couple of weeks ago that I wanted it finished, so
Ta-Daa! Tis done. Nice and long for a double wrap-around.

Now I just need to work out what to do with the left-over yarn.

Tuesday's Tallies

I've done another one!
Today's offering is White Cheviot.

Isn't that a nice sheepy looking sheep? And cute lambs, too.
I spun the wool quite thickly as that was how it asked to be spun (I agreed with another blogger recently that the wool itself decides how you spin it. I think that's quite true).
The wool crocheted rather nicely into its square, and tonight I sewed in the ends, labelled it and put it in its place in the blanket. It needs some Suffolk friends around it, so that will be my spinning for this week as I have run out.

Oh, and I found my dog brushes carders. They were in the bag were they were supposed to be. In the loft. Where I'd already looked. On the top.

Thankyou for visiting, and please look at some lovely work here in the Tuesday's Tallies collection. 

Handmade Monday

Handmade Monday is the perfect excuse to show you my cupcakes. Or some of them, anyway. I made 70 at the weekend for the children's School fund-raising event.

I overheard the organiser asking about somebody else's cakes, due to arrive at the same time, 'Are they professional ones as well?'
It's only a hobby, but that was a nice compliment.  Anyway, they all sold within minutes.

A few of my cupcake tips:

• Weigh the eggs with their shells on, and use the same weight of SR flour, sugar and margarine/butter. 
• Use half butter, half margarine for the buttercream, and 3 parts icing sugar to 2 parts butter/marg.  This keeps it buttery, but fluffy. 
• Use a Wilton 1M nozzle for the piping. It's the best. 
• Don't give them all away. 

WIP Wednesday

I'm really hoping this will be a FO soon.
It's been my travelling project for quite a while now, after being started a couple of years ago then forgotten.
I want to get started on my new travelling project, which is alpaca socks. (But not for an alpaca. I have enough trouble with a second sock, never mind a third and fourth).

It's knitted in Opal sock yarn and I shall just keep going until I run out of yarn.



Please pop over to Tami's Ami's to see more WIPs. 

Tuesday's Tallies

Soay sheep

This week I wanted to get my Soay square done.  I had to wash the fleece as it was raw and a teeny bit smelly.  I've just discovered (through Ravelry) that rams can have really stinky fleeces. Thankfully, I think this one must have been a ewe's fleece.

When it was dry, I couldn't find my carding brushes (really dog brushes) and found that one flick carder didn't really cut the mustard. So that's going to have to wait.

BUT whilst looking for the carders, I found a previously spun Swaledale square, ready to label and add to the blanket. I also found some spun Suffolk, which is the wool I use for every other square, and for joining them all.

So here is the Swaledale, labelled and in place. 

And now the right way round. 

So my Tally is: 2 this week. One Suffolk square, and one Swaledale. 10 squares to go. 

Thankyou for all the lovely comments on my first post last week. 

Do go over to see more tallies here