Knitting again

I'm slowly getting back to normal after my operation. I can do basic things now like getting washed and dressed and light household duties, but I am unable to do heavy lifting and as I've just found out I can't chop up root vegetables for lunch, it's surprising how much pressure you have to apply to the task. So hubby was dragged away from the ironing( I can't do that  either, yippee) to tackle the veg. He's been fantastic these last few weeks taking care of everything, including the animals ( which he isn't keen on) and then going to work. So a big, big thankyou to him. Mustn't forget to say thankyou to Geo who has also helped in his own way by making the batter for the yorkshire puds for lunch.

I can now also manage a little light knitting, I'm so excited I have really missed my yarny projects. The problem now is that I have too many projects lined up as I've spent the last few weeks admiring other peoples handiwork on various blogs and knitting websites and I want them all now!

The picture above is my new scarf I'm working on with my new Alpaca wool. I've unashamedly copied the idea from Little cotton rabbits blog, the pattern can be found here. It's just an easy moss stitch pattern but that's all I wanted to get me back into it. I used a 4mm needle and cast on 31 stitches as my wool isn't a chuncky wool, but I think it looks ok. It's going to be really snuggly soft when it's finished. 

We had a real heavy hoar frost this morning so I ventured out into the garden to take a few shots. I don't clear the garden before winter as I like to leave the seed heads for the birds and also to get beautiful images like these when they are covered in ice crystals.

 

The garden seems so still and magical when it's frosty. The summer flowers I took photos off on my last post haven't made it, but I knew that would happen, still you can't have everything.

The chickens aren't keen on this cold weather. They look out of their cage on a morning and go back to bed, it's far too cold for them. When it's like this they get a nice warming bowl of porridge and extra corn as a treat. Matilda had run off at this point to the refuge of her nice cosy nest to lay today's eggy offering but Amber was happy to follow me round the garden pecking at the frozen ground hopefully.   

Summer Flowers?

I'm sooo bored at the minute as I have to rest my hand. I was doing ok and actually attempted a small bit of crochet but I've suffered a setback and have to be really careful with it. It's so frustrating because to fill my time I browse other peoples blogs and admire all their beautiful creations and I'm so jealous as I just want to get on with mine. Anyway enough moaning, as it was a nice day today and those horrendous gales had died down I ventured into the garden for some fresh air. I was amazed at what is actually still flowering out there! It is January and this rose is in full bloom, a bit raggy granted but it has been battered by 70mph winds.  

This calendula is doing well and even has more buds to come

and in the greenhouse this scented Pelagonium is still flowering it's little heart out and smelling fantastic as well.

On another note, my new wool arrived to day, it's Rowan Creative Focus Worsted for a new project (when I get round to it) which I will tell you about at a later date. I ordered it from Deramores online shop, which I have just discovered. It's a really good service it turns up the next day if you order before 3pm. I'm really pleased with them and would certainly recommend them.

Anyway I'm going to attempt to publish this post and see if it works this time.

An apology.

For some reason when I wrote the last post I had terrible trouble getting it to upload, so there are photos missing and it may not make much sense. So I apologise for this and hope the next post will be better.

Some finished items...

Today I thought I would show you some of the projects I finished last year but didn't get chance to post, plus it gives me a chance to use my new camera.Talking of the camera the first thing to show you is the case I made for it out of scrap wool. It's small enough to fit in my handbag and this will stop it getting scratched. It looks much better with the camera in it but for obvious reasons you won't get to see that image.

The following photos are of the ripple blanket I made for George (little T, he doesn't like being called that anymore!). He requested a blanket at the beginning of December when he saw my ripple blanket. So always keen to start something new before finishing something old (and because I can't resist buying more yarn) we chose and ordered the wool together straight away. It took about three weeks to make and he's really pleased with it. I used Stylecraft Special DK for this, it's certainly the best acrylic yarn I've used, it's very soft and there is a fantastic range of colours. 

One of the colours that George chose was a greenish colour which I didn't think it would work with the others but he was insistent and surprisingly it looks quite good.

This scarf I finished ages ago, it's made with the Angel wool I got for my birthday from my friends. It's a really delicate pattern which I thought would work well with the wool. The pattern was fairly easy to follow but it was quite slow as the wool is very fine and fluffy but the result is beautiful. I can't remember where I got the pattern from but it was somewhere on the internet.

The next two cushions I made earlier in the year. I just had a sudden urge to re-cover the cushion pads that I already had and came up with these designs. They are made with a mix of Stylecraft and Boyes acrylic yarn and they live in the spare bedroom. My mind is already thinking ahead to what else I can make for that room. 

I haven't given up on knitting completely, I have just finished two pair of socks. the first pair is made with Regia wool and is self striping.

I made a flap heel on this pair as it's quite easy to do but they never sit properly on my foot, they always seem too baggy around the heel. 

But with this pair I trawled the internet and looked through books to find a pattern for a short row heel that was easy to follow. This method gives the same heel as shop bought socks which I find more comfortable. 

The wool I used for this pair is Madeline Tosh sock wool that I bought from Loop when I went to London in November for the Country Living fair. It's 100% Merino and it's gorgeous to work with. Now I've got the hang of knitting in the round I just love making socks. I've got two more skeins of sock wool ready to crack on with.

That's the last of my makes but I want to show you what Hubby and George made for my xmas stocking. Aren't they great ? They are made from polymer clay with tiny mosaic tiles embedded in them.

They are very easy to work with as they are quite chunky and they have allowed me to crochet whilst I've got my bandage on! Something I'm sure I'm not supposed to do. Something I can do of course is buy more wool.

I bought this yesterday, I think I'm going to make a scarf with it, it is wonderfully soft.

I have also ordered some more wool which I'm expecting to arrive tomorrow so I might be back to show you that. I can't do much at the moment so my blog may get updated more often, although this post has literally taken me all day to do and now I'm worn out. Bye for now.