works in progress

It’s nearly the middle of the month and I’m way behind with some of my projects but right on target with others.

No progress has been made in turning a flimsy into a finished quilt for Gift of Hope quilt #2 or in completing the flimsy of my Scrappy Log Cabin quilt.

There has also been no further progress on my Earth and Sky quilt – I plan to rectify that today! As my friend Debbie at Stitchin’ Therapy said in a recent post: “boredom leads to UFOs” and I am so over this project! (Some self discipline is what is needed here! )

I had some time over the weekend for some knitting and some further time yesterday afternoon so Emily’s Blanket is moving along – slower than I had hoped but still progressing. The colours in the photo below are not accurate but they’re the best I could do – the yellow is much more lemon and doesn’t look so obvious!

Until Emily’s Blanket is finished, I can’t work on the sleeves for my Westall cardigan so it may be a travelling project (ten more sleeps until ).

My hexagon project bag is coming along well and, I hope, right on target. I finished the hand-piecing in class on Monday. I would have finished it over the weekend but I didn’t take the pattern away with me and I had six hexagons I didn’t know what to do with. Turns out they were surplus to need! Ah well, there’s always another project, right?

Anyway, here is the project as it was when I finished class on Monday after the piecing was completed and some of the papers removed. The other photo shows the fabric I have chosen for the lining; the lining has been cut and the two pieces (not shown here) are ready to be gathered and joined. The base of the bag has lots of green in it so the lining makes more sense if you could see it!

I hope to get it completed in class next week. I’d like it done before we go away on 24th May!

I do have plans for another hand-piecing project but that will be the subject of another post.

The biggest project of all, the renovation of DD’s former home, is almost complete. The painter is there but there are still a few odd jobs (mostly that WM had to attend to) to be completed before we call it done – such as ordering a skip (and filling it of course), painting the garage (I’d forgotten about that and have lost enthusiasm now – we decided not to pay the painter to do this “simple” task), washing of floors and hanging of curtains.

Here are some photos of some of the work that has been done:

1. A new stove top and oven were professionally installed. WM replaced the doors and handles on either side of the oven. I scrubbed the tiles at the back and cleaned the glass of the range hood. MIL washed the filters before I re-installed them.
2. WM installed a new vent where there hade been a hole covered by a sheet of MDF held up with duct tape.
3. When DD and SIL moved in, the laundry tub was covered in paint. It had always been their intention to buy a new tub but they never got around to it. MIL turned up one day and decided it could be cleaned – between her efforts and those of WM the tub looks pretty good!
4. Some of the vinyl tiles on the laundry floor were damaged – WM lifted them and replaced them (hurrah for being able to match the tiles; thanks Bunnings! – a large hardware chain in Australia)
5. There once were shelves and unused brackets on the laundry wall. All the shelves have been removed (for painting) and the holes filled and sanded. Not too much can be done here, the walls are made of a fibro that contains asbestos and would need professional removal.
6. 79yo MIL washed all the windows and venetian blinds in the family room. This photo shows slightly more than half of them! WM has installed a new light fitting on that bare wire!

There will be more before and after photos in a later post!

Right now, I’m off to have lunch then trim my quilt sandwich, press fabric, cut and join binding strips, attach binding and stitch it down – it doesn't sound like much if I type really fast!

a blanket for Emily

If you’re looking for the May post for 2013: The Year of the Finished Project, it’s over here.

As you may know from this post, my eldest niece (my sister’s eldest daughter) had her first baby on 23 April. Being just two days before my own birthday, you could say she was an early birthday present.

This is the same baby I made the Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt for (because it is her mama’s favourite childhood story).

But I’ve gone a little less bright and a little more “pretty” for her baby blanket.

I didn’t start the blanket until the day after she was born, and then I ripped it out (too wide and wrong colour combination) and started again two days later. It’s not that I didn’t know she was coming, of course. It’s just that I didn’t know she would be a girl (although I had a feeling she might be!)

I was also being true to my own rules – no new knitting projects until others were finished – but a new baby is exceptional! They don’t come along in my family every day!

I have not been in the mood for knitting between saying goodbye to DD and the Grandsons, being sick, and working over at the “renovator’s delight” (henceforth known as “RD” -- there will be a post soon, I promise)!

But there’s nothing like a new baby to bring out all those craft-y tendencies!

I looked through my stash and decided to use up my Fiddle De Dee cotton (by Cleckheaton, sadly discontinued) because it’s a heavier weight (10ply/Aran/worsted) than the other cotton in my stash (we’re coming in to winter) and, more importantly, it’s machine washable and dryable! I don’t know that my niece knows such a thing as hand-washing exists! It knits up very softly although, being cotton, is quite hard on the hands when knitting for extended periods. I only had small amounts of each of four colour-ways, three skeins (150g) of lemon, and six skeins (300g) each of mint, a lemon/blue/white variegated yarn and an lemon/mint/pink/white variegated yarn.

The right combination and the right pattern were going to be important so an entrelac blanket it must be (hi Cindy! LOL). My first choice was to use the two variegated yarns but I didn’t like the combination so I settled on the mint and pink variation (of course! LOL)

Anyway, I hope to see Emily next weekend and wish her mama “happy mother’s day” for the first time. But I doubt I’ll have the blanket finished. This is where I was up to on Saturday afternoon; I’ve done part of the next tier since then!.

(Thanks Diane for the photo taken by iPhone during our workshop on Saturday)

If I had time to knit all day I might have got it done …

But there’s no way that was going to happen!

It will be sweet when it is, don't you think?

Linking up with Barbara at Cat Patches for the New FO challenge (on the last possible day!).

need supersedes planning

As you would know, I have a focus list of projects to work on this month. I have planned which project I will work on and in what order.

But last Monday, my quilting teacher asked all of us who knit (I’m the most obvious one) for a favour. The neo-natal unit of the local hospital is desperate for hats for the babies, mostly premature, in the humidicribs.

As a mother and a grandmother, how could I say no to such a request? My DD was born at 2.630kg (yes I still remember) – a tiny 130g over “compulsory” humidicrib weight. Younger Grandson, even though well over that weight, spent some time in critical care and was given a hat.

The pattern called for 8ply (DK) yarn and 4.00mm (US 6) needles so I thought they’d be a quick knit: 15 rounds of k2p2 rib, 16 rounds of stocking stitch then 13 rounds of decreasing.

I had told myself that I would knit one a day during February (the month of Valentine’s Day and the month of my Older Grandson’s birthday). But they take longer than I thought. One hat takes me two hours from cast-on to completely finished!

Still, a need is a need so the target date for finishing my cardigan has been pushed back.

After I took this photo, I realised the hats are supposed to have turned-back brims! Never mind, they've been knitted in the round so it won’t make any difference!

The one on the bottom right is DD', she obviously has a looser gauge than me!

Seven down, twenty-one to go!

life doesn’t always go according to plan

Here we are, twelve days into January and things have not exactly been going to plan.

I decided to run my Linky party on the first Thursday of the month which was 3 January. I thought I'd have plenty of time to organise it because mum, who arrived on 27 December, was going home on 2 January, and my sister and nephew weren't arriving until 4 January. That gave me all day on 3 January to write the post and set up the Linky!

But....

Older Grandson wouldn't milk the cow but was happy to brush her

We visited Calmsley Hill City Farm on Sunday 30 December. Mum was helping WM carry the picnic lunch up from the car and therefore had her arms full and couldn’t see the ground immediately beneath her feet. She fell heavily on some uneven paving and twisted her ankle. We spent most of the afternoon in the emergency room after an ambulance took her from the farm.

Mum's okay now but she ended up staying here until 5 January when the doctor said she would be fit to travel. As you know, I managed to get my post written so everything worked out okay.

Then ....

While my guests were here, I decided it was time to finish the Sideways Striped Baby Jumper that I had started in November 2011. All it needed was a collar knitted on and the seams sewn up -- one evening's work (or so I thought)!

But ...

Knitting the collar wasn't as easy as I thought and after four attempts over two days to get the collar right, I gave up! In the end I frogged it because the head hole seemed too small to go over a baby's head easily. No worries, frogging is a "finish" for that project and the yarn will some day become a cardigan knitted sideways to retain that vertical striping that attracted me to the pattern in the first place.

this used to be a baby sweater

And then...

One of my top priorities for this month was to finish the Hearts and Squares quilt. I had finished all the blocks and just needed to trim the 6.5" four-patch blocks down to the same size as the 6" heart blocks. I hadn't been in my sewing room since well before Christmas but in my head the quilt top looked great!

It took a long time to settle on a layout for the four-patch blocks. I knew the finished layout had to be 9x7, because there is a particular size I have to make for our community quilting group (roughly 56" x 64"). I had a large number of blue blocks, and almost the same number of brown blocks, and a few others in green, red, pink and yellow. I finally came up with a layout that I was happy with and started to add the heart blocks.

But....

The layout was okay but the squares seemed too “hard” for the hearts which cry out for a “softer setting”. It occurred to me that the squares made an attractive layout for a "man quilt" (we have to work harder to make those because of all the floral scraps we are given). But that's okay, I have plenty of fabric (that belongs to Caring Hearts Community Quilters) and I'm not adverse to making two quilts.

The question was which quilt to make first because it's unlikely I'll get two finished this month (given the goals I've set for myself and the time remaining). I settled on the four-patch blocks; after all, the layout is already on my design wall.

Then the question became: what blocks to make to enhance the four patch blocks? I don't have enough of any one fabric to use plain 6.5" squares nor do I have the quilting skills to make a 6" block look interesting!

I settled on square on square blocks, the central square being the same size as one quarter of the four patch (that is three inches finished) with a light neutral border around it to make it up to the correct size.You might not have noticed, but I've made further changes to the layout of the four patch blocks.

I must make up my mind which way those four patch go!

So despite the fact that yesterday was forecast to be 41°C (106°F), I took myself to the garage to find some suitable fabric and then to my sewing room to re-introduce myself to my rotary cutter and sewing machine! I think it actually got to 37°C (98.6°F) but the air-conditioned kept things at a comfortable 24°C (75°F). I got slightly more than half the blocks made, pressed and trimmed.

I think it’s shaping up to be a good unisex quilt, don't you?

How are your plans for January shaping up?

works in progress

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you would know that I have a large number of projects that I've started, many of which have fallen by the wayside.

I have tried to remedy this by determining a finish date for each UFO, and then working on those things which need to be finished first. Sounds logical, I know, but until I put it all in writing, I couldn't see the wood for the trees – or, more truthfully, the projects for the piles!

Since I wrote that first detailed list back in June, some projects have been finished and I've blogged about them. Some new projects have inevitably crept in – nieces have had babies or recently become pregnant, Secret Santa projects were unexpectedly thrust upon me, or I’ve fallen in love with a fabric, yarn or pattern (such as the three bags I've recently finished)!

But, thanks to the organisational skills of this app on my iPad, my WIPs are under control and at the moment there are six that I am actively working on.

In my last post, I showed you the first of two Secret Santa projects and the first of two cloth books which, naturally enough, need to be completed by Christmas.

Here is the second Secret Santa project in progress. Today I will stitch the turnings closed and do the necessary embroidery.

And here is part of the second of the cloth books – cut out, batting fused and pages pinned together. All I need to do is load another bobbin, change to my integrated walking foot and get stitching.

Also to be finished before Christmas, is this – the third embroidered Christmas tree. I plan to finish that before the end of next week because I need to turn the three into a wall hanging which will need to be hung soon!

I mentioned nieces having babies or finding out they were pregnant.

This unblocked lace knitting (still on the needles) is 4ply (fingering) bamboo/acrylic (machine washable – new mums love that); it is for our latest grand-nephew. His mother, our niece, is also our only god-daughter, so she gets something a little bit extra-special. I could have knitted it sooner but I was hoping to use some of the pink baby yarn in my stash!

It’s the Bernat Baby Blanket (Ravelry link) and should be finished in plenty of time to be given to the proud parents at the family Christmas party on 16th December. This baby, by the way, is my MIL’s 13th great-grandchild! (She has sixteen living grandchildren).

And on my side of the family, my eldest niece has just been surprised by an unplanned pregnancy. Her mother, my sister, told me a couple of weeks ago that D. really likes The Very Hungry Caterpillar, so there is a surprise play quilt in progress. Here’s a peek at the top. The spots are part of the VHC range; I can’t quite figure out why!

You may remember that I started an Intarsia Blanket in November 2011. Here it is in July this year.

I have finished the knitting. All that remains is to finish knitting the i-cord edging and sew it on, then secure a few hundred ends (they were woven in while I was knitting but the acrylic yarn slides so they need to be sewn back in the opposite direction).

 I know what you're thinking, why didn't I knit the i-cord on? The answer is simple, it’s too hot to sit under a blanket and knit, plus the weight of the blanket kept dragging on the i-cord, making it difficult to knit. I quite like hand-sewing, so this is the best solution for me. I did knit the i-cord onto the 200 open stitches at the top of the blanket.

Finally, there is a pile of scraps on my ironing board for making more blocks for the rainbow scrap challenge. This pile, as you can see is blue, which was the colour a few months ago – I had so many blue scraps that I could still be sewing with them into 2013. I might put away the blue (again), and get out the brown, which was the colour for October or black which is the colour for this month. My black scraps are few and will be mixed with white.

I hadn’t planned on making blocks but it was hot here yesterday and I already had dark grey thread and my quarter inch foot on my machine – what's a girl to do? 

I'd better go - I have things to do!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced blog.

it’s that time of year

It’s just eight weeks from tomorrow!

I know it’s getting close because of what's coming off my sewing machine:

First I made this apron (on behalf of DD) for a “Secret Santa Swap” at Caring Hearts Community Quilters. DD was given the panel (called “A Christmas Gathering”) but there’s no way she has time to sit at the sewing machine with two very active under-threes! I’m sorry some of it is missing but this is as much as WM took! I love this so much I’d like to keep it for myself! So would DD (who was conveniently wearing a red tee-shirt when modelling)!

 Secondly, this book which I started last year and never finished -- a gift for the Grandsons who both love books. Older Grandson will love identifying the animals and Younger Grandson needs cloth books because he still puts everything in his mouth and his teeth damage cardboard books!

 This has nothing to do with Christmas but I am so glad to finally have it finished!

First the inside view with its two generous pockets. My teacher, Kerry, and I designed this bag as we went along.

It had to fit this panel (designed by Kerry, embroidered by me) and will be used to carry my sewing/embroidery supplies.

It may look small the way I’m holding it but in fact it is 38cm (15 inches) wide, 35.5cm (14 inches) tall and 18cm (7 inches) deep.

It is actually a very deep purple colour as shown on the sunlit (right) side of the bag, not the royal blue shown on your left!

Goodbye to the green eco-bag from the local supermarket that used to carry my sewing supplies!

What about you -- are you crafting gifts for Christmas?

What's the buzz (tell me what's happening)?

Random updates from our household:

weather:
It's still about 6°-10°C (10°-18°F) cooler here than it should be at this time of year so it certainly doesn't feel like Christmas is a week away.
Moree has been flooded again and the roads I took to get mum home two weeks ago are closed again.
The eastern side of Australia is under the influence of La Nina - rain and floods are more likely. When we are under the influence of an Il Nino weather system we have high temperatures and droughts!

Christmas
The presents are bought and wrapped.
Most of the food is bought and stored - I still have to buy lollies (candy) and chocolates. I will leave the salad vegetables until Christmas Eve.
Puddings made yesterday and boiling as I write this.Older Grandson loved throwing the threepenny pieces into the mixture - he was having so much fun no one thought to take any photos!
Cards to be written and posted today.
Christmas lights up on the outside of the house.
Curtains and windows in lounge (living) room and dining room need to be washed before decorations can go up - if only it would stop raining!
A "live" tree will be purchased next week and decorated on Christmas Eve. It will stay up until 6th January - the twelfth day of Christmas.

Family health
Younger Grandson has had lots of tests - they have all come back normal so no cause for his febrile convulsion has been found. He had an EEG on Monday - we don't have the results of that yet.
Son-in-law was off work last week for three days with a respiratory tract infection.
DD rang on Friday morning saying that she couldn't visit because she had caught it.
SIL dropped Older Grandson at our place then went to work. By lunch time OG had a runny nose and a cough and was feeling miserable.
DD and OG are now on antibiotics. YG is sniffling but not on antibiotics.
Yesterday, WM stayed home from work. He saw a doctor in the afternoon and has today off too. He has - you guessed it - a respiratory tract infection.

Stitching
I am working on "in-the-ditch" quilting my Hunters' Cabin quilt. I'm about halfway.
DD and I still need to piece backs for the two quilt tops I showed you earlier this week so that we can get them on the frame and quilt them.
I am about twelve rows from finishing Blanket for William - then I will need some warmer weather to get the 10ply (Aran) cotton blocked.
I have reached the cast off the first Merlot toe-up sock (Ravelry link); I need to check the instructions for Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off. I won't hurry because then I'll have to cast on the second sock and, although I love the look, I find Judy's Magic Cast On very fiddly on dpns and my circular needles are otherwise occupied!

And we have no hot water! The element was replaced about two months ago so they think it might be the thermostat this time! Someone will be out to have a look this afternoon!

slowly moving forward

I have not heard from DD since Younger Grandson came home from hospital so I can only assume that "no news is good news". I half-expected them to turn up on my doorstep on Tuesday morning but they didn't. DD obviously felt capable of coping on her own, which is a good thing.

You may wonder why I haven't called DD myself but there is a good reason: with two little ones in the house there is a good chance that one of them will be asleep and I don't want the phone to wake them.

They are usually here on Fridays so I can only assume they will be here tomorrow as usual.

I have made good use of the "alone" time over the past two days although, for all the hours I have spent in my sewing room, there doesn't appear to be much to show. However, I have been so engrossed in what I have been doing that I have not taken any photos!

Because it doesn't look like much after hours in the sewing room, I am keeping a "craft diary" to show me what I actually achieve each day!

I have started to tidy things up by putting things away and moving some stuff out of here -- a quick glance might show that not much has changed but progress has been made and if I do a little bit each day, rather than trying to tackle it all at once, I will get there in the end.

I have put all the sashing strips between each of the blocks for the Scrappy Strings II quilt to make seven rows and today I plan to cut the rest of the sashing and attach it. I will then need to piece a backing for the quilt: it is just a little too big for the two metres of fabric we bought to fit! *sigh*

But the most progress that has been made around here in the past couple of days is to the Hunter's Cabin quilt. (This is how it looked the last time you saw it on the design wall).

I have been avoiding it because it is flannel and has been giving me a lot of grief. On Tuesday, having finished making the rows for Scrappy Strings II, I decided, on the spur of the moment, to just "suck it up" and get on with it. Finishing that quilt was not on my "to do" list at all but you know what they say about the best laid plans ...

Anyway, I finished piecing those blocks, then joined the first four blocks into pairs, then a group of four. It quickly became obvious to me that I needed a pressing plan - otherwise all those joining seams would get tricky!

So I drew up a pressing plan, taped it to the bookshelf next to the ironing board and marked off each block, pair, four-patch and section as I did them! I finished piecing that quilt yesterday morning and, while I am not particularly feeling the love, I am pleased to see a completed top!

So why stop there? I set up my cutting board on the lounge (living) room floor, covered it in a plastic cloth (which I always do for blocking to keep the moisture out of the cardboard) and proceeded to pin baste! All well and good until I tried to pick up the sandwich - I had pinned to the plastic cloth! I had to start all over again!

I also learnt that masking tape is no good for me - it is better to closely pin the backing fabric to the cutting board (without the plastic cloth); masking tape doesn't hold things taut enough and frays the edges of the fabric when it's ripped off!

Anyway, after a couple of hours crawling around on a carpeted concrete floor, I arose stiff and sore, with a completed sandwich which is now rolled ready to be quilted. All I have to do is change the foot on the sewing machine, decide what colour thread to use, wind a few bobbins and I'm good to go!

After all that, I spent a few hours in front of the television with my knitting. I have only one ball of yarn left to finish the Baby Blanket for William, so that should be done by the weekend. Now if only Sydney's weather would "summer up" so I can block it!

knitting progress

I don't seemed to have achieved much on the sewing/quilting front lately but I have done some knitting.

Last Friday my next-door neighbour had their second child and second son, William, by Caesarean. I was hoping she would have a girl (there are so many pretty things I want to knit) but it was not to be.

Last night I cast on Tate by Melissa Leapman from "Quick Knit Keep Sakes Book 2". I'm using lemon coloured Cleckheaton Fiddle De Dee cotton (discontinued) on 5.00mm (US 8) Knitpicks Harmony needles (borrowed from DD). I haven't given you the Ravelry link because there is no photo there - it seems I am the first knitter on Ravelry to cast on for this pattern! The photo below is copied straight from the book and has been photographed sideways - the cast on edge is to the right of the photo. It is knitted on 151 stitches and has an eight row border of moss (seed) stitch then an "intermediate" lace pattern involving "slip two stitches knitwise, K1, P2SSO". I have done only ten rows so far - I don't know if it was the humidity or my tiredness but I just couldn't seem to knit quickly last night. I have taken no photos of my knitting because who wants to see rows of moss stitch?

In other knitting news, I have finished the body and sleeves of the striped baby jumper. The pattern is Mexicali Baby Ole (Ravelry link) by Mary C. Gildersleeve. It is knitted from the right cuff to the left cuff.The pattern says to block and sew up seams before adding collar - I'm wondering whether to add the collar first: what do you think?

three steps forward, one step back, four steps forward

On Tuesday night I prepared to sit in front of the television for a couple of hours and knit.

The weather was warm so the two blankets I have on the needles did not appeal.

I have three pairs of socks on the needles but one is being held up by another (I need to buy more 2.25mm dpns). The one doing the "holding up" needed me to concentrate -- which is hard to do while watching television. The third pair is "on hold" while I consider my alternatives.

There was nothing for it but to cast on something new.

But not just a new project. Something never before attempted (by me).

I have a large quantity of sock yarn so I thought something for a baby/infant might be a good idea. Then I remember the Mexicali Baby Ole pattern (Ravelry link) from "Babies and Toddlers". I have admired the pattern since I bought the book in 2009.

I thought it would be a practical marriage of sock yarn and baby sweater.

The first yarn I tried was supposed to be "fake isle". Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of those yarns that has very short colour bursts - maybe only ten stitches or so. It may work in the round on 64 stitches but knitted back and forth it was. just. awful!

I ripped it out (I was watching TV remember?) without a second thought.

During the commercial break, I changed to a self striping yarn, working on 3.50mm (US 4) needles.

I knitted a sleeve and cast on for the body (it is knitted from cuff to cuff).

In the morning, the first thing I thought of was "rip out the knitting". And so, three hours of knitting looked like this in just a few minutes!

My brain must have been thinking about my knitting while I slept. 3.50mm needles with sock yarn and knitter with a loose tension -- what was I thinking? I needed a needle between 2mm (US 0) and 3mm (US 2+) for a satisfactory result.

On Wednesday morning, immediately after ripping out my knitting, I found a 2.75mm (US 2) circular needle and cast on again. After four hours of knitting (interrupted by the arrival of DD and two grandsons), I had this: one sleeve and the beginning of the body.

And for those who like the details, it looks like this:

A lovely bright jumper for a little one!

a quick knit, a not-so-quick knit and The Friday Night Knitting Club

I cast on for Grandbubby's Pilchers (Soakers) last night using 8ply (DK) yarn hand-painted by DD in her first attempt at dyeing in a workshop in December 2007. She is not really a green person but since we don't know whether she is having a girl or a boy, green was a safe choice. The pattern I used was Flowerpot Tots DK Shorties and Longies (Rav link). They were designed to be knit on two needles - I started that way but soon changed to circular needles after completing the gusset. 100 stitches on 4dpns to complete the waistband was a bit tricky and I'm not 100% happy with the cast off at the waistband (perhaps I should have gone up another needle size or two). I also eliminated the cord that was threaded through the waistband - I don't know if this was a big mistake or not! We shall see how these go on Grandbubby before making any further modifications.


And for my not-so-quick knit, here is my Twisted Slipped Stitch Scarf (folded in half for the photo).

I modified the pattern called "Harris" in Jan Eaton's 100 Knitted Blocks to create this scarf which I began on 12 January. I should know to check that I have all the materials and/or tools I need before embarking on a project, and I was convinced that I had another 100g ball of the green yarn in the cupboard. I did, but it was not the same green! Consequently my knitting came to a screaming halt on 26 January. I was going to rip it all out but DD and WM wouldn't let me. Luckily I listened to them because while we were away last week, we went to a discount store in Corrimal that focuses on art and craft materials and they had the same brand of yarn in their stock and several balls of the same colour.

Unfortunately, the scarf was not one of the four projects I packed for the week away so I had to wait until we got home on Friday to check the colour and compare the dyelot. Fortunately, it is the right colour (I call it bottle green) and the dyelot may or may not be the same (I have long since lost the original ball band) but I can't see any variation in colour.

I finished the scarf on 5 February but didn’t get any photos until today. The finished scarf is 2m (80 inches) long and 12cm (4.5 inches) wide in keeping with the current fashion for long skinny scarves.

As for TFNKC, I asked people to leave a comment if they wanted me to pass the book on to them. WM drew the lucky "winner" out of a hat, oops, sorry, a recycled ice-cream container. The new soon-to-be owner is ...

Marcia.     Please contact me with your mailing address so I can get it in the post to you.

update

Dad is still in hospital and probably will be for the rest of his life, however long that may be. Perhaps his kidneys will fail; perhaps the cancer will take him.

Three days ago he was completely "not there" - the old, frail shell that housed my father was there but his mind was gone. The following day he improved but was still slurring and having trouble making grammatical sentences. Yesterday he was cheeky and bright. I haven't seen him yet today but mum said he visibly deteriorated in front of her for the couple of hours she was there.

In the past four days I have knitted an entire baby blanket for my niece (due late March) because my mother couldn’t face the relatively simple pattern she had chosen. She is stressed beyond thinking (as you can imagine). WM and I are heading home on Tuesday - after three weeks away from home and living with the uncertainty it's time for us to get back to some semblance of normalcy. I have a baby shower to organise - DD is due in just 7 1/2 weeks so I can’t leave it too much longer! I will show you photos of all of my knitting from November to now when I return home - WM could take photos but he doesn't have the software to download them!

I have started another project but I don't think I like the colour so have stopped to reassess the situation. This is annoying because I bought this yarn (over the internet) especially for this project and now I regret my colour decision. I need to think on this some more.

For those who believe, please keep praying that God's will be done in this situation. Thank you.