My knitting addiction

II think I am suffering from a serious case of startitis but, thankfully, I am actually trying to finish what I start. Dawn and Peter got engaged a few weeks ago so a log cabin blanket was in order as an engagement present. Dawn selected some colours and I completed one of the brightest and loveliest log cabins I have made in a while.

Then there is still the baby knitting to do for Tor's baby. We don't know if this will be a boy or girl and, as I have a bit of a stock of girl appropriate cardies, I went for a beautiful, traditional, blue little jacket. It is in 4 ply and soft and silky. I am delighted with the result.

Obviously, having used up some of the stash - well that isn't quite the truth as I bought in the yarn for the log cabin specially to get the colours Dawn wanted, I was tempted by more yarn on my travels and found this lovely chunky in Shaws in Cardiff. Shaws is a traditional Drapers and they have a good selection of cheap wool and some patterns you don't tend to see elsewhere. I bought the yarn with no real,plan but a pretty simple sweater looks great.

A further shopping trip - to buy food, involved a bit of a wander and I came across a wonderfully stocked wool and craft shop in a market complex. I now have some 4 ply bamboo cotton - inspired by the little blue number and some more baby yarn added to the ever growing boxes full of stash - 5 in the bedroom, 2 in the sitting room, one in the music room......I think that I have to stop this buying compulsion.

However, I was tempted to do some organising so now I have this system:

Box one - current log cabin on the go

Box two - new baby yarns - 4 ply patterns

Box three - double knitting stash for log cabins

Box four - odd double knitting for random log cabins

Box six- beautiful wool - bamboo, Noro, alpaca....for special,projects

Box seven - chunky - for various cowichan a

Box eight - speciality yarns for toys, needles, works in progress

Oh - and box nine - I forgot about that one - cottons.

And box 10 - in the guest bedroom - some half finished chickens, but this is a small box. All the others are huge!!

100 years

Harry Stevens - my grandmother's brother. We visited his memorial in Tyne Cot a few years ago. He died on the Somme.

Albert Humphries - my great grandfather's younger brother.

His grave is quite literally in the corner of a foreign field - we visited and drove out of the village, along quiet country roads until suddenly, on the right, amidst fields was this small beautiful graveyard. So different to Tyne Cot but, nonetheless, moving.

Two young men, of the many, remembered.

Log cabins and Red Kites

Some old friends came to visit us in the new house. We had seen them quite recently but they had last visited us "at home" probably some 30 years ago! Consequently they had not seen the log cabin blankets that litter our sitting room and, fortunately, they loved them and, inevitably, requested one to match the new colour scheme of their lounge. I was delighted to oblige as baby knits are now proving a task. The difference is simple - with the log cabins I can just sit and knit. I don't need a pattern, I don't need to think very much. I can guess what 10 ridges look like and it doesn't take too long to count the rows if I have any doubt. With baby knits there is usually a pattern to follow, there are little pieces to sew up, borders to add, buttons to sew on. Little doesn't always mean less trouble.

So it was on to a new log cabin and it was quickly finished. Then a young friend got engaged and has chosen the colours for her log cabin engagement present and the eldest daughter has re decorated and wants a new log cabin in a new colour way and I have donated a log cabin from stock to a Kidney research charity as a raffle prize. Great! Lots of throws to knit, the first delivery of new yarn arrives - of course I had to add to the order of colours requested with just a few extras......

Sitting on the deck starting on the second of these new log cabins - purples and pinks being the dominant colours - I watched a large bird soar over the field. It came to rest in the copse of trees directly opposite and then soared into the air again. A Red Kite. Such birds were extinct in this area but have been seriously encouraged to return in recent years - and with great success - a majestic creature. The Red Kite flew out of sight but the family of three green woodpeckers reappeared together with the swallows ans the multitude of sparrows who live in our eaves. Fourteen little sparrows bickered over the bird bath, flew to and fro across various parts of the garden and came to rest in a row along the electricity cable - a fascinating and fun sight. I opened the door at the rear of the sitting room and a dragonfly flew in. I love my new home.

Then I made a little cowichan:

A rush on baby knits

Everyone seems to be having babies. I am inundated with requests for little items to send off to new parents all over the country. Two friends of my son are expecting babies within a month of each other . One knows that she is having a girl but the other has elected not to find out so I am preparing for each eventuality!

As so often happens with such events, today I learned of the passing of an uncle. At 85 he had reached a good age and outlived my Aunt by many years. When I heard the news, via Facebook as so often seems to be the case nowadays, I went searching for old photographs. In my favourite family album I came across a family shot from the 1970s. Only eight of us now remain, two whole generations almost gone but the few remaining are the characters we have loved for years.

I have one Aunt who is approaching 90 and is suggesting a family cruise to celebrate and I have a Great Aunt of a similar age who seems no different now to how I remember seeing her as a child.

This all prompts me to return to Family History research. An unexpected subscription to a family history site is going to be put to good use but maybe not until the end of the summer. I need something to look forward to when the garden is no longer a welcoming prospect and when the nights are long and dark. For now it will be some knitting of baby clothes in the evenings and days spent outside as much as possible. Memories will still be there when autumn approaches and some more obscure branches of the family tree can be investigated. In the meantime - the latest baby cardigans and that family photo.

More move knits

This baby knitting has been a great interlude and spurred me on to start using up more of the lovely yarn in the stash. I had just started a beautiful green 4 ply cardigan when I popped into a local yarn shop, which happened to be having a sale....so now I have more lovely yarn to knit up as baby items.....and enough to make a few more log cabins!

New house, new log cabin

Before we moved I had all these grand ideas:

We wouldn't unpack everything but have the bare minimum until everywhere could be redecorated.

We would decide on a new colour scheme for each room.

Each room would have a co ordinated look.......

So I unpacked the lot and no decorating has been done at all.

Colour schemes went out of the window - what was there would do.

Co ordination is all very well until a cold evening requires whichever blanket happens to be nearest.

I did, however, make a few decisions about the main sitting room. Our three sofas are black and the floor has grey slate tiles. The other major items of furniture are old pine. For a few weeks to these items were added random cushions - in red, blue and purple, and a couple of log cabins in purples, blues and pink. A couple of rugs were purchased in a neutral, natural colour and I found a lovely piece of linen that I had bought in New York a few years ago to make myself a dress. This piece of linen became cushion covers and provided a sort of colour scheme and a palette to sort of co ordinate some log cabins. I decided to use yarn already in the house rather than go out and buy yet more and the result is quite pleasing. I think that a second log cabin must be uniform in design instead of the randomness of this first one and maybe greens can dominate - to co ordinate with the view from the windows.

Dishcloths as log burner knob holders

The new house has two log burners in the sitting room. I love a log burner but they are unpredictable creatures and the door knobs have a tendency to get very hot indeed. For a few days I was bringing a tea towel out of the kitchen to hold on to the hot knobs whenever I was needing to open the doors to put in yet more logs and I was pondering what might be a better solution. Something knitted seemed a good idea but what pattern and size eluded me for a while. Then I happened to find an old dishcloth which had been relegated to outdoor cleaning - garden furniture etc and I decided to give an old standard pattern a go. Grandmother's favourite dishcloth is a good design and I found that using double strands of bamboo cotton produced a sturdy decent sized cloth which, folded in two, was perfect for opening hot log burner doors. So I made two.