QAL Blocks & a Cowl

I have been catching up on quilt-along blocks - 

The Westering Woman block for February (12" block).

The Circa 2016 blocks for the past 2 weeks (3" blocks).

The 365 Challenge blocks (3" blocks).

I also finished knitting a cowl - this was my travel knitting (perfect pattern - easy and interesting).

The pattern is Knitting in Nature Beaded Moebius Cowl. It was hard to photograph and looks better on.

The cowl started out as this fibre, some that I dyed,

and blended into rolags,

and spun into this yarn (it is a mix of wool, alpaca, silk and angora). I made it for another project and had enough leftover for this cowl.

 This is the start of the moebius (only one side/plane and one edge).

Our little friend has figured out how to jump onto the bird feeder.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

London Vacation

Last week we had a family vacation to London. I lived in England a couple times when I was little, and 30 years ago I worked as a nanny in London. I have been wanting to take our sons for a while, and was so pleased that we had the opportunity.

Here are some photos- 

Great mix of old and new - Tower of London and the Gherkin

Millennium Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral in the distance

Piccadilly Circus

Trafalgar Square

Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace

Big Ben and the House of Parliament

Swans in Hyde Park

Of course we had to see 'the shops' -

Harrods

inside in the food halls - beautiful tiles

Liberty

inside Liberty - the building was amazing

our only brush with royalty was this life size Lego Queen at Hamley (a huge toy store)

Some train station sights -

King's Cross

St Pancras - this was huge

Paddington - this was tinier that I thought it would be

We went on a cable car ride across the Thames -

The view - the O2 arena

The museums in London are amazing -

British Museum

inside, in the Great Court

there were a few of these - I thought the drape of the fabric was amazingly sculpted 

Natural History Museum

the building was incredible

I know I come from one of the coldest places in the world (it was -30℃ the day we left, but it is a dry cold), but I was amazed how cold I was in London with temperatures above freezing. They are a hardy lot! Check out all the beautiful flowers (I was told that they had had a warm spell before we came and the blooms were early)-

We rented a 'flat' for the week in a quite neighbourhood

Of course I have to have some photos from the plane (just because I find them fascinating)-

Toronto - stop over on the way to London  - you can see the CN Tower

coming home

All these photos were taken with my cell phone - so easy to travel with!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

Project Bags

I finished a few things this week, a couple of them are project bags for my knitting.

The first one is a bag using an old tutorial I posted almost 6 years ago (I am so glad that I blog, it was handy to have the pattern). The pattern is Little Drawstring Bag Tutorial. I made a larger version -

The original bag is in the above photo.

I used much larger rectangles of fabric (the lining one is pieced because I didn't have enough of the darker pink for the whole thing - the pieces are 11"x25" for the outer fabric, and 11"x15" for the centre of the lining and two pieces 11"x8" for the ends of the lining - so about 11"x37" for a one piece lining). I also wanted to add a simple pocket, and the join of the two linings was the perfect spot.

I just sewed two small rectangles (these were scraps about 3"x4.5") to the centre of two ends of the lining,

and then I joined the two pieces of fabric, sewing around the pocket, just like a pocket in a side seam in clothes.

 This became a lovely little pocket for holding stitch marchers etc.

The side seams are sewn.

I left 1/2" opening on the sides for the drawstring (last time the opening was too small and I had a hard time finding something that would thread through the casing).
For the bottom I sewed a 4" line (2" on both sides of the centre seam) across the corners -

This made a nice wide base that stands up well, and the top folds down easily (you can see the pocket in the above photo too). I didn't add any interfacing or batting to this bag because I wanted a project bag that could squish easily and not take up too much room.

My other project bag is a felted bowl, with two openings for yarn (for knitting two-at-a-time socks - I always have a pair on the go, and I thought they should have a nice home).

This was from yarn that I dyed, carded and spun last week.

This was before felting. More details of how I made this can be found on my Ravelry project page.

I finished knitting the Lintilla scarf.

This is from fibre I dyed, blended and spun too, it has lots of angora and is incredibly soft. My son called this my 'classic red and pink blend'.

These are my 365 Challenge blocks this week.

There was a blizzard last week that created some great snow drifts in the yard, although the "drift" that is taller than the fence was created by my oldest son so that he could drive his snow mobile right out of our yard and into the field behind the house (that is a 6' high fence).

cleaning time

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!♥