Small Things...

Well, life has been busy here over the past month and I don't have much to show for it!  I've been working on some crochet designs for Nudinits and having a bit of bother getting the sizing right - the house is full of small pink unfinished bodies...

Inbetween doing that, I have been knitting a couple of Izzy dolls - they are quick, easy and give a good result for very little effort. I'm also working on a very detailed dog portrait whcih will be a wedding present for the daughter of a friend of mine.  It's going well, but taking a long time - hopefully will be finished by the end of the week.

As well as all that, we have had my son's wedding to attend - it all went very well and was a happy day for everyone.  I've also been putting a lot of work into the garden.  Now the weather has warmed up, everything is growing at a rate of knots and needs to be sorted out.  The greenhouse is full of seedlings, the fruit trees and bushes are full of blossom and burgeoning berries, the grass is growing, it's all kicking off!  

We've also acquired 8 quite large goldfish for our tiny pond. One of our long-time neighbours died just over a month ago and his daughter asked if we would take them on as they had nowhere else to go. I spent the morningof Mothers Day with Mr.B pootling about in a murky pond trying to catch the fish with shrimp nets and a bucket.  We couldn't see what was going on as the water had become so thick with silt and had to go back a couple of times to check we hadn't left any fish behind.   They seem to have settled in very nicely and wait for me to feed them every morning.

So, lots going on but nothing much to show!

Knitting...

Working on the next Nudinits pattern book pretty much took over my knitting needles for the past year or so, especially as the items I had to design were human sized, not puppet sized.  So once they were over and done, it was good to take theopportunity to get on with something I have had in mind for a long time.  A while back I discovered a cotton jumper I had started but never got further than knitting the back before abandoning it - too much fiddly lace and cable work I think.  I wanted to unravel it and knit a short cardigan that I have made before and loved. It is from the Knitty.com website and the pattern is called 'Hey Teach'.

There is nothing wrong with the first cardigan I made, it's just a little too short - I am a taller lady and sometimes patterns need to be added to for proportion.  So with the second one, I added a couple of extra inches to the stocking stitch portion.  I was also given some rather lovely wooden buttons last Christmas that have bees etched on them - it was good to finally have a suitable project to use them on!

Of course now that I have finished a summer cardigan, the weather is going to turn very chilly...

I've also been seeing a lot of Izzy dolls all ove the internet lately - I thought they were rather cute so searched out a free pattern on Ravelry and gave it a go.  Not bad for a first attempt - there are things I might do slightly different if I made any more, but that's just me being picky.

Nomore knitting for thetime being - as soon as the fabric arrives, I need to make a couple of special soft toys for my granddaughter for Christmas.

On the easel, a bear.  Suddenly I have more commissions than I have time for, which is fantastic after such a dry year.