May Goals

1. complete the IronMay triathlon
2. have a total of 150 green knitted squares
3. finish Muppet baby quilt
4. make a sweater for Stitch

Fisherman's Rib Hats

Just after Christmas, I learned how to knit the Brioche stitch pattern. I've now added Fisherman's Rib. It looks almost identical, but it worked quite differently.

Fisherman's Rib on the flat is worked over an odd number of stitchs. The first stitch is slipped, and the rest of the row is (K1, K1b). This one row is repeated as many times as needed. In the round, cast on an even number of stitches. The first round is (K1b, K1) repeat, and the second is (P1, P1b) repeat. It's wonderfully squishy and lovely. To work it in two colours, Use foreground colour for the knits, and the background colour for the purls.

Wot No Blogging?!

In the last two years, I was blogging about once a day. This year is proving to be a little different. I struggled through January and February, trying to keep up to date, but by the time March came along it wasn't really happening. 

April, of course, had the excuse of starting a new job. However, I was still being creative, making things, coming up with ideas, and doing all sorts. The blogging just wasn't happening though.

The plan is for blogging to resume properly in May. There's more creative stuff planned, as well as a holiday, and all sorts of good stuff.

Recycled Sweater Back Hat

I now have a reputation as being a prolific and very accomplished knitter at the Quilting Guild. At the last meeting I was given two bags with yarn and knitting. I was asked to do something with it. 

One of the pieces was the back of a sweater. Part of it has been frogged, and the rest transformed into a hat.

CoffeeBreak Italian

Angela recommended a podcast, CoffeeBreak Italian. It's 20 minutes long, and starts at the absolute beginner level. It teaches conversational Italian, with bits of Italian culture thrown in for good measure.

The Italian lessons I've been taking aren't geared towards conversation. It's a much more structured course of study. We've touches on various things that would be good in conversation, but we don't often just talk. 

The podcast will provide revision, and hopefully get me talking more.

30 Day Minimalism Game

I've played the game before, and struggled towards the end. Over on Ravelry, someone suggested counting down instead of up. This means on the first of the month I declutter 30 items, 29 on the second, 28 on the third, etc, town to one item being decluttered on the 30th.

With starting a new job, I knew I would be tired, especially on Mondays and Thursdays. Those are rather full-on days. To make things easier on me, I sorted out books, CDs and DVDs and set them aside to be included when they were needed. 

The Beloved and the Offspring have joined in too. We are well ahead of the game, and only have 26 times to declutter! Then we will say goodbye to 465 items. There's a chance we will have managed to do this all in half a month!

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And done!

30: used envelopes 

29: bank statement over 1 year old 

28: books 

27: books 

26: CDs 

25: 18 cardboard loo roll tubes, a lion costume, a jacket and 5 side plates 

24: 23 clothes hangers and a pair of shoes 

23: 10 bills/receipts, 10 CDs and games, 3 books, 

22: 12 little bundles of fabric samples, 7 DVDs, 1 sushi mat, 2 photograph frames 

21: 21 items of clothing 

20: 6 children’s clothes hangers, 4 eggs boxes, 7 items of clothing, 3 scarves 

19: 19 receipts 

18: 18 receipts 

17: 7 receipts, 1 pair of shoes, 1 embroidery/tapestry stand, 1 notebook, 1 recipe booklet, 2 recipe magazines, 2 cleaning cloths for glasses, 1 glasses case, 1 spatula 

16: 1 leather strap, 1 plastic wallet, 1 bag of trimmings (eg mini pom poms, ribbons), 1 shirt, 1 square of felt, 1m of polycotton, 1 little bag, 1 measuring rape, 1 ball of crochet cotton, 7 tiny balls of yarn 

15: 5 books, 15 magazines, 

14: 14 computer/telecom cables/bits 

13: 13 computer/telecom cables/bits 

12: 11 computer/telecom cables/bits, random ball bands 

11: 1 out of date inhaler, 5 laptops, 1 USB hub, 3 toy aeroplanes, 1 mouse 

10: 3 egg boxes, 2 boxes of rubbish, 5 speakers 

9: 3 loo roll tubes,3 cables, 2 keyboards, and a woofer 

8: 6 books, 2 games controllers 

7: 7 items of clothing 

6: 3 items of clothing, 1 pair of trainers, 1 set of headphones, and dog treats the dog doesn’t enjoy 

5: a yeucky sponge, a pair of glasses, a giant badge, a note pad, and a set of coasters

4: 4 books

3: 3 books

2: 2 books

1: 1 book

First Daffodil of Spring

This daffodil was inspired by daffodils from Quilting Digest. Those daffs only had 5 petals instead of 6. I've added an extra one. 

The strip of fabric for the trumpet seems too long to me, and I shall shorten it in subsequent flowers.

Fabric Gift Bags for Lilo and Stitch

At Christmas, Stitch was admiring the fabric gift bags I had made. She loved how easy they were to use, and that they were reusable, unlike wrapping paper. The question was asked, "Would you like some?" Her eyes light up and some emphatic head nodding commenced. 

Two weeks ago at Quilting Guild, I picked up a bit over a metre of red and also of green. The red fabric has enough for 4 smaller bags, and 2 larger ones. I'll make the same from the green. The red fabric isn't a Christmas one. The green one has leaping white stags on it. I'll also use up the scraps from their Christmas stockings to make some other bags for them.

As Stitch's birthday is coming up soon, I decided to make the first of the bags. This will enable Lilo to wrap her birthday gifts in the bags. 

Terrazzo Squares

Pattern: Terrazzo Afghan

I saw this, and fell in love. The yarn has been bought, but I have many other projects to finish before I start.

Oh My Back, Oh My Feet!

Muscles are being used so very much more than they have been in the past months. I'm sore!  It's definitely time for pain killers and a hot water bottle at my back.

However, my colleagues are rather lovely, as are the customers. It's so nice to be able to help people with their crafting problems.

New Job

I started a new job today, and I'm utterly exhausted! I'm trying my best to make it all the way through to 9pm before crawling into bed.

It was good, but so many new things to learn. Thankfully, I'm not making the same mistakes too frequently. I move on and make new mistakes instead.

April Goals

With starting a new job this month, I have decided to keep things incredibly simple. There's three goals. The first is to have 120 green knitted squares finished by the end of the month. The second is to make 6 fabric gift bags for Lilo and Stitch. Later in the year I shall make another 6 or so for them.

Ah, I've just realised the third is a little bigger, and not so simple. It's to complete the 30 Day Minimalism Game again. This time it starts at 30 items in the first day and works down to 1 on the last day of the month. I've given myself a bit of a head's start by deciding on which books, CDs, and DVDs I no longer want. There's also old financial things I can get rid of.