Knitting Notes ~ Blocking

I have only blocked two knitting projects - a sewn up cardigan and the pieces for my Art Nouveau inspired jumper. Now I don't know why I only just discovered this technique recently!

I am not the best knitter at keeping my stranded colour work loose enough to not pucker so I decided to block the pieces before I sewed them up to get the pattern to lay nice and flat. It worked a treat.

I put a large bath towel on the floor under a radiator and pin the pieces onto it and the carpet. You can stretch the work to the correct size (if it contains wool). I then dampen another bath towel and put it flat over the pinned out work. Then wait until it's dry.

See the results below!

Unblocked knitting

Blocked knitting

Amazing and almost professional looking!

Happy knitting :-)
Gillian x

Watercolour ~ Hadrian's Wall, Northumberland

At the beginning of the year, I set myself a challenge to paint a watercolour every month. I decided to pick a theme of North East scenes.

Here's January's painting - a scene taken from Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland looking out from one of the Milecastles.

Here are the progress paintings (slightly paler as they were taken on a different camera). I washed the blue over the whole paper then washed some yellow ochre over the ground. I was going to put more detail into the wall as that was the focus of the scene, but after leaving it for a while and coming back to it, I decided to leave it where it was.

 

I hope you like it!

Gillian.

Knitting Notes ~ Art Nouveau Inspired Jumper

At last this weekend, the waiting was over - my blocked pieces were dry, I could sew together my Art Nouveau inspired Fair Isle style jumper and wear it.

I made this jumper from a combination of two patterns that I already had - the front and back were just rectangles and I used a sleeve pattern from a cardigan that I had already made and liked the sleeves.

The colourful pattern, I designed myself from an Art Nouveau book I have. I sketched a few motifs down and then transferred some ideas down onto knitting graph paper. I used this site where you can work out the graph size from your tension to make sure the design dimensions transfer from paper to knitting correctly.

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. I love the soft colours. I had enough yarn left over to make a hat in a totally different design and I'm part way through a scarf, again in a different design. Oh, and below is a photo of me wearing the finished jumper!

Right, onto the next project!

Gillian x

Knitting Notes ~ Waiting

My latest project is a Fair Isle style jumper which I've made up from two patterns I already had. I then designed the Fair Isle pattern from Art Nouveau patterns. I'm delighted with the colours - I wanted to use a few colours - and with the pattern.

I've decided to block the pieces before I sew them. This is the really hard part because I know it's so nearly finished but I can't do anything until the blocking process dries!

I have quite a bit of the wool left so I've now turned my attention to making a hat in a different pattern. At least I have something to do while I'm waiting! :-)

Gillian.

Gardening Gossip ~ Shredding the Christmas Tree

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you've all had a good Christmas.

Ever since getting a garden shredder last year for Christmas, my first gardening job of the year has been to shred the Christmas tree. It's a great way to work off the excesses of the festive season and gets me into the garden.

I put some of the shreddings into the compost bin and put some of them down as a mulch on top of soil around my son's swing.

I also made a few cuttings to try and grow my own Christmas tree. I'm not sure that they will take, as the branches are probably not fresh enough but they won't take up much space in the garden for now.

My next job is to look into some better containers to grow my veg in this year. Roll on Spring!

Gillian.