Finished the rail fence quilt at last in November, just getting around to posting pictures.
http://www.iol.ie/~patric/blogpics/railfence.jpg

Irish Times Knitting Article

On Friday the 28th of October the Irish Times published an article about Stitch "N" Bitch IE.
Feature writer Fionola Meredith attended the October meet-up to interview those attending and see first hand Irelands first Stitch 'n' Bitch group in action.
To be able to read the article you will need to take out a 2 Euro (24 hour) subscription. The web page for The Irish Times is http://www.ireland.com

Eros Scarf

Last week my package from Patternworks arrived, it took three weeks to get here but was certainly worth the wait.
The main part of my splurge was an organiser for all my little bits and bobs that I like to have handy when knitting or crocheting. Scissors, pins, tape measure etc. etc.

The other thing was a ball of Eros and a free scarf pattern.

Emerald Bunny Hop

Chick Pillow Slip

School Jumper

Finished Twice Over

I managed to finish 2 projects last week, both of which should have been finished last month.
Firstly there was a school jumper for my grandson, complete with crest. The second item was a cot quilt for my youngest nephew, I've called it Emerald Bunny Hop. I did 2 matching pillow slips and plans for a matching holdall bag have been put on hold until I get some other stuff done.

Stitch n Bitch IE

Yesterday was the monthly meeting for Stitch 'n' Bitch IE. The meeting took place in a quaint hotel in Dublin's city centre. It was lovely to sit and chat with other members of the group and see what everyone else was working on.
The main thing I took away from the meet-up was a tip to knit both sleeves at the same time, especially when knitting for babies and there is plenty of room on the needles for all your stitches. This really appeals to me as I often dread doing the last sleeve, doing 2 with all the increasing and shaping done in tandam just seems to make so much sense. Why didn't I think of that????

While in the Big Smoke I dropped into Eason's Book Shop on O'Connell Street and bought the latest issue of Simply Knitting.

The free gifts this month were a pack of 40 pins and a Rowan (12 pattern) booklet. 5 of the designs are for handbags and 1 is for a lovely lace shawl. I think some of these will have to go on my "to do" list :-).

I've started a small project from the main magazine, more about that another day...........

Close up wool

The Beginning

Goooooooooo………………
And we are off. I hope I am giving myself plenty of time to have this gift ready for Christmas. Yes, I know I would have it done in a month if I stuck with it but with other projects on the go I know progress will be slow. Besides which one of the reasons I don’t knit so much now is the pain and numbness I get in my arms if I knit for more than a couple of days in a row.

The wool I'm using is Sirdar Domino, a lovely baby blue colour with a silver thread running through and small lumps (or slubs) of lilac, blue, lemon and green. The pattern is from Peter Pan, item P.966. It has a lovely pattern but I think it will be much less noticeable if I had chosen a plain yarn.

Tension Square

Get Set…………………….
I’m being very good and have done my tension square, twice. (There was a time when I would never dream of doing a tension square, I've learned the hard way that it really is worth while). First using the recommended 4mm needles and finally achieving the correct tension using 3.25mm.
I must admit I never knew/realised that here in Ireland/Europe there is no such thing as a 3.50mm knitting needle. Gasp! You would think that someone who had been knitting for at least 25 years would have known that!

New Project

On Your Marks………….
Yes, I am starting another project. The things I have almost completed will just get a little less of my time from now on. That’s how it goes, I know I am not alone. Any crafter worth his or her weight in gold has at least a half dozen projects on the go. Admit it.
I know I am not alone in this.

Quilted Cushion

Came across this photo when I was cleaning up the hundreds of digital photos in the computer. My grandson picked his own selection of 5" squares from my stash for his very own quilted cushion. I already had the cushion pad, 16 inch I think and muslin for the back so once I got stuck in the project was complete in a weekend.
Quilted Cushion-Completed July 2005

First Post

Thanks to Dianne from R.C.T.N. for pointing me in the direction of Blogspot when I posted about finding somewhere to host my blog. Cheers Dianne.