Weekend away

We travelled 'up north' to visit my daughter, son in law and their family on Friday morning.  The weather wasn't great, but the journey was uneventful.  We travel to Harrogate, then take the A59 towards Skipton then turn off on the B6451 towards Pately Bridge, this is called 'going over the tops' by the locals, and once on the road you can see why.....you seem to be on top of the country looking down and across the dales, it's truly stunning.  We always travel this route, and each time we make the trip (no matter what the weather is throwing at us) I am always amazed at the beauty of the countryside, it really is "Gods own country".  In the past I have made Mr. D stop so I can take photos for you, but in all honesty the photos never do justice and you would never be able to see the vastness (depth of valleys and height of the hills/ mountains), so all I can say is - at some point in your lives try to make the journey 'across the tops'.  

On Saturday all the grandchildren were busy so we adults went off to Bolton Abbey for a walk along the river.  'S' could not believe that we had not done the walk before when we visited the Abbey, but this was a first for us.  As we left the car the sun was trying to poke out of between the clouds, but further along the mist sort of hung around a bit more giving an eerie feel to the walk (which I hope I have captured on at least one of the photos.

There is a touch of blue in the sky

I might need this on the way back. but it doesn't look too comfy

Is he going to test it....No the seat was wet

Younger ones striding out

Lovely colours

Bit of mist in the distance, but can you see the water is rushing by

It had rained most of the night and you can see where the water has ended up 

Wonder if white water rafting goes on here?

This is the road to fairyland 

Now you can see the mist on the water

This looks totally flooded, 

and this mini island looks like its floating away.

The route completed now we just have to drive the car back across this bridge....look at the width!!

While we were in Yorkshire I did get a bit more knitting done, and as you can see only just had enough yarn Phew!

Just love the patterns that appear

 Last but not least, when I went to Alli Palli I bought a kit from here.  I made a larger bauble about 6 years ago and had forgotten how enjoyable they are to make, and as these ones are smaller and not so time consuming as the large one I might just make a few more.

Love the white on white

This week will see me pleating up some fabric for my lady smockers so not sure I will have much time for anything else, but I suppose there are always the evenings and more socks to knit!.  

Till next time x x

Back to the machine !!

I had a few hours free at the weekend so decided to get a couple of extra Christmas gifts sewn.  Now I had seen a little tote bag that had a drawstring top on line somewhere and set myself the task of looking for it........well, that was easier said than done.   I searched pinterest and other sites but only  came up with a couple that seemed too big for what I wanted.  I just could not get to the pattern  ...how frustrating is that!! Eventually I came across this one by Pink Penguin it was in my files already but I just couldn't remember where.....its a really nice size for small projects, and was  quite quick to make.  I did add a couple of pockets inside for those small bits that always get lost at the bottom of bags.

7.5" H x  7" W x  5"D 

Little Miss I loves dots so hope she likes this

I then thought I would make a small table runner and decided on this pattern  but I was just going to use the start blocks.  I did exactly as the pattern said, cut up all my mini charms then could not get them to sit nicely on the 4" plain fabric and when I looked at the photos, something didn't seem to match up. So I gave up with a grumpy face as I had already cut my fabric and I felt the mini charm pack was just wasted!  I then came up with this one which went together in no time at all.  Unfortunately a second pack of mini charms had to be used, but at least I got another small gift finished.

Mine is much smaller than the original pattern.

My  knitting needles have been dashing away and  I made another 'cardie' but this one is a bit larger (just added a few more stitches at the 'cast-on' stage) and once again I reduced the length as the pattern did say it was originally made for a rather tall lady   

Think this one will work fine for me.

That's about it for now, so see you next time x

Knitting Nora......

 Firstly let me show you a tiny bit more of my 'quilt as you go' quilt.   I do feel quite happy with this quilt now as I know exactly what I am supposed to be doing to get it finished.   I have added a couple of borders since my little 'slip up' with the scissors.  Firstly, I added a patterned  half inch joining border, then the final border with 'cross hatch' quilting, (mainly because I thought it would be the easiest (big mistake) as I had to unpick about three times before I was reasonably happy!!).  Anyway I am now ready to bind it and add my 'piece-de-resistance' in the center

just getting started

Slowly Slowly

Just a glimpse of the corner

Not a good photo, but as you can see its almost finished

Then the  knitting  took over, and it seems I have finished my 2ply lace mitts just in time......Yes, winter seems to have arrived and they are very handy.   I never did get to grips with the way the pattern told you to cast off, but I could see it would work if you were working on an even rib pattern ie. Knit 1 purl1, or knit 2 purl 2 but my last rows had a mix and I couldn't get to grips with it!

great to wear even indoors

I have also unpicked the kiddies socks that I showed in the last post,  I just thought they were too small.  Firstly I thought I just needed to make the foot longer, but that didn't look right either, so it was back to the beginning......... I unpicked both of them and have re-knitted them having increased the cast on stitiches from 40 to 48.  Its amazing what a difference 8 stitches makes.....just have to hope now that they are not too big and she will have to wait to grow into them.

They now look quite big.

Lastly, I saw my friend wearing a nice 'cardie' that I thought would be great for me, so off I went  to Pinterest looking for patterns and this is the one I chose to use.  Its knitted in chunky yarn, so grows very quickly, but I think the pattern is a bit small for me, so once again I am back to the drawing board.  I hope one of my daughters would like this one, and I am about to start adding extra stitches to the next one and hope that one fits me better.

Keep warm and toastie x x