Stay calm and keep knitting

This past week had been full of adventures if excess amount of water can be called an adventure. We run from one flood to stumble upon another and at some point I caught myself in rolled up jeans walking through calf deep freezing water to find a higher place for my dogs potty break. Nor me nor dogs had wellies so it was quite exciting experience, especially for my energetic Dachshund. Good job that he does not mind swimming.
Then a Jaguar slowly hit our car's front door (again, blame the rain, visibility was really poor at that moment) - insurers decided that car will be a write off.... And then my mouse took a coffee break - now it has so much white coffee in it that I need to get a new one who would be not so allergic to coffee. Imagine fun working in Photoshop without a mouse. It's possible, of course, it is actually possible, but it just takes ages to do even the smallest things. So quite a week I would say.

So what I do to keep my sanity? I knit. I just keep calm and carry on knitting. So far this flood time has resulted in 7 mittens (3 pairs already finished, one for the 4th pair completed, and another half way right now - so I keep steady pace  - a mitten per day or a pair in two days.


As UK has been promised more rain all week long, at the end of this flood I will probably have enough mittens to supply everybody, polar bears included.

Och, yes, today I completed the quilting on another bed spread. So not a bad week regarding my indoor projects but that means that trip to Scottish west coast will be delayed for another week or so.

And then most likely it will be it - off to warmer and dryer places. I'm sick of this weather with wet feet and running nose.

Jeremy the Bear

 

This is Jeremy the Bear. 5 joints, glass eyes, needle felted noise. Jeremy’s standing height is 32 cm, sitting height – 26 cm, so he is the biggest so far. He also has an open mouth. He still needs little things done then and there but in general he is ready. 

And this is Laura, the little bear made by my youngest. All 5 joints and blue glass eyes. Now the full garderobe for Laura is planned and some pieces already on their way among the schoolwork.

Monty

Let me introduce you to Monty. He is the first one who has the right strength in joints so he is the first who can stand properly.

 

Monty’s standing height is 20 cm, sitting height – 16 cm (Not a big difference as his legs are short but sturdy). His nose is needle felted and he has glass eyes. 

He already has a little basket that he can carry around and now I’m making him a few little things to put in the basket. There is no point to have an empty one, right?

My youngest also decided to try to make a teddy bear by herself. So far it’s coming together nicely so I’m very proud of her. She knows basic knitting and weaving, now she is trying toymaking with hand sewing and tghen it will be time for a sewing machine. If nothing else, she will be able to sew a lost button at least later in her life.

While I’m completing little unfinished jobs right now, my head is full of knitting designs and patterns. It’s great as when I start, I do not want look back. 

At least one

Well, this morning was nice and sunny so I managed to take picture of one quilt. At least some proof that I'm not laying in bed reading books only :D
Here it is - my version of autumn leaves. It is 72X88 inches. Not very perfect job as usual but all in all I'm improving my quilting skills. The back side is one colour, nothing exciting, but by me, colours matches well to the top.

Where the time goes?

The days are running so fast! I had finished another quilt and made two more creatures but had not had time to take pictures to post here. I also wanted to take pictures of our fireworks on the Guy Fawkes Night but was so carried away that I hadn't made one worth posting! Silly me because we had a great one this time. Even police arrived to check what we are doing but didn't find anything wrong. 

I have started a new top for the quilt, using a triangle shape pieces. Pale orange with different shades of quite light blue. I usually use bold colours so this time I wanted to experiment with something pale. So far it looks quite promising but I'm still not sure about the final product. 

And yesterday I finally took out all my knitting bags, sorted out yarns and now for long dark evenings there will be another thing to do. I'm not great fan of TV, so knitting is my favourite wintertime entertainment at night. I never knit in summer, but when the winter knocks on the door, needles are out.

 

Another wee one

Here we go... Among pumpkin carving and layers of make-up I managed to finish another one. This little creature is ready and even named - Muppet. Glass eyes and needle felted face and paws. Sitting height - 14 cm, theoretical standing height - 19 cm.

Theoretical because no way this wee wobbly one will be ever able to stand. Poor thing is wobbly. I mean seriously wobbly. So for myself I decided - never ever again romantic old fashioned joints with buttons or something like that... Never ever again.

Maybe I simply do things wrong but at least bolts and nuts with additional leather discs holds things together without looking like leg or arm will drop off next minute. That's the reason why poor wee one is wearing a scarf - take it off and it's obvious that we have a serious Parkinson's case. Never ever again.

Other than that I like his little palms and toes, and other little details like that. He is not a bad boy in general, just wobbly. Poor little one.