Jubilee Skirt

When we knew there was going to be a street party in our village for the Jubilee I decided that I would like to make Flopsy Bunny a skirt to wear for it.  I had several ideas on the Jubilee theme - mainly stripes in red, white and blue!!!  Then I came across the Banner Day Skirt from the Modabakeshop website and I knew straight away that this was the skirt to make!!

I made a couple of alterations, the main one was to have the bunting lying on top of the white band of the hem - just like real bunting and of course I added some red ric rac!!!

You would be forgiven in thinking that I am getting carried away by this Jubilee - I tend to see it as an opportunity to dress up, get a bit creative and have some fun.  Do you remember this post?  Well those long stripes of red, white and blue that I was sewing together have turned into these door bows!!  Many houses in the village will be adorning their front doors with them.  The bunting and flags are going up - now we just have to pray for the weather as it is forecast for heavy rain on Sunday . . . !   I'm just popping out to buy some red wellies now (just in case!).

Just one more jubilee post tomorrow and that will be the last - I promise . . . !!

Curled corners and frogging

I'm not sure what happened last week, I seemed to have been on another planet - so many things got overlooked, including two important meetings that I simply forgot about!  I've decided that just wafting through the week is no longer working and I've resolved to be organised, well at least look at the calendar on Monday to see what I should be doing!!

One of the things that I didn't forget, and in fact was really looking forward to, was our trip to Lancashire to visit our lovely friends there.  It was going to be a long car journey both there and back and so I decided to take my blanket to finish off in the car, which I did.  I cast off on the way up and sewed in the ends on the way back.  But when we got back home and I spread out the finished article and looked at THOSE corners, I just thought, they are never going to be flat however much ironing and pressing I might do!  I should have known really, I had forgotten temporarily that to do garter stitch on circular needles you need to knit one row and purl the next (don't ask me why!!), anyway, I just knitted each row and when I saw that it was coming out as stocking stitch, thought oh well, I quite like the different texture look- completely forgetting (yes, it's happening ALOT recently) that stocking stitch hems ALWAYS curl - Arrrggghhh!!!!  So like trying to pull a plaster off your leg or arm (you've got to do it quickly and at that moment before you change your mind), I quickly frogged the border, trying not to think of all the time it had taken to knit!  I'm back on track again now, garter stitch coming along nicely, hopefully soon I'll have something like a finished article to show you!!

Allotmenting

We've just taken on a new 'little'(!) venture with another family.  Our village has just made some land available for about 30 allotment plots and already it is beginning to feel like a little community as everyone tries to get their plots into a fit state to plant something for this year.  It's very exciting although a bit daunting too, but as we are sharing the plot we hope it will be manageable and we will be able to grow more vegetables and fruit than we can currently.  Of course the mummy's priorities have been painting the shed, thinking about bunting and curtains - oh and a spot of veg growing too!!

We've also had a bit of wildlife excitment already. This grass snake was hiding under a pile of wood and for a moment we thought it might have been an adder.  Luckily fearless DH rehoused him and the little ones were very excited about the whole thing and spent hours looking at the patch of ground in case they got another glimpse!!

We managed to plant some pototoes last weekend and this weekend will see a lot of seed planting, beans, peas, beetroot.  Then there are all the seedlings I have coming along in our green house - which includes the potential glut of lettuce plants - I have 64 currently that all look set to mature in the same week - eek - I should have sown them little and often I know!

Coming together

You may remember these little blankets for mice a while back?  Well, they multiplied . . .

 and then started to join together in a friendly, cosy kind of way . . .

until they just needed an outside border (which I fear is going to be the tricky bit as I'm not sure I have a circular needle long enough - only time will tell!).   Whilst I was picking up stitches and knitting interconnecting bits I did think - surely there was an easier way to do this - i.e as one piece of knitting, but then that would have meant I would have had to be super organised and worked out how I wanted each block to look like.  Instead they have just organically come together, one block at a time and I've really enjoyed that.  I'm also really enjoying the whole effect - almost too good to be a car blanket I'm now thinking . . . !

Rainforest Butterfly

Flopsy Bunny's school is always having a dressing up day it seems.  Today was one of those days.  They had to go to school dressed as some sort of rainforest animal or native person.  Flopsy Bunny was very clear she wanted to be a butterfly, luckily I had some pipe cleaners, an alice band and some lovely purple floaty material. . .

One butterfly!  I think the antenna's are my favourite bit!!