Catching up

Hello!!

It's been a while since a blog post - I say that every time I post it seems and it's always true. Not sure why - I love reading other people's blogs!

We're at about week 8 of quarantine here. In week one and two we were supposed to be in Spain with our son and daughter-in-law, exploring Seville with them for the first week then hubby and I heading to Tenerife for a week of sun and relaxation. But we cancelled 2 days before, and despite being incredibly sad to miss the opportunity to introduce our kids to something we love so much, we are so grateful for the gut feeling we had that we just shouldn't be going. It was a couple of days after we would have arrived there that countries started shutting down and we would have had to come straight back home.

The next week hubby was laid off from work - I loved having him home to be honest. We realized that in 30 years of marriage we've never had more than a week off together that we weren't camping or travelling. So we enjoyed sleeping in, and some beautiful weather working in the garden. Knowing it wasn't going to last, we just enjoyed it as much as possible. He's got a bit of work now so our staycation is over and that means back to work for me too!

There's been lots of knitting, sewing and crafting happening here - a lot, especially before the quarantine. I retired at the end of last year from my full-time career, and went completely overboard with learning new crafts - painting, sign-making, cards, vinyl, wood-working. You can see some of the projects on the mantel - the three lanterns were a project from the Maker's Gonna Learn Summit in March, the Mr and Mrs signs I made with vinyl on painted blocks that were left-over 2x6's, and the sign on the end is an svg from MGL - I made a stencil then painted the text with a charcoal/black Behr paint sample from Home Depot and a deep coral I made from mixing some acrylic paints. It's on a piece of wood that was left at my son and daughter-in-laws house when they bought it in February. I love repurposing things like that - it was left for the garbage truck!

Onto the knitting… This is a Clapo-tkus by @UniqueCreazioni. It's made from 1 skein of Log Cabin Fiber 100% merino super wash fingering, which is a new base for some of our colours. The colourway is Seafoam. The fingering base is a looser twist than the sock base, and has more of a texture to each stitch. The shawl is a similar construction to a Clapotis, but when you get to half of your yarn, you start decreasing and can use 100% of your yarn with a completed project. I love the dropped stitches and the fabric it makes. Made another one right after, from our BFL yarn that isn't in the shop yet. A really fun knit when you want a simple, portable project.

Then I made a Woodland Journey by Lisa K. Ross [@paperdaisycreations], using mini skeins from our own yarn in Sock 80/20 merino/nylon. I loved working on this project so much. It would look really cute in 2 colours, something and bare perhaps. It was magical the way the pattern almost hides until you're near the end of the colour section then suddenly you see the triangles and it's so pretty!!

Now I'm working on 2 things - the Habitation Throw by Helen Stewart [@curioushandmade], in random leftover colours from my stash, and the Breathe and Hope shaw by @casapinka in our yarn, a solid sock and a variegated fingering. Pictures will be coming later due to weirdness happening with our network.

I'm aiming for a Friday update in the shop, and it'll include some new mini sets we've put together and a few new colourways. Hope your week is amazing, don't forget Surviror season finale on Wednesday, and look after yourselves!