Crafty

Remember the scarf I started back in November? Well, I finally finished about a week ago, just in time for the weather to start turning all lovely and warm and for winter accessories to be confined to the wardrobe. I did have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps DC was waiting for me to finish the scarf before making an appearance, having read of a similar occurence on another blog (www.yarnharlot.ca/blog) - whereby this lady (who really, really knows how to knit) gave birth to all three of her children just after she had finished knitting blankets for each of them. Clearly, it only works for experienced knitters, and perhaps it only works when the thing you are knitting is actually for the baby and not just for yourself. Anyway, so I have now finally finished the scarf just four short months after starting it. Admittedly there was a bit of an unforeseen hiatus in the middle that wasn't actually my fault - John Lewis didn't have the wool I needed to finish it off and it took them ages to order me some. And then I got distracted by knitting Aubrey, Bramble and Wol. So, now all I need to do is wash the scarf and 'block' it - I have no idea how to do that, so in some ways it's quite lucky that I won't need the scarf til next winter as it will no doubt take me that long to get round to the blocking stage. The photo of the finished scarf doesn't show the colours off as well as I would like - it all looks a bit too bluey-grey for my liking.

But the photo of the skein shows the colours much better - don't you just love them? It's called Rowan Colourscape Chunky by Kaffe Fassett in Shade 435 Ghost. This photo is of one of two skeins I managed to pick up from the reduced basket in John Lewis about a month ago - got to love a bargain! Maybe I can knit a matching hat and gloves set to go with the scarf?! Or perhaps a scarf for DC so we can be cool and trendy 'accessorised mother and baby'. For next winter, obviously.

And, in the meantime, I've been getting crafty in another way - with cross stitch. Back in August of last year I bought this tiny little Christmas-themed kitwhile hubby & I were on a day trip to lovely Dulverton in Devon. As I've never done cross stitching before, I thought something small like this (and cheap - costing only 1.95) was ideal as a way of finding out whether or not it would be something I would enjoy doing. Lo and behold, I then lost the darn thing and Christmas came and went. Then, just a couple of days ago while in the middle of an urge to nest (the joys of being pregnant) I started tidying up a wardrobe and I found it. So, last night while watching two episodes of 24 (love, love, love it) I started stitching away. And it was really enjoyable. Now, clearly I've not exactly got far (yes, all I've managed so far is the border) and no doubt when things get a little more tricky and it all starts going horribly wrong I will decide that cross stitch is the devil's work, but for now all is well.