Ruth's Little Leprechauns

YOP Update

2012-02-26T11:40:00.001Z

Morning everyone

This week has seen a little and I mean little progress. I've been busy all week but for the life of me I can't see with what lol.

The only thing I have worked on is the Ravenclaw beanie and it got late in the week and Alan came home and I just didn't get the last couple of rows done on it, so an hour on Monday morning will finish this off for definite.

Ravenclaw Beanie

I didn't make any further on the sock I'm afraid, its still in the same position.

Caoimhe's Sock

I did get another project ready to start. I got the yarn to start the Topograph Cowl by Verdigris Knits.
I've not knit a cowl before but I loved the look of this one so I just had to get it ready to start. I intend to cast this on after the beanie is done.

Topograph Cowl

Looking forward to visiting you all and seeing what you have all been up to this week.

Happy Knitting,
Ruth

Giveaway Winner

2012-02-25T18:31:00.001Z

Evening bloggers,

Its a bit later than expected but we have had a busy day and have gotten round now to having the draw for the winner.

We put all entries onto slips of paper and put all the names in a bowl...

Then as all the children wanted to draw the winner I had to have a mini draw for them to see who would pick the winner lol. Dominic was this winner so he pulled the name out of the bowl while James held it...

And the winner is Linda from Stitching with my Furbabies...

So Linda if you could email me with your snail mail address I'll post you on your package. Linda opted for the yarn.
Congratulations Linda on your win and I hope you enjoy your package :)

Thank you all for taking part and I'll be having another giveaway in the dishcloth challenge later in the year, I also have plans for another one soon so stay tuned.

Happy knitting or stitching or even both :)
Ruth

Dishcloth Challenge

2012-02-23T14:42:00.000Z

Good Afternoon bloggers !

I'm a wee bit late today updating the dishcloth, several reasons being 1 I seemed to have a lot of chores to do this morning and 2 I only finished off the last few rows of this cloth this week.

As you'll recall from last week I was starting the Harry Potter themed facecloths for the children this week. I put all the names in a tub and hubby pulled out a name and it was Alan so he got his cloth knit this week. I got all patterns for these cloths on Ravelry but I'll give individual links to each one each week.

Alan chose this Deathly Hallows cloth and wanted it in black and blue, where the colours were put he didn't mind he just wanted those colours so at the start of the week I faffed about trying to decide which way I wanted it and which way of knitting it up would work best for me so finally on the third attempt I got it the way I was happy with.

Deathly Hallows Facecloth

The edges are done in black moss stitch and the centre is done in blue stockinette stitch with the hallows symbol done in black stockinette stitch. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and although these may not be my personal colour choices they are extremely effective together. I used King Cole Bamboo Cotton which is 50% Bamboo and 50% Cotton. As these cloths are going to be facecloths I think the bamboo will give a softer finish and they work up wonderfully in it. I used a smaller needle size to give a tighter stitch and it could benefit from a light blocking but you'll have to excuse it as its hot off the needles !

Hubby is going to pull the next name from the tub later today when everyone is home so we can see who's cloth is next !

Keri's cloth over at whendidibecomeaknitter has done a lovely circular cloth, something I've to get round to trying so check it out.
Kim Page after Page has done an Elvish Leaves cloth in red, I love it, its a combo of one of my favourite patterns and colours.
Tricia over at Tricia's Craft Box is working on Little Garden Girl in the most adorable pink ! check it out, its gorgeous.

My best friend Lucie has started knitting dishcloths also, why Tricia and herself think I am to blame for roping them into the addiction that is dishcloths I've no idea rofl, when she shows some of hers I'll let you know and she's already done some wonderful ones.

I'm still reading The Missing by Tim Gautreaux and its just starting to get into it. It was a bit slow to get started and so was a slog through as what has happened hasn't set the background or anything so I'm not sure as to the purpose of the beginning, perhaps all shall become clearer. Thats on my kindle and in paperback form I'm still reading Heavens Wager and its good, its got a good pace and flow. Heavens Wager was recommend by my friend Vickie and she's just started up her own blog A Stitchers Story so do please pop over and welcome her to the land of blogs. :)

I leave you now with some pictures I have taken during the week of Ruairí and Elizabeth they were having a quiet moment together in the chair...probably planning their next mischievous act..don't be fooled by their innocent look, these pair together keep a body on their toes.

Ruairí and Elizabeth

I realised this week that Benjamin makes himself scarce when the camera comes out so he doesn't appear in front of it to often, something I shall rectify this week lol.
Here is Elizabeth this morning caught as she looked at me from her book she was looking at. They are never to young to develop a love of books!

Remember Sundays are YOP updates and Monday there will be an update from stitching. The giveaway on last weeks cloths is still open until Saturday when we shall draw out a lucky name from the hat so you still have time to enter HERE

Happy Knitting,
Ruth

Nicolas Competition

2012-02-23T08:59:00.005Z

Nicola over at Stitching By A Cornish Sea Shore is having a fun competition for photos of funny sleeping positions our family's or pets would sleep in.

For the competition I searched back through albums and was lucky enough to find I had printed this dear photo out (I lost a lot of photos of the children a few years back due to a virus, it was heart breaking) .

This was taken some years ago of Alan. It was Dominic's 4th birthday so Alan is 3 here. We had been getting things ready for Dominic's party and were wondering why it was so quiet and where was Alan and this is where we found him ! It was such a photo op that couldn't be passed up.
As a baby Alan was always the one you would find asleep anywhere at any time and he was always the mischievous one, not that he's changed much but some of the younger ones sure would give him a run for the title, Elizabeth mainly lol.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

IHSW with finishes and rotations.

2012-02-20T10:18:00.000Z

Morning bloggers !

I trust you all had a good weekend, me I enjoyed a lovely IHSW. The children were off Thursday and Friday last week on mid term so we got weekend chores out of the way early and so I was relatively free from Friday lunchtime. Let me tell you this is a rare thing so I took advantage and stitched and stitched and then stitched some more :)

Last week I began a new rotation. I chose 3 projects I was working on and decided to work 10 hours in turn on each of them.
The first in the rotation was the hunting picture which I began at the start of the week. I'm delighted with the progress and its really taking shape. Its not a terrible big piece being no bigger than 5 x 7 but as you say some pieces you just love more than others.
This is where I started from

Hunting Picture - Before

After its first 10 hour rotation this is where I left it.

Hunting Picture - After

Second on the rotation list was Robin Hood, this I'm doing as a SAL with Linda over at Stitchin with my Furbabies. This is a really enjoyable piece and I'm hoping that one more 10 hours rotation will complete it and just in time for Alan's birthday.
This is where I started from

Robin Hood - Before

After its 10 hour rotation this is where I left it

Robin Hood - After

Just coming onto the weekend I was ready to start my third project which was Mrs Darcy. Well you know how I enjoy this piece and I'm awfully pleased to say that it did not take the full 10 hours to complete. I had time this weekend to finish and frame it, now I've just to decide where to hang it.

Mrs Darcy complete

I can't say when I started this piece as I started last year and it became one of my crazy challenge pieces for this year. This is my first challenge piece completed. It was stitched on 28ct antique ivory or gold but I think gold and I used the recommended DMC threads.

Mrs Darcy framed

Mrs Darcy Upclose

Mrs Darcy complete

I had one other small finish this weekend and that was the Mill Hill ornament I was working on last week. The candy canes got their remainder beads attached and its been cut out and backed with felt.

Mill Hill Candy Cane Ornament

So all in all its been a very productive week and weekend. I love IHSW as its a chance to really just allocate the weekend to stitching.
Now for this week it just so happens I'm ready to start the rotation again, I don't think this will happen every week, especially as some projects will just be starting but I will stick with this rotation for as long as it suits my needs, I'm not sure how this will work with blog posts but I'm sure it will work its way out.
The rotation has 4 projects now and as each one gets complete it will be replaced by another project.
Each piece is going to be worked on for 10 hours.

Hunting Picture
Robin Hood
Horses Picture for Caoimhe
? this is I've not decided on just yet but will as I'm working through the rotation

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2012-02-19T11:11:00.001Z

Can you believe how quick the weeks are going !
So much to do and so little time!

Thankfully this week I seemed to be back to my normal speed, which I liked much better than last weeks sluggish speed, I guess I like to hurtle along at speed lol.

Last weeks aims were fairly simple to finish the first sock of Caoimhe's and cast on the next. I'm pleased to say I managed this and the first fits perfectly, woo hoo way to go me lol. I'll show a picture of Caoimhe's happy feet when I have both socks complete.

Caoimhe's finished sock and next one started.

I meant to say I learned the Old Norwegian cast on when I started this pair of socks as it said it had a very elastic foundation row and I have to say I like it. I'd be interested to hear how you all cast on or other good cast on methods for socks. I'm hoping to get well on with this second sock this week as there is a queue now for some :)

The second aim of the week was to cast on the Slytherin Beanie for Dominic but he kindly gave up his spot so I could knit the Ravenclaw one for Alan in time for his birthday. Alan assumes I'm working on the Dominic's and we have not corrected his assumption as it will be a surprise for him then. This I am hoping to finish this week and then move onto Dominic's.

Ravenclaw Beanie

Thank you for all the lovely comments last week, as ever they make me smile.
Kepanie, I will look into that Teach Yourself Visually Sock Knitting book. I have seen there is a new release upcoming of Folk Socks, I'm liking the look of this to so we shall see. You see what started with one itty bitty pair of socks .. An Addiction ! lol
Sandy all the children are at home my eldest is aged 11 and then its a step formation down to the baby who is 19 months. I have a few more years of them at home around me and I'm doing a Scarlett O Hara and just not thinking about when they start to move from home...I'll think about that tomorrow lol.

I'm so glad some of you were also able to get some of the sock yarn from Lidl, I to would not have know about it but for my friend Tricia.
We have a new yarn store open in the next town to mine and its lovely to go in and browse the yarn in person as most of my yarn I have to get online so I suppose I'm not doing to bad when I pick it out and as of yet have not gotten something I've disliked, but it does take me forever to pick yarn out lol.

I've been looking at my list and I know I'm not going to get all complete this year (list is under the tab Knitting Year of Projects at the top). I have socks I need to add to the list but I just can't decide what to take off for this year and add to next years list. Perhaps I'll just work away at the list and move over what is not complete.

Looking forward to catching up with all of your projects this week.

Happy knitting,
Ruth

GIVEAWAY

2012-02-16T14:51:00.001Z

Hello Bloggers !

Today I'm having a small giveaway in connection to my dishcloth challenge.

As part of the giveaway I have this weeks cloths which is a Trio of Dishcloths. I've worked them in a warm buttery yellow (picture is doing the colour no justice) and these are the main prize of the giveaway.

Giveaway-Trio of Dishcloths

The first in the set is a Waffle Pattern.

Waffle Pattern

The second cloth is a Ridge and Rib Pattern.

Ridge and Rib Pattern

The third in the set is a Garter Basketweave. This picture is also the most closet to the actual colour.

Garter Basketweave

These have all been knit in my Lily Sugar N Cream which is 100% cotton and I got all three cloths from the one ball with some left over.

The next part of the giveaway is for knitters or stitchers, as I know I have a mixture of both. When entering you have the option of getting either 2 balls of Debbie Bliss Cotton or else 5 skeins of DMC thread, you just decide which you want.

Choose from A the cotton or

choose B the thread

The third part is just some little extras that will be a surprise for the winner so I'm not showing you a picture of those but there is chocolate involved lol and something has to be a surprise.

Rules for entering are easy peasy..

1. Be a follower.
2. Leave a comment on this post and just state whether you want to receive the yarn or thread if your the winner..see told you it was easy lol.

Giveaway is open until Sat 25th when I will draw for a winner.

Now that we have the important giveaway out of the way I can let you all see the yarn that arrived for doing some cloths for the children in their colours that they picked out and just to warn you all these are all Harry Potter themed lol so over the next few weeks that's what you will be seeing.

The Bamboo cotton is for the children's cloths and the yarn at the top of the picture is for a scarf.

Reading wise is a fairly quick post. I had my first book club meeting with our local club during the week and loved it, I will be returning. For this we are reading The Missing by Tim Gautreaux. I've only started it and so can't give you much info on that so that's going to be my main read for this month.
I have moved on with Heavens Wager as well but won't give a review on this either until I finish.

Remember YOP posts will be this Sunday and IHSW weekend is this weekend and I'm trying out a new rotation so will update stitching in a post on Monday.

Happy knitting and reading,
Ruth

Theme-a-licious Update

2012-02-15T00:01:00.000Z

Update on Fangirl February is going good so far.
As you remember I was doing some Jane Austen pieces, mainly Pride and Prejudice and my pieces in this were my Mrs Darcy Sampler and the Mr Darcy Piece.

Here is how my Mrs Darcy Sampler looked at the beginning of February.

Mrs Darcy - start of February

Here is my progress half way through the month.

Mrs Darcy - mid February

I'm really pleased with how far this one has come and am hoping I get this one finished by the end of the month. I ordered a frame for it last week and its been made and came so is ready for me to frame once complete.

My Mr Darcy letter I ordered the materials for. I changed the threads to some silks and I'm hoping that order arrives this week as I know its been dispatched and so will start that then.

So far Fangirl February is going well and I'm hoping for the rest of the month to go as good. How's your Fangirl February been.
Remember you can find out all about theme-a-licious HERE

Happy Stitching,
Ruth

Weekend WrapUp

2012-02-13T09:37:00.000Z

Good morning bloggers!

Well this past weekend the slump that hit my knitting hit my stitching. Friday night I worked on hubby's hunting picture and didn't make much progress. I'm only showing you an after picture as it doesn't look that much different. I still can't get into this one and I'm thinking of changing up my rotation a bit with working on this one in mind to get it done. More on that in a moment.

Hunting Picture

Saturday was a wash out stitching wise. With weekly housework chores to catch up on and the children's hairs to cut, although James no longer wants me to cut his rofl I must not be cutting it cool. It ended up being late Saturday evening when I got sitting to stitch, I normally can get an hour in the afternoon or so, and then I didn't feel like stitching so I knit.

Sunday I worked on an ornie. This one is going into the box of proposed Christmas gifts this year but I don't know its looking quite lovely already and it still needs half of its beading putting on. Its a Mill Hill kit of Candy Canes. I'll finish this up this weekend and make it up.

Mill Hill-Candy Canes

Then on Sunday night it was the lovely Mrs Darcy Sampler. I still love this piece so much. After having a bit of a wash out all weekend I felt I needed an extra little boost so on went my Pride and Prejudice dvd. I had only time for the short version, i.e the one with Keira Knightly and the lovely Matthew MacFadyen, he's no Colin Firth but when short on time a perfectly good substitute. The long version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle I shall be keeping for my Mothers Day treat and I can hear hubby and the children groaning already lol.
Here are some photos from two of my favourite scenes in the movie, and everyone can be doing with a little Mr Darcy to start of the week I reckon :)

Oh and I did make great progress on the sampler, I wasn't totally caught up in the film. I reckon the film helped with getting so much done as looking at the chart I have about a third left and I'm finished. The frame is also on order for this so hopefully it will be here when I finish.

Mrs Darcy Sampler- Before

Mrs Darcy Sampler - After

As I said earlier I am thinking of mixing up my rotation a bit. I was reading this piece HERE about rotations and having the perfect one, something I'm always on the look for, I may give this one a go starting with hubby's hunting piece. If any of you have this rotation I'd love to hear your thoughts and if your looking for a rotation or ideas on one this makes an interesting read on the subject.

There I leave you. A post on will be coming on Thursday with updates on the dishcloth and reading challenge and also details of a giveaway I'm having in my dishcloth challenge so keep an eye out for that.

Welcome to all my new followers, thank you and I hope you enjoy stopping by, feel free to comment as I love hearing your feedback.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2012-02-12T11:01:00.002Z

Good morning bloggers!

This weeks post I'm afraid is short, its not been a very productive week. Its been a slow week knitting wise and the slump has hit the weekend also. I'm hoping next week I'm back up to full speed.

So all I have to show you this week is the progress I made on Caoimhe's sock. It is now half an inch from the toe forming point. I love this book that I'm knitting from as it gives wonderful instructions on how to keep those holes from forming when making the gusset, you know those annoying little ones around the heel. I know I said it was a bit hop up and down the chapters but once you get the hang of that it is brilliant.

I've done this with a 2x2 rib up to the heel and then a stockinette stitch from the heel up to the toe.

Sock.

The book

The aim for this week is very simple to finish this sock and get the next one started and to cast on a Slytherin Beanie for Dominic, I won't bore you showing the colours of that as you've all seen the green and silver here on the blog already in the scarf. lol.

Thank you all for your wonderful comments last week, I really enjoyed reading them.

Welcome to my new followers, if you have a blog and I haven't gotten round to yours and following I will do. I find it easier to keep up with everyone by becoming a follower and then I get their updates in my blog roll lol.

In the next week or so I will be having a giveaway in my dishcloth challenge posts on Thursdays so keep an eye out on that and also Thursdays is now part of the Thursdays Book Challenge and you can check out details on that over at An Accidental Knitter

Happy knitting,
Ruth

Catching up on SAL's

2012-02-10T13:47:00.002Z

Afternoon bloggers,

Stitching on the SAL's was good this week, some days better than others but overall progress has been good.

Monday : SAL CCN's Cottage Series
Stitched on 40ct lambswool linen with the recommended threads.

CCN Cottage-Before

CCN Cottage-After

Tuesdays : Elizabeth Hancock Sampler by LHN
Stitched on 32ct Light Mocha with the recommended Belle Soie colours

EH Sampler-Before

EH Sampler-After

Wednesdays : Prarie Schooler ABC's
Stitched on 32ct lambswool linen with the recommended DMC threads.
I seem to be at this boat forever lol, this coming week I'm hoping will finish most of the brown on it off .

PS A-Before

PS A-After

Thursdays : Robin Hood by LHN a SAL with Linda over at Stitchin with my Furbabies
Stitched on 28ct Light Mocha with the recommended DMC threads.
This needs to be ready for Alan's birthday on the 6th of March so I really need to knuckle down with this on Thursdays.

Robin Hood-Before

Robin Hood-After

That's it so far for the week. I did order the frame for Robin Hood and the Mrs Darcy Sampler during the week so I can frame them when I have them done. I also ordered threads for my Mr Darcy letter piece I'm wanting to do and as there are so few colours in it, I changed the colours to silks to what I think will blend so I'm looking forward to those arriving.

This weekend I'll be working more on the hunting picture and Mrs Darcy of course and I'll start another ornament.

Sunday will be a blog YOP update.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Dishcloth Challenge and Thursday Book Challenge

2012-02-09T10:19:00.002Z

Morning Bloggers as you can see I'm linking my Thursday dishcloth update with a Thursday Book Challenge being held over at An Accidental Knitter . A good way to combine both knitting and reading and getting the balance right, more on that in a bit though.

First off is this weeks dishcloth and I went with a love theme in honour of Valentines Day this month.
This cloth folks is as mushy as I get, unless its Mr Darcy, I don't do mushy or fluffy, you saw the extent of my pinkness the other week with my pink cloth which was for a gift so its not in the house anymore lol. Anyway this weeks cloth is called Be My Dishcloth which I have renamed a heart one. It got it from a great blog called Kris Knits and she has lots of other great dishcloth patterns both free and for sale.

Be My Dishcloth

I don't normally go for this type of pattern as they can become tedious but this was laid out wonderfully and knit up very quickly. I used for this yarn a Debbie Bliss Eco Baby Fair Trade Cotton in a red/pink colour, which was hard to get the colour in a picture and these are the best of a bad bunch I'm afraid. This is going to be for use as a facecloth but for a dishcloth I'd definitely recommend knitting on a smaller size needle. I'll be going back to Kris's site for more patterns.

Keri over at whendidibecomeaknitter has another great Dr Who inspired cloth called Dr Who Bad Wolf cloth and its knit up in a gorgeous purple yarn, worth checking out.

Kim over at Page after Page has knit up a ballband dishcloth and its in the most gorgeous colourway, it reminds me of the sea when I look at it.

My friend Tricia over at Tricia's Craft Box has just started knitting up some cloths, she says I enabled her but I plead innocence, it wasn't me really lol. She is dedicating Friday nights to this and has already come up with some wonderful cloths , a Granny's Favourite Dishcloth (one of my personal favourites) and a Knitted Beestitch cloth, which looks likes its going to be a great scrubber. Check her out for sure.

I was asked a couple of weeks ago what I did with the cloths and I don't think I replied to that question, sorry, I can be quite forgetful. Anyway I use them in my kitchen or in the case of the above one in the bathroom. They are fantastic for washing dishes and cleaning down benches and tables, a shop bought one just doesn't compare, it can't as its not even near the knitted dishcloth league. I was sceptical until I used them but now wouldn't use anything else. Perhaps a giveaway of some cloths is needed..mmm, leave that with me and I'll work on it !

As I said earlier over at An Accidental Knitter they are holding a Thursday Book Challenge, a way to balance out reading and knitting as sometimes one can overtake the other. I am linking up with them and as its the same day as my dishcloth it works out perfect for me for blogging, but will probably make a really long post, perhaps I should have gotten you all to make a cuppa and passed round the biccies !!

This past week I finished reading Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa. This was this months read for our local book club that I'm hoping to get to next week. I downloaded this onto my kindle from Amazon.

From Amazon :
Mornings in Jenin is a multi-generational story about a Palestinian family. Forcibly removed from the olive-farming village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejos are displaced to live in canvas tents in the Jenin refugee camp. We follow the Abulhejo family as they live through a half century of violent history. Amidst the loss and fear, hatred and pain, as their tents are replaced by more forebodingly permanent cinderblock huts, there is always the waiting, waiting to return to a lost home. The novel's voice is that of Amal, the granddaughter of the old village patriarch, a bright, sensitive girl who makes it out of the camps, only to return years later, to marry and bear a child. Through her eyes, with her evolving vision, we get the story of her brothers, one who is kidnapped to be raised Jewish, one who will end with bombs strapped to his middle. But of the many interwoven stories, stretching backward and forward in time, none is more important than Amal's own. Her story is one of love and loss, of childhood and marriage and parenthood, and finally the need to share her history with her daughter, to preserve the greatest love she has. Set against one of the twentieth century's most intractable political conflicts, Mornings in Jenin is a deeply human novel - a novel of history, identity, friendship, love, terrorism, surrender, courage, and hope. Its power forces us to take a fresh look at one of the defining conflicts of our lifetimes.

From Me:
This is one of the most thought provoking books I've read in quite a while and while its not a tough read in the writing it is tough in its subject and it forces you stop and think. You may need some tissues and it will keep you up at night to the early hours. It gives you a view from the other side of the fence and like most things in life there are two sides to everything. Although the characters themselves are fiction the facts are not, they are available for anyone who wants to read them. One thought that haunted me from the get go was here were the Jews who survived the atrocities of the Holocaust and who in a few years did the same things to the Muslims. Were they so scared that this seemed right to do to others what had been done to them and in forming the new Israel were they not just repeating the ills of history. If we look back on history we seem it repeat itself, just a different time and place. I really would recommend this book to anyone.

I am also still reading Heaven's Wager by Ted Dekker and I'm as far as his the happenings with his son and I feel I know whats going to happen next so I've put it aside for a moment as I just don't like to know whats going to happen in the story. I will return to it in a week and see how I feel then on it. This is my paper book lol.

On my Kindle I'm reading Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron. This is written by Stephanie in the style of Jane Austen and from letters and notes of Austen's is suggesting that Jane herself may have been quite good at sleuthing. She also hints that some of the characters met here were the basis for characters in Austen's books, mainly Lord Pitzroy Payne as Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.
I'm in two minds about this book also but will probably continue on with it. I think the problem was my first book of the year in Mornings in Jenin captured my attention and imagination straight away that these two books fall slightly short in that aspect, something that's not their fault but is more mine in a book, it has to grab me from the get go and more importantly it has to keep me there.

That's whats on my reading table for the week, if you want to check out more about the Challenge hit the link at the top of the post.

If you are still here at this point and even get so far as to comment then I must give you a huge thank you in advance as you deserve it. I sat this morning to blog and didn't expect it to be quite so long so for that I apologise.

Tomorrow I will be back for a shorter (I promise) update on some stitching through the week.

Happy reading and knitting,
Ruth

Scones...mmmm

2012-02-07T13:36:00.002Z

Yesterday amidst the bugs and colds I just had to bake bread and scones. The bread I needed as all my soda bread was used from the freezer (I make soda bread in batches and then freeze in portions) and the scones were from a recipe my friend Tricia gave me.

Now I'm not the biggest lover of scones as I find them dry and not terribly sweet but after tasting these I am a convert. Now they are buttermilk scones and have no sugar in them but to combat that this is what I did with them lol...

Jam and Cream scones

I used some homemade raspberry jam from my Dads garden and some freshly whipped cream.
Now they were plenty sweet enough for me and tasted very delicious with my tea lol

The recipe was so quick and simple that I had them mixed and the first batch done while hubby did the school run yesterday morning !
Here is the recipe..

Buttermilk Scones
Ingredients

225g Self raising flour
1.4 tsp salt
40g butter
1/4 pt buttermilk
extra milk for brushing

Method

Preheat the oven to 230C, Gas 8
Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl.
Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the the buttermilk and mix to a soft but not sticky dough with a knife.
Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead quickly until smooth.
Roll out to about 1/2 inch think and cut into rounds or like me triangles...way to lazy to take out the cutter lol..
Transfer to a greased baking sheet and brush the tops with milk.
Bake for 7-10 mins or until well risen and golden.

Hope you enjoy the recipe and remember if you do try them out let me know how they went.
I've a few ideas for this recipe and will add a few things to them, will keep you posted.

Happy baking
Ruth

Weekend Happenings

2012-02-06T10:18:00.000Z

Morning Bloggers from a cool and foggy Ireland, as yet we have not had the snow that has hit most of Europe and the Uk as of yet we are snow free. Seems both sides of us Europe and the US are being hit with it, makes me think how long we can last with getting none!

Thank you all for the get well wishes I am feeling a whole lot better which is better for everyone as I'm a terrible patient lol. Most of the children are over their colds although Elizabeth's is lingering and Ruairí has come down with a tummy bug, poor wee man...

The cold and tiredness of it made me sit still in one spot at the weekend long enough to make progress on my projects...

Friday and Saturday nights was the turn of the hunting picture..I think I will stick with this until its complete and then move onto some of the summer birthday projects I have. The hunting picture is coming on but the stitching is so bit here and bit there it can be a tad frustrating!

Hunting Picture - Before

Hunting Picture - After

Saturday and Sunday I worked on the PS Santa Ornie that Benjamin picked out, this was last months ornie and I have it complete now. I stitched this during the day and put it together on Sunday during the Ireland v Wales rugby match. Note to self, attaching beads while screaming at the lads on the tv is does not lead to the best results as was evident by the spilled beads all over the couch and then we lost by 2 points :( bummer !
The other children picked out an ornie each in this series and I stitched Benjamin's name on the back with the year so it can be remembered by him.

The finished PS Santa Ornie

The dreaded beads lol

Name with year

Sunday nights sees me stitching on a piece that is just for myself, so naturally I took out Mrs Darcy, this piece is part of my theme a licious piece this month along with one other Darcy piece which I will kit up over the next week or so. I'm coming on just close to the half way point with this sampler and later tonight shall think about a frame for it while ordering one for Robin Hood. Then they are here when I'm ready to frame.

Mrs Darcy - Before

Mrs Darcy - After

Yesterday while watching the rugby, the children were getting into it and had a good ole run around. This is Ruairí afterwards completely pooped and several hours before his bug hit, no wonder he got pooped so quickly, poor pet...

He is now hopefully over the worst of it and will hopefully not spread it to any others !

I'm off now to take my brown bread out of the oven, it may be cool for lunch time if not the fresh made scones I made before the bread will be !

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2012-02-05T10:40:00.003Z

Morning bloggers, the cold is on the mend thankfully and I'm finally feeling somewhat normal lol.

Work this week has been sporadic with me grabbing time here and there as I could. With the little ones with colds and tummy bugs my time was limited.

I did finish off the Gryffindor Beanie as when my cold hit after the little ones were better and I couldn't move I sat and knit lol.

Gryffindor Beanie

James was thrilled with it and even agreed to model it for me, a rare treat indeed as he's at that age (11) where its not cool to do these things with Mammy lol. Note his slightly longer hair do, something else he says is cool, I've yet to be convinced but he must start making these decisions himself.
I think he may have his eye on more beanies after this, just so he can keep his cool look lol

My James in all his loveliness (shhh don't tell him I said that lol)

Side view

Top of beanie

All of the scarves and beanie patterns are from the Charmed Knits book by Alison Hansel a great book. I know some of you were wondering where I got them. I bought my copy from Amazon and now that the children have found it I won't tell you how many things they have there eye on !

While Dominic was at piano practice during the week I got some more done on Caoimhe's sock and I'm near about an inch from the heel part. Hopefully this week I'll get to it as she's quiet impatient to have them finished and this is only the first one ! Better get knitting pretty quick lol

I guess looking at the pink shades coming in now it may be girrly and there's no way any of boys will entertain pink!
But my friend Tricia at Tricia's Craft Box was telling me how our Lidl stores here in Ireland were selling yarn this Thursday but with my cold I didn't get out but hubby who very kindly went to do the shopping for me took a trip up to the extra store and got me two packs of each colourway in the sock yarn that they had ! Way to go hubby :D (both on the shopping and buying yarn !)

New sock yarn

Now my boys certainly liked the grey and blue mixes on the right lol. I now need to adjust my list for the rest of the year as I need to knit them each some socks and beanies. With this in mind I'm going to move some of the scarves to next years list along with the huge list the children have of what the want knitted lol. I'm going to keep trying to have a scarf finished in the month so this month I aim to finish the Victorian Spring Scarf.

Thank you all for the comments on last weeks post and as ever you are right, a scarf can never be to long so I shall knit the 18 and knit a further 9 repeats onto that and then review it. Its a slightly thinner scarf so I think it might look pretty fashionable longer.

Until next week,
Happy knitting,
Ruth

SAL Catch Up

2012-02-03T17:09:00.003Z

Evening bloggers,

Its past my normal time but Elizabeth very kindly shared her cold with some of the children and myself so we have been resting lots as we just don't have energy for much. Luckily that means they'll sit with me while we rest and I've been able to get some knitting done. I've been sat beside my fire for most of the day apart from necessary jobs.

Before all energy disappears I thought I'd catch up with my SAL's for the week.

Monday is the CCN cottage series. Here is where I stand now on January cottage and as the weeks go by and I become more accustomed to the 40ct I'm beginning to enjoy it. I'm sure by the time I've all 12 cottages done I'll be used to it lol. I am enjoying the fine look of the stitching on the 40ct.

CCN January Cottage- Before

CCN January Cottage- After

Tuesdays is the turn of Elizabeth Hancock Sampler by LHN. I'm nearly finished the green of the border across the top on the first page so some progress is being made.

Elizabeth Hancock Sampler-Before

Elizabeth Hancock Sampler - after

Wednesdays is PS ABC's. In answer to Linda's question last week these I am stitching individually on 32ct lambswool and the intention is to frame individually in the same kinds of frames and hang beside each other. Hopefully that vision in my head is what I will end up with.

PS ABC-Before

PS ABC-After

Thursdays is the turn of Robin Hood which I'm stitching along with Linda over at Stitchin with my Furbabies . This I'm stitching on 28ct light mocha.

Robin Hood -Before

Robin Hood-After

Not bad progress looking back over the week considering one or more of the children had a cold or a bug in that time, of course a night of total insomnia helped as I was up at 4am and whats a girl to do only haul out the stitching lol.

Now I'm going back to my fire and my stitching and that will be the extent of the weekends work I fear, well perhaps I'll get up for some chocolate as chocolate makes everything better including colds ;-) and tea lots and lots of cups of tea I think will help also.

I should be back on Sunday with my YOP post but if I'm not you'll find me here beside my fire :-)

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Dishcloth Challenge

2012-02-02T11:38:00.000Z

This weeks dishcloth is one of my favourite without doubt I found it on Ravelry while having a search through some dishcloths, its called Celtic Cables Dishcloth . Now if you know me you'll know of my love for all things Celtic, see I'm not all about p + p lol.

Celtic Cables Dishcloth

I worked this yarn in plain and simple white so as to set off the design. I used Debbie Bliss cotton again for this and the one ball was plenty with some left over. Just hit the link above for the pattern.
Its been some time since I worked on cables, I think not since my Mum taught me many years ago so it was good getting back to what I remembered and it turned out to be a lovely stitch as well as my favourite design.

First pattern repeat

Second pattern repeat

Celtic Cables Dishcloth finished.

Close up of cables

The group Keri and I set up for anyone wanting to set their own dishcloth challenge is on Ravelry and you'll find it here Super Scrubbers 2012 Dishcloth Challenge come on over and join in the fun, no pressure, no set patterns, you set your own personal challenge and pick the patterns that appeal to you.

Keri's from whendidibecomeaknitter has worked on the cutest waving frog dishcloth. Its in a lovely green yarn and is so cute. She gives the link to the pattern on her blog.

Kim from Page after Page has been knitting up a ballband cloth and she has done it in a super colourway and its a fun knit.

I'm not sure what next weeks cloth shall be, I may root through some more patterns and see what takes my fancy. At the weekend I shall be ordering the cotton for the children's Harry Potter themed cloths so after this and possibly next week you shall be seeing those !

Tomorrow will be a catch up with the SAL's from during the week.

Happy knitting,
Ruth

Goals new and old

2012-02-01T09:39:00.001Z

Last month I had been reading how Dani over at Black Belt Stitching Wizard set out goals for each month with regards to her stitching, she was encouraging each of us to give it a try so I did and what a great idea. For the whole month I knew where I was heading with my stitching and it helped I think to set mini goals towards completing some of my bigger challenges.

So a look back at January's goals

~~Start 15 Crazy challenge pieces~~ DONE
~~Stitch Ruairí's birthday present~~ DONE AND FRAMED AND HANGING ON HIS WALL
~~Make a start on my SAL pieces mainly CCN Cottages, Elizabeth Hancock Sampler and PS ABC's~~ DONE
~~Knit 4 Dishcloths~~ DONE
Stitch a small ornament - NOT DONE tiny bit left, I need to start these early in the month as I only stitch on these a little at weekends.
~~Finish my One Row Lace Scarf and start another scarf~~ DONE and Victorian Spring Scarf is started.

All in all I'm pleased with having met my goals for the month and apart from the ornament most things are done and complete on the list. The ornament needs at most another hours stitching and then just needs to be made up.

Following on from this now here are my February Goals

Finish Robin Hood in time for Alan's birthday.
Finish January's Cottage in the CCN Cottage series.
Work some more on hubby's hunting picture.
Work on both Mrs Darcy Sampler and Pride and Prejudice Love Letter as part of the theme-a-licious challenge.
Finish January's ornament and complete an ornament for February.
Finish knitting James Gryffindor Beanie
Finish knitting Caoimhe's socks
Finish knitting the Victorian Spring Scarf and start the next scarf on the list
Knit 4 dishcloths.

A slightly more ambitious list but its about giving direction and seeing what I need to aim towards.

Have you tried this ? If not give it a go and see how you get on.

I've also had a background change for the month, something I think I'll be doing each month just to freshen things up a bit.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Theme - a - licious catch up

2012-01-31T10:49:00.002Z

Time to catch up on how theme-a-licious went for January. January's theme was to work on something with flowers and or gardens in. I chose to work on English Garden and apart from the start I made on it for the crazy challenge I'm afraid I didn't go back to it this month. I did however put in the garden on my Mrs Darcy Sampler. It seems I worked on a totally different piece than I decided on at the start lol and I forgot a mid month update so here are some pictures before the garden going in and after.

Mrs Darcy Sampler at the start of the month

Mrs Darcy around the middle of the month with her garden and house put in.

Mrs Darcy as she stands at the end of the month

For February the theme is Fangirl February.

Fangirl February

Send a Valentine to your favorite designer...or at least work on his or her designs for the month!

For this month my fangirl goes to Jane Austen and the book Pride and Prejudice (I hear you all gasp in shock ...not ! lol)

I WILL (note the determination) be working on getting more done on Mrs Darcy's Sampler as it has one of my favourite quotes from the book ...
" I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."

and the other piece is that oh so famous line by Mr Darcy...

"You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you "
Now you can't tell me that wouldn't make any girl swoon :)

So with both these in mind now I set off to start :)
I did forget to add that both my Pride and Prejudice pieces are from The Sampler Girl.

Remember if you want to join in you can check out the theme-a-licious blog HERE and I'm looking forward to checking in with everybody.

I will be back tomorrow with an update on January's goals and how they went and I will be setting out February's goals.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Weekend Catch Up

2012-01-30T16:34:00.000Z

Good evening bloggers :)

Grabbing a quick few minutes to update from the weekends stitching while Elizabeth is occupied. She's got a dreadful cold and wants cuddles and snuggles with Mammy, although totally wonderful, it doesn't leave much time for jobs and chores let alone stitching or knitting !. But as they grow the cuddles and snuggles are becoming less :( so I have to take advantage of them while I can ;)

Anyway stitching this weekend revolved around Ian's hunting picture and now that the dreadful hopping all over the place green was out of the way I could get started on pieces together. I worked on this Friday and Saturday night. I'm still not feeling the love with this project and only its for hubby I'd most likely chuck it in a corner lol but for him I'll continue on.

Hunting picture from Zweigart's Needle Art booklet, The Great Hunting, stitched on 28ct white evenweave

I've also been working on my ornament for January and I fear it won't be complete this month as each time I sat to this I got called away. Some days are just like that and I'm sure the time will be made up on it in February, good job I started them early lol. I'm not sure on the finishing I want on this so I may finish stitching it and when I decide on something make it up then.

PS Santa Ornament stitched on 32ct light mocha linen

Then on Sunday night I hauled out my beloved Mrs Darcy Sampler. I've decided for theme a licious February where it is Fangirl February that this is my project I'm going to work on and I have one other Darcy and Elizabeth piece I want to start as a dedication to them as we all know I am a MASSIVE FAN lol..but you'd not have guessed that right! lol. More on that on Tuesday or Wednesdays post. Here is the updated picture.

Sampler Girls Mrs Darcy Sampler stitched on 28ct antique white (I think! antique white or ivory but I think white)

That's been my weekends stitching and thank you all for your lovely comments from last week. I'm glad so many of you are enjoy Mrs Darcy as much as I. Course Mr Darcy isn't so bad either *devilish wink ;-)

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2012-01-29T13:13:00.002Z

Morning Bloggers from a wet and damp Ireland. The view out my window is grey and everything is dripping with rain, perfect weather for staying indoors and knitting and stitching :)

I have been wondering if we YOP Bloggers are going to continue on as a group into next year as I've found it a wonderful way to set out the year with some aims, yes the projects may change and the list is adapted as the year goes on but grass roots of it is kept to, the setting out of the list and working toward the completion of it.

This past week I've finished off the Jelly Bean Baby Sock (hit on the link for pattern) and they are a perfect fit for Elizabeth. I did forget to take a picture so I'll try to remember that next week. All of you who predicted I'd become addicted and cast on another pair of socks were right I did ! lol. I cast on a pair for Caoimhe. They happened to be for Caoimhe as the Schoeller and Stahl yarn I had was called Blackberry and the boys decided it was to girrly for them lol so they have to wait until I get a more boy coloured yarn! I have a picture of the book I'm using to knit this second pair out of and its quite good, jumps up and down chapters a bit for me but then I guess I just like a pattern with it all written there in front of me so I can read it right through and then start.

Socks

I am really enjoying knitting these and I do have to pull myself away to finish other projects such as my scarf. With this in mind I may change my list to some more socks and a aim for a scarf a month to help towards presents.
So I did work on the Victorian Spring Scarf this week like I said, I didn't get it finished but I got distracted by other lovelies. How I have a question on this for you all. Here in the picture you will see I have 12 of the pattern repeats done of the 18 it says to complete in the pattern but I think that even when I add on 6 more pattern repeats and blocking that this scarf is going to be still way to short and will need another 9 pattern repeats at least ! Any opinions ?

Victorian Spring Scarf

My one other cast on project of the week has been the Gryffindor Beanie. Yes I'm back to those colours and knitting in the round again lol. James saw that the needles I needed arrived and asked if I could knit it up for him so I measured him and off I went with it the other day. He chose to have the wide striped beanie to match his scarf-which he never takes off :) .

Gryffindor Beanie.

This is knitting up quickly enough as I've only spent an hour or two on this late in the week so hopefully these shall be quick enough knits. The children have gotten their hands on my charmed knits book and are now asking for Harry Potter themed jumpers so I think we shall be running with this theme for awhile lol.

Looking forward to checking up with you all and thank you for the lovely comments of last week, they are heart warming. :)

Happy knitting,
Ruth

SAL Update

2012-01-27T13:53:00.001Z

I've just a quick update for the stitch a longs I've been working on this week.

Monday is the CCN Cottages series. I'm doing mine on one piece of 40ct lambswool..oh boy is 40ct tiny! I didn't make as good progress as I'd wanted as when I got to the white I found it hard so I think this is a slow and steady kind of project lol

CCN Cottage January- Before

CCN Cottage January- After

Tuesdays is the turn of the LHN Elizabeth Hancock sampler. This I'm stitching on 32 count light mocha, I love this shade of linen and combine this with the silks of the sampler and its turning out to be a lovely stitch.

LHN Elizabeth Hancock- Before

LHN Elizabeth Hancock - After

Wednesdays is the turn of Prarie Schooler's ABC's. I'm stitching these on the recommended 32ct lambswool linen with DMC threads.

PS. ABC's- Letter A

Thursdays is my SAL with Linda over at Stitchin with my Furbabies together we are stitching Robin Hood. Its a Little House Needleworks piece. I need this done by the end of February for Alan's birthday so I think I need to get my skates on with this piece. Linda is also having a wonderful blogoversary giveaway over on her blog so head on over and check it out.

LHN Robin Hood- Before

LHN Robin Hood- After

The weekend is going to be spent working on my husbands picture and I have my ornament I want to have finished by the end of the month and Sunday night is back to the lovely Mrs Darcy Sampler :)

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Dishcloth Challenge

2012-01-27T13:32:00.000Z

I know I said I was cutting down on my computer time but I didn't mean for something to take the whole line down and leave me with no internet at all ! This is what happened and I sure did miss my little computer time I've allocated to the blog lol. I did cast on some more knitting projects but more about than on Sunday !

This past weeks dishcloth challenge I knit this fantastic little scrubber called The Squidge Cloth it came out lovely and is a quick and simple knit up so it is, perfect for some tv watching. The photos don't really show off the shade of green to well, yes it is green a sage kind of green not this wishy washy colour in the pictures. No matter what light I took the picture in it came out the same!

This cloth is my 4th of the month and keeps me right on track for keeping up with the challenge.

Keri and myself are in the process of setting up a group over on Ravelry for this challenge so any of you knitters who want to do your own personal challenge stayed tuned for the details. It is very much a group for you to set your own personal challenge and to knit or crochet whatever patterns you fancy. Nice and easy and laid back.

I've already started the cloth for next week as it is just gorgeous. I think this one I'm dong now is my favourite of all in quite awhile ! Stay tuned for that next week.

While the children were having some play time I got some knitting in and I leave you now with a few pictures of Benjamin and Elizabeth having a wonderful time with the play kitchen !. I drank oodles of play tea and toast and the play buns and cakes are simply scrumptious and very very low fat ! lol

Elizabeth preparing the toast !

Benjamin with cakes..yum :)

Remember YOP update on Sunday and following this update is a SAL stitching update :)

Happy Knitting,
Ruth

IHSW

2012-01-23T10:01:00.004Z

Morning Bloggers !

This past weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend so a perfect excuse to get down to some stitching. With the crazy challenge starts out of the way, I got it hard to settle down to a particular project and it did take a day or two for me to settle down to something.
I am doing the next birthday present I need Robin Hood in a stitch along with Linda so I decided the best thing would be to work on the one I need after that which is hubby's hunting picture. This I worked on Friday and Saturday night.
This is where I'd left it after its start for the crazy challenge.


Before

This is where its at after two nights, it seemed to have taken ages to get this bit done, I'm going to say its down to the scattered spacing of these stitches and it should hopefully fill in much better and quicker now.

After

On Sunday I started a Christmas ornament that I want to get done this month as one of my goals for the month. Its from a Prairie Schooler design and I'm in no particular rush and am happy to finish this off next week. A rare change for me that something hasn't a deadline lol.

Prairie School Ornament.

On Sunday night I went onto something that's going to end up as a finished piece for myself and I chose to work on my Mrs Darcy Sampler..oh how I wish I could work on this some more but if I do, none of the birthday pieces will get completed on time lol. So I am doing a little, just enough to feed the soul with it, a reward so to speak for doing the birthday pieces first lol.

This is where it was at the start of last nights stitching session.

Before

This is where I left if off at the end of last nights stitching session. I'm thinking I may leave Sunday evenings for stitching on something that's going to be for me but we shall see.

After

All in all I'm quite happy with all I got stitched in my weekend. Its amazing how much more I get done since I've cut my computer time right down so I think I shall continue to do that and we might even see the birthday pieces done before birthdays!

Friday shall be a catch up with the stitch a long pieces I'm doing during the week.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2012-01-22T13:19:00.002Z

This past week, I've been knitting socks...oh my they are addictive, so much so I've done nothing more on my Victorian Spring Scarf and instead I've been knitting these wonderful little socks called Jelly Bean Baby Socks. These were recommended to by by Kepanie when I asked what would be a good sock to start of with. They were perfect, just ideal and I fear they may have ignited a tiny little spark of loving to knit socks.

One Jelly Bean Sock complete

I chose a purple Rowan Cotton yarn as it was closest in gauge to what was required, I did just move up from a 4mm to 4.5mm needle to give me the correct gauge. I cast on and divided the stitches and then totally had a silly moment...I was looking at the fourth dpn and was wondering at which point I used this..rofl and only after knitting with the three did a light bulb suddenly go off in my head and I realised doh I needed it to make them into a round, some days I really don't know where my head is at and you'd certainly never have guessed I'd spent the last 4 months knitting scarves in the round !... Well after this moment I seemed to fly at them and consulted a few online photos around the heel, and gusset forming bits to make sure I was heading in the right direction and before I knew it I was doing the kitchener stitch and hey presto one LITTLE sock knitted and one BIG ole happy dance !

The second sock is nearly up at the forming the toe part and then it to is complete and Elizabeth shall have a pair of socks ! Woo Hoo..*another happy dance. This was one major goal for me this year to knit a sock and I'm just thrilled to have done it and now I can look up more sock patterns and yarns and fulfill the rather large order of knitted socks that has come in from hubby and the children ! I guess I know what they are now going to have as part of their Xmas pressies this year lol !

One and a bit of a sock lol

Again the completed sock, isn't if fab lol

This evening will finish off the second sock and I'll have photos next week of Elizabeth modelling them lol. I think this week I shall work some more on the scarf on my needles as I'd really like to see this finished this month to keep me on track with other gifts that need stitching. I shall also be browsing my list and yarn stash to see whats next for casting on !

If any of you have any other great sock patterns for me to try out please do say I'd love to hear about them ? Also now that I seemed to have conquered socks I think gloves and mittens shall now be on the list to conquer !

Dishcloth challenge on Thursdays and thank you all for your wonderful comments last week as always they make me smile and I enjoy reading them tremendously.

Happy knitting,
Ruth

SAL's and IHSW

2012-01-20T12:28:00.000Z

Monday to Thursdays I have set aside for some SAL's and the intention is to blog about these on Fridays then blog on Monday on progress I've made on other crazy pieces I've worked on during the weekend. That leaves Sundays for YOP knitting posts and Thursdays for the Dishcloth Challenge and then any other days for baking and reading as and when they arise, this should give you an idea of when certain things will be blogged about.

SAL's this week commenced with me making a start on Monday with the Country Cottage Needlework's Cottage series. This I'm doing as part of the SAL group HERE . I'm stitching mine on one piece of 40 ct Lambswool Linen. Progress was small as it was late Monday night when I started having worked all day on Ruairí's completed pirates and my eyes were tired, not a good thing with 40ct. I am hoping I am going to get the January cottage done this month and then complete each month in its respective month but we shall see.

CCN January Cottage

Tuesdays is the SAL group of Elizabeth Hancock HERE . What can I say about this apart from it being totally gorgeous to stitch. I am stitching mine on 32ct Light Mocha and I am using the recommended Belle Soie silks, so lovely to stitch with. Here is the progress from Tuesday night.

Elizabeth Hancock

Wednesdays are going to be for the Prarie Schooler ABC Patterns this is with this SAL group HERE .
I am going to frame mine individually and then hang them together to make a collage of sorts when complete. These are going to be stitched on 32 Lambswool Linen using the recommended DMC threads. I have no progress to show you on this as I got waylaid by the fascination of my first knitted sock on Wednesday lol.

Thursdays I'm stitching Robin Hood by LHN with Linda over at Stitchin with my Furbabies . I have a before last nights stitching session and after on this for you all.

LHN Robin Hood at the start of the night

LHN Robin Hood at the end of the night.

This weekend is IHSW weekend, so as soon as daily jobs are done this weekend I'm going to be devoting a lot of my time to stitching this weekend. On the menu for stitching is my husbands hunting piece which will be needed after the Robin Hood piece is done. I also want to get a small Christmas ornament stitched, finished off would be great but stitched will do and then I may switch to something else that takes my fancy if I make good progress on the hunting piece.

Post on all this on Monday. Sunday will be YOP post.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Weekly Dishcloth Challenge

2012-01-19T12:16:00.000Z

Morning bloggers, its bright and sunny here and it feels like spring is coming !

On the dishcloth front, I've caught up now that the crazy challenge part of my stitching is over so I have my complete cloth for this week to show you.

But first a picture of last weeks cloth completed. It was the Lizard Ridge Dishcloth and I just loved this one, it reminded me so much of the sea and I love the sea :)
I've seen this stitch used in bags which I'm tempted to go try out and I think it would make a great stitch for a scarf..I might play around with that idea a bit.
Here is is.

Lizard Ridge Dishcloth

Close up

For this weeks cloth I chose to knit the Linoleum Dishcloth. This is such a gorgeous pattern and the pinks in it just spoke to me, and I'm not really a pink colour, its ok in extreme moderation, well this blows that idea out of the water but it is a cloth for a gift so it won't matter to much that its pink ! lol

It is knit with knit stitches and slip stitches so it has a real scrubby feel and so will be a really good cloth for cleaning. I used Rico Aran Cotton and this is my favourite brand of 100% cotton to use. It comes in 50g balls that seem to last ages and its inexpensive.
The design is reminiscent of linoleum floors with its interlocking diamond pattern and knit up so fast, a real winner I think. I may revisit this later in the year I have a combination of grey white and lime green I want to try with this !

First pattern repeat with dark and light cream

Second pattern repeat with dark pink and cream

Back to dark pink and light pink for the last pattern repeat and finished.

Close up of the stitch.

Kim over at Page After Page has knit a gorgeous Double Bump dishcloth for her first in her challenge of a dishcloth every two weeks and she will be posting today her next new one so check her out.

Keri over at whendidibecomeaknitter has knit a Seal of Rassilon cloth for her first one, again Keri is aiming to complete a cloth every two weeks. Her Seal of Rassilon is a Dr Who inspired cloth for all you fans out there :)

I'm off now to see what takes my fancy for next weeks cloth !
Tomorrow I'll have an update on my stitching SAL's that I've been able to start this week.

Happy knitting,
Ruth

Yarn Along.

2012-01-18T13:11:00.001Z

Ginny over at Small Things is having a yarn along where we share both what we are reading and knitting or crocheting at the moment... I thought I'd join in with this and think it a good way to encourage me to keep up with my reading challenge, so first off on the reading front..

In hardback I'm still reading Ted Dekker's Heaven's Wager this is moving on now and I'm real interested to see whats going to happen and on my Kindle I am reading Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa, this one catches you from the get go and is in danger of having me staying up later than I should at night, don't you love that about a book.

Mornings in Jenin I've had to buy but is well worth it and came as the book to read for the month in our new book club that is running in our library and meets once a month, something I'm going to try and clear my schedule for, even if the time is slightly awkward.

You might ask why I have two books on the go, well see I love my kindle but I just cant let go of a real live book so to speak as well so you'll find I have both on the go lol

Right now in my knitting I've a Victorian Spring Scarf on the go as part of my YOP's posts, so just check in a couple of posts below to see this, I also have my dishcloth of the week which is flying along and should be finished right on time for tomorrows post so check back for details on that.

I also have cast on my first pair of socks !...I'm so excited about that, I've never knitted them before so they are a learning curve, of course I'm only a couple of rows in as I just got a bit of time this morning while the little ones were having play time so there is still plenty of time for them to become a knitted knot. These are the Jelly Bean Baby Socks featured here and I'm knitting them for my youngest Elizabeth..

Looking forward to hopping round on everyones posts and finding a few more books to add to the "to read" pile and some tempting knitted goodies.

Happy knitting and reading,
Ruth

A Pirates Life Finished

2012-01-17T16:40:00.004Z

Hello Bloggers...I'm doing such a happy dance at the moment.

Not only have I finished CCN's A Pirates Life, I've also had time to frame it. Ruairí tells me he has the perfect spot for it just over his bed so Daddy shall be taking out the drill and putting it for him there.
This is my second finish for the year so the year is off to a great start.

This project is the first started and finished in my diary so it took me 14days from start to finish and took a total of 40hrs55mins. I stitched this on 28ct Antique Ivory and used the recommended Crescent Colours, Weeks Dye Works and DMC threads.


CCN's A Pirates Life

Close Up

Ruairí, really excited to have his picture finished.

This finishes off all commitments until Alan's birthday in March and means that for each of the 7 children's birthdays they have gotten a stitched picture as part of their presents.

A recap of those pieces are...

Alan's rugby players

Caoimhe's cushion

Elizabeth's cushion

James wizard

Dominic's footballers

Benjamin's cowboys

Ruairí's pirates.

This year they are getting some stitched pieces also.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2012-01-15T11:19:00.001Z

Morning bloggers

I have a finish to show you all for this week. I completed my One Row Lace Scarf so I'm doing another little happy dance. This is going to be a gift either for a birthday this year or else for Christmas. I was asked where the pattern came from last week and its from Ravelry a free chart, just hit the link in pink.
Caoimhe was my model today for scarf.

One Row Lace Scarf

I loved this pattern and I will be knitting it again for myself I have another Noro yarn in mind for it !

I cast on my next scarf that is for a present also. Its the Victorian Spring Scarf. I have to say I'm loving this pattern also, I think I just like lace really. I played around with the size of needle this one is on and finally settled on a 5mm, it did say 6mm but I just wasn't feeling it, this scarf is going to be blocked when finished and we all know the powers of blocking !
This is just two repeats of the pattern.

Victorian Spring Scarf

I also got my yarn for the socks which I forgot to take a picture of but I am casting those on this week so I'll have something fingers crossed to you show you on that next week.

My Dishcloth Challenge is posting on Thursdays for anyone wanting a gander, links to the cloths and patterns used. It is now a threesome with Kim from Page after Page and Keri from When did I become a knitter joining in. They both have some excellent picks for their first cloths.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Crazy Days 13 & 14

2012-01-15T00:27:00.000Z

Just one day left, can you believe how quick they have gone. Its been interesting and I have to say certainly crazy lol. I'm looking forward to the starts being finished and being able to concentrate on a project for more than what seems a moment.

For day 13 I chose to work on Alan's photostitch. I kept three of my most favourite pieces till last and bigger pieces as well..this was just a little start but I am really looking forward to getting back to this and is definitely one I'd like to finish this year..

Photostitch

Day 14 I chose to work on my HAED Sanctuary of knowledge. I wished I could work longer on this today but I needed to spend time on Ruairí's pirate picture. This is a WIP and I forgot the before picture, I did add 6-7 rows on the bottom of the long column and start the next column, even though it doesn't look like much there is about 100 stitches of 1 over 1

Sanctuary of Knowledge

I did work some more on the pirates and they are moving along, with stitching tomorrow on them I'm expecting them to be finished early next week.

LHN's A Pirates Life

Last post I was telling you about two extra projects I was adding into my crazies, well I've gathered them together and they are now ready..

The first extra is a Naomi Elizabeth blackwork design that is featured in the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of Just Cross Stitch..

My other extra is a freebie I got and I can't remember where, I saw it completed on a blog I follow and they gave the link and that's about all I remember. It is called Beds of Roses Sampler and is designed by Terry Loewen, so if anyone else knows more please let me know..

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Crazy Days 9-12

2012-01-13T00:30:00.000Z

I'm a bit late posting the last few days crazy challenge, due to several factors, 1 being I was working on Ruairi's birthday piece which isn't done but hopefully by the end of the weekend it will and 2 making the most silliest of mistakes one evening that meant the two starts I was doing that evening needed frogging !

For day 9 I started the Cut Thru Pirate Ship by Bothy Threads, this is Ruairi's birthday present for next year...does anyone else see the irony of me trying to finish this years one this week while still starting next years! Well I started it and was really pleased with my mistake and moved onto day 10's start another Cut Thru this time Noah's Ark, this is Benjamins birthday piece. While starting this I realised I had my fabric portrait and needed it landscape, well I suddenly wondered what way the pirate ship was supposed to be as they were similar in size and realised then my mistake, I'd stitched the pirate ship wrong way round. I left it in the envelope with the intention of correcting said mistake the next day and off I went on the Noah's Ark, at this stage it was getting late and I only did a bit before calling it a day and as I was taking the piece off the frame realised I'd started at the fold in the material from where it was folded in the pack and not the fold above that I'd put in to mark the middle, so I now had two pieces that needed frogging and just from the one evening...

Well yesterday I had a sulk with it and didn't touch them as I wasn't in the frame of mind lol, but today I went back to them and corrected both and made a restart so here they are..such little starts but such trouble !

Day 9 Cut Thru Pirate Ship

Day 10 Cut Thru Noah's Ark

I also got starts in for days 11 and 12 and these went smoothly lol. For day 11 I chose to work some on the hunting picture for my husbands birthday.

Day 11 Hunting Picture

Day 12's piece I decided to work on James' birthday piece, this is the Hogwarts Crest. This is one piece I'm really looking forward to getting back to.

Day 12 Hogwarts Crest.

Just three days left for the starts and then I can get stuck in with stitching more on a piece than a few stitches, this is what I'm looking forward to. I have to say though I have two other pieces that nearly made it into my crazy list but I couldn't take anything out as most are birthday gifts so I've decided to add them in anyway. I will give more details on these two extra pieces at the start of next week !

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Dishcloth Challenge and a Happy Birthday

2012-01-12T10:53:00.000Z

Today is Ruairí's 4th Birthday :)....
He wanted a snake pit cake so we went to it and this is what we came up with..

It is a chocolate flavoured cake with fresh cream and jam filling and then we decorated ! ... Ruairí had a great time decorating and according to him this cake needs sugar as in his world cakes need sugar ! lol

Last weeks dishcloth was completed and put into use immediately, it turned out wonderful and is a lovely easy pattern, highly recommended if you are just starting off with knitting dishcloths and indeed a step up from a normal garter stitch one. It makes a terrific scrubber..

Darrell Waltrip Dishcloth

For this weeks cloth I chose the Lizard Ridge Dishcloth , again this is a freebie from Ravelry, just hit the link. When I saw this cloth it reminded me of the sea and thats what inspired my yarn colour choice..

Lizard Ridge Dishcloth

Close up of the cloth

For this cloth I'm using Debbie Bliss DK Cotton in blue and white as when I looked at this I saw the waves. I've also learned the wrap and turn stitch and picking up those wraps and turns in order to do this cloth. I love learning new things so this suits me right down to the ground.

The children discovered my Harry Potter cloth patterns and now each want one ! So I now have 7 orders for different Harry Potter motifs all in different colour ranges lol. I think I may dive into my cotton tub and see what I've got..what are the bets I don't have some of the colours they're after!..
At least it will cover 7 weeks or more in the challenge.

Kim over at Page After Page is joining in with me on this challenge. She is extremely busy and is aiming to knit a cloth every two weeks. Between us both we should come up with some interesting patterns and hopefully by the end of the year have a lovely little pile of cloths, great for use and for gifts ! Kim is starting off with a Double Bump cloth which looks wonderful !

Until next week,
Happy Knitting,
Ruth

Reading Challenge

2012-01-11T14:16:00.001Z

This post marks the first post in my reading challenge. My aim this year is to read 40 books. There won't be as many pictures in this post so I hope you will stick with it.

For my first book in my challenge I chose a trilogy of books recommended to me by my friend Vickie...I asked her if she could recommend one book to me what would it be and this is what she said...

Ted Dekker's Heaven Trilogy

I've never read any books by Ted Dekker before so he's a new writer to me and I like his style, this would not normally be a book I'd pick for myself but I'm caught up in the story of the first book..Heaven's Wager, and can't wait to read more. I'm on chapter 7, well nearly chapter 8 and he's got my attention, always good if you want to keep me reading your book, the pace of the book is moving good...really good recommendation so far Vickie :)

These three books will keep me going awhile and I've a few lined up after that to go towards my reading challenge of reading 40 books this year...

Thoeria over at My Little Corner of Cyberspace is reading Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin and I've just checked these out on Amazon, I think I'll be starting with book 1 here Thoeria, they sound good lol

When Vickie recommended the Heaven Trilogy to me I recommend the books of Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice in particular , oh come now you readers can't tell me you are surprised by that ! lol...so going on these lines if you could recommend a book to me to read this year what would it be ?
I will read most everything, although I do try to limit chick lit books to an absolute minimum (Lucie you can only recommend one lol ! ), post your recommendations in the comment box and I'll make a list :)

I will be back tomorrow with a dishcloth challenge update and Friday with some crazies updates, I'm sulking over having made two mistakes on two starts at the moment with that ! I have to frog them but I'm doing every other job but that at the moment lol

Happy reading
Ruth

Crazy Day 8

2012-01-08T23:57:00.001Z

Today was a lovely relaxing lazy day for us all, the children go back to school tomorrow so its back to watching the clock and running round...sighhhhh, can you tell I like the holidays..wonder how long till the next one ..

Anyway this afternoon was spent with the children catching up on some new films they got I sat and stitched on crazy day 8, then I switched to some knitting and then tonight onto Ruairí's present...it was wonderful and I can't remember such a relaxing day. This week started off hairy and mixed in with a lot of sleepless nights I was very pleased to see my stitching hours for the week add up to 27hrs 55mins and my knitting hours added up to 6 hrs. With so many starts my knitting hours have been suffering but this will even itself out I'm sure.

Time I think for some pictures now that I've bored you some lol...
This here is my Renaissance Rose by Joan Elliott that I started, I have to say I loved stitching this tiny bit lol and can't wait to get back to it, this is a project just for me! (hard to believe)

Tiny start on Renaissance Rose

This here is Ruairi's birthday piece so far.It is LHN's A Pirates Life. For some reason the going on this is slow and I can't just figure out why? His birthday is this Thursday and I really have my doubts on whether it shall be finished on time, its taken me a week to get this far and I'm just a little under halfway. I think some tiny starts for the rest of the 15 and crack on with this shall be the order of the week!

LHN's A Pirates Life.

Thank you all for your encouraging comments all this week they have been lovely to read and mean a lot. The updates shall settle down after this week lol. I haven't forgotten my book update I am getting right stuck into it and although not my usual style of book I am enjoying it, it has my interest! More I promise on that during this week.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2012-01-08T11:55:00.001Z

Morning bloggers!

This week was busy and hectic with not a lot of sleep, some of the smaller ones had very disturbed nights, luckily its not a cold or flu they are coming down with and I'm hoping we have turned the corner on that...knitting time was sketchy this week as any of you who have been following my stitching side of things as well will know about my crazy challenge in that..

I did however get some more done on One Row Lace Scarf . I lay this aside to work on the Harry Potter scarves and I've forgotten how much I'm enjoying this pattern and the Noro yarn is such a delight to work with..I've been debating since I started it whether it was going to be a present or for my own use and I've decided its going to be a present and I'll knit it again for myself.

One Row Lace Scarf

I will get a closer picture next week of the stitch as I forgot that this week!

Thank you all for your hints and tips on socks...sorry Faith but crocheting them still fills me with terror, perhaps after I manage to knit a pair I'll try doing my crochet and see how I get on but be warned I'll be full of questions ! Anyway I've ordered dpns as I think I may prefer this method over the magic loop but we will see and I ordered some yarn also so hopefully those will arrive this week...I love new yarn coming in the post..

I did order some more cotton for dishcloths and for the Victorian Scarf . I chose a rose colour for this as it looked like an antique pink and I'm opting for cotton in this scarf as I think this will give it the stitch definition I'm after with this one. Once the One row lace scarf is finished I'll cast this on.

New Cotton!

Bamboo Cotton in Rose Pink

I have some new needles to knit the Harry Potter hats on order also as I hadn't the proper size and the children have also put in orders for dishcloths in specific colours but more of that in my dishcloth challenge during the week...

Looking forward to catching up with you all and seeing what's on your needles and I want to thank you all for your wonderful comments last week, I really did appreciate them.

Happy knitting,
Ruth

Crazy Day's 6 & 7

2012-01-08T00:08:00.003Z

Here are my starts for days 6 and 7 in the crazy challenge...both starts are small as I'm working on a birthday present for Ruairí, updates of that next week.

For day 6 I chose Caoimhe's birthday present an Equestrian Duo kit from Dimensions..I've switched the aida for a 28ct antique white..well it looks like antique white lol

Small start on Equestrian Duo

For today I chose an Out Fishing piece, it was featured in one of the magazines..details of which elude me at the moment but should anyone want them I will go and search...again a small start, this will be my Fathers birthday present as he is a keen fisherman and he shares his birthday with Caoimhe lol... This is stitched on white 28ct evenweave of that I'm sure and is using Anchor threads.

Small start on Out Fishing

Hope my readers are still enjoying the updates, we are now just on the halfway point of the starts for this challenge and soon the updates will slow down as I work on actually finishing these pieces lol.

I have been at work also today on choosing some pieces to go towards Christmas presents this year !, nothing like starting in time and I am determined to not be rushing last moment.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Crazy day 5

2012-01-06T01:03:00.000Z

Today for Crazy day 5 I started LHN's "Robin Hood", this is a Thursday SAL with Linda over at Stitchin with my Furbabies this is the progress I made on it in the last 3 hours, well in between catching up on Greys Anatomy and NCIS LA lol.... really looking forward to doing more on this and as this is a birthday present that needs to be ready for March watch this space !

LHN's Robin Hood

While going round on my usual blogs Dani at Dani:Black Belt Stitching Wizard was blogging about how she sets out her monthly goals for her stitching and just for herself really, no pressure no hassle if they are not met, just goals to aim towards in the month and I thought what a good idea this was, as I have so much on this year, or at least planned I thought this might help break it down into more sizeable goals so here goes....

January Goals.

Start 15 crazy challenge pieces.
Stitch Ruairi's birthday present.
Make a start on my SAL pieces mainly the CCN cottages, the Elizabeth Hancock Sampler and Prarie Schooler ABC's
Knit 4 dishcloths
Stitch a small ornament
Finish my One Row Lace scarf and start another scarf for an Xmas present.

This is the bulk of what I want to aim for. I'll be back at the start of February with a review of what I accomplished and goals for February..

I've had a few ask how I get the time to do so much, I've no magic solution nor do my leprechauns give me extra hours in the day..boy would I love that, my days start at around 6am and with a good routine in place...I simply cannot survive without one and the household would quite literally grind to a halt without it... I get jobs done mainly in the morning and as I'm doing one task my brain has moved onto the next and the others to be done... I mostly fit in anywhere from 4-6 hours crafting and I divide that between knitting and stitching, depending on what takes my fancy, what needs doing and my level of tiredness, knitting is easier for me when I'm tired. The bulk of my crafting time is done when the little ones are in bed but its not unusual for them to be sat on my knee while stitching or knitting during the day... Ruairi likes to unwind the wool as I knit...mainly into a knot...Elizabeth sits on my knee while I'm stitching and Benjamin curls up beside me if his favourite tv programme is on lol, this doesn't happen everyday though unfortunately. So you see no magic power just really a hefty routine, its always a routine..lol

Time for bed now I think...morning is calling..

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Weekly Dishcloth Challenge

2012-01-05T10:04:00.001Z

My personal challenge of knit a dishcloth a week this year started with a spurt more than a bang lol...I had planned on starting it on New Years Day when I was in my Mum's but that fell apart so it was several days later when I got it cast on...

For my first cloth I chose this Darrell Waltrip Dishcloth it can be found for free on Ravelry. Its a cloth that works well in a variegated yarn and it just so happened I had a ball of Sugar N Cream variegated which I'm using for this one.

First Pattern Repeat

I'm now just over half way with it and would expect it to be finished in the next day or so, this is a lovely thick cloth, just perfect for dishes or indeed hot pans...
Its a very easy stitch and pattern to follow and I'd recommend it.

Halfway through

A close up of stitch

I'll have a finished pic of this one for next weeks cloth update.

Happy knitting,
Ruth

Crazy Day 4

2012-01-05T00:54:00.001Z

For crazy day 4 I decided to work on LHN's "The Old West", this will hopefully be Dominics birthday present for this year and will be a stitching along with Linda over at Stitchin with my Furbabies well once we finish tomorrows start of LHN's "Robin Hood". We both had picked several of the same patterns and we decided we might as well stitch them together, she very kindly agreed to stitch them in an order which suits me and the way my birthdays fall this year !

Here is the update for today !

LHN's "The Old West"

Tomorrow as I've said I'm working on LHN's "Robin Hood". I will also have my knit a dishcloth a week challenge update tomorrow for anyone who wants to check that out !

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Crazy Challenge Day 3

2012-01-04T09:37:00.001Z

Well after the madness of the last few days and very little sleep the night before with the little ones, poor things are feeling a little under the weather and were awake poor things so we just had a relaxing day and a lie about.... so stitching was slow and limited to after the little ones bed times, normally I can squeeze in an hour here or there in between chores...anyhow... for yesterdays challenge piece I chose to work on my Gorjuss kit "New Heights", this piece is going to be Elizabeth's birthday present for later in the year...this was a wip so I've a before and after picture for you

Gorjuss kit "New Heights" before last nights session

Gorjuss kit "New Heights" at bedtime

I'm off now to get a start onto day 4 as everything is calm and still at the moment and best take advangtage of that!
Happy stitching,
Ruth

Starts, Finishes and Crazy's

2012-01-03T11:53:00.005Z

Good morning bloggers !

Happy New Year to any that I may have missed. If you read my earlier knitting post you'll know I had a wonderfully quiet and simple Christmas and if not..well you know now how my Xmas went lol. The start to my New Year unfortunately could not be said.
Grab a cup of your favourite beverage and settle in for the catch up !

New Years Day dawned bright and sunny and we were off to my Mum and Dad's for lunch but that soon turned into a trip to the out of hours doctors and then onto A & E for my Mum who suddenly felt unwell. Thankfully after a 6 hour wait we were seen by the dr who was happy enough for me to take her home. It seems its part of the terrible flu she has picked up so she is back to her own doctor for the third time with it.

I left you all before Xmas with the Nursery Rhyme series being stitched for the younger children, well I got the two boys finished and framed and although I got Elizabeth's started before Xmas I was unable to finish it in time for it to go under the tree, I was able to pick her up something to unwrap on Xmas so I suppose she got the best of both as her picture is now complete lol.

Here are the pieces finished and framed.

Benjamin's Little Boy Blue

Ruairi's Jack and Jill

Elizabeth's Little Miss Muffet

CCN Nursery Rhymes

Yesterday was Benjamin's 3rd Birthday so I started CCN's Cowboy Dreams for him for his birthday on St. Stephens Day and finished and framed it the Friday before New Years (when I stay off the computer its amazing how much I get done! lol)....
He is a massive Thomas the Tank Engine fan and he wanted a blue train cake for his birthday so I did my best lol...here are some pics of his picture and his cake enjoy...

CCN's Cowboy Dreams

Close up of Cowboy Dreams

Blue Train Birthday Cake

The Birthday Boy Benjamin with his cake

As you all know I'm doing the CJC 2012 and so had to start my 15 starts well as you can imagine with the drama of New Years Day and I didn't get home from the hospital with my mum till near 2am there was no starting anything for me on Jan 1st so yesterday I had a catch up with two projects...they were only very small starts but I figured at least now I'm up to date and can carry on now, plus the project I had planned for Jan 1st is one I'm coming back to after the first 15 days....

Pics of the oh so small starts...
Jan 1st is CCN's English garden...I know it doesn't look like it now lol

CCN English Garden

Jan 2nd is a WIP, its Mrs Darcy's Sampler by The Sampler Girl- are you surprised considering my love of all things Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen :)
Mrs Darcy before day's two small contribution...

Mrs Darcy's Sampler at the start of the night

Mrs Darcy's Sampler at the end of the night

I have no particular rotation as to what I stitch in my crazy challenge, I'm just going to my box that holds the folders and choosing what takes my fancy, for these first 15 days that's what will work best for me, afterwards the projects will need to be done according as the birthdays come up as the challenge is full of birthday pieces.

I will be back daily to update on the rest of the challenge pieces, there will also be an update for my reading challenge of reading 40 books this year, I'm starting with a book recommended by my friend Vickie.
I also will be back with my personal challenge of knitting a dishcloth a week and will have an update on that with a pattern link for anyone who's interested.

I leave you now with a picture of my baby Elizabeth, she got a kitchen from Santa which she is getting great enjoyment out of but she also got great enjoyment out of the box.... take a look and see :) If you have reached this far thank you so much for sticking to the end of what was a long post.

My baby Elizabeth, trying out her box lol

Happy Stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2012-01-01T11:28:00.000Z

Happy New Year !

Morning Bloggers and welcome to a New Year, a year where anything is possible, its like looking out on a field of freshly fallen snow that no one has walked in yet, you make the marks and may they be big bright!

I hope you all had a good festive period and took time to celebrate with family and friends, we had a lovely time at home with the children and dare I say this Christmas was a lot more simple not just for our family but for lots and that's not such a bad thing, everyone seemed happier and Christmas was not so much about the trappings but more about the meaning, so for next year the motto will be..."Keep it Simple"

Now you know I was on my last scarf the week before Christmas well I FINISHED them on time, I even had time to fringe and wrap and all were under the tree a couple of days before Xmas eve...and there they sat while I wondered whether they would like them or not....oh boy I should have more faith in my children (I'm a proud Momma) ...they just didn't like them they LOVED them and amid squeals of delight of I got Ravenclaw...I got Gryffindor ....etc etc they went on round their necks and didn't come off till bedtime..I know we were indoors but I was just so glad they liked them I said what the heck go for it ! lol

Here are some pics of them finished up...

Slytherin Scarf

Gryffindor Scarf

Hufflepuff Scarf

Ravenclaw Scarf

The entire collection.

I'm so proud of these and they were a big undertaking but I'm so glad I had them done in time...now they just need hats to match !

I also finished the last dishcloth set I had to make, this one was for my Mum and I think this was my favourite pattern of all.....

Yellow

Green

Dishcloth set

I have been reviewing my yop list and I am making a couple of additions, not sure if I'm taking anything off the list yet, that remains to be seen..going onto the list are some scarves I want for presents for next Xmas...yes I did mention it but after this year I want to avoid such panic at the last moment and even if its only one item a month that will help...

Branching Out scarf
Victorian Spring Scarf I have the yarn ordered for this and will work on this one in January
Ocean Breezes book, there are several scarf patterns in this I want to make
Socks- I haven't decided on the pattern yet

Now I have a question on the socks for all you sock knitters out there...do you use dpns or one circular needle or two... what are the pros and cons of these methods as you see them and which is best for a novice sock knitter ? Any help here would be gratefully received.

For this week I'm going back to finishing my one row lace scarf and I have a personal yearly challenge of knitting a dishcloth a week, I knit that many for others before Xmas I need some more myself lol.. these will be in a separate blog post later in the week with a pattern link so check back for that !

Wishing you all a happy knitty year
Ruth

Theme-a-licious

2011-12-31T11:49:00.003Z

For the month of January the theme is Jardin January so we are picking a piece with flowers and or a garden in it, just to unwind and relax from the stress of the holiday period.

The Theme-a-licious link here will explain all for this month.

This month I chose to work on English Garden by Country Cottage Needleworks, so ok its part of my crazy challenge but hey why not combine the two challenges !
I'm using the recommended DMC threads and I can't quite recall what colour the fabric, I know its 28ct I chose and knowing me its antique white or ivory.
This is what it will look like when finished.

After the first 15 days are over, these are being taken up by the crazy challenge, I'm hoping to work on this at the weekends for the remaining two weekends at least.
I will be back on the 15th with an update.

I'm hoping all my bloggers had a happy Christmas period and I wish you all the very best for 2012, I look forward to reading all your wonderful comments and to seeing all your work and inspiration on your blogs.

Happy New Year
Ruth

IHSW

2011-12-19T10:38:00.000Z

This weekend past was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend and it could not have happened at a better time for me.
I'm still gift stitching !, its Xmas week and I still have some to do .... slight panic setting in !

I was stitching some CCN Nursery Rhyme's for my younger three children and I have Little Boy Blue done and Jack and Jill started.
This week I need to finish Jack and Jill and start and finish Little Miss Muffet, add to that my knitting from the post below and this week will see many late nights again, wish me luck !

Here are the pictures from over the weekend.

Little Boy Blue

Jack and Jill

I have the frames already gotten for these so its just a matter of framing and hopefully wrapping before Xmas.

I'd like to wish all my blogger followers a very Merry Christmas Season. Its been delightful reading your comments and getting to know you all throughout the year and I look forward to more of the same next year !.

Merry Christmas,
Ruth

YOP Update

2011-12-18T10:01:00.004Z

Good Morning Bloggers,

This morning we have no rain !...I know shock isn't it lol, we've got some frost and even had a touch of snow the other day which caused great excitement in the children.

With a week to go to Christmas I've been up late trying to get things finished and ready for gifts.

Last week you'll remember I'd just started the Ravenclaw scarf and had only a stripe and a half done, well this week I can tell you that it is finished down to just needing its fringing...yayyyyyyy am so delighted, it took many late nights but its done ! :) and it still has not been seen !

Here it is

You'll also remember the debate as to whether I knit some headscarves for Caoimhe and just cast on her Hufflepuff scarf well with having finished the Ravenclaw scarf in record time (not even a week! ) I decided I'd carry on with my original idea of doing the Hufflepuff scarf and I cast it on. This is the progress so far.

Needless to say the aim is to have this finished and leave enough time to fringe the four scarves and wrap them up !

The other thing I was working on was some dishcloth sets.
I also finished the circle cloth I was working on and now have that set complete. I like these but had a bit of a love hate thing going on with them while knitting them. Perhaps that's why I didn't knit them up so quick !
This is the link for the Circle Cloth

The second circle cloth finished.

The circle cloth set.

I cast on my next cloth which I'm enjoying as its got some lace going on in it and I love lace and knitting it, again probably why I'm half way through the first one ! I chose this nice bright cheery yellow and its partner shall be in green, very spring like colours but that's what appealed to me when I opened my cotton tub.
This is the link to this pattern which is called Elvish Leaves

I'm hoping by next week I'll have this set finished and the scarves and that will complete the gift knitting. I'll be thinking about what I'm going to move onto next on my list, something with a bit of pattern perhaps just to break up the monotony of what has been just a knit stitch constantly.

I'd like to wish all my knitty bloggers a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

Happy knitting,
Ruth

Irish Soda Bread and Festive Jam Sandwich Cookies

2011-12-15T18:08:00.000Z

This week I made my Irish Soda Bread, Thoeria this here is the recipe for you. :)

This bread is very traditional to Ireland and needs no yeast and is made in minutes. A deep cross is cut in the top to let out the fairies so that your bread won't be jinxed by the evil spirits! or so it was believed, really its just to allow the heat to penetrate the loaf as its cooking.
This recipe is very versatile, you can add any kind of seed, bacon, herbs, cheese, whatever takes your fancy... me this is my recipe which is plain enough.

My grandmother was a great maker of this bread and made it all the time, she had no measurements it was all hands of this and hands of that so I don't have her exact recipe so mine is only good, compared to her great brown one. As a child I loved visiting when she was making it and used to sit and watch all the time ...

Irish Soda
Ingredients

225g wholemeal flour
225g plain flour
1tsp salt
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1egg
375-400ml buttermilk

Method

Preheat the oven to 220C or gas mark 7
Sift together the flours, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a large mixing bowl, make a well in the centre.
Whisk the egg and buttermilk together and pour most of the liquid into the centre.
Using your hand mix to a soft but not sticky dough.
Turn onto a lightly floured board and bring together into a round about an inch and a half thick.
Place on a baking try and cut a deep cross in the centre.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15mins, then turn the oven down to 200C gas mark 6 and cook for a further 30 mins.
When cooked the load will sound hollow when tapped on the base. Allow to cool on a wire rack. If you don't want a crispy crust wrap the bread in a clean tea towel and leave to cool on the wire rack.

The other thing we made this week were some Festive Jam Sandwich cookies. These have disappeared faster than lightning so all that is left are some pictures lol.

Festive Jam Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients

425g plain flour
75g caster sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
2tsp finely grated lemon zest
4 egg yolks
325g butter softened
Raspberry or Strawberry jam
Icing Sugar for dusting.
6 cm plain cutter
3cm plain or shaped cutter

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C gas mark 4
Sift the flour into a mixer and add the sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest, egg yolks and butter.
Mix until it all comes together to a dough, remove from the bowl and flatten to a round to about 3/4 inch thick and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured board until its a 1/4 inch thick. Cut out discs with the 6cm cutter.
Take half the discs and using the other cutter cut holes in the centres of them. Bring the discarded scarps together and make more making sure you have an even number.
Place the discs on baking trays and bake in the oven for 8-10 mins until pale golden and ever so slightly firm.
Allow to stand for a couple of minutes, then remove from the trays and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Spread with 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of jam on the plain discs and sandwich together with the tops with the holes.
Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Hope you enjoy the recipes and let me know how you like them if you try them.
So glad to hear Sue that you liked last weeks cookies and that your French Class and hubby liked them. :-)

Happy baking,
Ruth

Stitching Finishes

2011-12-13T09:43:00.000Z

Good morning bloggers..you won't be surprised to hear me say its raining here lol it has also gotten extremely windy, the perfect day for staying in and stitching I think.

Last week I'd made a start on my last LHN ornament I needed for a gift. I got that finished and made up and I have some pictures of all the ornaments I made for gifts this year. These ornaments will be accompanied by a dishcloth set and some mince pies.

LHN Frosty Flakes

LHN 2010 Ornaments

Some more ornaments

With the ornaments out of the way I decided to crack on with getting the stitched pictures I had in mind for presents for the three younger children. With the older ones getting knitted Harry Potter scarves they needed something so I chose three of the CCN Nursery Rhyme Series, Little Boy Blue, Jack and Jill and Little Miss Muffet. With under two weeks to go to get these stitched and framed I'm cutting it fine, but that's hardly strange to you fellow bloggers either lol. I always seem to be working down to the wire. I say I'll change and be more organised but I never am, perhaps that can be a new years resolution! lol

Anyway this here is the progress so far on Little Boy Blue. I have the frames already gotten so now I just need to stitch stitch stitch, wish me luck !

Little Boy Blue

This weekend is IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend ) why don't you head on over to http://joysze.blogspot.com/ and check it out.

While browsing blogs Vonna at The Twisted Stitcher was talking about some SAL's she starting and is in so I checked them out and yes..I bet you can guess what happened...I signed up for some SAL's.
I'm not doing exchanges next year and thought these would be a good way to still get involved with fellow stitchers... these are the ones I've signed on for so far, they are no rules, stitch at your own pace ones..check them out

http://ccn-cottages.blogspot.com/ for the new series of CCN Cottages
http://psabcbee.blogspot.com/ for the Prairie Schooler ABC range
http://elizabethhancock.blogspot.com/ for the new LHN Elizabeth Hancock sampler being released this month.

I think with these, my crazy challenge and my knitting challenges and goals next year is going to be equally as busy, so much for the resolution..I didn't even make it through Jan 1st with that one ! lol

Linda at Stitchin with my Furbabies is doing a couple of the same patterns in her crazy challenge so we've decided to do SAL's along to these pieces, a way to encourage each other to finish. We will be starting with LHN's Robin Hood and then moving onto LHN's The Wild West and then onto some Bothy Cut Thru's. Progress of these as we start in January lol, if Linda can wait that long.

I'm off now to make mince pies for Dominics music teacher this is his last lesson before Christmas, he has stitched her an ornament of his own and pictures of that next week.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2011-12-11T18:51:00.001Z

Evening Knitters and Bloggers...

I am a little late this evening posting but I had an important task to do today...we were bringing the 7 children to meet Santa Claus...and oh what excitement..we organised a trip to the toy store as well as they had been saving their money up all year so by this evening we had 7 very tired but ecstatic children lol... that's part of the magic of Christmas I think though and we used to do the same when we were children so I love to continue on the tradition of it.

Progress this week has been great.. The Gryffindor scarf has been finished with the ends finished off. All it needs is some fringing and its ready for wrapping.

the finished Gryffindor Scarf

I then late last night started the Ravenclaw scarf. This one I'm doing the smaller size on as Alan is not very big and I don't want it swamping him. Some of the Ravenclaw scarfs I've seen have opted for a royal blue but I've opted for a navy blue with the silver.

The Ravenclaw Scarf started.

The dishcloth I had to finish last week got started and I'm half way through its companion for the set.

With only two weeks left until Xmas Day I'm thinking the fourth Hufflepuff scarf may get cast on but not finished in time to be wrapped so I may cast on a headscarf for Caoimhe as this is who the Hufflepuff scarf is for..more on that decision next week.

Happy Knitting,
Ruth

I made Cookies..finally !!!

2011-12-08T16:29:00.001Z

Evening bloggers,

As today's title would suggest I made cookies...I've had a hit and miss thing going on with cookies...some I made but I didn't like and some just didn't come out the way I expected them to...well today I tried a recipe given to me by Else who lives in Norway..they are called Country Crunch Biscuits and they are the yummiest ones I've ever made and they came out looking like a cookie..always helpful lol...

I had loads of help as you'll see in the pictures, lots of the children hopped in and out and here is the recipe.

Country Crunch Biscuits
Ingredients

75g plain flour
225g soft brown sugar
75g dessicated coconut
125g rolled oats
25g sesame seeds
125g butter
1tbsp golden syrup
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tbsp warm water

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.
Mix the flour, sugar, coconut, rolled oats and sesame seeds together.
Melt the butter and syrup. Mix together the bicarb + water and add to the melted butter.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Rest in the fridge for 10 mins.
Roll into balls the size of walnuts and place 2inches apart on baking sheets.
Bake for 10-12 mins until golden brown.
Remove from the tray when cool.

I found I didn't need to grease my trays as they were non stick so play this one by ear. I did using a spatula take them from the trays when they had hardened a little but weren't quite cold and let the finish cooling this way on a rack.
I must admit I had a tasted one while it was still warm and it was delicious and they go great with a cup of tea and everyone loves them so I can see this batch being devoured pretty quick lol.
Here's the pictures from our afternoon ! Enjoy.

This was Ruairí pretending to be Cook Ruairí

He thought that was hilarious and laughed his head off

Caoimhe came along then to help us stir the mixture

Benjamin came along during his break, chocolate glazed doughnut to have a look

The mixture ready to rest

Ready for the oven !

Just out and cooling

Ready for a cup of tea !

Hope you enjoy these cookies if you make them and please do let me know

Happy Baking,
Ruth

Finishes and Christmas

2011-12-05T11:11:00.001Z

Good morning all !

The rain has stopped momentarily and we have a bright chilly frosty morning but I'm sure the rain will return soon lol.

Last week I put up the Christmas decorations and made mince pies and its all very festive around here now. The advent calendars are out and we are counting down each morning lol.

Here are some of the decorations...
My tree is decorated each year with pine cones and red themed decorations...well red is my favourite colour lol

This is the children's tree that they decorate each year in the kitchen, they love tinsel lol

And cribs I have nativity sets everywhere lol, here are just a few of my favourite.

The ornament I finished last week I made up with another I finished off over the weekend. This leaves me on my last ornament for the season as a gift. With all I've made I forgot to make one for myself lol...on the plus side I've an ornament for each gift package I want to give.

This is the little start I made on the last one so I'm hoping for this to be stitched and finished off as I then have to move onto the three younger children's Christmas presents which I'm stitching...
This last one is LHN's Frosty Flakes

Welcome to all new followers I hope you enjoy reading and looking round. Thank you for all the lovely comments I did enjoy reading them very much last week.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2011-12-04T10:54:00.001Z

Good morning everyone !

Another week over and boy are these weeks flying.
Thank you all for the tips on the socks, I've ventured to look at yarns and in the new year will venture into the knitted sock world, its exciting and a bit daunting. Thank you Kepanie for the link, the Jelly Bean looks like a great sock to start with and would fit my daughter. Faith, I'm totally useless at crochet so mix that with a sock and I feel it would be a disaster. I need to master crochet first and then perhaps a sock in it. :-)

This week I've been working on Harry Potter Scarf again...did you guess lol.
I'm pleased with my progress on this as I've been getting extra hours in on it when the children have been at school and so far I've still managed to keep it a secret which with so many in the house is a feat in itself lol.
I've just 5 and 1/2 stripes left to go and I am really hoping I can get it complete this week.

I've laid it out this way in the picture so you can see how far more I've to go to reach the end.

I've also been tricking around at this Circle Cloth . When I say tricking around I mean just that, only a bit here and a bit there. Hubby has been doing the school runs for me so I've had extra time on the scarf but this has left my dishcloths slightly behind so I will have a catch up one of the days, should be possible as they are quick enough knits.
I am hoping to have this one finished and its other one in the set cast on this week.

Looking forward to catching up with all your posts this week and seeing what you have all been creating. Thanks again for the lovely comments and hints and tips they are very helpful.

Happy Knitting,
Ruth

Mince Pies and Bailey's Choc Chip Cheesecake !

2011-12-01T16:08:00.001Z

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas !... well at least it is in my house...

I've put up all our decorations and I decorated my tree this morning, the children just have their tree in the kitchen to decorate and we are all set.

Today I baked the first batch of mince pies for the holiday season.

Here is the recipe with some photos

Coconut Mince Pies

Ingredients
Pastry

325g Plain Flour
175g Butter
1/4 pt Cold Water

Filling

Jar of Mincemeat, either shop or homemade, whichever you have

Topping

50g Plain Flour
125g Caster Sugar
125g Butter (room temperature)
2 Eggs beaten
75g Desiccated Coconut, plus some for sprinkling

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Lightly grease two 12 hole bun trays.
Place the flour in a mixing bowl and coarsely rub in the butter. Add sufficient water to mix to a soft dough.
Leave to chill in the fridge for 20 mins.
Turn onto a floured board and roll out. Cut 24 discs and place in the prepared tins.
Using the all in one method, beat together the flour, sugar, butter, eggs and coconut until the mixture is creamy.
Put a spoonful of mincemeat into each of the pies and then top with a spoonful of coconut mixture. Sprinkle with a little more coconut on top and bake for 18 - 20 minutes until golden brown.
Cool and enjoy !

Ruairi came to help and wanted to roll out the pastry lol !

Pastry lined trays

Mincemeat

Topped with coconut mixture

Ruairi enjoying the spoils of helping.... yum !!

Some of the end product !! even more yum

At the weekend you'll also recall me mentioning I made a Bailey's and Choc Chip Cheesecake.

This here is the recipe for that for you.

Bailey's and Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Ingredients
Base

300g Chocolate Digestive Biscuits crushed
125g Butter

Topping

450g Philadelphia Cream Cheese
200ml Fresh Cream
125g Icing Sugar
1 packet Choc Chips
1 measure of Bailey's Irish Cream

Method

Melt the butter and add to the crushed biscuits and while warm press into the base of a 9inch springform or loose bottomed tin.
Leave in the fridge for about an hour or until set
Whip the cream until if forms soft peaks. In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese until it is soft. Beat in the icing sugar and the Bailey's.
Fold in the cream and the chocolate chips until the mixture is smooth, spread evenly over the biscuit base.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or preferably overnight.
Decorate with a crushed flake bar or however takes your fancy !

Biscuit Base

All set for refrigeration

The finished slice...

Hope you enjoyed the recipes and do let me know if you make them and how they went for you.

As a quick guide the recipes and methods are under the tab at the top of the blog labelled Baking Delights.

Happy Baking
Ruth

Finishes and a Brilliant Weekend

2011-11-29T09:57:00.001Z

Morning all from an extremely wet Ireland, even by our standards mmm..

The weekend is over and what a wonderful time we had. Friday saw us picking Luice up from the train station and we had a catch up that evening with tea, biscuits and stitching and an Xmas movie thrown in for good measure.. we even got a Baileys and Choc Chip Cheesecake made for the next day lol

Saturday morning we chatted over more tea, made an apple pie and got ready for Tricia to arrive up.
We had a wonderful catch up over lunch and the cheesecake went down a treat, it was delicious and is definitely on my to make again list ! After lunch we sat to an open fire, tea cake and biscuits and chatted the day away with stitching and knitting in hand and it was just lovely, I can't remember having a day as relaxing in quite awhile, after dinner Tricia had to leave us to make it home. A big thank you to Tricia for travelling up as the weather was very windy but the day just wouldn't have been the same if you couldn't have made it. Tricia brought some Christmas presents and I couldn't resist opening my own one....

This is the gorgeous scarf and cloths that Tricia, made up for me, aren't they wonderful ! I love them Tricia thank you.

You'll remember last week for IHSW I stitched and couldn't show you a picture of what well this was why. This ornament I stitched up for Tricia and since she's opened her present I can show you all. Its LHN's Little Skater.

Sunday we stitched some more and we had an early Christmas present swap between Lucie and I. The children loved their Xmas presents Lucie and were so pleased and touched you remembered them, thank you xx.

This here is the wonderful cushion Lucie stitched for me..doesn't she know me well with it being a Jane Austen themed one...I quite literally squealed with delight on receiving it and I love it so much :-D

This was Lucie's Xmas card to us, how cute are those knitted brussel sprouts lol

This was the one other item I stitched on IHSW that I couldn't show you. It is a design by Barbara at To Stitch or Not to Stitch she does the most wonderful designs of her own and they are free. I chose the colour scheme for this to suit Luice..can you tell pink is her favourite colour ? lol

On Monday we did like all good girls and had a shopping day. It was wonderful to browse the shops for the morning then that evening we went to the bingo where Lucie had a lucky evening, way to go her :-D

Lucie has left for the journey home and I wish her a safe trip and I can't wait till we next meet up.

Along with the progress on my Gryffindor scarf, see the post below, I also got a finish in over the weekend in my stitching as well.

This is Frosty Flakes by LHN and I will make this up later in the week, so pictures of the finished item next week as well.

All in all it was an extremely pleasant and productive weekend.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2011-11-27T11:36:00.001Z

Morning all form a cool and but sunny Ireland.

I'm doing just a quick update as my best friend Lucie is visiting and we want to get back to some stitching and chatting. Tea and cake are also involved.

Progress on the Gryffindor scarf has been good this week and its coming onto the half way point now. I'm very pleased with that. Here's how it is looking so far.

I've started to think about I'll knit next once these scarves are done so I've been reviewing my list. I think I'll finish the One Row Lace Scarf and start some more headscarf's for Caoimhe and possibly tackle some of the hats on the list. In the new year I am going to organise knitting my first pair of socks so I shall start hunting for a nice pattern and yarn...any suggestions for an easy one to start ?

Thank you all for the lovely comments over the last few weeks, I have enjoyed reading them so much and I'm really enjoying reading all your blogs and seeing all your projects.

Happy Knitting,
Ruth

IHSW

2011-11-21T14:35:00.001Z

This past weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend and I'm pleased to say I got loads done... although I can't show you the pictures as they are presents for friends for Xmas who look at my blog and I don't want to give it all away.

I started on Thursday with one present and then on Friday I had a total change of mind on one of the presents and changed it, I got it complete and just need to make it up even with frogging a part of it 4 four times as I didn't like the colour ! lol.

The second one I started is a lot more straight forward.

In between this stitching I had the mad notion of tidying out the presses in the kitchen and giving it a super clean...mmm should have re thought that one..then if that wasn't madness enough I then decided my stitching corner needed tidying up and the furniture in the sitting room needed a changing about...you know I really think I should think these mad notions through more before acting on them rofl :-D

I had a review of my stitching to do list for the Xmas and have adjusted it to what is essential I get done and the rest of the presents will be something home baked, this means the presents will still be homemade just some of them not stitched or knitted but I suppose that's good to as it will reflect all my interests lol. Now while I'm stitching I shall mull over some recipes that may be suitable for gift giving .....

This Friday Lucie is coming to visit for the weekend. She arrives on Friday and doesn't have to fly back to the UK until the Tues, and if that's not exciting enough Tricia is coming up to see us on the Saturday so we have a day of chatting and catching up with stitching, tea and cakes planned....oh bliss..... can you tell I'm excited to see my two best friends again ??
I've a few other ideas planned to do with Lucie and I'll take some pictures and show you all next week.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2011-11-20T23:07:00.001Z

Another week gone and I near forgot today to update lol, time sure is flying by.

I don't seem to have a lot of progress to show for my week and yet I cant say why not lol. Perhaps its the late hour or perhaps I just got caught up with other things this week lol.

I did start the Gryffindor scarf, as this scarf over the others is so recognisable I'm trying to keep this one quiet. Here is the progress so far.

I'm really liking the red and yellow combination on this one.

Have you seen how close Christmas is ? I soooo better get my skates on with these. Ahhhhhhhh

Someone asked me last week what I used the dishcloths for, well for absolutely everything. They are great for wash up, mopping up spills, the thicker ones are great for putting hot saucepans on so they don't mark your counter. For facecloths I use a bamboo and cotton mix yarn so they are softer. You can just throw them all in the wash and they come back out perfect. I must admit I was a sceptic before I tried them but now I'd not use anything else lol.

Happy Knitting,
Ruth

Time for Pie

2011-11-17T19:17:00.001Z

Today I made Spicy Apple Pie.This was at Ruairi's request as he loves apple pie. This recipe uses two different types of apples. I used a Bramley cooking apple and a Granny Smith Apple as well. The combination of both gives a delicious flavour when mixed with some spices.

Everything all laid out, ready to start !

I had time to make the pastry before I left for the school run, so it could chill while I was out.

Naturally my helper came back today...I think he just likes having his picture lol.

My helper, Ruairi, holding the sugar

Half the Bramley's get cooked down into a compote and the other half just added into this and given a good mix.

The start of the compote

Then ts a matter of layering up the sliced Granny Smith apples and the compote of Bramleys and adding some mixed spice as you go. After brushing with some beaten egg the top got an extra sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

Sprinkled with cinnamon sugar before cooking

After approx 45 mins in the oven you get a gorgeous golden delicious apple pie.

All cooked and golden and delicious !

Again the full recipe is listed under baking delights and please do let me know what you think if and when you try it, I'd love to hear.
Thoeria I'm just rooting out my recipe for soda bread, I seemed to have misplaced it lol. All my best recipes seem to be on scrap pieces of paper or hurriedly written onto the backs of envelopes lol.

Happy Baking
Ruth

A Finish

2011-11-15T19:23:00.001Z

Well I spent most of the weekend working on the sampler and I'm pleased to say I was able to give it to my brother and his new wife today.

The names and date is in a different shade as to the one suggested as they just seemed to fade so after a bit of experimenting with shades I was pleased with what I ended up with.

This one I framed myself and I must admit I did an okay job on it, my framing is definitely getting better lol.

I'm now working on a little something for my godson, Sebastian so photos and updates of that next week.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2011-11-13T17:19:00.001Z

Evening everyone,

Well this week has been a bit of a strange odd one. After the wedding we had a few family remain on for a few days so it was lovely catching up with them but on Wednesday my sister left for Australia for a year anyway, two or longer perhaps. She has gone out to my other sister to find work as there is none here so I wish her all the very best, now if I could just get over expecting her to keep walking into the house I'd be grand :-(
Then the whole house except myself came down with a stomach bug so I had to don my Florence Nightingale cap and if you know me this is not a cap best suited to me lol. Anyway everyone thankfully is better and over it and I escaped it whew...

So with all this going on I can't believe I actually got around to some finishes and a start...way to go me

I finished the Slytherin Scarf, it just needs some fringes on the ends and its all ready. I'm so glad I did go the longer length as I love how it looks.

Tonight I will roll into balls the Gryffindor colours and get a start on that one, updates next week on it.

The dishcloth I had on last weeks post is completed and the set is now made up.

I also started another dishcloth for another set. I don't know where my head was when I started this as after the first repeat it just didn't look right so I had to rip it back and start again. It is now thankfully right but not much progress has been made on it.

That's it all for this week.

Faith thank you very much for your kind message, I sure did appreciate it. My email is down on the left hand side on my facebook badge :-)

Happy Knitting,
Ruth

Updates and New Makes.

2011-11-07T13:56:00.000Z

Afternoon all from a chilly but sunny Ireland.

This week we are slowly recovering from my brothers wedding. It was a fantastic day out and everything went smoothly and to plan and everyone who attended had a wonderful time.

He has gone on honeymoon this week and I'm going to use this week to hopefully finish off his sampler, now that my cold is gone and I have the energy to stitch.

This is the progress so far on it. I have a tiny bit more on the brides back and then its onto her dress, so I suppose I'm just over half way.

The other thing I've been up to is making a scissor holder. Vonna over at The Twisted Stitcher made a fab scissor holder and I liked it so much I had to try and replicate it. This is my version of Vonnas wonderful piece.

I have some more scissors to put into it and it now sits by my stitching chair and is extremely useful.

I have made further changes to the blog and filled in the tabs so you'll find out more now about the different challenges I've planned for next year and all recipes I post are under baking delights. I've decided on my final 15 projects for the Crazy Challenge and pictures of these are listed under its tab.

Thank you all for your lovely feedback that you gave me and I hope you are all enjoying the extra posts and new content, I know I'm enjoying blogging even more now lol.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2011-11-06T13:09:00.003Z

Another week over, they are flying by now

With my brothers wedding yesterday and the rest of my cold, which I ended up going to the dr over, I didn't get much knitting done.
My shawl went down a treat with it being loved all round the wedding group.
I did a small amount on the dishcloth I'm going to show you and that's all.
This week sees me return to the Harry Potter scarves with a vengeance as the weeks are ticking by and I will also be starting to finish off the last of my dishcloths that are needed as part of some Christmas present boxes.

Here is the Harry Potter scarf so far and after reading all your advice, thank you very much, I've opted to do the full length as stated in the pattern, nothing worse than too short a scarf.

This is the dishcloth I've been working on and today should finish this off.

Until next week,
Happy Knitting,
Ruth.

Time for Tea Brack

2011-11-03T14:57:00.000Z

For my first baking post I decided on a recipe for a Tea Brack that my Aunt gave me. I've tried and tested this recipe many times and it is lovely and moist and light and just the perfect thing to have with a cup of tea !

After laying out everything and turning on the cooker to heat up I got myself a little helper in the form of Ruairí

As you can see his job was to sieve the flour into the bowl but is never one to miss a photo opp. Lol.

We did end up with the right mixture in the bowl so and then I had to pay my helper,

After cooking and cooling we were left with this yummy loaf tempting us into eating it !

It does benefit from being left for 24 hours before cutting so this is what I enjoyed for my 11's this morning. I love my brack with butter and a hot hot cup of tea.....nothing better.

For the recipe for this just check out the Baking Delights Tab at the top of the blog and please do let me know what you think if you make it. I'd love to hear.

Happy Baking,
Ruth

Exchange finishes and Changes.

2011-10-31T12:27:00.003Z

Happy Halloween !

I've not much to show you this past week as I was finishing my shawl, which is further down in my first knitting post on here and then I came down with a horrible cold. I'm slowly getting over it and as ever when do I or any of us have time for being ill lol.

Thank you all for your lovely comments from last week and I'm glad to hear you'd all like to hear what else I'm up to. I've made some of the changes already and will fill in more this week and indeed over the coming weeks.
The name I've changed to Ruth's Little Leprechauns which for me has a couple of meanings lol. 1. My children consider themselves my little leprechauns. 2. I've always had a fascination with fairies and leprechauns. I always tell the children how they live at the bottom of the garden....a little bit of magic is good for the soul :-)

Well as I've been ill over the weekend I've not got a lot more done on Lukes wedding sampler and I'm very sorry to think I won't have it done in time this week. I fear I will be taking advantage of him going on his honeymoon but whats to be done ?

One of my last exchanges I was in I was sending to my very best friend Lucie, she's coming to see me again at the end of November :-), anyway this is what I stitched for her, oh it was a Halloween theme, but I'd say you'll have guessed from the picture lol

And this is what I received from Joan :-)

That's all on the stitching front for this week. Our children are off this whole week for mid term...did I tell you.. how wonderful is that :-) so this week I may manage to get in some baking and get back to you with something there and even what I'm reading...stay tuned...

Happy stitching,
Ruth

YOP Update

2011-10-30T16:58:00.002Z

Well welcome over all you lovely knitters to my new improved one blog.

I've not much to report from last week only I blocked and finished out the shawl completely and it is gorgeous, I can't wait to wear it.
I may be in need of it as I've come down with the most awful cold and have only today had the energy to sit up in chairs. Oh my I do hope this passes quickly not only have I the wedding coming up next weekend and lots of little things to do to get ready tonight I am going out for a drink with my sister before she leaves for Australia on a working visa. She leaves a couple of days after the wedding :(

Anyway onto the pictures...

Just to refresh you all, this is the shawl finished and unblocked.

And this is the shawl finished and blocked, ready to wear !

Well that's it all for this week.

Happy knitting,
Ruth

NEWS and Updates.

2011-10-25T10:49:00.002+01:00

Morning all from a wet and windy Ireland...

The weather of late is conducive to stitching and nothing else I'm pleased to inform you all lol....

First things first my news... I'm giving the blog over the next couple of weeks a makeover... I'm changing the name and bringing over my knitting to this blog and I'll also be including my reading and baking..some of my other great hobbies... I feel its time to stretch my wings some and expand the blog to cover most of my interests. The web addy will remain the same so all you followers need do nothing only watch and stay I hope. I've some challenges set up for next year that I will be including and with more in the blog I should be blogging more.
The name is changing as I don't want a name that suggests just one of my hobbies and all will be revealed lol..

Now for some updates...

Well I've been working frantically getting my shawl for my brothers wedding finished and I did manage it, I now have to complete his picture in hopefully just over a week.

This is the progress as of last night...

You'll remember a couple of weeks back I finished an LHN Ornament for my sister well I got the colour of felt I was after and so I've finished that off.

I've also done up my last exchange piece which is for a Halloween exchange and I'll show you that as soon as my partner receives...

Looking forward to hearing all your comments and if you have any on the changes I make, good or bad just let me know.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Finishing, progressing and partying !

2011-10-10T10:43:00.003+01:00

Good morning all from a wet and windy Ireland.

There was no post last week as I lost my stitching mojo for a couple of days but it seems to be back and yayyyy that it is. With Lukes wedding in a month and his sampler needing finishing and a shawl thats half done that I need to wear...I need to get moving, add into that the Christmas List and ohhhh my !

First things first though...yesterday was Dominic's birthday. He's my second eldest and he turned 10. Scary how quick the years are going. Well I got his picture finished and framed.

The Footballers all finished and framed.

He very kindly sat for me with his picture so I could show you all. He loved the picture and thought it very cool when he unwrapped it.

Dominic showing off his Footballers.

After making a skull and cross bones cake for James...how could I deny Dominic a request for a cake of his choice. He wanted a Castle Cake...so I put on my thinking cap and this is what I came up with...

The Castle Cake

Dominic once again posed for me with his cake...he loved it and thought it was brilliant

Dominic with his cake.

I think he had a wonderful day as he crashed out at 9 last night on the couch and on his way to bed he said it was the coolest day ever but boy was he wrecked lol....

On the wedding sampler this is the progress I've made so far on this...
As you can see the man is finished down to having his shirt and hand done, these I'll do as I'm doing the lighter shades on the lady.

I haven't done anything on the pope this week as I've been wanting to get the sampler complete.

I've also been putting together my final list of 15 projects for the crazy challenge I'm doing on facebook. I'm trying to work in some projects that can be used for the birthdays through the year so I'm less under pressure and then I may actually see a finish or two lol.. more on that over the next couple of weeks.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Updates

2011-09-26T10:13:00.003+01:00

Good Morning all !

Its dry and bright and with a real chill to the air but that is better than the torrential rain we have had for the last couple of days. This weather has brought on head colds in the smaller ones so this past week we've been a bit busier than normal and then they very kindly gave me their head cold. Its on the way out with me now thankfully so this week I hope we'll be back to normal.

Stitching has been a bit slower this week but I do have some updates.

I worked on my brothers wedding sampler during the week and made a nice bit of progress on that, considering it was late into the week when I actually got to it.

On Saturday afternoon I put the picture of the Pope onto my stand and I worked on it over the weekend. It was nice switching to the whites and creams after the dark brown of the wedding sampler. I'm pleased with the two day progress on this. I'm now debating whether to give him his head or carry on with his clothes lol.

This is all the progress I have so far this week.

I did get some new charts during the week. Most of them are for birthday presents for the children for next year. I'm aiming to start them early so I'm not so rushed. I am starting a crazy challenge in January as I've just not gotten to my others as much as I'd have liked. For the crazy challenge I'm going to put into it the childrens birthday presents and then take some of my other projects already started and maybe just one or two new starts lol.

But first back to the Christmas List !

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Progressing and Finishing

2011-09-19T10:25:00.003+01:00

Morning all from a wet and windy Ireland. Its miserable and cold outside and the leaves on the trees are changing colours and getting blown down. Its time to start thinking of open fires and early nights spent beside the fire stitching. The days are getting shorter and the outside work I can do is winding down so I now turn my mind to more stitching and baking.

Progress on the Pope picture for my mum has been slow this week. I've been doing his hands and with lots of quarter and three quarter stitches isn't hard, what made it next to impossible is one chart with the backstitch lines over these stitches and even under my magnifier I couldn't quite make them out so some of them have been guess work for the shading. Its not looking to bad so I guessed right or near enough to right lol. I moved onto his clothing for a bit as its easier to read and so I'm hoping quicker to do...well lets hope so

Last night I also started my brothers wedding sampler. His wedding is Nov 5th so I'm hoping I'll have it done in time, unlike my sisters lol. I switched the aida for evenweave in the kit it should be quick enough to get done..famous last words lol. Not much to make out at the moment but this is the progress from last night.

I had a finish for this week. I finished stitching what will become my sisters Christmas ornament. I've not made this one up yet as I need to find some blue felt and I have a couple of other things to order so I'll hang on another week or so. I'm making good headway into the amount of ornaments for gifts which is good as I've some other pieces that need doing as well. Here's the piece as it stands now, another one will follow when I finish it off completely.

This week I need to press on and finish Dominic's birthday piece. I had this started and for one reason or another, which I can't quite recall, it got put aside so I've hauled it out and will finish it and think it will make a lovely something extra for his birthday. Here's where it was when I took it out last night to check it out.

That's all I have for showing off this week. I'll hopefully have lots more on three of these projects to show you next week. I'm not planning another start this week but who knows lol !

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Stands and Starts

2011-09-12T09:01:00.005+01:00

Oh my the tail end of Hurricane Katia has now hit Ireland...we have high winds and lashing rain. Nothing to what was experienced when it first hit the US but scary to think we are feeling the tail end of it all the way over here !
Anyway it is a great reason to stay indoors and stitch and knit lol.

I've been making progress over on MY KNITTING BLOG for anyone who wants to take a peek lol.

Well onto stitching and this past week saw the arrival of my new stitching stand. I've this past month or more been getting a sore elbow after sessions of stitching and I was starting to do less and that's never good lol. So I looked into a stand and saw various ones and debated the pros and cons of many of them and decided what I wanted most from it was to have a good angle so I could still use my favourite armchair for stitching and I would really like it to hold my q snaps as I just didn't want to change frames. It came down to the Lowry and the Daylight Company's Stitchsmart. Well I'm vain enough to say the Lowry just didn't look that attractive but the Stitchsmart had no info on whether it held a q snap. I emailed a couple of different vendors to see if it did indeed hold one and got one response saying no it didn't and one saying yes it did ! Well with no other frames I liked in my budget range I decided I'd try it out and took the chance and ordered it. It arrived very quickly this week and was really simple to set up and was up in minutes ready for me to use and YEAH it held my q snap !! I was delighted and started into getting the hang of two handed stitching. I think I'm there with that now so I don't have lots of progress to show you for this week but hoping next week I will.

This looks like a review but I promise it isn't. I think if others are in the market for a stand its nice to have all the info, its a lot of money to set aside into one thing and you want to get it right !.

Well if your not bored to tears already I'll show you some pics lol

I did start another LHN Ornament and here is my progress on this so far. This ornament is called Snowy Pines

By the middle of the week I'd finally decided on which project to start. My brothers wedding sampler or my Mum's Christmas gift. Well I opted for my Mum's Christmas Gift and here is the progress so far on this, not much but still progress is progress !

Well I hope I've not bored to many of you to sleep lol.
Looking forward to reading all your lovely comments and welcome to my new followers.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Finishes and What to Start

2011-09-05T17:58:00.001+01:00

Hello all, the update is a bit late today as we are just getting the hang of our after school routine again :(
The house is so quiet without the four bigger children, thankfully I've the smaller three still at home :)

This past week stitching wise I've stitched up a wedding sampler for my Mum, she wanted it for a friends daughter and so I picked something I could do up fairly quickly for her as the wedding was a week or two past. I added to the original design so I could have it fit a regular frame and as luck would have it the end piece fit an 8x6 aperture.
Here is the result. Hopefully the bride and groom shall treasure it.

The finished Sampler

An upclose view of the sampler.

I also finished off the ornament Fa La La by LHN and will take a picture just as soon as I finish it off. That's another ornament gift off the list and onto the next.

You'll remember me wittering on this last few weeks about exchanges well they have been received so now I can finally show you the fruits of those last few weeks.

First up is the replacement piece. You remember the ice cream sundae that got smashed in the post! Well this here is the replacement piece and I'm pleased to say Kathy loved it. I must admit, I think I prefer the replacement piece to the original lol

Second up is the summer biscornu exchange I was in.

My one that I received.

The one I sent to my partner.

I have one other exchange that I have to show you but I must wait until after the 9th to do so.

Now that I'm dare I say up to date with exchanges, and I'm not taking on anymore until I get a move on with my Christmas list, the debate is now on as to what to start. Isn't it lovely being in the position. I'm so rarely in it lol
The choices are the wedding sampler for my brothers wedding in November or my mothers Christmas gift.... as I'm still undecided you will have to wait until next week to see my update to see what I finally decided on lol.

Happy stitching for another week
Ruth

Changes and Updates

2011-08-29T10:58:00.000+01:00

Morning all !

This is the first morning that has a real touch of Autumn about it so in keeping with this I've changed my blog to show that. I love this time of year, it is my favourite season of all. The greens, browns, reds and golds of this time of year are just stunning.
I've also changed my heading picture. This is a local Abbey to us about 3 miles away that the children and I went to over the summer. The children had a great time climbing round the ruins and we had a picnic when we were finished. A lovely day out it had been.

Now for some stitching news.
As of this morning none of the exchanges have been received I can't show you those yet. I was also working on a biscornu for a summer exchange and can't show you that either.... Oh my there seems to be a lot of what I can't show you lol

Here is something I can show you. My Aunt turns 60 this week and came home from Canada for her birthday, very last minute so I naturally had to stitch something to give her. She loves Celtic designs, I do believe more than myself if thats possible lol. So what better theme to go with than Celtic.
Out of my collection of Celtic patterns I used the claddagh ring, some trinity knots and a knot style backstitched border. The claddagh ring is her wedding band so is something she loves and I just love the meaning behind it. The hands on the ring are for friendship, the hear for love and the crown is a symbol of loyalty so all in all makes a lovely ring. I used reds and golds for the design as these are two colours found in traditional Celtic designs and I think the red and gold felt and gold ribbon finish it off nicely. I hope she likes it, I know I do !

I also got some new stash during the week. I know I know it looks a lot but honestly some of it is for Christmas presents ! lol

Well ok maybe 1 of the patterns is for myself ;-)
My mother has requested a small wedding sampler and how could I refuse her. She is heartedly welcome to my needle and thread so this week I shall be working on that and hopefully will get most of it complete as I do need to press on with my brothers wedding sampler and Christmas presents...oh my the list is long....

That is all I do have for you this week and I'm sorry I don't have more to show you, hopefully next week all shall be received and I can show you some pictures. Thank you for all your lovely comments I do so enjoy reading them.

Happy stitching,
Ruth.

2011-08-22T13:58:00.000+01:00

I've not much to show you all this week as I've been working on two exchange pieces.

The first is the replacement summer exchange piece which I'm pleased to say went out in todays post. Pictures will follow as soon as my partner receives.

The second piece I was working on was the autumn piece for an autumn exchange bag, again pics of this when my partner has received.

I did get this most gorgeous cushion in the post from Lucie.... I was in the LK exchange and to this date have not received or had word on when or if I wll receive and my good friend Lucie who was also taking part didn't want me to be left out and made this cushion for me.... how cute are these pom poms

She sent me this gorgeous fairy card as she knows I have a real grá for fairies.

I also got some new stash...

This will be the wedding sampler for my brothers wedding in November


My mothers christmas gift and waste canvas and linen in a flax colour and peeking behind is some small halloween designs.

Thats all for this week, I hope to have more to show you next week.

Happy stitching,
Ruth

Ruth's Little Leprechauns

YOP Update

Giveaway Winner

Dishcloth Challenge

Nicolas Competition

IHSW with finishes and rotations.

YOP Update

*GIVEAWAY*

Theme-a-licious Update

Weekend WrapUp

YOP Update

Catching up on SAL's

Dishcloth Challenge and Thursday Book Challenge

Scones...mmmm

Weekend Happenings

YOP Update

SAL Catch Up

Dishcloth Challenge

Goals new and old

Theme - a - licious catch up

Weekend Catch Up

YOP Update

SAL Update

Dishcloth Challenge

IHSW

YOP Update

SAL's and IHSW

Weekly Dishcloth Challenge

Yarn Along.

A Pirates Life Finished

YOP Update

Crazy Days 13 & 14

Crazy Days 9-12

Dishcloth Challenge and a Happy Birthday

Reading Challenge

Crazy Day 8

YOP Update

Crazy Day's 6 & 7

Crazy day 5

Weekly Dishcloth Challenge

Crazy Day 4

Crazy Challenge Day 3

Starts, Finishes and Crazy's

YOP Update

Theme-a-licious

IHSW

YOP Update

Irish Soda Bread and Festive Jam Sandwich Cookies

Stitching Finishes

YOP Update

I made Cookies..finally !!!

Finishes and Christmas

YOP Update

Mince Pies and Bailey's Choc Chip Cheesecake !

Finishes and a Brilliant Weekend

YOP Update

IHSW

YOP Update

Time for Pie

A Finish

YOP Update

Updates and New Makes.

YOP Update

Time for Tea Brack

Exchange finishes and Changes.

YOP Update

NEWS and Updates.

Finishing, progressing and partying !

Updates

Progressing and Finishing

Stands and Starts

Finishes and What to Start

Changes and Updates

GIVEAWAY