Haapsalu Sali

One of the latest additions to my library is this book.


Not surprising as I'm mad keen on knitting Estonian lace! The fourth anniversary of keeping my blog is coming up soon and I bought two copies of this book thinking I would offer one as a Blogiversary prize. Unfortunately, the shipping company who handled one of the copies did a bad job and that one has a very creased and slightly bent cover as you can see here.


So it cannot in all decency be offered up as a Blogiversary prise!

The company who sold me the book are able to claim for the damage from the shipping company and are happy for me to either keep the book or recycle it. As copies of this book are very scarce on the ground at the moment, I thought someone (not a person who can't bear having a book on their shelves that isn't perfect, please) might be glad of it. The pages are all intact and uncreased. It's just the cover that was affected.

If anyone wants to offer it a home, please leave a comment to say that you would like it. If there is more than one person that would like it, I will do a draw in a week's time to see who gets it. The only thing I ask is that you are prepared to pay for shipping.

The book is in Estonian but it is full of charts of the most beautiful Estonian lace patterns and there are English translations of the chart symbols at the front. You can find a review of the book here.

The Blogiversary Celebration Draw will therefore be postponed whilst I think of a new prize to offer so watch this space!

The Invasion of the Ladybug Buttons

Cupcakes!

Thanks to all who commented on my last post. I was really surprised and pleased to see that I hadn't been completely forgotten about! LOL

I've just completed another block for my blue afghan which is, in fact, probably going to end up as a wall hanging. The doily and cupcakes have been positioned ready on the knitted hearts block but I still need to sew it all on. However, you get the idea!




I originally tried knitted cups and fabric yoyos for the icing but it didn't work well so I had another go with some fabric oddments and fusible interfacing. I think the result is better. Flashed out photos above as it's dark now.

I'm still catching up on stuff I've done and haven't shown yet so thought I'd post a pic of an Estonian lace swatch I knitted some time ago.


The motifs are all from the Estonian lace book - 'Pitsilised Koekirjad'.

Er, Hello Again!

A bit of a hiatus there as life called me in other directions for a while so I expect I'll be talking to myself now. It seems a shame to let the blog go after keeping it up for so long and it's a great log of what's been happening in my creative life to look back on so here goes. As there's quite a bit to catch up on, I think I'll update on what projects I've been working on mostly with pics this time around and, if any of my past readers are loyal enough not to have disappeared into the sunset and actually read this, 'hello'! :-)

Shetland Lace Patterned Faroese Shawl

I decided to make an afghan as I thought the blocks would fit in well with my need for manageable knitting whilst providing instant gratification at the same time. I wanted to personalise and make it meaningful and thematic. I started with the Enchanted Cottage for the centre because home is where the heart is.

Enchanted Cottage

This block is to be surrounded by the four seasons of which I've done three at present.

Spring

Autumn

Winter

Then I thought I'd add some blocks for things that I love and the first one is, guess what? shhhh chocolate!

Box of Chocolates

A great way of displaying some of my vintage buttons, don't you think? Here are a couple of shots to show how the whole thing's shaping up although the blocks are not positioned where they will be eventually.




Each of these blocks measures 13" square and I plan to make 30. The finished item will either be a bed cover for a single bed or I'll back it with canvas and have it as a wall hanging.

Lastly, I've been working on the Woman's Journal Vintage Lace Jumper with donated vintage yarn for the KCG Period Garment Scheme. There were several errors in the pattern which I managed to get my head around only to be finally defeated by running out of useable yarn. I think there'd been some serious moth chomping going on at some point with two of the balls of yarn! Anyway, here's a pic of the front and back pinned together on my dress form.


I have enough decent yarn left to knit the collar and to edge the armholes even though the sleeve length is meant to be a few inches above the elbow. A shame but better than nothing, I suppose.