The Magic of May

"May comes sweet and complete in every detail.
Along every lane and hedgerow bank
spring a thousand small and seldom
considered things - Nature's embroidery,
to finish off her festal robe to perfection...
Such hedgerows in May are everybody's garden..."
-Written by Flora Thompson in A Country Calender.

May is indeed a busy time of the year for the gardeners. So I have been busy as well. Everything is growing so quickly now. Especially the weeds. But everything is still under control. I have been really busy planting out my veggies now. From beans and peas to Brassica's (for the first time) Will have to see if I manage to keep the cabbage flies and caterpillars away. Have put netting so it should do the job.  During the weekend I finally completed my cowl.  This cowl was in remembrance to Vanessa Cabban. You can read more about the cowl here if you haven't read my post on it. Monday morning was still a bit cold so I wore my cowl but soon was warm in it as it is knitted in round and is twice the thickness of a normal scarf/cowl. This cowl is just perfect for those Autumn days in the garden. I can see myself wearing this a lot. Jobs in the garden for this week is complete and had to make myself a simple quick lunch. Perfect to sit outside and enjoy the May sunshine.

Hope you have been enjoying the sunshine too during the magical days of May x

Sunshine, Rain and Frost...

In between sunshine, rain and frost
I have been knitting.
Knitting my cowl - Vanessa Cabban Cowl KAL. A project started by a wonderful knitter and Designer Christina Wall from 'A Knitters Life'.
This has been one addictive project just not for me but all the ladies knitting along this cowl with Christina Wall.
It has been real joy, but not looking forward to tackling all those loose ends. But needs to be done.
Everything has started growing in the garden too and I am spending more time slowly in the garden. I have started feeling springy.
After breakfast on mothers day went to town with the girls as Olivia needed few things and this was the only day free for this. Later on the girls made the most delicious biscuits for me and the beautiful Eeyore card which I took with me in my potting shed.
Tea, homemade biscuits and my Fair Isle knitting. This was heaven to me.
Going back to my knitting I am still not sure whether to make one or two loop cowl. So far I have reached for making it one loop cowl.

Remembering Vanessa Cowl KAL

 

The weather has been really unpredictable lately but we know spring is just round the corner.

Down here at the Honeysuckle Studio I have been planning what all to grow (apart from honeysuckle of course). Do you remember in this post I mentioned about the "Remembering Vanessa Cowl Kal" project?

Well I have just started working on the second chapter which was out already few days back. It was so wonderful to see that second chapter was based on Vanessa's love for gardening.  Christina Wall who started this whole project in Ravelry also put some links on Vanessa's beautiful garden.

 So I chose some spring colours for the second chapter of the cowl. It is knitted in round. Will be a very snuggly cowl.

 

Meanwhile, I am still enjoying my dry poppy heads (from my garden last year) and happily sowing seeds for this year; planning my summer garden.

Fair Isle Knitting

 Sorry, its a bit late but better now than never.

 Do you remember last year before Christmas I mentioned to you about my new obsession Fair Isle Knitting?

 I told you I would show you my new book on Fair Isle Knitting.

Well, here it is.

Yes it is a very nice book with lots of clear instructions which guides you through the techniques. And all these beautiful yarns are from Jamieson's Shetland.

Waiting for me, so they can be knitted into something cosy and warm.

 But before I could start something for me again I had to knit for little Emily first.

She just likes pink and purple. *Sighhhh*

We went to the yarn shop together and she choose these two shades of pink. Its Alpaca Tweed, lovely soft yarn. The heart pattern is from the above mentioned book. Of course, Emily loves hearts and its just ready in time for her to wear tomorrow - Valentines Day!

But for now she was not ready to model the sweater for me.' No I don't want to' is that what she says and pulls her hands like that when she doesn't want something. Bless her.

 The back is not too bad but yes I still need a lot of practice. I am addicted to fair isle knitting.

It is such a relief to finish a project and I am trying very hard this year not to have too many WIPs. Now that's tough. At least Emily's sweater is ready. It is slightly wider but that is because I did this without any pattern except the Fair Isle pattern. But better than being too tight I guess.

Now then! What's this basket full of yarn for?

Okay, sorry but I have to tell you a bit of this story now. Just before Christmas I read on  'Hen House Blog' about the tragic death of a very talented Artist 'Vanessa Cabban' from the blog 'Do you mind if I knit?'. Even though at that time I didn't know about Vanessa Cabban or her blog. 'http://henhousehomemade.blogspot.co.uk/'  blog post on her touched me and I started reading Vanessa Cabban blog during the Christmas holiday. How sad to have lost such a talented Artist and even more sad that I came to know about her, and her blog work; only after her death.

The other thing was that I joined Ravelry sometime last year, but never really used it until now. Recently I got into it again and as I started looking for some Fair Isle project for me. Then surprisingly came across a 'Knit Along Cowl' project and it said Remembering Vanessa Cowl Kal. It is a mystery KAL which started Feb 6, 2015 and anyone can join in the "A Knitter's Life" Ravelry Group under the thread, "Remembering Vanessa Cowl Kal" This is a cowl to remember the life and work of the lovely knitter, artist, illustrator, sculpter, gardner who passed away Dec17, 2014.
So I joined the group, aswell with many others, and choose some DK yarn from my cupboard for this cowl. It is a great project for using all those left over yarns from other projects.

Thank you Christina Wall from A Knitters Life to start this project x

Goodbye 2014

 Now we are almost ready to say goodbye to 2014 and say hello to 2015

Don't know where this year went, so fast

The girls really enjoyed decorating their gingerbread man and the house. I bought the kit and to tell you honestly they looked good but the taste was nothing like gingerbread. Next year no more readymade kit but I rather make everything from scratch.

Homemade is definitely much better. I am glad for Olivia's birthday I baked a banana cake at home. So much tastier and fun!

 

 

Wow! can't believe Olivia is thirteen now! Well even though officially only now, but we had been experiencing some teenage behaviour already from last year. Guess this is normal, please tell me yes.

 

I made a bunting too but left it too late and had a bit of panic attach just the day before as I forgot to write the alphabets wrong way and ran out of bondaweb. So I had to cut around fabrics again and hand sew them to the bunting. Phew!

It is so nice to see the girls bonding more and more everyday

This year I have done a awfull lot of knitting and sewing. I knitted little Emily the leg warmers. At one point I was not sure if I will finish all this before Christmas. They have been used every day almost while playing outdoors. I might have to knit a few more next year.

This is a simple cable knit leg warmer which started here.

Boxing day we got snow.

The next day we went to Ilam. Santa Claus must have known it was going to snow. The wooden sledge for the girls.

Ilam looked so pretty.

Olivia and Emily on their new sledge. Thank you Santa Claus.

Seemed like Olivia liked the wooden one more

And little Emily preferred the old red plastic sledge.

I did not manage to take any photo's of this wooly trouser while I was knitting because I just wanted to finish then in time before Christmas. But here it is. Finished and Emily nice and warm in it. She could wear it on top of her tracks. Cosy!

Sledging with daddy was fun.

Snack time.

And yes! My very first fair isle vest was complete too in time.

I am really pleased with it and the last finished knitting project was my hat with left over yarns.

The grey yarn is the same from Olivia's hat. I bought way too much. Emily's leg warmer were the same yarn too.

Looking back we had a good year. lots of crafty projects. Good time was spent with family and friends and now looking forward to a brand new year. New projects and definitely want to start painting more again. The last three years were a bit slow with my painting but Emily is 3 now and I do get a lot more time for myself.

Wishing you all bloggers a very happy new year and please do pop in my space next year. I will be visiting my painting studio a lot more next year but continue still with my crafty projects.
Honeysuckle studio
xxx