End of August

Well, I got loads of gardening done, despite a few wet days. Not as much as I wanted to, but I did get a lot of cutting back done, and progress has been made.

My theory is that if I get the garden as up to date as I can by the autumn, there should be less to do next spring. I don't think I've ever got this far with it before. I'm only showing you the best bits, LOL.

On a completely different subject, I've been making dishcloths. I've only ever made dishcloths to give away before, but I'm always hearing about how much better home-made ones are, so I crocheted some for my kitchen.

These are all made from old Leisure Arts patterns I had. They were so quick to make that it won't matter too much when they get dirty and wear out, because I can always make another. Only a utilitarian thing, but I like them. At least, I like the look of them - I don't think I've ever used a dishcloth this thick and chunky before! I suppose knitted ones would seem thinner.

I've also been doing some quilting . . .

. . . which I'll show you properly when it's finished.

Only Ewe

I don't really know why I wanted to knit a sheep. I think a knitted sheep just seemed like an appropriate thing for someone who knits to have.
The pattern is from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss, with my own modifications.

I had issues with this pattern, and one of them was the length of the body in proportion to the size of the head. I shortened the body of mine quite a bit, and I also made the ears about twice the size they were in the pattern.

When she was finished she looked very plain, so I got out the flowers I knitted back in February and sewed a few of them on. These were from Nicky Epstein's book of knitted flowers.
I think they dress her up nicely. I do like to add something to a pattern.

It's not easy getting a good picture of a sheep. It was a long and gruelling photo shoot for both of us.

I'm taking a short break from blogging now. I want to put some work in on the garden and if possible get it completely up to date by the end of the summer.

I'll try to keep up with reading blogs and I'll be back in a couple of weeks!

Multicoloured Pansies

Since I posted about this doily in May, I've been thinking about making another one using more colours.
Some of these colours are a bit brighter than I would normally use, but I needed 8 different colours to have 2 pansies of each colour, and I wanted to use the same brand of cotton for the whole thing. I'm hoping the cream and darker green tone down the other colours slightly. It's that bright mauve/purple I'm thinking of.

The yarn is Patons 100% cotton 4 ply. This cotton is smooth and soft to work with and not too string-like.
I thought the pansies on their own were photo-worthy. Love those green pansies!

I don't often like making the same thing more than once, because I'm always wanting to move onto the next thing, but in this case I really did enjoy working with all the different colours, and I knew already that this pattern worked well.

I block doilies by pinning them to shape on an ironing board. I spray them with water, leave to dry, then remove the pins and press. This one needs a lot of pins and it's worth taking some time to get the pinning right and make a nice job of it.

It's been very hot here, especially the first half of the week, so not much gardening has got done, but I have been taking some pictures.

This is a view I like, and it shows the border which runs along the side of our house.

I hope it's not too hot where you are. Have a great weekend :)