Off to the Kingdom

Well, here I am just home from Hannah's swimming lesson, lots of small kids with goggles and arm bands bigger than themselves. We have decided to head off to county Kerry to my parents house as its the bank holiday weekend and my mother aka Nana is excited about the arrival of Hannah and Daniel for the weekend.

I am still knitting the tank top and hope to make some progress over the weekend.Here are some pics of knitted toys and a baby jacket I did some weeks back.The weather is supposed to break so it is shaping up to be a knitty weekend.See you all on Monday.

What a day........

Did you ever have one of those days.... the weather is really warm which is not a complaint as such, except when you are feeling a little under the weather and I wont go on, just trust me on it , it hasnt been the greatest day I have had.

The one really productive thing I did get on was to purchase the batting and the boarder fabric for my quilt....wahoooo..... Cathi accompanied me with kids in toe to the Limerick Quilt centre and as well as purchasing the beautiful red fabric for my quilt , I bought a cutting mat and a measuring square ( there is probably a quilting term for the implement and I will be corrected later) .

Watch this space for my very first completed quilt

Trickey Knitty

Here is my latest knitting project. Its a tank top for my son Daniel, we have a family first holy communion coming up on May 19th and I thought this would be nice on Dan the Man. Its a lovely Debbie Bliss pattern. The yarn however is a hayfield cotton Aran which I found in my mothers stash. I am hoping I will have enough to finish it. The pattern says it takes 150g and I think thats around how much I have.

I have had to adjust a bit because its a bit heavier than the suggested yarn, after three starts I think I have the number of stitches and needle size ok.......( if any one has any suggestions for patterns adjustments i.e yarn differences and needle size, all advice gladly received as I am really flying by the seat of my pants on this one).

I have been running around after Daniel for most of the day trying to measure the length of the back and position of armholes and he has not been impressed.

Jeez I hope I will have enough yarn to finish it or I will ahve to rip it back, wouldnt that just be the icing on the cake. anyway I will keep going and hope for the best.

Happy Birthday Hannah

This is just a quick little post to get the day started.Let me introduce you to my daughter Hannah. She is four years old today. We were lying in bed this morning, as she doesnt have Montessori on Wednesdays, I asked her if she felt any different now that she is four, she did a little stretch and replied 'Not really, but I may need to eat more food to feel different'. She has been a joy in our lives for the last four years. She was born on the Friday of the May bank holiday weekend at exactly 13.33pm in 2003. It rained softly for most of the morning, but sun started to stream through the windows just as she arrived. I remember that distinctly because I had identified the window as a possible escape route if the allready 20 hour labour was going to go on any longer, somehow I thought if i left the room, the pain would stop............and 14 months later I was back in that same home birthing suite of the maternity hospital in Limerick going through the same for Daniels arrival, he arrived at 13.35pm on a Wednesday!.Here is a photo of the birthday girl who will be getting lots of ice cream today. She keeps us on our toes as well as loving and laughing. Love you lots Hannah Banana

So far so good.....

Here is the progress I made with the quilt yesterday. I laid all the squares out on the bed and then, I gathered the squares for one row at a time, ran down stairs and sewed them together on the machine which is stationed in the kitchen at the moment. I dont have enough space in my house for a seperate work area, so I have to plan my sewing very carefully around my two kids and all of their accessories. While I was sewing yesterday, there was a Thomas the tank engine train set in the sitting room which I had to stop and repair every now and again, the washing machine needed feeding with the laundry and then had to be burped about 45 minutes later when its buzzer sounded, however I ploughed on . I am amazed at how focused I became on the squares and the need to sew them together in order to see what they look like when they are sewn together.

All thats left is to make my way to the patchwork shop in Limerick to get the batting and the boarder fabric, this is sooo exciting.

Crazy about Quilting

Who would have thought....I have started making my first quilt. I accompanied cathi to a quilting workshop in Killarney a couple of weeks ago. The workshop was being run by Pat Sloan, a celebrity quilter from the states who was with a fantastic group of women who were on a trip called Sew many places ( I will do this links for these soon, as they are well worth checking out).I am now really inspired and with Cathi's great teaching skills ( she doesnt give out to me when I go wrong) I am well on my way to completing my firsy quilt. I have some photos of the quilt so far and hopefully at a later stage I will be able to get some photos of the Killarney event.Even though I have been so inspired to do this quilt I would never have started it if Cathi hadnt sat me down at her work desk and put that rotary cutter into my hand.....so a hugh big thanks to Cathi....a great quilter and an even better friend........

Terrible Blogger

I know this is terrible, I didnt leave the planet or anything I have been here and I have been knitting. I managed to finish the Debbie Bliss sweater which I love, the merino wool is so soft. I finished it on time for our trip to Barcelona ,but we missed the flight, to cut a sad story short we ended up going to Cobh in County Cork for a few days which wasnt so bad after all. and the weather was so miserable I got to wear my sweater!!.