Wednesday 6 August 2014

The Next Week

Monday 28th July dawned bright and sunny - again.  This is like Madeiran weather, you can't fault it.  I went to my patchwork class as normal in the morning.  I was on tea duty so was provider of biscuits and milk.  You don't pay subscriptions when you do this, but it does cost you considerably more than £2 for everything you buy!  We have a lovely bunch of ladies.  A mixed selection of ages from a young 50+ to a middle aged 87 year old who does the most exquisite embroidery on her patchwork.  We have a wonderful morning admiring each others work, oooiiinngg and aaahhhiiinnnggg at other people's finished projects and sometimes putting a stitch or two into our own work.  All in all we have a wonderful time and just wait for next week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday Peter (My DH) goes to work so this week I have set too with the aim of doing a goodly load more to the shawls only stopping for necessities.  The only thing I will say is that it makes the muscles you don't use very often shout out loud that they are not amused.  Apart from doing the washing in between times, that was it for two days.

On Thursday a 'phone call from our eldest son put the blue light to the touchpaper.  He announced that he and his family were going to see the two new arrivals in Scotland travelling up on Monday and coming home on Wednesday.  Well, you can imagine can't you.  No postage to pay and a guarantee that they will arrive.
"Oh I will have them finished by Sunday, thanks" - did I really say that?  The knitting needles started to spark as I raced down the last 10 rows of pattern and then onto the 25 rows of single moss stitch on the border.  The muscles screamed, but I didn't listen (wish I had).  Any way, at 10.38pm  I cast off the last stitches and
YES the knitted shawl was finished.

 The Finished Shawl.  It measures 35" x 36" and was very warm on my knees whilst I was knitting.  Just what you want with the outdoor temperatures in the low 90's F, 25degC

 A little closer look at the border and the pattern.
A simple pattern of 2 rows, one of which is all purl, but you would cringe at the number of times I got it wrong.  The second row works in blocks of six stitches and then every ten rows you change the open blocks over with the garter stitch ones.  After 20 rows you knit one complete row and start again.  The original pattern has a nice lacy border but you end up doing 4 1/2 M of border pattern so I altered it to include the single moss stitch border.
 Another view showing the pattern a little more clearly.
 After the success of Friday and finishing the knitted shawl, following our mandatory visit to Peter's mother on Saturday morning, I sat down with my crochet hook at the ready and began.  I had finished sewing all the squares together on the Wednesday so just the borders to add.

 I had already made the 25 squares for the main body of the shawl.  Each square measures 6" x 6" and they are sewn together.  The squares just in white looked so bland I found some multicoloured yarn to edge them with - an improvement I thought.





The last stage was to go round and round the border until it looked OK and finish.  In the end the number of rounds was determined by the fact that the yarn ran out at the end of a row so I called that done.  It was 6.49pm on Saturday!!!!!!!
I packed them into their boxes and made the gift cards on Sunday morning and DS and family collected them Sunday lunch time.  They will be winging their way to Glasgow on Monday morning.

And so my friends after a very busy weekend rushing about I am going to do very little for a few days until I start with the finishing of the bed runner.

night-night, God Bless and sleep tight
Needle Maid.