to chit or not to chit?

Beautiful weather today so we did some work in the garden. I sowed some seeds... Leeks (Musselburgh and Tornado) and lettuce (Quattro Stagioni). I unpacked my seed potatoes that had arrived a few days ago and laid them out in egg boxes for chitting. I didn't bother chitting last year, and from what I've read, I don't think it makes much difference whether you do or not. Still, it feels like a small achievement to be doing something towards the allotment. This year I am trying Salad Blue, Pentland Javelin, Sarpo Mira.

off the page 2012

It's Off the Page again this weekend. (The UK's only literary festival devoted to music criticism and audio culture). There are lots of interesting events scheduled. I'm particularly looking forward to Everyone Knows This is No.w.here: short films programme, Attack of the Radiophonic Women: How Synthesizers Cracked Music's Glass Ceiling and An Audience With Evan Parker. It's a shame Betty is too young for the kids activities as they look great too.

I did a terrible thing

After basking in the glory of my near perfect ladybird dress. I did the most terrible and stupidest thing. I shrank it in the wash. Ruined.

Only now, two weeks later can I talk about it without crying. No one to blame but myself. The only way I find I can deal with it is to start again with another one. So here I am casting on...

snow exhaustion

It was her third winter of snow, but the first one since learning to walk.

After all the excitement, and with perfect timing she fell asleep in the sledge at Windy Corner whilst we warmed up with hot chocolates.

We towed her home still fast asleep.

aviatrix hat

Brrrrrr. It's 2 degrees c. in my workshop today! Given up and finished this hat instead. It's the Aviatrix pattern from ravelry. I've made several versions over the past few years. This one is to be sent off to my friend Jenny's new baby Connie, and is modeled here by the lovely Raymond.

crocheted pin cushion

A little present for a sewing friend of mine. I'm not that great at crocheting. I can't seem to get on without constantly having to refer to basic stitch diagrams. Things are making more sense now that I've realised that single, double and triple crochet mean different things in English and American.

The pattern is from here.

ladybird dress

This is a super dress pattern. Easy to follow, adaptable and very long lasting. I made one when Betty was only six months old and she's still wearing it now as a vest top.

The pattern is the Little Sister Dress by Tora Froseth Designs. It's available as a free download on Ravelry. The yarn is Millamia Soft Merino.

I plotted out the ladybird design on graph paper and slightly altered the number of stitches in a row to fit. It helps to use an asymmetric graph paper, where the boxes are wider than they are tall, when sketching out knitting patterns. I printed my own from this website.

She seems very pleased... and so am I!