HERE I AM!

Yes, I am still here. Although we gained a day last bank holiday weekend I feel I've lost one this week, if you understand my meaning. I thought I really must this afternoon catch up with my blog, thank everyone for the lovely comments in my last post re: Blossom and give you an update on what I've been up to.

I'm really pleased to say that my cardigan for baby Alfred is on the verge of completion. Unfortunately though, it has been at this stage since last Saturday. I've since started knitting a new cardigan for Jack and if there's a choice to be made I'd rather pick my needles up and knit than sew a garment together and finish the button hole edges. A stumbling block for me but, one I must rectify in this coming week.

At last I've finished the cushion I've made for Kate. It only needed filling but every time I've been to her house to pick up an old duvet for this very purpose (she seems to have an abundance in her airing cupboard), I've been so distracted by my cuddling and cooing over Alfred that I've come back home without it. This morning, I did finally bring home the duvet and it's done, finished!

I've also cut out the pieces of fabric for Blossom's playmate so now I've got to get on with some stitching.

I'm really pleased that we now have a Knit Natter and Stitch group in our village and we're going to meet every fortnight. On the first afternoon I took Alfred's cardigan along to knit and there was just a handful of us there but at the next gathering the word had spread and there was quite a turn out. Some ladies had come along to learn how to crochet and one thing led to another and I was asked if I could teach crochet. My crochet skills are self taught so I was a little concerned that I might not teach them correctly and as the afternoon progressed we laughed as I told them that I was actually a swimming teacher and they had more chance of going home and swimming butterfly than using a hook. But we muddled through making chains and the odd dc and by the end of the session we agreed to return in a fortnight and have another go. I suggested that we should try and make a granny square.

Over the bank holiday weekend, I found an easy to follow video of how to make a basic granny square as I just wanted to check that I would be teaching them correctly and armed with a step by step pattern I went along to the group for our next meeting on Tuesday. Though a little daunted at first     and after a few false starts they did eventually all make a granny square which I thought was brilliant. Not because they made it, obviously that was great but, that I'd actually been able to teach them how to make it.

Hopefully now that they've made something, they'll be keen to come along and give crochet  another go. Who knows they might even get hooked!

Hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend, tomorrow is supposed to be warm here. My plan is for gardening and sewing, let's see how I get on with that.