Addison Embroidery
at the
Vicarage

2 colour raglan (From Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Book 4) on a Welsh blanket given to me by my grandmother and nearly as old as I am

Another variation on a Debbie Bliss pattern which has been an invaluable friend to me while our grandchildren have been little. The basic pattern comes from Debbie Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino Book number 6 and once again I’ve raised the neckline. A Christmas present for my husband’s 6 year old granddaughter I thought I’d knit the body in indigo (col. 07), which works well with jeans (denim generally) and give her a blast of hot pink (col. 060) for the sleeves with a bit of extra colour in Fair Isle Band No 177 (from Mary Jane Mucklestone’s 200 Fair Isle Designs). I’m hoping there’s enough bright pink for her to enjoy and not to much to weary her mother. I rather like putting all a garment’s decorative energy on the sleeves and should I one day have the time I would like to embroider a few similar borders on ordinary long sleeved T shirts for me.

Detail of Fair Isle border on jumper sleeve – design No 177 from Mary Jane Mucklestone’s book 200 Fair isle Designs

I used this Fair Isle design on a little baseball jacket previously. I liked the effect then but  thought this time it would be nice if the flowers stood out more, so I cut out one of the background colour changes.

Another example of Fair Isle pattern No 177 from Mary Jane Mucklestone’s book 200 Fair isle Designs

It has been another frustrating week on the technical front. I won’t bore you with it (and golly it has bored me) but eventually we  hit upon a successful delivery of photos to my computer via a circuitous route  through various devices – all of which would work well if  the internet hadn’t been so, so, very iffy. We’re gearing ourselves up to visit the Apple shop in Cheltenham (to solve the computer problem- goodness knows what can be done about the internet) but  I’m not looking forward to it as I usually haven’t a clue as to what they’re saying. Enough said.

Fair Isle pattern No 177 from Mary Jane Mucklestone’s book 200 Fair isle Designs

To combat frustration I have bought 5 pots of white hellebores from a local shop and spent an enjoyable half hour or so potting them up and placing them so they can be seen from inside the house. I particularly enjoy the pot on a little metal table which stands at the right height to be seen though the living room window from the minute you enter the front door  – assuming the living room door is open. I’m tempted to buy more.

A couple of technology hiccoughs this week mean I’m behind in getting jobs finished and even if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to download photographs. So a few grr, grr, grrs.

My husband’s card for our joint account may not have been compromised two weeks ago but a week later it certainly had. Another unsuccessful attempt at buying yarn online via LoveCrafts, who only take online orders, led us back to the bank and the issuing of a new card – which fortunately came today. Happily for me while this was going on, I was able to relieve a kind lady in Scotland of her last few balls of Debbie Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino via a phone conversation. And this is why I prefer not giving my card details online and why I’m rather irritated when there is no phone number on websites I’d like to buy things from. I’m prehistoric but at least  I’m a functioning prehistoric!

Painted glass in window of North Stoke Church, Oxfordshire

Then, this morning I was about to do a small post about my favourite hand knitted dishcloth bought from the Holst Museum and the images on my camera wouldn’t download to my computer.  (By dishcloth, I mean a cloth used for washing dishes as opposed to drying them – not sure if the word we used means the same thing to Americans.)

For the moment, I’m giving up and just going back to making things with my hands which I seem to have some control over. Meanwhile enjoy the little bugs on this window painted on the glass in North Stoke Church in Oxfordshire, where my husband used to be priest in charge.