Red poppies

Well, back inside today doing a spot of tidying up and re-organising my work space - commonly known as procrastination! - since the sun has decided to disappear and the clouds are making everything look grey and cool. Not summer at all! So to remind me of the sunshine, I thought I would show you these lovely red poppies that appeared in the garden this year. A neighbour down the road has some ginormous poppies in their front garden and I can only think the wind has kindly blown some seeds our way to give us these beauties. We've had so much wind and rain these last few days though, I was frightened the petals would be blown off before I could get out there with my camera. But I was lucky:)

Three out so far and loads of buds waiting for some more sunshine to bloom. One of these would fill the palm of your hand easily and mmmmm, the colours! I feel a purpley-red yarn begging to be dyed just looking at the centre detail and the intensity of that red. Now, what could I use that for???? Mind is whirring with possibilities!

I thought I'd wander around the garden to see what else has come out in bloom over the last week. Mostly the bright orange lilies which are settling in their new home very well this year and have many more flowers waiting to open too. Funny thing about these lilies. I split the overlarge original plant last year and planted two new plants further up the garden. This one above has kept the strong orange colour but has a much more complex flower centre - a double lily even, a flower within the flower.

You can see it better in this close-up. But the second plant has done something strange. It is a much simpler bell shaped lily with paler colouring and distinctive markings. Both the same plant, honest! It must be the soil or that one gets less sun than the other? But it's really interesting how plants do this - fascinating.

Now I just have to wait for the mother plant to flower now to see which genes the children have inherited :))

Well, back to tidying and actually getting some work done. Quite a few things to show you on the needles at the moment too so back soon with something stripey.... :)

Lily cardi finished

Quick update for you, the Lily cardi is all finished! It does look more complete now it has a border. I spent ages trying out different edging patterns till I got one that looked good with this style - I ended up using a little scalloped shell pattern all the way around the edge and cuffs. I'm still deciding whether it needs a fastening like a button or maybe ribbons. Bolero tops never seem to stay in place without them so I think I may try out both to see which looks best without spoiling the look of the edge detail.

I've started another pair of booties as I thought the first ones rather big in size for little newborn feet:-) even though I followed the pattern for 0-3 mths and used the same yarn weight and needle size. The new pattern I'm using seems to be giving a much smaller shoe so I'm going with that for now and see how it turns out. They knit up pretty fast too so hopefully some more pics soon. Anyway, a girl can't have too many shoes! Maybe that is starting her off a bit too early;-)) although she may well grow out of them soon enough.

I'm hoping that this top will last a good few months as I'd imagine it will fit maybe up to 6 months? at least 3. By then I'll have knitted a good few more things I'm thinking:-))

Righty-ho, back to knitting pair of booties no 2:-) Back soon and have a good Easter!

Baby Knitting progress....

Some baby knitting progress for you. A lot has been going on unfinished behind the scenes over the last few days but now I have managed to snap a few pics for you to see. Just as well I took advantage of the sun as the heavens opened just after I finished and we are back to dull, heavy rain forecast for the whole weekend - sigh! Not quite the start to April I was hoping for weatherwise. But on to the knitting!

First pic is the lovely baby booties - pattern is Saartje's booties. These were a very quick knit and with very simple shaping, you sew these together into booties. I love the crossed strap detailing and I got a chance to use those lovely green apple buttons I've been saving too. I used the fairytale DK 100% wool for these for a sturdier and more durable knit -I'm hoping. The colours were chosen to match a  little dress I've already bought and also to match the lily cardigan I'm knitting.

Progress on the lily cardigan so far.....

This little bolero styled cardigan is based on a magazine pattern but I have modified it heavily substituting their stripes for a lacy pattern and dumping the original frilly edging. So far, I have sewn all the seams and now need to choose an edging that suits this style. I'm thinking a little crocheted scalloped edge all the way around and then a nice button to finish.

I also modified the pattern to knit the body in the round rather than have side seams - as you can see from the blocked pieces. I only had to sew the top seams and inset the sleeves. In theory if this were a solid piece of knitting, this works well but it also means I couldn't mirror the lace patterning for the two front panels so they don't look as symetrically pleasing as I would have wanted.  But maybe it's not too noticeable to everyone else and you know how much of a perfectionist I am!

The lace pattern is a quatrefoil eyelet pattern which is nice and soft, not too lacy and just enough detailing for a solid shape. I stretched this out for the photo so you could see the pattern better but I did relax it a bit when blocking to the right garment measurements, don't worry!! I had fears of stretching this too big and ending up with  6-12months size:-) Lace is so stretchy and I had to remind myself this shouldn't be stretched as much as a lace shawl - habit!

So minus the edging for now, this is what the cardi will look like with the little dress. Now add the booties - all a matching set!

Now, off to finish the edging and then plan a dress or two.....:-)

Lavender's blue dilly dilly

Lavender’s blue dilly, dilly, Lavender’s green;

When I am king, dilly, dilly, You shall be Queen.

Who told you so, dilly, dilly, who told you so?

'Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so

Call up your men dilly, dilly, Set them to work,

Some with a rake, dilly, dilly, some with a fork.

Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, Some to thresh corn,

Whilst you and I, dilly, dilly, Keep ourselves warm.

The garden is in full bloom!