June FNSI

I've finally managed to join in with FNSI again after quite an absence and to celebrate I had a multi-crafting evening. 

First up was a quick scone baking session. 

During lockdown, when flour and egg availability have permitted (these have been hard to find items in my local supermarkets for the past 3 months but that seems to be ending) I have been trying out recipes from the National Trust scone book. 

I've generally only made half batches as there's only two of us. So far every recipe has been a success, I've mostly been baking the savoury scones as we watch out sugar intake, although the odd sweet one slips in and I'd really like to try some chocolate ones. And as we don't eat them all at once they've been stored in the freezer with no ill effects.

Tonight's batch were red pepper, onion and cheese and the little taster scone I made with the scraps was lovely. 

After the baking I moved onto knitting, whilst advising my boyfriend who was playing a Zelda computer game.

I am starting to make better progress on a colourwork sweater which has been suffering due to my not paying it full attention. As I'm currently working with 350 stitches I only achieved about a row but any progress is good progress.

When my boyfriend moved onto online gaming with his mates I moved onto my sewing machine in another room. I did have high hope of getting quite a bit done but my machine had other ideas. I did get the quilt binding I'd planned to do sewn on one side of my quilt, but thanks to jammed and broken needles caused, I think, by my walking foot loosening the needle's screw this took me the best part of 2 hours.

But it was all attached and trimmed by bedtime so I'm calling that a success FNSI. 

What did everyone else get up to? Head over to Wendy's Blog to find out. 

52 Weeks of Socks - Gerste

... or the learn-a-lot socks.

The second pair of socks I decided to make from 52 Weeks was Gerste by Verena Cohrs. I went with the suggested yarn in the book and bought some naturally dyed, natural sock yarn from Woolly Mammoth Fibre Co.

And why learn-a-lot socks? Because I used lots of new to me techniques on them.

First up Judy's Magic Cast On and M1R and M1L in the toes. 

This took a little while to get the hang of. 

Next German short row heels. 

(Quite tricky taking a photo of your own heel) 

I love the look of short row heels, but get a bit confused with wrap and turn short rows. I enjoyed these, even more so when I kept a close count on how many rows I'd done (something else I'm learning at the moment). 

Finally I learnt a stretchy bind off. 

A real game changer when putting the sock on your foot, and also worth taking some time to make sure it's relatively loosely done to make sure the stretch is maximised. 

Really keen to make some more toe up, short row socks soon, their fit is great.

All the new to me techniques were found on the Internet, mostly on the kitty or purl soho websites. 

Progress with The Plan

So the beginning of June seems as good a time as any to review my "plan", which was just my list of UFOs and planned makes which I am aiming to put a dent in this year whilst not adding too many new projects to the list. 

I broke my plan into 3 parts, so I'll update in those three parts. 

The first part was the UFOs as follows with progress updates:

1 Hue Shift Afghan - complete (except the ends, don't mention the ends) 

2 Floozy - just needs buttons purchasing

3 Sparkle Punch Quilt - on the quilting frame, getting my nerve together! 

4 Alice cushion - getting close to a completed flimsy

5 Aran squares - one added to the collection

6 Pumpkin mini - complete

7 Xmas stars - nothing much to report

8 Wedding quilt

9 Opal socks

10 Jessa shorts - slow progress has restarted on the toile

There has also been some progress (and removals) on the ready to go list:

1 Highland cushions

2 Colourwork stocking

3 Scheepjes hat - complete

4 Scheepjes Shrug - removed and planning to use the whirl for something else 

5 Hitofude

6 Blythes Spirit - next in line

7 Lottie and Albert Blanket 

8 WM quilt - basted 

9 Bird quilt - must stop collecting fabric for it! 

10 Xmas mini

11 Socks - one pair done, another 3/4 complete

12 Cross stitch bookmark

Of the Requires Refinement List I now know what pattern I will be using for the cat quilt, the joni dress has all the necessary materials purchased so is now in my dress making queue and the cowl may not be a purl soho one! 

All in all quite pleasing progress, and I haven't deviated too much from the lists.