I've finished......so I'll start.....!

I have finally finished the blue 'ripple' crocheted blanket! (there it is, adorning the bed in my son's former bedroom (aka my craft room ;-p)

Although I enjoyed making it, I'm glad it's finally done, with all the loose ends sewn in and neatened off. It seemed to take quite a while, but then I remember it was interrupted with a few other items.....

The grey cable jumper is finished, but awaiting blocking and seaming:

(spot the foam-matting squares in assorted colours to the right - actually, they're a set of  'hopscotch' tiles - a bargain from the kids' aisle in Tesco's, ready to slot together and pin out my knitting!)

I also managed to do a 'baby ripple' for my daughter's friend, who's expecting a little 'ankle-biter' in August:

So, now I'm casting around for other projects - hence a visit to the library, returning with a stack of books for inspiration:

The 'mitred-madness' creation (slung on the back of the chair) is still going strong and using up all the little oddments, as and when I get around to it!

Close-up on the books, in case any of you are interested:

However, I'm grateful to Una over at Great Balls Of Wool for making me aware of a charity knitting outlet I can contribute to....so it looks like I'll soon have a load of new projects on the 'go'! :-)

So, what's everyone else got on the needles...?

Craft space

Having the younger 'chick' spread his wings again and move out, hubby and I find ourselves as 'empty-nesters' once more! (see this )

So, it's time to re-claim my 'craft' room, now it's no longer needed as a bedroom.

I've made a start :

As the days and weeks progress, I plan to move all my yarn & 'accoutrements' into this one space, instead of in bags and boxes wedged in cupboards all over the house (and the sheds outside, too!)

The large PC and printer will be going, once I have extracted all the genealogy details and images I have stored on it - all my Family History files and charts are moving in here too!

It's lovely to be able to think about getting all my 'art' stuff available - and being able to leave it out instead of the tiresome need to clear everything away all the time.

I have some shelves ready for when I come across all the knitting and sewing books I've accumulated - they'll soon fill up, I expect!

I plan to have a dedicated sewing space, with my sewing machine readily available rather than packed away at the back of beyond - this might encourage me to get back to doing some 'patchwork'. ;-)

!....and I need somewhere to store all my cross-stitch threads, too!

I'm debating whether to organise my knitting needles properly..... but they look lovely bundled into jars on the windowsill!

(and this is only some of them!)

This old metal knitting gauge belonged to my Grandmother, it still comes in handy!

Mustn't get cross about 'cross stitch'!

It's been a few years since I last did any cross-stitch but at Easter hubby ordered this chart for me. I love Norman Rockwell paintings but I've never been able to find cross-stitch representations of his work here in the UK - until now!

What a wonderful way to make use of all the threads I inherited from hubby's Grandmother:

(this is only some of them!)

The chart calls for 89 (yes - 89!!!) different DMC shades, but my threads are Anchor, so using a conversion chart so I set to work checking off all the ones I had and those I'd need to order.

Well, it turns out I only have 18!!!!! Can you believe it :-/  So with a deep breath (and some good daylight!) I'll have to sit down and see how near a match I can get - I expect I'll still have to order a good few skeins, anyway.

But - it is such a beautiful and intricate picture that I think it'll be worth it.

 (Mind you, I'll probably be in my dotage by the time I finish it!)

Rockwell's original artwork appeared as the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, 3rd April, 1948 -  but for the purpose of this chart, the image has been 'reversed' in order to show his signature 'correctly'! There are a number of quirks about the picture, it was to celebrate April Fool's Day, after all - see if you can spot all the deliberate 'mistakes', or check here  to find the ones you've missed! Good luck!

-oOo-

In other news, the cable jumper is progressing: 

The back and front are done and now I'm onto the sleeves. Hopefully they won't take too long, being a 12-row repeat of stocking stitch with raised bands of the reversed stitch - I just have to remember when to purl and when to knit; it goes against the grain to knit on what you'd expect to normally be a purl row, and vice versa!