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Courthouse Steps Blanket

Courthouse Steps Blanket

Pattern: Courthouse Steps Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Anchor Magicline. 12x 50g in Pink (1462) & 6.5 x 50g in Green (1478)
Needles: 4.5mm
Time taken to knit: 15th May 2010 to 2nd February 2012.
Size: 99cm x 96cm


Courthouse Steps Blanket

I started this blanket when I was in LOT of pain due to my
knee injury. I sent DH up into the loft to dig out the yarn as I thought the bright colours might cheer me up.


Courthouse Steps Blanket

I then came to a halt for a bit as I ran out of yarn but I managed to buy more of the pink and 2 Ravellers came to my rescue with the green.



Courthouse Steps Blanket

It's an easy pattern to follow which is just what I needed at the time as my brain was frazzled due to pain and all the strong painkillers I was on.



Courthouse Steps Blanket


It can be folded into fun shapes.


Courthouse Steps Blanket

I've given it to the baby daughter of a very good friend of mine. It arrived during a very cold spell and the night before her parents had decided to buy a bigger blanket as little one is very good at kicking her blankets off. Then the postman delivered this...


Courthouse Steps Blanket

I edged it with a garter stitch border with mitred corners and bound off with an applied i-cord.


detail of the mitred corners, i-cord bindoff and the 'wrong side'

I enjoyed making it but was also pleased to give it away as I associated it with being in pain. Hopefully it will well used and keep a certain baby girl nice and warm.

More snow

It snowed again last night and this time we had about 2". So nothing horrendous and with winter tyres on the car and Yaktraks on my boots I enjoyed our walk this morning.

As did the dogs:

Annie seemed to have a bit of bounce but the snow revealed just how much she drags her hind paws when she walks.

They both slept well after breakfast...

A little bit of snow

We had our first snow of the winter last night and woke up to 3" on the ground.

Whilst it isn't a patch on last years snowfall it was still very welcome. Last night when I took Annie out for a 'comfort break' I realised that it was the first time I'd walked in snow since my accident on December 23rd 2009. Snow on the ground when in leg brace and on crutches means that I couldn't get out of the house and the following year I was using a walking stick and again I found myself housebound.

So I thoroughly enjoyed feeling the crunch of snow under my boots but not enough to give up my Sunday in bed. DH & DD took the dogs out this morning to play:



Annie is nearly 11 years old, blind and has been ill recently. She has arthritis and has been having problems with a middle ear infection recently which leaves her feeling very ill and often unable to walk. So I've been back and forth to the vets with her over the last couple of weeks and hope that the antibiotics do their stuff soon .

Oscar as always LOVES snow and acts like a total clown . Annie normally loves it too but it's too much for her now.

Pimp my vest...

I found a small hole recently on one of our duvet covers. Superking pure cotton duvet covers aren't cheap so I decided to repair it. As the duvet cover is a solid lilac colour I chose a scrap of a pretty purple floral fabric. Using the hearts die for my Accuquilt I applied bondaweb to the fabric before cutting the shapes out, ironed the shapes onto the duvet cover and then sewed around them with my sewing machine.


Purple hearts on a duvet cover

One heart covering the hole looked a bit lonely so I gave it some company. I wasn't that keen on the blanket stitch that the machine produced so continued but with hand sewing. :


Appliquéd hearts on short-sleeved baby vests

A friend of mine has a little baby girl which gave me a great excuse to buy some cheap white baby vests from a supermarket and raid my bag of fabric scraps.


Appliquéd hearts on long-sleeved baby vests

They have been very well received. After I'd sent them I found this blog post which has given me plenty of ideas for future gifts.

And just to demonstrate that there is also some knitting going on here's a photo of my latest project just before it was finished. It's currently blocking and I'll share more details when it's dry and photographed....


pile of garter stitch

From one charm pack....

Last weekend I did some sewing. It was my MILs' birthday 2 days before DHs' and what to get someone who has everything?

So I made her a present:


Quilted Tote Bag

Pattern: Mad Quilters' Quilted Tote Bag

Fabric: 22 5" charm squares of Moda Glace (which was given to me by a very lovely knitter), plus green cotton from my stash.


I added a few changes including a magnetic clasp


a magnetic clasp


an internal pocket

and


and a key retainer

The bag is very roomy for it's size:


2x 50g balls of sock yarn inside with plenty of room to spare

All these modifications were new to me and I used this tutorial for the Internal zipped pocket

I enjoyed the pattern but as a relative beginner found a few things a bit confusing.

Another 6 charms from the same pack were used last year when I made a little present for the physio assistant who was wonderful and helped me through the pain of using gym equipment for the first time since my accident:


Zippy Wallet in Moda Glace

Pattern: Zippy Wallet by noodlehead


Zippy Wallet in Moda Glace

I've made this pattern twice before for my niece and my Sister In Law and still enjoyed making it.


Zippy Wallet in Moda Glace

It was very well received and apparently the pocket is perfect for a hotel key card.

I still have a few charms (5" squares) left mainly of Christmas fabrics but have no plans for them yet.

I'm still behind on revealing my sewn projects and also have a knitted project that will be finished soon.

Happy Birthday DH

My gorgeous husband is celebrating his birthday today. We've had the day off work, went out for lunch and he has a great new 'toy' to play with.

His mum got him a great card which I had to share:

For Airedale lovers the card can be bought from Marks & Spencers