Mittens and candy canes

I haven't been posting much recently as I can't :( I am taking part in some secret exchanges and so all my new stuff can't be shown just in case the person they are intended for sees them.

I have however been busy ferreting away with other stuff too including going and getting myself a new job woohoo. I am really looking forward to getting in the workforce again after being a stay at home mum for so long.

I have made some candy canes as a practice for Christmas. Here is how to make them. 

You will need:

One packet of ready made regal icing

Peppermint flavouring, red and green food colouring paste

soften your icing by kneading it until soft and pliable.

Add peppermint flavouring to taste I like mine quite strong and so used a lot, if the icing starts to become sticky add some icing sugar to firm up again.

Half the icing leaving half white, half the other half and colour one section green and the other red

When you have finished you should end up with something looking like this

 make a sausage of white and a thinner one of a colour

Twist together and roll to seal them together.

Put them onto a wire rack to dry out over night. store in a sealed container until required, they can last for months as long as they remain airtight.

you will end up with something like the ones below 

I have also made some mittens to go with the girls matching sets for Christmas. I couldn't find a pattern that would work for all three sets and so I came up with on of my own using a few other patterns I found. here is the result and underneath is the pattern.

Cast on 34 stitches using 4.5mm needles

row 1 knit 2 purl 2 to end

row 2 purl 2 knit 2 to end

repeat these two rows 9 times so you have 18 rows altogether

row 19 k2, p2

row 20 k2, p2, k2, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, p1, k2, p2, k1, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, p2,k2,p2, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k1, p2, k2, p1 increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k2, p2, k2. (you should now have 38 stitches)

row 21 knit to end repeat 5 more times

row 27 k18, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k18

row 28 knit to end

row 29 k20, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k20

row 30 knit to end

row 31 k21, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k21

row 32 knit to end

row 33 k22, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back,increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k22

row 34 knit to end

row 35 k23, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back k23

row 36 knit to end

row 37 k24, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k24

row 38 knit to end

row 39 (you should now have 52 stitches) k18, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, slip the next 14 stitches on to a stitch holder, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k18.

(leave the 14 stitches on holder as this is thumb)

At this point things change for each pair you are making as you only need to go as high as the top of the little finger for the person you are making for. measure from the top of the ribbing to the top of the little finger before starting to decrease. just knit each row to end to the required length.

to start decrease, 

row 1 knit 2 together, k8 repeat to end

 row 2 knit to end

row 3  knit 2 together, k7 repeat to end

row 4 knit to end

row 5  knit 2 together, k6 repeat to end

row 6 knit to end

row7  knit 2 together, k5 repeat to end

row 8 knit to end

row 9 knit 2 together, k4 repeat to end

row 10 knit to end

row 11 knit 2 together, k3 repeat to end
row 12 knit to end
row 13 knit 2 together to end
row 14 knit to end
row 15 cast off

For the thumb
Pick up the 14 stitches
row 1 increase one stitch by knitting into front and back, k12, increase one stitch by knitting into front and back,
row 2 - 10 knit to end
row 11 knit 2 together to end
cast off

Make up by sewing the seam along one side and on the thumb.

One last thing before I go is my TUSAL report which I am very late for :(

Knitting a scarf (with instructional videos)

For Christmas this year we are doing a handmade Christmas  This means that all gifts are handmade. The children are really looking forward to seeing what Santa will be bringing them and eagerly thinking of what they can make as gifts, so watch this space for all our makings.

Emily has been after a hand knitted scarf for ages now and so I have decided to give her one for Christmas, and of course once one wants something the rest follow and so now all three girls are wanting scarfs. So I thought about it and I have decided to make them all a hat glove and scarf set in the colours of their choice.

Emily wants purple, so please watch the video below to see how to do it.

Unfortunately the camera is on the wrong side so to watch you will have to tilt your head :( If anyone knows how I turn it please tell me

This one shows casting on and basic knit stitch

This shows casting off

This shows casting on, knit stitch and purl stitch

This shows how to cast off in purl stitch

And here is Emily's finished scarf.

And this is Jessica's

Finally Back To School

I am one happy mum again now the kids have all gone back off to school. Jessica started full time this term so for the first time in 5 years I can actually do my own thing during the day without having to break off at lunch time to either take or pick up from nursery. Here are the girls ready for the first day back.

Jessica was super excited about starting full time school.

Today I am going to a friends' dogs' birthday party. I know but I think it is really just a get together for the owners of the dogs rather than an actual party, though there will be a special cake for the dogs to share lol. 

In the meantime here is 'The Wedding' update.

Here is Monday nights pic

And then last nights

You can now see exactly how big this will be when finished. I think the next section I will be working on is the dress itself and the majority of that is white so I will keep taking the pics but you might not see much of the work as white doesn't seem to show up well on here.

Any who got to go get ready for the party speak soon x

Being lazy

I have done very little these last few days.

Well I say that , but I have sorted through all the girls school uniform to see what still fits and what is needed new. That was fun I can tell you. The only one willing to do it was Jessica but then she is super excited to go back to school and stay there all day and have a packed lunch.

I am not one of those mothers that throws out last years school uniform and starts again from fresh each year. I just think what a waste, especially as Jessica is now wearing some of Kerry's old stuff. I am pretty old school in that respect, I would use something until it has gone beyond what any reasonable person would and then would try to think of a new use for it lol.

Even with me saving as much uniform as poss from last year it will still cost a further £130 to completely kit them all out. How do people afford to start from scratch each year??

I have had a bolt from the blue as well, I made some cupcakes for the Queens Diamond Jubilee earlier on this year. Well, I had completely forgotten about it until my MIL came and said someone came into the shop where she works and asked if I made cupcakes to order. So MIL took her number and now I have a job to make 24 cupcakes for this ladies daughters pregnancy shower. How cool is that??

I have also gotten myself the Kindle app on my phone, which means I have been reading up a storm too. So far this week I have read, 
Rules of Lying by Stephie Smith which was good I would give it 4 out of five,
Confessions of an Entrepreneur by Alana Sugar it was ok, short, well written but nothing of substance I give it 2 out of 5,
My Boyfriend's Back by Chrissy Olinger, This was also a short story but this was great, gripping, funny, and generally a good feel good. If you have seen drop dead gorgeous on t.v you will get what this book is on about I give this one 41/2 out of 5, 
I am part way through another 2 stories and will tell you about them as I get there.

Just a quick update on 'The Wedding' as I have been lazy and not done much but here is where I am up to.

The whole of the top right corner is now complete, also the first three pages on the chart are now done woohoo, 3 down 6 to go lol.

Speak soon x

Double update

I haven't done much on 'The Wedding' over the last two days as  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  and Jade have been doing 'their bit'. It almost killed me letting them take over, I was not a happy bunny lol. Here they are giving it a go.

Thing is  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  really got into it and continued for a couple of hours, while I sat twiddling my thumbs.

Here is the result at the end of Friday

And this is it at the end of Saturday

As you can see, there is more of the white at the top done (that's all I would trust  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  to do without supervision lol.  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  managed around 150 stitches in 2 and 1/2 hours)

We took the girls to the cinema on Saturday to see Top Cat, they do a family special film where it costs just £1 per person (of course if you are like me you will sign up on line and get yourself a further 10% discount)

The younger girls loved it, Jade not so much and I fell asleep half way through.  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  was my pillow lol.

When we got home from the cinema we were greeted by these

Jessica liked the yellow one Emily liked the orange one. We made flags with them here are the girls doing just that.

 

 In other news Kerry has finished her cross stitch. She is very proud of it and I must say for her first one she has done very well. 

Can't wait for her to give it to Jade as she is so excited about it. 

I have also joined a group that takes photos of their waste jars, so you will see the label TUSAL and a picture like this.

For more information about what this is about then go here to read up more about it.

Anyway off now to cook a Sunday dinner! woohoo getting excited about it how sad am I?

Speak soon x

3 in 1 Update

We have all been busy with our cross stitches. I was right, Kerry and Emily both wanted to do more cross stitching while Jessica was away at my Mums.

And of course when Jess came home all she wanted to do was stitch. Love the highly contagious stitchy bug lol. Here is the latest on their work.

I'm sure you would like to see how I'm going too with 'The Wedding' well here is update one

Update Two

Update Three

I love being able to see the progress like this as when I'm actually stitching I don't feel like I have got anything done. But I can clearly see on here where I have gotten to. Does that make sense to you??

As you can see I have started on the flowers, this part is becoming a pain in the butt, as there are so many colour changes in them. I will get there with them though, and I am actually really excited to see how they will turn out.

Did I tell you my Mum got herself a puppy?? Well he is called Monty and looks like this.

He is such a cutie.

Mum is very happy with him.

While I have been absent I have created a to stitch list by going through all my World of Cross stitch magazines. I have worked out that if I stitch one of each design, and stitch everyday for 3 hours, it will take me 2.2 years to complete it all. That is working on the estimated hours stitching the magazine recommends. I know I stitch slower than what it says in the mags so, so far I have aroung three years of stitching to do lol. However each time the mag comes out my to stitch list will grow bigger and bigger. 

Have you got a to stitch list?? If so, how big is it??

Speak soon xx

Family cross stitch day

The girls and I have been working together again today on our cross stitches, I love how my hobby has sparked their interest too.

Here they are ready for bed still stitching away. In fact they were so excited to get back to their stitching that bath time was a breeze they wanted to be in and out as fast as they could.

Jessica is 'finishing' a project started 3 years ago by our former lodger. I won't be finishing it off and so I gave it to Jess. She wants to get up early in the morning to finish it off.

Emily is putting colours on in her own style. You can see at the top in the green she is getting the hang of doing the actual crosses to make up a stitch. Once she understands this part I can move her on to an actual chart so she ends up with a finished 'proper' picture.

And last but not least, Kerry is doing a butterfly as a gift for Jade, who is coming over on Wednesday. She is really wanting to get it completed in time for the big arrival.

In fact all the girls  (this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)  are excited to see Jade again. It's strange not to see her everyday. 

As for me, my stitching had had to take a back seat, as I have been helping the girls with theirs. Though Kerry is now getting really good at threading her own needle, I still have to help her occasionally. Jessica however, needs her needle rethreading after virtually every stitch lol. Emily just needs hers doing at each colour change.

Here is how 'The Wedding' is coming along.

This is a closer version of the one on the right.

I still haven't had any guesses for the 'prize stitch' here it is again for guessing. Just put your guess in the comments box!

Jessica is going to my Mum's for a couple of nights tomorrow, wonder what we will end up doing without her. The way it's going they will just want to stitch all day lol. Speak soon xx

Update from the week

Well, it has been a while since my last post, but to be fair I have been very lazy lol.

The girls were taken away for a few days for a little holiday. MIL took them to a friends caravan where they went on a pirate ship (according to reports, the girls were singing all the way 'when I was one, I ate a bun the day I went to sea. I jumped aboard a pirate ship the captain said to me, 'We're going this way, that way, forwards, and backwards, over the Irish sea. A bottle of rum to fill my tum, that's the life for me.' and so on and so on for the whole hour out at sea lol), they went to a circus, where the high light of the show was where 'a baby was crying and the mr picked it up and it wee'd all over everyone.'

Although I knew where the girls were going, we kept it secret from them. I gave them a few clues as to what was happening, but made them so vague they couldn't work it out, though Kerry came close (A police officer in the making I think).

Here are the clues given. 

1. G.G.A.S is taking them. (Kerry came up with well it can't be Grandma Gill because she is at work, I didn't tell her otherwise, she went through everyone she could think of, she even thought that Great Grandma in Spain could be the one coming bless her.
2. They are going on the train to Doncaster, and then somewhere else. Kerry was coming up with all sorts of destinations.
3. They would be visiting family, Kerry thought that they could be going to Thetford, as my MIL's sister lives there, she then discounted this as Grandma Gill was working. She forgot that her cousin and aunt and uncle had gone on holiday a couple of days earlier.
4. They would have buckets of fun. Kerry came up with going to the seaside. But she couldn't work out how visiting family and the seaside would work together.
5. Fish and chips. They thought they would be going to a fish and chip restaurant for a meal, as this is one of their favourite treats.
6. They needed their toothbrushes. They were thinking they were having a sleep over somewhere.

I can honestly say they had no clue as to what they were going to be doing it was great. This is the moment the discovered where they were going. 

They had a great time, I'm just sorry I missed it.

I have been doing a little work on 'The Wedding' cross stitch. I really didn't like the way the faces were coming along and so I tried making some more charts, hoping to make it look better, but no matter what I did the faces would look off. I decided to try to use some backstitching to make it look better, which it does so I am going to keep on it. Here is where I am up to.

From a distance it does look OK, but close up no so great but hopefully when it is done I will be happy with it.

Because I was so disheartened but the progress of 'The Wedding' I did another little stitch to get my mind off it for a while. My World of Cross Stitch mag came through with a small card kit. So I completed that. Here is the result at the end of 4 hours or solid stitching (well the kids were away I had chance lol)

I completed the stitch the next day with a further 2 hours of back stitch. Because this stitch has most of the backstitching going between the stitches it made it very difficult to do, even though I had a very sharp needle to do it. Also because it was so small my rings didn't fit it properly which meant I was holding the fabric awkwardly and so I got major hand cramp. But here is the finished result.

Isn't he cute? But you can see here especially the importance of the backstitch. He really does come to life. I will not be doing this stitch ever again though because of that horrible backstitching.

Well, I think I have updated you with everything I have been doing and so I am going to bed. Speak soon x.

Colouring in is not just for kids

(this section has been removed as it mentions my OH)

Are you jealous?? I would be lol.

Today has been an exhausting day of tidying. I decided to tackle the girls bedroom, including the toy box. Now I know normal toy boxes are only big enough to hold a few toys, however our toy box was made by my hubby and is bigger than my bath and holds loads of stuff, they also have a second box that is a normal sizes box. The girls boxes were over flowing and I decided to streamline them. I got the girls to help me but boy I wish I had done it myself lol. Everything I got out seemed like a new toy to them as they hadn't seen it in so long, or if one wanted to get rid of it the others didn't and vice versa.

In the end we managed to donate 3 black bags of toys and a 2 foot pile of books to a local charity. They now have plenty of room to put their toys away and they get to play with all the toys the have so everyone wins. We now only have to go through the cuddly toys to see which ones can be donated now, really not looking forward to that as they do actually play and cuddle them all. I will be happy if just 5 go.

I have managed to do some cross stitch today, here it is, 

As you can see I have basically coloured in the hair. It seemed really easy and quite fun to do actually. The hair isn't the only thing I have been colouring in though, because the chart is so big I have been colouring in the chart as I complete stitches so I can keep track of where I am. The exciting bit is... almost one full page of chart is now coloured in woo hoo. See...

I have worked out that there is now around 3200 stitches done yay me!

I have also worked out which direction I will be going when I have completed the page... I will be going across. I have decided to do it this way because as I have been 'colouring in' the face area I found I don't like it so I am going to complete the face and see what it looks like to see if I want to carry on with it or redo the chart and start again. If I decide to start again I will not be happy with all the frogging I will have to do, but as I have been doing this stitch I keep thinking I should have done this or that to make it look better etc. If when the whole face is done, I actually like it I will leave it as is though. Stay tuned to find out what I do lol.

Play and problems.

We had Harvey come to visit us again today, so we made more play dough (see earlier post for how to do it) they spent hours playing with it. Here they are enjoying making rabbits and biscuits etc, 

You also get two updates of 'The Wedding' cross stitch, I missed an update yesterday with it and so I am doubling up today as I got quite a lot done over the last two nights. On the left, is last nights update where there is around 1000 stitches, and on the right is tonight's with just over 2500.

Told you I'd managed to get quite a lot done, tomorrows update might not have as much done as Saturdays is my cleaning day, and I generally end up with just an hour or two to stitch at the end of it lol.

It may be just me, that I have been looking at it so long that I see things that aren't there, but I can see the brides hair and neck Her face is yet to be completed, but I am not sure which way to go with the pattern, Page 1 of the chart is now almost complete. So, my question to you is should I go across the image, which would complete both the bride and grooms heads, or do I go down, and start work on the flowers and the dress??

If I go down I will feel as though I have gotten more of the picture completed as there is a lot of block colour on both the background and the dress, with a little colour alteration for the flowers. If I go across, it will take me longer to get a 'result'. I know that I will have to do the exact same stitches to complete the full piece, but do I do all the colour changes and detail now and get it over with but feel I'm making slow progress, or do I save it up to do at the end when I am getting ready for the piece to be finished, and then maybe getting frustrated as it is taking too long to do the final bits. Does this make sense to you?? Any advice will be appreciated :D

Anyway, to bed with me now and speak to you all soon. I will be waiting for the emails to come through about which direction I should take lol. Signing off now xxx.