I have been knitting steadily since the felting fiasco as I have found it is such a fantastic time filler on the dreaded Tube. Oh, and there is nothing like and audience when you don’t know what you are doing (really, people? Have you never seen anyone knit?? heh).

So, bit by bit, I have been slowly pushing myself out of my comfort zone – variations of squares- to things with more complex patterns.

I started with a secret project for a friend’s bday, which was a modified square, but had to learn Kitchener Stitch to join it. What a fantastic thing – a stitch that joins two edges but is invisible. Who knew? (many people, apparently).

Then did this little iphone ‘snuggle’, which I was right thrilled about, as I made it without a pattern:

Again, a square, but a new stitch pattern – Seed Stitch- that required I pay attention somewhat. Joined with…you got it…Kitchener Stitch!

Then a HAT (which I am, again, very proud of, but have not taken a shot of yet), requiring learning how to decrease stitches.

Then …legwarmers.

Yes. Legwarmers.

Did I mention our house is COLD?

Those required learning to knit on double pointed needles which scared the crap out of me.In the end, they aren’t so bad. A bit scary on the Tube though, with all the pointy bits.

The legwarmers have stretched a bit with wearing, though, and are a little big so I think I may have to re-d0 the ribbing so they stay up. That said, they pass nicely as thick slouchy socks  when tucked into my booties for wearing out of the house.

So…the latest step forward is this pretty Honey Cowl (click link for pattern on the fantastic Ravelry site) which I was worried would require too much concentration with my pea brain (awwwk…shiney), but has thus far been ok.

Here is the start in Madelinetosh’s beautiful merino Tosh DK wool in Iris. It is a bit more purple in real life and sort of shimmers between purple and indigo. Really gorgeous wool.

Not cheap, mind, but it is beautiful to work with and has none of those annoying fuzzy fibres in it (kid mohair, angora) which I despise.

I will try to remember to post when done.

Oh, and on top of this, I forgot to mention we are prepping the house for the Olympics, as we have decided to try and rent the Roost headquarters to some lovely Olympic-ers and get the hell out of Dodge!

Busy, busy, busy.

Let me know if you hear of anyone looking to rent… we are 10 mins on a direct bus route to the Stadium!

I will be posting updated images of the house as we get things all tidied up/finished off for July.

I am positive I have mentioned my love of Ikea’s Saralisa fabric in a past post, but let me say it again….I love the Japanese-kimono, fish-scale-like-pattern (say that all in one breath) in this print:

LOVE IT.

I used the fabric a few years ago for some bedroom blackout curtains – below in the old flat with the much hated Ikea bed that came with the flat (the sharpest corners in the world. If you love your shins avoid this cheap hunk!) – and still love them today.

I kept telling myself the pattern was too graphic and distinctive to re-use…but then broke down on the pillow front!

So here they are, my new Saralisa cushions.

I decided I didn’t want them matching, as for some reason matching pillows make me slightly retch at the moment.  I also decided they should have zips. Don’t ask me why, though I guess it was because I was telling myself that it would make them more reversible – I put a black and white stripe fabric on the back.

As a result, they took me most of an afternoon as I struggled to figure out how a zip could be hidden in the seam.

Here are a couple of detail shots of the process – minus the endless unpicking! (well, ok, it wasn’t as bad as some other projects, but it did take me a while to sort out.)

Did you see that? I even hand-basted!!! Out of necessity, but STILL!

I think they turned out fairly well, and the zip is fairly concealed. I am well pleased.

( The more observant of you might notice that I snuck a shot of my beloved Glerups in there!)

Sweet Saralisa. I love you.

(Especially as the inner feather cushions were slowly shedding their bounty all over the damn room and making it look like a chicken coop! Enough was enough.)

Here are shots of the offending covers:

So pretty, and yet so fragile, despite the deceiving weight of the fabric.

You’d think for the £50 each Highly Sprung tried to charge us for them, they would have let us know the fabric wasn’t suitable for pillows when we selected it! My only consolation is that I managed to wrangle them into throwing them in for free…so can’t complain TOO loudly. Sort of.

But just look at the fraying:

Three years, and we weren’t rough with them…it is shameful.

Alright, my moaning over, I was telling myself I would go with something understated. Maybe a natural grey wool. Something classic and probably…felted (still obsessed, yes).

So I ordered some beautiful wool swatches:

…and though I saw some beautiful fabrics for future projects, nothing really worked with the sofa.

Too dark or too light in the greys, and looked dull in our nook of a lounge. Even the brights like that fantastic orange didn’t feel right.

Back to the search I went.

I will let you see what I chose later in the week…a bit of a tease, but have to run!

All the red/black plaid, trapper hats, bulky knits, fur (I know, I know), and big chunky boots take me back to harsh Canadian winters in the woods.

I can smell the fires smoke just looking at all that rough wool!

The interiors translations are cheese-ily tongue and cheek, mixing high camp with classic cabin.

However, what I am really loving is the more minimal, modern translation  into interiors this year like the firewood displays below.

both images via

All that natural wood with pale colours is so calming.

The best one so far is below:

via

What a great, easy project idea that could be done in one afternoon!

Print out your image – like the repeated eyeball above in different sizes- onto iron-on fabric transfer paper. Then transfer to fabric with iron.

You can then get a bunch of different size embroidery frames to stretch the fabric on.

I saw some at John Lewis the other day for about £1-3 – so a relatively cheap project too!

One for the project files.