Jinx

I obviously jinxed the weather in my last post about imminent summer, because it has been cold and rainy ever since.  I had started to swap over my winter and summer clothes, so have had to reverse that process.  Today we went to visit the village open gardens in Guilsborough, and it was so grey and miserable at 7 degrees C with a chilly wind that I dug out my full winter gear of long coat/leg warmers, warm hat/gloves and even wrapped a scarf around my face and was grateful for all of it.  At least it didn't rain on us. We saw some lovely old houses and grounds but not surprisingly most of the plants weren't out, although there were some lovely spring bulbs, rhododendrons, azaleas, bluebells, and gorgeous blossoming trees including a small cherry orchard.

So I haven't been wearing my newly completed Scalloway Tam because it doesn't cover my ears to keep them warm.  I love the colours in this, and the Jamiesons Spindrift yarn bloomed pleasantly when I blocked it.  Though I think I would have liked a deeper band than the pattern dictates.  I have tons of yarn left over from this kit, probably enough to knit  a complete second tam and still have possibly enough left for matching mitts if I subbed in some background colour from my own stash.  I'm thinking about knitting matching mitts or gloves using the same chart.

After I finished the tam, I knit a little bear for a work colleague who is expecting.  This is the Harriet bear by Sandra Polley which I have knit before a couple of times.

I've put in some more time on quilting the Indigo Bear's Paw quilt this week, I'm on the home stretch now although there are several mistakes I need to go back and fix, where little pleats have crept in.

For the Japanese dollshouse this week, I made a couple of chairs for the guest room, and a low level mirror unit with drawers.  The mirror is covered with a silk cloth which is apparently a traditional superstition.  I spent some time painting the mirror unit to look like it was lacquered with gold designs, only to have all my painstaking artwork dissolve when I applied the varnish which was frustrating.  I overpainted a few more stems so it looks sort of worn and antique now.

I also made the telephone and telephone cabinet for the first floor landing, and the sliding shoji screen for the round window. I painted the shoji black and backed it with some printed translucent paper from the scrapbooking store.

I did a little bit on my Bucks Point edging this week, not very much, while I was watching YouTube videos on how to train climbing roses.  Apparently I have been doing it all wrong but hopefully I'll do better when the roses I planted in the autumn start to climb.

I forgot to show you my new sewing-themed biscuit tin that arrived last week. Isn't it cute?  Debenhams sells these with Danish biscuits inside, although the delivery man  threw the parcel over our side gate completing the demise of the already inadequately packed biscuits.  So DH got a bag of biscuit crumbs to eat while I gloated over my new purchase.  He was still happy.