We met last night to choose our April book.  The choice is   – Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor.  We all chose this one as it ties in neatly with the release of the new Alice in Wonderland film. 

I will skirt over quickly March choice of Frozen in Time by Ali Sparkes.   I would not put this in a teen fiction category, it is definitely in 9 – 11 year age range.

Last May, I posted about my new  battle to regain control of the borders in my garden.  Sadly, I had to leave the majority of the work to a gardener as I had a knee injury.  This month he is starting work on making three slightly raised beds for me.  These will be for planting vegetables and some soft fruits.

The bed was covered from last summer and all through the winter.  This particular bit of ground has been plagued by brambles.   There is a very large sage bush to the left hand side which is to be severely pruned.  At the rear of the bed is a cardoon which for the moment will stay where it is.  My sister tells me that cardoons have very thick tap roots and are almost imposssible to dig up. 

The retaining walls of the beds are to be made from  old gravel boards which have been sitting in my garden – the remains of the new fence which went up a few years ago!  Waste not, want not!

Exciting times ahead. 

And  just to end, whilst in the garden, I spotted my purple/pink  hellebore.  I always forget it is there, but when it starts to flower, the flowers remind me that Spring is definitely on its way!

I had a lovely present in the post today of two balls of wool all the way from Australia.  My purple and pink knitted skirt won the monthly Biggan Design competition for March.  This wool is a pleasure to knit with.  I think I am going to add them to some other colours and make a stripey cardigan or jumper.

I am really pleased with myself, as I actually finished a project in one day. In the morning I went off to find a pin board from a shop on my local High Street.  I could not find any except one in a shop I call Aladdin’s Cave called this as it is filled with so much stuff.   The owner has been there for ever and the only thing that changes is his dog as they grow old die and get replaced!   The board was a little grubby, but as I wanted to cover it,  it did not matter.

I had one piece of material left over from the project bags I had made the day before.  It was slightly too small, so I added a curtain lining band on the top and bottom.   Then I used some cream grosgrain ribbon which was already in my ribbon box.  Finally I added purple drawing pins to secure the joins and my lovely husband put it up on the wall.   The top band is slightly crooked, but, I don’t care.  I can now put up pictures, bits of material and lovely things which will stimulate my creative thinking. 

Here are a few pictures of each stage.

I got some fab material from a craft fair yesterday which I am going to use to make project bags for my knitting.   Very simple drawstring bags which will keep wool and needles together.  Here is a picture of the lovely fabric.

And here are three bags. The rest of the material is to be used to line a new pinboard.

So, I shared with you the lovely lining I am using to re-line my jacket.   About a month ago, I unpicked all the old lining and took it apart.  I numbered each piece to help remember where each piece went.  The lining was incredibly hard to unpick as it practically fell apart in my hands.

After ironing them, I used them as the pattern for the new lining.  After placing them, I found that I was a little too short on the lining and decided to do the jacket facings in a different fabric.   My lovely mum came to visit and she showed me how to eek out the final bits from the remainders – she is a very skilled dressmaker.

I used a shot lining for the sleeves, picking out the bronze/orangey colour of the quails.   The jacket was handmade and I will have to replace the shoulder pads which have perished.  This is going to be a labour of love. The first picture shows the lining being unpicked. The second picture is the lining tacked together with one sleeve.

Just took part in a Valentine’s swap on a knitting forum. I made my person a heart with a variegated purple knitting wool. I stuffed it with lavender and filling. The two knitted hearts were sandwiched between a piece of purple felt which was slightly bigger than the knitted hearts. I knitted one slightly smaller pink heart and beaded this one and added a purple heart button. I really enjoyed making this heart and from the positive feedback the recipient liked it too!

and this is the back

I finished my second skirt last week. Much shorter this time! I used the ‘Eleanor’ pattern from Biggan Dupps using the lovely Biggan DK wool. I really like this skirt, looks great with thick tights and flat boots.

Last May I had posted about a skirt I was making. I finished this and have worn this lots and lots. I had to line it to make sure it didn’t stick. The lining also helped make the skirt hang nicely. I love this skirt and it has had lots of lovely comments from knitters and non-knitters alike.

My lovely sister bought me my first set of name labels. I love them so much, they are just like the ones you sew into school uniform!

I have joined a new book club who have met for a couple of months. This book club reads Teen fiction of which there are lots and lots.

The first book we read was ‘The Enemy’ by Charlie Higson. A good fun post apocalyptic zombie read set in London. I really enjoyed this book and am having to hide it on the bookshelf as my nine-year old wants to read it. It does have quite scary bits to it so he is going to have to wait.

The second book was ‘Black Rabbit Summer’ by Kevin Brooks. Another good read, with a sinister air.

The third book was a bit of a disaster when we tried to read an old classic ‘A Box of Delights’ by John Masefield. We all gave up on it as the writing was so convoluted. Almost as bad as mine.

The most recent has been fab – ‘Graceling’ by Kristin Cashore a fantasy book – which is not a trilogy and has really good believable lead characters with an excellent storyline. The premise is that some people are born with Grace – a bit like the special powers in Heroes the T.V. series. It is set in a different dimension in a world very much like a medieval earth. I really enjoyed this.