October Round Up

What a lovely month October was! So full of wonderful colour, yummy food and lots of woolly makes.

I love Autumn!

I started work on the rainbow blanket I promised Riley back in the summer. We spent some time looking at Google images for inspiration and he decided that the giant granny square was what he really wanted! Makes a change from the ripple blankets I have been making although I may have to do a Rainbow Ripple at some point...  Working with these beautiful brights certainly cheers up dull autumn days!

I also finally committed that gorgeous skein of Louisa Harding Grace merino and silk mix yarn to needles and made these gorgeous Autumnal Mitts from a free pattern I found on Ravelry (you can see it here) I had to alter the pattern a little, making the mitts shorter to take into account my limited yardage. I was so pleased to finish them in a couple of days with a little bit of yarn left over which I hooked up into a boho-inspired wrap around bracelet.

Another project I have been working on are these felted wool slippers knitted up to my own pattern. The first pair I made came out too big (maybe a UK size 7-8) These are just a touch too big so I may try again with a couple less rows. Once I have this pattern nailed down I hope to share via my Ravelry so do pop over and say hi if you have a Ravelry account! 

October has been a very lucky month for me. 

I won this fabulous skein of yarn from John Arbon Textiles and a cute 'Lucky Aces' brooch in a giveaway by @penelopemakes on Instagram.

I also won a £15 Etsy voucher from the lovely Fizzi-Jayne Makes  blog which I spent it on these adorable Matroyshka Doll jewellery pieces by Jackdaw. I do love all things matroyshka - this may be the beginnings of a whole collection...

More knitted loveliness in the form of this cute pumpkin I made from a Debbie Bliss pattern from the lovely book 'The Knitters Year'. The original pattern is intended as a pin cushion but I went up a couple of needle sizes and used some aran weight cotton yarn to make this cute decoration. 

Love the leaf and stalk detail!

 And talking of pumpkins... here is the jack o'lantern we carved from one of the pumpkins we grew from seed this summer! As you can see we ended up with three fair sized pumpkins - I am looking forward to lots of spiced pumpkin soup, muffins and pie over the next few weeks :-)

More lovely Autumn food - a tin full of cobnuts (aka filberts) one of Owen's customers bought into the shop for us. They really are lovely - like large hazelnuts. I am quite happy eating them straight from the shell but i think I may have to roast some with spices for Christmas nibbles...

Did someone say Christmas...?

 Last week I made our Christmas cake! The fruit was left soaking in sherry for a week before mixing it all in and baking in a low oven for nearly 4 hours!

It smelled amazing whilst it was baking and came out lovely! Now it's all wrapped up in a tin ready for it's marzipan and icing coat a bit closer to the time...

We spent some of the half term at my mum and dad's place in Wales. We were really lucky with the weather and went for some lovely walks along the Abergaveny-Brecon Canal. That lovely yellow and green house boat was up for sale. I admit I was a little bit tempted and have found myself day dreaming about canal boat living on more than one occasion since!

Whilst at my mum's I spotted this cute little critter - Little Oakley - in the latest issue of Simply Crochet magazine. I couldn't resist him and rooted through my mum's yarn stash so I could make him while we were there (I really hate sitting and doing nothing with my hands these days - feels like time wasted!) Riley adores him and has even started writing stories about him. Maybe a children's book series of the future...?

And finally - I just want to share a few pictures of our family project - the restoration of our old Mark 1 Ford Transit camper van - that has been on going all summer. After weeks of sanding, filling, grinding, more filling and even more sanding we finally got a coat of paint on the body. It's nowhere near complete but at least she has some protection now against the winter weather and hopefully we've stopped the rust getting any worse!

We still have some work to do underneath and the interior needs stripping out and redoing but we are getting there. Hopefully next summer we'll be able to head off to the beach for long weekends of camper van adventures!

So that has been our October! What was your October like? 

 Now we are in November and there is a definite chill in the air. We are looking forward to cosy evenings under blankets with hot chocolate and the Christmas present making frenzy beginning in earnest!

I'll share our November with you at the end of the month.

Most of these pictures come from my Instagram account. It's my virtual hang out of choice these days so do pop over and say hi. You'll find me at ForestFlowerDesigns.