Sunday Sevens 2019 #8

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens13 Comments

Hello. Welcome to my Sunday Sevens.

My Sunday Sevens is usually about what I’ve been up to in my little corner of Devon, but this week, like many, I’ve been in awe of the dignified and loving and response of the New Zealanders to the Christchurch shootings. So I’d like to start by sending my love to all and a wish that this rising positivity ultimately builds something far better in our world. If you have a minute you might like to read my beautiful  friend Pauline King’s post about her country’s ‘Black Friday’ which reduced me to tears.

Back to my more personal week,  it stared off last Sunday with a trip to Rock and a walk along the beach…

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…then through the sand dunes and along the cliff…

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… to Daymer Bay, where we were wowed by the skills of the kite surfers…

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I spent Monday with only half a head in work as Lovely Eldest lives in Utrecht and her office is only just round the corner from the terrorist shooting on a tram that left three people dead and several injured. I knew she was okay, but they were on lock down all day as police searched for the gunman.  Here’s Harry under my desk keeping me company…

 

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On Tuesday Harry’s chum Baxter come to stay for the day. We took them for a walk along the river at Fatherford…

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…then we sneaked into the station for brunch, only to discover the chef wasn’t working. Lovely Husband had to make do with a slice of cake…

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Back home Harry and Baxter helped me in the garden…

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While out dog walking on Thursday my friend and I saw this amazing cobweb full of baby spiders…

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As we walked on we were amazed to see it extended for about 200 yards all the way down the fence posts and onto several gorse bushes…

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Saturday we had a lovely trip to Exmouth for a meetup of the Devon and Cornwall Golden Retrievers group. First we headed to a pub for lunch…

… then we walked along the beach to meet up with about 30 goldies and their owners…

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Walking back along the beach to the car Harry actually stood still long enough to posed for a picture…

Cropped Harryooo

Hope you’ve had a great week.

Until next time,

Bekki x

 

In the craft room

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Work in progress17 Comments

Thought I’d show you a couple of odd bits and bobs I’ve been working on, that don’t need a full post, before I forget them.

I started working on this small sweater a last week for our great nephew expected in June…

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I’ve knitted this in self patterning yarn, for an easy knit without looking in the car. Not very pleased with the dark blue at the top – but also thinking it’s not helping that there’s no sleeve on that side. What do you think?

Various people have sponsored the acoustic clouds that have been bought for our village hall. These clouds are now being adored with a reminder of who sponsored them. For some reason I ended up felting on the bell ringers bell – managed to get out of actually making it though. So don’t give me any credit for that…

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The other not so small bit I’be been working on is my patchwork quilt. Ditches have been sewn!

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Hopefully you can see the sewn lines more clearly on the reverse side.

Thanks for dropping by.

Until next time,

Bekki x

 

Heartfelt Revisited

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Aran Knitting, Knitting10 Comments

Nearly two years ago – Yes! Nearly two whole years ago – I finished my Heartfelt Cardigan. I’d designed it to replace my incredibly old and dilapidated cream Aran cardigan that I wore practically all the time around the house.

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I knitted my new cardigan in grey to make it wearable with pretty much everything in my wardrobe, given I wear a lot of blue…

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…but somehow, although I love it, although I wear it, it doesn’t get the wear the cream one got. In fact I still wear the cream one occasionally, even thought it’s so manky.

When I finished my tuck stitch sweater a couple of weeks ago I started looking for a new  knitting project.

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I looked at loads of patterns and finally decided I’d knit Heartfelt in cream and when it’s finished I really will through my old cream cardigan in the bin. Decision made that only left the problem that I never finished writing up the pattern – have you forgiven me for that yet Lynn? So I took out my tape measure and notepad and started measuring and counting.

I’ve started the back, and this time I’m going to write the pattern up properly as I go along!

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Until next time,

Bekki x

 

Sunday Sevens 2019 #7

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens28 Comments

It’s been another very wet and windy week. Fortunately last Sunday was dry enough in the morning to go for a walk with our friends who were visiting from up north and have brunch on the platform at Okehampton station.

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After they’d gone home Harry watched Crufts on catch up…

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Of course he wasn’t too impressed with the winner.

About two weeks after Harry arrived my walking boots gained a hole in them. I’ve been searching for a pair that fit me ever since. On Monday I went out in search again.  I couldn’t find any boots, but I did buy a pair of walking trousers, some wellie boot socks and two beds for Harry – all in the sale.

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Tuesday was the wettest walk of a very wet week. Too wet to stop and take pics, but here’s Harry when we got back…

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Wednesday we lost the pub quiz as usual. This week’s question that really bugged us was…

Whose catch phrase is ‘You’re having a laugh’ and what programme is it on? We knew we’d heard it, but couldn’t place it. Answer at the end, if you’re playing along.

It’s been so wet this week, Lovely Husband has been practising his golf indoors…

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As for me, I’ve been doing a bit of DYC work…

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I also discovered the mouse I told you about before has been nibbling one of my UFOs…

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This one didn’t even make it to my Frog or Finish Nine for 2019, so not too disappointed it’s turned into a compulsory frog. (To be honest it’s a bit of a relief.)

Out and about between downpours, I took Harry to meet my friend’s goats to see how he’d react to smaller livestock. Although initially cautious of the bigger goats, he wanted to chase the smaller ones when they ran. So he needs more work there and definitely still on the lead when sheep are nearby.

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After a wet miserable week things seemed to be picking up yesterday. Finally a dry walk in the morning…

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…. and boots that fit me arrived in the post.

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I really want to support bricks and mortar local shops, but sometimes it’s just not possible.

But the wind and rain were back by the afternoon. Took this photo on our second walk of the water pouring through the gorge as it ran down into the Devil’s Cauldron…

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Hope you’ve had a great week.

Until next time,

Bekki

Answer to question: Ricky Gervais on Extras – no wonder I didn’t know it, I can’t bear Ricky Gervais, but LH does sneak it on, so I guess that’s why I’d heard it. Needless to say LH wasn’t at the quiz or we’d have got the answer.

Scrap Happy – Golden Retriever Size Dog Bandana

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Scrap Happy, Sewing, Uncategorized14 Comments

This month I thought I’d join in with Scrap Happy, because I’ve been using up scraps.

I’ve several scraps left over from lining project bags. I’ve also recently acquired a golden retriever. Put them together and the result is obvious…

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Okay, not quite obvious, a little hidden under his fluffy mane.

The bandanas I’ve made are reversible, measure approximately 25cm (9.5″) wide by 17cm (6.75″) long, and fit on the dog’s collar to reduce the possibility of them hanging themselves on it.

I started by making a suitable sized template from a cereal packet.

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If you fancy making one, the suitable size for a golden retriever/Labrador/setter size dog is:

  • Top straight edge: 27cm (10.5″)
  • Straight part of side at top*: 6cm (2.5″)
  • Top to point at bottom: 20cm (8″)

*The bandana fits a collar that is 4cm (1.5″) wide – increase this measurement if your dog has a wider collar.

I cut two pieces of fabric for each bandana. For each piece I pressed the straight part of both straight sides over by half an inch – wrong sides together – and sewed them down with two rows of stitching…

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I then pinned the two pieces together, right sides facing…

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I sewed half inch away from the edge across the top…

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….and half inch away from the diagonal edge of both sides, leaving the straight part at the top of the sides unsewn…

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One side

… and trimmed off any loose threads

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The other side

I then made several more…

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One side
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The other side

All I then needed to do was ask Harry to choose which one to wear and which side he wanted showing. I then threaded it on his collar. Et voila! A dog in a bandana…

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He’s not unhappy, just concentrating on the biscuit on top of my head.

Joining in this month with Kate & Gun’s monthly Scraphappy Day where you too can use your scraps of fabric, yarn, paper, wood, anything to make something useful or lovely or both and show it off to the world.  You don’t have to join in every month, only when you have something to show.  Details and a list of other participants’ scrappy endeavours over on Kate’s blog.

Until next time,

Bekki

Frog or Finish Update

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Motivation, UFOs29 Comments

A month ago I posted 9 UFOs that had been untouched for quite some time and vowed to finish or frog them this year.

I’m pleased to say I’ve made inroads into several of these projects…

  1. The top of the patchwork quilt is now finished, sandwiched and I’m about 2/3 way through stitching in the ditch on it.

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2 and 3.  I’ve frogged the cream crochet top and the knitted shawl.

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4, 5 and 6. I haven’t touched the bags, the cardigan or the crochet shawl.

7. I’ve finished the Christmas Pudding Santa Sack

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8. I’ve done a few rows on one of the socks. However sadly I’ve discovered that while I’ve been ignoring them a mouse has nibble one of the toes! So I now have some darning to do too.

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9. And finally – even I can’t believe it – I’ve finally frogged that scarf…

 

All in all I’m pretty pleased with my progress. Even though my frogs/finish haven’t needed a lot of work, I wasn’t at all enthusiastic about sorting them out, but I’ve completely dealt with 4 out of 9 and worked on 2 others. Hopefully the next month will bring equally pleasing results.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Sunday Sevens 2019 #6

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens15 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens : A post were I share seven (or so) photos of my week away from the blog. Sunday Sevens was created by Nathalie at Thread and Bobbins.

This last week began with storm Freya. Winds were supposed to be worst in the South West, but we didn’t see anything special here. Despite the lack of a storm, it was very wet, so apart from dog walks we stayed in and did a few jobs. Two of them were on that list of things we meant to do when we moved in six years ago. One was hang these by the stairs…

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The second was to put a lampshade on the naked light bulb in my office…

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I bought this in a table top sale last Saturday.

Monday, as I’ve already mentioned in my quilt catch up, my lovely friend came round and help me sandwich my quilt…

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Tuesday was spent having a lovely sunny walk with Harry and quilting in the ditch. If only Harry loved dirty ditches like Hicks did, I could have squeezed some terrible ditch in pun here, but you’ll just have to have a picture of a clean Harry instead…

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Wednesday we lost the pub quiz as usual. The question we couldn’t get and really bugged us until we knew the answer was…

What was the name of Valarie Singleton’s cat on Blue Peter?

Answer at the end of this post if you want to play along.

Thursday I bought some yarn to knit a sweater for the new great nephew we’re expecting in June…

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Thursday was also book group. We discussed the classic feminist novel, The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing. Only two of us finished this book: 700 pages long with minuscule text, most of us hated it and lost the will to live while reading it. One of us who finished loved it, the other hated it and said they didn’t feel the author was a feminist at all!

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While I was out at book group, Harry and Lovely Husband stayed in and watched Crufts…

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Nothing of note to tell about Friday, but on Saturday some of our lovely friends from up north came to stay for the weekend, which was a good excuse for a spot of garden Olympics…

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Long Distance Darts

…and a meal out at our local…

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Hope you’ve had a great week.

Until next time,

Bekki

Ans to quiz question: Jason