Author: Dartmoor Yarns

Holiday Crafting

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Crochet, Knitting, Work in progress12 Comments

Having been told to pack light for the motor home trip, I decide taking most of a finished jumper to complete was not a good plan. Instead I picked up a couple of small projects I’d been meaning to work on for ages.

On the way up to Bridgend to pick up the motor home I knitted a rat for a friend who had asked me to knit her one – as friends do.

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There was no knitting while travelling in the van, since I was giving Harry my undivided attention.

Crochet took over as we chilled on holiday and I completed three squares of the Charlotte square blanket…

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On the drive back home from Bridgend to home I knitted most of a  tea cosy sweater for a friend who’d requested one.

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So I still have the tea cosy to finish, but I still feel I accomplished plenty on holiday – not that I needed to accomplish anything apart from have a good time.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Monday Sevens 2019 #26 – The Welsh Edit

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens22 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Monday Sevens – a post where I share seven (or so) photos of my week away from the blog. A little late this week, because we’ve been on holiday.

For some time now we’ve been thinking we might invest in a motor home. So the sensible course of action seemed to be to hire one and see if this particular pipe dream was something we might really want to materialise.

We decided to take a small trip to Wales – picking our van up at Bridgend and driving on to the Gower peninsula.

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I confess it didn’t start well. Once we’d packed everything in the van, with Harry happily following us in an out, we shut the door to set off  and, despite me sitting in the back with him, Harry freaked out. We hadn’t even started the engine. We calmed him down and left the hire lot, but Harry was shaking and flinching at every creak and bump of the van.

We headed for the nearest service station and walked Harry around to settle him down then returned to the van to set off again. Harry was calmer, but still not completely happy.  By now it was also raining and the roads were full of rush hour traffic – after a rather stressful hour and a half we arrived at Port Eynon.  Very tired we had tea in the van and settled down for the night.

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I’m pleased to say from there on things picked up. The weather changed and the campsite was so lovely and LH was so sure we don’t need to have such a big van – so he didn’t need to drive anywhere else in it – we decided to stay at Port Eynon for the week.

Harry

Harry and I loved our early morning walks on the beach, while we left LH in the van to sleep in.

 

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We found some interesting early morning finds washed up by the tide…

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This skeleton was about 2ft long

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The weather was just fabulous…

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We had some lovely coast walks…

Hols Bekki

And walks on the beach at Oxwich

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And far to many portions of fish and chips

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And we generally chilled out…

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I’m pleased to say Harry was much happier with journey back and we’re planning on visiting the camping and caravan show in November to explore more, smaller motor homes.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Pinwheel Baby Quilt Ta da!

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn patchwork, Quilting, Quilts16 Comments

I finished the Pinwheel Baby Quilt months ago. Firstly I didn’t post because the baby hadn’t arrived and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise if lovely niece accidentally spotted it. Then, after the baby arrived, I went AWOL from the blog. And then I kept not posting because I thought I’d post a pattern tutorial for it. Well, maybe I will post a tutorial in the future, but as that doesn’t seem to be happening, I thought I’d better show the finished object and cross one more finished object to show you off my list.

Ta Da!

Pinwheel Baby Quilt

I’m pleased apart from that I wish I’d made the rectangle for the name in mustard.

I’m also very pleased that this project has been made virtually only from my stash and  scraps from bag making (the polka dot fabric). All I bought was the batting. Hope you like it.

Until next time.

Bekki x

 

 

 

 

 

Knitting WIP

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Knitting, Knitting patterns17 Comments

I can hardly believe it was the 2nd May when I last posted a knitting WIP – the start of my cream Heartfelt cardigan. I have however been working on another knitting project since the middle of June when I bought this pile of wool to work on a holiday project…

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I knitted a stocking stitch back and sleeves on holiday, because I wanted something to knit in the car that I didn’t have to look at while I enjoyed the Scottish scenery.

When I got home I thought I’d better decide on how to make a more interesting front. Here’s the pattern I chose…

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..and here’s the whole of the front I’ve knitted so far….

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Nearly there. And when I’ve finished I might even write the pattern up – or not. I’m sure by now you know what I’m like.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Sunday Sevens 2019 #25

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens19 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens – a post where I share seven (or so) photos of my week away from the blog. A little late this week, because I did a Scrap Happy post Yesterday and didn’t have time to write a second post.

There was a huge sense of Deja Vu last week…

More ivy clearing…

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More damson picking…

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More Jam making…

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But it wasn’t all a repeat of the week before….

I had a big order for kits – so a fair bit of work to do…

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In between I managed to escape for lunch at Okehampton Station…

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And, of course, there were lots of walks with Harry…

 

Saturday this week was also the anniversary of Mr Hick’s passing, so we lit a candle for him…

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Until next time,

Bekki x

Scrap Happy Christmas – Santa Sacks

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Christmas, christmas knitting, Christmas knitting patterns, Knitting, Knitting patterns, Scrap Happy38 Comments

I hate to mention the C word so early, but when you’re crafting, I’m afraid it has to be done…

Those of you who’ve been reading my blog for quite a while might remember back in 2016 I challenged myself to design and knit one Santa sack a day from December 1st to the 24th and post each pattern daily.

Snowman Santa Sack

Not only did I (just about) keep up with the challenge, I tidied up my patterns after Christmas and published them as an ‘advent calendar’ pattern of 27 Santa sacks.

27 Knitted Santa Sacks

Every year since I’ve found myself knitting a few Santa sacks using scraps of yarn.

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These little Santa sack patterns have proved themselves extra usable, because  knitting with different plys of yarn gives different size Santa sacks with different uses.

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4ply

Approx 7g wool needed per sack

  • Advent calendar
  • Tree ornaments*
  • Christmas gift wrapping
  • Christmas bunting/garland*
  • Dolls house Santa sacks

Double knitting

Approx 10g wool needed per sack

  • Advent calendar
  • Hanging from mantel piece at Christmas*
  • Christmas gift wrapping
  • Christmas bunting/garland*
  • Filled with a few chocolate coins for school fund raising.

*If used decoratively, the Santa sacks will look best if they are stuffed lightly with toy stuffing. They can also be filled with herbs and spices to add a delightful Christmas scent to a room or popped inside a parcel.

Aran

Approx 20g wool needed per sack

  • Christmas gift wrapping
  • Hand warmer covers

Chunky and Super Chunky probably use more than you have in scrap amounts, but I confess I do have balls of yarn I’ve only used a small amount of, so maybe you do too. Plus most sacks use more than one colour and the amounts I’m quoting are total weight used for each sack.

Chunky

Approx 36g wool needed per sack

  • Christmas gift wrapping
  • Party favour bags

Super Chunky

Approx 65g wool needed per sack

  • Christmas gift wrapping
  • Christmas ‘stockings’
  • Small hot water bottle cover

Right now I’m setting off knitting nearly a whole set – challenging myself again to knit one a day. I’ll be posting them on Instagram. And while I’m thinking about Instagram if you don’t and you’d like to follow me on IG, you can find me @dartmooryarns.

Fair isle group

If you like the idea of using your scraps, click on Kate or Gun(first two names in the list  below) and join us on the 15th of every month – or just those months you feel like joining in.  Here’s a list of both frequent and occasional Scraphappiers (?) if you want to see what everybody else is doing.

Kate,  Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn , Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Karen,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Johanna,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline and Sue L.

Prescription Crochet #3 WIP

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Uncategorized16 Comments

Having posted a lot of catch up finishes, I thought it was high time I showed you something I was actually working on. This is my third crochet project since I was told by the physio to crochet to make my thumb better.

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When I learnt to crochet – several years ago – I went straight to working on garments and have never crochet a granny square before, so feeling very cuffed I’ve finally made some.

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These are the centre of the Charlotte square. It’s quite a big square and I only liked the centre, so have only done the first 18 rows. As you can see, so far I have six squares completed. I’m aiming for 20.

I may be a while yet.

Until next time,

Bekki x