Author: Dartmoor Yarns

Sunday Sevens #17 2019

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens12 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens – a post where I share seven (or so) photos of my week away from the blog.

Most of my free time last week was spent gardening…

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Harry decided to help with the digging…

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In other garden news, our rabbit population is now up to seven…

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All seven are in this picture – honest!

The weather has been glorious, making dog walks even more enjoyable…

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… and sitting in the sunshine with friends a must…

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The sunshine has brought the buttercups out in force on Fernworthy Moor…

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The hanging baskets are also in full bloom outside the Woolly Beader in Okehampton

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We’ve both been on a winning streak this week.  I won a box of Ferrero Rocher in a raffle and LH won a bottle of wine at golf…

We had a visit from our friends from Scotland. Their dog, Basil, is a rescue who has struggled with other dogs in the past. Basil and Hicks were always good friends, but I was a little worried about his first meeting with Harry – Harry loves everyone, but is entire, so some males dogs can be a bit with him. Basil is also 14, so I thought Harry might be too bouncy.

But nothing to worry about.  The only problem was that Basil didn’t have enough energy to keep up…

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On Saturday morning Basil was also very helpful in encouraging Harry to get over his fear of mud…

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But on Saturday afternoon, when our visitors has gone, Harry’s friend Morgan have him a proper demo of what to do with a muddy puddle…

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Hope you’ve had a great week.

Until next time,

Bekki xx

 

 

Good Sewing Books

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sewing10 Comments

I’ve muttered recently about starting to sew some of my own clothes, and whilst I’m definitely rusty, I’m also definitely not a beginner. As I ponder my first project – first if you don’t count the PJ bottoms – I’ve been thinking thoughts Such as:  What is tissue fitting? Why does everyone on GBSB use pebbles instead of pins when they cut out? What new machine feet are there now to make things easier? The internet is great for all sorts of questions, but what I’d also like is a good reference book. Which is where you guys come in. What would you recommend? I’m thinking I want the sewing equivalent of June Hemmons Hiat’s  Principles of Knitting.

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The sort of book I want isn’t padded out with projects, aimed at beginners, or written by someone who’s not a hugely experience dressmaker, but just good at PR.  I want the sort of book you dip into when you know in the dark recesses of your mind there is better way to do something; a book that feels as if it’s full of facts; a book so big you can press flowers in it. I want a book that tells you all the ways to do something, the pros and cons, and the practical reasons for choosing one method over another.

Having said all that, if you’ve any other favourites that don’t fit my want, but you’d recommend, I’d love to know about them too.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Look forward hearing what you suggest.

Until next time.

Bekki x

 

Sunday Sevens #16 2019

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens14 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens – a post where I share seven (or so) photos of my week away from the blog.

Last Sunday our great nephew came to visit…

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The usual garden games of axe throwing, archery etc were abandoned in favour of more child friendly pursuits…

After our visitors left, we still needed to give Harry a second walk, so took a stroll to our local for a glass of wine to round off the day….

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Last Sunday would also have been Mr Hick’s birthday, so we raised our glasses to him in the pub and lit a candle for him when we returned home…

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With a mild week promised, I planned to spend the week getting on top of our wayward garden, so headed out Monday to make a start…

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Harry might possibly be the world’s worst assistant gardener, either snoozing on my piece of carpet that I use for kneeling on….

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Or sleeping right on top of the patch I want to weed….

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Unfortunately my gardening efforts came to a standstill on Monday afternoon as I came down with some sort of bug that filled my brain with fog and left me feeling completely exhausted. I finally felt well enough again to venture out to knitting group Thursday evening..

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Feeling much better Saturday we had a lovely walk along the river at Sticklepath.

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Maybe not so easy to see in these pics, but the bluebells are really glorious this year and seem to be lasting a lot longer than usual…

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We had planned to have lunch at the Taw River Inn, but there was an hour wait, so we drove home and back to our local for lunch in the garden…

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Back home the week was finished off with some more gardening…

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Hope you’ve had a great week.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Scrap Happy – Baby Berry Hat

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Babies, Hats, Scrap Happy24 Comments

I’ve knitted a few Baby Berry hats for new arrivals and know I can easily whip one up in an evening – so when Lovely Littlest asked me to make one for one for her expectant friend I was more than happy to do so – especially since I thought I has enough scrap yarn from previous hats.

Unfortunately I didn’t. But then I remembered the left over yarn from this cardigan I made nearly three years ago for my great niece….

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I dug it out…

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And whisked up a scrap happy baby berry hat…

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I’m joining in this month with Kate & Gun’s monthly Scrap Happy 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.  Here’s a list of the other Scrap Happy participants should you want to visit their blogs:

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, and Pauline

Bekki

 

 

Sunday Sevens#15 2019

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens16 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens – a post where I share seven (or so) photos of my week away from the blog.

Last Sunday we headed to Widemouth Bay for a golden retriever meetup. Always lovely to see lots of goldies and goldie owners…

Being at the seaside, of course, means we needed to have a fish and chip lunch…

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We stopped for our lunch at the Bay View Bar – which unsurprisingly has a lovely view of Widemouth Bay.

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Back at home my rhododendron tree is in full bloom.

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It’s one of my favourite plants in our garden, although I love the yellow of this rhododendron  even more…

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The weather’s been cold, but dry for ages and it’s showing in the water levels of the rivers…

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However on Wednesday we had some good and proper rain…

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On Thursday Harry and I walked with a friend. After our walk she showed me her new-to-her camper van…

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I want one!

On Thursday we also got stuck in a cow-jam…

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And another lovely friend who was about go off on holiday brought me a bunch of rose she’d been given, so I can enjoy the life left in them…

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Harry and I were delighted to spend part of our Friday walk with some beautiful goldies who were holidaying down here.

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Finally a lovely week was rounded off with the biggest treat of all, seeing both my lovely daughters on Saturday. It was a long journey, so we stopped part way for Harry to have a walk along the Cotswolds Way at a point close to the M4. The countryside is so different from ours with fields full of rape…

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The dandelions about to spread their seeds looked amazing too…

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We do have these in Devon

The girls don’t like me blogging their pictures, so instead here’s the dhal and chocolate tart I had for lunch with them…

All in all a very lovely week.

Hope you’ve had a good one.

Until next time

Bekki x

Frog or Finish 2019 – May Update

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Blocking, Crochet, Finished Projects, Knitting, Quilts, Socks15 Comments

It’s been a month since my last Frog or Finish update of the 9 UFOs that I and vowed to finish or frog this year.

Having dealt with five of them when I posted about them in April, I had four left to finish…

I was delighted to report on Monday that I’d finally finished the floral quilt.

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I’m also pleased to say I took advantage of the hot weather at Easter and blocked the unblocked shawl…

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Book group is the place I knit my UFO socks, because I don’t have to pay any attention to them, apart from when I turned the heel – which I did at home. So they’re growing nicely, but I’ve still no idea why I started at the top on one and the toe on the other.

 

 

That leaves my blue cardigan. Unfortunately I’m getting nowhere looking for buttons. It’s driving me crackers – all I need to do is find some buttons I’m happy with to finish, yet it’s turned into a seemingly impossible task.

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Apart from my button frustration I’m very happy with my UFO progress. Dare I ask how you guys are doing with your UFO counts this month?

Until next time,

Bekki x

Floral Quilt TA-DA!

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn patchwork, Quilts, Sewing22 Comments

For the last two weeks I’ve been spending most evening hand sewing the binding onto my floral quilt.

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It’s taken two weeks because not only did I have seven meters of binding to sew, but I also find hand sewing hard going on my middle finger – the eye end of the needle manages to make it sore and even bleed very easily – does anyone else have that challenge?

With the binding finally attached the quilt is finished…

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Lovely Husband is behind there somewhere

And here it is in place in our bedroom…

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What else is there to say, but HURRAH!

Until next time,

Bekki x