Two steps forward...

Well, suddenly had a flash of inspiration on how to sew up the blue chenille jumper. The cables didn't go right to the neck as I thought, the back and front form part of the shoulder seam. It came out rather well, once I established that the front was 20 rows short on both sides after all. Hopefully my hasty bit of hand knitting (the LK150 has been re-homed) won't show up too much. The bottom welts were all 2x2 rib and the neckband was one row of knit, two rows of purl and ten rows of 1x1 rib.

The lace petticoat was only 6 rows from the top of the skirt, when I spotted a mistake in the lace. Because of the "slanting" nature of the pattern, it was impossible to drop down and fix the mistake (though I did try), so I had to frog about 5 centimetres back. Rather cross with myself, but this is the risk you take when knitting lace and watching tv (we are working through the A team box set at the moment).

Will try and get pictures of both items for the next post.

Because of the Easter break/May day and wedding bank holidays* this year, I'm taking a week off next week. If we don't take a short break somewhere, and if the weather is bad, I've got lots of machine knitting planned. We shall see.

Alas, I've just read on the Knitting and Crochet guild's website that KCG Trading is not to be re-opened following the fire. This is a great loss - they had an excellent selection of books and a wide range of knitting accessories that couldn't be bought elsewhere. Couple that with this year's closure of Lee Mills (the knitting and crochet museum), whilst they rationalise their acquisitions, and I must admit I'm not sure renewing my guild membership is worth the money this year.

(* I get Fri/Mon for Easter, following Fri for the wedding, following Mon for Mayday. So an 11 day holiday for the "cost" of three days from my allowance. Woo-hoo!)