pompom challenge

My friend Ali from blogland, writes Random Wooliness. In her last post she wrote about the Pompom challenge for the Sense charity (a charity which supports and campaigns for adults and children with deafblindness).
When I read about the Great Sense Pompom Challenge I knew I had to join in. The idea is to make pompoms, which can be any shape, size, colour or material. The donated pompoms will be made into a massive tapestry. For more details visit the site, click here.
I only intended making a few but once I started I could not stop and I haven't finished yet. Here's some photos of my finished pompoms....

 

 

 

The challenge ends on the 2nd December, so still time to make some and either post or deliver your pompoms to nearest Sense Office.
Have a great weekend, Ali

winter hat

Firstly, apologies for my last empty blog post. I was experimenting with cut and paste in the new post page and hit the "publish" button by mistake.

I want to share with you some photos of my latest project.
The Textile Studio, a real treasure trove at Ballyhackamore was running a competition to make a hat. All hats are to be donated to the Hosford Hostel, Skainos and are to be distributed to homeless people. Such a great reason for picking up the needles. I used Amanda Kaffka's Top Down Trapper Hat pattern as a starting point and came up with something which would hopefully be warm and cosy.
The light is so dull these days for photos, but here it is heavily photo shopped ....

 

The inside lining was knit with double stranded Whisper, a fuzzy novelty yarn, an absolute nightmare to knit with but I think it suited the hat.
I just found out this afternoon that I won the competition, so I'm well chuffed about it.
Enjoy the rest of the week.......supposed to turn very chilly here! Ali.

latest finished projects

I'm just trying to finish off a few projects before I start knitting a few Christmas gifts. I finished a wrap last week which was languishing in the work basket and all it needed was the tidying up off the yarn tails. For this project I used James C. Brett Aria, double knit yarn, which has tiny sequins through it. A bit of sparkle without being over the top. I found a nice pattern on Ravelry - Miss Silver's Cloud.
And the result......

 

 

 

To match the scarf/wrap I used a favourite pattern to knit up a pair of fingerless mitts. Another free pattern to be found on Ravelry - Susie Rodger's Reading Mitts. I just need somewhere nice to go to wear them both!

Now on with the Christmas knits and I better hop to it as time is marching on!

Have a good week, Ali.

 

knitting and stitching show

I was lucky to win a free ticket on facebook, courtesy of Abacus Breads, to the Knitting and Stitching Show at the RDS in Dublin. So yesterday, I headed off with my sensible shoes and my packed lunch.
The show did not disappoint oodles of stalls selling yarn, beautiful threads, lots for textile art and feltmaking.
However away from the retail frenzy there was a quiet Gallery section. There was work by textile artists who I studied on the City and Guilds course and have only seen online, all displayed.
Such works by Jan Beaney. I was able to see many of her landscapes including this one the "Purple Hedgerow."

 

Ruth Issett also had a space and her colourful work was amazing. Here is an example entitled "Spring Light II."

 



Many of the artists were in attendance and willing to answer questions and talk about their work!
I just loved the section made up of work by young quilters. One work "Spring has Sprung" made by a school in Galway was so colourful and vibrant.

All in all, I had a great day and my head is buzzing with ideas for new projects.
Bye for now. Ali.