Sewing week.

It has been a week of sewing with a couple of projects that have pleased me greatly, and, I hope, will please the Granddaughter when she gets them, next week.

The first is a dress pattern that I made for my younger daughter, a long time ago. I actually dated the pattern - December 1986. That would be the issue of Burda magazine which was my main source of patterns back then - they were so much more interesting than anything that was in the main catalogues and if I made just one item out of each magazine, it worked out at half the price. The fabric was similarly ancient - a nice firm cotton print that came from a charity shop, way back. So old that it was 36" wide, and that hasn't been common for a very long time.

The other item off the sewing machine is another pair of shorts - in a silly funny print that I am hoping will make it easier for Mum and Dad to spot her on the beach! Just hope nobody tells her to ask "Does my bum look big in this?"

And now a warning picture of what a person can do to a favourite sweater, when she forgets just how much wool there is in the blend, and uses the wrong washing programme.

But all was not lost - I have one of those little clothes shavers, like a battery electric razor, and I have got my lovely sweater back - and see how much fibre I had to get off to rescue it!

This is another Burda pattern - October 1986 if I am reading the numbers correctly. 

A finishing burst.

Two gaments have come rolling off the needles recently. The first is a little jacket by Lene Alve, which has been a delight to knit. It has a long way to travel, but will not be needed until the late autumn, so I think it is a good candidate for the show, and I will see if I can get it a prize card to go with it!

The second finished object is another guernsey sweater for me - started at a time when I was very unsure how things were going to go with my health, so it was my little act of defiance - I WILL have a new sweater and I WILL live to finish it and wear it with pleasure! There are so many thing I am pleased about. The pattern I have used is a moss/rib cable and scallop shell that came from a sweater in Alice Starmore's book on fisherman's sweaters, and, not only do I really like the patterns, I am still amazed at how easy and intuitive they are to knit. I feel proud that I managed to remember the Guernsey knotted cast-on without having to look it up in the book. So that one is burned into my brain now! The yarn is Yeoman Sport - a 4ply pure merino that is beautifully soft and silky with a lovely sheen.

This flew over our house today. It made a wonderful sound - those four great Merlin engines, deep and powerful but also soft and purring. We are fortunate to get these displays because we live just a few miles south of RAF Coningsby, where the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight have their home. When William married Kate, we had the flypast a little earlier than them, and the planes went over our house quite a bit lower than they did over Buckingham Palace.

My Father was in the RAF during the second world war, and his job was fettling the Merlin and Kestrel engines. By the time D-Day came, he was an instructor, training mechanics and flight engineers. He wrote:

"The night of the invasion of Europe, Mary and I could hardly sleep because of the noise of the aircraft flying overhead, and we were aware that something out of the ordinary was happening, as, when we looked out to see the planes, they all had lights on: a thing unheard of during the war.

The flight engineers we had been training were very much involved in the invasion of the continent, and on the day of the invasion, I had a class of Free French volunteers, and they were so excited at the news, which was being relayed over the public address system, that it was impossible to get them to concentrate on their work, and who could blame them?"

 I really didn't think the Tiarella had survived the winter - for a long time it just seemed to be a crisp brown lump of ex-herbage. But today, we looked behind the Hellebore and there it is, about to be gorgeous.

 The little species tulips come in other colours - deep pink with a lovely blue middle,

 and pale pink with the yellow centre.

 I have been sewing - while cutting out a pair of linen trousers for my self, I found I had plenty left over to make a pair of shorts for a little girl.

Because it is a good pattern (Burda) and has pockets, I gave them a secret lining of cotton print. I think that will appeal to her! Now I must get down to making the trousers for me.