Hexagon progress

I'm having fun with my hexagon cushion cover. I spent a couple of hours yesterday hand quilting the hexagons and hope to start quilting the background later today. Not sure how I am going to quilt it yet, but knowing me, probably just some easy grids.

I also finished my jumper this week. There are a couple of wonky stitches which really show in the chunky yarn, but I think I can fix it. I am happy with it because I never finish any large knitting projects, so I am just impressed with myself that I finished it at all!

I spent a little time weeding the vegie gardens this morning and putting in some winter seeds. I surprised a lovely, plump frog though so had to stop so I didn't disturb him. I wanted to take a photo but he was a bit upset with my attentions, so I decided to come inside and leave him alone. I think frogs are beautiful.

Works in Progress

It was a wet and miserable day yesterday so I spent a happy hour or two playing with those rainbow coloured spot fabrics I posted about previously. I had originally planned something plain, quick and strip-pieced but I was in the mood for some hand piecing in front of the TV so started these paper pieced hexagons. I don't know that I'll have the perseverence for a quilt top, but I have been promising my Mum some big cushion covers (as in 80cm+) for some months now, so maybe these will become a part of those.

I didn't have any die cut commercial papers, so I went to this site I have used before which I think is quite wonderful. You choose your shape, then your dimensions, then it generates a template for you in PDF. I printed off a few sheets, gave them a quick spray with adhesive (actually, the nearest thing to hand was quilt basting spray, but it worked quite well), smoothed them out on old manila folders and cut them out. I chose 1.25" which was the edge size of each hexagon, and got 11 templates to an A4 sheet. Quick and easy!

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately. I still haven't pieced together the grey cabled sweater I was making, but I have started several more projects since then. My favourite is this short sleeved sweater in a deep forest green:

The yarn is Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra and the pattern is a free one from the terrific Lion Brand website. I bought some end of lot yarn from the Jo Sharp shop which was 40% off thinking I'd make a simple vest, but changed my mind and started making this which is bigger and ran out of wool (I bought a pack of 10 balls). This yarn is discontinued, but I was lucky enough to find another online shop which stocked it in the right colour. It most probably won't be the same dye lot so I am just going to have to cross my fingers that it will be ok. It better be, this is turning out to be a very expensive project!

The yarn is lovely to work with though, soft and supple and doesn't pill and has a very slight sheen. I also bought some in grey and am nearly finished a vest. Again I'm not sure I'll have quite enough, although it will be close.

With all this knitting I think I have developed knitter's thumb! My right thumb has been painful for more than a week now, and I can hardly move it. I have pre-existing RSI in my wrists, so I am used to them suffering if I knit or crochet too much, but thumbs?! Is this normal?