lady in red

Last week I finished this nice red jumper - just in time for the festive season!

The pattern was from this book (very 80s) and was called 'White Lady', but I opted for a colour change as my last knitting project was this off-white number. This one only took a few weeks to make - thank god for short sleeves - and is nice and soft to wear, although maybe a bit shorter than desired.

I splashed out a bit on the wool for this project as I'm trying to move away from the cheap acrylic stuff that I'm so often tempted by (I'm now confident in my abilities to knit something without going drastically awry). The wool I chose was Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK and it is very soft to the touch. Although while I was knitting I did notice that the colour kept rubbing off onto my hands (I have pink fingerprints on my macbook now!) which I wasn't so keen on. I made sure to give it a wash before wearing it for the first time though and I think that's sorted it out.

And now I am without a knitting project - most unusual. I am trying to spend less time with the needles so am not going to embark on any big projects for a while. At our knitting meet-up this week I made these crochet flowers for my mum's friend...



Small and simple - and instantly gratifying. Maybe I'll make some mini Christmas knits to get me in the festive spirit next.

In other news, I've been very inspired by Emily's posts on indoor gardening so am now attempting to propagate one of our houseplants from a stem cutting. I took a new shoot off the existing plant and have been keeping it in a jug of water for about a week to see if anything would happen.



Today I moved the cutting into a plant pot so fingers crossed it takes root.

I am really quite a useless gardener so if anyone has any better tips on propagation then please do pass them on!