Mini Archie’s November Furtle Around The Blogosphere

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something

Hello! November feels like it’s lasted sixty days rather than thirty and, upon looking in my Furtling photo album (I add photos in across the month in an attempt to remember everything and make writing this post a little easier), I find I have squeezed in a lot of knitting and sewing so perhaps it really has been twice as long as usual?

I finished the scrappy socks I started last month:

Isn’t it amazing how you can take small balls of left over yarn 

and turn them into a pair of socks which look deliberate?! 

Speaking of deliberate, the fleece backing for my Winterkist quilt continues to be deliberately (and impressively) obstreperous but I got it pieced into the right size and shape for the top towards the end of last month and then tacked down all the seams (so they didn’t flip over during layering) and have, with the help of the same friend who’s been helping me fleece wrestle throughout this process, managed to layer the quilt. It took us an entire afternoon! And that was just to get enough pins in for us to be able to move it and check the top was straight on the back. (Although it didn’t go down without a fight and I had to herringbone stitch a slither of spare fleece to one corner as somehow, despite loads (and loads) of measuring, it couldn’t resist another bit of mischief and the top ran off at that point.)

It now has all the pins in to (hopefully) help it behave during quilting. I have yet to quilt the first line, but I’m prepared for it to go badly, if I’m honest.

If you’ve been here a while, you may remember me making a penguin hot water bottle cover for me and then another, almost identical one, for my eldest niece. The one I made for me was a bit tight, particularly around the top, and so getting the bottle filled/emptied was a bit of a pain. 

I bought a mini hot water bottle (from Vinted) and decided to cut down my cover and make it in the same pouch style as I did for my niece. (I’ll make other covers for my two standard-sized hot water bottles at some point, I’ve edited the waiting list portion of my Fettle Those Finishes list to add them.)

As the inside of my old cover was completely hidden, I used (part of) an old mattress protector as the backing/lining fabric, which explains why you can see curved quilting (theirs) as well as straight line quilting (mine). I’d had quite a few pieces of quilted fabric left over from the original cover as I used quilted rectangular pieces rather than attempting to shape them before quilting and had kept them thinking they could be made into small pouches or something. Turns out what I needed them for was remaking the cover as I couldn’t get the new mini cover out of the pieces from the larger one (which seems counterintuitive, but there we are). I top stitched each seam twice to hold down the (bulky because they’d already been quilted) seams and that’s worked well but I think I’ll also bind them to stop them getting tatty from taking the bottle in and out. I have some of that pink gingham ready-made bias binding left so I’ll use that. 

Here is it complete with hot water bottle. It’s the perfect size to sit on your lap and I’m filling it with the (often lime-scaly) dregs of the kettle after making a pot of tea as even 50ml can provide a surprising amount of warmth. The cover measures 26cm x 17cm.

After seeing an idea for an Advent calendar, I got my yarn and needles out to create a pattern and, after a fair few attempts, I’ve got a pattern I’m happy with and have found yarn which felts and fluffs up nicely. My aim is to knit at least two trees each month next year so that they’re ready for next Advent - hopefully you’ll be seeing these throughout 2023.

I’ve been knitting a pair of scrappy socks for a friend. These are the sock leftovers:

And these are the socks so far:

Finally, I’ve done a quick bit of dressmaking and will soon have another long-sleeved Lou Box top to wear this winter, this time one from French terry which should be lovely and cosy. This just needs the hems pinning, tacking and twin stitching.

I call this the sling it on the floor and hope for the best style of
photography. I think it’ll take off. (It looks like it’s mid shrug, somehow.)

Mini Archie is keeping me on task:

I hopes you isn’t finking of avoiding this *hard stare* Shall I set up the machine for you so it is ready to go?

Linking up to the November Furtle 

If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on that goal and set yourself another one - I find this particularly handy if I'm in the midst of a big project and finding the making of hundreds of blocks to be interminable), anything crafty you'd like to share. This isn't just for sewing or quilting, but is for all crafts so if you knit, make lace, make clothes, do anything which could come under the heading of 'craft', then please link up. Please visit the link immediately before and after you and leave an encouraging comment, and more if you can manage it - we all know that comments create joy, so let's spread some around. Also, please treat all the linked posts and their authors with respect - I want this to be an inclusive space for all crafters and crafts and all are welcome. If you're not sure if you're welcome or you belong, you do - this is by no means a closed space and if you want to join, then you are most welcome. If you need help linking up, please leave a comment and I will do my best to help. Please add the Furtling button to your blog post: copy the code below and paste it into your blog post - it should then magically appear when you publish your blog post (I'll do my best to help if you have any problems) and it will help people find the Furtling page with all the details of the link up.

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://archiethewonderdog.blogspot.com/p/furtling.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTXDD7-BYr5nXJtGn7HIFUcDUZfLGBTpazWKP8TCUWdkA6zd2285lbJX4aoMug6QyKDdxtxA-njWnhvf0GugU-An4z5lTFcqmYnae0Gb68FR0ZmydWYETGSa2oF1NeQDMVNwZBnUHTpsD7/s200/textgram_1548790799.png" alt="Archie The Wonder Dog" /></a></p>

To link up, go to the link at the bottom of this page and click on 'link up' (it's a blue button) and then add your link (website URL), a title (this could be your blog name but could also be something interesting to draw people to it (keep it clean!) if you prefer), and your email. This last one doesn't appear on the link (I will have access to it - I won't use it unless there's a problem and I need to contact you) so don't worry that you're about to share your email address with the world (or the handful of people who find this link), you're not! The link will remain open until 17th December; if you're seeing this post after this date, I'm afraid you can't link up to the November Furtle, but you can link next month if you like.

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