Archie The Wonder Dog

It’s once again time to assess our progress thus far in our quest to fettle our finishes (or some of them) and I don’t know about the rest of you but my report won’t be very long at all!  I’ve added a new project to the list , found the background fabrics I want to use (and thanked past me for washing and ironing them as they arrived), bought the plains I needed (and washed and ironed those) and assembled my project tin. And that’s as far as I’ve got (other than adding the needles I forgot to put in when I was assembling the tin). Ah well, we’ve another six months until the end of year report *bites lip* I removed a row and the last block in each remaining row from the Winterkist quilt so it could go to my friend Cath, a longarm quilter, to have extra quilting added: And I’ve made a Christmas tree bauble! Oh, and I’ve read twenty-nine books from the book queue, taken one out and put it straight on the donate pile (not my sort of book at all, no idea why I have it), and started but ...

    Hello, and welcome to the fifth full year of  Fettle Those Finishes!   It lasts for the whole year so I’ll leave the link open until 28th February to give you chance to think about and assemble your list - it’s not something to rush into and can take quite a while unless you’re like me and there’s a tendency to be able to copy and paste from the previous list to populate the new one and only need minor tweaks *sighs*   Adding stuff to your list (or taking things off if you’ve changed your mind about a project) through the year is perfectly acceptable. Encouraged, in fact, as there’s no point in sticking with something you no longer love/need just out of habit. Just make sure anything added is added before you finish it, it’s up to you how you define that. There’ll be a progress link up on 1st July (which can also be an opportunity to write a new list, should you wish) and I’ll (try to) remind you in the June  Furtle . The rules Be kind. Be encouraging. ...

It’s that time again so let’s see what I’ve managed to do with this year’s Fettling List. Here’s my progress report  from July when my Fettling Points total was five. First up is not a finish but it is good progress with the Toglet theatre and it now “just” needs a back, fixings and putting on the wall: Read about it here I finished off the pair of socks for a friend that I didn’t quite get finished last year:  Fettling Points = 1 2025 was the year of “socks for me” and I knitted twelve pairs: Almost managed to remember to take the photos in a consistent format this year too! Next year I might manage that and  having them all facing the same way.  At the start of the year, I had 74 socks in waiting in the sock lucky dip and I’m pleased to say that I now have a mere 49. Yes, it’s still an awful lot but it’s down by almost a third and the number now starts with a four rather than a seven! Twelve have been taken out and made into socks , twelve scrappy sets have either ...

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello! Not much to report this month as I haven’t touched the socks since I took their photo for last month’s post (oops) but I have re-felted the Advent trees and put the buttons back on so I do technically have a fettled finish, hooray! (The link for end of year reports will be open at the end of December, I wonder how many points we’ll tot up between us?) I put them on a 60° wash with a few bath sheets in, very briefly put each one over a polystyrene cone to (try to) get the shape and then put them in the airing cupboard to dry.  Mini Archie is starting to feel festive as well as impatient for the blue socks to be finished: Mine star jumper is ready to be weared, I has choosed mine Advent calendar for this year’s guessing game *can’t wait face* and there’s still time for BC to finish those blue socks she started in September even if she doesn’t manage any other finishes *determined face*  Linking up to th...

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something This month has been decidedly less productive (which is no surprise) but there is still a finish are still some finishes and one of them isn’t socks! That’s right, I’m officially declaring The Cupboard Of Possibilities fettled! This is before: And this is after: And to replace the scrappy map scrawled on a piece of paper and a key/list of contents which wasn’t easy to use, I have a pocket size Filofax bought for half nothing in their sale: with a map for each shelf: and a page for each letter which will make things much easier to find than flipping backwards and forwards in a shorthand/reporter’s notebook (and inevitably flipping the wrong way when trying to find more than one thing):  This is where it lives, nice and neatly tucked away but easily to hand: There have, of course, been socks (mainly in the first half of the month): Yarn is Eeyore’s Rainbow by Must Stash Yarn And then these, which are made from the...

It’s that time again: time to gauge progress and perhaps, if you want, slightly adjust your course or plans for the second half of the year. I’ve knitted five pairs of socks : And I’ve also been through the scrappy sock sets and reduced their number by either combining sets, removing yarns I wasn’t as keen on or both. At the start of the year, I had 74 socks in waiting and now have 63 so it’s finally moving in the right direction even if not solely because of knitting! I don’t need to adjust my list at all and I’m struggling to decide whether that falls into the good news or bad news category so I’m going for the former.   Verdict: slow and not particularly steady but progress is progress. Fettling Points so far: 5 How have you got on? Write your report (it can take whichever form you prefer) and link it up before 10th August. I’m looking forward to seeing how you’ve got on so far this year and Mini Archie is also keen: This is I waiting to give huggles to peoples who gets this fa...

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something This month I finally finished the socks I started in March, but not before the downside of scrappy socks reared its head again: I don’t actually mind darning in the ends once I’ve done the first few  (I always start at the toe and get the hardest ones done first: I think they’re the hardest because your non-darning hand is inside the sock and so if the needle comes unthreaded or anything, its not   immediately , well, handy.)   That’s another set of socks-to-be out of The Cupboard Of Possibilities and into the sock drawer. It’s also another tick off my Fettling List , hooray!  Yarn is ‘Out With A BANG!’ by  Birdstreet Yarn  (a leftover from these socks   which has hung around for a comparatively short time), an indie pink, an Opal pink and an indie purple - all leftovers.  I’ve started the next pair, using yarn given to me by a friend (the same one who gave me the indie pink and...

  Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something This month I managed to knit the pair to the sock I knitted last month: Yarn is “Soul Power” from  The Yarn Badger And I’ve made a (small) start on the next pair: What is I doing wif your knitting? Well you doesn’t seem to be doing  anyfing wif it so I finked I needed to give you a helping paw to get the cuff finished Linking up to the March 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, b...

The socks I started last month (and which I worried about reaching the end of the yarn before reaching the end of the toes in my last post ) are finished and ready to go on my feet! This is what I started with:  The two balls on the outside left are the same yarn This is what they looked like when I finished them and turned them inside out to darn in the ends: <gulps> Yes, I got a shock at just how many there were! I didn’t want it to look obvious that I’d used four different yarns so did ten rounds of one of the two bigger balls, then five of one of the smaller, then ten of the other big ball and five of the other small ball until I hit the heel (which is the same yarn as the cuff and first ten rounds of the leg and toe as well as the first ten rounds of the instep) and then continued until I ran out of the smaller balls. I then alternated the larger balls but each time I used them, I started from the other end of the yarn to mix it up a bit (so either started with the end w...