Autumn walks and uncovering unfinished projects...

The last couple of weeks have definitely had an autumnal feel but the last 2 days have seen some lovely sunshine, not with the heat of summer sun but enough to make a walk by Whitlingham Broad very pleasant. The leaves are only just beginning to turn but the hedgerows are full of hips and berries.

I love the sunlight on the water - I have done this walk many times, and probably taken hundreds of very similar photographs but I never tire of it...

After a 9 1/2 mile round trip walk I indulged a little crafty time in front of the television - some time ago I came across this WIP tucked in a pillow case in a drawer in my spare room, with my wedding veil of all things! Goodness knows why I had stowed it away like that but I guess I must have had a reason! 

This pattern was in a 1993 Prima magazine...

...and has been tucked away for almost all of that time! I started knitting it when I was pregnant with my third child, who has just had his 25th birthday! I'm not quite sure what possessed me to start a baby blanket when I had a 4 year old, a 2 year old, had just moved house and was due to have baby number 3...! Needless to say, I hadn't got very far!

It looks a complicated pattern but actually, is very easy, knitted in small squares and sewn together into 7 larger squares.  When I found it, I had completed just 8 small squares. Although there are no babies pending (that I know of!) I thought I may as well finish it and then put it away again in the hope that it might be used one day. Each small square takes me an evening so really it hasn't taken long to get to this stage...

 The yarn is Sirdar Soft Cotton 4 ply - I'm not sure if you can still buy exactly the same yarn, think this pre-dates mercerised yarns so it does have a slight tendency to be a bit splitty but it is beautifully soft and drapey.

Just the border to finish now...

I don't usually use anything so fine and certainly not just in white but it does feel very traditional and I do love it. And it has made me want to get another project underway because, inevitably, it looks as though there are going to be a couple of balls over... Might just have to go and get a bit more 4 ply, maybe with a bit of colour and hmmm...maybe a soft, cottony, drapey crochet blanket...?

S x