Shalom cardy changes direction

Hello all you lovely blogging peeps, have you had a lovely weekend? We had a complete contrast of sunshine and an afternoon on the beach and swims in the sea on Saturday, followed by a blustery cooler, wet snuggle up Sunday. It was my perfect weekend weather wise. A beautiful balance between indoor and outdoor activity.

On a hot sunny Saturday why not have a bbq and invite friends over? I made these veggie skewers for the bbq and enjoyed picking rosemary from our potted garden to make a lemon, rosemary, crushed black pepper and olive oil dressing. I used feta cheese but it's so crumbly may use hallumi in future. They were delish, hmmmm!

Followed by Sussex Strawberries and homemade meringue with a dollop of cream, even more delish! 

Sunday was a welcomed rainy day, I think the earth here in East Sussex thought it had gone to heaven and was sapping up each and every raindrop to make it lush again. We so needed a day of rain, it feels like 2 or even 3 months have passed with not a drop. This was a perfect excuse to try and finish my Shalom cardy knitting mentioned here with the link to the pattern on Ravelry.

Now as you may well know I am a novice knitter, an impatient one at that! and have been DESPERATE to knit myself a cardigan because I live in them and have just about every colour under the sun in my wardrobe, alas all bought and I simply have needed to knit myself one. To force my hands to go out there into the world of the unknown..... i.e. knitting an adult pattern! 

But boy oh boy did I underestimate my size! It soon became apparent that my size 14 bust and shoulders were going no where with regards to this cardy! The author of the pattern does suggest an increase in stitches for us ladies larger than a size 10 but I definitely underestimated this one. Anyhow, I just happen to live with a slim little lady aka Alice who has also been requesting a cardy so the obvious happened... it became hers and she loves it!

It was an "experiment" anyway as I only bought super cheap 25% wool and 75% acrylic to knit this one up with as I was already doubting my size calculating skills but it has defnitely turned into a win-win situation with Alice happy to oblige by loving and wearing her mama's experiemntal knitting and by me getting to admire my (almost adult) cardy skills!

Looks sweet don't you think? a little big on the shoulders but snuggly and fun to wear. As you can see she hasn't decided on a button yet so chose one of her round badges from her ever increasing collection with an anchor on it as we spent the day (inset school day) in Brighton with Granny. She thinks this is a good idea as she can chop and change her badges depending on her mood or outfit! I've definitely missed the fashionista boat!

We did have a marvelous day in the North laines of Brighton and a lovely lunch and time spent together. I aso managed to get to a gorgeous yarn shop called Purl (here) but boo hoo it was closed! So to cheer myself up I took a few photos of the shop front for some inspiration in the future.

(Not brilliant photos through the window but I think the purses are such a fab idea)

Last but not least Granny was keen for me to admire her sweet smelling roses...ahhh a perfect end to a lovely memorable day.

Perfection!

I'm off to read your lovely blogs now so Cheerio until next time xox