Intarsia and Lent resolutions

Despite my lack of blogging of late, I have been busy crafting (and even busier with my two lovely little people!).

One new skill I've mastered over the past few weeks is Intarsia (knitting colour work using little bobbins).  For my son's third birthday that is coming up at the end of this month (where did the time go?!) I decided to knit him a Thomas the Tank Engine jumper.  I've added a splash of colour to things before, so what could possibly go wrong?...

It totally bunched up!  I tried redoing this a couple of times, and after asking around for help a little, I emailed the brilliant knitter Catherine and asked if she had any ideas.  She was so kind, and sent me a really helpful email back, explaining that I'd pulled the yarn too tight at the back (what I'd thought, though had no idea how to rectify), and she suggested Intarsia as a good way forward.  She sent me this helpful youtube video, and after watching it, I resolved to rip back again and ordered some bobbins.

I'm so glad I did (I had been wondering whether just to leave it and carry on anyway, but was sure any time E wore it, I'd be tugging at it to try and get it to 'sit right').  I loved the intricacy of intarsia, and it was so much more satisfying having lots of little bobbins at the back of the work, rather than having lots of balls of wool getting into a tangle.

I'm so much happier with this result.  Thanks Catherine for the advice!

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This year as a New Year's aspiration (I didn't want to make resolutions, as you fail so quickly) I decided that I wanted to be more Thankful.  I lead such an extraordinarily blessed life, and yet so often live life ungratefully.  Realistically, although I'd resolved this, I didn't know quite how to put this into practice, and so it was that I'd already arrived at Lent, without having taken any particularly great leaps in this area.

For lent this year I've decided to fast from reading the Facebook newsfeed (I know, it sounds so ridiculous, but so many precious minutes of my day are wasted reading that!) and am (amongst other things) writing down three things at least, that I am thankful for.  I am (alongside a lot of other people, I'm realising) reading a  fabulous book called "One Thousand Gifts", and was quite inspired by the 'gratitude journal' that the author started to keep.  The author has her own blog, and I was very challenged by a beautiful post she wrote on the Meaning of Lent .

Things I'm thankful for today are:

-Surprise Cath Kidston parcel from someone dear
-Little arms waving around above her head as she takes tentative steps
-A phone catch up with my Mum
-Snowdrops peeking through the soil in my garden

What are you thankful for?

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