My way.

 Christmas is coming, a few years ago I made Will a stocking, I made a 2nd identical one, now he has 2 siblings and George loves to eat fur. So I promised my daughter I would make 3 identical ones this year, how to tell them apart. Will loves red, George has green another festive colour, and Molly has gold. These beautiful names will have pride of place. 

I have an Instagram page, which I love and have a few small businesses which I love, Cheryl is a lovely lady who makes fantastic items at very reasonable prices, her site is here, pop over and have a look, she is busy with Halloween, but Christmas is creeping in as well. She also made the beautiful bunting for Molly's room. 

I have finished knitting Molly dress, I'm very happy with the finish, the sleeves gave me big problems, I managed to confuse myself and muck up the design, after 4 attempts, I wrote each line of the pattern in my note book showing which line required decreasing, I then did both sleeves in 1 go. 

Once I had finished the front and back, I realised the hole was not big enough for Molly head to fit through, on reading the pattern, it stated to make a couple of loops, really?. I was not happy with that, so I unpicked the right hand side and added rows of garter stitch, with a couple of button holes, and decided to unpick the left side to match. The garter stitch will match the back of the neck. 

So now I'm back to this warm jacket for George, I've made it a size smaller than his age and have added length, so it will fit him. This design is really good as the button bands are kitting as you go, I made the lower fronts and back in one piece. 

I was thinking of leaving the 2 small flaps off but daughter said she loved them, the pattern states to add them after, but I wanted them secured as George might pull them. So instead of casting on 11 stitches and decrease until 3 stitches left, cast off. I cast on 3 stitches increased until 11 stitches, I added a couple more rows and left work on knitting needles. At the correct row, I placed flap, and then knitted together 1 stitch from flap with 1 stitch from front, 11 times, it looks brilliant, and is lovely and flat. 

I hope to sew the dress together today, and work more on Georges jacket, I'm enjoying knitting again. I have also to make the 3 Christmas stockings using my sewing machine. I am truly pleased with the changes I made whilst knitting these designs, in each case it's for comfort for the wearer, years of knitting has taught me different ways of doing things, so I often adapt to suit, I am the same with all my sewing, if you are going to make anything, make it well, because you will forever see faults or the bit you didn't like. 

It's been a busy week, Wednesday I went out with daughter, she was looking for english lavender, for her new raised bed, we went with Molly and George to our favourite garden centre, we had a lovely coffee break, choosing a rich cake rather than savoury lunch. She got her plants, we are popping over on Saturday to plant up the garden. I stayed all afternoon, so sat with Molly and George whilst mummy went to school to pick up Will, he's such a happy boy and loving school. I'm really lucky to be able to spend so much time with him, he had brought home his first school library book, Peter Pan, I read some to him, time to chat and play.

Thursday was a day at home, housework for me, hubby tidied the front garden, after lunch was crafting time. We got another M&S too good to go bag, just £4, another good selection, we always view these bags as a treat, we don't normally shop at M&S, too expensive. 

Nothing much for me to do outside, I have more plants in the greenhouse, but too small to be planted out yet, my tender plants are all now placed inside. It's a case of enjoying the late blooms, mainly begonia's and the autumnal colours of the cyclamen and tiny violets.  

Today we have no plans, we are trying to have a quiet time, I had an allergy attack on Tuesday evening, and I've needed time to rest, get to feel better. I had bad skin rashes, I've had them before but not recently, they have faded, but I feel they are still there ready to flair up at any time. So a gentle, peaceful couple of days to come, I do have some recorded TV to watch and always a book to read.