One Monthly Goal and some woolly finishes

I thought I'd have another try at setting a goal and getting it done this month - it's a while since I've successfully signed up to Patty's OMG. (One Monthly Goal link party). As we all know, life sometimes just gets in the way.
However, as I've been working on my Whimsical Woodland blocks lately, I'm now pretty keen to get the top together. This is where I'm up to at the moment —

Hopefully by the end of the month I can show a picture of a flimsy :-) Thank you Patty for the wee push and motivation.

As I looked through my photos the other day, I realised I'd been a bit slow in sharing some of my finishes lately. I've actually had more than I've accounted for!

A while back I showed you an in progress photo of a cardie I was making for Lily. Well that's already being well worn and, if truth be told, I probably should have made it a little longer. For now, though she's getting good wear out of it. The pattern is *here*.

I had trouble finding the right buttons...I couldn't find anything the right colour until I finally found these little flower ones. Although I decided the colour worked, I worried that ED would curse me when trying to push the fiddly shape through the button-hole....she does curse me, but because the buttons are so attractive the babies spend a lot of time picking at them and eyeing them up, making dressing difficult!

These slippers were classed as a finish last month, I've had to come back to them and put a cord through them to tie them on. I did wonder at the time, but the pattern was for 9-12 months old kiddies so I figured they were tested and the ribbing was long enough to keep them snug for this age. Maybe these two are too active - I'm hoping the slippers will be more useful now.

I used this french cord maker to make them - a handy wee gadget to have!
('scuse the blurry photo!)

A project I kept under wraps while I was working on it was a shawl for Mum. I started it in the plane on the way to retreat and worked on it fairly steadily until Mothers' Day, when I finished it. I fell in love with the yarn (merino and possum mix) and had admired the Nessa pattern by Libby Jonson. A good excuse to purchase both and do some knitting.

Trying to establish a lace pattern while flying and road tripping is a bit of a tricky thing, and I spent a fair bit of time frogging (as they call it in the knitting world). There's a few errors I've left there for humility (and also because I couldn't be bothered with more unpicking!) 

But it's knitted up lovely and soft and I hope Mum enjoys wearing it.

I hope you'll indulge me as I throw in this cute photo. Our DIL is a professional photographer and ED arranged a photoshoot of her growing little family. I went over to help child mind while it was all happening. After it was over we had a quick 'random' photo - please excuse Ganma in her farm clothes, but isn't it lovely?!!

The two older girls belong to my DIL who was taking the photos, and the
two babies belong to ED.

It's time to go and stoke up the fire, then settle down with some handwork  :-)

'til next time,

Happy stitches,