The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It seems like a very long time since I did a post. Things have been hectic and I just haven't had time to post anything or, even worse, to getting reading or commenting on any of your posts. Hopefully things will settle down again soon. In the meantime, here's a very quick post to keep you up-to-date.

Good things are happening in the garden. We had some glorious weather over Easter but it has now turned cold, wet and windy. We even had snow on the mountains over the weekend. It hasn't stopped the flowers though. Have a look and see what you  think.

This little Easter basket was crocheted using string. This was all the chocolate the husband and I had between us! The whole packet of mini eggs that is - not just five.

That's the good covered. Now for the bad. Remember my Aran coat? Started back here, then some progress shown here. It's finished, sewn up and almost all the ends sewn in. It's hard to know why I kept on and on with the sewing up because it was obvious very early on that the coat is way too big for me. Even the smallest size would have been much too big. I checked my tension (guage) again and it is right. Then I checked the pattern again and it gives two tensions for the two different honeycomb patterns. So I checked my tension for the second honeycomb pattern and discovered that this is where I was wrong - very, very wrong. However, in my defence, I don't think it would be possible to achieve the correct tension with the size of needles used. Now if I get the correct tension with the size of needles given for the first honeycomb pattern then I would (obviously wrongly) assume that the same size needles should give the correct tension for the second honeycomb pattern. In order to achieve the correct tension for the second honeycomb pattern I would have needed to use  much smaller needles.

Whatever. It's wrong and I'm not terribly happy about it. I've tried to think of ways to adjust it but it's just so much too big there's really only one option. The dreaded ripping it all out and starting again option. So far, I can't quite bring myself to start the destruction process but I will. There's plenty of time to get it finished again before the winter. I'm going to get another pattern though, as I don't think I could face knitting exactly the same coat over again even if I could make it fit me properly.

And the ugly? Nothing ugly at all to report. Crochet and some tapestry has been progressing nicely and I'll let you see soon. Even some new plants for the garden plus some "garden art".

All the best for now and I hope it won't be anywhere near so long before I'm back.