Big garden birdwatch and some knitting and sewing

This weekend I took part in the big garden birdwatch, where you spend an hour writing down which birds you've seen in the garden, then submit the results online to the RSPB. I was out both mornings so had to do it in the afternoon, but I think I'd have seen more in the morning as that's when they're out and about more. My results were: 3 woodpigeons, 2 blue tits, 1 magpie and 1 robin. Not the greatest, considering we've seen quite a few blue tits and dunnocks in the garden in one go before now.

It was quite fun. You sit down with a mug of tea and watch the garden for an hour. Simple.

 This is the robin.

I had a sewing splurge last weekend, as I decided to use up the leftovers from the lining of the laptop case I made Mum for Christmas, to make a little bag. I used this pattern I found online, from Flossie Teacakes blog.

 As a first attempt and bearing in mind I've done very little sewing in the last few years, I'm rather pleased with it, although the pattern is meant to include a cover for the ends of the zip, which didn't really come out as I only had heavyweight interfacing stashed away to use up  which made the whole thing hard to turn the right way out!

I plan to make another one, just to get it right, as I want one to give as a present and I do want to do more sewing. I've been reading some sewing blogs over the last year, which I've found inspiring. The main problem is time - I made this bag on a Saturday afternoon, and for most of the year I'll be outside gardening on a weekend afternoon. I do all my knitting either in front of the TV, on the train or at knitting group, so actually getting the sewing machine out and doing nothing but sewing feels very indulgent.

I've put the locking stitch markers I got in the knitting group secret santa to good use to mark the edge of the cardigan along which I need to pick up stitches. It's much easier to pick them up evenly if you follow the instructions on knitty and divide the area up into small, equally sized, sections. 

That's it for now. I have a books read in January post scheduled for this week too, but I think I'll wait until daylight next weekend to do garden at the beginning of the month. Apparently we might actually have some cold weather forecast for later this week so the garden might change in appearance a bit.