Lavender-tastic

Good morning all! 'Tis Friday already and it feels GOOD!!! This week has just flown by, I don't know about you, but it's definitely a nice feeling! I guess I've kept myself really busy, so that's probably why. Actually, it feels like I've transformed myself into a lavender picking and knitting machine!! Every free minute of my days has been taken up by either of these activities. All train commuting + lunchtime has been put to good use by knitting my stripey blue and white scarf (nearly half way there now!). And all my time at home has been taken up by lavender picking. And by that I mean picking off the flowers off the stalks to let them dry before I can store them in bags, ready to be put to good use. So this is what we have so far:

And what do I plan to do with all this dried lavender I hear you ask? Well, you can see from the photos above that I've made a few bunches, so those will be given to my boyfriend's sister and parents this weekend when we go over to his sister's for dinner. And the rest, well, I'll be making little lavender pouches, either to hang in a car or to put in drawers/ wardrobe to make clothes smell nice. That's the plan! I made a few lavender bags earlier on this year actually:

The blue one was a test, the other two presents. I thought they were quite cute and really easy to make! At the time, all I could do pretty much was knit and purl, so that's what they are! No shaping necessary, just knit a rectangle twice the required height of the final pouch, fold it in half, sew the sides up and put the strings from the 'inside' sachet through the wool and tighten up. [I used organza wedding favour sachets, purchased from Confetti.] I then sewed on the initials with some thread. The plan now is to make some slightly more advanced and knit up some sort of lace pattern. I've designed a simple one, I'll let you know if it works or not!