90th birthday celebrations and slow stitching.

London has been been the centre stage for the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations. This is her official birthday celebrations as her actual birthday is in April. Last Saturday (4th June) Lucy and I took a small group of Brownies and Guides to London to try the London challenge. This takes you round by Buckingham Palace through Green Park, along Piccadilly to Piccadilly circus, on to Trafalgar Square, along Whitehall down to the MI5 building and back to Buckingham Palace. We knew that the rehearsal for Trooping of the colour would be taking place and we got to see quite a lot of the practice.

This weekend saw the full splendor of the Trooping of the colour on Saturday followed by the Patron's Lunch on the Mall on Sunday followed by the parade. 

I had planned to be active today but after our walk yesterday my joints were a little stiff so I decided some stitching was in order. I switched on the coverage of the parade and settled down with my knitting. It has grown a lot since mid April when I started the blanket.

It is almost complete with just 62 rows to go but with 240 stitches a row that is still a lot of knitting.

The pattern is really easy using just knit and purl stitches. For the rest of this week this is my main focus as Maria is leaving for her maternity leave on Friday. She opted to work until 38 weeks and has found this last week very tiring. Next week she is mostly working from home but will be in on Thursday and Friday. It should be done in time to give it a wash and dry. The pattern has a lacy border to it but I'm missing that off as I found my children's little fingers used to get caught up in the holes of any lace pattern. It has a narrow border all the way round as part of the main pattern anyway so will look properly finished. 

I'm hoping to post this as a finish next Friday and the news that it's gone off to its new home. I am linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching  I've enjoyed knitting the blanket but will be pleased to get back to a little slow sewing.


Lyndsey