I won!

Remember my easyknits comp? Ok, so it did turn in to a two horse race, but I had the edge with three finished items, so I won!
Makes all the hard work worth it :)

If you have to ask...

Well and truly off the wagon at the moment, it's not even worth making excuses, but I saw this pattern when it came on to rav and just needed to make her, it is just super sweet and for once worked out rather well.

So I give you, Molly Twist.

Chained to the wheel

Yes, bad blogger, I missed posting last week, I do have a fairly reasonable excuse in that it was my daughters birthday on valentines day and my lovely mum as ever held a joint party for her and my nephew so was out all day and then it didn't seem right to post Monday, cause that would be just weird, partly it's guilt too, well not guilt but I hadn't worked on any old projects, as I'd been going hell for leather on my easy knits spin club stuff, which I'm pleased to say I did finish, yeay!
200g of fibre and the task set was be creative, so I went and created! I spent almost a week, spinning, every evening after baby had gone to bed (as no way can I spin with her around,) and this is what happened!

The one on the left is called ancient artefact and the right archaeologists dig. The ancient artefact was actually dyed in short colour bursts along its length, but I split it all in to individual colour groups, then blended them back together with my very handy blending hackle I got from ambermoggie at wonderwool last year, then spun the fibre in to a gradient yarn, left it as a single and knitting a little shawl with it!

Was most pleased with how that turned out I must say!

So that was me at my most creative lol For the archaeologists dig I decided to just split it along it's length multiple times until it was the width I'd normally spin with and then just went for it and chained plyed the result, decent bulky yarn! Used it to knit a zomg cowl which was a pattern specially for hands spun yarn.

As I was knitting that, the colours reminded me of an owl, and seen as they are all the rage of late, I found a cute crochet baby owl pattern, grabbed my needle felting stuff for his details and success! Even if his eyes are slightly odd. Managed to nail the first one, but the second.. Well he's slightly crazy, can live with that!

So will this be enough to show I was creative? Will I win the comp? Knowing me, even if I was the only entrant, my chances are slim! Optimistic as ever I know!

After I'd done all this, was feeling so burned out and uninspired with all my projects, it took a few days off knitting an odd row of my pooling stole, before I cast on some socks, well technically not true as I started a clapochet shawl off ravelry, using my colour block yarn from knitting goddess, I was going to alternate between the two 50g balls to give a graduated mini stripes kind of effect, but wasn't liking it 7 rows in so gave up, and then I thought socks with some wollmeise, picked some twin out, wound it in to two balls (as I'm determined to do two at a time using the needles I bought specially to do this, over a year ago..) then spent another evening finding just the right pattern, then it took nearly another 24hrs to cast on, then nearly hurled it across the room as it was so fiddley and was struggling with doing magic loop despite the fact I'd done it many times before, but not with socks until it finally settled down and I made it past the cuff and to the pattern.
Phew! I chose Sunday swing socks from knotty, and my wollmeise chose was a we're different libelle, which looks no different to actual libelle, so can't complain!

So that was my week, might not be project busting, but I'm happy, must count for some thing! Now to avoid the temptation to cast on a scarf version of wingspan, just because...

Wee Cluster hat!

 

This hat fits my 7mth old daughter with room to grow, so 6-12mths is the size I'm writing for, but more crown increases, and more rows for depth would obviously result in a larger hat, I did 3 increase rounds and 5 normal rows for a hat big enough for my 8 year old daughter.

Download PDF version here

You will need:

50g of DK yarn

3mm hook

Darning needle for weaving in

Dtr = Double Treble (US treble)

Dc = Double crochet (US single)

Pattern uses UK terminology

Chain 4 and join with a slip stitch to the first chain.

Round One:

Chain 4, and 2dtr in to the centre of the chain 4 ring, chain 2, (3dtr, chain 2) 5 times, join to first chain 4 with a slip stitch

Round Two:

Chain 6, ((3dtr chain 2) twice in the space left by the chain 2 on the previous round) 5 times, in the last space, 3dtr, chain 2, 2dtr and join with a slip stitch in to the 4th chain space from the starting chain. 

Round Three:

Chain 4, 2dtr, chain 2, 3 dtr in to the chain 2 space of the previous round, chain two (3dtr, chain 2 in to next space, (3dtr chain 2) twice in the next space) repeat until end, slip stitch to first chain 4 with slip stich

Round Four to Eight

(3dtr, chain 2) in all the chain 2 spaces from previous round, alternating between chain 4 and chain 6 at the start of the round (eg round four is chain 6, round five) is chain 4) and joining to the first chain at the end of the round.

Round Nine-Ten

Chain two and Dc in all the dtr spaces, 2 dc in the chain 2 spaces round, slip stitch in to starting chain and at the end of round Ten fasten off yarn.

I added a flower to finish off, but can't for the life of me find the pattern I used! If I can remember what I used then I'll provide a link, but otherwise ravelry has lots of lovely flower patterns, or leave it blank!

Now I'm pretty sure I've probably messed up some where with this pattern, if you spot an error, or have trouble understanding the pattern, please get in touch!

As always, please do not copy my pattern and repost else where or otherwise distribute without my permission. You are free to use the finished item as you wish, but would appreciate being asked if you plan on making to sell. Thank you!

That road paved with good intentions..

Well technically its not all that bad, but not much work went in to my wip, but on the bright side I haven't added to it!
Started the week by finishing Immy's Knubbelchen, the skirt was very fiddly I thought, but more in a wrestling stitches kind of way rather than hard to do, but ever so cute, so not complaining, much!
Next I did a super cute owl hat, in just one evening!

Yes it really only did take me an evening to make, gotta love bulky yarn! But the idea was so simple, just a crochet tube, bound of at one end, two triangles for the ear flaps, add embellishments and voila, cute hat!

But that has been about it on the making front, but all bets where off when I got my spin love fibre club instalment from easy knits, who is having a little comp this time for most creative use of this instalments fibre,  prize being more fibre and a spindle, yes I'm playing along! Not that I do uber creative, but I'm trying!
I spent an entire day just prepping one of the 100g braids, splitting it up so all the colours went together and then used my blending hackle to blend the bits together, to make a gradient type yarn, I've finished spinning that up and its looking good, think I can show it off best as a cake tho, its still a single so a little twisty in a hank! The other 100g braid I'm just going to spin and chain ply, as I can't really do much else with it, unless I spin a contrast fibre, but think showing it off as is is for me! I actually hope I can knit some thing up from them both before the end of the month, so I think most of my knitting time is going to be taken up by that, once I've finished spinning!  No pictures of that yet tho, don't want to show off my work until its time ;)

I may get chance to do my pattern this week, don't really know whats stopping me, apart from being bogged down in terminology! I'm so preoccupied trying to make sure I stick to one set of terms (US/UK) that I'm getting mixed up. Who's idea was it to change it all? Grrr! I will get it nailed down tho, some time!

Less of a productive week

Well no, thats not strictly true, its been a less of a productive week when it comes to finishing off my wip, I've been working steadily on my another pooling stole which btw I love how its turning out, the colours are amazing (Easy Knits deeply wicked in carnival), and it just looks good. But that apathy thing is creeping in. I'm only very early in to the project with a long way to go, so getting distracted very easily!

But I'm not technically adding to my wip list as I'm doing small things, very quickly! Last week I mentioned I was backwards engineering a hat, based on one my mum crocheted for Immy, well I did that and it came out well!

 

I've yet to write the pattern up properly, thats my next job, but I did experiment with it slightly and it will nicely upscale to different sizes, so Neala got one in the same yarn (which I'm sorry to say I've no idea on the brand of said yarn as it was given to me by a friend with no label, its wonderfully soft tho, so will be keeping an eye out for some thing similar!) so both my girls really do match up! Its kinda sweet, I think! 

Next came a shawl, no not for me! I had been thinking that Immy's coat left her neck really exposed, esp if she was in her carrier, but didn't quite know what to do, no to a scarf and a cowl seemed a bit odd to do for a baby. I was browsing looking for inspiration for a stole pattern for the yarn I frogged a couple of weeks back when a cute little pattern caught my eye, Scallo-pie, a little shawl pattern for little madams! Oh well that was it then!

 

 

 

Really like it, and even had me doing some thing new in the form of the scalloped edging, which is actually functional as you can use the end scallop and feed it thru the eyelet of another to hold it together, so its practical when using it too. I def feel a second one coming on thats for sure!

To round off the week I've been doing the girl version of knubbelchen which hands down is one of the cutest little snuggies ever, I did the boy version a few months back and picked out yarn to do a girl version, but its been sat waiting ever since, I did the head body and one leg all in one go, but its taken me another two days to do the other leg and an arm, but to be fair Immy isn't well, and have been out and about, but it should be done in the next day or so! 

 

So all in all, bad for wip this week, but busy on new projects, not really the point but I have gotten alot done since the start of the year, and I will have a new pattern to show for it too. Can be that bad! 

A productive week!

Had a good week, this knitting to blog deadline suits me well, plus not casting on some thing new is reason to knit faster!

Started off the week by blocking my Hypernova shawl I finished last week

 

I didn't pin it out along its entire length, just did the flared ends and its come out really nice, again, didn't take long once I set to it!

Next I set about finishing my trout river jumper from knitty, a cute pattern with detachable arms, so you can have both a vest and a jumper, and I added a hood to the original pattern as I felt it needed it! The coloured edges are my own handspun yarn which was nice to include!

 

Daft thing about it was tho, that all I had left to do on it was the top bit of one arm and weave in some ends, its been lying around for all this time and it took me two evenings to finish. Its daft!

Next I focused on a sock I've needed to make to complete a pair, so the rest of the week was taken up by that. 

Not bad at all! I picked up my pooling shawl to be going on with, I did try and find the other socks I have to finish but they've been put away some where and I'm not sure where! They'll turn up.. I hope! I may tackle my glow gloves, if I'm feeling brave tho!

Slight confession tho, I have cast on some thing new, but its a crochet baby hat and in all honesty I'll prob have it finished in the next few hours, I'm reverse engineering a hat my Mum (Hi Mum!) made for Immy, whos Immy? Oh yeah this is Immy! My 7mth old nutter, in her baby sophisticate!

 

Alot can happen when you don't blog! Any way, yes, my mum made her a really cute crochet hat, using little treble clusters, and I found some yarn in my stash today, thinner than the one my mum used and I'm attempting to recreate the pattern (adjusted for different yarn). I'm not sure if my mum used a pattern originally or just made it up, and I know I could just ask her, but I was just in that mood to do some thing different, and I may even write up the pattern too as I'm sure I've not seen one like it on rav, its one I reach for to put on her in all this cold weather, people have even asked me where I got it from, so it can't be bad! We'll see!

Nothing says knit faster like a looming deadline!

Beginning to think this post every Sunday thing was a good idea, it's forcing me to knit some thing so I don't miss my spot!
This week I mostly knitted my hypernova scarf, one of the few things I've declared wollmeise worthy! I had been about half way done at the start of the week but cast off late last night (photo to follow, I procrastinated all day, blame baby..) and hope to get it blocked at some point this week, can't be bad!
Took the decision to frog another project as well, I'm being realistic in what I'm actually going to finish, and whilst I loved how it was going (convertible from knitty in malabrigo) I just couldn't see my self actually using the shawl properly once it's done. I use my ordinary shawls, gloves, socks yet but this one was meant to be worn in lots of different ways and what ever I might have had a vision of when I started it, it's not the same one I have now! So it's now several balls of yarn again, more stash hehe
My wip list is starting to look more normal! I've a few projects I don't mind being long term, such as my hexipuffs or my crochet blanket, but every thing else I'm determined to get done, next on my hit list is a sock and a sleeve, sleeve first, I could probably get that done this evening if I stop fading around on here! Bests get on!

Thingies completed!

Well one week in to my must complete every thing campaign has gone well!
After my blog post last week, I decided to tidy up my corner, yet again! I put alot of yarn away, bagged up all my wip properly, and sorted my patterns out.
I rescued three wip from the wicker basket, one shawl, one hooded scarf (which had been intended as a new pattern..) and a circle cardigan for me.

The shawl was my memories of spring shawl that has been on the go for nearly two years, but I was finding the pattern tough going, not because it was overly difficult, it was the fact it has two stitch patterns of different counts running concurrently and I was finding it hard to keep both tracked, I usually make marks on a piece of paper but it was just doing nothing for me, so I made the decision to frog what I'd done, I wasn't even half way finished, so no big loss!

Washed and reskeined the yarn (it was one of those preknitted blanks) so its all ready to go for a new pattern, some day!

The hooded scarf, I had intented on making a new pattern, with some yarn I bought from aldi, but at some point I lost my focus and it lived in my basket for a while, didn't even count it as one of my wip, as I'd forgotten it was there! I was going to frog it back to salvedge the yarn but decided the length I had knitted before the hood increases would still make a good cowl, so sat on my kitchen floor (!) I ripped it back, returned stitches to a needle, bound it off and made a cute cowl for Neala!

 

That worked out better than expected! (Excuse the xbox controller, I had to interrupt minecraft..)

So on to the cardigan, I bought the yarn for this from Cold Springs mill in Yorkshire, I had gone hoping to get some thing better, but arrived to find lots of bog standard yarn, was slightly disappointed, but not wanting to go home empty handed I bought some bulky yarn in a colour I liked that reminded me of James C Brett marble chunky (still don't know what it is, but its so close feeling wise to marble chunky, it might as well be!), so bought it and immediately cast on for this when I got home, I did work on it rather diligently for a long while but it got lost in the bottom of my box, never to be worked on for months, when I dug it out, I looked at completed versions of the pattern on Rav and noticed it looked rather fab as a short sleeve, and when I measured it up, it was close to being actually finished, so with the addition of short sleeves, I cracked on and got it finished! 

Don't think its some thing I'll wear out of the house, and it could still do with a soak and pulling in to shape, but its great for lounging on the couch, very snug! Just glad I found the inspiration to carry on with it! Still a lot of the yarn left too, so all in all, not a bad yarn trip!

Lanesplitter has returned to my hands for the time being, its coming along nicely, just wondering if I should tackle some thing smaller (I've got some socks and a glove waiting) instead of getting bigger stuff done. Not that it matters, but my lanesplitter is good for tv watching as its dead easy to rattle off, I've got a glove to do that are slightly more (read as really really more) complicated, should really thinking about doing that too!

Till next week..

2013 Starting as I mean to go on!

So it's been two years since I made a blog post, hmm not really good, doubt any one will catch this post but hey, I decided it can help me in my mission to finish projects I've actually started so I can knit more stuff I want to.
My wip list is reaching epic proportions, I've single socks, half made blankets, short scarves and other things that if I spent just some of my time on (instead of browsing ravelry all day..) I could get them finished. But I don't, I browse all the stuff I,d love to make, dream about yarn I could use to make them, and I either cave in and cast on some thing new, or forget all my plans on what to knit! It's not like I don't want to finish my items, I do, I just lack incentive.
So, new year, new start. Blog, once a week, Sunday is good, to talk about what I've done this week, and if I force my self to blog, I've got to do some thing during the week to show off right? Well it's a plan....

I've currently got 15 things to finish. That includes 3 I've not listed on rav, and my hexipuff blanket which is a long term thing any way which I shouldn't be too hard on my self about, but you know, getting mini skeins for it every month and not knitting them is a problem too!

My current project is one I've not out on rav, it's a lane splitter skirt from knitty, cast on at a whim, well not so much a whim, I actually unravelled my noro jumper that I don't wear at all to do it, as I thought I'd wear this skirt more, I don't think I'll have quite enough yarn to finish it from what I got from my jumper, but the colourway is still out there, and it's noro, so dye lots.. No one will notice! Good chance I'll stop knitting this when I run out of yarn as I'll stall on buying more, but if I get a good way in to it, its a good excuse to keep going!


So that's me for this week, let's see if I can keep this up!