The City that never sleeps

YaWn! I am SO tired right now, something to do with having returned from this amazing city a few days ago :)


We didn't get up til 1pm today and 2pm yesterday - shocking!! I feel very jet lagged but all is good. While we were away J & I got a new camera which has a tilt-shift setting that I absolutely love. It makes things look like little miniature models! I won't bore you with hundreds of photos you'll already have seen before, so hopefully these are a little different.

Time Square! Apparently a little seedy back in the 70s, it's now the place where everyone seems to converge of an evening. I loved walking here most nights when we came in 2008 (we stayed literally a couple of blocks away), this year we stayed out in Queens but we managed a good few trips here :)

Our trusty number 7 train in and out of Manhattan

Cony Island

We went in May last time and the amusements were closed! It was quite eerie and I was the only person on the beach but at least the aquarium was open. A very different story this time.

The Staten Island Ferry

Probably the best free way to see the Statue of Liberty!

I came back with American Candy - I love the packaging!  Milk Duds are very yummy and we scoffed at least two boxes of pancake mix while we were away, they're so much fluffier than the ones we make in the UK.

And a modest purchase from Michaels craft store which is quite simply the most brilliant place ever :D

I've got a nice shiney set of colourful crochet hooks now that are crying out for some new handles... I even got something for another giveaway... More on that another time!

Being New York I didn't have much time to be bored, and I seem to be getting more and more motion sick, so despite taking supplies for the flight I didn't crochet a whole lot but I've made a start on a Little Woollie inspired cushion - I've just seen that she's doing a crochet-a-long for my most favourite blanket ever and I'm gutted I've missed it but I might try and catch up, or just save the pattern. Anywho :)

The colours are Stylecraft again - lets be honest I have so much I think very little of what I make's going to be anything else :-p I'm using Pomegranate, Fondant, Clematis, Meadow, Cloud Blue, Sherbet & Cream at random. I think the back may have to be stripes :)

I need to go and do all that fun post holiday stuff now, washing, getting ready for work tomorrow... What fun! Hope you've all had a good week or two, I'll be back soon with more hooky fun!

x x x x

Chunky mustard snood ta-dah!

So I've just realised that I never posted anymore about my chunky mustard snood I was working on! It just totally disappeared off the blogging radar :(


So for a recap the first and only post about it is >> here

After realising it was completely twisted (and thinking it would be fine) I realised it wouldn't be fine at all. So a note to anyone using circular needles, do not twist your cast on row!!

I frogged it and then knitted the first ball on a coach to London and finished the rest at my folks house. A *very* cramped coach. I made a friend though called Johnny who was quite bemused by my knitting! Another note - circular needles are fantastic for knitting in a confined space, unlike my long regular needles which I poke other passengers with and profusely apologise for...

So this is my snood in all its chunky, curly, knitted glory


And this is me boiling because in typical Nicole fashion I finished it in the middle of summer :)


It's going to be a great winter warmer though :)

The yarn is "seriously chunky" by Cygnet in Barley shade 4884 (I think it's mustard!!) and I used 10mm bamboo circulars. I'm not sure how many I cast on, it was trial and error really but it wasn't many given the thickness of the yarn.

x x x x

Thank you :-D

I'm so overwhelmed with your amazing comments on my blanket I really am! Second to snuggling up in it these make it SO worth every second spent - thank you!

I was just checking too that I linked the pattern to Attic 24 and I did so that's good, I want to spread the hexagon love far & wide, so to anyone who said they'd love to do one I say Do It!!

Now because I'm a bit implusive & tend to have several projects on the go at once, I've not gotten round to showing you this one!


Back when I started a second pink snood for a friend, I tried and tried and tried to knit ribboned-stockinette-stitch from a pattern that I found here. I'd seen a cushion in Next which I think was the same stitch and I'm sure I took a photo but having spent almost the last hour searching I've given up. It's not on their website either, but needless to say I saw it and thought "I could do that."

It looked very much like this!

Now for the life of me I just couldn't get it right, so in the end I gave up and my friends snood's is regular stocking stitch. However... I couldn't let this beat me! So with some chunkier yarn I tried again... Woo hoo, it started to come together!

This is what you'd call the "front" although the reverse is equally as lovely - difficult to pick which side to use.


A few more shots of progress...


At first I really needed to use my counter but I've learnt to do it without. It's a little tricky at first but after so many rows you get used to when to knit & when to slip :)


I cast on slightly too many stitches for the cushion inner I have, and I was going to knit two squares so I could have the 'front' and 'reverse' stitch on either side of the cushion, but this probably won't happen now because I don't have enough yarn to make a second square, instead it will have to be a rectangular cushion. I might try to find a way of making it reversible...

Have you tried making your own project based on something you saw? If you have I'd love to see it!

BBFN x x x x