Woodside arm warmers

One of my recent knitty projects are these arm warmers.  I had a pair in khaki green when I was at University, but someone stole my coat at a party and they were lost forever!  My mum called them my Fagin gloves.  Well Fagin wouldn't have been wearing a pair like these now would he.

They're loosely based on a Lion Brand pattern called Constellation although I realised my yarn was a different side so I did some customising and decreased to my wrists and played around with the increases to make it fit perfectly.

They're incredibly cosy and I've been wearing them at work although it hasn't been exactly necessary, but winter is coming and I'll be able to knit in these too!

I love the stripes the yarn has produced and that the main colour's the deep purple which is lovely.



The yarn isLoops & Threads Impeccable Ombre and the colour is Folklore; I bought it a few years ago when I went to New York, from Michaels.  I still have most of the ball left and two more, so I'll have to see what to do with those.  I'd quite like to knit more monsters...

I reckon I'm getting the hang of using DPNs too, which is good because I need to use them for the sleeves of my cardigan.  I don't like casting on because I've twisted my stitches several times, and I don't like starting out with a few stitches and having to decrease, but these weren't so bad.

Moggie decided she wanted to be part of my photography shoot too.  It's a shame she's not in focus but she was very curious about what was going on!

I made up three cushions today and I've almost finished some painting (only a door frame) so I feel pretty accomplished.  I just wish it wasn't Sunday and I wish I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow!

I had a go at making short bread, using the recipe that Lucy posted on Attic 24, although I ended up adding quite a bit more flour because it was too sticky to roll out.  I had good fun cutting out my shapes and make little stars to stick on top!

Right, dinner time for all of us.  Have you had a nice weekend with any craftiness?

x x x x

Finished retrobaby blanket

Diz and Mogs thank you for their warm welcome into blogland ♥ Admittedly not much crochet or knitting is planned by either of them, but regular attempts to thwart mine will no doubt continue...

I finally finished knitting nephew #3's baby blanket and I really want to make another for me but it would have to be bigger and this one took forever so it's probably not going to happen, oh well.  Want to see?

Ta dah!!!!

The pattern didn't call for a border but I wanted one because I don't think they look quite finished without, do you know what I mean?

I crocheted a cream border and used the pattern from Attic 24 for ripples, although it hindsight I wish I'd knitted the first and last rows in cream because the crochet ripples weren't the same,

There is something really lovely about knitting which you don't quite get from crochet, and you know I LOVE garter stitch!

The pattern is called Rocky which I bought from Ravelry.  It's only a couple of good English pounds and once I got the hang of the pattern it was very easy and very satisfying, apart from the time I tried to change colour mid-row and nearly ruined the whole thing but dropping stitches and confusing myself a lot.

As usual I've used Stylecraft special DK, apart from the blue and orange but I think Spice would work and there's probably as similar blue, maybe Cornflower.  The others were Plum, Lavender, 'Meadow' Cream and Camel.

Happy crafting!

x x x x

Meow meow?

I knew it had been a while since I last sat down to blog, but I didn't realise it had been quite so long.  I haven't felt like writing really but I've been content with knitting, crocheting and reading instead. Projects definitely need photographing but all in good time.

We welcomed some new additions to our house a few weeks ago...  One who is fairly intent on stopping me from working ♥

And the other loves sleeping on our bed and waiting for her favourite hooman (J) to come home ♥

It hasn't been plain sailing and I won't pretend that it has, but they've both settled in really well now and we're making great progress.  Obviously you never know where they've come from, what their owner was like, what they ate, so it's a big learning curve for us all.  Right now Moggie is snoozing on the sofa and Dizzy is lounging near the kitchen, hoping we might feed him.

Will be back soon hopefully, with less tails of cats and more tales of knitting!

x x x x