Cable hats, because Summer is late

I think it's supposed to be Summer but someone has forgotten to tell the weather.  So it's May and I've knitted two hats and a cowl, yes...

My Cousin asked if I'd knit him up a hat and I was quite happy to give it a go.  I won't knit for just anyone, but I find if someone has asked (who I like!) they're probably going to appreciate it more ;-)  We agreed on grey, cables but no pom pom.  I forgot in the end to loosely attach one as a joke.

My Cousin has a large head & lots of hair so I made it two pattern repeats larger & it fitted perfectly.  I think he really really liked it too which was awesome ♥

The pattern, Winter Femme by Diana Gates is free and available on Ravelry.  I used Stylecraft Special DK - Grey (1099).

I liked the hat as well so I made myself one with a turn up.  I stuck to the original pattern which fits my normal sized head, but made a bit of a mistake with the cables...  I'd written the pattern out so I could knit on the go without my laptop, but instead of writing that the cable was a repeating pattern of 8 rows I managed to make it 5 rows so they're a lot tighter.  Luckily it worked out that doing another cable pattern of 5 rows at the end got me back to the correct size.  So you could say I made my own but it was a complete accident!

This one is in Stylecraft Special DK - Teal (1062)

Thanks to everyone who explained what Raglan sleeves are, you're a wonderful bunch ♥

x x x x

I'm still here honest!

Excuse me while I just dust off the cobwebs there...  Wow I have missed blogging!!  I haven't been away travelling or anything exciting like that but I just seem to be very busy lately & blogging has had to take a back seat.  I've kept up on my reading (just about) & I'm feeling very inspired and creative!

As there's a lot to talk about I'll start with hats :-) These are my new obsession & for better or worse our two nephews will slowly be gaining a collection of knitted animal hats as I continue to churn them out for no other reason than I enjoy the clicking of needles & I'm trying to de-stash a little!

Check me out, I haven't bought any yarn all year and it's MAY!

 

When I said that in January J scoffed.  Hah.  So no more of this

After making my own crochet cross stitch hat I made one for smallest nephew, it was supposed to be for Christmas but it was given a bit late.  Good thing the weathers been reliably rubbish!  As you can see it's a great fit (testament to the pattern) & he seems to like it :-)

The pattern is on Tara's blog Easy Makes Me Happy here.

Unfortunately the lion hat was (as I feared) too short so I need to get more Stylecraft in Camel. The only problem is now that I'm actively trying not to buy wool I might need to see if I can get some in a swap or something.

This is my latest hat endeavour intended for biggest nephew

I've loved knitting this even though I slightly messed up the pattern and realised you really do have to follow it but I've made it work.  Lots of new techniques I've not tried before so I feel like I'm a proper knitting bee now :)

Other wondeful endeavours have included afternoon tea in the Northern Quarter - that's my Dad!  Sorry Dad you've been blogged now :)

Climbing in April & May (look at the difference in one month!)

...to Styal Woods (there's a bloody great big drop beneath me which this photo doesn't do justice.  Probably for the best really.  Hello Mum.)

 

My folks and amazingly my big-little brother came up for a long weekend too so I dragged them out to Alderly Edge, which apart from being full of mansions and footballers (we didn't see any, footballers that is) actually has an 'edge' (another great big drop!) and some lovely walks, including the Wizards Walk.

It says, "Drink of this and take thy fill for the water falls by the Wizhard's Will". See his wizardy face at the top?

If you've ever read the the Weirdstone of Brisingamen then you'll know what I'm talking about.  My mum read it to me when I was a kid so I was really excited to take her as the book is all set around here.

♥

Did you all watch the Great British Sewing Bee? I did and it totally got me back into sewing. It's a post for another time but I'm really looking forward to sharing.



x x x x

Happy Bank Holiday!

Happy Easter and happy April Fools! Hope you've not been caught out by any sneaky jokes or surprises this morning :p I forgot until 11.37 so had about 20 minutes to try and trick J but I couldn't come up with anything... 

♥

 

Yesterday I did some actual genuine Spring Cleaning (a first for everything?) and we've got a big pile of charity shop things now - old snowboarding clothes (not been since '07!) tops I don't wear, bags...  You name it.  I know this is boring but I even hoovered under the bed.  I want to look back on this post in awe ;-)

♥

So where was I... Ahh yes, on and off my needles this week!

 

I started this little hat for on Wednesday at our WI craft club and finished it on Friday night!  Two evenings isn't bad going for a whole project right?  Just the kind I like :)

It's from my Knitted Animal Hat's book again by Fiona Goble (go buy it!) and I've knitted it up in Stylecraft Special DK Camel 1420.  The tutorial says to use the yarn double which I've never seen or tried before & I thoroughly love the outcome.  It doesn't look much but it makes the hat much thicker than just using normal double knit, and I wish wish wish I'd done this on my friends blue snood!

Unfortunately I ran out of yarn for the main hat as it was left overs from my big hexagon blanket, so little lion hat doesn't have any earflaps :(  If I ever get anymore, I may steal the hat back to finish it off properly but it's ok for now.

As much as I love the hat, it's much too small as it's intended for our nephews First birthday, I hope it fits!!

♥

 On Saturday I quickly hooked up this jar cosie to hide all those annoying receipts that J has lying around the house.  It's a mix of blues from my yarn stash, which I'm trying to reduce.  It's April and I haven't bought any wool all year!

 

It could probably do with another round or two of cream. 

♥

So anyway, how are you lovely people doing? I was a bit late to the party when it came to joining Google Reader, I only found it a couple of months ago & it completely changed my blogging habits for the better :) I love receiving comments so I know how much other bloggers do to, the problem was I'd started to follow so many blogs it only took a day or two away from my laptop and *boom*! I could barely keep up :)

♥

So... When I heard Google were closing Reader down I was a bit annoyed really but it's actually ended up being quite positive as thanks to this post on Sandra's blog Cherry Heart I found Feedly which is a million times better :) So now I've got all my blogs organised - if I fancy a knitting read I can do that, or some home loving I can read that.

And if I go away and haven't read for a while, I can quickly catch up on my fave blogs in no time, yippee!

If you want to join Feedly and follow me here you can do

x x x x

In the month of March

Things making me happy

♥

I ordered a book called Knitted Animal Hats by Fiona Goble from the interwebs and after a few days of waiting (in which I whinged every day about why it hadn't arrived, much to J's dismay) it finally came. I've got a thing for knitted hats, especially animal ones.


Even though I made a cat/mouse hat last year I've embarked on this one already because I think it's adorable and it should help me to practice and hone some more knitting skills :)

I spent a few hours this afternoon with people who live nearby clearing a little plot of land that the Council has leant us to turn into a community garden which we're calling Phoenix Gardens :)

You can see how much we got done from the before & after photos!

Back breaking work and I'm feeling it already!

♥

I've been making a snood for my friends mum and while it's terribly terribly tedious I'm happy because I'm now on the second ball of yarn. Although I still have about 90g of the 100g to go I feel like I might be on the home stretch...

♥

Joining the WI which I have completely forgotten to mention, it's a new one set up by two knitting friends. The butterflies in the photo above are on a top I got in last weeks clothes swap for 50p :)

♥

Being restless with my blog at the moment and changing the theme every week it seems. I might settle eventually :)

♥

Finding all the good happy things in life at the moment has been very comforting and remind me to try and live life to the full and not to take anything for granted - ok I know that sounds incredibly cliché but bear with me...

Very very very horribly sadly a friend who I've known since starting my job has lost his year long battle to cancer and died on Mothers Day :( I think I had just over a week to come to terms with the fact that he was going to die before he did, and that hit me hard. I've never known anyone who was going to die and I didn't know how to deal with that. Not well as it happens, I just felt full of sadness.

His death came a lot sooner than anyone expected but in some ways I feel some relief that he's not in pain any more and can be at peace. My heart goes out to his partner and their 7 year old daughter who I've thought about a lot these last few weeks. I don't know how they will manage and cope without the love of their life and Dad. It's just so so sad. Much love goes to them x

So take it from me, don't leave anything until it's too late. If there's someone you love or miss then tell them, because I sure as hell wish I'd been in contact more. Now go and read something crafty & cheery because I fear I might have made you a little sad and I don't want to do that, I just needed to share xXx

x x x x

Crochet & Cross Stitch

Good morning campers :)  Well, still no snow - apart from a thin dusting - so disappointing!  The news is *really* getting on my nerves about it though - 'the big freeze' indeed!  I'm sure we had much worse weather last Feb.  Grrrr!

Enough of that, lets share some crochet goodness :)  While I wasn't knitting J's snood I had to find something else to do, and although I had a few projects on the go (surprise huh!?) I stumbled across this pattern on Easy! Makes me happy & I was quite literally hooked!



I've tried about a million times to get some decent photos but it's been impossible so I hope you can tell it's a crochet hat with some cross stitch on it :)  It's surprisingly warm despite being quite thin & the best thing is it fits under my bike helmet so I can keep my ears warm, yesssss :)


Looking a bit serious :p  probably annoyed I'd taken a million photos.



Cross stitch is dead easy, the pattern shows you at the end how to do your stitches, I followed the flower pattern using some left over Stylecraft from other projects.

I've looked all over for the yarn label but I can't find it - you'll have to be content that it was a cheap cheap cheap aran yarn from my LYS, nothing special :)

I've since made another for our little nephew but maybe I'll wait til he's wearing it to get a photo, he's bound to be a much cuter model!

I've just watched J spend 15 minutes trying to catch a fish, he keeps tropical fish and one of them was looking pretty grim.  I have a feeling we'll be off soon to his LFS - I have yarn, he has fish!

x x x x

Hello Twenty Thirteen

Happy New Year my lovelies :D It's good to be back but I can't tell you how much I wish it were still the holidays, even though I know it wouldn't be as special if it lasted forever. We spent a very long week down at my folks in London, although a week didn't seem long enough in the end!

Christmas Day was very chilled out and merry. I was up early to see my brother before he had to work (!!) which meant opening presents, followed by more presents when J got up (fair-isle slippers!), followed by party food for lunch, mulled wine, dinner making, a nap, plying my parents with alcohol while they were being busy, my brother coming home still in good spirits, more presents, Christmas Dinner, Christmas Crackers, Trivial Pursuit (my Dad lost) Christmas Pudding and then bed.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, or if that's not your thing a peaceful end to the year :)

I can't quite believe where the year has gone but looking back at my projects for the year sort of puts things into an order I can make sense of! I really enjoyed making little mosaics at the beginning of last year so I've done the same now, only this time I've discovered Pic Monkey which is a brilliant website for making collages, mosaics and editing photos - a huge time saver.

There are four projects from last year that I've finished which was one of my 2012 resolutions, but I've also started this year with more unfinished WIPs. Oh well!

1. Hexagon blanket - completed :)
2. A stockinette stitch cushion cover. I've cast on too many stitches for the cushion inner I have so I may start this again...
3. Spring Garden Granny Squares. These haven't worked out so well when joined, I'm wondering whether to make more squares in different colours and make a small lap blanket...!

4. Nanny throw. I don't think this is a project I've blogged about yet so more about this later!
5. Bubble Gum Ripple Blanket
6. Pomegrante snood.

7. Little Woolie Inspired Cushion. I should finish this soon, I've only got a few more rows to do!
8. Ribbed Phone Cover
9. Stripy Snood


1. Crochet hook handle, made from Fimo
2. Moss Stitch Scarf
3. Crochet owl

4. Crochet Father Christmas
5. Knitted bunting
6. Knitted cable hat

7. Bunting
8. Knitted cat mouse hat
9. Polka dot skirt


1. First pomegranate snood
2. Turquoise cable hat
3. Lingonberry biscuits :)

4. Winter striped scarf
5. Snowflake Christmas card
6. Chunky mustard snood

7. Pink fluffy scarf
8. Grass cable snood
9. Giveaway cactus

I've got loadssss of other things to show you that I started over the holidays too, lets cross our fingers for some good weather this weekend and I'll try to get some half decent photos to share :)

x x x x

Cat hat - ta-dah & tutorial!

My hat, which I thought was going to be a cat but I'm informed is most definitely a mouse, is finished!



I promised a tutorial so I'll try not to disappoint! I must stress that the original pattern was written by Jana Falls which I found on Ravelry and I've merely adapted this for my own purposes. I umm'd and ahh'd over whether to write up the whole pattern to put on my blog and in the end I decided it would be too confusing to keep telling people to look at the original pattern and then mine etc, so here goes.

This pattern is for double knit yarn so if you're using Aran please visit the original :)

You will need:

DK yarn
4mm circular needles
4mm DPNs
A stitch marker
A tapestry needle
Snacks

For a regular adult sized head you need 114 stitches in total to begin. The pattern starts with the two ear-flaps and works from the brim to the top.

The ear-flaps

On DPNs cast on 6 stitches

Purl the next row to set up.

Row 1a (right side): Knit front back, knit until the last stitch, knit front back

Row 2a (wrong side): Knit 2, purl until the last stitch, knit 2

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until you have 22 stitches. If you want more or less stitches you need to take this into account later!

Row 1b (right side): Knit all stitches

Row 2b (wrong side): knit 2, purl until the last 2 stitches, knit 2.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 to desired length. 2-3 repeats should do it.

End with a knit row (as in Row 1b)

For the second ear-flap repeat as above, end with the knit row on your circular needle.



Making into the hat

With the second ear-flap on your circular needle cast on 46 stitches using a cable cast on. This will be the front of the hat – it's wider than the back. Join the other ear-flap and knit along to the end of this flap. Make sure it's the same way round as the other flap!! Cast on another 24 stitches using a cable cast on.



You should now have 114 stitches; 22 for each ear-flap (so 44 together), 46 for the front and 24 for the back. Right...

Transfer the last cast on stitch to the left (or right!) needle and purl two together (p2tog). You should have 113 stitches now.

At this point the original pattern says to knit but I ended up with my purl stitches on the outside (which would mean you'd need to purl!). Even though I've done this twice the same happened so I'm continuing on my random way :)

Purl across the first ear-flap and p2tog where the ear-flap and the cast on stitches meet. 112 stitches now!

Purl across to the next ear-flap, p2tog where it starts (111 stitches), purl across and then p2tog where it ends. You should have 110 stitches now. If you don't, you can either do an increase / decrease or start over :)

The body

The next part is pretty boring. Purl, purl, purl away until your you've got approximately 12cm worth of hat or roughly 34 rows. It's not an exact science and the hat in my photos is probably a little too big so I've scaled down my estimates.



The top – decreasing

Ok this bit is why you needed to have 110 stitches so that the decreases work perfectly.

Place a stitch marker. I always get confused with this but the way I remember is my markers a stop sign. I place it on the first stitch I knit or purl, and when I get back to it I know to STOP!

Round 1: *Purl 8, purl 2 together (p2tog)*. Repeat between the *'s til you hit the stitch marker – 99 stitches
Round 2: Purl all 99 stitches

Round 3: *P7, p2tog* – 88 stitches
Round 4: Purl all 88 stitches

Round 5: *P6, p2tog* - 77 stitches
Round 6: Purl all 77 stitches

Round 7: *P5, p2tog* - 66 stitches
Round 8: Purl all 66 stitches

Round 9: *P4, p2tog* - 55 stitches
Round 10: Purl all 55 stitches

Round 11: *P3, p2tog* - 44 stitches
Round 12: Purl all 44 stitches

Somewhere around here it might be easier to switch onto DPNs. Just spread out your stitches evenly across your DPNs, keeping one free that you'll knit (or purl!) onto.

Round 13: *P2, p2tog* - 33 stitches
Round 14: Purl all 33 stitches

Are you using the DPNs yet?

Round 15: *P1, p2tog* - 22 stitches
Round 16: Purl all 22 stitches

Round 17: P2tog until you hit the stitch marker – 11 stitches
Round 18: P2tog until you hit the stitch marker (same as Round 17) – 6 stitches

Cut a long tail, 15cm should do, and pull this through the remaining 6 stitches to finish. This will pull the top of the hat together nicely.

Ears – make two



Using DPNs cast on 2 stitches.

Row 1: Kfb both stitches – 4 stitches
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: Kfb into first stitch, knit 2, kfb into last stitch – 6 stitches
Row 4: Purl
Row 5: Kfb into first stitch, knit 4, kfb into last stitch – 8 stitches
Row 6: Purl
Row 7: Kfb into first stitch, knit 6, kfb into last stitch – 10 stitches
Row 8: Purl
Row 9: Kfb into first stitch, knit 8, kfb into last stitch – 12 stitches
Row 10: Purl
Row 11: Kfb into first stitch, knit 10, kfb into last stitch – 14 stitches
Row 12: Purl
Row 13: Kfb into first stitch, knit 12, kfb into last stitch – 16 stitches
Row 14: Cast off

Keep going until your ears are wide enough. I worked upto this point, you could go bigger or smaller if you wanted.

Nose



Using DPNs cast on

Row 1: Kfb both stitches – 4 stitches
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: Kfb into first stitch, knit 2, kfb into last stitch – 6 stitches
Row 4: Purl
Row 5: Kfb into first stitch, knit 4, kfb into last stitch – 8 stitches
Row 6: Cast off

Whiskers and eyes



Using a tapestry needle and black yarn, sew whiskers and eyes into the hat. The eyes took a while to get right, but it's just three horizontal stitches across two of the 'v' shapes.

Braids

Add braids by cutting 9 lengths of yarn 60cm long. Thread through the bottom of the ear-flaps until equal on both sides (approx 30cm for each side) and plait together. Tie in a knot at the end and repeat on the other ear-flap.

I wrote this out as I was going along so hopefully it works out okay. Any problems just leave a comment :) Enjoy!!

x x x x

If you want a more concise pattern minus the waffle read on :)

Ear flaps:

On DPNs CO 6sts
P next row to set up

Row 1a (RS): kfb, k to last st, kfb – 10sts
Row 2a (WS): k2, p to last st, k2

Repeat Rows 1 & 2 until you have 22sts.

Row 1b (RS): k to end
Row 2b (WS), k2, purl until last 2sts, k2

Repeat until desired length. End on Row 1b.

When making the second ear knit your last row on circulars.

Making up

With the second ear-flap on your circular needle CO 46sts using a cable cast on – 68sts
K along the second ear-flap and CO 24sts – 114sts

Transfer last CO st onto other needle & p2tog – 113sts

P across first ear-flap, p2tog at the join – 112sts
P to next ear-flap, p2tog at join, p across the flap, p2tog – 110sts

Body

P for approx 34 rows or 12cm

Decreasing

Round 1: *P8, p2tog)*. Repeat until stitch marker – 99sts
Round 2: P

Round 3: *P7, p2tog* – 88sts
Round 4: P

Round 5: *P6, p2tog* - 77sts
Round 6: P

Round 7: *P5, p2tog* - 66sts
Round 8: P

Round 9: *P4, p2tog* - 55sts
Round 10: P

Round 11: *P3, p2tog* - 44sts
Round 12: P

Switch to DPNs

Round 13: *P2, p2tog* - 33sts
Round 14: P

Round 15: *P1, p2tog* - 22sts
Round 16: P

Round 17: P2tog – 11 stitches
Round 18: P2tog – 6 stitches

Cut a long tail (15cm) and pull through the remaining 6sts to finish.

One hundred lovelies

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

That's the noise you make when you realise you've got 100 followers :-)

I honestly don't know how or why - especially as lately I've been a pretty bad blogger - but I'm thrilled all the same and even more motivated to do my part and erm, write stuff!

So I would like to say "thanks very much!" indeed to all you followers, and all you readers who might not be followers - I love you too! I will be posting a giveaway as soon as I make something and thanks to Teresa Kasner I have just the idea!

Well part of the reason I've not been blogging much is I've been finishing off things and I think there's only so many photos I can show you of this scarf:

But there it is! Half a ball of yarn to go - I think it's going to be long!

I made another baby hat too for my friend - now very proud father - at work who had a little boy two weeks ago.

My only reservation was the colour because he asked for "United Red" - I could barely bring myself to do it!!

Moving on.

Since my granddad died my family have been on "Nan watch" which essentially means making sure she's got lots of visitors and things to do. I should take this moment to say that my Nan is super strong and copes with most things remarkably and has taken everything so well - she is no quivering mess - so last weekend we took her out to Dunelm Mill to buy cushions. As you do. She'd not really been able to leave the house without someone to look after my graddad so this new found freedom is all a bit, well new!

While we were there I found this amazing mug for £2.99! "NO MORE MUGS!" said J. Haha said I - this one is coming home with me and you'll just have to put up with it and ALL the other mugs we have. So here we are :-)



Even better is my Dad paid so technically I didn't even buy the mug we didn't need. WIN! The last time my Mum & Dad did this they paid for wool I was after as a Christmas present. We've never seen it since.

x x x x

Baby hat ta-dah!

I was all ready to give you an update on the baby hat I've been making but I realised I never even showed you the progress! I don't even think I mentioned it :o

So there will be no referring back to previous posts, just a good old ta-dah :-)



I've dabbled in cables ones before and they're very easy to do. The lovely Joanna Donaldson who I met on Ravelry sent me some hat patterns and the cable one stuck out the most. I-have-to-make-this!

Luckily two of my friends and Js sister are all having babies in the next two months so there's lots of opportunities for hat making!


This is number two already half finished :D

x x x x