Bright Stripes

I'm really excited about this new project.  Our friends are having a baby soon so I've started a new blanket.  I'd planned to start in January anyway but I hadn't realised they're due a little sooner than I thought!  I didn't really have a design in mind and wanted some inspiration so I looked through my favourite blogs and hit upon Heather's pram blanket for Tiny Tin Bird on her blog Little Tin Bird, it's just lovely!

I headed into the City to buy the same Debbie Bliss colours she used, because why reinvent the wheel when I loved everything about it, but alas Abakhans don't stock it!  I'm not sure why I thought they did.

I tried to remember what shade each colour was and tried to substitute with Sirdar Snuggly DK. They didn't have a yellow I wanted in that range so the one I bought it from their Country Style range instead.  As it happens Heathers yellow was much paler but I quite like the brightness of the one I bought.  There also wasn't a green that I liked, although I found some Merino later in the sale section ♥

When I got started I decided the darker red, which I'd intended as a sort of pink to off balance all the blue, didn't work and the dark blue was too dark.  I found a tiny amount of some pink Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, which isn't going to go very far but it might just help.



I started by chaining 100 using a 3.5mm (E) hook on Saturday, following Heathers method of not turning the work because I also like the "front" of the stitches.  It really hasn't taken long at all to get this far at all.  I hope it looks fairly neutral, although there's a lot of blue in there I'm hoping it's not too blue.

Now lets talk about not turning.  I already know from making my Muriel blanket that if you don't turn your work everything ends up leaning to one side (the right if you crochet from right to left), and that's exactly what Heather says happened with hers, although you couldn't tell once she'd added a border.

I thought I'd try and be clever and every so many rows I'd join the next colour slightly to the left and then increase at the end of the row, but it hasn't really helped.  After trialing a border on the stitches I have I'm not too worried because it really didn't look as bad, but I had to rip the border back because I'm no where near ready for that.  At least I know what I plan to do!

Not even sure what shape this is trying to be, and urgh to all those ends to sew...

As usual I had some assistance...  They really love this piece of cardboard!  For some reason it was left by the previous owners of our house but it's really handy for taking photos, but here you can see the reality of my livingroom; handbags on the floor, instruction manuals waiting for a home...  Real life stuff ♥

Time for another cup of tea before getting on with more stripes.  Have you started any new projects this year?

x x x x

And the winner is...

Thank you to the lovely ladies who entered my mohair giveaway.  You had some great ideas so I know it's going to a good home!

I went for the good old "draw out of a hat approach"

Although I actually used a bag because I didn't have any hats to hand :p

And the winner is....


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Et voila!

Congrats Chrissie, I'm really looking forward to seeing your cushion or whatever you choose to make. Will be in touch shortly.  Thank you again Nana Go-Go and Dovile x

♥♥♥

Yarn cakes!

I will get around to sharing some crochet square soon, or maybe my button skirt (yeah, right!) but really all I want to do now is show you my YaRnCaKeS!

I bought one of those yarn winders from eBay.  I have to admit that it was after reading Lucy's post here because I thought you also needed one of those spinning hexagony things (I can't describe them properly, and I've had a glass of wine (ooops!) so I hope you know what I mean) so I was thrilled when I realised you don't because I love yarn cakes ♥ and the little ocd in me loved the idea of having uniform balls of yarny goodness

So there you have it.  I've just about wound every ball I have now, would you believe it's actually making them take up less space?  I've definitely reduced the space my yarn takes up, hurrah!  They're also great for taking out and about on trips or to work, instead of carrying around several hundred grams of wool ♥

x x x x

Yarn bombing!

I've never yarnbombed anything myself but last week while I was having lunch I noticed this!

It excited me a lot, and then I saw this!

Brilliant stuff yes?

There was quite a bit around the Town Hall so I think it had something to do with Manchester Day, still fun to see though :)

I've still been busy crocheting more squares for my Rosie Elmer Blanket and I've finished a knitted piece of bunting for our WI which I'm probably going to add something too because it's not very exciting as it stands!

Lastly I would just like to thank the weather for being amazing this last week, it's like FINALLY we get some decent weather here in the UK, yesssss!!  My mum & dad popped over from Sheffield and went home this evening. 

We had a nice few days while they were here, and we took a trip out to where J and I are trying patiently...  to buy... a house!! :D  Watch this space...

x x x x

Knitty business

Good evening all! I just wanted to pop in and see how everyone was doing. It's the end of the weekend and I've only made one hexagon, no knitting, sewing or anything! I don't like these weekends. I can't even say we've been busy with amazing trips or visits to friends but we have just cooked a roast dinner!

Yesterday J and I rearranged our livingroom because we were bored and it had been the same for two years. We learnt that we'd put things in their old places for a reason but at least things look a little different now :-)

What have you been upto? Maybe it's still your weekend and you haven't finished. I'd love to hear!

I'm still loving this wool, it's absolutely beautiful. It's actually 50% wool 50% acrylic which is great because it was probabl y50% cheaper and seems to be 50% less itchy. Win win!

I frogged the straight garter stitch scarf I'd been working on and now I have something that looks like this




It looks a bit wonky but I can assure you my stitches are exact so I'm going to block it at the end. What do you think? I really like it! It's still garter stitch but with an increase and decrease on either end which makes it just a little bit more complicated and enough to keep me interested.

My lunch break Moss Stitch scarf is also coming along nicely too. I make sure this is the only project I take to work because I know it will be forgotten and never finished!

Time to get another hexagon done! Good night and thanks for visiting, it means very much :-)

x x x x

Moss stitch & skirts

Helloooooo!

Have you had a nice weekend? It was over far too fast, as if it is Monday again. Hmpf! I really need to get back to some crocheting soon - I feel as if we're drifting apart! My other creative loves have made my hooks take a back seat. Oh well at least they have a cosy home while they wait to be used...

This is the yarn I bought on my trip to Ramsbottom a few weekends ago. I love anything that's big and valuable!





I could only get one ball from Clark Craft so scoured the internet and found a great site Zips n Clips which didn't have a postage charge, yessssss!





I've started to knit a scarf in moss stitch. It's a bit fiddly because you have to K1 P1 all the way along row but I think the result is fantastic!

I've cast on 23 rows which seems a lot easier as each row starts and ends with a knit stitch. An even number was more complicated and I can't remember quite how it went!

 

The result is these little lumpy bumpy things which are quite cool and it makes a change from all the things I've done in stocking or garter stitch.
Now even though I've set myself a challenge not to buy anything between now & a weekend away in Sicily (what a great location for a wedding!) I have managed to come up with the following excuses:

a) I needed to buy more of the King Cole Chunky or I couldn't finish the scarf

b) I needed to buy plastic boxes (4 for £4!) to store my yarn as I discovered a couple of moths in the house...

c) I need to buy this yarn because I ran out a year ago and just found out what it was called (and that it was discontinued and could therefore run out at any moment!)





Not a great start.... and then

d) I needed to buy more fabric because I had run out for my sewing project!

I signed up to BurdaStyle a few months ago; I love clothes and I buy too many so I thought if I can't make some myself I clearly don't love them enough. Then I made the mistake of going into Leons (dammit!) and coming away with the most adorable black fabric covered in Russian dolls!

This was the pattern in all it's printed glory (hope I'm not infringing any copyright here, it is quite small afterall!) all 22 pages (42 if you count the other pattern I printed by mistake)



This is the pattern cut out to size with much help and much thanks to J who was very helpful!



... And here it is laid out and ready to cut. I hadn't quite worked out at this point I needed four of the large pieces (the front and back) and they should have been cut as one piece... This is how I ended up buying more fabric!


I didn't take many photos after that because I got a bit carried away. This is the skirt with pleats and sides sewn ready for a zip.


This zip!



Then it all kind of magically came together and I was pretty amazed. It even fits!



I'll have to give you a proper photo (yes this is me...) because J failed in his photo taking despite actually being very good*

*usually



Well that's me and that was my weekend, complete with a BBQ and everything. Hooks I do love you really :-)

x x x x

Frogging!

When I came home from work yesterday I was full of intentions to get blogging about some of the knitting I've been doing. I turned my laptop on, checked my emails, Twitter and Facebook first and saw a message from my friend. It warned people to stay away from Lewisham in London as there had been outbursts of rioting.

For the rest of the night I was glued to Twitter, BBC news & the telly. I grew up not a million miles from Croydon and fortunately all is well in my home town for now but a lot of places near by are in a bad way.

Needless to say I didn't particularly feel like blogging after that, I think I only managed to knit one row all night! I would very much like the world to be a better place right now.

So lets try and talk about happier things like this.



This is the first thing I ever knitted, it's a scarf but you can see it's not exactly finished because I ran out of yarn. Then my LYS stopped selling it (I since found out it was discontinued). Then I lost the label and couldn't remember what it was called!



I loved the way it effortlessly made beautiful pink and purple stripes!



My scarf now looks like this.



!!!

I know! I'm a bit miffed I frogged my first ever project but I decided if I ever wanted to finish it I'd need to make it half as wide thus making it twice as long. Then I thought why not put a photo on Ravelry and see if anyone can identify it...



Some lovely and extremely helpful people in the We Love Lucy group on Ravelry gave me great pointers on where to get help, and then someone posted saying they knew the yarn!! I now know that it's a Wendy Chameleon yarn in the colour Derwent. I also now know (having paid for them!) that I can get balls from ebay. I now realise I probably didn't need to frog it afterall!!!

Oh well, such is life :-) Stay safe!

x x x x

Swapsies!

I'm a little bit addicted to Ravelry, a website for people into knitting and crocheting. People like me. The only group I've joined is "We love Lucy" which is anyone who likes the Blog Attic 24 although it's a pretty random bunch; some knitters, some crocheters, some who just like talking to nice like minded people.

Anyway I'd seen that a few people got together a while back and had a swap - you know, pairing up, sending yarn over seas - and it seemed quite exciting! When the next one was suggested I thought I'd give it a go. Why not!

I am so glad I did, I was proper thrilled to bits with all the things my partner Nanita sent me! She's from Belgium, sadly she hasn't got a blog but I wish she did because she makes awesome amigurumi! My design tech teacher always used to say "a picture is worth 1000 words" so here's the proof!






LOOK how much yarn!!! Look at the colours!!! Boyfriend said "send it back!" haha! He thinks I have too much already...


This is quite possibly my most favourite thing - A BEE!!!! He is bloody awesome isn't he? I love him! Look at his antennae! :-D


These chickens are also amazing, I need to take some photos of their bums, they have really cool feathers at the back!


And look, a really funky tin for all my random things :-D I really like this because I've got loads of "objects with faces" on and it's just really me!

My partner did a great job and I'm biased of course but I think I got the best partner ever :-D She took so much time finding out what I liked, making me a bee... I can't really say how amazed I was - actually a little speechless (yes I know...) when I opened it. I can only hope she liked her parcel just as much! As soon as she gets it I'll put some pics up that I took before it went on it's journey.

That's all for now, I've got some hexagons to crochet...!

x x x

P.S Nanita received my parcel and took a lovely photo, here's what I sent her!

I need to stop cooking the tea towels

And I need to blog a bit more! I shut a tea-towel in the oven door (apparantly) but it's ok! I haven't blogged in 33 days and that's not ok! But you know how life is, everything suddenly happens all at once instead of spreading itself out across the year. I mean there are 365 days in which for things to happen, but in the last 33 days I have been to 2 weddings, a funeral, London, Yorkshire, Scotland, London, Tuscany, London and then London. Somewhere between all that I managed to keep on hooking and participate in a crochet swap on Ravelry, yay!

This is me, enjoying a glass of Vino Rosso on holiday, look I'm crocheting!






I found some fab yarn in Florence (Firenze) and started making a stripy cushion cover straight away because I couldn't wait to use it. Tuscany was very beautiful, we had gorgeous weather, a fabulous villa and pool, great company... I'm not sure what more you could have asked for really!





Most of my projects recently have been little things, like the monster and flowers I made my friends kids when we went over for their wedding (#1!) The Pattern for the monster is from EssHaych and I thought I'd given his face a twist of my own, but then I was looking on Rebecca Danger's blog which I've visited lots but not recently and saw that most of hers are like him, so it was obviously stored somewhere in my subconscious!






The flowers went down well too, especially at the tea party.













For Wedding #2 I made another crochet card but this one had an extra little touch because they got engaged in Paris and I had just the button!









I've been making more hexagons too but I think I'd better save that for another time (soon though!) because I don't want to bore you too much information all at once. I'm also really excited to share with you the swap I was in! All that needs much more photography and time, time I don't seem to have but I am trying :-) I'm not sure how parents manage to blog, I seriously think they must be a breed all of their own! Better go, the supermarket is calling to me...

x x x x