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

Ahhh tea

I am so British...

Tuesdays Tallies: seven, done, finished!

I don't think I can keep you guys waiting anymore... I've been a bit mean by not posting *any* photos of the blanket in weeks but this big project is finally... Done.


There will be no more teasing posts about how many hexagons I've made this week...


Or about how many extra hexagons I need to complete...


No more posts about half hexagons either or how I might do the border...

Which incidentally is a round of trebles and a second round of half trebles. With a blanket this fussy a simple border seemed to work nicely.

So with this lot finished with...


Result!

It really is difficult to photograph something so big and the weather and therefore lighting hasn't been great either so this is the best I could manage.

The yarn I've been using is Stylecraft Special DK - it was the "Lucy Pack" with extra shades of yellow - Saffron & Lemon because I wanted a few more bright shades. Lemon turned out to be a fantastic "middle" as it started off most shades really well.

1061 *** Plum

1246 *** Lipstick

1083 *** Pomegranate

1084 *** Magenta

1132 *** Shrimp

1241 *** Fondant

1390 *** Clematis

1432 *** Wisteria

1188 *** Lavender

1034 *** Sherbet

1420 *** Camel

1114 *** Sunshine

1081 *** Saffron

1020 *** Lemon

1316 *** Spring Green

1065 *** Meadow

1422 *** Aspen

1068 *** Turquoise

1003 *** Aster

1019 *** Cloud Blue

The pattern is Lucy's as well and her very easy to follow Hexagon How To can be found on her blog.

I didn't join as you go because I really wanted white borders, but I didn't want the last round of the hexagon to be white (i.e. colourful circles edged in white) so each hexagon has been finished with a round of double crochet (US sc) and they're all sewn together.

The border was just a round of trebles and another round of half trebles. When it came to the "peaks" of the side I did 1 tr, 1 ch, 1 tr in the corner space, and for the "valleys" I just missed out two stitches in the very bottom (it was a bit made up / hit and miss!).



I'd heard that washing Stylecraft transformed it into magical soft stuff... I was a bit wary but almost as soon as I'd finished I chucked it in the machine on a quick wash and dry. Scariest 35 minutes of my life!

This is before...


And this is after! Well, after once I'd hidden all the ends!!!


Apart from being super super soft - much softer than I expected - it's also super floppy!! It's much more snuggly now but feels a lot more delicate too. I discovered my end weaving left something to be desired, 4-5 hexagons came apart but were easily repaired and I've pulled all the other ends that wriggled loose to the back & I'm sewing them back in to hide.

I can't give exact details on my washers temperature, all I know is the wash cycle was about 30 but the drying doesn't say. I think the coolest drying cycle on the quickest time would probably be fine.

I am super pleased with the results though!

I don't think I'm going to be attempting another blanket for a while. Now I can get on with finishing another snood, the Green Garden Grannies cushion and a few other bit's and bobs.

Bye bye One-A-Day project! Thank you for having me Carole & all the other crochet/knitters, and *thank you* for helping to get this one finished!!

x x x x

Green garden grannies

Hello :) It's been a few weeks since I spontaniously blogged - since going back to Caroles One-a-day project I've only been blogging my Tuesdays Tallies - this weeks will be *very* exciting though :D

I got to a point in hexagon making where I ran out of cream wool, which was kind of essential to joining the whole thing together! While I was waiting for more to arrive in the post I whipped up these.


I've got a lovely collection of green yarns now (I wish Stylecrafts range was better!) and I've had an urge to go back to squares for a while so it seemed like a good opportunity. I've been making more today actually, I think it might end up as a cushion.


I got the pattern from Attic 24, it's her Summer Garden Granny Square and I love the way it starts as a circle (like the hexagons!) and ends up as a square :)


I've edged these in white using trebles and sewed them together with the long tail left over. For the other side I'm going to keep the whole thing green and use Lucy's join-as-you-go method, really to use a variety of techniques and have a bit of fun.


This is one finished side. The other is still a work in progress.


Thanks to everyone who's pushed me into completing my hexagon blanket, I can promise that on Tuesday I'll have a ta-dah for you!!

x x x x

Tuesdays Tallies: six

The end of the hexagon blanket is almost here...! My cream wool arrived last week so I'm now onto the last bit before the border :)

Last week Deb from A World of Imagination asked how I was going to edge my blanket and I've finally got to the point where I can show you :)

I figured the easiest thing would be to draw it...

The sections I've coloured orange I decided to make half-hexagons to fill what would have been quite large gaps. I don't mind the sides too much (where the green triangles are) and I think it will look quite nice with a zig-zag edge.

I've since found a couple of tutorials and diagrams to make half-hexagons but I made it up as I went along and it was really quite easy. As I speak I'm trying to make a proper tutorial but it's going to take a lot longer than I thought so I'll probably post that later.

You begin as normal - I use a magic circle, chain 3 and then make 6 trebles (US dc) into the middle. Tighten the magic circle and fasten off.

For round two slip stitch into the first chain 3, chain 3 and treble 1 (US dc) into the same stitch (makes one bobble stitch). Make 6 more bobbles in each treble from round 1.

I love the way they look like rainbows :)

Round three. Chain 3 into the first bobble of round two and make 2 more trebles to make a cluster. Chain 1. Treble 3 into the next bobble, chain 1. Repeat til the end - you should have 7 clusters in total.

They look even more like rainbows now huh?

Round 4 is made up of two rounds really, you just can't see the first.

To make sure the last round is the right way round, you want to do this bit on the reverse.

Slip stitch into the top of chain 3, chain 3 and slip stitch into the gap between the trebles. Continue to the end of the round - I keep saying round but they're anything but round!

Turn the half-hex over and slip stitch into the first chain loop thing - Chain 3 and treble 2 into the same chain and treble three into the next loop.

Treble 3 into the next loop, chain 2 and then treble another 3 into the same loop. This makes a corner.

Treble 3 into the next chain, then do the corner again - treble 3, chain 2, treble 3 into the same loops.

In the next two loops make 3 more trebles and tie off

I edged mine with double crochet (US sc) in cream (!!) to finish.



These should fill in all the big gaps to make a straight edge. I really hope what I've just written makes sense - if not feel free to email me - nicoleandthebee at gmail.com :-)

As always you can visit Caroles blog for more Tuesdays Tallies by clicking the banner

x x x x

Tuesdays Tallies: five

Running out of yarn is never a good thing but it's even worse when you're right-at-the-end of a project!!!

Now I have to be honest, I've actually sewn in all my hexagons but I don't think it's quite long enough so I decided to make another two rows - in doing so I've decided I'm not going to post any more blanket photos until the end... Yeah I know, that's really mean isn't it! x

I only had a few to make so I whipped them up quite quickly :)

Sorry for the terrible lighting... I wanted to photograph them before I started on the cream edge...

It's the cream edge that's causing the grief! For some reason unknown to any logic, when I ordered my last lot of Stylecraft I thought to myself "shall I buy more cream, I'm running low" and then decided not to. And then I ran out.

I decided to frog this for the cream lines (and also because I decided I didn't like it and I'm never going to put my laptop away anyway) and I didn't even take a photo before - it was at least twice as big!

I ran out of that thinking I'd put a edge on every last one and then found more hexies I'd lost under the sofa... So I ripped out the very last cream row of this!