Monsters

I'd like to introduce you to a new friend...


I've been a big fan of both blogs by Alice, Crochet with Raymond and Hook, Spin, Knit (which has been taken down) for a very long time. Alice started out as a crocheter, much like me I guess, but then turned her hands to knitting and it was her knitted tea cosies that inspired me to get my needles back out and learn to knit properly.

Since then I've pretty much loved everything Alice has made, like some crazy besotted knitter, but her monsters really did it for me and I was in love. See here and here to find out what I'm on about!

It became very clear in my mind that I *had* to make my own and so Bernie was born. Ok created :)


This is Bernie, hanging out, looking gorgeous.


She has the most awesome pixie feet...


And round hands on super long arms which are great for hugging.


She's looking a bit sad in these pictures, but her mouth has been re-glued and she's definitely looking a lot happier, and dare I say mischievous?


Bernie was very much a trial and error monster. I don't have the book that Alice has (I think it's called Knitted Toy Tales) but I think she worked out pretty well. I've got a better idea for doing the next one but that will have to wait. I'm trying to cut down my yarny time because I've been getting achy hands and I'm sure that's not a good thing.

Here are some work in progress shots of Bernies bum :p


I wasn't sure whether to mention but it seems a bit false to pretend that everything in my world is 'happy go lucky'. Me & J are having some down right rotten luck at the moment. It's nothing serious i.e. nothing health related, but you know when things have just been going wrong, it gets a bit brighter and then all starts going wrong again? Well that's us.

I nearly didn't blog at tall tonight, I just haven't felt like it and I don't think I've put nearly as much enthusiasm in sharing Bernie with you as I would have a couple of weeks ago, but something inside said 'do it, do it!' so I have.


We went out on our bikes today, this is Mavis my new set of wheels. Everything's going to be just fine :)

x x x x

Knitpro needles

This post wasn't meant to end up being a review but I got a little carried away! Who know, this might be useful to someone :) I haven't mentioned (I don't think!) the awesome knitting needles I got for Christmas. I say "got for Christmas", really I got them for myself, let my little brother wrap them up and give them back to me... They are flipping brilliant!


Anyone who knows me knows I'm a colourful person and I've managed to replace most of my old grey needles and hooks with lovely colourful ones :)


I've wanted interchangeable Knitpro circular needles ever since I saw then on Crochet with Raymond and I nearly got the pink set but then by complete chance (and because I was trying to avoid buying from Amazon, tax dodging cheats) I came across a rainbow set. Swoooooon!


Mine are the Trendz set which come with four cables (60cm/24', 2 x 80cm/32' & 100cm/40') end tags so you can take the needles off but keep the knitting on the cable, 8 needles (my 4.5mm are being used right now!) and a case for them all which is quite handy. You can find loads of different types on their website.


The size markings look like the might be rubbing off which isn't great but I think I can manage to work out which is which. Alternatively my dad has one of those little drill things that you can etch with so I might try doing that... Might!


I was a bit worried about the needles coming loose from the cable but once screwed on (and there's a little tool for tightening) they're great! I've been knitting up a snood and haven't had any problems so far, yay!


This is the case with added Ham sticker :p I cut out the size guide from the packaging so I know what's what. I wish the needles were metal like my regular needles and hooks, sometimes I find acrylic needles a bit sticky, but once I've started to knit I've noticed they smooth up so it's not a big problem. Just hoping being plastic and quite thin that they don't end up snapping one day :o


I was going to share with you the first project I made with them but I've written so much about the needles themselves I've sort of run out of steam now! I'll get back to a proper post about knitty things very soon, and I may even share my new bike. Oooooooooooh!!!

x x x x

Paper

I've re-written the start of this post about 12 times, I don't know what's wrong with my brain!  What it's trying to say through the medium of blogging is I went to the Manchester Art Gallery on Sunday with J.  He's not really into art and I'm also not interested in portraits or pottery or anything like that, but they had a very nice (free) exhibition on called The First Cut, which is a collection of work from artists who use paper as their medium, not painting or drawing on paper, but actually using the paper as the piece itself.


Some of the hand cut pieces are simply incredible, they must have taken hours upon hours upon hours to finish which is one of the reasons they are by far my favourite pieces, there's always something new to spot with all the detail involved.


I thought this was very clever, a map of the world according to the currency they use.  Nothing political or religious about it, just straightforward fact.  You also get a sense of quite how massive Russia actually is, in case you'd forgotten!


There were some nice trees you could wander about in, and some paper wreaths - ok not actually wreaths, but would look very cool on my door!


Some more cut birds, shoddily photographed on my phone.


And then this cool little thing with bunting!  I really love the little pencils and tulips, I notice something new every time I have a look.

So while I don't have the time or patients to be quite as creative as these clever people, telling you about our trip does lead nicely into showing you some of the paper crafting I did over Christmas :)


Now alas I have quite bad pictures, but I can't seem to get them any better so you'll have to bear with...  My mum & dad got me a big book of scrap booking type paper when we were over in New York so I made some tiny bunting that now adorns the shelves.

Notice the empty picture frame, I got that as a present last last Christmas......


It was nice to have something to put up after Christmas, probably why I haven't felt so dull or glum this January! 

They're pretty easy to make, it's a folded piece of paper so there's no back so to speak.  My mums got these weird little punch things; you roll it across the paper (with a foam board underneath) and it punches holes in different patterns.  Amazing!  I opted for a simple line so I could do running stitch, I've since discovered she's got one that makes holes for blanket stitch...


I also dug out one of my mums crafting books and found an origami tutorial to make lanterns.  Unfortunately they didn't work with my paper (and it meant cutting it into squares) so I had to drag everyone to Hobbycraft, which was a real shame.


Origami paper in hand, I made lanterns. Ta-dah!


I have more to make, and then they'll go on some battery fairy lights o brighten the place because that's what we need J, more stuff!!

I've made some decent progress on my Nan's chair throw but still need to photograph that, and I've started a new snood for a friends mum, so lots of things to come soon hopefully, and to show you the needles I got for Christmas :o  They are to die for!!!

Thanks for stopping by, as always your reading, comments or whatever you do gives me that nice warm fuzzy feeling.

Much love from me

x x x x

P.S I was right last time, we did end up at the LFS...  Meet Bandit!

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

Cables!

I've been waiting patiently for it to snow but so far not a flake. It's freezing & I think we should have some!

Now that Christmas is over I can finally share the project I'd been knitting for J :)


I've always wanted to knit something for him, being as he puts up with my obsession more than anyone else, so when I found this aran yarn in my stash I knew it would be perfect for a snood, and for some reason I decided on cables. Oh and all this was less than 2 weeks before Christmas...


I spent every lunch break knitting and used every spare minute when I was home and J wasn't to try and finish it on time, pretending I was working on some other hat / scarf / monster thing!

The funniest thing is most of the time it sat in almost plain view, proof that J really *does* try to ignore my knitting :D


Then I ran out of yarn and it was way too small for a snood or a scarf! The worst part was it was exactly as week before Christmas and the shop I bought it from is down in London... Thank god for the magic of ebay!


I still had the yarn label so managed to order another ball and it arrived on the very last day possible! Saturday while J was working (and I was meant to be packing so we could go to my family on Sunday). I spent ALL day knitting until my hands ached - I physically couldn't do anymore, but it was ok, the snood was finally the perfect length. Hurrah!


The pattern is super basic, but I will share because we knitters love the details don't we?

You'll need:

Yarn - Cygnet kiddies Couture aran in grass green

4mm needles
A cable needle
A yarn needle for weaving in

Pattern:

Thumb cast on 39 stitches

Row 1: *P3, K6* P3
Row 2: K3 *P6, K6*
Row 3: *P3, K6* P3
Row 4: K3 *P6, K6*
Row 5: *P3, CB6* P3
Row 6: K3 *P6, K6*
Row 7: *P3, K6* P3
Row 8: K3 *P6, K6*

Repeat the above 8 rows until your scarf or snood is long enough and cast off.

I've taken lots more pictures to share but my brain's too frazzled to write anymore so I'm going to have to love and leave you till I can properly function!

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

It's beginning to look a lot...

I just don't know where the time has gone, it's been almost a month since I blogged! Since the end of November I've been pretty busy, first my parents visited to see the Christmas Markets (I got a cold but managed to plough through with mulled wine!) then J & I headed to London to see friends and have early Christmas celebrations.

I've been stressing over presents (super un-organised this year!) and needed a bit of calming down at one point, I've realised now there's no point buying presents for presents sake, I'm hoping the ones I do have are thoughtful enough to make up for it :)

So I've been furiously knitting & crocheting to try & get some presents finished which I can't really share until after the big day. I'm probably pretty safe mentioning that I'm knitting up something for J (I don't think he reads my blog, but just incase I won't give away too much detail & he is sat right next to me...) but I have to do it when he's not around so pretty much every second of my lunch break and the 45mins between getting home & J getting home have been spent doing that - not much time for other things or blogging!

Yesterday before he went out for his Christmas Do (not hung-over either!) I decided to do something completely different & crocheted up this little fella :)


He was super super quick to make, I mean really quick & dead easy! The pattern came from Hopscotch Lane which was a beautiful blog and I suggest you go have a look! The pattern is here. It's written in US terms but the only stitch is US Single Crochet so just remember it's a UK Double Crochet et voila you're away :)


Isn't he cute? I've used left overs of my Drops Paris yarn. I still get annoyed with it's splittyness (do I say this everytime I use it?) but the colours are wonderful and it's quite a solid durable yarn - the rug I made with it still looks like new!

I didn't fancy crocheting the eyes because truthfully my fingers & hands feel like they might drop off. I'll give myself a break after Christmas :) So I used some white felt with a 2p as a template and some safety eyes.

When I'm not freaking out about presents or knitting I have been enjoying the finer things about Christmas, mince pies & festive mugs :)


And our tree also went up without a hitch (if you dis-guard taking the lights back off because they became super heated & melted (yes melted) and were promptly returned to Mr Dodgy Ebay Seller) the baubles are up and with our newly purchased LEDs (100 for £5 in Morrisons, bargain!) are on - all I need now is a less weedy looking tree for 2013!



Much Love

And if I don't blog before Christmas have a very happy, festive and safe one - see you in the New Year :)

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.