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I'm very happy to finally announce that my friend did indeed have her baby, a healthy little boy weighing 7lb 6oz, which was pretty amazing considering she didn't look anymore than three months pregnant.  I'm a bit late in posting, but I'm going with the ethos 'better late than never'.

Unfortunately baby decided he wanted to be born exactly when I didn't want him to be born (while I was visiting The South!) so I haven't managed to see them yet, but I've had photos though and he is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to meet him.

 After finishing the blanket I couldn't help make something else...

I've had this adorable pattered saved for ages in my Ravelry queue (two years!!) it's the Happy Day Mobile by Amy Gaines.  I used a lots of random yarns from my stash, some Bergere de France, Bravo, Zeeman Super Soft... Basically anything bright and cheery!

J pointed out that the cheeks on the sunshine were too low...  Only he would notice such things!

I improvised the rainbow because it was meant to be crocheted flat but I didn't think it would stay straight to hold the raindrops, and all the other pieces were stuffed so it felt a shame to leave him out!  He's kind of a rainbow burrito.

The raindrops might be my favourite, they are definitely very cheeky looking!! 

 

I loved this project, it only took a few days to finish.  I'm not a great fan of all the fiddly bits like the mouths and eyes etc but I'm good when working to a deadline, ironically finishing before little O was born but not managing to see him! ♥

Have you been making anything nice for someone else?  Especially something you secretly wanted to keep!

x x x x

Easter bunnies

Hello lovelies!! Hope you all had a lovely Easter.  I've been really busy lately and have also whipped up a fair few things on my hooks and needles to share, but it makes sense to start with the last thing I finished as he/she is rather seasonal :-)  I've tried to do my best to keep up with all the goings on in blog land but I notice I'm not alone here!  Finding the time to sit down at my laptop just doesn't happen all that often :(

 

Yesterday morning/afternoon between painting the bathroom and cooking a roast I knitted a little Easter bunny for my mum.  She's very knit worthy and also appreciates my random silly things!

 

Bunny is from the wonderful book Knitted Toy Tales by Laura Long, which has some lovely patterns.  I'm becoming a lot more adept with my knitting but I do like these patters as they're knitted flat and then sewn together, and this one was just the body and two ears, so not much sewing.

His little fluffy pom-pom tail took a while and makes me wonder if I should invest in a winding one...  I don't even make that many pom-poms but maybe I would!

The weekend has been fantastic so far.  My mum and Dad travelled up from London and it was my Dads birthday so we took him out for a trip on the East Lancs Steam railway (which admittedly I always quite enjoy) but the weather was really horrible and cold.  

Friday was a completely different picture though and really quite beautiful so we thought we'd drive up to Hebden Bridge.  We never made it further than Todmorden but had a lovely day so we'll be saving Hebden for another day.  We spent a good while at the garden centre out there (Gordon Rigg, it's massive!), I got myself a hanging basket for the front door and a window box.  Lets hope it doesn't get nicked!

I got some excellent inspiration for my back yard too ♥

After our Bee talk at the WI this little bug box seemed ever more important and I love that Tod had a few of these dotted around the town.

It was so lovely to walk along the canal too, something I do miss from our old flat!



Bye bye for now

x x x x

Happy Easter!

Normal blogging will resume soon :-)

Knit stitch blanket ta-dah

It's a happy but bittersweet moment finishing this blanket.  It's been so enjoyable to knit and completely different to anything I've made before.  I'm probably repeating myself, but I've always loved stripes knitted in garter stitch and I've always wanted to make something at random, with no pattern or pre-planned colours.

I think I've done pretty well!  2 weeks ago I took some some last photographs before finishing.  Again, with no real idea of how long I wanted it to be I decided I'd stop when it looked right.

I spent the rest of the week knitting rows and rows of stripes until J agreed it was long enough.  Hurrah!  It should be long enough to last for a few years hopefully and not just the baby months.

Because it's garter stitch it's really stretchy so the ends I'd attempted to sew in just came out.  I totally decided to cheat and sew on a fleecy border like bias binding, only I didn't cut it on a bias so I guess it's just binding :-)

And so it's done, I love it but I will miss knitting it! ♥

Ta dah ♥

It's a little wonkier than I would have liked but I'm pretty sure my friend isn't going to be laying it out flat very often.  It's going to be folded, tucked, chucked, dribbled on...  So I'm not too worried.  Sewing onto knitting wasn't actually as hard as I expected although it is quite stretchy.

The reverse I still quite like.  It's got more stripes to it than the front, just the way it works when changing colours, which I can't really explain

And so it sits rolled up in the obligatory sausage roll shot, waiting to head down South

I've missed my friends baby shower, one of the things which makes me sad about living so far from 'home', but I'll be seeing her in a few weeks and her baby might have been born by then so it's very exciting! ♥

The border is lovely and soft and it was a brilliant way to secure the ends.  I wish I'd taken a photo now, but basically I sewed the fleece on one side using zig zag stitch, and sewed right over the ends so they're not going anywhere.  Then folded it over and sewed it onto the back.

It's so fluffy that in some places you can't even see the stitching although it was a total nightmare unpicking it when it went wrong!!

So that's it, another project off my needles.  I'm working on a couple of other things at the moment, including my first piece of knit wear!  Aran jumper lovers stay tuned!

x x x x

When Frankenstein came to work

So...  I was going to share some photos of how far I'm at with my blanket but I'm just too excited not to mention this instead!  Warner Brothers are filming the new Frankenstein movie and some of it was being shot today next to where I work!

I went for a sneak peek on my way in...  Look at the set!!  There's horrible little dolls on that shelf in the middle, signs, new papers, fires (!)...  Just amazing

They've been building for a good week now and we've seen bits of it because the basement's where our bikes are stored.  The building really does lend itself to this kind of era and although they've done a massive transformation the cobbles and the stone work are all original.  Even without the set it's a fantastic place to visit if you can.

I absolutely love the set though and I want them to leave it when they go!!  There have been people wander around in costume all day, horses, carriages...  It's flipping brilliant I tell you.

At lunch we thought we'd pop down to see if anything was happening. I know Daniel Radcliffe and James Mcavoy are both in the film but we were really just expecting to see props and extras.... Well!!

I nearly died ♥

It's Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe at my work!

I'm am a self confessed Harry Potter fan, so while all the other girls are work were swooning over James (although I'm not sure he's even here!) I was really excited to spot Daniel filming a take. Woooo!

The photos aren't great because our windows are a bit grubby to say the least, but hey it was a lot of fun and definitely a case of being in the right place at the right time.  I'm hoping that this video plays, and that Warner Bros don't see this hahah

And a warm up at the end, because it is a bit cold up North!

Normal knitting service will resume when I've calmed down a little ;-)

x x x x 

Arm knitting!

First up a big thank you to your encouraging words about our DIY!  I was surprised as many people kept with me on that as you did, and I love each and every comment :-)  Even peeps who didn't comment and read, that's cool because I know time is precious x

So back to some craftiness yes?  Now if you don't know what arm knitting is then you neeeeeed* to know!

K from our WI came to our January meeting wearing the most gorgeous snood and promised an arm knitting demo at craft club.  Now I'd heard of finger knitting but not arm knitting, and after it seemed to be everywhere!  I was getting emails about it, seeing it on other blogs...  Strange but cool, and I totally understand why!

After our demo (of which I was really rubbish and K's daughter kept having to help me) I took a lunch time trip to my LYS and bought something which looks like it had already been knitted into tubes, a bit like what you'd get using a knitting Jenny?  I'm not even sure that's the right term, or thing because I've never done it.  I've also misplaced the label so I hope this makes some sense The yarn is "The Ultimate Super Chunky" by King Cole (I found the label) and it's the Moorland colourway, although 'Ember' and 'Marine' look beautiful and I wish I'd seen them too!

I have to admit that even as a knitter I really struggled to get this at first, and several viewings of this video on YouTube later I finally got it!

This is not a terribly good photo but I took advantage of some proper day light, and I don't feel very much like scarf posing (being covered in paint) so this will have to do :-p

The colourway of this yarn is quite lovely for this time of year and I used two balls together to get a super chunky effect.  You have to think that your using your arms for needles, so I've no idea what size they'd be, so the chunkier the better/easier because your creation is going to be quite 'loopy'?

I think after getting to grips with tying myself in knots, this probably only took 30-45 minutes, amazing!!

The 'back' isn't quite as nice looking but hopefully you'll be able to see the garter stitch?  I'd thoroughly recommend giving arm knitting a go.  I know knitting can take a long time but it's also nice to make hand made gifts so this is perfect!

I have much more DIY to share, hopefully a finished room on the horizon...  I've spent a very lovely and busy few days with my mum, dad and J getting to the home stretch.  I cannot wait to be finished!

x x x x

*in my humble opinion ;-)

DIY part 1

Warning!  This post is all about DIY, which I know isn't very interesting to a lot of people especially if you read my blog because you're a knitter, crocheter or you just like saying hello, so I don't mind if you skip past this one.

DIY is a BIG part of what I'm upto these days so it would be a bit odd not to talk about it.  When we bought the house it didn't look like anything needed to be done, other than cosmetic stuff, but I guess once you move in you start to properly notice all the little things.  Our main bedroom was a pale blue which we wanted to change for something a bit warmer.  I also wasn't mad on the wall paper.

We noticed a small crack running between the two windows but we weren't too worried.  It looked like the top layer of plaster wasn't bonded to the wall very well, bits of it came off when we pulled off the paper, but no biggie; this could be re-skimmed.

And it was okay that when we pulled the dado rail off the plaster came off as well...

But it was not okay when we pulled away the wall paper here.  Er yes, this is brick.  Brick with absolutely NO plaster on it whatsoever.  Hello House!

So the first piece of advice I have for you, if you buy an old house do not pull the wallpaper off unless you're absolutely certain that you wouldn't rather put a picture over it because there's a good chance it's gluing the house together.

Luckily my Dad is a dab hand at DIY.  He built a climbing frame for me and my brother when we were kids, our garage, a conservatory and an extension to our house, but he never did put up my clock (thanks Mum!)

We decided to gut the room completely...  This was all the day after we moved in so I was pretty shattered but OH it was so much fun!  ♥ tool of the moment was the crowbar.

We found some beautiful wallpaper, which judging by how thin it was I think was pretty old.

My Dad got to work building a frame which we'd fill with insulation and cover in plasterboard.

Bye bye brick!

There's some green plastic in the wall to keep out moisture

Starting to look like a padded cell now...

We foolishly (I cannot emphasise this enough) thought it would be a good idea to take the ceiling down.  The original ceiling was quite springy and my Dad was having trouble finding the joists in the loft to drill the plasterboard into.

This my second piece of advice if you buy an old house.  Do not take the ceiling down because you and everything you own will quickly become covered in a layer of 100 year old dust, dirt and soot.  As soon as we realised it was getting everywhere (I mean everywhere) we stopped and decided to try again with finding the joists...  I looked like a chimney sweep and I had to visit B&Q like that for more screws.

Upon abandoning out quest we started to get cracking.  My Mum did an amazing job helping get the plasterboard onto the ceiling with my Dad, the car jack and a wooden contraption that my Dad built.

Over Christmas we couldn't really do much work until the room was plastered.  My Cousin who is a decorator / plasterer offered to come and do the whole thing for us, which was amazing and saved us a fortune.

They came up bright and early (8.30am!) from London one Saturday morning and did the whole thing, with a bit of help from coffee, Red Bull and Radio 1.  My neighbour who is amazing said she didn't hear a thing but I don't believe her :-(



And then we let it dry!



My Mum and Dad put up the coving while I was at work.



I cut some skirting board and it was the straightest cut you'd ever seen, no word of a lie!



Although it was the only cut I did ;-)  I was recovering from a teeny tiny operation, which is all good and I'm fine but lots of rest was in order, particularly annoying as there was so much left to do.



J and I painted the rest of the room and got covered in it.  You have to do a watered down mix onto plaster so it soaks in (otherwise it just flakes off) and believe me it's messy!



I got to work stripping the poor door frame, which I think was covered in about 20 layers of paint so had barely any shape left to it.  This is another project of it's own!  ♥ tool of the moment was a shave hook

I finally got to put on the new skirting.  We toyed with keeping the old stuff and stripping it but after the doorframe I couldn't face it.  We've kept it though so it may do another room.  While I slightly regret not using it here, I know it would have been too much work.

A glimpse of our lovely floorboards and stone flooring where the original fireplace would have been.  We want carpetas it's a bedroom but it seems such a shame to hide these beauties.

And that's it for now!  We are very lucky that my Mum and Dad are coming back next week, because we cleverly kept their tools and they need them back ;-)  We should get the new dado rail cut and then we can start painting properly.  It's going to be well worth it but it's been a lot of work for one room and we're both hoping to get in there soon!

x x x x