Days of doing

Cabled headband 

A little something followed up

I bought some lovely wooden buttons from ebay, one of which was just right for the scarf from the last post. It is on, and ready to head off to its new owner.

close up on the button

And the rest of the buttons. I like using buttons on cards, so its highly likely thats where some of the smaller ones are headed. Especially given that there’s a couple of heart ones in there and it’s nearly February…

A little something

I have finished the scarf….well, kind of!

I have, I just made it shorter than it was meant to be, because I’d hit my boredom threshold. It’s still pretty cute though.

Sometimes, though, you don’t always want a long scarf, say if your coat is tight-fitting and you just want more of a cowl-type thing. At least, that’s what I’m trying to convince myself. The other thought I had was to get a pretty button (and it’s just possible that I may be currently bidding on some pretty wooden floral ones on ebay) and pop that on to keep it fastened, taking advantage of the convenient holey pattern!
And here’s a close up.

I may even be truly awful and not block it, and just give it a gentle squish under my computer for the evening – a sneaky trick I use way too often to flatten things!

I’ve had a creative lightbulb moment on a wirework project, but alas it has to wait, as I’m about to start something for a friend’s birthday in a few days. I have no idea if this present is going to work as I’m going to have to use double knit wool in two strands as I don’t have the chunky wool the pattern says so off I go to do a boring but necessary swatch.

What’s going on with you?

Pretty, but bored

Quick update….the project from the new book…it is indeed a pretty scarf but I’m so ready to move on!
..

And I still haven’t done the hedgehog. And I still haven’t made mince pies.

On the flip side, I’ve not broken my promise: my other new book has yet to be touched….

would’ve, could’ve, am

I had three things to achieve this weekend (aside from the usual Unholy Trinity of housework, shopping, laundry, I mean). I had to:

make mince pies. Yes, I AM that weirdo that likes them all year round and not just at Christmas.

make a start to sewing my Christmas present from my little brother and sister-in-law-elect

and I had to start and preferably finish, something from this, which I bought at a book fair at work. Not least because I also bought a varied crafts book, and I’ve vowed not to even take it out the bag until I’ve finished one item from the knitting one. Tough love time. Because I know that I am way too much of a “why finish one project when I could start a second” girl.

Confession time.

I haven’t made mince pies. I would’ve, but the supermarket had some at half price, so I bought those instead.
I haven’t started sewing the cutest hedgehog in the known universe. I could’ve, but only got as far as reading the instructions to cut the pattern out and I needed a hard surface to do that, but by then we’d lit a fire, and Toby was in the room and…..hmmm.
I haven’t start…NO WAIT, I AM!!!! I AM KNITTING SOMETHING FROM THIS BOOK!!! A pretty lacy scarf. which I only messed up the first row of the four-row pattern twice, before nailing it. Yarning over twice before a slip slip knit was not being my friend. But we had a little chat and we’re good.

I will update my progress tomorrow…but I’m worried I may get distracted by our unexpected supermarket purchase…

Oh it’s a fun-packed life here!

Playing with prototypes

I’ve spent the last few days playing with prototypes, trying to come up with new designs, new ways of doing old things and just generally trying to learn new things. It’s not often I have enough time to do something like that, which somehow always feels a little like a waste of precious time as it’s not producing something you can give or sell. But I’ve had some enforced vacation time so amidst lots of pottering around achieving not very much, I’ve been playing.
I tend to do this with wool, for a couple of reasons. One, you can unpick wool when you go wrong, and when I’m trying new patterns and stitches I go wrong a lot. A huge lot. The other reason is that I have any amount of wool and its cheaper than wire. But also, once I’ve prototyped it’s nice to keep it for reference, or just for inspiration further down the line.
This is, I think, going to be a cross between a dreamcatcher and a wind-chime. The idea of making wind-chimes has gripped me recently, but I’m struggling on the actually chimey bit right now, so I’m concentrating on the top bit for the moment,, just envisage it in wire, with some tiny iridescent beads..

This next one is a form of Bruge lace – totally new to me, but I think I’ve got it worked out right. Again, some beading would go on, maybe alternating inside and outside the loops, or just inside, in alternate pairs. Or maybe a big bead every three repeats or so. That’s half the fun, isn’t it – adding your own twist to things.

FInally, a different direction. This started life as a ring, but the wire was too thick and bulky, I think. So I debated turning it into a pendant of some sort, but it felt like something was missing, so I added a little tear drop bead. I wasn’t overly keen on it but taking it out to photograph it this morning I’m liking it a bit more.

The fun part is what Im going to do tonight, where I take my notebook, look at the design and try to decide where the beads go and how do I get them there!
What’s everyone else up to?

Babies come with hats

For my birthday earlier in the year, my lovely brother and his incredibly talented partern, http://www.missfortune.co.uk got me some Amazon vouchers. It was perfect timing, because I’d just decided to treat myself to some circular knitting needles, as it’s an area of knitting I’d never tried. I found some bamboo ones and something about them seemed to shout to me…and so I bought them. And, seeing as the company selling them also had bamboo straight one…well, it would have been rude not to, right?

I have to say, they’re a joy to use. I no longer get cramp in my hand or tired shoulders, and I love the feel of them, both in my hands and when the slide against one another, you dont get that metal-against-metal buzz that can set your teeth on edge. So what to choose for my first foray into circular knitting? Well, as these things often do, the right thing came along when I needed it. My friend Kelly is due Baby number 2 in a couple of weeks. But I’d done her bootees for the first one and wanted something a bit more. And then I found this http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bunny-beanie How gorgeous is that?!

It started off well,

and it was pretty straightforward, if a little weird feeling, and then I got to the crown. I only had about 9 stiches on and they barely filled the straight bit of the needle, let alone going all the way round. So I improvise, and used the next size needle and continued as if they were either end of a circular set. And I really don’t think you can tell. But if anyone has tips on that, let me know!

So there was a hat….and now it needed ears.

I actually think the ears were harder than the hat itself! I think if I were to do it again, I’d probably come up with a different take on it, they really were fiddly. But I think it was worth it…..

Kelly loved it – and the amount of people who said “I want one in my size!” was quite terrifying! (Not that I hadn’t thought it myself!) So all in all, a fairly happy first use of circular needles, with a little help.

What’s next?

Shrug it off

I know….it’s been so long. But I barely have time to live when we hit production, let alone do anything nice that I would want to blog about. And even if I had the time to do anything, I then wouldn’t have the time to talk about it!

But I’m making up for lost time now, as this is the first weekend in about 6 weeks where I haven’t brought work of some kind home to do. And I have done some bits and pieces, so let’s play catch up.

I while back, I began work on what would ultimately be my mum’s birthday present. Being the star that she is, my mum always treasures anything you make her, because she knows the time it takes is far greater than just buying something, especially when spare time is definitely in short supply in my house. Plus I wanted to give her back something with the wool she’d given me.

I was thinking pretty, but not fussy; practical but special and while perusing the amazing http://www.ravelery.com I found the perfect item, courtesy of http://www.ravelry.com/designers/mia-heikkinen – a shrug.

Using my lovely new bamboo needles and a few pattern tweeks it knitted up fairly quick. Now, I have a confession to make. I took pictures of the blocking stage….and I have absolutely no idea where they are!! And I was so pleased with myself for remembering to do it so I could show you them! Ah well. As it was knitted in one long rectangle you can imagine it was a bit of a handful, so I decided on blocking it outside, on the one semi dry day we had mid June.

There’s a wooden picnic table in my garden so I laid some plastic liners on it and then pinned it straight onto the table and let nature do her thing. It was worth the pin-prick fingertips, as it worked really well and yes, it was so much easier to sew the sides up afterwards!

Miraculously it was done in time and sent the 360 miles back home and she loved it. I’ve yet to see photographic evidence that she wears it, but she said she does (though she said she put it on early one morning to read while having a cup of tea in bed, but felt it was too pretty to wear in bed….I’m trying to convince her she no longer needs to keep things “for a special occasion”, but its a long road). So if my relatives who read this can get a snap at some point, that would be great! But anyway, this sums up the pretty quite well.

I love patterns that come out looking more complicated than they are! I’m tempted to do this again for me this time, as the temperatures have risen bought the air con at work is drafty! But then I keep seeing more patterns that are so beautiful I itch to try them and it seems a shame to repeat something when there is so much new out there to try. Decisions, decisions….

No fingers and thumbs

I did promise you two posts this week….and so here is the second.

Being an old stone cottage, my house is always freezing cold, unless there’s a fire burning in the grate or the wood burner is lit. But as Toby has thieving tendencies when it comes to things in the fire grate when it’s cold, I daren’t trust him to be in the same room when it’s lit; so either I’m cold with company, warm and alone, or I compromise my comfort and sit on a floor cushion in the dining room where the stove and Toby’s pen are. For the record? The latter happens far more than it should for any sane human being.
So I’m used to the cold. But having cold hands and trying to do crafting things are just not a mutually beneficial relationship. Yes, I’ve got fingerless gloves, but they just seem so bulky, and I don’t like the sensation of having bits of my fingers covered with other bits uncovered! (That’s not just me, surely?!)
“A Guide to Knitting” by the hilariously appropriately-titled igloo books (you couldn’t make this up) has a pattern for some….well they call them wrist warmers, but I jiggled the pattern and made them longer and upped the needle size to 5 1/2 and call them palm warmers

So pleased with them, I decided they were also just the thing for my friend Julie, who suffers from Cold Mouse Hand (a common affliction in our office) so whipped up a pair for her. One for on, and one for the wash, as my grandmother used to say.
They’re an easy quick knit and while they do feature my hated slip stitching, it does add a bit of pretty. If anyone wants my version of the pattern just holler – I can type it up now that my hands are warm!

The flowers that bloom in the spring

Well, it took me longer than planned, but to balance, I will have two posts to make this week!

So, the flowers from the last post…..

Not really. I’ve done two different styles and neither is really what I wanted. This is the first

It was just too much….faffing. The knit itself was okay, but then having to slip stitch the top to form the pointy shape, then you had to stitch it in place once again after shaping? Way too faffy.

The second design I kind of gave up on..

That’s the first part, and you knit a second smaller one which sits on top, with an embellishment in the middle.

But again with the slip stitch and seaming. Maybe it doesn’t exist. Maybe I’m looking for something that can only be done in crochet, which despite many attempts, I have never managed to grasp.

But if anyone out there has a pattern for a pretty flower that doesn’t involve more sewing than it does knitting, well I’d love to hear it!