knitternicky's knitty knits

Hats off to the Lads

2011-04-21T09:02:00.000+01:00

Some of these hats date back to the beginning of the year though the last one was finished as recently as a few weeks ago. There is another one completed but was a gift and forgot to take a photo before I gifted it.
They are all stash busters from part used balls in my leftovers basket, but the pattern I used for the two in the picture below is this . I'm fairly sure the yarn used for Luke's charcoal one is Robin Aran with wool, some leftovers of a huge 400grm ball that I've had knocking about in the basket forever. Hubby's version in claret and blue in honour of his football team Aston Villa. It is knitted in some Rowan that I think is Cashsoft that came out of the bargain bin without a label in House Of Fraser some time ago . A fantastic pattern, well written and easy to read as well as a great looking hat to boot. The hat in the photo above that Luke is wearing whilst trying to disappear at breakneck speed cos I welding a camera, is a DK version I cobbled together. I think it is knitted in Sirdar country Style in a silvery grey colour.

Sneaky

2011-04-20T08:11:00.003+01:00

My husband turned 40 last week (so congratulations to him) and although it wasn't the original plan honestly, I managed to pull off a corker and gave him yarn for his birthday he he!!
He casually asked several weeks ago for a Union Jack cushion for the back of the car, and I did indeed give a not too committable answer that when I got chance I would make him one. Probably his not too subtle hint for a birthday present but it was noted and I decided that I wanted to do it in secret and surprise him with it for his birthday.

Unfortunately I had a few other things on the needles at the time, with plans for a jacket for me (that I really should be getting on with, that I want to wear for a wedding we have been invited to in 10 days time!!) Then the boys breaking up for the Easter holidays together with the fact that I knew I had all the yarn I needed in my stash but could not find the single ball of bright red that I KNOW is in there somewhere, it got to the point where it wasn't even worth starting it as I knew I would not be finished on time. I ended up buying shiny new yarn and wrapping it up with an IOU. I was impressed that he ended up with yarn for his birthday... but he wasn't. He is looking forward to having his cushion for the back of the car though!

Mothers Day Spoils

2011-04-07T12:56:00.005+01:00

I had some lovely presents.and I was in deed spoiled rotten. I am a very lucky mummy indeed.

My favourite is a framed photo of all 4 of my children together in the same room at the same time!! It was taken at Christmas when all 4 children had a Nerf blaster each from Santa. Christmas 2010 will forever be known in this house as the Nerf Wars year! I also had this very cute teapot/cup set. Not sure if you can read what is on it but it says "Mothers are like Flowers, they brighten your day" Isn't that sweet.

It was also Max's idea and on his insistence apparently that I also had 10 Snickers bars. Yum Yum but bang goes the diet.

I also had some very comfy slippers. I've already gone to go "out" in them several times because I forget I've got them on. If you meet me in the corner shop grabbing some milk and bread whilst wearing them please excuse me, I probably haven't noticed that I'm wearing them still.

I also received some Mothers day tokens... that's yarn money to you and me. So on Tuesday I went somewhere I've been just itching to go since last November but have been resisting as a yarn shop with empty pockets is for me a form of Chinese water torture.

Stitch Perfect is a new shop just outside Birmingham City center and I was very excited when I was invited to join the group on Ravelry. They sell lots of the lovely posh yarn until now for me only available on the t'internet, I was in for a lovely treat when I stepped through the door. In fact I was pretty overwhelmed by all the colour and fiber contrast available, so much so I forgot to ask the very friendly and extremely helpful assistant/owner her name in spite of the fact that I spent a long time in the shop chatting.

As you can see my 4 month yarn diet is well and truly broken (though in all honesty I had a blip a few weeks ago in Hobbycraft with some Wendy Mode in Chunky on offer, it was criminal to leave it there, and it was an allowed purchase ie, one I didn't have to sneak into the house and hide).

I'm very excited to have somewhere that sells Garnstudio Drops, beautifully soft yarn and brilliant quality for the price. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but for now I just wanted to own some.

I bought a new cable for my Knitpro interchangeable needles, I struggled with a project a few weeks ago when I needed to knit 2 sleeves simultaneously and had to use a much longer cable for the one than needed. Magic loop is not my forte.

This very special Briganta (isn't the colour lovely), is to make myself a very (hopefully) special item to wear to the 4 weddings we have so far this year been invited too.
Right now I'm trying to finish a few little projects I have on the go so I can get started, I also desperately hope I have enough yarn to finish it as although I am planning another trip quite soon to Stitch Perfect, they only carry small amounts of each yarn and so trying to match dye lots could be a problem.

Thank you very much to Leigh-Ann, Luke, Zakk and Max and of course hubby for a fantastic day and my presents.

It's All About Moi...

2011-03-07T12:34:00.001Z

Moi, moi, moi and yes moi! Selfish knitting aplenty here AND I found the camera cable so I have pictures (ok so they aren't good ones but I have em)!! Hold me down please, the excitement is just too much. I may explode.

First up, this is the first thing I knitted on my Signature needles that I had for Christmas.
The pattern is Silver Tunic (though mins is obviously in pink) by Sian Brown and it was taken from Knitting Magazine 084 Christmas 2010. Yarn used is Sublime's Cashmere merino silk DK (colourway 0053). I bought this from www.blacksheepwools.com whilst I was at Harrogate. It took 10 balls pretty much exactly.
A fairly easy and quick knit, the lace pattern is an easy and short repeat that I didn't have to tink too much whilst watching TV at the same time. I've worn it a few times and it is comfortable. Yarn pills quite easily though. I hate that!

This pattern is Ava, taken from Let's Knit magazine 034, September 2010 issue. Yarn used is Sirdar Countrystyle colourway 0533 which is a pale silvery/blue grey. In fact on my monitor the colour likeness is coming up quite close. It took 4 balls with just under half a ball left.
I'm a little hesitant when knitting patterns from Let's Knit as they have a reputation for mistakes. There was a few typo's on the yoke part which might trip up a less experienced knitter but other than that I had no other problems with it. I do like the finished article a lot though.

This is Owl's by Kate Davies, Ravelry link here or the link to Kate's fabulous and inspirational blog is here.
I fell in love with this a while ago as well as few of Kate's other designs. Beautiful colourwork that I am almost disappointed that spring is here so I know that I won't be knitting much more winter stuff until the autumn. I am also on a serious yarn diet (aren't we all) and cannot afford to buy the yarns needed in the colours I want at the moment. 4ply in my stash is rare. Stash busting is the name of the game for me for now and this what I used the left overs from Leigh-Ann's heart pocket cardigan for. The yardage on this yarn is amazing, I used just over 4 balls for this. (421grms to be precise). The pattern template I'm sure I will use again, it is well written and easy to follow but there is a mistake on the short row stitch counts on the back of the neck . I coped OK by looking at the stitch counts of what I did have had to what I should have had, then comparing it to the smaller sizes. (the mistake happens after the extra instructions for the larger sizes), and I managed to work it out from there placing them just inside the back edges. I didn't realise that you don't have to do the short row shaping at first but I'm getting old and the warmer the back of my neck is by raising the back neckline the better.

For now more selfish knitting is happening although I have some small things to show you next time just to prove that I haven't totally forgotten everyone else.

For Leigh

2011-03-02T23:39:00.000Z

Hi,

I'm an idiot. I am so full of dumb.

I've managed to ~~lose~~ misplace the camera cable so, at the moment I cannot download any pictures. This is why there has been another blogging break, (sigh) and believe me it has been weighing heavily on my mind. I have quite a few finished projects too, typical.

I've just had the idea to look at what pictures were downloaded before the cable went missing, and compare to what I did get around to blogging about during the catch-up period.. I hadn't realised that I hadn't blogged about this.

This is a cardigan I made for my daughter Leigh-Ann. It was meant to be for Christmas but it actually got finished a few days after Christmas day, it was fine I hasten to add, she's a grown up so no melodrama..No pattern link I'm afraid, this was knittted and ~~made up~~ designed by moi as I went along. It was a requested item from something Leigh-Ann had saw online, a picture of something similar (which I glimpsed at once whilst trying to cook tea) but then she lost it and couldn't find it again. I don't think there is much to worry about copyright wise (I hope). I had the instructions of "a long (past her bum) chunky cardi, it has to have pockets and can you please put love hearts on the pockets. It also has to have a deep and wide V-neck". The one online would have been machine knitted for a start and she thought that maybe it only came in one colour anyway (and that was dark brown, she doesn't like dark brown) so could I please make her one in a different colour. It is knitted in a cheap acrylic bought from Harrogate for this purpose. Tawny family favourites chunky in a dusky pink. Money has been very short the last few months and I couldn't simply afford to use anything else. even for a present. Leigh=Ann doesn't mind (and being a very novice kntter knows no different). I did however totally over estimate how much I would need and have had enough left to make something else for me, that is however another blog post for when I ~~replace~~ find the cable for the camera.

I am pleased with the outcome... though not half as much as Leigh-Ann is. She wears it constantly. She also reckons she has had a large amount of "OMG where did you get that cardi "s. Please ask your mum to make me one too.

A few semi serious enquiries that I'm not committing to cos for the moment I'm busy, catching up on selfish knitting ;0)

Crimbo Catch Up

2011-01-25T13:14:00.001Z

Ladies and gentleman, thank you very much for your patience during the interruption, normal catch-up blogging shall now resume.

Here's a few more items, Christmas presents for 2 of my favourite girls, Charlotte and Gina.

Firstly for Charlotte, I felt more than a little guilty because she had asked me for a jumper she'd found in one of her mum's pattern books a while ago. I also realised a while ago later that there was no way I would be able to do it in time for Christmas, even though I said at the time it wouldn't be a problem. So I was left to thinking what would make up for the disappointment of not getting the jumper she had requested. The girl is Eclipse mad, barmy for Edward the Vampire etc. and Looking on Ravelry I found these and figured they would be perfect..I think by the smile on her face I hit the jackpot with Bella's mittens. Yarn used was a last minute dash to a LYS and all I could get was King Cole value chunky in a mid grey. But they look pretty good and I was really pleased at how they came out. I also considered making myself a pair and I may still do that yet.
Next but not least we come to Gina's present. The hat started out being for myself, I found the yarn in a local LYS (the same as where I bought the above for Charlotte's present) way back in September and I fell in love with the colours. The yarn is King Cole Riot. So I bought a ball to treat myself to a new hat for the autumn, as well as do another test hat for the hat pattern I done for Luke .I was almost done when Liz and the girls popped round for a cuppa . Gina too fell in love with the yarn when she what I was working on. I made a mental note there and then to get some more and make her a present with it, but once I'd tried the hat on after they'd gone it was a tighter fit than Luke's version so straight away I put it was in the gift pile with Gina's name on it. Her head is a little smaller than mine so I knew it would be fine on her.

I knitted the arm warmers to match, although they don't match each other. I had to do them as fraternal rather than identical, but I think Gina quite liked that. The pattern is improvised, and trying to knit for someone whose arms are much slimmer that your own and trying to judge the length was fun!!! They are just stocking stitch tubes with ribbing each end and a hole made on each by casting off a few stitches on one row and casting them back on the next round for thumb holes.

Interruption!

2011-01-23T00:02:00.002Z

Ladies and gentleman, we bring you an up to date newsflash as a direct interruption to the never ending perpetual catch-up of this knitters activities that happen whilst not actually blogging. We thank you for your patience in this matter.

I am getting mildly obsessed with colour work. I keep dreaming about it. I'm loving all the Fairisle patterns out there at the moment, on jumpers, hats an even mittens. Mittens!! I live in a (supposedly) temperate climate (although the last 2 winters have been very unusually freakin cold), but I really want to knit not only beautiful, colourful intricate mittens I want to knit them with linings too! I think I am going more than a little mad.
After twice writing a rather lengthy post about how it all started (but they were both eaten by the soddin laptop, ggrrrrr autosave my piggin arse) it is now midnight and I am very sorry but I am not about to write it again. Not tonight at any rate :0(
It will have to be enough to say that Kate Davies, SpillyJane and Yarn Harlot, you three have a lot to answer for!
Now I'm off to bed dream some more about Herring Tams, Blue Hippo Mittens and what instructions I need to follow in order to make some beautiful FO's. Goodnight!

Thank You SS

2011-01-20T10:49:00.003Z

Still on catch up, and this is a quick post so I'll keep it short and as sweet as possible.

This is the SS gift I received from Nelly who is a fellow member of Fekkers, a forum that I'm a member of and visit most days. She is the same Nelly who was also at Harrogate on my last posting, of whom I sat next to on the ever lasting but highly enjoyable ride home from the knitting and stitching show.

I received a beautifully knitted lacy scarf, made from Sirdar Blur. It is so light, warm and fuzzy and has already been worn a few times. As an extra bonus it goes beautifully with the new coat I had for Christmas. In fact the temperature outside has took a serious nose dive this morning so it kept me warm and cosy on the school run and walking my neighbours dog this morning.

These are a few pics of the SS present that I sent.

My recipient was the lovely Leigh and I knew she was Disney and Mickey Mouse mad and I definitely wanted to to do something to reflect that. Leigh also sent me my SS gift last year and she had hit the nail on the head by sending me a Christmas bauble filled with buttons. I'm sure I've mentioned my button fetish once or twice before....

I did struggle for a few days trying to think of the perfect gift to send when I had the brainwave of a cushion.

I used a chart from a copy of this book. I had it many years ago and lost it in a house move, but then found another copy on a car boot a few years ago. This is the first time I've ever actually used the book to knit from, and then I just used a chart for a design that was used for a jumper in the book. I had a nightmare in that the cover didn't actually fit the original cushion that I bought as I'd not allowed enough room for how much smaller it would be once the Fairisle was worked. That involved a last minute dash to the shops in order to purchase a smaller one. The yarn used was Sirdar Countrystyle DK for the main body of the cover and just some oddments out of my basket for the the characters. The lovely GG donated me a ball of black whist I was staying at her house for Harrogate, as I started the project on my way home. The very lovely buttons were from my stash, more than likely out of an Ebay bulk buy of a job lot.

Combined with the problems I had with the boys Star Wars hats I've come to realise that my colour work needs a lot of work and with some of the fabulous patterns I've come across the last few weeks it's something I aim to tackle in the next few weeks. But that will be another blog post!! ;0)

Oh Dear, Now We're On Catch-Up Catch-Up

2011-01-14T10:37:00.011Z

I've done it again haven't I, gotten so embroiled in everyday life that blogging has passed me by yet again! Sorry folks, life was so hectic, busy and chaotic in the run up to Christmas and New Year (Happy New Year by the way) that time just flew by, and, before I knew it, we are are almost halfway through January.

I think last time I blogged I was looking forward to Harrogate for the Knitting and Stitching Show at the end of November. Did she get there I hear you ask????? To that, I answer yes I did. I travelled up to Yorkshire on the Saturday morning after a concerned week as to whether I would get there at all because of the weather. We had snow early this winter here in the UK, because it was a surprise and because we are so unused to it, pretty much everything can and sometimes seems to come to a standstill. There hadn't been that much snow at that point, just an inch or 2 in Birmingham and a little? bit more up north. Well there was enough to cause some minor disruption but the trains were still running and the weather forecast was OK, so after a few concerned conversations with hubby (who was a little worried)about me getting back or being stranded on a train or in a station Sunday night if the weather took a turn for the worse. After trying to reassure him of course as much as possible that it would all be tickety boo. I went !!!!!!

I arrived at GG's and HWN's fine, (the only delay was on the local line at the other end due to staffing problems, not the weather). I had a lovely time Saturday spending it with with my friends, I was made to feel very welcome, spoilt rotten, fed to bursting and looked after wonderfully. They are really a wonderful couple.

I also finished a hat which I'd started on the journey up. I don't travel on the train very often, and big stations like Birmingham New Street that are very busy and a little!! like a maze, make me nervous and panicky. I also had to catch a connection in Leeds (where I'd never been before so had no idea of the station layout) of which I had to wait a short time for, so I wanted something simple that I could pick up and put down easily, so I went ultra simple from my head for my head. The pattern started off as another copy of Luke's hat, but I knitted it in a odd ball of Rowan tapestry and I was having serious doubts about having enough so I altered the decreases slightly to try to make sure I wouldn't run out. I did have some left over but I'm not sure if it would have been enough for the original pattern or not.

I wore this hat a lot before Christmas, it fits quite well considering the accelerated decreases but, I had a new gorgeous dark green duffel coat or Christmas and it doesn't go with it as nicely as with my old coat. As the weather warms up I will wear it and my old coat again but for now it is languishing at the bottom of the hat basket waiting until then.

I wore my hat to Harrogate on Sunday. We got up early to a beautiful blue cloudless sky and so very cold of temps of well below -10, even in the car a hat was needed. GG's daughter, the wonderful M was going to Harrogate too, so after she arrived at GG's we set off to collect the lovely Nelly and lovely Jan (some fellow Fekkers) on the way. The countryside was very pretty with it's few inches of snow blanket a very bright white with the sun glistening in it.

We had a great day, even though the show itself wasn't as busy as last year, crowd wise or exhibitor wise. We thought the weather had a lot to answer for, and for the lack of visitors that must certainly have been true, but we were puzzled at some of the big company names missing, until we spoke to one of the organisations that were showing there. Apparently the stall fees had gone up a lot for that year so a lot of companies had pulled out or decided not to bother. It also explains why there much fewer bargains than the year before. Not only were there not as much knitty stuff this year but the amount of needlework fabric and notions as well as cross stitch available had gone up considerably. There also seemed to be a few more not related to craft at all stalls that had also crept in. But as much as I had gone up for the show, the real reason was to see friends that I talk to on-line pretty much everyday but are not able to see more than once a year. I have now managed to see some of them several times in person despite living so far from them. We also got to see the lovely Donna (another fellow Fekker) and her lovely daughter Rosemary who we met up with for lunch, a chin wag and a show and tell of what we'd all bought.

Now I did buy stuff honestly, not loads but I did buy some yarn and a few buttons etc but the next pictures are a bit of a cheat as I forgot to take some, both when I got home and after Christmas day. My spending money as usual came in the form of cash to buy my own Christmas presents from my 2 eldest children and my MIL, even though I bought the money from my MIL back home with me and bought my new coat the following weekend with it! So when I retuned home (eventually that is, and I'm getting to that bit) I had to hand them over where they would not be seen again until Christmas day. So my apologies that these photos weren't taken until a few mins ago after going on a retrieval hunt, I've had to dig them out of cupboards, from my stash under my bed and other bits from baskets and knitting bags. I hadn't realised they were all so scattered around.

This is pretty much my total haul, though reduced in that the pink Sublime cashmere merino silk (from Black Sheep Wools) was 10 balls but, as it is my WIP at the moment there is only 2 balls left and they will soon be knitted up pretty sharpish.

There are also some ball of pink chunky to the left of the pic, though bought at Harrogate they were for me to make a present for someone else rather than a present for me.

This beautiful silk mini project bag, I spotted first, sorry Nelly and Jan who both liked it too but it was the only one in this pattern., the other patterns were pretty but this one was lush! I can't remember where it came from, I did put a business card in the bag but it is now empty. If I come across it I will update and add it.

Just a little close up at the scrummy yarn. The Rowan actually wasn't quite bought at Harrogate. A little more about that in a minute!

Some vintage buttons that came from a stall that sold not only vintage buttons but vintage dress patterns and lots of other vintage equipment for stitching of all descriptions. They are surrounded by the contents of a bag of buttons from The Button Lady.

From inside The Harrogate International Centre there aren't many vantages to see outside, but on the morning had been beautiful, very cold for a soft southerner like me but sunshine and lots of it (and did I mention?) with not a cloud in the sky. About 3 pm we happened to notice some skylights, and the snow coming down very thick through those skylights! The thought crossed our minds that it may be wise to leave early, my train home from GG's wasn't until 7.30pm but if the snow carried on it may cause problems. We saw some more skylights 10 minutes later and the blue sky was back so we gave a sigh of relief and carried on looking for a stand that sold back issue magazines that we'd seen earlier but had disappeared. 20 mins later we still hadn't found the stand we wanted but we did spot that the sky had gone very dark and that the snow was coming down again, very heavily. We were in 2 groups to walk around the halls but we met back up quickly and decided to leave straight away. We were in fact out of there in minutes and were shocked at home much snow had come down in such a short amount of time and it was still coming down in bucketfuls of blizzard proportions. Put that with the snow already on the ground and the Arctic temps from the previous night and you have some pretty horrendous conditions for driving. The multi storey car park we were in very near to the halls has a very steep drives going into and out of it. There was also a queue of other people all with the same idea at roughly the same time of making an early move and getting out of the car park alone was something GG told us after she didn't think we were going to make without getting out and pushing. The car struggled to get a grip on the very steep incline to get back onto the road, the car in front was also struggling and despite a huge gap between them and us it was still hold your breath in case they slid back into us. We made it out of the car park and the traffic was already bad. As well as the Knitting show, it was also a lot of peoples last pay day before Christmas so lots of people had been Christmas shopping in the town centre, there was also another show on elsewhere in the town or so I was told. Down the road in York there was also a huge Christmas Fayre on, which also generated a lot of traffic. All this added together caused us huge problems. Over 2 hours later we were still in Harrogate sitting in gridlock traffic having moved no more than a hundred yards or so. At that point it was looking unlikely that we were going to get back in time for my train. 90 minutes later and again we were still in Harrogate, I had to phone hubby and tell him what was happening. I was safe, in good company (very good company, we spent most of that time stuck in traffic in fits of giggles) but I wouldn't be home as expected late that night, I would let him know as soon as we got back to GG's what would be happening. He wasn't very happy obviously but there was nothing any of us could do. I had joked about being snowed in at GG's for a week and that I was looking forward to it, but I never for a minute thought it would happen. My biggest concern was that I hadn't booked an open train ticket in an effort to keep the cost of my trip down. I had left plenty of time for getting back so as to cover what I thought would be every eventuality, knowing that the journey from Harrogate to GG's shouldn't take more than an hour or so and that she only lived round the corner from the train station. Silly me eh?? In the end we got back to GG's 5 and a half hours later. The only reason it was that early was because Nelly's husband came and collected Nelly and Jan from a service station which was at a halfway point, so GG didn't have to try and drive down rural lanes to drop them off. Nelly's husband obviously knows their local area well and which roads were best to use and where he would be least likely to get stuck. The weird thing was though, once we were a few miles away from Harrogate there was hardly any snow at all, in fact no snowfall at all for some of the journey home, and the snow from the previous fall had all gone! Apparently Harrogate is quite high up so the weather can hit there pretty hard! The problems we had were pretty much localised to the area and although Leeds and York also had problems I'm not sure they were as bad as we had.

Once back at GG's with a nice hot meal inside us was the problem of trying to sort out then how to get home???? Trains were far too expensive so close to the travel time, it would have been £50 of which ,quite frankly I did't have, National Express wasn't much better either at around £40. Whilst stuck in traffic , we had spotted a Mega-Bus, a company that offers cut price travel around the country. Jan had said that she had used this company to travel Birmingham on several occasions (she is originally from the same area of Birmingham where I live now and still has family that live, whom she visits) and were pretty good. M looked up the website for me and my fare home?? It cost just £9.00. I booked for it the following afternoon, if we had more bad weather I wanted to make sure that the bus would be running and that I could get to it to catch it as it meant getting to Leeds. If it snowed again overnight then I reckoned the roads would be easier to travel later after a certain amount of traffic had travelled through them, also give gritters etc a chance to be out. Also GG looked exhausted, it was hard work for her driving for that, being stuck in that traffic all that time and some decent sleep for her was much needed. An early get up for all of us to be honest the following morning was out of the question. The Mega bus went from Leeds which is still a fair bit of travelling from GG's house and although I expected and then offered to get the train to Leeds both GG and HWN insisted that they would take me by car get the bus. It was a good job they did, the bus stop wasn't in the main bus station, it was in fact very hard to find, but GG after remembering something Jan had said about where the stop was being opposite a pub, we got there with minutes to spare, and so I was soon on my way home to Brum. Tired and missing my family but happy from a lovely weekend.

The bus dropped me off in Birmingham city centre, just literally opposite the bus stop from where I catch the bus home in fact. Problem is I needed to use the toilet. I wouldn't use the one on the bus. I simply wasn't brave enough. So the necessity I had to venture into House Of Fraser to use the toilets after 3 hours or so on the bus was urgent, the pull on the way back down in the lift from the toilets on the 6th floor to the Haberdashery dept on the 4th floor was strong. The Rowan fine milk cotton on sale for £10 for a bag of 10x 50grms was screaming at me so loud it was deafening. Once it had my attention it lay there on the table whimpering until I relented and bought it home with me too. Well I had money left, so what was I supposed to do ;0)

Some Tiny Ones For The Girls, Lola and Esme

2010-11-21T09:29:00.007Z

Jinkies (sorry I've been over dosing on Scooby Doo thanks to the boys) is it really 3 weeks since I last blogged! You can tell Christmas is round the corner when you start losing whole weeks!

This post is all about some tiny pink arrivals, very tiny pink arrivals.

Firstly (although she didn't arrive first but she is related and I have actual baby photos) Lola. A few weeks ago I became a great auntie. I have a few mixed feelings about this, yes she is beautiful and a baby is very very special and something to be cherished blah blah blah but I'm not 40 yet!!!!! In my (admittedly very very late twlightyears) 30's is not old enough to be be a great auntie. Honestly my nephew Paul has an awful bloody lot to answer for making me a great auntie at thirtysoddingnine and not quite a half !!He has had a light clip round the ear but unfortunately it didn't rectify the situation, Lola is still and here blissfully unaware of the agony and heartbreak to my ego. I mean come on, great aunts have grey hair (OK so I've been colouring mine for years and I have more, far more than my fair share of grey hair). Great aunties stay in on a weekend watching TV and drinking cups of hot chocolate (hhhmmm it's a few years since I saw the inside of a nightclub and the last time I was in the city centre on a Sat night I was pooped and ready for bed well before midnight, I couldn't wait to get home for acuppa and kick my high heels back into the bottom of the wardrobe where they still languish). Also great aunties have old fashioned hobbies like ....knitting. Eerrmm yes, well eeerrr OK. AL RIGHT then maybe I'm old enough in spirit if not in years!

Lola was born on 5th November weighing in at a tiny 5lb 12oz. She was only a few days early considering her tiny birth weight but mum is only tiny so no real surprise even if dad is a lofty 6'5" in his socks!

Hold on tight there are a few pic's to post, links to find and yarns to remember.

First up this is a preemie cardi and the link is here It is knitted in Hobbycraft's own Palette DK in a soft aubergine/dark berry colour. The hat is a basic preemie hat and although I cobbled this from memory from doing many of these there are patterns for these available all over the web in the guise of topknot hat or umbilical cord hat etc.

And the beautiful Lola herself wearing the hat!

This hat unfortunately is still a little big and I'm afraid that by the time the hat fits then this cute little cardigan both knitted in Sirdar Baby Bamboo won't fit! I may find myself doing the next size up once the crimbo knitting is out of the way. It is a pattern taken from a book no longer in print I'm afraid. But for reference the book is Knitting For baby 623 by Teddy Knitting Yarns. It goes down to a 14inch chest. The hat I made up as the hat to match the cardi was a bonnet and I didn't think being a young couple they would like a bonnet.

Next up is a baby slouchy beanie knitted when Lola was known as Peanut. I used this as my basic pattern but extended the straight body of the hat before doing the decreases. Dad is a huge fan of the slouchy beanie and has many of them, he is rarely seen without a hat so it was for a little jokey whimsical that I knitted this. It is knitted in Sirdar Snuggly 4ply, plain white.

I thought these were probably the cutest things ever when I first spotted them on Ravelry. The blog is in French but my browser prompted me to translate to English, even if yours doesn't then the very clever lady has done a very simple foolproof chart instead. They are so easy and quick it is actually ridiculous. I'm not sure what the yarn is I used, just some beige DK bought labeless from a car boot sale many moons ago. I've also just remembered that the pattern calls for aran but I re-gauged it and used DK

Even though there a few other bits for Lola at the risk of me crashing my blog from posting too many pictures I'll move onto Esme.

Esme is the daughter of Liz (my friend)'s SIL Julia (also a friend)'s brother and his wife (who I have met once but don't know personally). She came into the world 8 weeks early due to mum suffering from pre-eclampsia and weighing a teeny 3 and a half lb. These were so small they didn't take long to knock up.

This is actually a dolly cardi taken from Doll's Wardrobe (also suitable for preemie babies) 614 again by Teddy Knitting Yarns. It's knitted in Sirdar Countrystyle in a bright Barbie pink. It was an oddment left oner from something else so I have no colour way reference's etc

This last one is Paxton that is a Ravelry link as I downloaded the PDF from there. My apologies if you are not on Ravelry, seriously if you are a knitter then I question why not and urge you to join. It's the best thing sliced bread honest. It is a wealth of inspiration, knowledge and guidance which also packs in some wonderful patterns (many free some not) projects and totally fab everything you can think of. It is a place you can not only showcase your own projects but also unashamedly peer at other peoples and not only become amazed (and occasionally envious)at their skill and patience but also gogglefied at their sense of humour. It is the place to join like minded people! The yarn is some more Hobbycraft Pallette in DK and leftovers from this along with the above berry coloured yarn for Lola's hat and cardigan. I'm afraid I'm not sure where the buttons came from though I do remember they only cost 10p each.

OMG I nearly forgot to mention, Harrogate is in ONE WEEKS TIME whoop whoop!!!! Mama's gonna buy me some yarn!

The Force Has Bypassed Me Completely

2010-11-01T16:51:00.003Z

Well after making such a brilliant start on the Star Wars hats for the boys some time ago I sort of lost focus a little! I finished Zakk's after a few attempts, he loves it, it matches his coat and all is lovely. Max's hat however is another story. September and indeed a lot of October were fairly warm and mild and the need for a winter hat for Max seemed far away (I'd given myself such a head start on Zakk's hat after all) so I let myself be seduced by other projects. These projects included other hats (OK so no logic there, knitting a hat for the 21 year old but not for the 6 year old hhmmm priorities!!), some preemie clothes for a friend of a friend (very near future blog post), arm warmers (blog post in the offing) and another commission (again another future blog post).

The cold weather is now however fast approaching, and the fact that I broke the boys new winter coats out of the wardrobe during school half term last week and that they even needed hats on one of the days brought me up pretty sharpish to the fact I'd only got around to casting on Max's hat and that was it! So I got back to it on Monday, finished the rib and started to try and place the characters from the chart around the hat as evenly spaced as possible, cursing myself that if I had remembered to write down some notes on how many stitches I had used to separate the designs etc then where the %$&*£ had I put them. After spending the afternoon trying to wing it, (which of course didn't work), tinking and then trying to count carefully (which still didn't work) and then even trying to not count carefully I finally threw my knitting down in disgust.

At that point Zakk came in with some Maths homework which he had been working on and asked me to check it....... there's no hope in me working out the maths to place 6 figures evenly spaced around a hat if I can't even understand a 7 year olds maths homework is there......

Leigh-Ann managed to finish the half marathon. She went past us so quickly we didn't get any photo's of her at all but and we were on the right hand side of her just down a few yards in this photo cheering her to the finish line. Her time was 2 hours 50 mins and she has raised more than £200 pounds so far. Thanks to everyone who sponsored her, it still brings a tear to my eye with how proud I am of her.

So Proud

2010-10-21T10:33:00.004+01:00

I'm asking for a little help on behalf of my eldest baby today. Leigh-Ann I am very proud to announce is running the Birmingham half marathon on Sunday 24th October for this charity. It's a fantastic cause and she is of course looking for donations. I know it's a tough time for everyone but it is a worthwhile charity and although she has done the Race for Life before and a charity parachute jump this is the first where she has had to put in some hard work to train. She certainly isn't hoping to break any records (apart from personal ones) except to finish in the 4 hour time frame and hopefully raise her target goal.

Any of you out there who are feeling generous and can spare even a few pounds, it all helps can give here.

A Hat For Luke

2010-10-20T15:05:00.003+01:00

Hhhmm another gap in blogging! Never mind I'm here now even if it's a quickie post.

This is a hat I made for my son Luke's birthday a few! okay 4 weeks ago. Can you believe this handsome chap was 21! I can hardly believe it myself. It doesn't seem more than 5 minutes since he was the same age as Zakk or Max.

The time is flying by at the moment don't you think? It's start of the run up to Christmas now, every time I blink it's another week nearer YIKES!!

Here is the man himself modelling it very nicely I hope you'll agree, there was another photo with an altogether different type of hand gesture!! This is a family blog so in spite of his disappointment I will leave that photo on the camera!

The yarn is the remains of the Lang DK 100% super wash merino that I used for the Drops Bolero and I just had enough around 60 grms worth. Not quite sure what that is in yardage but 1 and a half skeins on Rav is coming up at 147 yards or 135 metres.

The pattern is one I did on my own after discovering the aran weight one I found on Ravelry I hadn't enough yarn for so had to frog it and start again. I tried knitting it with the yarn held double for a thicker warmer hat but I ran out a few inches from the top.

I am going to put the pattern on here but I was rather hoping to do a PDF version so I am waiting for a few quiet hours when I can learn how to do it!

Sorting Out Bones Of Contention!

2010-10-01T14:16:00.005+01:00

For quite a few years now there has been a few full scale rows, no wait a minute that's very strong, how about heated discussions??? hhhmmm nope still a little strong, shall we settle on hubby's little bone of contention? Yup I think that would sum it up on my husband's attitude about how my downstairs stash/immediate WIP's/knitting magazine library and knitting bags threaten to overtake the living room. At one time they were small enough to confine to a single cupboard (can you believe at one time my whole stash, pattern collection and needles would fit in this single cupboard and non knitters who caught a glimpse inside would comment on "what was I going to do with all that wool??")

Then it sort of spread to behind one of the settee's, (the larger of the two settee' if I'm owning up and I'm not taking a photo behind there as it's still shameful). Then it started spilling out from behind the settee to a medium sized basket either side, several magazine holders (full) and a project caddy. Still behind the settee in between the overspill were knitting bags, needle bags and rolls, bags of yarn (though 95% of it is now under the bed) and plastic baskets containing more magazines (I have four on monthly subscription, if I had to buy them in a shop I'd never have any as nowhere local well within walking distance seem to sell them with any sort of consistency) that seem to multiply on their own!
Hubby like most people (including myself I hasten to add) has the annoying (I tried to think of a suitable super hero descriptive here but annoying works best) ability to ignore his own crap that he has discarded and abandoned (check out the breakfast bar in the kitchen, any time, day or night, Monday to Sunday he has stuff there in varying degrees of useful! from "been used for a job earlier but I can't be bothered to put it away right now when I can do it in an hour or two", to "might come in handy someday so I'll leave it here where I can find it until then!!!!! So his bone of contention as you can guess wasn't the same as my breakfast bar one, no, his was my knitting collective of stash,magazines and knitty tools that bulged behind and that spilled out the sides of the sofa.
I have to confess that I didn't intend for and I didn't enjoy my knitting stuff stored in this way, it wasn't practical. For a start it was all stored behind the sofa he prefers to sit on when he's chilling out in the evening to watch TV. So picture it....if he was settled and comfy watching for instance Ross Kemp on Gangs or some true crime programme that he enjoys to sit through etc and I suddenly needed a different size pair of needles and I had forgotten (I am very very forgetful) to get out at some earlier part of the evening before he has sat down, maybe putting the boys to bed took longer than anticipated, anyways because or whatever I have to get up to go digging round the back of the sofa (with him still on it) and I'm rustling and cursing cos it's dark behind there and I'm trying to feel for the right needle bag or roll and then cos I'm leaning precariously I'm hoping if I'm going to fall flat into the pile of useful utensils that I fall onto a soft bag of yarn and manage not take my eye out with a 10mm chunky plastic glittery needle that fell sticking pointy end up out the knitting roll I'm looking for. So you get I'm being loud and annoying and disturbing (I apparently do this a lot) and my hubby bless him was not granted with a huge amount of patience so will not stand up and offer to move the sofa so I can indeed take a safer, better look for what I'm looking for (and no I'm not about to ask as I KNOW what the answer would be)!! No don't be daft I'm more likely to get a reel of f's and b's and other expletives at what the hell am I doing and to buzz off as he is trying to watch Ross Kemp and why can he not watch anything HE wants to in peace! I have to confess if it were the other way round I would not be a happy hunny bunny either!
So in the interest of sorting the mess that is behind the sofa and with a lot of ~~good intentions~~ outright blatant lies that somewhere to keep my magazines would be i) a good start to tidy the whole area up, and, ii) an end to above style domestic disputes. After a whole lot of ~~nagging and whinging~~ convincing hubby finally made me this, a bookcase just for me to go at the top of the stairs. Funny that I don't seem to have as many magazines and books when they are all put together.....

Ooops no I forgot they aren't all quite in one place, there's still the stuff in the bedroom bookcase

and Oh I still need to finish sorting out behind and the overspill that is the sofa.

Say Cheese :0)

2010-09-24T10:30:00.007+01:00

This is a catchup post, mainly cos the pics are already on the pc.

A ~~long,long time~~ short while ago an old school friend approached me through Facebook to do some commission knitting. Lisa, who is a very talented photographer and artist with her own studio based in Leicestershire wanted me to knit some props for baby photo's. She was venturing out into a Bumps to Babies series and wanted something to make hers look a little different. She sent me a link to show me what she wanted and asked whether I would be able to produce something similar but with an individual spin.

I wouldn't exactly say challenge is my middle name, I was more than a little nervous but I had a go.

The original samples I sent were a few of these cute, jewel coloured pixie style hats. I didn't get around to taking any more pictures unfortunately but if you go to Lisa's website here then you can see another in the slideshow gallery on the home page! Go on and check her website out, like I said a very, very talented lady.

Lisa's next request was for something the babies could be put in, she had found a US photographer who had babies in little sacks. The pictures are lovely but Lisa had a brainwave for her spin and was eager for a giant sock rather than a plain sack to put the babies in.

This was what I came up with, I was pretty pleased with the end result but again a little nervous. I hadn't got a baby handy to get measurements for so I had to do a little maths at how big to do it etc so a baby would actually fit. I looked at knitting a basic sock but using bigger needles/thicker yarn etc and crossing it with a Christmas stocking,.I've only knitted a few pairs of socks before but they aren't difficult, it was the scale that was the technical headache bit!

Finally this is a sack style cuddle bag for a baby to be placed inside. This also looks like a giants trainer sock though with my rubbish photography it's kinda hard to tell!

We Apologise...

2010-09-23T16:58:00.004+01:00

For the interruption in blogging. Due to a technical error Knitternicky has once again been without an internet connection. However the shiny new and WORKING router arrived late this afternoon so normal service will resume presently!

The good news is due to an overload of time not taken up with online surfing, social networking and general piddling about on the net a good deal of knitting has been accomplished. This means there is a new wealth of blogging subject lined up for the very near future as well as the backlog from the previous router failure.

WHOOP WHOOP Finally I'm a Hooker (well almost)

2010-09-17T08:06:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I found myself with one of those very elusive things.... a spare hour! Of course I had things I ~~should have~~ could have been doing but I was a little restless and more ironing etc for some absurd reason just didn't appeal???

I have been wanting to learn to crotchet for ~~years~~ quite a while, but although I've had a few quick lessons over a 20 year span I hadn't stuck at it past the lesson enough to actually get to grips with it!! One of the lessons (and probably the most productive one) was with the lovely GG. She is a fantastic friend whom I met through a knitting forum, she and her wonderful husband HWN kindly invited me and two others to stay at their house last year in order for us to be part of a group from the forum who were going to the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching show. She had promised me a lesson whilst at her house, but with so much chatting, getting to know each other and of course knitting going on it was nearly midnight before we knew and it and I thought my chances of learning were gone. GG however stayed up an extra hour (which was wonderful as we had a very early start the next morning) after the others had gone to bed and gave me a master class in granny squares of which the above was produced. Alas when I tried to recreate it at home I only ended up with a tangled mess, I put it down to being very tired during the lesson, and leaving it (a few days) too long before trying it again.

Anyway this came out more than 6 months ago in the UK and I bought the first 3 or 4 copies that appeared in the local newsagents but hadn't done anything with it since (you had to subscribe for the rest of the series and I wasn't sure enough of my commitment to commit to 2 years or so worth). In the first issue a free instruction DVD was included so I dug it out and put it in the DVD player.

These were the result.

My first attempt at slip stitch oooeeerrrr

My first attempt at double crotchet eerrmm umm yeah. Now this is actually where I ran out of hour, so the DVD lessons stopped at this point so everything after this point was an evening of practising double crotchet, which did (in my humble opinion) improve.

My second attempt at double crochet hhmm a little better!

and my third attempt, ignore the fact it doesn't look square, it is fairly square it 's just not sitting flat... honest.

OK, I KNOW I still have tension issues and when I first pick it up I automatically hold the yarn in the right hand like I'm going to start knitting instead of in the left but after a few seconds I figure it out and change hands. After another few seconds I can even get a rhythm going whilst I'm doing it so that is a major accomplishment.

Now I just need another spare hour to finish the DVD lessons and progress to triple crochet !!!

And on a final note, my sister did in fact like Jaiden's present, so much so she txt me to ask if I would make him another, so here it is. Just needs to be washed. I'm still hoping for photo's of him wearing one of them.

Prototype (I hope the force is with me on this one)

2010-09-10T10:31:00.007+01:00

Autumn's fast approaching, the signs are all around us. There's already quite a nip in the air mornings and evenings, the kids are back at school (whoop whoop, I wasn't looking forward to them going back at all but once they'd gone it was a deep exhale then a gentle oh yes! ) and the leaves are already falling from the trees and turning brown. I was actually a little ahead of myself and bought the boys winter coats early this year, as in it was still the summer holidays when we went shopping for them instead of it being October half term and I'm scouring what is left in the shops for whatever will i) fit ii) is machine washable and hopefully tumble dryerable iii) they actually like and will wear.

My next thought was hats, after finishing a commision (future post honest) which had taken months and months I wanted something interesting but fairly quick and new hats for the boys seemed logical. I thought as well that I would have time for something a little more challenging as they shouldn't actually need them for a while yet so I wouldn't have to end up settling for yet more ribbed beanies churned out quickly because of necessity. Trawling round ravelry I came across these. Now the boys have become very into Star Wars over the last 12 months or so (it is the law to educate young boys in the way of the force, at least I'm sure it is!), just like my oldest son Luke was VERY into Star Wars at their age. As a consequence I've also been known to sit through the original movies several hundred times (at least it feels that way ;0D ) and the newer ones once or twice! Good job I enjoy them too.

This is my first attempt at Fairisle in over 20years and to be honest I'm pretty chuffed with the result. It is a prototype because I wanted to knit it in 4ply to get as many characters on there as possible and wasn't sure about sizing etc as I very rarely knit in 4ply. So I suppose you could say it is in effect a whole tension square.

The yarn I used is just oddments out of my stash, the black is Sirdar crepe 4ply and the grey and white are some Sirdar Countrystyle in DK.

I was also pretty impressed at the wrong side too. It is however a pity that it doesn't quite fit either of them, it is a little too tight so although they can both get it on their heads it pinches their ears. It is also just a tad on the long side so if it wasn't too tight then it would come down over their ears.

This is Max giving it the thumbs up

Zakk though had a little moody as he was trying to play on the laptop and wasn't in the mood to try on hats.

For Jaiden

2010-09-07T11:24:00.003+01:00

I know I know, my blog posts are like a number 11 bus, you don't see one for ages then you get several at once! The silence before my last blog post was an enforced one due to a faulty router which my broadband provider (Sky) were for some reason was very reluctant to replace even though the very expensive engineer who they sent to check the lines first said they cost them only pennies. The result I was off line for about a month in total although the first week of it was whilst we were away in Cornwall. My oldest lad Luke wasn't a happy bunny though, home for the most part alone (he is 20 and had to work so couldn't come away with us), a pc pretty much to himself and no internet. He wasn't quite crying on the phone to me to say he couldn't get anyinternet on the Sunday morning (our first full day away)but almost. Life can be so cruel.

Anyway, this blog post is for the pressie I knitted for my new Nephew Jaiden. The new baby son of my half sister Bobbie, born a few weeks ago. I haven't seen him yet, in fact I don't see my sister or her other little boy a lot but I am hoping to visit in the next week or so! I'm still adding to the pressie with some vests and trousers etc to make it a full outfit so will be taking it round when I'm done and hopefully whilst it still fits as he was a big baby at 8lb 7oz.

This matching hat and jumper were taken from Sirdar booklet 338 Tiny Tots DK book and are design A. They are both knitted in Sirdar Snuggly DK in a pale beige. Both items took around 80grms just over 1 and a half balls and I knitted the smallest size 0-6 months. Another quick easy knit in easy care yarn to make it easier for mum to wash them. Just hope my sister likes them.

Feeling Good

2010-09-04T15:43:00.008+01:00

By Sarah Hatton is just one project recently off my needles. It was my holiday knit (well one of three taken with me but only this one actually got started). It was started in the car on the way down to Cornwall and despite my best efforts of knitting whenever I got a chance

I only managed to complete the back whilst away and about a third of that was in the 7 hour journey on the way home!! I did manage to start the the front as well but only around 2 inches or so.

The photo was taken at Bude Harbour. A good afternoon for us all the boys loved these giant fireplace alcoves we were sat in for the picture. They overlook the harbour and looked pretty old to me. I don't know anything official about them I'm afraid

The rest of Feeling Good took another week or so to complete after I got home.

These pictures were ironically taken back home in the sunshine.... we had one glorious day of sunshine in Cornwall and the rest of the week was all rainy at some point!! To be fair it was raining mainly early mornings which would then dry up mid morning leaving the rest of the day to be a little overcast and a tad on the blowy side but not cold and so we were able to go out and about. We even managed the beach everyday except one!

I'm really happy with it so far and have worn it a few times. I say so far because I have only washed it for the first time this morning and I am desperately hoping it hasn't grown even though I've followed ball band instructions to the letter etc. Bamboo however.....

OK details are... the pattern is Feeling Good by Sarah Hatton taken from Simply Knitting magazine issue no 70 August 2010. Yarn is from my birthday booty post Rowan Bamboo Soft in the soft Aubergine/purple. I don't know what the official colour way is except it's very pretty It took almost exactly 9 balls (I had a few meters left and believe me I was sweating whilst doing the button bands in case I run out!).

No close up of the buttons, my apologies especially since they were bought in Bude. I managed to find a little bead shop in a shopping precinct just as you go into the town. The precinct is hard to spot as although on the main road into Bude it is a little away from the main shopping area. There was a shop selling biker t-shirts on the front of the precinct and it was just down an alley way at the side of it. As well as beads the lady also sold some very pretty buttons and a little acrylic yarn. She was also very friendly and chatty. I was very sorry I had a mini gang of males (hubby and the youngest two boys) behind me and who were not as interested and enthralled as I. I suppose 10 mins was very patient of them but I could have easily spent much longer and a lot more than my humble couple of pounds that I paid for some scrummy buttons including a perfect match for my work in progress.

I must also mention The Remnant Shop just further down from the precinct, a TARDIS and Aladdin's cave full of fabric of all sorts of descriptions and delights. I left hubby and the boys in the pub round the corner and explored this heaven on my own. My sewing skills are hopeless even though I have a couple of machines, some beautiful patterns and very good intentions of practising to improve. I loved this shop and again could have spent a lot longer to browse than I had the opportunity to. It just kept going on and on (hence the TARDIS label) there were so many little rooms just stuffed with rolls of fabric, big truggs and baskets of remnants, I didn't think I was ever going to get to the back of the shop. There was so much choice and I know I didn't see a fraction of what they stocked. It's a good job we've already booked up to go back next year, so I can hopefully be a little more keyed up on what I need and actually buy some next year.

For The Newest Member Of The Family...George

2010-07-11T21:41:00.003+01:00

Just a quickie post I have lots of other FO's in fact at least 4 which ='s another 2 blog posts but I'm tired so this will do for now.

This is for my cousin's baby George the newest arrival to our family. It took me 2 days to knit, nearly 3 weeks to post it to the proud parents and then another few weeks to blog it!! I need my backside booted into touch I think!!

Pattern details. The pattern is from Sublime and is called albatross when featured in Lets Knit magazine no31 which is the June 2010 issue. Yarn is a Jarol baby yarn bought locally and the colourway is a baby mint green. I knitted it in an easy care acrylic as I do not know my cousins wife well at all (they live a fair trek away in another county) so have no idea whether she would hand wash or not or even put a hand knit on her baby! So I played it safe with my time ( a quick knit) and my pocket (hubby's job has been in question over the last few months, at the moment it is looking fairly secure so we are slowly exhaling after holding our breath since well before Christmas). It took just over half a 100 grm ball.

Birthday Booty

2010-06-28T14:35:00.006+01:00

This year for my birthday I intended to not have any knitting stuff as presents, I had quite a bit last year from Ravelry Day and again a fair bit for Christmas which I bought back from Harrogate purchased with money various members of the family gave me. I gaily handed over the goodies to the kind present giver on my return and got to open them all over again on last years birthday/Christmas day. So I decided I have ~~plenty of stash~~ just about enough to keep me going for a while, needles coming out of my ears and lots of other knitty bits and bobs stored all over the place.

Anyway I think my family must have misheard me cos guess what I ended up with........

Buttons (just a few)

yarn (there is actually 10 balls in this colour)yarn (another 10 balls)A few pattern books
and more yarn (just in case I didn't have enough)!! Even hubby the week before my birthday (admittedly trying desperately to get out of doing a car boot sale I was insisting we needed to do for cash flow reasons) talked me into going yarn shopping rather than him going to the local retail park on his own where he would end up buying me more clothes that he always gets in the wrong size or just totally something that I wouldn't wear but he "thought" I would like!! He even offered me a drive out to find some of the yarn shops that I moon over advertised in just a few of the magazines I possess. To be honest I think I was ~~very shocked~~ just a little overwhelmed at his offer. Also knowing hubby's loathing of driving, especially to places he doesn't know so the stress factor multiples by a million I sort of lost the plot a little and bottled it!!

After a short venture out we ended up firstly in Foxhill Fabrics and Yarns which is located in Mitchells Craft Center, Weeford Road which is located in Sutton Coldfield. That is where the Noro book in the picture came from. The lady in the shop was lovely and friendly and very helpful. The shop had lovely stuff in it too and loads of brands I can't get nearer home. After a mooch which wasn't as pleasant as it could have been (mainly because hubby and the boys tummy's rumbling was loud enough to start an avalanche of yarn to start cascading down from the shelves) we left and went for lunch and also for me to ponder why I hadn't gone mad and bought some of the yarn I've been lusting after for a while. I realised my problem, I'm a tight skint flint.

A few days before Liz and I had been in the Solihull branch of House Of Fraser where they have not only had a sale but also a Rowan rep visit the store and offering Rowan All Seasons Cotton for the bargain price £5 for 500grms in 3 different colours. Well what is a girl to do in those circumstances I ask you, I know what I did, I had already informed my older children of my impending shopping trip and tentatively broached the subject of picking up my own pressies if they were happy for me to do that!! Yup, they were more than happy for that. So I had all 3 colours in the cotton and then the agonising of which colour to pick for the Bamboo Soft, there were at least half a dozen colours all beautiful.

Over lunch I suggested to hubby we double back to Solihull and see what was left. The darling man agreed so we went and got me the rest of the pattern books in the photo and 3 other colours of the Rowan Bamboo Soft which is sooooo soooffftt and smoochy I cannot wait to use it. The bed is also filling up very nicely!

Aren't I a lucky girl, I also had other non knitty pressies too but I don't think you want to bother about my everyday comfy cotton underwear amongst other things do you?????

The Missing Link!

2010-05-29T23:05:00.005+01:00

This is the link for the pattern from my previous post, which for some reason it would let me copy and paste the link.... looks like I need another lesson in blogging skills Knitted DROPS bolero in lace pattern with short raglan sleeve in ”Muskat”. Size XS/S to XXXL ~ DROPS Design

Out of Sync

2010-05-29T22:42:00.004+01:00

Well hello there! A little longer between the posts than I intended but it is the same month so I'm doing well ;0) This is a very recent FO that was indeed finished 2 weeks ago, it is also my most recent FO in fact.

Hubby and I at my mum's cousins wedding a few weeks ago!! I made the bolero specially for the occasion. I wish I could say that my hubby is pulling a funny face but alas this is his normal expression XOD I think you will agree the bolero is the best thing about the whole picture......cheeky,!!

Well it is a design from Drops Design at GarnStudio www.scandinavianknittingdesign.co.uk and is design 119-27 shrug pattern. I was very pleased to discover the same design was pictured in this months Knitting Magazine (June 2010 issue 77), I'm a subscriber and my early copy dropped onto my doormat the morning after I finished it. The pattern itself wasn't featured, just a picture of it and a suggestion as a wedding season knit. I was chuffed to discover I was right on trend for probably the first time in my life!!!

It is knitted in Lang's 100% merino which is lovely and soft and lush. I bought it in Harrogate at the knitting show, I'm not 100% which stall it was from but Woolfish rings a bell. I do remember rummaging in a suitcase for as many balls as possible with the same dye lot. I think the lady was asking for £2 a ball but I think I did a deal for buying multiple balls, I think I got 7 balls for £10 in the end, 5 balls in this colour and 2 in a dark green.

The button which you cannot see clearly on the picture came from my Fekkers Christmas swap present from the lovely Leigh. She sent me a lovely bauble filled with georgous buttons, all pretty, some shiny or just beautiful in their own right. She totally pandered to my button fetish, but I was under orders that these were a stress buster pressie to sit sort and soothe my worries, but as this was a knit for myself, and a special one at that then I was sure she wouldn't mind.

I am very pleased with this knit, it's easy to wear and very comfortable. The colour will also go with a lot of my wardrobe. I also had the very dubious compliment of "oh you made it, but it looks like you would buy it in a shop" !!!!

She's Growing Fast

2010-05-14T08:45:00.004+01:00

Just so I don't lose the blogging bug again this is a quickie post for a few recent FO's. I have some other posts lined up but the photos are still on the camera so this will do in the 15 mins or so I have available.

These are two knits for Isabel my friend Liz's daughter. She is now almost 11 months old (where did that go).

This first one is taken from the Let's Knit magazine issue 26 (Jan 2010) and is called Sindy, I used Regia 4-fach colourway 4258. It took 2 balls with a little left over.
I have to say I enjoyed knitting this and would definitely knit it again. It is an all in one construction knitted sideways across. Ravelry page is http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sindy The cuffs for the sleeves were a little tricky and probably easier to sew by hand but I hate sewing up so much I persevered. I loved how it came out too, so did Liz, the only problem was less than 2 weeks after I finished it she had outgrown it.

So to make amends for being so daft at knitting such a silly size I knitted this instead. I think you'll agree that it fits fine.

Easily recognisable as a Sirdar pattern alas I'm afraid at this point I do not have the leaflet details as I knitted from a pullout from Knitting Magazine Issue No 63 May 2009. It is the Bolero from the girls cardi, beret and shoes collection. I used Patons Washed Haze in Lilac (if it helps to track down the pattern it was originally knitted in Sirdar Snuggly) ready for the summer.

Isabel is indeed growing very fast and is a very bright, mobile (already taken her first steps) not for too much longer baby.

A New Home For My Stash

2010-05-02T17:31:00.005+01:00

OK so I am still not showing any FO's but this is big news.

I have a new home for my stash, and I love it....... for a number of reasons but the top one is that all of my stash is now together in one place. It is no longer spread around in separate hidey holes (sssshhhhh some secret, some not), there is enough room (just about) for it all to be together so when I need something in particular I no longer have to rummage round upstairs desperately hoping a certain person doesn't walk in on me when I'm trying not to give away a secret stash of guilty hoard of illicit buying.

The second reason is the form that it comes in.... hubby and I are now walking straight after a couple of months (!!! for hubby it has been years of moaning) from being doubled up in pain from a bad back.

We have a new bed, we have a new bed with rather a lot of storage space underneath, in fact we have a new bed with the biggest baddest storage we could find!!!!! WHOOP WHOOP

I have managed to get most of my stash into see through packaging so I can mostly see what is where, I have also tried to group some of it together and the yarn I'm more likely to use or have projects in mind for near the bottom and more accessible.

In fact it isn't just a new bed, we have also gained a very tidy bedroom. I got my wardrobe space back from all the stash I had got crammed in there and I am now able to put my clothes away instead of piling them up on the worktop outside the wardrobe because there was no way they would fit in there before!!! This worktop 6 weeks ago had piles of jeans, jumpers etc all lined up. For the last few weeks it has stayed like this. Wonderful.

I was incredibly lucky when we went bed shopping although it didn't feel like it at first. I was totally disappointed with the complete lack of choice for the first few shops we went to..... but we hit jackpot at our 3rd shop and once I'd seen the space in this beauty it was all over. The fact that hubby's eyed had already glazed over and rolled into the back of head was the clincher. He had enough before we even left the house and just wanted to get home so was ready to agree to whatever I wanted ;0) and he didn't even baulk too much at the price. Although it wasn't as expensive as some of the beds we looked at it was a smidgen over what we had said we would pay, then again we hadn't taken into account how much the cost of beds had gone up over the years and nearly every bed we looked at was over what we had expected to pay.

We had some bad news financially the next day but decided to weather the storm, the theory being the bed would last a lot longer than the storm and going for a cheaper option would be false economy. We seem OK so far fingers crossed!

The only downside I can think of is that I obviously won't be able to go in there whilst hubby is in bed, but I usually have enough bits downstairs to keep me occupied so I don't anticipate that being a huge problem.

After the bed was ordered, we had 3 weeks to wait before delivery, so there was a LOT of time to

i) spruce up the bedroom with retouching the paintwork etc and putting down a new carpet,

ii) argue over who gets how much storage with hubby demanding a 50/50 split......

I leave you to guess who won

Oh Wow Has It Been THAT Long, NO, REALLY..

2010-04-29T00:48:00.002+01:00

(GULP) has it really been that long since I last blogged???? Where did that go?? How on earth do I go about catching up on that amount of time cos I am still knitting honestly, maybe not churning out as much production as I was, (darn you Facebook you are too bloody addictive with your Farmville's and Cafe Worlds and Bejewelled Blitz bits) but I do still have a respectable list of FO's, they may not all have made it onto my Ravelry page either but they are real. I have witnesses and recipients to prove it.

I had some great posts in my head I kept meaning to sit down and do. For a start I cannot believe I didn't blog about Harrogate, my first night spent away from my family in nearly 15 years, the fantabby time I had meeting fellow Fekkers, friends made over the Internet but except for a few had never met in person (and can I add what a wonderful and lovely bunch of ladies they are). The fantastic time I spent in the wonderful hospitality of my very lovely friends GG and HWN who who invited me to stay in their home, the great day we all had meeting up with each other. Chris and Lucy who I spent most of the day with trawling round the halls and trying not to be headless chickens and grabbing the first delights we came across (well OK maybe that was just me ;0) ).

There were many Christmas presents and commissions and I was again knitting till the last minute. Christmas swap gifts were also received and gifted in the Fekker's Secret Santa Swap. I was overjoyed with my gift from the lovely Leigh who totally pandered to my button fetish and sent me a whole heap of beautiful shiny bits that I still take out and stroke every so often. A great stress reliever, and well needed a lot over the last few months.

Well my intentions at the moment are entirely honourable and I intend to come back very soon with a decent post and pictures, honest I just hope that I have no crops that need harvesting.......

Some Recent Work (Look I Have Been Busy, Honest)

2009-09-21T14:11:00.006+01:00

Hello there, I seem to have forgotten about blogging again for a while, the time passes so quickly and the weeks are flying by. I honestly thought I would have more time now the boys are back at school again, instead my time seems even more sparse.
Anyway here's a few bits and bobs completed in the last month or two.

This first one was actually completed last, it is a very thick jumper by Sirdar (pattern leaflet Bigga 8568) knitted in Bigga. The sizing only goes up to a 38inch chest which I suspected would be a little cosy on me so I upped the stitch count by a few as well as the rows to make it a little longer in length. The biggest size is supposed to take 9 balls but with my alterations I used exactly 10. The yarn is a wool/acrylic blend and was purchased from www.kempswoolshop.co.uk a long time ago. I had been looking for a pattern for a while to use it up as when I bought it I thought a 1000grms would be plenty but the yardage isn't that long and I had trouble finding something I liked that I had enough yarn for!! It only took 2 days to knit. Hows that for instant gratification!!!
This is going to be my footie training jumper, both boys are going training on Saturdays and Zakk is also going Tuesday nights. It is cold on that field and I'm hoping this will be thick enough to keep the biting wind out.

This is another Louisa Harding cot blanket taken from Natural Knits for Babies and Mum's. It is the same as I did for Isabel but in a more girly colourway. It was knit for a friend of my daughters who has just had a new baby niece . I added her initials into what would have been the plain panels. I hope Grace Alice's parents (and auntie) like it!! I used yarn from Hobbycraft, their own brand the palette range. It is 100% acrylic again but easy care and a lovely range of colours and a very good price too at I think it was around £1.55 a ball for 100grms.

This is a hoodie knitted for Zakk in Sirdar Snowflake Chunky. Vile stuff to knit with by the way!! It is pattern leaflet Snowflake Chunky 4310. It just needs a zip. The yarn came from EBay ages ago. I added the hood as the original pattern didn't have one. I still need to order a zip though.!!!

This was going to be a hoodie for Max the same as above but in an ordinary chunky yarn, however as always when using up unknown stash judging how much you have is a little hit and miss so I had to improvise a fair bit, including adding the contrast colour for the edging. This also needs a zip ordering, looks like I have some Internet shopping to do once I've finished blogging!!

This picture is unfortunately very off with the colours! This is a scarf requested by my daughter Leigh-Ann to wear to the Reading music festival which happened August Bank Holiday. Not trusting the British weather she asked me knit a scarf 2 days before she went in the loudest, brightest funkiest colours I have. The real colours are bright red, bottle green and purple. All from my stash and it's a simple YO K2TOG pattern knitted on 12mm needles, alternating the YO's. Not my favourite item knitted by myself but she loved and wore it in the evenings at Reading when the temps dropped and has also wore it since she came home.

I seem to have spent a lot of August knitting scarves!!! These two came about after finding the yarn in my local Wilkinsons store being sold off in a bargain basket for 10p a ball. I grabbed 3 balls of these two colorways and also some other yarn with a metallic thread running through it. They only had 1 50grm ball in a very pretty pink but 10 50grm balls in a dark green and silver.Not too sure what to do with those yet but these have knitted up fine and will possibly be used for either teachers pressies for Christmas or for myself at footie training to go with my lilac jumper. The top colourway is monochrome

and this is the purple mix

This a pattern I fell in love with some time ago. Unfortunately my knitting hasn't done it justice, maybe it is just the colourway I'm not sure. I bought the pattern ages ago from Kemps and by chance happened on the yarn a long time after in the clearance section but this was the only colourway (Mahogany) left. It is from leaflet Sirdar Duet 8679 and it only took 4 balls which being in the clearance section were only 49p a ball.

Belated Birthday

2009-08-28T23:09:00.004+01:00

This is again (as with a lot of my posts just a teeny!!! bit overdue. We are in the last week in August and Max's birthday was about 9 weeks ago back in June. It isn't so much that I forgot to put a Max's birthday post on my blog it was a I completely forgot I had done a blog post with Zakk's birthday. Sorry Macca but here you are a blog post all to yourself too.

These are pictures taken from the family after school tea that happened on his actual birthday rather than the big joint party that was two weeks previous. That seems so long ago now it is incredible how time flies!!!

PS, it is a spiderman cake and we could have saved ourselves so much money as it was the only thing he wanted for his birthday, and the band around the cake???? he played with it for weeks after, 5 year olds have incredible imaginations..

Gina's Turn

2009-08-06T13:36:00.010+01:00

Well both Charlotte and Isabel have both had their own blog posts and now it is Gina's turn. For someone who is usually quite a tom-boy I think she has potential for a model!! Very professional posing there Gina :0)

Georgina 's birthday was a few weeks ago and these are the cardies I knitted for her birthday. They were both taken from The Juicy Book by Sirdar Spinning Ltd as were Charlotte's. In fact the Frilled edge Bolero is the same design but obviously in a different colour and yarn.

This one is another Frilled Edge Bolero, the same as Charlotte's taken from Sirdar's The Juicy Book, design H. It is knitted in Sirdar Bonus DK and features a two tone frill around the edge, mainly cos it was stash yarn that didn't stretch quite as far as it should have, but I actually like the effect.

This one is also from The Juicy Book, design F Lacy Cropped Cardies. It is knitted in King Cole Baby Comfort DK. Very soft for an acrylic yarn and I have used it quite a few times. In fact I think most of the projects on Ravelry for this yarn are mine.

Well I think she liked them anyway, the cardie she had been wearing was straight away stripped off and these tried on!!!

I also did another few of these for my youngest niece Alice, no piccies yet though I'm hopeful to get some.

These were actually finished quite a while ago now, I have been lazy in blog updating again, but it has been the summer hols for the kids here in the UK. Another 31 days and they will be back at school YIPEEEEEE. Only joking honest!! the boys have both been very good, still to young to realise that being bored is cool. I love their innocence and the fact that they manage to fill their days themselves. I suppose it helps an awful lot that they are so close in age and are best friends, they rarely get bored with each other!! Fingers crossed that lasts as long as possible.

For Isabel

2009-07-17T13:08:00.006+01:00

OK two blog posts in one day? but Isabel Margaret is so beautiful she does deserve a blog post all of her own. Isabel is the new baby daughter of my friend Liz. I did mention her a few posts ago and that she was imminent to giving birth! Isabel Margaret was born on June 21st, right on her due date!! Of course I could not let the wonderful occasion go unknitted for now could I? So here are my contributions for her arrival...

This blanket is taken from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits for Babies and Mums, I have to confess I didn't knit the individual squares though, I cheated and did it in strips and just stitched those edges together. The yarn is acrylic (sorry but I know Liz, and her tumble dryer is her best friend), the yarn came from The Art Of Knitting partwork series that started a few years ago. It was weekly series and despite collecting the whole series of over 90 issues with yarn every week to knit a square and make a throw, I have to date only done a dozen or so squares. Then when the first throw had finished they then started sending yarn for a second throw using these colours, however I decided I wasn't going to knit it and ended up cancelling the series, leaving me with 17 balls of yarn. So when looking in my stash to see what I could at least use as a starting point for the blanket I was chuffed to bits to rediscover them. I love the colours and as Liz was still pregnant when I started the blanket it was a perfect and modern colour scheme that could be for either boy or girl.

This one is the Debbie Bliss Ribbed Jacket taken from 22 Gorgeous Knits For Babies and Toddlers although I got the pattern from The Prima Magazine website, it was available as a free download and Liz gave it to me but I will have to ask her for the link as I do not have it, although you should be able to find it on Ravelry somewhere. It is knitted in Sirdar Supersoft Aran in lilac. I also hand knitted the flower embellishment and this was taken from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits For Babies And Mums. The flower was taken from Amelie the knitted dress.

This tiny pink cardie was knitted as a last minute add on because all the others were too big for Isabel, it is a dolls pattern that I adapted for quickness the original pattern had a ribbed yoke and embroidery along the bottom edge and on the yoke. It is knitted in King Cole baby comfort which I have used before. I love how pale the pink is not at all garish like some baby yarns.

This was knitted from Patons leaflet PBN-02698 which contains 4 designs for babies up to 18 months. It is knitted in King Cole Baby DK. A girly variegated colour full of pinks,lilacs peaches and lemons. Very pretty and softens up a little after washing too.This was my first baby knit for Isabel and an impulsive stash buster, I found some very old Wendy Elegance which is a wool rich but machine washable DK. I had barely enough hence the short sleeves but I figured that would be fine as she is a summer baby. I knitted the sleeves together last and cast off when it became obvious I wouldn't be able to do much more than that. I think I was left with something daft like 30cm of yarn!! The pattern is Harvey Kimono taken again from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits For Babies And Mums

This green jacket is a pattern from a part work series that came out in the early 90's called Creative Needles, it is a series I started collecting at the time and did indeed knit a fair few patterns from it, however when I moved house 11 years ago it was during a huge knitting break and it got left behind along with a big black sack of yarn, needles and other patterns. I've kicked myself many times since then for leaving it there but hubby found a complete set of the Creative Needles at the car boot a few months ago and surprised me by calling me back to buy it cos I had walked past it!! It bought back a few memories and straight away I wanted to knit this again as I had knitted years ago though I forget who for as it certainly wasn't either of my older two.!

Yarn Porn (Yarn From Ravelry Day )

2009-07-17T11:45:00.006+01:00

I know I promised to give label info etc for my Ravelry day purchases, my alpologies but I haven't had time. Rather than tag them on the end of the last post I though I may as well start a new one. Trying to juggle loads of pics on here is always a pain and getting it to look how I want is near impossible but hey ho here goes.

Firstly the softest of the bunch and my favourite! This is Dragonfly Lace from www.kraftykoala.co.uk it is a blend of alpaca,cashmere and silk and oh yes it is as soft and as smoochy as it sounds. The actual colour is a tad brighter than the pic and it is also a semi solid which is also lost in the pic. The colourway on the tag says Black Forest. My apologies, apart from a very grey day outside my photographic skills are zero but the camera is also a basic one!

These two are from http://www.coldharbourmill.org.uk/ they are both 100% merino and again very soft and scrummy. The purple is 100grms of 4ply and the cream is lace weight which weighs 50grms.

I think this purple one also came from Coldharbour Mill, but the only info on the label is fibre content which is 90% alpaca and 10% nylon. It looks lace weight/2 ply again and is also very smooshie

This is 100% Shetland Wool and came from Jamieson & Smith, I have just tried to copy and paste the link from Ravelry but it appears to be broken!! It is a lovely deep olive/mossy green colour which I adore, it is just a shame that it is traditional wool and quite hard and scratchy. I do have in mind a felting project but will try and knit and wash a tension square first to see if it softens up in the wash.

Last but least this is 100% British wool from the Sheepfold??? It is a very pretty pale green colour but also like the dark green Shetland above quite scratchy. It is 4ply and as it only has the weight on the label 317grms I have no idea of yardage either. I am also guilty of forgetting the info on this...I do remember it was the first thing I bought and it was out of a bargain bin.

The buttons which I haven't rephotographed (sorry) are from www.knitting4fun.com or www.textilegarden.com Not sure which ones came from where now but if you like them enough I'm sure you will enjoy browsing the websites looking for them.

I apologise for my awful memory, I have problems remembering what I had for dinner yesterday never mind what I brought 6 weeks when I was on sensory overload. Senile dementia runs in the family but I doubt with me anyone will notice any difference as to whether I develop it or not!!!! ;0)

Ravelry Day Haul

2009-06-27T17:13:00.005+01:00

Oh well this post is a lot later than I anticipated, just under 2 weeks later actually to be almost exact but better late than never (is a fitting motto for me and something that I suspect my family will have etched somewhere in remembrance of me after my clogs have popped and I have headed off the the big skein of yarn in the sky).

This year saw the birth of a new "festival/celebration" for us Knitters in the form of Ravelry Day. It happened in the Coventry Central Hall, Coventry which is in the West Midlands in the UK (which is just up the road from where I live) on Saturday 6th June. As well as the fortuous coincidence that the whole thing was dreamt up by a lady called Jo who happens to live less than 15 miles from my front door. I also had the added bonus that the whole thing happened a week or so before my birthday, so although our bank account was in a very battered and bruised state from the whole run of family birthday's that happen in May and June it didn't really matter because as it turned out a lot of the family were more than prepared to give me spending money in order to buy my own birthday present. Even the downside of having to hand over my precious purchases on my arrival home for a weeks hibernation in wrapping paper before being handed back to me did not spoil it a bit. In fact not even the torrential rain that persisted for the whole day could not mar the occasion for me, I didn't even mind the couple of times whilst standing at the back of a crowd gathered around a market stall the rain running off the plastic sheeting covering the stall and straight down the back of my neck. I loved the whole day.

I also got an opportunity to meet fellow Fekker Sash2, another regular member of a knitting forum that I eerrrmm visit on the odd occasion (hubby would argue that it is all day every day but I'm sure the girls will back me up and say they hardly ever "see" me). It was thanks to Sash that I actually eventually got to go Ravelry Day, she had bought a ticket for her mum who wasn't able to come as she is quite elderly and the transport links were going to be a big obstacle for her. I however hadn't bought a ticket, with the boys party/Leigh-Ann's birthday I wasn't sure whether I would have the fundage in the beginning and was planning to just chance it and go on the day, I had asked hubby whether he fancied it as a day out with the boys.... he just looked at me like I had gone stark raving mad and said "No thanks, Knitting I don't think so". So when Sash posted a message on the forum that she had a ticket going spare it was the 3rd and final bit of good luck (location, timing and now a valid excuse that my friend had a ticket spare and surely hubby and the boys would be fine without me for a mere 8 hours or so!!!!!) that smiled on me.

It was great to have a fellow knitter to drool over beautiful hand painted yarn, unusual and quirky buttons and even to want to pet the Alpacas that were next to the Toft Alpaca stall, but they were very smelly soaking wet in the rain. The amount of stash enhancing opportunities were fantastic, so many of the independent spinners and dyers were there and it was fantastic to be able to touch, feel and caress all the lovely fibres that I had only been able to see on a pc screen before now. The Knitting Goddess was there, so were Fyberspates, Kathleen Alice from Green Eyed Monsters (who I have conversed with on the original Lets Knit forum),Naked Sheep, Old Maiden Aunt Yarns, The Natural Dye Studio, and Knitting4fun were just some of them. The temptation to run amok was high, very high. It took an awful lot of willpower to not spend all my cash in the first 10 mins, but I had promised hubby that I would buy things other than yarn and I also had been hankering after a ball winder for a while, (skeins and I just do not get on very well, I always get into a complete mess and it has taken my over 24 hours before now to untangle a single 50grm skein of tangled mess into a ball).

Whilst the actual event was supposed to be in the Central Hall, from the forum posts on Ravelry I have read it grew from an idea from one very inspired lady and got such a huge response from fellow Ravelry members that eventually it had to spill out of what is quite a big hall that was booked for the event and many of the vendors on the day had to be accommodated in the markets stalls that are outside, hence the temptation for Sash and I as we approached and couldn't bear to walk past all that lovely yarn porn to go and look at all the demonstrations and exhibits until much later. We probably did it the wrong way round of course, we should have gone inside and looked at what was happening inside when we weren't carrying bags laden down with purchases but the fear for me at least that someone would come along and buy it all up before we had a chance to was far to great. There were classes and talks held by some of the greats in the knitting world like Meg Swansen, Debbie Bliss, Jared Flood to name but a few, which neither of us had bought tickets for. There was also a knitted fashion show, which we did have a peek at. There were some spinning demos, something I would really love to try one day when all the kids are grown up, moved out and I can have a room devoted to it. The prices of the roving are a big enough incentive o their own! I loved the extreme knitting stall, where you can knit a rug in less than a day using their huge needles and crochet hooks.

The whole event was sponsored by the The Knitter magazine and the people who publish that and also Simply Knitting magazine were offering a 3 issues for £1 deal for new subscribers as well as an extra free copy on the day. Of course I subscribed to both!! it would have been extremely rude not to.

Now normally I would be putting in loads of links and giving you in depth detail of what I bought and from where, but I'm writing this on the weekend and family life keeps rudely interrupting. Off and on I have been at this now since around 4.00pm but having to stop and feed the hungry hordes (both older two are out clubbing so I made sure they were well fed and stomaches lined before they went out, stopping to watch Zakk rock at Guitar Hero (he is wiping the floor with both hubby and I at the age 6, embarassing or what!!) and give Max some attention too I really need to finish up. It is now 8pm and the boys are running round the garden when they really should be and normally are in bed. Hopefully it is something I will come back to and do in the next day or so. I did know that this would be a major blog post but not how big!!!!!!

There was so much on offer and I'm really gutted that my chances of attending next years show are slim to none as it will be held during August far away in Stirling, Scotland. It is only fair of course that Knitters north of the border will also get a chance to have a fantastic day as well but I hope it's success continues and it eventually winds it way back down to the Midlands. All that yarn porn is such a rare opportunity for this knitter... well until November that is when I am off to Harrogate. I already have my ticket.....

Conk the Clown

2009-06-17T12:26:00.006+01:00

Well the gremlins are still present, I thought after the party things would settle down and I would get a little time to sort things out, but no, I'm still running round like a headless chicken getting nothing done fast.

A lot has happened in a few weeks as well as the boys joint birthday party, my daughter Leigh-Ann turned 21, I also had a birthday but I'm only admitting that I'm still 30something even though the boys tried to upset me by writing 41 etc all over my card. Yeah yeah very funny NOT. There was also Ravelry day in Coventry where I met up with a fellow Fekker Sash 2 for the first time, she is lovely and we had a great time but that will be another post in the very near future.

Today's post is a few photos of the boys joint birthday party, it was on Fri 5th June and we (OK mainly me) was very very worried about the weather. I had counted on having the party in the garden when I had let the boys invite 35 classmates and family members and despite the week before being glorious the weather started to go downhill as the party day approached. I think I have sold my soul in order for the weather to hold, I begged and borrowed favours from everyone I knew up in the heavens for it to be dry but it certainly seemed to do the trick. Despite a few teasing drops at 2.00pm when the party was due to start at 2.15pm it held on and the sun even came out for a view of Conk the Clown and his very funny act. He had adults and children in stitches and was worth every penny we paid. He got the adults up for a rendition of Old McDonald and they were laughing so mush they couldn't make the noises, I am led to believe there is a video of my MIL trying to be the pig on Youtube somewhere! I have asked for the link and when I receive it I shall put it on here. My BIL has it on his phone and has been keeping himself very entertained by repeatedly watching it! Despite all the distractions in the garden like the trampoline and climbing frames etc the children still for the most part sat and watched and enjoyed his magic act. Even hubby who had been chuntering for weeks about paying for a bloody bloke in a red nose was very impressed, I even had a high 5 from him after the event.
On the whole the party went very well, one or two accidents on the limbing frame etc but with how many children were there I was impressed with how smoothly it went. The weather stayed with us til 6pm. The party finished at 5.15pm and I had been praying til 5pm at which point I would have coped with all the kids and adults for 15 mins inside but the Gods smiled on us and 6pm was perfect because it meant the garden got tidied up as well but my house stayed clean and tidy too.
Like a switch had been flipped the heavens opened at 6pm and I think it rained for pretty much 48 hours straight but I didn't care even though it was Ravelry day the next day and all the stalls were outside.
I would like to say thank you for all the help on the day I had. My MIL Doreen , my SIL's Sue and Laura, my friend Liz and the mums Donna and Emma who all helped with loading plates of food and distributing drinks for the children, mopping up spills, tiding away leftover food and used plates etc and helping with washing up etc. You all helped to make the day much easier. You were much apprieciated.

Hello, Hello I Am Here Can You Hear Me???

2009-06-02T08:01:00.003+01:00

We have Gremlins, well virtual ones anyway! For some reason the main PC that I usually use has decided it no longer wants an internet relationship, well actually I have a feeling it is the other way round that the internet no longer wants a relationship with the PC, whichever way round it is they are not talking which means I am unable to talk! I have a feeling that a phone call to my ISP will solve the problem but I just don't seem to have the time at the moment to do that and all the palarvering about that will entail in order to get back online. I am currently using my daughters laptop which seems to have constant PMT (unlike my daughter I hasten to add). It has a super sensitive mouse pad which does things all on its own whether you have your hand hovering withn 6 inches or not! It also refuses to interact with things like emoticons and spell checks etc, very very frustrating (also a VALID excuse for my awful spelling, my apologies).

You would think with all the extra time on my hands (according to hubby all day every day as that is how often he thinks I'm on the PC) you would think my needles are smoking! Alas no, it is the boys big joint birthday party is on Friday and I am trying to get the hovel that is my home and the overgrown wilderness that are my gardens into some sort of cared for and tended order. Not an easy job in this glorious sunshine and heat that we in the UK are enjoying at the moment (that is not a complaint by any means BTW).

But I have been knitting, I even have an FO and a nearly FO which I was hoping to have finished by now but because I am so shattered every night when I finally sit down it is taking a lot longer than I anticipated. Not that I could post a pic even if I wanted to, as it is a present and as the recipient now has access to my blog they aren't getting a sneaky peek. ;0)

Anyway HELLO to any FEKKERs out there you know who you are!! I will be back as soon as possible, well I hope you are missing me and my mindless drivel a teeny tiny bit at least. Hopefully nomal service will resume as soon as possible.

Another FO WHOO HOO

2009-05-17T20:03:00.005+01:00

YEY I have yet another finished object, it is another that has been finished for a while but I had to order a zip online blah blah blah and then take it to have the zip put in because my sewing skills are so poor and my sewing machine is STILL waiting to be repaired :0(

I started this 12 months ago for Zakk but it went into hibernation behind the settee over the winter as I'd reached a point where I had to make a decision on how I was going to do the yoke. It is part designed by myself / part heavily modified pattern from somewhere else. I couldn't make up my mind whether to do the yoke as one piece with sleeves at the same time or each section individually and sew it all up after. I did it all in one in the end and the only sewing up is the lower part of the sleeves.I took a lot of notes early so I could attempt to write it up and eventually publish the pattern on here and/or Ravelry. I need to make one for Max too so I will have the opportunity to test what I have written and try a smaller size at the same time, you never know it may well appear here one day.

It was knitted in two shades of Patons Fab, I brought over a year ago in House of Fraser, Birmingham and the blue one is an air force/denim type blue shade 02312 and the red is quite a cherry red shade 02322. The zip was bought online and the shade is Saxe blue. I think I got it from here http://www.doughtysonline.co.uk/nylon-open-end-zip-41cm-saxe-blue-5030121018511.html ughtysonline.co.uk/nylon-open-end-zip-41cm-saxe-blue-5030121018511.html.

I'm quite chuffed at how it came out, considering I finished it a year later it fits quite well although when I picked it back up I did add some extra length to it.

He has had it on all weekend. Of course the main reason he loves it is because it is technically claret and blue. The same colours as his beloved Aston Villa. Note to self, anything claret and blue Zakk will wear including my knitted stuff ;0)

Buttons Make Me Happy

2009-05-14T12:46:00.004+01:00

What was I saying about sporadic bulk buying of buttons? This is another eBay win, I won this lot for £1.99 + p&p. There are some more very pretty ones in here and I am very pleased with them.

I think I am going to have a major sort out especially as I have some more on the way from another win! Oh the anticipation of sorting them into catergories and group etc. I really think I need to leave the house more often LOL.

Happy Birthday Zakk

2009-05-14T12:26:00.006+01:00

Yesterday was my son Zakk's 6th birthday. Even though he had to go to school I think he had a great day. We had a small tea party for him after school with a lot of the family round, grandma, cousins, aunties and uncles and grandad etc.

He is having a full works party together with Max whose birthday it is next month in a few weeks time. That will be chaos with 40+ children running round my house, I have booked (I just need to find the money to pay for!!) a children's entertainer. Please pray for dry weather for me, at least then they can all be in the garden, if not it will have to be a gazebo village out there!

Blog Award!!

2009-05-06T11:51:00.003+01:00

I've just been having a quick blog browse through some peoples blogs who I know from various forums and Ravelry etc (as you do whilst trying to avoid the housework) and stumbled over this very lovely surprise. http://sheila-sheelagh.blogspot.com/2009/05/ive-won-blog-award.html?showComment=1241606760000#c4825876185048940655 .
So Sheila was given an award and promptly put my name up amongst others I hasten to add for a little bit of my own recognition. Thank you very much Sheila. I have given an acceptance speech
knitternicky said...
AHEM (cough cough)Thank You very much Sheila for making me one of your Blogger Award Choices. This is a very great honour for me and I have to say that I am extremely grateful that anyone reads it at all never minds returns for a second plus visit. Thank you that you have actually remembered it and given it a choice award is very humbling and I shall endeavour to carry on the good work. Ps Thanks also to my family whose makeshift meals are just eaten gratefully without too much whinging and moaning about mum trying to get something else finished, again. Whose clothes on occasion take more than the necessary day or two to be taken from the laundry basket and returned to their bedrooms, laundered and ironed. Not forgetting that their STUFF!! when littered around the home also takes a little longer than it should to be returned to it's rightful place because mum is too engrossed in knitting even for a light nagging on said items to be put away!!
06 May 2009 03:46
I am all happy and glowy now.
I wish I was a little more tech savvy so I could customise my blog a little more and improve the look of my posts but at least the time it takes to blog has reduced dramatically. I do keep playing with the controls etc though and hopefully will get there one day. In the meantime I think I need to add the blogs that I follow to my page so that is tomorrows job as I have just noticed my tummy rumbling and the time. Oops more makeshift meals and housework not done ;0)

My Needles Are Smokin........

2009-05-06T09:21:00.005+01:00

Well I have been busy with the pins. These are both hot off the needles last night, finishing on them took forever BTW.
These are two summer style short sleeved cardies taken from the new for this season Sirdar Juicy Book, the pattern support for the new Juicy DK yarn out this spring. Unfortunately my LYS isn't stocking the yarn yet! so I substituted them for other DK yarns.

They were both knitted for Charlotte my friend's daughter, it was her birthday yesterday but she only just got them on her birthday thanks to my HUGE underestimation of how long they would take to finish.

The cream one is design D taken from the book Lacy Yoke Cardi. I've knitted size age 10-11, chest size 30in/76cm. It's a really simple lace pattern but very pretty. It is also available as a long sleeved design but I opted for the short sleeves for quickness.It is knitted in King Cole Smooth, which is very soft and has a cotton like sheen to it but it is acrylic so is machine washable and can also be tumble dried on low. Charlotte's mum is a busy working mum and also heavily pregnant at the mo so hand washing etc is a big no no.

The blue one is design H Short Sleeved Frill Edge

Bolero, this is also available in 3/4 length sleeves but again the short sleeves was a time frame thing. Sssshhhh I knitted it in a cheap acrylic aarrggghhhh!! Teddy Vanguard. It was given to me by a friend of my MIL about two weeks ago. She found it whilst having a sort out along with a few other knitting bits and bobs, a few sets of needles and stitch holders etc. I had a choice, it was either open the wardrobe door and risk not being able to close it again to find room to squeeze it in there or use it. The button is one of the blue mother of pearl buttons from my last post.

It is a very pretty and a very easy knit to do, I just wish I hadn't put myself under so much pressure time wise so I could have enjoyed knitting it more! I do like the finished effect though.I also think it looks lovely on her but then I am biased. I'm also very chuffed that she seems to like them.

Charlotte's mum's baby is due in around 6 weeks and it is also her younger sisters birthday next month, ooh err I'd better get clicking.....

Shiny Pretty Things

2009-04-30T11:39:00.008+01:00

Well, it is virtually impossible to have a yarn fetish with out developing a fetish for something else too. I'm talking buttons here, they are pretty, shiny, beautiful and (as an afterthought) practical to boot. Now compared to my yarn stash my button collection is a little woeful, but it is one that was started from scratch and the only time I ever think to add to it is when I don't have a button to hand that I need, so it tends to have sporadic bulk additions once in a blue moon which is strange because I do love playing with them and sorting through them etc. I envy those of you out there that inherited button jars etc from grandma's and moms and aunties etc. You are so lucky honestly. Anything retro or vintage in my collection has come from eBay or charity shops and that doesn't sound as nice as a heirloom!

Anyway after investigating my button tubs for a button to go on Frosted Blossom (previous post) and then my local LYS and the House of Fraser in Birmingham city center (never thought to try the rag market, need to make a trip up there soon but they sell yarn too and that makes me very nervous for obvious reasons) I sort of stumbled across these whilst resorting to internet hunting.

So these are just a few bargains that arrived this morning.
These were all bought from eBay, the first pic shows some brand new buttons, two lots of mother of pearl, one white and one blue. Very reasonable I thought at 10 for 50p of each. the ivory heart buttons and car buttons are also quite sweet and they were both 10 for 99p. They came from eBay seller The Kraft Box http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-Kraft-Box . The postage was very good value too, I hate sellers who overcharge for postage and frequently decide to choose another seller with more reasonable rates if possible. delivery was quite quick and it was well packaged with good communication. Buying more than one purchase you need to ask for revised p&p as each additional item costs just an extra 1p but it isn't automatic at checkout. My revised invoice was very quick though so not a problem. My total was £3.77 including p&p.
Second photo shows a job lot from a private seller, all second hand but some lovely ones there all the same. This whole lot I won for 40p plus p&p, so not a bad haul for £1.39 in all. It is amazing how cheap it is to make me happy!! The pics I'm afraid are not doing them justice, there are some very pretty ones in there.
The last photo shows my favourites and I have a feeling I'm going to be going through my Ravelry queue fairly soon to see which designs only need single buttons so I have an excuse to use them ;0)

Click Click I've Been Busy

2009-04-28T11:51:00.007+01:00

Whoo Hoo, I have another FO. And this one is a proper garment that took ages. It was also finished ages ago (well a about 3 weeks or so) but it has been waiting for a button, I had trouble finding one big enough that I liked but I struck gold yesterday whilst browsing t'internet.
Hubby reckons this is one of my best ever, he actually likes this jacket and as if that wasn't a big bonus I have the double whammy that it fits me well too. It is in fact a perfect fit. It also looks better on me (honest) than it looks in the pic. In regards to taking photos David Bailey I am most definitely not!!!!

The design is by Wendy Wool and is called Frosted Blossom and I got the pattern from Simply Knitting magazine issue no49 Jan 09.

It is a design for Wendy Zena yarn but I used Sirdar Aran with wool and the shade is Cinnamon. It was another bargain buy from http://www.kempswoolshop.co.uk/ about 18 or so months ago. I used just under 650grms for the size 16 (bust size 38in 97cm) which in yardage is a smidgen under 1500 or 1397.0 m.

I do have to say though that the moss stitch took forever, but worth it in the end.

The button is a Dill 60mm and came from http://www.craftshopsupply.co.uk/products/dill-60mm-round-buttons/12/ and was a very reasonable price along with very reasonable p&p costs. Although the selection of buttons wasn't huge (a thing most places seem to have in common) I recommend this place as my service was excellent. Firstly for speed, I ordered it yesterday lunchtime and it arrived this morning. Secondly communication was very good with emails to notify me to confirm my order, and that it had been dispatched an hour or two later. Thirdly it was well packaged. I will certainly visit them again.

Ps I just fixed the Kemps links. Sorry for putting in a bad linky :( they should work now.

Wey Hey an FO

2009-04-22T09:55:00.008+01:00

At last a bona fide finished object to show you, I finished it over a week ago to be honest but I've had no Internet connection for 9 days thanks in part to Max for knocking the wireless broadband USB out of the PC one time too many and also thanks to myself for leaving him on there on his .own for 5 min's whilst I got a few jobs done

This is a neck scarf taken from Yarn Forward Magazine no 11 (April 2009). It is the Sea Wool Scarf by Kerrie Allman. It is knitted in 100% 4ply/fingering weight silk, the shade is Raspberry and it is made by The Knitting Goddess. I bought my skein for a very reasonable price on eBay quite a while ago but she has a shop http://www.theknittinggoddess.co.uk/ if you are interested. She is also on Ravelry and there is a group for fans of her yarns Knitting Goddesses (and Gods).

A Whole Load of Stash Enhancement Going On..:-)

2009-04-08T13:50:00.012+01:00

OK so I may not have been doing much knitting (well OK I am now but this lot is from I wasn't) but I couldn't stop myself from being a very very very naughty girl. If anyone knows where I can get lessons in willpower, restraint or resistance then please let know, heavens I certainly need it.

This is little lot is from a week of madness two weeks ago now, it has been hibernating since purchased whilst I come to terms with my guilt. It started with the King Cole Smooth, in my local LYS. I also bought a pattern book to go with it but have only remembered that as I typed this up so it isn't in the pics, It's the new Juicy DK pattern book from Sirdar and there are some very pretty patterns in there, it was the cover pattern I wanted the t-shirt with leaf yoke detail. I'll try and get round to adding a piccie later.

Next came a bit of info from a forum I use called Free and Easy Knitters (Hi Girls) where someone (who shall remain nameless) supplied the info that some Rowan as well as other bits on there had been reduced on h ttp://www.kempswoolshop.co.uk/ and I'm afraid the yarn demons sort of took over, all I can say is I woke up on the bed in a daze a few days later...... well at least I wish I could say that but I am as usual guilty as charged you honor .

The last three pics are some stuff bought from House Of Fraser in Birmingham city center. As well as having a two day sale which included the haberdashery dept I also had a whisper from the Brum Knit Night forum on Ravelry (to which I do manage to attend occasionally although never get there as often as I would like) that not only that but they also had a basket full of stuff for 50p a ball from which the labels had been lost. Some of these I have a fair idea of what they are but others I need to do a little sleuthing to know their true identity.

I also got these three balls of Rowan Calmer for half price because they were a little untidy!!

The RYC cashsoft was also 50p a ball, looks like it was a straggler that didn't sell in the sale.

The Reason for Not Much Knitting Going On Here :-)

2009-04-02T13:18:00.007+01:00

Well these pics are the reason why I haven't done much knitting lately. After 2 years of being stored in the garage my new!! !!kitchen cupboard doors and worktops have finally come out to play when hubby got his *RSE into gear and finally took on the dreaded task of revamping my kitchen.

Gone are the yucky yellow tiles (which a few people have commented since on how much they quite liked them.. they didn't have to live them though), the odd worktops that have been odd for the last 6 years because when we extended the kitchen we couldn't afford a new one so to fill in the extra space we used second hand cupboards and some spare doors we were sent when some of the originals started to split. We had trouble getting matching worktop as it was discontinued so we made do with some old from my SIL because she was having new at the time. In fact from when we bought the house (which was a wreck) we always had to go with the cheap, quick and easy option, and to be fair hubby and his family did a Stirling job to fit an off the shelf kitchen into an empty space that we ordered with only having seen the kitchen once on the house viewing. Over the years as I said it has been added to, reworked and shuffled round when we knocked the outside sheds into the living space and it has been perfectly serviceable, in fact a darn site better than the kitchen at my previous house, but it was only suppose to last a few years...over 10 years later its finally had a face lift.

As I said the new doors, worktops and indeed paint were all bought two years ago, but we still needed a new sink, taps and wall tiles. Whenever we got some money together it would be either Christmas and so it would be spent on that or the car was in a state and so we had to get a new one. Hubby managed to convince me last year to go holiday instead so that delayed it even more, back in Jan though I sort of had a flip moment and one day back from taking the kids to school I decided to get the paint out and go ahead and paint, I was fed up at how tatty it looked, the walls were dirty and paintwork awful. I just thought sod it if I'm going to wait another two years then I may as well paint it anyway and maybe it will feel a bit better, so I went for it one morning and surprised hubby when he came home from work. It took me three days in all, artex ceiling are a pain!! and the wallpaper just soaked up the paint and it took about three coats to cover it properly. I didn't use the original paint bought for the kitchen though, I'd bought yellow to match the tiles but was then adamant I wanted new tiles so I found some magnolia and used that instead. You can't see much of it though to honest too many toy shelves and doors etc in the way.

Anyway it finally galvanised hubby into action, he started off slowly by making the end shelf units etc first ,and we hunted down cheap tiles, the whole kitchen cost less than £60 to tile. A basic sink and taps reduced we found in a sale. Then hubby decided he wanted the old integrated cooker and hob taken out and a slot in one fitted instead. He never liked the integrated ones from day one and because he was doing all the work I finally gave in and agreed, he wanted electric but we couldn't find the socket switch which was hidden by plaster boarding from when we moved in, and then it turned out there wasn't space on the fuse board anyway so we had to have a gas one or a new fuse board and a lot of wiring which would have meant all upstairs floorboards and laminate flooring coming up. So I have ended up with a new double oven gas cooker. The old one was a basic 2 in 1 grill and oven which although I learned to cope with it was limiting and a pain in the backside when trying to cook for parties etc.

Now I know hubby did the vast majority of the work (helped in part by his BIL and brother as well I must add) but I wasn't allowed sit twiddling my thumbs or rather clicking my pins, I found out early on it didn't go down too well, and things went much smoother and quicker if I was on hand as a gofer or labourer to do the menial tasks. So I made the sacrifice of my pins lying unused and unloved behind the sofa for few weeks, but I must say I am very pleased with the result. It may not be to everyones else taste, and it was done on the cheap, quick and easy route yet again but for another 10 years or at least until I've saved up £20,000 or so for my ultimate dream kitchen (mind you that may mean restricted stash enhancement, never gonna happen!) this will do me very nicely thank you very much. Hubby you've done me very proud. Thank you.

Not Much Knitting Going On Here :-(

2009-03-24T08:41:00.005Z

Well it's been a while again since I got round to doing a blog post. Yes I know naughty me but things have been a little hectic and it's hard to show what I've been knitting when I haven't actually been doing any knitting, well not real knitting anyway. I have a few UFO's behind the settee, some of them have been languishing there now for quite a while, in fact if I'm brave enough to think really hard I may have to admit to at least one being there double figure months, and being as though it is a jacket for one of the boys if I don't pull my finger out soon it will not fit either of them.
The only thing that has been on my needles in the last 4 weeks is a pink funky fur teddy that I was asked to do by my friends daughter Gina. Her mum had promised to do it but Liz isn't the quickest of knitters (her words not mine) and Gina was getting a little worried as the kit had been sat there for quite a while untouched. I did have a quiet word with Liz that Gina had asked me to do it and the grateful look of relief from Liz at the mere mention of it had me agreeing to do it and hiding my own horror at having to knit with the vile eyelashy stuff. I did however say that I would knit it but sewing it up and stuffing it would be a mother /daughter project to which Liz readily agreed. Mind you as it turns out it has taken me well over a fortnight to knit it anyway. I haven't got around taking the pieces to Liz and Gina yet either so there aren't any piccies of the cute little fella because at the moment it is just pieces of fur and I haven't quite worked out how Liz will sew it up when she can't tell which are the cast on edges and which are the cast off. I have a funny feeling that the sewing up will be a 3 person project.
The other downside is Max spotted me knitting it and now wants one, "but not in pink mummy cos I am a boy"!!

I found a pic that I forgot that I had taken, stumbled across it looking for something else. I suppose she is a cutie. I have in fact delivered her body parts to her real home and hopefully they will be made up before too long.

And Run 3

2009-02-26T10:18:00.002Z

Now I hear you ask, what the..... two posts in two days!!! No I haven't gone stark raving bonkers honestly, I'm just never gonna catch up on all the pre Christmas stuff if I only post one a fortnight so yesterdays post took 30mins albeit the layout looks like Max and Zakk put it together but after 30 mins I decided that no amount of me playing with it was going to get my pics placed where I wanted them and the txt to appear where I wanted, that coupled with the fact I was cutting it very close to collecting the boys from school! Oh and here we go again with the layout it's already not doing what I want it to. Are there online tutorials for this?? If so if anyone could tell me I would be very grateful.
These are another two pressies, one was for my niece Paige for crimbo and the other was for Mike, Leigh-Ann's boyfriend for his birthday which is on New Years Eve.
Paige's were knit in Regia 4 color and the pattern was taken from Knitting Magazine 044 and the pattern is called Alternate Steps. It was a good pattern for this type of self patterning yarn as it showed it off well and vice versa. I was quite pleased with how they came out as they were my first proper attempt at a pair of socks although if they hadn't been a gift I suspect that I would have developed the dreaded SSS (second sock syndrome), I started and finished the first with a lot of enthusiasm but when it came to casting on the second I just kept putting it off and finding other things to start instead. I think it was nearly a month before the second one got done.

I got the pattern for Mikes socks from another British magazine, Lets Knit issue 3. The pattern was called Twist and I have to say I enjoyed doing these socks a lot more. Maybe because these were done in DK and so knitted up a lot quicker. I can't tell you a lot about the yarn apart from the fact that it came from Ebay and was listed as DK sock yarn. I'm not too sure of the fibre content even put I'm presuming there was a half decent wool content seeing as though it was listed as sock yarn. I have to confess I do love the green/brown mix in the colours of which is not done justice by my very dodgy photography skills.

Run and post 2

2009-02-25T14:44:00.005Z

OK so its been way longer than I anticipated before I've managed another blog post. It's another quickie of stuff from before Christmas. This lot were some pressies that I did for my brother, his partner, an ex work colleague/friend (Sue) back in the dark days where I had to work for a living (before the two youngest came along) and for my neighbours girlfriend (Emma) who I didn't know very well at the time but seeing as though he gets a pressie I could not leave her out. Sue and Emma got the same thing, a neck warmer in the same yarn, same length etc. The buttons were different but I only took a pic of the one so you get the idea.
The pattern for the grey scarf and hat is called THIS WAY UP . The pattern is a freebie available here http://www.mamastopknitting.typepad.com/mastopknitting.typepad.com/opknitting.typepad.com/ and I found it on Ravelry. A deceptively simple pattern the scarf knitted in chunky only took a day. The hat needs some tweaking still on the decreasing but as I improvised the pattern for the hat but as soon as my brother brings it round I'll get round to it. The khaki coloured hat and scarf were for his partner George and the pattern for the scarf is from here http://www.flintknits.com/blog/?p=141 . Again I had to improvise a pattern for the hat which also needs a little tweaking but next time they visit.... you know the same as before.
The neck warmers were based on the ONE ROW HAND SPUN SCARF by Stephanie (Yarn harlot) Pearl Mcphee and can be found here http://www .yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2006/10/12/one_row_handspun_scarf.html lot.ca/blog/archives/2006/10/12/one_row_handspun_scarf.html . I didn't have time to knit complete scarf so the neckwarmer was a good compromise.

Quick post and run 1

2009-02-15T10:22:00.010Z

I am trying to post more often honestly, there are loads of things the last few months that I have knitted and haven't even hinted about here. Even my Ravelry page isn't as up to date as I usually like to keep it, photos are missing actually even a project or two is missing my current projects to be exact. There is also stash purchased (it was for more presents honestly, jeez can't a girl buy yarn guilt free nowadays) that hasn't been added, hence the projects haven't been.
To add to this the boys are off school for half term this week which knocks my pc time a fair bit. Then factor in hubby has been laid off work as well (credit crunch, worldwide recession, now theres a club I didn't want to be part of!!!) so added to the severe shortage of cash this will mean my pc time will be reduced even further unless I can erm convince hubby to go and start prepping the allotment for spring (if you are off work hunnybun we need to grow our own food more than ever, now is not the time to give up plot, ps if he gives up the plot chances are I will lose the thin thread I have attached to my sanity).
Bearing this in mind I have decided to try a few short posts featuring some of the projects I did in the run up to christmas as well as a few in the new year. I'm seeing if I can reduce the time it takes me to blog which currently stands at about 5 hours a post to well as short a time as possible so hopefully I can start blogging more often. I'm hoping that the pressure from having to do it fairly secretly and furitively with others in the house will force me to learn a little quicker. It will probably all end in disaster with such haphazrd posts that you all think I have inhaling far too many fumes from vintage yarn bargain buys from ebay ( I haven't been near place honest guv!!).

This first set is what my nephew Connor (happily modelling for you to see) had for Christmas and then his birthday knitted by moi. He did in fact ask for a skull hat after seeing one in the Anticraft, Knitting, Beading and stitching for the slightly sinister. Being a pre-teen rock and metal fan (it runs in this family!!) he is very into skulls, an awful lot of his clothes feature them in fact so when an 11 year old (he is now 12) lad actually wants hand knitted who I am I to refuse? The hat and scarf were for christmas and then the wristwarmers were for his birthday at the end of Jan. I have been told that he wears the hat a lot and the wristwarmers have in fact hardly come off since he had them (he did put them on straight away after opening them and was still wearing them when we left his house on his birthday). I think that is what is called a result.

More snow snow snow snow (and no knitting)

2009-02-09T11:39:00.004Z

These are my two youngest boys Zakk and Max having fun in the back garden in the snow. These were taken last week whilst off school because of the weather. They were hoping for more snow last night so they could rebuild the snowmen who have sinced thawed a far bit.
They have also became very adept at snowball throwing and sneaking up and putting snow down your back, apparently hats cover up up the eyes in the back of your head so you don't see them approaching, either that or the fact that the hat is over your ears means you don't hear them. Needless to say the little fountains of joy find it very hilarious when you jump into the air at the shock of cold snow on your back and falling down the back of your jeans. Fathers and their bright ideas also deserve the same treatment I might add and after a lot of patience, determination and downright tenacity on their part revenge is indeed a dish best served cold when daddy is included in the fun.

There was me promising no knitting when it suddenly hit me (no not with another snowball) that of course the boys hats are both hand knitted. They are from that huge mountain of knitting before christmas that I never got to blog/brag about. Zakks is just charcoal grey aran wool/acrylic mix in a 3x3 rib. Max's is knit with a ball of regia sock wool doubled up so knitted with two strands an a mock rib pattern. It could have done with a few extra rows (it was meant for Zakk originally but wasn't quite big enough) but they were both in bed when I knitted it and so the length was guesswork. He has had plenty of wear out of it though so even if he only gets this winter out of it I'll be happy.

Snow snow snow snow snow snow

2009-02-02T12:58:00.002Z

This what my back garden looks like in the Siberian conditions we are having in the UK at the moment. This is the first sprinkle that came this morning. Apparently in the Midlands we are to get a proper dusting sometime this afternoon/teatime. I have plenty of food in, plenty of stash (as you can see from my previous posting) and it's great playing outside with the kids in it. They were a little gutted they had to go to school today, although I have just had a txt to tell me a friend of mine has just pulled her kids out of school so they can go home and make a snowman! Noooo I'm not doing that, there will be plenty of time when they get home and hopefully B/ham city council will have a blanket closure tomorrow of all schools tomorrow if the big flurry does arrive later.

Also a plus is I got to wear the hat I knitted myself a few weeks ago when I had to run some errands this morning. i knitted I for myself after walking the neighbours dog the other week and my head and ears got cold. When I showed hubby and tried it on he was not very complimentary on how I looked in it so I'd put it in the hat/glove basket a little disappointed but it was so cold this morning I thought stuff it and wore it anyway. No one openly started pointing at me in the street shouting HA HA, mainly because it was coming down quite thick at the time and every ones heads were down trying to avoid being blinded by snowflakes. The pattern is An Unoriginal Hat by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2007/11/06/an_unoriginal_hat.html

and is just how she describes it, easy and quick. Quicker for me as I think the tension for my yarn was slightly out, I decreased slightly earlier and so did a few less rows overall as it would have come down past my nose. I used Sirdar Denim Ultra and it took pretty much one ball exactly. The colour is waterlily.

Hello, my name is Nicky and I am a........

2009-01-29T13:29:00.018Z

Yarn addict. It's true, for the first time today I have photographed all of my stash sort of together, well in sets, I had to get it out in turn, photograph it and put it back away before the next lot came out (there is no way it would all fit in one picture, well not unless I lay it all outside and its far too wet ,cold and muddy. I'm an addict not a lunatic for crying out loud, there is a difference or at least I'm desperately hoping that there is.
Now this is something I am sharing with you in confidence, Mr Knitternicky knows that I have a fair amount of yarn, he isn't stupid (as much as I would like him to be on occasion, mainly stash enhancing occasions) but he hasn't saw it all in it's glory??????? in fact like I said I hadn't until an hour or so ago. I do have one fail safe however, hubby is techno illiterate, he is one of those unusual beings who has very little interest in the worldwide web and even less knowledge of how access it, so hopefully unless someone he knows stumbles across this, puts two and two together that it's me his very good lady wife, prints off pics or drags him in front of a pc screen I should be safe. A girl has to have a little mystery from her man........
Now I know my not too little stash pales into comparison with some others I have seen in magazines and on the web but when I have gotten over the sick and shamefull feeling in the pit of my gut I'm sure (hopefully) I will have a little pride in what I have managed to accumulate but being faced with it all I suppose I really ought to stop buying, the only problem I have is that in my LYS the other day they finally had in the Sirdar Tweedie and the organic wool that I have been reading about, and I promised I would be back for some soon, I think I'd better learn to hold two sets of needles in one hand
Now if this blog publishes it the way I'm hoping it will ( this is why I dont blog very often I'm useless with technology and my knowledge although a lot more than hubby's is still dismally poor!) the top pic is my under bed stash (in the big underbed storage bags obviously) and my oldest stuff, a lot of it coming before I learnt the hard lessons of Ebay and impulse bidding etc (ok so I never really learnt them as such).
Most of the second pic of the full bags of yarn (mostly) is my first hard lesson learned of online wool shopping and inability to resist bargain online wool stores, this lots was from http://www.kempswoolshop.co.uk/ ,there were a few other lots in there that have been knitted up but the whole lot was a bargain at around £60. Some of it was paid for by christmas present money though.
The third piture is a lot of bits and bobs, but a fair bit came from an instore splurge in John Lewis last summer. It was the end of their sale and a lot of it 75%off, with an absolute bargain of Rowan summer tweed in lilac for 50p a hank. It had been labelled wrong shade wise hence the price, I nearly fell over when I picked it up and saw the price... I was prepared to kick the counter very hard if they wouldn't honor the price.

Fourth pic is some bits and bobs, most likely from ebay where I'm still not learning lessons!!!!

Fifth picture is what is kept in my sons overbed cupboard, in my defense it is all intended to be used for the boys and will end up back in there once knitted!
Sixth picture is what I have bought so far this year, the fo's included so proof that I do actually knit the with stuff I buy!! HONEST GUV!!
It isn't as bad as it looks, honestly, no really at least four balls of that was bought to knit for my neices birthday and some of it was bought with vouchers that I had for Christmas to go shopping in the sales. OK OK OK hands up isn't include the 22 or so balls I'm waiting to be delivered from Rowan that I bought in the online John Lewis sale........ now if they turn up when hubby is home that is going to a blog post on its own GULP
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Keeping Warm

2008-11-03T11:37:00.010Z

Due to the cold snap I have been distracted from my Christmas pressie making by my daughters request for a new hat and scarf to go with her new coat. She wanted something cable and sparkly was the request received, luckily I had some Sirdar Romance in my stash, a lovely Arctic bluey grey colour with a silver thread running through it, very pretty. This was also a bonus as it is aran weight so there would be a wealth of cable patterns suitable (although she didn't want anything too fussy????)and hopefully they would knit up quite quickly. I just need to add that this yarn is discontinued but you can still get it on ebay occasionally.

After wading through loads I finally found some "acceptable" patterns on Ravelry. I finally went with The Irish Hiking Hat and Scarf. They can be found here http://irishhikingknitalong.blogspot.com/2006/11/irish-hiking-hat.html g.blogspot.com/2006/11/irish-hiking-hat.html . BTW that link took me ages to work out, I think I must go the long way round.

I started the hat first and although I used the pattern in the link I made some changes, I did 2
x2 rib around the bottom not garter stitch, I also used my own decreasing, I tried to keep the cable at the same width for as long as possible as that is where my eye is naturally drawn to when looking at these. I managed to knit it in a night although I was up til 2.30am doing it!! So please pardon the big bags under my eyes if you can spy them in the pic.

I finished it at 2.30am and she was wearing it to work by 7.30am. I don't think Leigh-Ann has ever heard of blocking a finished item LOL.

The scarf of course took a while longer, but I like it and so does my daughter. It took 3 days in total. I know the colours look completely different but they are knitted in the same yarn and the colour in the pic of the scarf is much truer than that of the hat.

A Few Not So Recent FO's

2008-10-27T14:21:00.007Z

Here are a few bits that I've knitted in the last few months but haven't appeared on my blog, mainly because of the school summer holidays and I didn't post anything on here.

This is my Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly Maher, I got the pattern from Ravelry, it was a free download. It was a very easy fast knit. I used Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran. I loved the pattern and the yarn.

This is Donovan knitted for Max. The pattern appeared in issue 5 of Let's Knit magazine. It is knitted Patons Washed Haze dk and again the yarn is lovely to knit with, I have plans to make another for Zakk but using the denim blue as the main colour. It is the same yarn as used for Roberts baby present in my last blog entry. It was my first attempt to knit a jumper completely in the round (including the sleeves and as I hate sewing up so much was quite pleased at how it turned out.

This a ballet style cardigan knitted for Sophie, my daughters friend. She came to me with puppy eyes and bottom lip out that she was a deprived child due to the fact that when she was young (she is now 19) at ballet class she was the only girl without a ballet cardigan and to help her recover from all that emotional scarring would I please, please make her one.!!!
The pattern is a sublime one that was in my The Art Of Knitting collection and the yarn is Sirdar Country style, mainly because it was so inexpensive, the colour for all of you pink freaks out there is blush.

I wasn't sure whether to do this as it's very own blog post as I was very very pleased with myself when I finished this but have decided against as the "moment" has now passed and I am well and truly over it!!! But this is my first ever sock, a practice sock as my niece (Paige) has requested a pair for Christmas so I though I'd better make sure that I can knit them before committing myself. It was a very basic pattern called Basic Tubular Socks taken from Knitting Magazine, I think it was issue 043 from Oct 07. I only did a short cuff as it was a practice in turning the heel that so many people seem to get into a nervous state about. The yarn is King Cole ZigZag, a new sock yarn they have bought out which is a bargain at £3.95 for 100grms.

There are some other FO's but they will be in the next post, which judging by the knitting I'm concentrating on will be a Christmas pressie special.

A baby present

2008-10-17T14:23:00.005+01:00

My cousin's girlfriend Anne (whom I've yet to meet but we've chatted on the phone and seems lovely so far) had a baby last Friday. I've obviously known about the impending birth for quite a while now but I thought I would wait before knitting anything just in case I could do pink, should have guessed with this family it would be another boy! Never mind boys are lovely, a lot more loving than independent girls who always have to have their own way no matter what, or maybe that's just my daughter!. My three boys have been a little easier I have to say than my daughter, she has always known her own mind unlike the lads who on the whole have been a bit more laid back shall we say although I should add at this point that Max is the exception to every rule ever written. Leigh has never been a problem I hasten to add just a little more stronger willed than the lads and a whole lot more self sufficient.

Anyway, baby Robert was born a week ago today, weighing in at over 9lbs (ouch and that's a first baby). I don't know a lot more than that as they live in another part of the country and so haven't seen him yet. This is what I made for him.

I started knitting it on the Friday night and carried on through the day on Saturday, we had our usual quota of visitors so I just carried on knitting whilst drinking coffee and nattering. The plan was to get it all finished by Sunday night maybe Monday morning so I could get it posted off. However (there always has to be a punchline doesn't there), I went out Saturday night to a friends 40th birthday party. I know Rebecca from playgroup, Rebecca helps to run it with my SIL at the local school (my sons school BTW) and so I was invited to her party with a number of other ladies from playgroup and decided to do it as a girly night out and let out hubbies off the hook from attending. There were also a lot of her colleagues invited including both of my sons teachers. I had no intention of getting drunk before we went, or even as the first glass of wine was being sipped, but the dj to be fair was more than a little naff so I'm blaming him, I don't drink very much usually and even on the very odd occasion when I'm out I'm on the dance floor most of the night so my alcohol consumption is kept to a minimum, but not dancing was lethal for me. I was, lets say quite slaughtered. My SIL doesn't drink and she assured me most of the teachers had gone before I started talking complete b@oll%cks. I don't remember getting home although I remember waking up on the settee where hubby left me snoring!! I vaguely remember getting up and going to bed at that point.

Next morning (the boys were up at 7am on a Sunday) I was rough, very rough. Luckily for me hubby was in a far worse state than me a few weeks ago so had no room whatsoever to lecture me on indulging in excess but did get up with the boys with a huge smirk on his face that just spoke of payback!! A huge lie in til 11am and a shower left me feeling a little more human but I still couldn't face picking up my needles again til teatime. A whole evening and a whole day of non knitting killed the schedule for getting them finished, not helped by the fact that I then spent Mon, Tues and Wed doing some decorating for mum and her partner so by the time I'd been there all day, come home collected the boys from school, done some housework and cooked tea, bathed the boys and tidied up I was shattered. Finally managed to finish them Wed night. Went to my LYS on Thursday morning for buttons ( still cannot believe I had none suitable in my tin!!)and was so busy chatting to the ladies in the shop I didn't check how many buttons she put in my bag, I asked for 5 I'm sure, she gave me 3. So I had another trip there this morning to get another 2. All done and if I don't get to the post office before 5.30pm this afternoon I will go in the morning.

I do hope after all the palaver that Anne like the jacket and that it fits him.

I won a comp

2008-10-10T11:11:00.004+01:00

I won a competition, it's not very often I win anything and I do enter things so I'm not moaning that I don't win when I don't put myself up for it because I do. Last time I won a comp was about 15 years or so ago. It was Kerrang magazine back in the days before hi-tech computer assistance etc etc. It was a good old fashioned answer an idiot question, phone up and leave your answer, name and address on an answering machine. So I did this, unfortunately part way through leaving my details (I always have the tv off so no background noise to blame) I farted very loudly and unexpectedly and so had to try very hard not to laugh whilst giving the rest of my details. Anyhow a fortnight later Mr Postman knocks on the door with a jiffy bag and inside I found I'd won the prize of a signed cd by Corrosion Of Conformity and a long sleeved t-shirt which I wore a lot and still have I think although I haven't worn it for years. They must have heard my details, heard the fart and thought " that's the winner"!!!!!!
THIS competition I won this week was a little more dignified I'm happier to say in my ever so slightly more mature (oi watch it) responsible phase in life. It was on Silvi's blog http://slowlaneblog.blogspot.com/ whom I know from the Lets Knit forum. She had a comp where you had to guess which socks from the new Simply Knitting sock calender she most wanted to knit. I felt a little guilty because anyone who has seen Silvi's FO's would know that the stockings win every time, so I ended the comp rather early but as you can see the prize was far too delicious to pass up on. It's Silvi's own handspun and handyed Falklands merino. there's a 100grms of it and it seems like a chunky weight to me. It is very soft and very pretty. I'm still musing what to do with it. Silvi has felted some of her own yarn before and it came out fabulous so thats making it even more difficult to decide.

I'm rather glad of this comp win for more than one reason, it also gave me the boot up the backside I needed to start posting on this blog again. It got left by the wayside during the summer holidays and I just hadn't found the right topic to get back on here even though I have a fair few FO's under my belt. So now I'm back I'll make an effort to put some pic's on here after the weekend.

Phone sox

2008-07-25T09:52:00.008+01:00

This all came about when I first noticed that my projects on Ravelry amount to 13. Well I have to confess to being a little! on the superstitious side so immeadiately went EEEEKKKKK. What is a girl to do 13 projects very unlucky, at playgroup earlier that day my friend Rose showed us her newest purchase, a cute lttle phone sock that had Eeyore on (my favourite character, I was soooooo jealous). Hey I thought great little quick project to take me up to number 14 and wipe out all the bad luck heading my way. It was also the eve of Max's birthday and we were (hubby and I)supposed to be wrapping presents (his job) putting up balloons, banners and doing final prep for his party the next day (my jobsssssss). Did I metion that I am a tad on the awkward side? good that explains why I cast on a phone sock in order to expel any bad luck that may rain down on Max's birthday (Max's birthday/party outside/rain can you see my logic because hubby couldn't) instead of doing all the other jobs I should have benn doing. In my defense it was early when I cast it on about 8pm and Max being excited about the next day wasn't asleep and I wasn't going to start decorating the house until he was asleep.
In spite of the arguments between hubby and I about me sat knitting when I had loads to do the phone sock was completed by the end of the evening in spite of putting it down very few rows to blow up a few more balloons or hunt out the banners from wherever I'd hidden them. I also managed to get everything else done even if bedtime came rather late.

The next day guests came for Max's party and he had a fantastic time with loads of pressies and playmates and being center of attention. My phone was left on the breakfast bar wearing it's new sock and had many admiring glances and wow thats greats!!! It was only a matter of time before the question Will you make me one please? was asked. And the prize went to Paige my 13 year old niece.

I didn't make it there and then, it was my childs party and even I won't push hubby's patience that far !!!!!!! but when she came round the next weekend and had a rummage through ny oddment baskets I asked her if she was sure about 4 times before I said ok. Pastel pink baby dk with hot pink and silvery threads eyelash stripes Hmmmmm. I have to confess it looked a little better finished than I thought it would. Paige anyway loved it which is what matters most.

This is where my brain went into overdrive a little I think. I suddenly had a thought about teachers leaving pressies for the end of the school year. Max was finishing both playgroup and preschool completley and starting big school September and Zakk was moving up a year and so changing teachers. Now being so young there are a lot of assistant teachers etc in the classes. Also after coming out of a huge run of birthdays in out family over the last 10 weeks or so (5 of them in our house). Basically around 75%of the whole close family, all of our parents, hubby's siblings, some of their children and all but 1 of our household are in this period the bank balance at this time of year is never very healthy. After a quick count of how many presents needed, 3 for playgroup, usually 6 for preschool but then they went and got 4 work experience kids in. Same for Zakk's school, usually 4 but they also had student experince in so that went up to 6. That is a lot of presents to get and even worse when you are on a restricted budget trying to get large quantities of the same thing is a nightmare. Not helped by the fact that evryone else is chasing the same thing. That is when my brainwave struck, PHONE SOX as pressies for all the teachers, they wouldn't cost anything with the amount of oddments I have never mind digging into my stash if I needed it. I can knock one out in less than an hour including sewing up. PERFECT.

With good intentions I started off well and did a few the first night. I was trying to make them all individual one offs which was very easy at first, I even made my friend Rebecca from playgroup one in Aston Villa colours. She is a huge footie fan and so I knew would be more likely to use it if in her team colours. Playgroup ladies were the first to finish and so knowing I had lots more to do made a few extras so they had a choice. I filled them up with choclates as well placed them in a giftbag so they could all choose their favourite.

I repeated this again for preschool , much harder going and the dread of sitting down everynight to knit even more phone sox, I made 12 altogether and was getting fed up of them. I also had to leave the whole bag there as Max finished at lunchtime and not all the teachers were there before lunch. That meant starting from scratch for Zakk's teachers and I ended up doing another 8. I was sooooo well and truly fed up although I did knit another one for my SIL as an extra for her birthday present in between preschool and normal school finishing. I was having nightmares about the darn things or so I thought, then I realised it wasn't a nightmare, it was real hubby was having a converstion about me knitting even more of the *$@$ things and selling them. How on earth I managed to stay calm and not run out the room sreaming with my hands over my ears I will never ever know.

Nemesis.

2008-07-16T10:28:00.000+01:00

What started out as love at first sight for this project quickly deteriorated into a love/hate pairing.
From the first time I saw the picture for Glace in an ad for Rowan Summer Delights by Martin Storey I fell in love. I should have read the signs though for what was to come, they were very clear. After trying to get hold of a copy and discovering that it hadn't even been released, then waiting for Mothers day to come and go as I had requested voucher for my local rowan stockist (my local dept store) I finally rushed up there to get it only to find ....they hadn't got it. I did finally manage to get it another 3 weeks later. I was overjoyed at the book itself though, Glace which is the cover photo is only the tip of the iceberg, for £6.95 I think the book is fantastic value, for me especially as there is not one design in there that I would not knit. 16 patterns of sheer loveliness. I have to confess though I winced very heavily when I priced up the yarn for it, just shy of £50 which is a lot of money to me (did I mention I'm a stay at home mum of four?????). I found a substitute yarn in James C. Brett's kool Kotton in a really pretty shade of Lilac. It was in a sale bag ready wrapped which worked out to under £10 so I was very very chuffed.
This though is where it all goes downhill pretty steadily. I started knitting it with that lovely first high rush of enthusiasm for a new project, with that extra bit of glee that you get when it's something you really really fallen in love with.
It knitted up quite well and even though it was endless 2x2 rib my high was still up there. Next night I picked it up again, finished the first ball started the second ball finished the rib (YEY) and started on the left half of the front and was almost to the top when I decided it was time for bed.

Next day did my jobs and still excited at how well it was progressing decided to pick up my pins and carry on knitting. I don't always get chance to knit in the day apart from weekends when we have visitors when I can sit and chat and knit at the same time. Good job I did. In natural light I could see something was very wrong, it looked two different colours. I had checked the ball bands hadn't I?? When I looked again I had 6 that had shade lot 1001 and 1 that was 1011. GGRRRRRRRRRRRRR and typically had used the odd ball first AARRRGGGHHHH. How many times have you bought yarn and there has been a very noticeable difference in the shade lots?? occasionally I have had and there has been virtually no difference at all but this was a big difference, the difference between brand new and left in the garden for several weeks to fade in the sun. Because I had bought it already in a bag I hadn't noticed it in daylight and in artificial light in which I had been knitting you couldn't see it. This was the start also of a very steep learning curve for me and how much store our fellow US knitter put in yardage/meterage. You see although I'm what I consider myself to be an experienced knitter I suppose I'm a little old school and when I was taught to knit yardage never existed, or at least I was never told about it. So when this happened I had one ball less than the pattern said and I presumed that I wouldn't have enough to finish it without that ball so I tried frogging it and using the different shade yarn alternating with the other yarn. More endless 2x2 rib knitted in artificial light to check it the next morning to see what I knew but refused to accept. It looked cr*p. Frogged again.
A week or so later shopping in my notsolocal hobbycraft I came across some patons vintage, another cotton blend in a colour I loved, a mix of hot pinks/oranges that although the yarn wasn't very soft but would tolerate just for the colour. In the sale (have I also mentioned my fetish for bargain yarn) at £1 a ball.There were seven left in that colour again how many balls the pattern said I needed. I checked the tension on the ball band which to memory looked fine and when hubby agreed to me buying it (he was in a grump at the time) I was excited to be able to start Glace again.
In the meantime I had already started another design from the Summer Delights book, Fondant using the yarn I'd started Glace in. I also loved this top so made myself finish this first before I restarted Glace.
Fondant done and I wore it to my next knit meet taking Glace with me. Cast it on in the afternoon, started knitting on the bus and carried on at the meet and I remember saying to one of the other ladies as I started my second ball, mmm I do hope there will be enough of this as I hadn't seemed to have done as much at the second ball point as I had before, I double checked the tension which seemed fine although it did feel to be knitting up a bit thicker than before!!!! Alarm bells were ringing and all of you who know about yardage already will probably be shouting at me and how dumb I am at this point. Me though I plugged on through the alarm bells until I realised I had used more than half the yarn but was nowhere near the halfway point.
Just before this point though I went yarn sale shopping with my friend Lynda who I met at the knit group I attend. I had had a birthday and had more vouchers for the dept store which I had saved and hubby even gave me extra cash to take with me. ps hubby hates my knitting with a vengeance so for him to donate cash for me to extend my stash is a very very big deal. Anyway Lynda and I went lovely scrummy yarn shopping and the yarn that is recommended for Glace was in the sale.... and I had enough to buy some and some other yarn too. WHOO HOO. We had a fab day,great company,scrummy yarn, lunch and book shopping fantastic.
Anyway, I bought some of the ryc silk cotton, 10 balls in fact although at the time I was still ignoring the warning signs that that Glace and Patons vintage wouldn't work, and there were two other projects in the Summer Delights that I wanted to attempt. It was that night though that I had to face the truth that I just hadn't got enough, it was also this point that the penny dropped and lessons learnt about yardage. It was also at this point that Glace had the name change to Nemesis.
I had earmarked the silk cotton for one of two other patterns but at this point I was so fed up and dejected at all the (self inflicted admittedly) problems knitting Glace I sort of come to the realisation if I didn't knit it now then I probably never would so with a bit of a heavy heart I cast on Glace for which I vowed would be my last time using the yarn specified in the pattern. 2x2 rib again. I have to admit though that as I carried on it got a lot easier and the knowledge that I would have more than enough with loads to spare spurned me on. When i got past the left hand side point and started the right hand side it felt great. I hadn't got past that point before and that was when I fell in love with it again. By the time I did finish it all was forgiven.
I don't think I have ever had so many problems with such a simple pattern and never on that scale with substituting yarns before. But it just goes to show that even someone like me who has been knitting for 30 years or so can make major blunders. So if any newbies read this hopefully you can learn by my mistakes. And just a final note, if I had used that first ball of lilac James.c. Bretts as my 3rd or 4th the penny would have clicked that I would have had enough to finish it after all without the rogue ball of different shade lot!!!!!! I discovered this after checking the yardage but much too late to use it as I had already made fondant.

Bargain Haul

2008-07-03T12:29:00.000+01:00

What do you think of my bargain haul????The church opposite our house was having a table top sale last Saturday. I clocked them quite early setting it all up, it's only a small church and so was only a small sale of 8 tables or so. But a little voice in my head kept telling to go over and have a look, "there are goodies on offer" it kept saying to me. Hubby declined my invite to go over an investigate so the two younger boys and I went on our own after mugging daddy for all the spare change he had in his pocket.

At the second stall I struck gold, I spotted a plastic wallet containing all the patterns pictured and when I asked how much the gentleman said 50p. I thought "oh" but then he started saying there's also this and this and started putting a load of other craft and embroidery things on a pile. I'm half way through thinking how many 50p's does this man think I have when it clicked (I am a little slow on the uptake on occasion) that he meant for the lot. I'm just recovering after a an attack of the chuffty's (being very very happy)Then he said ooh I think there's something else here as well if your interested in knitting and picked up a wooden box which I had already spotted and looked a little suspicious to me and had already planned to investigate as soon as he stopped loading me up with half his table, he opened it and it was full of knitting and crotchet needles and bits and bobs. He said you can have that for another 50p if you want. I would have snatched his arm off if it hadn't meant dropping everything I was already holding but manged to do the deal before someone came up behind me and put in a better offer. All of this lot plus the embroidery bits not pictured for £1. Whoo Hoo bargain of the century or WHAT!!!!!!!!

I was ready to go home there and then and stroke through my scrummy bits but I had the boys with me and only the greedy thought of finding more knitbits encouraged me to go and find something that would keep them quiet so I could dive into my treasure in peace. The boys did actually do quite well with a errm what did they have now aarrhhh let me think. Yes I can remember I'm not that bad with my one "knit" mind honest. They had a jigsaw, cuddly tigger, sand play set, some lego a doggy teddy (this is a bit like the generation game only with more cuddly toys, my boys lurrrrve cuddly toys) uummmmm can't think what else.

I also bought a few small bags that I thought I could use for crotchet projects if I ever get round to learning it. We spent £7. 80 in all and come back with three carrier bags full and even a present for daddy, an Ozzy Osbourne book. I did find some yarn but it was too hideous even for me to buy it even with my raging addition to all things yarn. Especially bargain yarn. It was an awful acrylic chocolate brown boucle type with bright red/green and yellows in it. A real 80's throwback nightmare, the only thing I would have considered knitting in it would be a blanket for the cat but I think she would have left home rather than sleep on it.
I then had a lovely time with a cup of coffee sorting through it all. The boys have put a huge order in for various bits and bobs with Tom and Jerry being top of the list (they are huge fans although I feel very old when I say I much prefer the newer ones as the violence is a lot less horrifying.) thay also adore the Jean Greenhowes dinosaurs. Unfortunately my LYS is closed at the moment so I can't get any stuffing so they will have to wait another week or two. Just as well I have enough on my plate at the moment with my NEMESIS.

Shrugs, Shrugs and more Shrugs....

2008-06-17T14:11:00.001+01:00

My daughters friend asked me to knit her a shrug for a wedding she was going to. I gave myself a few self inflicted headaches making it but I think she was happy with the result. This is Antonia wearing the shrug whilst standing with Emma the bride.

Here's another picture of Antonia wearing the shrug. Far left.

I am hoping to write this pattern up and add it to the blog for anyone out there who wishes to make a shrug in 4ply(fingering weight to anybody reading this in the US).

I had to design it myself in the end for a few reasons. We had a trawl through my books, patterns and the web but couldn't find anything spot on. Thre were a few that Antonia liked aspects of, the shape from one or the arm length she liked in another so we narrowed it down to a couple that I could improvise but then.....The only yarn Antonia could find in the colour she needed was 4ply. All the patterns we had bee looking at were DK or aran. Not many free shrug patterns out there in 4ply. I found a couple that were either childrens or big batwing numbers. Antonia wanted a very neat minimal style. In the end I gave her a stitch library book and she settled on a moss stitch cuff/bands with stocking stitch main body. I wasn't sure whether to give a huge sigh of relief or be a little disappointed at how plain it was. I should point out at this stage Antonia designed and made her dress herself, she is a very talented part time designer and so not only did I want to make it as well as possible for her but also for me because I kept imagining all eyes would be on her outfit as much as the brides so I didn't want to let her down in that respect. Another problem is that Antonia doesn't live local to me and so there would be no fittings as such and although I had some measurements to go on and my daughter Leigh-Ann as a stand in model I was more than a little nervous at the fit.

I had also never knitted a shrug before and I know now they are very very simple when I first looked at them I couldn't picture in my head how they fitted. I ended up doing a quick trial one first which Leigh-Ann has ended up with. This was a very rushed first attempt wasn't meant really to be worn by anyone hence the disgusting colour but I forgot that Leigh-Ann loves all forms of yellow and so has adopted it. This was knocked out in a weekend although I have to confess the finish is a little bit ropey. I have sneaked it back out of her room in order to sew it up a little better.

So then after knitting my prototype it was back to Antonias shrug which I tried to knit the sleeves very cleverly in the round but the shortest circular needle I could find in the time frame was 40cm long and it was stretching the stitches too much. I 'm not a fan of dpn's either, I'm not practised enough and I can't get get my movements to flow so I feel I end up with tension issues and it looking baggy. I think I restarted it 3 times in all completely and still frogged it several times before I was happy with it. I think Antonia was a little worried in the end as she finally received it finished two days before the wedding despite giving me 6 weeks notice. I owe her a big hug for not panicking or nagging me, or Leigh-Ann for not telling me that she was panicking or nagging and so taking the flack on my behalf.

You would have thought that I would be fed up to the back teeth of shrugs at this point and I was ... but did I also mention that I'm a glutton for punishment!!!

I ended up knitting a shrug for myself . It was an ultra quick chunky affair knocked up in less than 36 hours not going flat out either. I call it my mermaid shrug because it shimmers like a mermaids scales in the blue sea.

I haven't got a finished picture with me wearing as yet, but I will post one as soon as possible.

And then.... now you would think I really was heartily sick to death of doing shrugs by now.. well yes but I did another one anyway.

My mermaid shrug only took two of the balls pictured above and it was my friends daughter 5th birthday, my 5 year old son was going to the party and so needed to take a present, after a mammoth mammoth week for family birthdays (4 in total, including mine, Leigh-Ann and my dad) cash is in severe shortage. Knowing my friend would appreciate the effort put in to it I knitted another one for Annie-May. A mini mermaid shrug. Doh I forgot to take a photo as I had only just finished stitching it when it went into the gift bag but again I will obtain a piccie and permission to use it from her mum.

ooh eerr my first post.

2008-05-23T14:57:00.000+01:00

I have not chose the best time to kick off my first posting on my blog but that is very typical of me!!! I will warn you in advance that I am highly disorganised, totally arkward and do things in a very strange and surreal way (well the last one is according to hubby but I do drive him nuts with it so he is entitled to his opinion). I suppose another way of putting it is I usually do things arse backwards but I was breech at birth and I haven't been able to stop since!
I currently have a very bored 3 year old nagging me and lying half on my older sons bed and half on the chair I'm sitting on kicking me in the back in order to gain my attention. The problem is after a couple of aborted attemps because the pc was playing up or my brain was hiding I've actually managed to get to this point and I'm a little scared that if I stop now I'll lose all this and it will take me a fortnight to figure it back out!
This is supposed to be my knitting blog and that is what I intend to use it for but I apologise in advance that my family life will be contstantly banging on the door to come in (or kicking my back). I suppose the two are interwoven so its inevitable.
I can't promise to be witty, entertaining or intelligent and any humour on here will very probably be unintended, usually my spelling I would imagine! I will however try and if I'm the only person who reads it then fine nothing ventured nothing gained.