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

(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)

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

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

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

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 )

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

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.....