Not Much Knitting Going On Here :-(

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

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

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.htmllot.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

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)

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

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........

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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