Some Tiny Ones For The Girls, Lola and Esme

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

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

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

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!

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)

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...

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)

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)

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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..

(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.......