Today was all about......

turning these:

ArwenMakes sparkle sock, Wollmeisse We're different sock, Manos del Uruguay Silk blend DK

into these:

Rubbish colour representation, check above for shade :)

All wound by hand, think I need to get myself a swift and winder.....

but anyhow, now I'm ready for February!

Especially as I finished these at last:

Hard work trying to get a photo of your own feet, especially in slightly too long socks!

Basic ribbed socks in cheapo Cesana Zettl which actually looks pretty nice and feels ok 'ish although a little rough on the hands when knitting 90 rows straight.....

Loving them, nice and masculine, and with a good amount of stretch on my footballers legs! Think one of the males in the family are going to love these too. Now which male to gift them to......?

Sorry for the short and sweet post, bed is finally calling :)

-x-

Well hello and happy new year.....

It's been a while hasn't it?

I did think I'd start the new year with a new enthusiasm for crafting and a sparkly new and exciting blog. Well, that was in my mind....in reality we have had a crisis ridden few weeks here. First the laptop died, then aboy got sick, then he recovered and a mama got very sick (the kind of sick where she couldn't hold her baby for 3 days never mind a knitting needle!!). Then a dog got held to ransom by an overenthusiastic dog warden and cost 2 days of worry and an 85 quid ransom fee. Then another boy got sick then, the baby got sick, and still is. Oh and we had a radiator die and need replacing, then two windows replaced, so afreezing house for two days. No, it wasn't the best of starts to the year...........

So anyway, things are getting better and I'm going ahead with my crafty plans for the year :)

2013 is going to be the year of being organized. 

And the year of the sock!

Every month I'm hoping to finish one pair of socks, one gift knit, and work on one larger item. If I can fit anything else in then all good, but these are my main targets. 

I was going to say I wouldn't buy any yarn until I'd used all the stash too, but thats boring isn't it? And besides I've already bought 3 skeins of Manos Silk and a lovely hand dyed sparkle sock yarn from the lovely Sarah.

So a peek into my craft bag:

Do you remember that bag? It's been hidden away in the bedroom for ages but I found it when hiding the yule gifts and knew it had to come out. It's such a happy, smiley bag isn't it? So now it's my project bag, and just the right size too:)

A closer look at the contents:

This months socks, starting with an easy basic pair, and probably destined to be the gift knit too due to losing so much of the month to all the above....I know, cheating already, ahh well..... Yarn from stash though so there's a plus there.

The larger item: 

Well thats for a baby we're going to be meeting late April. Yes, I'm going to be a Grandma for the second time, Jen is expecting a baby girl. Woohoo, isn't that exciting? Another of our girls all grown up and starting a family of her own.So the knitting? A baby blanket knitted with the super soft, squishy Manos I mentioned earlier. Soo enjoying knitting this, and thinking of that new little baby all bundled up in it's softness..... The plan is to try and knit through one skein per month for three months and so have a blanket all finished up by time Jen is 36 weeks. I'm thinking this way I won't get bored, and I won't be caught out at the last minute. What do you reckon?

And if you peek closely you'll just see that skein of sparkly sock I mentioned earlier. I already know what that's going to be, but I'm not ready to share yet. Hopefully if it will be this months gift knit, but if I don't get round to it then I will be looking forward to next month.

So there we go, my crafty, yarny plans for 2013. I wonder how long I'll keep to them?

Oh and it goes without saying - more blog updates, less webtime, yadayadayada..... (lot's more watching all my House box sets though whilst knitting - the broadcast tv is gone again and hopefully not coming back and I do love House....).

Ooops baby awake and big girl wanting her laptop, gotta go. See you soon :)

-x-

Will it, won't it?

So remember I told you I had 20g of the Fyberspates yarn left after knitting the cardi and hat? I really wanted to use every scrap as it is such yummy soft yarn, but what to make with such a small amount? The thought process went kind of:

.....20g can't make much and I don't want to knit away and run out near the end. If I knit something that can be be made in two halves at least I can measure one to be sure I want run out on the second. Mitts with matching card is a bit...hmm...woolly overload, so maybe footwear?"

So I cast on using a very old Woolworths' knitting booklet:

I knitted away and getting towards the leg part realised I didn't have an awful lot left. I decide to leave the pattern and make a little roll cuff finish instead. It looked very sweet but I was a bit wary of how much yarn was left. Still if there was less than half at least I'd only wasted an hour knitting up one, rather than longer and running out. So I grabbed the scales hoping for it to flash up with less than 10g for the weight of the finished piece. And you know what? It weighed...............10g exactly! The length of yarn left weighed exactly the same. Well that wasn't as great as I'd hoped! Now I would have to cast on the second bootee and hope that the finished 10g bootee was just on the 10g, not 10.4g, or 10.5g, but 10g exactly. And of course that the 10g remaining was at least 10g, maybe 10.5g, or even 10.2g,  as long as it was exactly, or more than, the amount used for the first bootee.

So I cast on, knitted frantically, not once daring to look at the dwindling amount, all the while wondering if I could tweak the first bootee further and skip a row somewhere.  And you know what? This is what I ended up with:

Do you want to see what was left? Here you go:

Could it have been much closer? John very kindly asked why I had worried, why not just get another skein of the yarn? Well I couldn't tell him how much just one skein costs, could I? He still lives in the world where yarn costs a couple of pounds for enough to knit a whole jumper, where it's more economical to knit your own than to buy....... He knows I have some nicer yarns, but I don't think he knows what a short distance they actually go. You and I on the other hand, well we know don't we? We know that getting all of these from just one £15 skein of Fyberspates handpainted sock yarn is totally worth every stitch and every penny :)

So the crafting hiatus is over, I'm back with a vengeance. In fact I might even be back in a day or two with a completely different finished knit, something I'm already working my way excitedly through.

-x-

Waving hello :)

Ooh, it's been a long time hasn't it?

I have posted on and off on my other blog, but here? Well there has been nothing, absolutely nothing to blog of creatively! I've had no crafting get up and go at all. Days are spent at work or with the children, evenings are spent reading with the children, watching a DVD, and going off to bed as early as possible. I've thought about making stuff. I've flicked through patterns, other blogs and Ravelry for inspiration, but I just haven't had the energy to do anything. By time the evening meal is out of the way and the dishes washed, children calmed, PJ's on, I just want to relax and then sleep. I haven't had the energy to even walk up the stairs to bed most evenings. You know, I haven't even bought a single knit/sew/crochet/crafty magazine this year! Oh no, I lie, I bought the March issue of Let's knit hoping for a hit of inspiration, but no, nothing. Even flicking through the magazines in the shop has failed to inspire me into actually buying them. I've bought no yarn, not checked out the links in the yarn shop e-mails, not even hopped around Ebay looking for beautiful yarn bargains. Creative crafting has been at an all time low.

BUT, and yes it's a big but (literally and figuratively lol), I did keep the creative flow ticking over in that quiet place in my mind. And so I worked on the mega granny stripe. An odd few trebles here, a few clusters there, whole rows taking days and weeks to conjure up. But I had to keep at it. It needed no thought, no planning, no concentration, it just came out, ticked along, and reminded me that the feel of the yarns, the hook in hand, the growing project, is all good, and not to be let go forever. So far the mega blanket is around 220cms x 100cms, almost big enough for a single bed, and I've stopped for now. The blanket is happily living across the foot of our bed, the days are slowly warming and it is providing just that little extra comfort for chilly morning toes, although it's a little too heavy to work on now the evenings are a touch warmer. I haven't edged it, I'm hoping to work some more on it when autumn returns, hopefully using up a lot more of the acrylic scraps I have lurking around:

But it's ok like this for now, it did it's job, it kept the creativeity ticking along. A few days ago I cast on the King Cole Dolman cardigan. It's very similar to the EZ baby surprise jacket I think? Anyone who has knitted the BSJ please feel free to offer your thoughts :) I wanted to try the BSJ for ages but couldn't find the pattern in the UK. A colleague at work was also trying to find the same pattern and she came across the KC dolman and kindly offered me a copy. So I took this as a sign that I needed to get the needles out and get creative once again. Casting on and starting the jacket was a bit ....hmm...strange? Apparently I was casting on the sleeve edges, shoulders and back of neck. Even looking at the front picture I couldn't work out how that was happening. But then it shows the jacket from the front, the initial knitting is the sleeves and the back I later discovered. Just like I've heard about the BSJ, this jacket doesn't reveal it's true self until you're almost through. There came a moment, about 80% through, that it suddenly clicked, and that was such a blinding moment that I was in awe. I couldn't wait to cast off and before joining I had to share the reverance with anyone who happened into the room - look, a baggy heap of knitted fabric, a quick fold up and ta-dah, a beautiful baby jacket! Stunned faces all around. Even the "not into knitting" passers through were taken back by the sudden transformation.

And so I joined the shoulders, the only joining required, and here it is:

Lovely don't you think?

I knitted it using some of my lovely, luxury stash, one skein of Fyberspates hand dyed Sheila's Sock yarn, and I used such a tiny amount, just about 60g, it's such a soft, squishily smooth yarn that I'm happy to have left overs. I cast on straight away with another favourite pattern - the Aviatrix. A super speedy knit, a couple of hours later I was done:

Ok so the buttons aren't added yet, but I wanted to share and let you know I was back, hopefully, the creative juices flowing once more :)

Both together, beautiful for a newborn don't you think:

And the hat itself took only 20g so I'm hoping there's enough for a little something to complete the set.....

Can I just say, if anyone has actually stuck by me through the drought, that I am so happy to be back, I've still been following so many blogs, but circumstances have just made it impossible for me to stay regular, stay in touch, and let you know I'm around. Thanks for the awards received whilst I've been away, accepted gracefully in mind if not in type. And thank you for coming back again, to share the haphazard creativity. Happy crafting days for all of us.

-x-

Oh dear me....

Many months ago I spotted a lovely project on this blog. I admired it, went back for a second and third look, and knew that one day I would make the very same. And then I forgot about it. Recently I was busily working away on the laptop, ok, really, I was browsing through Ravelry, you know that, and I came across the same pattern once more. So I saved it and knew that I would knit this very beautiful thing, for myself, immediately after the festive season was over. Skip forward a few weeks and I found the lovely KnitPicks yarn on Ebay and knew it would be perfect for my lovely project. And because it would be so perfect I couldn't decide a colour so bought three different shades. As you do. So browsing through the YarnAlong posts yesterday I discovered a post featuring my lovely project, and it was knitted in one of those very shades of the lovely yarn I had so recently acquired. Well that's got to be fate right? So last night I gave in to it, picked my shade and wound the skein into a workable ball of scrummy yarn.

Hayride

Just getting prepared you see for when the festive makes were through. Yes, I would be already to go. In fact so ready that I cast on. And so here we are. No further done on the festive makes, and another project added to yesterdays list.

Well didn't someone once say "a girl can never have too many shoes"? For me it's projects on the go, obviously. But there is a redeeming feature to this latest project......it's a train knit, yippee! I haven't a little portable knit since the Hitchhiker, well socks are ok I suppose but a bit awkward to work on whilst chatting to that stranger across the seat who wants to tell you what a great knitter his/her mum was, and how they wished they'd learned, and is it cheaper to knit your own? Yeah right,you'd better stck to just wishing you knit then........

-x-

All done.

Well, I did it. I beat "second sock syndrome"! It took some discipline I can tell you. I cast on the second sock immediately after I finished the first. Within minutes. And worked a few rounds. Later I took out my little bag of crochet squares.and then put it away again. And worked a few more sock rounds. 

 

I almost got waylaid by this lovely blog into yet another tank top. But I stuck with the sock. And of course there's this hat I want to knit up too. But still the sock held out. Well apart from a little sewing make, special little valentines gifts for three special little people:

(Apologies for sharing photos across blogs - how lazy of me).
And how differently the same colours look under different lighting conditions. The socks are more this purple combination than the pinks of the previous post!

But here we go. Second sock finished. Finally, a make for the gift box. 

Technical details:

Yarn used - Opal sock yarn, but label missing so shade unknown!

Amount - 53g.

Size - approximately UK 5-6.

Needles - 2.5mm DPN's.

Pattern - the often used one in my head!

So did I say two a month? Better get cracking on then!

-x-

Hey, did you see?

There's an entry at last under the gift makes heading over to the right!

That's right, I decided to take a little break from the scrap stashbusting and work on a little something from the stash proper:
  

And what better way to start:

A pair of socks. Or rather,  half a pair of socks:

And because I am one of those knitters who get bored halfway through (do you remember the socks I was making for John to take to the TT in June 2009? Yes, the ones that I blogged about finishing around October 2010.....), I made sure I got started on it's partner right away. And of course when you cast on a pair of socks the first few rounds are always such a nuisance don't you find? You know, you have to keep going to the point where you realise you don't have to keep checking the round hasn't twisted and that you just know the rib sequence without watching the stitches like a hawk? Well for me at least it takes 3-4 rows before I feel I can safely put them down and know that they will stay how they should:

Right I'd better get the housework done so I can get on with the partner!

-x-

Terrible photo's of a cutie cardi.......

Running out of titles now!

So I finished knitting with the yellow fluff yarn for now:

What do you think?

Yes I know, the photo's are awful, but have you seen the time? Maybe I'll get an outdoor shot of it being modelled tomorrow and you can see the true colour then. This started out as a simple make, I thought it would take no time at all. And it didn't. The body took only a couple of hours spaced over the last two days. And then I came to the edging tonight! Aaarrgh is the only word I can think of to describe how I felt about that edging. Fine fluffy wool, 2.5mm straight needles, 275st pick up around curved edges.........Ok you get it. My fingertips are paying the price right now.

Still I'm happy with how it's turned out. Much prettier than the photo's suggest, although as I already mentioned it's not what I usually tend to choose for Heather to wear. But I think it will go well over sundresses or vests in the summer. As long as it fits!

I guess I'd better start on the gift makes about now. Did I say two per month? Better get the skates on then!

-x-

No work and all play......

Can you tell it's the end of the working year soon? And so all annual leave has to be used or lost? How else would I manage to get so much crafting done :-)

A new project on the needles, because back to the needles it is.

What can you make with just short of 100g of lemon, fluffy, 4ply?

Well socks were the obvious choice - isn't that the best use for 4ply if you don't have a tiny baby to knit for? Or if you don't want to cast on hundreds of stitches to compensate for the delicacy of the yarn? 

But no, socks are not the work in progress here. Again it's something for the littlest person in the family, something that will hopefully see her through the summer months. Mind you I'm not certain on the sizing just yet, it might be coming up a little small.....eek!

See how fluffy the yarn is? That's why I haven't bothered to rip back and re-size. The fibres are so fluffy that they are knitting together and making it impossible to undo even a couple of stitches without damaging the yarn. It's looking kind of cute in a pastel, traditional girlie sort of way. Not my usual choice of colours (it's actually a very pale lemon although you can't tell!) or yarn but I said I was going to use all the scraps so this has got to be used. I have no idea how I ended up with this yarn, I certainly didn't buy it with a plan in mind. Must have been a charity shop/car boot sale find. In fact it isn't even a scrap really is it? It's pretty much a full 100g as I said. 

So back to the needles and getting this finished. And making the most of the next few days off before I am back in work and only squeezing in the odd few rows here and there.

See you all soon with what should be the latest reveal.

Happy crafting everyone.

-x-

And they're done.

Socks finished at last!
Plain socks knitted up on 2.5mm DPN's using Regia design line Kaffe Fasset.
Tried to finish these late at night and made a slight mistake when decreasing the final heel shaping but it's unnoticeable unless you know it's there. And I wasn't going to rip back at that stage!

I've also been working on a little cross stitch gnome and toadstool but I left it in the caravan so no picture :(
Time to pull out the UFO bag and see what to get onto next.........