Stashbusting - part 3.

So if you read the other blog you'll know that I have been otherwise occupied the past couple of weeks. But I did manage to finish the stashbusting exercise and use those final scraps of Adriafil merino left over from the jumper and hat. And this is what I came up with:


The pattern is from this book. I've used the pattern before but that time for a friend so I remembered it was really quick and simple and used very little yarn so thought I would give it a go and hope the wool would be enough. Fortunately it was but with only inches to spare!
Anyway they should keep little feet warm when playing outside. And as they're so easy to make I think a couple more pairs might be useful as I imagine they might dirty pretty quickly as Heather loves to explore.

Stashbusting - part two.

So I made the hat to match the sweater:


Sorry for the poor photo quality but I just thought this was the most beautiful picture of our little girl, I just had to share.
Again this was hashed up as I went along so no pattern. The leading edge is 8 rows of garter stitch and the rest is plain old stocking stitch, again chosen to show off the colour changes. The decrease was worked with the SL1, K1, PSSO spiral and dropped 6sts on each row I think. I love that little spiral effect on the crown and it looks great on little peoples hats don't you think?
There's about half of one ball left now and a few oddments so I have an idea for them already in mind. Hopefully there will be just enough wool to follow it through. We should all know by tomorrow ;-)

Stashbusting - part one.

The great thing about keeping a crafting blog is that I have points of reference for all things I do, and a record of when I did it, or didn't! So looking back a few days ago to this time last year I came across this post, and remembering how lovely the colours were I decided to dig out the wool again. Well I also remembered that it is a very fine DK, more of a cross between DK and 4 ply, so I thought I would hash up a pattern as I went along rather than relying on following one. I made that mistake here, and had to rip it all back once already. Added to the lack of pattern was the fact that that ripped back wool won't knit to the specified tension anyway as it is more springy and finer than before.
So I thought I'd make a little jumper for Heather and this is what I ended up with:



She definitely has better things to do than pose in her new jumper, can't you tell?

The yarn is Adriafil knitcol 100% merino and self patterned to give these lovely stripes. I didn't want to distort the striped effect by ribbing any part of the jumper so I worked a picot edging to the hem and cuffs instead. I also avoided ribbing the neckline by working a row of double crochet right round, including across the button shoulder opening.
So one more ball of this wool left and I'm thinking a hat might be nice?
Or maybe that would be stripey overkill?

And another hat.

This cardigan is taking sooo long. But at last the end is in sight. Only half a sleeve and then the edgings and trims to go. Should be finished by the end of the week. Well I hope so as it is so cold round here right now.
Poorly children mean I have been sat up the past few nights so knitting has been a great pastime. Lat week I spotted some lovely wool in the yarn shop. I just bought one ball as it was a patterned wool and I wanted to see how it would knit up before committing to a full project and also before spending money. I have way too big a stash to justify adding to it at the moment but this wool was lovely. 100% merino by Adriafil in cute shades of blue, pink and white.


I decided to knit yet another hat for Heather. Knitted on a set of 4mm DPN's it took only two hours in total. The flower took another 30 minutes.

Only problem is, in my sleep deprived state, I didn't check the sizing and just launched straight in. So I can't show you a picture of Heather wearing it as it is just slightly too large. Oh well, at least I have one ready for christmas. But I might just make a slightly smaller one for wearing now....
Oh well, thats about all for now. Hopefully when I next post I will have the cardigan finished. Or at least I can hope so.
xx

Inspiration..........or otherwise!

Found some lovely cotton fabric in the local haberdashery shop last week, these two remnants of fabric, just on one metre each, for only £1 a piece.

Not sure what to do with the pirate fabric yet but the pink has been turned into these:

Pj's for Sophie for when she stays over with us.

And inspired by Shell and the idea of a lovely crochet throw for wrapping up with baby on cool summer evenings, I have learned to make granny squares! The yarn I'm using is the Mirasol T'ika mentioned recently. Not sure how big the throw will end up, I'm getting six squares to each skein and have seven skeins each of red and fuchsia. Maybe I'll have to add some squares in another colour if there isn't enough, but at the moment I'm just happy to keep going and see where I end up.
The first squares, not perfect but a memory in the making:


And now for the disaster:

I knew right from the beginning that this wasn't right, so why did I continue? I suppose it was just seeing the colours coming through and wanting not to admit defeat. Mmm, note to self, trust your instincts. So now it is pulled down and ready to be made into something else. Hopefully with more success.