At last!

I have a finished thing!

But first I just want to say a huge thank you for the offers of help in response to my last post. We have had some very kind offers of help across the web and Jen is so grateful. She really didn't imagine that virtual strangers friends would help so greatly.I haven't posted in over a week as I wanted to keep that message up as long as possible but we have had so many lovely offers that i think I can safely allow to glide down the page. I will keep you updated with how things go :)

So back to the finished thing.

It started off like this many weeks ago:

The one on the left! ArwenMakes hand dyed sock

And then it became this:

The one at the top.

Two different sized needles started it growing:

The increase section moving along nicely

And then several weeks of a row here and there turned it into this:

Just one more icord edging to go

Before finally, last night, it became this:

Sallah cowl by Bristol Ivy

The whole thing is knit by using one 3.75mm needle and one 6mm needle alternating the rows. It is a lovely twisted rib pattern knit on a bias so there is an increase and decrease on every other row. The twisted knit is created by knitting into the back of every knit stitch so needs a fair amount of looking and feeling to make sure the stitch is taken up properly. The yarn itself is wonderful to work with. A splitty yarn would have had me tearing at my hair but this yarn is so smooth and quite soft. The twist is gentle so it runs through the fingers nicely and the colour....well, what can I say? The colour is amazing. A deep pinky red with lighter pinky orange tones running through, and a lovely silver sparkle throughout. You have to see it to appreciate what a great job Sarah has made of dyeing it. I am trying so hard to stay away from her Etsy store and splurging on gorgeous yarn that I really can't afford right now...or even have time to use!! In fact the only issue I have with the whole cowl is that it is not as drapey as the pattern shots imply, knit to gauge it is quite a snug fit with only a little drape, far less than it seems on the pattern page. Also it states after shaping to knit the main body until the left side measures 17 inches. Well my left side was almost that before I even started the main body! I did think of keeping on knitting until the piece seemed a reasonable length before starting the decreases but wonderful Ravelry came up with a Sallah cowl KAL group where it was suggested that working 64 rows (16 pattern repeats) made more sense as that would give a total of 156 rows, the same number as the amount of stitches to be picked up for the icord edging. This worked out just perfectly. The icord edging was a doddle to work and really sets off the finish on the cowl, it's definitely one I would use again.

Thanks Owen, for doing what your Dad didn't ;)

So that's another one for the gifting box then, time to knit up a couple of cardi's for the soon to be here baby bump, and some bits and bobs for Jen's stall. Oh and another Sallah cowl for the lovely man only in a darker shade and far less sparkle ;) Yep, he tried it on and loved it.He wouldn't model though so you'll just have to imagine a 40+ year old guy gruffly stating how great that would be for on the motorbike, whilst wearing a cherry red sparkly cowl......:) Apparently it's a nice snug fit so it will pull nicely up over his lips under the helmet.

I'll try to make it back soon, so taaraa for now.

-x-

PS - did I tell you I have a new addiction? Twitter and Instagram - who'd of thunk it?

I'm mamabex9 on Instagram and Bexmama on Twitter so please come and say hi. Because I want a real reason to be hanging around there, not just to randomly browse strangers posts and pics......

-x-

Procrastinating.....

I set my own challenge right?

One pair of socks.......blah, blah,

So it's only me who can be disappointed, or not, if I don't do it, right?

So why did I fib about SSS? Of course I have it. I haven't even thought about casting on Old Joe number two. And the mystery knit? Well that's growing. But not as quickly as it should.

But I do have at least one finished object for this month. You know the one skein per month knit? The one that I planned on spreading through till March? Well I couldn't keep from rolling that last skein. Sock yarn is so hard on the fingers don't you find? So, well, thin! But the Manos Silk DK? Sooo soft, sooo silky, sooo lovely to work with. And once it was balled then I had to knit. And knit. And now?

One completed baby blanket blocking nicely. All ready for a spring grandbaby. Slightly envious that little babe will get to be snuggled in all that poor wool and silk squishy softness...... And Jen is under orders to let Granny wash the blanket when needed, well Jen is a bung-it-all-in-together kind of laundry person.

Of course Jen is less concerned about the blanket being knitted on time. There's still the pressing issue of pram shopping to complete. Or even start. Guess the man needs to dust off his wallet ;)

Hmmm, wonder if there's any yarn shops near to the baby goods shop.........

Knitty reading

We found this book in the charity shop quite a while ago and rediscovered it whilst sorting out the bookshelves:

It tells the story of Mr. Nick, who loves to knit on the train in the morning with his friend:

 One morning his friend isn't on the train so he has to knit alone:

He discovers his friend is poorly in hospital so he goes to visit:

She doesn't like it there as there is nothing to see so he has an idea:

He knits their train journey up into a lovely blanket to cheer her up:

And then each morning they can knit together and enjoy the views once again:

Don't you think that's a lovely book?

We do :)

-x-

Hmmmm.....

Not a lot of crafting going on around here!

Elastibaby is now developing into velcrobaby. You know elastibaby stage right? The one where you have that invisible elastic band that connects you both? The bands fine when you're both together. You can stretch it a little and pass baby to someone else, maybe even pop into another room? But stretch that elastic too far and baby lets you know with a yowl. Well velcrobaby stage is kind of like that. Only as you know velcro only has two steps - stuck and unstuck. And you know how velcro makes that horrible ripping noise when you unstick it? Well imagine the strength of a whole baby size strip of velcro, and the noise that would make if you separated the two halves........ Yes, we're definitely at velcrobaby stage.

So there, no bloggy updates. No knitting. No crochet. No getting on with the personal monthly challenge. Especially with February's shortage of days.....pfff! Instead I've faffed around, adding a little page at the top. Go see - all about me.Although it's not all that interesting, just thought I'd do one anyway ;)

Oh and I've updated my bloglist - see it over there on the left? If your names there, I read you. If it's not, I probably still do, but I probably lost you in the great computer crash and now you randomly pop up before I can pin you down with a bookmark. Which get deleted. Because it's not my laptop you see. As in aftereffects of the great computer crash. I have to fight for time on the very old laptop bought for a grown girl many years ago.......who can afford her own super sleek version these days.

Anyway, got to go, velcrobaby has noticed the separation.

Leaving you with a very pleased boy:

You wouldn't believe how long he's been trying this!

Well whats a blog post without a picture to look at :)

-x-

It's not SSS, honest!

Second sock syndrome - do you suffer with it?

I finished up the first of the Old Joe socks over the weekend. And immediately cast on..........something different! Not going to reveal what just yet, maybe you can guess:

The reverse side, very pretty tight stitch.

The right side,much loopier when gently stretched. This is more like it's true colour.

Love this texture, wouldn't it be great in silver yarn? A perfect chain mail singlet for dressing up. 

Hoping this is a quick make, although it is needing some attention whilst I get on with increasing AND maintaining the pattern.

Hmm, ten days of February left. One skein of baby blanket and one sock done. Plan was for a pair of socks, a skein of blanket, a gift make and a random piece within the month. I'm beginning to think that won't happen.......

-x-

Friday fun and fluff-ups

Fun:

Looking beautiful in big sister's make up

Looking beautiful whilst blowing raspberries

Fluff-ups:

Do you see that KNIT stitch right in the centre of the stocking stitch column...grrr!

OK so it's only one stitch, the photo's taken pretty close up to see it, and only I know it's there - but I KNOW it's there! Hmm, can I ignore it or do I look for a 2mm crochet hook to fix it? At least it's on a stocking stitch section so it'll be easy to do ;) Easier than threading the 140sts of the baby blanket BACK onto the circular needle. Well if you leave your knitting under a magazine, at the bottom of a project bag, at the back of the sofa, then you can't blame a little person for deciding to have a root around......just before she wanders off to do her make up....... :)

And seeing as I have a cherrypicker in my yard and a gang of men on my roof right now I guess a bad stitch and some picked up stitches are the least of things that could go wrong today.......

-x-

Juggling.....

quite literally!

Owen has been teaching himself to juggle the past couple of days. He quickly got fed up of eating bruised apples so moved onto these:

Oranges! Hmm, weird photo......

Fortunately for us, unfortunately for him, we go through many oranges a day for our breakfast juice so he needed to find an alternative. The soft balls were too big, the outdoor balls, well, they were out of doors, in the rain and snow, and the pool table balls, hmmm, have you landed one of those on your toes? So mama had a plan. We whipped out the sewing machine, cut out 12 equilateral triangles (maths lesson see?) and stitched them into 2 pyramids filled with lentils:

See charity shop-found Swiper? Heather is obsessed with Dora. Haha, did that distract you from my shabby sewing....

 

Only 2 pyramids from 12 triangles, is that what you're thinking? Haha, mama had to make a boobie stop halfway through and forgot what she was doing - sewing 2 triangles fully together doesn't make a decent juggling ball!!

Two is hard enough to start with ;)

Sew So there we are, maths, drawing, problem solving, PE,patience, and craft all covered in one day. We love homelearning :) And mama got to give the sewing machine a dusting over too.....

-x-