A little clue........

.....for the project started late last night. Noisy neighbours meant a wound up mama in need of soothing. So the needles came out and I started to click away. Can you guess what it's going to be?

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.........

I found my mojo!

Well my crafting mojo anyway :-)

I posted a picture of Heather's new dress over on the other blog but thought I would show a bit more detail here as this is supposed to be a place to record and share my creative journey. So here's a little more about the dress, which I think is rather lovely and would love a big version for over summer trousers.
The pattern itself was pretty easy to come up with. For the back I just cast on a random number of stitches as I wanted a full skirt but as I wanted to incorporate a lace pattern the number of stitches had to be divisible by eight. I then worked a picot hem before beginning the diamond lace pattern.


I worked straight until the skirt was the desired length and then worked a decrease row of k1, k2tog repeating across the whole row. This pulled in the skirt to create a tighter yoke. I then changed to the lovely purple yarn and worked in stocking stitch until the piece reached where I would need to decrease the armholes. The armhole shaping was a classic shape created by casting off 4sts at the beginning of the following 2 rows and then decreasing 1st at each end of the next and 3 following alternate rows so 16sts cast off altogether. I then worked until the yoke was the length I wanted. All that was left then was to shape the neck and create straps which was done simply by working 6sts, casting off the following sts until 5 sts were left on the left needle and then knitting across these 5sts so that I had 6sts altogether. I then worked across these 6 sts in stocking stitch until the straps were the right length and then cast off. The yarn was rejoined to the remaining 6sts and these were worked in the same way as the first strap.


The front was worked in the same way until the yoke was 4 rows shorter than the back yoke where I then created the buttonhole row. This was done by working 3sts, casting off the following 2sts, continuing until 5sts remained, casting off the following 2sts and working to the end of the row. On the next row I worked 3sts, cast on 2sts, worked until 3sts remained, cast on 2sts and then worked to the end. I worked a further 2 rows and then cast off. All that was left to do was sew the sides together and add the buttons. I'm not sure I like the buttons and will probably change then for some wooden ones in the next day or two. I thought the dress would be pretty enough so could carry the plain black buttons but I think maybe they are a bit too bland?


The yarn is Wendy Supreme 100% cotton DK. Worked on 4mm needles throughout.

Next project on the go is a pair of socks for John. Well actually there's lots on the go, some in my head, some eager to get going and some already started but these socks are the ones I've decided to finish next. I started over a year ago and then got bored halfway down the first sock, never even getting to the heel turning, how fickle was that? But I came across it lingering sadly at the back of the drawer a couple of days ago and finding a renewed love for the colours I carried on where I left it. Only two days later and the first sock is complete and the second is begun:


This time I will get to the end ;-)

From old to new.

A neighbour of ours recently moved from his council owned property to a new bungalow. His sofa's were too big to take and so he gave the larger one away and offered the smaller to us. We didn't really want it but the neighbour as in a hurry to hand his keys back and would have been charged by the council if it was left in the property so John offered to take it to the skips to save him the worry or final bill. As the sofa was being loaded in the car John called me to see if I wanted the cushions, they were the loose sort, that zip onto the sofa. So of course I said why not, and ended up with four huge cushions and the foam seat pads too. Well you never know when they might be useful.

Well actually they came in useful within days! I had been thinking of creating a cozy corner for the little ones to sit and read, cuddle, sing or rest but didn't have the money to buy anything specific. So I covered the foam and created an L shaped sofa, and then I made covers for the cushions, creating a lovely comfy area for all to enjoy.

At the moment the foam "sofa" is covered by a blanket as i didn't have anything big enough to use. I'm thinking of maybe crochet covers when I get time? The cushion covers were all made from fabric I already had.
The blue cushion has an Ikea print on one side, bought from the bargain bin, and plain blue flannel on the other, an old cot sheet I have kept for many years.

The green cushion has a floral soft cord on one side, a cutoff bought cheaply when I first found I was carrying a little girl (Heather) and with dreams of a pretty little sundress or two, the reverse a plain green heavy cotton leftover from sewing the blind for our bathroom.

The pink cushion has a dainty flower print on one side, which used to be a pair of curtains I found in a charity shop for £1, the back is a deep pink linen left from a sling I made for Emma to carry Sophie in.
And the pirate cushion, well that has been claimed by Owen. The pirate fabric was an offcut for 50p, and the purple reverse side was leftover from recovering an old blanket box found in a house we moved into ten years ago.

So a lovely cosy place for reading stories, yet with lots of stories all of it's own.

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?