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-

Dropping quickly by.....

I bet you've all forgotten me, haven't you? It's been such a long time!

Sorry I haven't been around much, in the run up to Christmas I had so much making to do that I had to choose between posting about it, or actually doing it, and of course the doing it had to win ;)

And then since Christmas I haven't been very well and have spent a lot of time just getting by day to day, and all spare time (after family and work have taken up such a huge chunk)  has been spent resting, sleeping and generally feeling totally lacking in any motivation whatsoever. Not a tot of knitting or crochet or any form of crafting has been tried. Trying hard now to find some motivation - and the ability to stay awake or even upright! - and maybe pick up the hooks or needles again.

So hopefully give it a few more days and I might finally have something to share.

But what motivated me to post today you might ask?

Well, I opened my stash cupboards (note the multiple?) and realised I had so many new yarns I had been so excited about just before Christmas, and so looking forward to using for actual planned and exciting makes, and so I thought I would go over and update my stash on Ravelry. And whilst over there I noticed I had 55 yarns in my stash, then doing a little adding up with the boys we worked out that I had over 200 individual skeins of yarn!!!!!! And that was without adding in the part used/unbanded/not particularly nice but might be useful yarns that haven't made it to the Stash page yet.

Hmm, a tad excessive do you think?

So if you want to see them in all their glory then pop over to my Rav page. There's some wonderful yarns there I can tell you :)

So yep, thats hopefully going to be the motivation that kicks me into gear......soon......after a good nights sleep.....and maybe another day of rest......

PS - The man was so concerned that he offered to cheer me up by driving me to my favourite yarn shop at the weekend. I turned him down. And that was BEFORE I realised the extent of the stash............. So yes, I need a good shake up......Although it's doing great for the old savings account :)

Still here....

Although the  laptop issues are back!

The laptop was replaced, and then the new-to-us one turned out to have a faulty graphics card, and then the old one was kind of fixed by a friend but he installed a new OS which doesn't seem to have loaded all the features so I can't edit photos now until I get some editing software. Still having problems with the power  supply to the laptop too so seriously going to have to find a replacement soon.....

And even worse than all of that - I've lost all my bookmarks! All the lovely blogs I was following through bookmarks, all gone. I can't remember the names of them so I'm hoping that I will come across them again very soon. I follow quite a few on blogger but some I bookmarked instead, probably because I wasn't logged in when I first came across them and then never got round to clicking that button. Well that'll teach me......

In the meantime I have done a little knitting. I'm so glad I started late October as I am running out of time now and the days are filled with lots of crafting of a different kind, take a peek at the other blog if you want to know more! I finally finished this little set for the littlest girlie after a mini rant at the mittens that wouldn't turn out right:

Do you see the lovely scarf too, the one that I blogged about in the last post? Well of course you don't because I was knitting away and started to think how the girlie never keeps her scarves on properly, and that they always come sliding down out of her coat. So in a stroke of genius I decided to turn it into a simple cowl. No sliding off her neck, and I could cast off just over halfway through the length rather than carrying on for at least another 70cms! All worked in three shades of Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran, the cowl is a garter stitch loop in blocks of colour, the mittens are cobbled from a pattern found on Ravelry which I still can't decide whether I read wrongly/misunderstood, or it was written wrongly? The hat is the Pixie helmet from the Autumn 2009 issue of Living Crafts magazine, with a big fluffy bobble on top and cute fat plaits on each side. Overkill? - nah, it looked great when I sneaked it on her whilst she slept.....

Woohoo, another set done, just two more hat/gloves/scarf sets to go. And to finish big little boys scarf, the one in the DK rib..... And a pair of gloves for biggest girlie ..... And there's a little sewing to be done yet too..........

I hope you're all on target for a stress free handcrafted Christmas.

-x-

Yarn along

I have knitted up a few things in the late nights but it's getting so close to the gifting time now that I am resorting to super quick knits. So for the littlest girlie I have gone back to the elf cap, only resized using aran weight yarn and 5mm needles. All good and now the matching scarf is on the needles. Garter stitch all the way with this one, firstly because Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran looks so good in garter stitch, and secondly because it is quick and mindless and can be done whilst nursing the girlie, reading stories, making plans...... you get the picture ;)

I really wanted this to be the picture to share, look at those amazing deep colours:

But in reality this is what it looks like:

Still gorgeous colours though don't you think?

Reading, well it's fairly obvious - the christmas books are out. Old books found in the charity shops, when children wanted things like rocking horses, dolls and jack in the boxes, not a video game or mobile phone in sight......

Looking forward to seeing what everyone is up to in Ginny's yarn along once again.

And a big thank you to all who read, I noticed I passed the 10,000 page views mark whist I was away. Not a lot by some standards, but amazing to me. Thanks to everyone for reading and following.

-x-

Short not sweet.

My laptop is dying.

It takes forever to download the photos from the camera, editing them is near impossible, it can't cope at all with more than one page open. 

So I offer my apologies. 

I have things to share, knits I've made, a pattern for a cool cowl to put out there, but I can't do any of that. 

I am keeping up with my family blog as I need that record for the littlies and myself to remember happy December days, but that alone is an all evening job. I start uploading photos then potter off to do dishes, come back and write a little, upload a photo to the blog, do a few lot of rows of knitting whilst waiting, upload another, make a drink, upload another, walk the dog, you get the picture (boo - pun not intended!!).

So there we are, why I'm not here. 

Or anywhere else. 

I try to catch up on blogs, but it takes several minutes for each to load. 

And leaving comments, well, there's no chance of that.

Do you remember the days of dial-up? Well this is slower, far slower.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel - the man is negotiating prices on a replacement laptop as I type. So in the next few days, as one big guy once said - I'll be back! 

Hopefully.....

-x-

Plain old lazy - but you'll love it.

I've been at work all day, missd a train connection, shivered on a platform, saw a poor little toddler at my group bump his head so badly he had a bright blue egg within seconds, I have a toothache, and the beginnings of a cold. I think a break from the knitting pressure is due. So today I thought I'd share with you something that has just had me snorting my lemon and ginger tea all over myself:

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2011/12/01/for_the_others.html

Yes, you probably follow the blog, and yes, you probably snorted too, but just in case you don't, take a look.

See - genius. I especially love rule 1 :)

And I finished the cowl. More tomorrow, maybe?

-x-