Lion Travelling Scarf
A while back, Lauren from stitch and bitch London contacted me to see if we would join in with their campaign to knit a scarf for the 4 Lions in Trafalgar Square, which will then be auctioned off for charity.
You can see more and read more about that
here.
So, I brought it to our group, and we decided to tackle it differently, we suggested a travelling scarf would be the best, instead of us all knitting squares and sewing them together.
So with a bit of too-ing and fro-ing, we decided on the best route for the scarf, so that all the groups in Dublin and hopefully surrounding area's could have a knit on the scarf. Lauren wanted photos also, so a few were taken and sent to her, she will be putting them up on the website soon.
In the meantime, here are the photos of the scarf!
Close ups of some of the stitches that were used:
The scarf packed, and ready to go to its destination.
And there we are on the map!
Its not too late to send your piece in to them, they won't be wrapping the scarves round the Lions til 20th or so of February I think....get their details from the site
hereOf course its for a good cause, as if you need to even ask!
Labels: Charity Knitting
Lets design a camera case
So my Mum asked me to knit a holder for their new camera, to protect it from scrapes and such like.
I started with some Lambs Pride and felted it, but decided that it would be better on my mini disc:
Oh okay, the folks preferred the other cover I knit instead. And who wouldn't?
Its knit using the remnants of the artyarns yarn that I used for
Le Slouch....... and I
still have some left over!
I actually started out trying to knit up a toy from it, but it didnt want to be a toy, it wanted to be a cover for my folks camera.
They like it, phew!
Talking of toys, I have just updated
my shopCheck it out and let me know what you think!
Here's a sneak preview
Labels: Etsy, Inspiration, Knitting
Coincidently.....
Remember
these?
I bought the pattern for them along with the wool at the knitting and stitching show in Birmingham last September.
I got them from
UK Alpaca, and thought that the pattern was their own one, loved them!
I knit them up and again loved the end result.
I ended up giving them to my friend Jenny, who admired them. She had just had baby
No.2 and I had gone visiting. Jenny thought they were lovely and would be great to wear when driving, in the cold mornings (they were!).
Is it because these items get praised that I end up giving them away to the person prasing them?
It was the same with my first pair of fetchings that I made,
Isabelle tried them on, and then declared that they would be great to wear when she goes running, which she does daily, in the cold air of Switzerland.
I gave both of these wristwarmers away gladly, as I know that they will be worn and loved.
So, I still had over 50g of the alpaca yarn that I bought in Birmingham left, and decided to make myself another pair of the wristwarmers.
Could I find the pattern?
No.
Not to be seen anywhere.
I thought I had the pattern living with the yarn, but it was nowhere to be seen.
So I decided to put it aside and wait until I came across it. I rarely lose anything.
So a couple of days later, I got one of my regular emails from Lion Brand, with their stitch pattern of the month, and decided to go into their site to find a nice stitch pattern to make a dishcloth from (forgetting that I have a fantastic book of stitch patterns that I was reminded about when I saw
Isobel's treasure trove last Saturday at
SnB)
What did I come across?
The same
Stitch Pattern that was used in my wristlets.
I wondered then did my UK Alpaca suppliers take the same stitch pattern to make their wristlets, or did they make it up?
Imagine my surprise then when I got my Simply Knitting magazine through the door (which I subscribed to last year and not going to subscribe to again as I don't usually knit from it).
I sat down with a cup of tea to have a flick through it...........and .......what?
Where did they come from?! There were my wristlets, staring up at me.
For this issue, the designer was apparently set a challenge to make a pair of practical fingerless gloves with 100g of UK Alpaca and this is what she came up with....is this a coincidence or is it a copy cat case....hmmm....wish I could find my pattern to compare notes!
Oh, and I know that she would be able to make not one but 2 pairs of fingerless gloves from that ball of alpaca!
Labels: General Ramblings, Weird and Wonderful
Fetch
Okay, this is the 4th pair of wristlets that I've made in the last year and hear this folks, these are MINE
all mine.
Fetching from Knitty, using Debbie Bliss cashmerino DK, size 4 circular needles using magic loop method, I knit one extra row of cableing on the wrist and did an i-cord bind off, thanks to Cheryl's great tutoring at the SnB on Saturday, cos I forgot how to do it oops! Thanks Cheryl!
Love the pattern, but wearing them for the first time this morning into work, I thought that I should probably have done one full cable round at the top before binding off, the pattern asks you to do a cable round, then knit 45 rows then bind off.
I think I should have done 2 cable rounds, knit a couple of rows before binding off, this would have brought the top of the wristlet in a little tighter.
Ah well, maybe next time.....
Labels: Knitting
Drop spindle
Diane spinning with her drop spindle. Cool!
Labels: Spinning
Knitting in the pub on Thursady night
Knitting in the pub on Thurs night. Just proving that I can send a photo from my phone...yay!!!
Labels: Pub Knitting
Its a wrap
calorimetry- do you ever see a pattern and can't rest until you have knit it and got it out of your head?
This was one of them.
I have been carrying a ball of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran around with me for ages, in my knitting bag (One of my many knitting bags!)just waiting until I got the Christmas knitting out of the way.
I've come to the conclusion that I'm a slow knitter.
Yes, I know that many of my knitting friends think I'm a fast knitter as I get a lot of projects done, Elaina thinks that I have a new project with me every time I meet her at our knitting group,but I'm not a fast knitter.
I knit small items that are fairly easy to finish quickly enough.
In saying that, I estimate that
calorimetry took me about 4 hours in total to finish, knit over 2 days.
Thats not fast knitting, is it? Its a very small item.
It is not without its problems, its very wide, probably too wide for me, although I love it.
My head isn't exactly the smallest heads either, so I think if I reknit this I would have to juggle with some maths and decrease my stitches and reduce the amount of rows I knit etc etc.
Idid reduce needle size as was advised by posts I read in Craftster, but I was eager to get it knit so didn't pay toooooo much attention..oops.
In anticipation of a challenge, cast on for
Bridie Sunday night.
This is the first cardigan that I will have knit since I was.. oooh, about 19 maybe?
So I'm a little nervous that I can actually do it, really.
I think the last large item I did was a shapeless jumper that I never wore after I finished it.
Oh, I did a cardigan for my Dad also.
Think he never wore it either.
So, Bridie will be a marker for me, a start (I hope) into knitting larger items.
I'm hoping not to bore you with the details as I knit it, not too much anyway, as I will be knitting other things also.
I may however, flash a bit of it if I'm feeling happy with the way its turning out ;-)
Here's hoping.
Labels: General Ramblings, Knitting
Hummf
I have a post all composed and ready to put up (for the last 2 hours) and blogger is just not co -operating with my pictures. And I really want to show you!
So, we will have to wait until it gets over its hissy fit, and gets back to normal.
Hummf
I have been expanding my blogging reportoire to check out some bloggers that do other crafts.
One of my new favourites (and just happens to be Irish too) is the
Irish Craftworker.
You must read her blog, I mean, check out
this and then have a look at this,
I love this ideaSo, in the meantime, thanks to
The Skirt who pointed me in the right direction with what I thought was mother of pearl in the last post.
Check this out instead -->
New Zealand PauaLabels: Blogger, General Ramblings, Inspiration
Sheep galore
An Aussi friend from work was leaving to head over to work in Galway, and the day she left she gave these to me. Yes, they are coasters....with sheep on them! The mother of pearl is on a different animal on each coaster.
(Bad close up, and an attempt at enhancing it with photoshop)
I know, they are from New Zealand, not Australia (aren't some of you quick today!), but she was given them by another friend and didn't want to be weighed down with things, as she is travelling about.....and she didn't have a clue about my yarn/sheep fibrey goodness obsession...so a complete fluke!
I like the sheep in the last photo, looks a bit demented with the white of its eyes showing up like that!
Labels: Friends, Releasing sheep, Sheep
Releasing more sheeps!!
Not just one sheep....
But two sheep!
Lovely boiled egg and toast on sunday morning,courtesy of 2 lovely sheeps.
Labels: Releasing sheep, Sheep
Knucks to you mate!
Used size 3.5mm circs, magic loop method and Debbie Bliss cashmerino DK.
Cuff knit longer than was stated in the pattern.
I also knit a 3 row 1x1 rib at the start of each fingerless finger
These were my 3rd and 4th attempt at making the fingerless gloves.
The first attempt, I made as a prototype almost, but I found that the stocking stitch was rolling a bit on the fingers, and I didn't make the cuff long enough for my dad.
The second one I made, I had forgotten what needle size I had used for the first one and somehow got it into my head it was a larger needle size, and of course the gadge was way off.
I didn't actually notice this until I got just past the thumb...
So for the third attempt, I knit a swatch, and measured it against the first glove I did, and finally got started on the pair!
These were, ahem... er... supposed to be a Christmas present for my Dad.
I was stern with myself at the weekend and wouldn't let myself cast on for anything else, or work on anything else until I had them finished.
That said, I finished them on Saturday night, then couldn't sew in the ends (which I am Crap at!) until Sunday as the light wasn't very good.
Cast off Sunday and then sewed in the ends of the knucks.
Couldn't wear the calorimetry as didn't have a button to hand, so have to wait and find a suitable one from my button stash today.
Pictures on next post!
Labels: Christmas knitting
Thanks friends!
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has dropped by my blog in the last year, left a comment or emailed me in relation to my blog.
I have made some lovely friends through this blog, and hope to continue those friendships and hopefully make some more in the next year.
So thanks from me, Ronnie and Reggie.
Labels: General Ramblings
One Year today!
It is a milestone.
It is a marking of the passage of time.
It was a year ago today that I stumbled into the blog world, taking ever decreasing faltering steps, and finding new ways to express myself, through my knitting, photo's and the web.
During that year I have had 356 comments, and since I started counting my traffic, I have had 7,928 visitors.
I started looking back to see how many items of knitting I had blogged about (there have been several unblogged items), and when I got to 7 Hats, 1 cafetiere cozy, 2 curly wurleys, 2 bags, 2 tea-cozy's, 1 winter muff, 4 scarves, 1 wrist warmers, 1 pair gloves, 2 facecloths, 1 pair socks, 1 pair fuzzy feet, 1 pair bootees, 2 pairs of baby socks, and 1 shackle cuff...... .......I stopped.
I had only reached April 06 at this stage, from January 06.
That's 29 items in 4 months.
Wow.
I must take some time to really go through and see what Ive done in the full year.
This year, I'm going to be a bit more selective in what I knit.
I'm going to knit for ME, that's my goal this year.
There are several patterns in the offing that I'm just dying to cast on for.
Some of them are larger items, like the Bridie cardigan from
Anna Bell that I have
swatched for and have sitting waiting for me to start with.
I probably should swatch for that again to make sure my tension is still the same.
(The pattern is not available at the moment on her site, but I have heard that it will be added at some stage soon.)
Some of them are smaller items, from books like Mason Dixon Knitting, Knit 2 Together, and many magazines that I have earmarked patterns as to do's.
Of course, there are always the baby knits, which I will be doing this year again....2 more coming up...and there are items also that I've wanted to knit for people that I will be doing, but I will be focusing on challenging myself a bit more.
If you look at the items I've listed above, they are almost all fast knits, almost instant gratification. I need to start something that I know I'm not going to get finished in a week, or less, that I know that I'll be a bit more challenged to commit myself to.
Of course, this will lead to more boring posts...like- look here's the start of a sleeve...a week later- look here's another part of a sleeve, or if I'm getting it- here's a complete sleeve!
I'm sure that I won't fall back on just having one item on the needles at the one time though, I probably will have that quick knit(s) ongoing at the same time.
Can't see one item only on the needles now, can you?!
Oh, can't forget that I've also learned to spin in that year, bought my spinning wheel and have sold some of my homespun on ebay!
Woohoo!
To celebrate, I'm now going to have a cup of rooibus cirtus tea, from
Suki Tea and then tonight I'm going to join
Holly at her knitting group. See a bit of the world!
Labels: General Ramblings, Knitting, Spinning, Weird and Wonderful
Hat for my BIL
Again, another request for a hat, from my BIL.
This time done in Sublime Extra fine Merino wool dk.
Despite the bad photos and bad light, its not in fact navy blue, its actually a chocolate brown colour!
The piece of yarn coming out of the top of the hat on the pic on the right is actually to show you how much was left out of a 50g/ 127yards ball.
I was sooo disappointed in this yarn.
Why?
Well, it was a dream to knit with, really soft and spongy and no problems knitting it, very warm when I finished it, no problems with gadge. Loved it.
Then I washed it.
In warm water, not hot, with eucalon.
And it stretched.
Noticably so.
It went from a nice stretchy but tight enough fit, to a loose fit.
On me, I'd have been worried about wearing it in windy weather as I could see it flying off, but my BIL's head is a little bigger than mine so I thought it wouldn't be too much of a problem.
When he tried it on, it didnt look too bad actually, it was much bigger on me, so fingers crossed its what he wanted.
I haven't heard any complaints from him about it...yet...I was disappointed about the stretching, it was a real let-down from an otherwise seemingly perfect yarn.
I have another ball of it but am reluctant to try anything else with it really at the moment!
Labels: Christmas knitting
Hat for me Da
This hat was made for my father.
Request came from him, colour also.
Its made in Alpaca and is wonderfully soft yet light and warm.
Fits him like a dream.
I'm also making him some fingerless gloves at the moment, have had a few false starts with them, but currently running as planned.
Labels: Christmas knitting, Knitting
OOmpa Loompa
Another Elf cap!
I knit this for my sister Ruth, not as a revenge thing (honest Ruth, I thought you'd like it!)-because she likes hat as much as I do.
We were all in the pub just before Christmas and when we were leaving I took out my elf hat and put it on (it was cold outside!!) and Ruth started laughing and started singing oompa loompa from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I turned to my other sister and said, little does she know but she'll be an oompa loompa soon too!
I used size 10mm circular needles using the magic loop method, and you can see the difference in both the size of it and the way the colours fall. The picture on the left is a bit brighter as I used a flash, but it shows the colouring better than the others. The last picture is my first hat on top of the second one, to show the differences. the one on top is also washed and the one below isn't so Im wondering if this is the cause of the colour difference as they are from the same batch.
I left the cast off yarn at the top as I wasn't sure if Ruth would like a pom pom on it or not, she hasnt gotten bak to me yet....
Labels: Christmas knitting, Weird and Wonderful
The end of the journey for Budd and mate
Wooohooooo
Managed to get the socks finally finally done, only about 7 months too late eh?
Problems included running out of yarn and not being able to obtain more without actually having to get it ordered in (and yes, springwools had no problem in ordering me in ONE ball of yarn!), and castonitis.
Em, yeah, castonitis, where I get such a thrill of casting on for new projects that everything else is put aside.
Until I find another project to cast on for.
OOps.
well, its done now, and FITS and has been worn, that very day
Labels: Christmas knitting, Knitting
Slouching
A hurried photo taken of the present I made for myself whilst on a flying visit to Clare.
Can you tell that I used the yarn that my secret pal sent me from
Artyarns.?
Its 100% superwash merino wool, 50g=104yards and I probably used about 75g.
Size 6mm and 5.5mm circular needles using magic loop all the way.
No wearing photos, but I love it.
Photographed on a wall beside a very stormy sea in Doonbeg, Co. Clare
Micheal has started calling me the mad hatter....
Labels: Christmas knitting, Knitting
Its not too late to send your piece in to them, they won't be wrapping the scarves round the Lions til 20th or so of February I think....get their details from the site here
