knitting news

this week has been mostly about knitting. 

and mostly hats. Three so far.

hats and cats. 

this one is helping me wind a centre pull ball. 

he really is.... 

note to self. egg shaped balls are fine.... no you don't need to buy a yarn winder.....

waiting impatiently for postie to bring new circular needle provides ample time to mess about with knitting trying to photograph stylishly, or making Harry Potter symbols.

cat two, and hat two. 

cat in the hat. 

please excuse me, I'm off to cast on hat four......

cosy crochet

these are the crochet squares I started during the Olympics.

slowly slowly they joined together, growing some more during the winter olympics and then during the commonwealth games. it's definitely been a sports watching blanket.

getting bigger and bigger, with a few rows of granny edging

to make a border

and finally a scalloped edging to finish it off.

just in time for snuggling up, apparently there's a storm coming, and I do love to watch the wind and  rain lash down when I'm all warm and cosy inside x

thank you for all the kind comments on my last post, baking updates to follow xxx

stone crochet.

my family think I've gone totally mad.
they are probably right.

both these patterns are from Margaret Oomen, you can find the fish tutorial on Resurrection Fern
and the sea urchin on Purl Bee

playing with kites and visiting wooly woods!

The National Trust have launched a new list of fifty things to do before you are 11 3/4  and many of the sites have activities on throughout the summer to help you fulfil some of the challenges on the list. We visited Sizergh Castle, where there was pond dipping and bug box building, den building and kite and badge making.

 

 Although this year both my children are older than this I firmly believe you are never too old to play with sticks and mud and kites.

 

 

As demonstrated by two parents both over 11 3/4  making a kite which they then played with very happily whilst the children waited to go and eat cake..........

 

 

 and whilst this post isn't an advert for the National Trust I must recommend a trip to Acorn Bank 

which is currently home to the most amazing wool art installation.

 

The Woolen Woods

 

there are patterns to download so you can create your own wooly woods, or contribute to this one.

 

There were oh so many wonderful creatures and flowers,

 

 my children teased me that I had taken 6 million photos.

 

They were exaggerating, it was only 5 million.............

 

I couldn't decide which to post, I could choose them all.....

 

or even decide upon a favourite.

 

I may have to go back and take some more photographs just in case I missed anything.

 

then I'll decide which I like best!

multiplying like rabbits.

I promised a friend some knitted rabbits for her comic relief bake sale.

 

Knitting on the train and when you are chatting means sometimes you don't quite pay attention to the pattern, and there was quite a lot of variation. The blue bunny on the right was the most wonky and affectionately referred to as a mole rat by certain family members...........

  

Next I tried a different pattern, but this bunny clearly hadn't been eating enough carrot cake, as she was rather anorexic.......

 

 

At this point I admitted defeat and headed for my sewing machine.

 

 

Much better.

 

 

This bunny was part of a "guess my name game", she was called Buttons.

The rest of the bunnies were sold for Comic Relief.

 

When I got home the first thing I was asked was "did you sell any bunnies?" and when I said they were all sold 

 

 "What??? Even the mole rat?"

 

 

dealing with leftovers (of a wooly variety)

Using up leftovers has always been one of my favourite things. The contents of the fridge are always getting turned into endless varieties of leftover soup, and from the fruit bowl anything tired looking gets thrown into a cake or a crumble.

Fabric leftovers of course become quilts. It is of course possible that I buy fabric especially for it to become leftovers (scraps) but we'll keep that a secret....

Wool leftovers have so far baffled me however. I've made a few fluffy brooches but they don't use much, and my granny square production stopped once there was no olympics to watch.

I was determined to find use for some oddments of sock yarn however, some leftover from socks and wristwarmers, and some of a friends leftovers (how am I supposed to keep control of my wool chaos when I can't turn down scraps.......)

Thankfully Nancy had already solved my problem when she knitted a shawl using all her sock scraps, and I hope she doesn't mind that I am doing exactly the same!

Well not exactly the same, this pattern has lots of holes in. Some of them are not in the right places........



olympic gold medal standard yarnbombing

"So Why are we going to Saltburn mummy?"

"to see the yarnbombing of course!"

"will there be ice cream?"

"knitted ice cream?"

"no, real ice cream!"

honestly you'd think the seaside was about fish and chips and sand and icecream.............
it is clearly a celebration of all things knitted and olympics.
I couldn't decide which I liked more, looking at the knitting, or listening to the reactions of all the people on the pier, which ranged from delight to sheer bemusement! As in the actual olympics I couldn't decide which event I liked best,  but this one is most like how I enjoyed the games!

london 2012 yarnbombing

When you are the only house in the street to have any Olympic decorations you really have to make an effort.

So I proudly present my Olympic yarnbombing.

I thought it might have produced some baffled looks from the neighbours, but I guess they are getting used to us...........

It feels like the Olympics are being brought into my living room through other bloggers, it was a joy to see Stephanie's photos of the wildflowers which are to die for,  and Nancy's tales of the opening ceremony have made me tell everyone I know that "I know someone who went to the dress rehearsal".

Now please excuse me, I might have to make a few more crochet flowers to calm my nerves, the men's road race time trials have started.......

has anyone seen the Easter Bunny?

has anyone seen my Easter Bunny? He/She was here last week, playing in the garden.

but now Bunny is lost/hiding in the sofa cushions/under a bed/down the back of the desk/in someones pocket (Bunny is very small)....

what to do, without Bunny there might be no chocolate.

I hope Bunny is not out in the garden, the weather people are still talking about snow.... 

I know I'll find the pattern and knit another. Then Bunny is sure to turn up!

a new spring beret

spring is coming, warmer days when you can start to shed some of the many layers of winter.

    some.      not all.

sometimes, because there is still a wind that carries quite a chill, what you need is slightly lighter layers, perhaps even a new hat (pattern here)

 

and then you can go off adventuring, if someone hasn't stolen your new hat first.

come back teddy

that's mine.......



happy new knitting

I think I may have fallen into some sort of time vortex as the last two weeks have disappeared without me realising, and it is now far too late to do a last year round up, or a new years aspirations post, or just new years wishes, so instead how about some happy new knitting.

I've cast on a shawl using the sock yarn I bought at the knitting and stitching show, it's supposedly a very simple pattern, that uses yarn overs to create eyelets and to increase the shape. It was all going so well till I dropped the middle marker and then put it back in the wrong place...... oh well,  I just have a unique placement of holes that's all.......

Mostly I am mesmerized by the colour changes, and enjoying watching it grow and grow.

Have you started any happy new projects?