FO: Beautiful Bolero

Pattern: Falling Leaves, Let's Knit Sept 2010, size: 10

Yarn: King Cole Merino Blend DK in Cranberry (x7)

Mods: none (that I know of....), except that I wet blocked it rather than pressing it. Oh and I sewed it up with embroidery thread instead of wool, to make me take my time with it.

Well, I'm really rather proud of this. Though it has been the damn bolero, bloody bolero (and several worse things), I love it now. Wore it for the Valentine's Supper we had last night, and my other half was rather impressed with my skills :) At the start, I enjoyed making it; it was always going to be a bit of a slog getting through my first garment (especially the back), but I'm really glad I did it with this, with no fretting about fit or shaping. Though somehow managed to run out of wool really near the end; fortunately my LYS had another ball in the same dyelot :)

Overall, great colour, useful thing, enjoyed making it at first but it became a bit of a slog, though now I'm really pleased with it!!

FO: Humanity Mittens

Apologies for the quality of the picture, it was late at night and there was a birthday deadline the next day!

Pattern: Humanity Mittlets. (ravelry link(

Yarn: King Cold Merino Blend Chunky in Navy

Needles: 4mm bamboo dpns.

Generally please with my cabling skills (first time for everything!), but I'd used a bit of the yarn for another project, so ran out and made the thumbs shorter. Turns out, this is a good thing, as it's useful in some guitar-playing way.

This project was made for my housemate, who I've been stressing about (and probably being fairly passive-aggressive to), in a kind of I-cannot-believe-he-thinks-it's-acceptable-to (for example) leave a panful of curry on the oven uncovered overnight, use my baking things for cooking, or use my kitchen scissors to cut his hair. However, while making this project, I thought about this. Maybe I do have high standards but, even if that's OK, I cannot possibly pull him up on everything and I definitely cannot change his whole attitude. So, I'm just going to do it all; clean up what I can, when I can, because if you do it regularly it doesn't get so bad. And maybe just buy new scissors when he moves out...

FO Friday (sort of) - Heart Scarf

So, I finished something - the heart scarf! And just in time for my trip up to Edinburgh this weekend. And I promise you, I did finish it on Thursday night, so it could've been a legitimate Friday FO, but I forgot my camera cable - d'oh!!

Pattern: Heart Scarf by Stephannie C. Roy

[it's the fourth pattern in a knitty special for breast cancer awareness; all the patterns come in one .pdf, so you have to scroll down a bit.]

Yarn: Cygnet Seriously Chunky, four balls from baa ram ewe (my lovely LYS)

Needles: 9mm straights, plus a darning needle for the grafting

Generally, I love it. It's so chunky and snuggly. I can pull it over half my face while walking through the harsh Scottish winds. I love the colour, which is much less `striking' against my purple coat than the one I had been wearing. There are matching gloves in my head, and maybe a matching hat, but who knows if these will get done before the weather gets warm!! I haven't blocked it and am umm-ing and aah-ing about whether I should, because I like that it's dense, but equally you can't really see the pattern when I'm actually wearing it.

Oh, and I messed up the grafting. This is the first time I had done it, so I had the brilliant knittinghelp.com video on while I was doing it. This did mean that I failed to watch what I was doing, and in my tiredness and confusion failed to remember which way was knitwise and which was purlwise. Note to self: do not try to graft at 11pm at night. But this comes into the category of things that are `errors only I will ever notice'.

Well, and now you.

New Year Confession

It would seem I'm addicted top starting things at the moment. I haven't finished a project - like properly finished - in a very long time. There are some many of them, I've categorised them. So, my knitting resolution for the week: I Will Finish One Of These Things For FO Friday.

1. Going along nicely

My heart scarf is going along OK. It is large wool which is easy and satisfying, so this is the first piece and I'm three out of eleven repeats into the second. Then they just need grafting together. However, I would like some matching gloves that I cannot find a pattern for, so I'm going to desgin it - scary! But there is a first time for everything. And at least I have the wool:

2. Stopped due to lack of brainpower

First, my Spring Ishbel. It went up to Edinburgh, and I really enjoyed it all the way there and all the way back. But, when I got home, I'd started the lace pattern and the concentration and long rows do not fit very well with my knitting at home (do little bits between tidying / eating, while watching TV or listening to the radio). So this shall be deemed my Journey Project.

Then there is a Christmas card that didn't get finished. It's perfectly lovely, but I need some good light to tell the shades of brown apart and brainpower to put a branch in the right place, relative to the robin. So, this shall I shall finish in my lunchbreaks this week.

3. Stopped because it went wrong

I'm making myself some properly warm flip-top mitts, because Yorkshire is cold and so are my fingers. Especially when I start walking to work. But as I'm walking, my fingers warm up and so I pull off my gloves. Then they get cold, so I dig them out of my handbag and put them on again. And then the whole sorry saga starts again. And this is especially sad because this is the reason I started knitting, really. Someone got me some for Christmas some years back, and I loved them and wore them until they were mostly holes. I hoped someone would buy me some for the upcoming Christmas, but no-one did (despite hints). So, I went to my high street to get some for myself, and then I understood why no-one had taken the hint: Prohibitive Cost. But then I thought surely I can make some for myself for less than that!! Hence, I learned to knit. And I started them, and made the mitts bit. The flap I made was too small though, and while this is not the end of the world, the mitts do work at keeping my hands warm almost well enough that I can't be faffed making the flaps. I just need to bite the bullet.

And then there is the long-hibernating dalek. I have tried and failed to make the appendages several times, to no avail. And also, I have something that looks a lot like a dalek anyway. I need to bite this bullet too, but I might do it at a knitting night, since I can't run away from it there!!

4. Stopped due to lack of resources / knowledge

I have finished knitting the cranberry bolero, but it needs blocking. I have only ever blocked hats. There is a blocking party on this afternoon though, so I can use the skills of the excellet Steph.

Cross stitch kits I'm going to turn into cards, but I left my card-making stuff at my Mum's.

A kit I got for Christmas and am determined to finish (unlike so many of these things I've had in the past), but I cannot find my white thread. The shop awaits.

And then worst of all, I really need to do things about two birthdays. And not ones I can wriggle out of: my Mum and my housemate. I have the stuff for the projects (socks and mitts, respectively), except some of it is at my Mum's house (awkward when it's for her present!!) and I need to print off the patterns. And, should I really start anything new this week? I'll need to make a list of 'Current Knitting Projects' as well as that list of Future Knitting Projects in my head. I'd best not think about that too much though!!

Hope you've been enjoying your FOs!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Dear Reader, it has been too long! Since I last spoke there has been mug painting at Create, Ilkley where I made a bowl. Photos have sadly gone AWOL, promise to tell you when I find them... I do have a nice photo of Ilkley though.

And then there was the snow.

I make that 7 inches of snow, which meant that I worked from home for a day. I hope a messy desk is the sign of a productive day!

I do also have a bit of a project update too; I've made another Gehry because I love it, so easy! Here it is in an early stage, now efficiently given away so can't put any photos up just in case!

Then there are the Cafe au Lait in hyacinth as I call it; I have decided that they are too big which is handy as I've run out of wool, so they're being ripped back and I might use the wool to turn my mind to a bit of pattern design when I finally stop for Christmas!! I love the existing pattern though, I have plans for it *cackle*

There is the ever-present bolero, hopefully to be done by Christmas - I think graduation on Thursday is vastly optimistic! - but I do have enough to cover both my breasts...

... and the bottom half of my shoulder blades!

I have a cheeky FO too - nothing special, just a garter stitch cowl and headband (the latter just because I had wool left, not actually worn it yet!)

And then there is my inbox, particularly poorly lit:

I should really stop adding photos to this, hope everyone's internets are still in one piece. In other news, work is going well though I am somewhat not really trying, Christmas prep is sending everything a little too close to chaos but it is all fun really. There are cards and presents and food but I'm obviously not showing any of that!! I do sadly have a sore back so I'm spending the evening hugging a hot water bottle.... mmmmm.... and tea....

Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Fair

Oh my gosh, it has been a long time since I wrote this! Things at work have been picking up pace, things at home are still a little mad, but all has ceased this weekend. For today, I am ill. And it may be just a cold with some not fun achy aspects, the snow is just the prefect excuse to stay in.

There is much news on the crafty front. On Friday, I played hookey from work and went to Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Fair, with the lovely Steph. There was so much I wanted, but I miraculously kept to budget and got some lovely things in the process.

1. Some little cross-stitch kits, because cross-stitching got me into craft, they are quick and easy, and I am a sucker for cute little things.

2. Zauberball, in the colours admired by my former housemate. Will almost certainly become an Ishbel for her birthday in March. I'm really looking forward to it, but I feared making my first shawl for someone else. Hence....

3. Lang Jawoll Magic Superwash in green, which I saw and thought 'Simple City'; though the pattern was intended for a Zauberball, I've been wanting to do it for ages but thinking the colours can go a little dark and rainbow is a little mad for me. So I might do it with this, or I might go to my LYS and think about getting another Zauberball for it. While still in this quandry, I encountered...


4. Artisan Yarns, while their website is lacking stock at the moment, had a lovely stall full of sock yarn, including the fab lavendar's dilly. The winter light coming through my window doesn't really do it justice. I told myself, 'I'll make a practice Ishbel for myself, before cracking on with the one for March...'. Total Deviation From The Plan. But then, we went downstairs...

5. A full-length needle roll, just like I'd been dreaming about all these months! I feel so sorry for my poor well-loved straight needles, wrapped in elastic bands and shoved in a carrier bag, in the depths of my knitting bag. Now they have a lovely new home!! The shop can be found here, and all the fabrics make me drool a little...

So none too shabby! Also, this was the weekend of the mug-painting trip to Create in Ilkley, and of course I should tell you what's actually on my needles, but I will save those for another day!

Roll up for the magical mystery tour...

So, this post may be a little late. It has been a horrifically busy week, if a little Piglety (Lots of 'so much to do, so little time!' and 'I'm late! I'm late!'). I have managed to take some halfway decent knitting photos, though depressingly mainly at work. A couple of presents I will put on soon enough, but a proper photo of Gherty,

some mittlets for my Mum, using a pattern I made for myself:

some mittlets for me which may turn into flip-top mitts as the weather gets colder

So far, so normal. Generally a blue phase I'll admit, and this made me think: perhaps in a little more than knitting? However, languishing in such things is not allowed, so I decided to turn the corner, took hold of my knitting needles and dove headfirst into a pile of yarn:

to make my very first garment - a bolero from Let's Knit - September called Falling Leaves. Not got hugely far but given that I only decided to make it on Wednesday I thought it wasn't too bad. I love the colour too, it's just what I need to get me out of my funk. I may have made a couple of bits for a friend with the same yarn, and fallen for it! My shoddy lighting does not do it justice:

And what brought about the Carpe Diem moment? The final turn in the road: my exciting acquisition from my Auntie Maggie, formerly owned by my Auntie Min, and very much beloved by all my [female] relatives.

And boy, do I not know what I'm doing with it! However, it is lovingly set up on [the surface formerly known as] my desk, and I keep taking the lid off for peaks. I can almost hear it aching to be used, but it's so pretty and has so much history that at the moment, I am happy just to look at it.