Master of a Thousand Things

Blog Hub Swap Day Four

2012-03-03T09:12:00.001Z

As I was out on Thursday night, I didn't get to open another parcel from my package until yesterday. Unfortunately, Jamie needed to borrow the laptop last night before we went out, and for some reason you can't access the Picasa web albums when writing a post on the iPad, so I've had to wait till this morning to show you what was in parcel number four!

I was quite in need of a sugary pick-me-up, so I decided to open the present that most screamed "I contain chocolate" at me.

I was quite curious to see what manner of local food delicacy I would get sent, since my parcel had come all the way from America. I've not had much opportunity to try much in the way of American sweets, having never visited the country myself, or really known anyone who has (or if they have, no-one who has been recently and brought me back chocolates!), so I was really excited when I opened the box to find this:

Jamie laughed at the box, and said it was "so American" and he's right. Paula's note said these were her favourite chocolates in the world, and they come from her home state of California. She did her homework well, because the box contains all dark chocolate and no nuts :)

I was surprised to find there was no little card inside to tell you what each chocolate is, and the See's website wasn't particularly helpful in that regard, as I was only able to identify the ones with the sprinkles on (Dark Bordeaux, I believe). That was the first one I tried, and I guessed at some kind of fudge filling. The description on the website is "brown sugar cream center" which again made us laugh for being so American.

The chocolate however was very tasty, and I look forward to snacking on the rest over the weekend.

Blog Hub Swap Day Three

2012-03-01T03:00:00.000Z

Of the five parcels I have left to open, one is quite suspiciously yarn shaped and one is quite suspiciously "local food delicacy" shaped. The other three are all booky, papery shapes, flat and square. The rules of the swap said we had to include a pattern, so clearly one of these was going to be that. But what about the other two?

There was nothing else for it, I'd just have to open one of them and find out.

This one was particularly weighty and had a definite Bookish feel to it... and I was right!

Paula had been checking out my Amazon wishlist and spotted this book of Jane Austen inspired crochet patterns in amongst the craft books. What an amazing, thoughtful gift! Thank you Paula! You can see the patterns in the book on the book's Ravelry page here.

I can't wait to get my hooks out and get working on these!

My guilty project

2012-02-29T05:30:00.000Z

I seem to recall reading recently about the antics of the publisher of a certain group of UK craft magazines, and how there is a whole list of publications I ought to be avoiding from now on (this post here is a good example, actually). I also seem to recall reading about the ongoing debate as to whether Debbie Bliss Cashmerino actually contains any cashmere at all, or if we're all being duped. So with a slight sense of guilt, I present my latest WIP:

It's the Fern Cowl by Claire Montgomerie, published in Inside Crochet magazine (although I got my hands on it through their Crochet Collection publication which I bought last year). The yarn is, you guessed it, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran. Now, I don't care if there is some sort of controversy over it's fibre content, because it's a lovely yarn. This is the first time I've crocheted with it, an I have to say it's fantastic for it.

The stitch definitiion is great, and it slides beautifully over my wonderful new bamboo 4.5mm hook. I don't think this will stay a WIP for long, because it's crocheting up so quickly!

More WIPs over at Tami's!

Blog Hub Swap Day 2

2012-02-28T20:27:00.000Z

I was so busy in work today that I forgot all about the box of presents waiting for me at home. It was very hard for me to concentrate on doing all the useful things, like the washing up, before being able to choose a present and open it.

This one had both soft squishy parts, and a strange square bit.

Another gorgeous ribbon bow, although I failed to slide this one off without untying it. When I opened the parcel, I realised straight away it was my hand knit gift today, as I recognised the yarn colours from a post of Paula's a couple of weeks ago.

Exfoliate! dishcloth.

Summer in Ashville dishcloth

Two gorgeous dishcloths, both in Knit Picks Dishie cotton. The colours aren't great in my photos, the dark red is far more red than that, and the Dalek cloth is a lovely pale pink. I can't really get Dishie in this country (Great British Yarns stock it, but it's twice the price of the Rico cotton I can get on eBay) so I'm really pleased that Paula has sent me these.

As for the strange square shape inside the package... nestled underneath the dishcloths was a bar of locally made soap, in a pomegranate 'flavour'.

It smells amazing, and I can't wait to try it out.

Unravel 2012

2012-02-28T05:30:00.000Z

A little while ago, I saw someone mention Unravel and thought I might fancy going along. After all, Farnham is only down the road from us here, so it seemed rude not to go along! I convinced two of my friends to go along with me, so I wasn't going by myself. None of us really knew what to expect.

After frantically finishing my fingerless gloves on the Saturday morning so I could wear them along (after all, it is important to show of your own hand knits at places like this, right?), Sunday was actually a really lovely warm day; too hot for gloves! I compromised, putting them in my pockets "just in case" it was cooler there than it was at home and instead relying on my Jane Austen shawl (worn as a scarf) to demonstrate to my fellow show-goers that I was a serious crafter. Of course, it being too warm for a coat, I then undid all of that pretentiousness by wearing a black cardigan from Primark.

Knitted balloons!

The local knit groups had been on a bit of a yarn bombing drive in the previous week, so Farnham was covered in yarny treats, particularly in the direct vicinity of the venue.

Look! Crocheted yarn bomb!

As expected, I spent a lot of time ooohing and aaahing over beautiful displays of yarn in a wonderful rainbow of colour.

Fyberspates. I may have stood here for a while, wondering if I should
buy anything or if it was too expensive for my tastes.

Easy Knits. I just love the green in the top right corner.

This wonderful display is Knit by Numbers by Fibre Harvest

I was incredibly tempted by almost everything that I saw, and spent almost as much time trying to get Ravelry pages to load on my phone as I did fondling skeins of yarn! As you all know, I am not a fan of buying yarn without a Plan for it. After much consideration, I only bought one ball of yarn. This one:

My very own Zauberball

After seeing Chrissy's latest FO on Friday, I decided I wanted to follow her lead, and knit the same shawl. Looking through the many projects on Ravelry, it became clear that Zauberball was a great yarn choice for the pattern, so when I spotted a basketful on a stall I knew I was going to walk away with some if they had the right colour. I'm sure you would have all expected me to plump for a purple or pink selection, but I just love this blue/black combination and think it will really work in that shawl.

Of course, we found time for cake!

The other highlight of the day, besides all the wonderful yarn, was meeting Sarah from Crafts from the Cwtch! Sarah was rocking her newly finished Hitchhiker and I have to say, it looks just as fab in the flesh as it does in her blog photos.

I think the main thing I have taken away from my trip to Unravel is now I know which of the "posh" yarns I read so much about are worth my time! I know which ones feel nice, which ones have the best colours... I also developed a new appreciation for natural colours, as the display from Toft Alpaca was wonderful (and I want to fill my house with their alpaca pom poms). I can see myself making purchases from them and from Nude Ewe in the future!

Olympia is too soon after this one to warrant the additional expense of travelling into London, but I'm going to try and make space in my calendar to go to Alexandra Palace in October.

Blog Hub Swap Day One

2012-02-27T19:46:00.002Z

It's all happening this week! First I got excited about finishing my fingerless gloves. Then I got excited about going to Unravel. Today, I've come home from work to discover my Blog Hub Swap parcel has finally arrived! After a few weeks of seeing everyone else opening their presents, I think it's about time I got to have a turn :)

The customs label on the box got me very excited - it's come all the way from America! No wonder I had to wait for it. The label also gave away my swap partner - Paula over at Knit and Seek. It's weird, but I had a feeling last week that Paula was going to be responsible for my box. Spooky.

I thought I would just open up the box and have a look inside, before waiting for Jamie to come home and help me choose a parcel to open. But it looked so fantastic I couldn't help myself, and soon had them all out of the box.

Don't they look wonderful? I knew as soon as I opened the card that the presents contained within were going to be awesome.

I managed to hold off opening anything until Jamie came home, as I wanted him to share my excitement and see everything as it was straight out of the box. We had a quick squish of everything, then chose a parcel to open (as Paula has very kindly left the order of opening up to me).

What a lovely first gift! This one is for Fidget! It's a little Mousie (by Ysolda Teague), complete with catnip stuffing, and a packet of treats, chosen for the awesome flavour name "chicka chicka boom boom". Paula's note says she won't be disappointed if I keep the mouse for myself instead of giving him to the cat, because he's so cute.

She's right, he's adorable, and I would have kept him to myself, except that by the time I'd lined them up for the photograph, Fidget had already caught the scent of fresh catnip and was on the prowl!

The mouse is most defnintely his now.

I wonder which present I will open tomorrow. I can't wait! Thanks for a great first gift, Paula!

Leafy Fingerless Gloves Ta-Da!

2012-02-27T05:30:00.000Z

It's been a long time coming, but as I said yesterday in my Year of Projects update, I have finally finished my leafy fingerless gloves!

As it turned out, the weather was far too nice to wear them all day at Unravel, so I didn't need to rush to get them finished in time after all!

Project: Thal's Winter Gloves

Pattern: Leafy Fingerless Gloves by Laura Peveler

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Ivy (less than one ball!)

Needles: 2.25mm DPNs

I started these gloves back in October, thinking that I'd get them finished in time to wear them to a LRP event in mid-November. As this was my first attempt at knitting anything on DPNs, never mind on such tiny needles, I think I was being slightly optimistic!

I struggled with the needles at first (my project page says it took me an entire evening just to cast on and knit the first round) and partway through the first repeat of the pattern for the cuff, I gave up on them and put them to one side. The event in November came and went, and the barely-started gloves just sat there.

In the mean time, I used DPNs on a variety of projects. The Free Rapunzel hat used chunky 9mm needles, and it was while knitting on that, that I finally got DPNs. I used smaller ones for my baby booties and hat, so when I finally came back to these gloves I was a lot more comfortable and confident with the unwieldy 2.25mm needles.

The first glove flew by after that, and shortly after Christmas, I finished it. Getting to grips with the fingers was a whole new challenge! I'd not done the whole putting stitches on waste yarn to use later before, but I quickly got the hang of it.

I think I did well not to get trapped by Second Glove Syndrome, and soon had glove two on the go. It's been stalled a couple of times, particularly in the last few weeks, and overall it seems to have taken almost as long to knit as the first one!

A quick note on the pattern itself. It is brilliant. For a free pattern, it is written very well with clear and precise instructions. I had no trouble at all keeping track of where I was, especially when it came to the thumb gusset increases. I can heartily recommend it. One thing I would note, is that on the Ravelry pattern page it says there are two sizes available, however when I read through the pattern there are only instructions for one size. My hands are 8" in circumference, and they are a snug fit on me.

As for the yarn, I love Knit Picks Palette! The colour I used was chosen by you, my lovely readers, and I have to say I think you made a fantastic choice.

I chose to make the version with longer cuffs, so I did two full repeats of the 24 row pattern, before starting the thumb gusset increases. I love the travelling vine leaf pattern, so now my brain is busy thinking of ways to incorporate these leaves into other bits of my costume!

Year of Projects update - 26th February

2012-02-26T07:30:00.000Z

I might be off to Unravel today, but I'm not going to leave you without an update! First up the exciting news - I finished my leafy fingerless gloves! I picked them back up again on Thursday at roleplay night, and finally got to the fingers. It suddenly occurred to me that with a bit of effort on Friday and yesterday, I could finish them in time to wear today (I feel a bit like I ought to be showcasing some of my best wearables at Unravel). I got all bar the index finger and thumb done on Friday evening, and as I was up ridiculously early on Saturday morning, I managed to sneak in the last of the knitting before I had to do anything useful. Weaving in the ends didn't take as long as I thought either! Will post some decent pics etc tomorrow.

Meanwhile, remember this?

My 198yds of heaven came off the needles last week a tiny, crumpled mess. I despaired at it ever being big enough to be useful. You see, I had to finish it before finishing the pattern, as I ran out of yarn. My Rowan Pure Wool Aran only had 186 yards in it, and when I got to the end of row 10 of the 16 row border I realised I didn't have enough yarn left to cast off. I had to unknit two entire rows, then work the cast off!

I'm still learning about different cast off methods, so this was the first time I'd used the k1, k1, k those 2 tog cast off. It is very neat, and stretchy, but it took forever. Well, alright, it felt like it took forever. In reality it was about an evening and a half of interrupted knitting time.

I gave it a good old soak and got to pinning it out on Friday last week.

I am both ashamed of the mess in my house, and proud of
my attempts to photograph myself using the tripod and timer

It grew so much! I didn't measure it beforehand (my bad) but fully stretched it is 39" by 18". I left it pinned out until Sunday evening, and when I took the pins out it didn't shrink one bit.

The colour here is almost perfect

I took advantage of a bright sunny moment before leaving for work earlier in the week to take a few snaps in the natural light. It is just big enough to wear around my neck, but it is far warmer than I anticipated, given its small size. If I knit this again, and I probably will, I will knit more repeats and make a bigger version. It's such a simple pattern to follow. A really good project for a first ever go at a triangle shawl.

Immediate satisfaction

2012-02-24T06:30:00.000Z

It has to be said, a lot of my projects have been pretty long haul. Always a danger when you've got so many things on the needles at once, that nothing ever gets finished. So I was quite surprised to discover I was capable of knitting a pair of gloves in just a few hours.

Photographing black knits is difficult!

Pattern: Easy Half Mitten 106 by Michelle Porter
Yarn: Wendy Mode Chunky in black
Needle: 5mm DPNs

Clearly, the most obvious modification here is that I've added partial fingers. These gloves are for Jamie to wear while LRPing so he needs to be able to manipulate things with his hands, while having toasty warm fingers. Knit in a serviceable black, 50% merino/50% acrylic yarn for warmth, durability and (most importantly) machine washability. They're going to get covered in fake blood and mud, so I wanted to be able to throw them in with the rest of the kit to get clean! I used just over half a ball, so they cost a grand total of £1.70 for the pair. I'm not sure what I'll do with the remaining almost-half, probably knit a matching pair for me!

I started these on Saturday afternoon. The first glove took a little while, because I had to keep stopping to try them on Jamie's hand for fit, and to write down exactly what I was doing so I could replicate it for the other glove. No fancy pattern means they are both identical. The partial fingers are a bit fiddly, with all the attaching yarn and picking up stitiches, so they took longer. The second glove I knit in the car on the drive to Swansea on Sunday morning; I cast on in the house before we left (didn't fancy negotiating transferring stitches from one DPN to another while being jostled about in the car), and knit the entire glove during the three hour journey. It was a close run thing, though. We were getting very close to our destination and I still had a finger and the thumb to knit! A proper race against time in the end, which did make us laugh.

I managed to weave in the ends on one glove during our visit, then did the other one in the car on the way home, before taking over the driving duties. This has to be my quickest knit to date. Definitely going to knit more gloves if they all go this smoothly :)

More FOs on display over at Tami's!

A new project and a new book.

2012-02-22T06:00:00.000Z

I just can't resist casting on new projects! I seem to have developed a slight obsession with knitting gloves. It started with the leafy fingerless gloves, which are still in a state of needing-to-be-finished.

Ok, so they haven't changed in two weeks. My bad.

I was finding them a bit of a struggle (and, knit as they are from fingering weight yarn on teeny DPNs, kind of reinforced my lack of desire to knit socks) but once I'd finished the first glove and tried it on, I was overwhelmed with the amazing-ness of having made a glove that fitted perfectly.

I quickly found myself casting on and knitting a second pair of gloves, this time in chunky yarn. My Free Rapunzel gloves were a really quick project, and I loved knitting them.

Now I have a new camera I should take a better photo of these.

So much so, in fact, that I used the same basic pattern to knit a pair of gloves for Jamie last weekend (without the cables - I don't think he'd want cables on his gloves).

Now I am on pair number four. Shortly after I finished my Rapunzel gloves, a friend was complaining her hands were cold and she had no decent gloves. I tweeted that my hands were cosy and warm in my new hand-knit gloves, and suggested I could make her a pair.

Colour totally not accurate. Still not down with the whole photoshop thing.

I decided to use Cashmerino again, because that's what my gloves are made from and I love it. I let her choose the colour and the pattern. She's chosen Natalya and I'll be doing the partial finger version.

Even this colour isn't right. But it's better than the first one.

Not having any issues with these cables so far. I've got a proper cable needle so I'm not having to make do with a spare DPN. I'm 2.5" into the 6.5" long cuff, after only an evening or so of knitting, so I think these are going to be pretty quick to knit up.

As for my book; I finished Monte Cristo the other day. I really enjoyed it. I loved that I was still being surprised by it right up to the final pages. It's very well written. Now I've read that, I am looking forward to reading The Three Musketeers, as that's the same author so should be written in a similar style.

I didn't want to dive right into that, though, so I've started reading another book from my list of classics I really ought to have read by now - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. This one somehow remained under my radar when I was younger, and it was only after it featured in an episode of Friends (the one where Joey is made to read it while Rachel has to read The Shining, and they end up having to put Little Women in the freezer because it makes Joey cry) that I realised it was a book I might want to read. I'm not that far into it yet, but am enjoying it so far.

Head over to Tami's for more yarny progress, and to Ginny's to see what folks are reading as well as knitting.

Year of Projects update - 19th February

2012-02-19T01:00:00.000Z

I know, last week I said (in good faith, I might add) that if I really focused on them this week, I'd finish my fingerless gloves. Well, I didn't. I haven't knit on them all week. I'm that rubbish.

What I have done is finish 198yds of heaven!

Fresh off the needles

I got it soaked and pinned out on the blocking board on Friday evening. However, as I am spending my Sunday driving down to Wales and back, you'll have to wait for the big reveal!

One more project knocked off the list though, so I can turn my thoughts to what I should cast on next. These are the remaining unstarted projects on the list:

Ribbed Lace Bolero - I did start this, and really wasn't feeling it. I may cut this from the list, because I am just not inspired to try again with a different yarn. I have other plans for my Rowan Calmer now!

Eleonora - I still want to knit this. I think I need to buy the pattern and read through it before choosing my yarn though. Probably going to be the last thing I start.

Sojourn Falls Scarf - I'll be honest, I'm falling out of love with this. I'm having such fun with my fingerless gloves in Knit Picks Palette that I'm halfway to convincing myself to abandon this scarf and use the red Palette I've already bought to make more gloves. Or, buy another colour of Palette and try my hand at colourwork for the first time.

Alasse Miriel Hooded Cowl - I have the yarn and required needles, I just need to download the pattern and I can get started on this. I've got a new deadline for getting my costume knits finished, as the LRP season kicks off in earnest at Easter. A month and a half to finish my gloves and knit this hood!

Persimmon Pullover - Another pattern that was a good idea, but now I'm reconsidering. I may pull this from the list too. I just don't think I'd wear it.

Fern Cowl - I have everything I need to start this now, after picking up a 4.5mm crochet hook yesterday.

Pond Friend Stacking Toy - I still want to make this! Maybe I will get around to it in time for a Christening present for our niece.

So if we eliminate all the iffy ones, I've only got four projects left that I haven't already completed or started. This whole list thing is working out quite well!

Swaptastic FO

2012-02-17T01:00:00.000Z

Bit of an unusual FO to share this week. My plans laid on Sunday, to concentrate on my leafy fingerless gloves this week and get them finished... well that didn't happen. They haven't moved on a single stitch.

What I have done, is finish 198yds of heaven! My first triangle shawl is off the needles. No pictures, because it's currently a sad looking, crumpled mess. When it's been prettified through the magic of blocking I will share it with you.

Instead, I'm going to point you elsewhere to see my latest FO being revealed one step at a time. Last month I signed up to a swap in The Blog Hub group on Ravelry, and I sent out my parcel last weekend. I was over the moon when the draw for the swap was done, as my allocated recipient was none other than my alter ego, Natalie over at Misadventures in Craft. We had to send 7 individual gifts, intended to be opened and blogged on a different day over a week. Nat's on day three now, so head on over to her blog to see what I put in her parcel!

If you head over to Tami's, you'll hopefully see some more traditional FOs on display!

The return of WIP Wednesday and the Yarn Along

2012-02-15T06:00:00.000Z

It's been a few weeks since I've been organised enough to post a WIP Wednesday/Yarn Along actually on a Wednesday!

I'm on a bit of a dishcloth craze at the moment (hardly surprising, given I recently took delivery of a large bag of Rico cotton in wonderfully bright colours). This is the Angels Have The Blue Box pattern, which obviously I am doing in blue.

The enlargening of my square granny blanket is progressing slowly. I am on the tenth round of my adding, and am now starting to scratch my head over which colours to use next. Whoever made the original blanket had quite an eclectic selection so I'm sure whatever I use won't look out of place!

As for the reading part - I'm loving my new kindle so much! It makes reading and eating at the same time so much easier. I'm over halfway through The Count of Monte Cristo now, and enjoying it very much. Although, I have to say, I am starting to get a bit confused over who everyone is, how they are connected to each other and exactly how Monte Cristo's revenge is going to pan out. I have to finish it soon though, as the film is currently available on Sky Anytime and Jamie is desperate for us to watch it!

Reading this is forming part of my not-yet-publicised reading challenge for the year. I realised there are a lot of classic novels I haven't read, so am determined to read as many of them as I can. I've made a list, and have downloaded quite a few of them to the kindle already. The good thing about classics is a lot of them are in the public domain now, so the e-books are free! Come find me on Goodreads to see what I've already read this year.

Head over to Tami's for more works in progress, and to Ginny's for more yarn along posts.

Blackberry Gin

2012-02-13T06:00:00.000Z

You may recall back in December, my mentioning that a friend and I were experimenting with flavoured gins, having found a glut of sloe berries while out on a walk. The fruits of our labours were a bottle of sloe gin, and a bottle of blackberry gin, as we ran out of sloes before we ran out of gin to flavour. I was charged with the care of the blackberry gin, and when I brought it home it looked like this:

After several weeks of shaking and peering through the glass to see what colour it was now, we decided it was time to test the gins. Both had developed a really lovely dark red colour. So last Friday evening we got together, strained the sloe gin and had a taste of them both.

Sloe gin straining is a messy business. We had
very purple hands by the time we were done!

Blackberry gin

The blackberry gin we didn't strain, we just poured straight from the bottle and considered it a bonus if you got a berry in your glass along with your gin. I tell you what, those berries were lethal!

The sloe gin was lovely; we drank it with tonic water and it went down very easily. But the blackberry was the hands down winner of the evening. It is gorgeous! Tastes so delicious and you don't really notice that you're drinking gin neat, so it's pretty dangerous. Before we knew it, we'd drunk most of the bottle and were more than a little tipsy.

I'm quite looking forward to finishing the gin off and rescuing all those berries. I plan to make some sort of dessert out of them, maybe put them in an apple crumble or something. And we'll definitely be making blackberry gin again!

Year of Projects update - 12th February

2012-02-12T15:22:00.002Z

It was with great excitement that I went into town yesterday morning. I picked up a lovely parcel of yarn from the sorting office, including one new yarn for a yet-to-be-cast-on YoP project. I posted my giveaway prize yarn, and my Blog Hub swap parcel. Most exciting of all, I bought my Sony Cybershot camera!

It all worked out rather well, in the end. There was a better version of the camera I had chosen on display, which was on special offer. It was the same price! So I didn't spend any extra money, but got a lot more camera. It's the W570 model, which has a couple of really exciting features. The HD movie recording records into mp4 format, and it has a panoramic sweep function, where you press the button and gently sweep the camera round from left to right, creating a fantastic 180° view.

Click through to Flickr to see it bigger

I took the above this morning when we went to Tesco; the River Thames flows right behind the superstore so we popped out onto the riverside to test the camera out. More shots on Flickr!

On to yarny things then. I am finally free of the rubbish iPhone photos and can take decent shots of my projects again! So here's a look at the YoP projects that are currently getting all the attention.

I think this is the first time I've snapped both gloves together

Just to prove I really am working on the second leafy fingerless glove, here is a shot of the two together. I've just put the thumb stitches on holders, and am working the last couple of rounds up to the base of the fingers. If I focus on these this week, I think I'll get them finished.

Gratuitous close up to show off my camera's macro abilities

Hypernova came out of hibernation

I've been working on Hypernova some more this past week or two. It's now about 27 inches long, and I'm not even halfway through the skein yet. I've still got something like 84g of yarn to go, and I don't start the increasing fan section at the end until I'm at about 25g remaining.

My newest YoP project has grown considerably in a very short space of time, but I am not surprised because it's a triangular shawl in aran weight yarn on 5.5mm needles. It's the 198yds of heaven shawl I started as a comfort knit after the burglary.

I'm almost through the second repeat of the body section, so I have maybe 15 rows of body section left, followed by 16 rows of lace border and the bind off. I'm hoping I don't run out of yarn, as I only have 186 yards of this gorgeous Rowan Big Wool.

I mentioned at the start of this post, that I've ordered more yarn for another project on my list. It's for the Alasse Miriel Hooded Cowl which I will be knitting for LRP costume. I've opted for Stylecraft Special Aran with Wool in a gorgeous charcoal grey (colour chosen by Jamie).

I may have enough yarn here to knit two of them, which would be great as my friend is joining my group this year and we're trying to coordinate our costumes. I will see how much I have left after I've finished the first one, as the balls are so large, I don't really want to be buying another one for the sake of an extra few yards of yarn!

Sneaky peek

2012-02-10T21:18:00.001Z

I haven't really been working on any of my projects this week. Mainly because I've been focusing on knitting and crocheting for my Blog Hub swap partner. I wanted to get the parcel in the post this weekend, so had to have everything finished by this evening.

Instagram can only do so much to crap iPhone snaps!

I have, only moments ago, woven in the ends on the last piece. Now all that is left is to print off some patterns, write the notes to accompany each of the seven separate gifts in the box and find a box or envelope to put it all in. I'm pretty sure I've got a huge padded envelope I can use, because I always keep them when I receive them on the grounds that they'll come in handy.

Because I rather like the effect, here's a close up of the basket weave crochet

Things are slowly getting back to normal now, following the burglary. I have my new kindle and Xbox, and tomorrow I will be getting the first of my two replacement cameras. I'm using the theft of my camera as in incentive to upgrade, so when the insurance money comes I will be getting a shiny Canon DSLR camera, which I will then have to learn how to use. In the mean time, I am picking up a much cheaper and far more cheerful Sony Cybershot which I will use to take far better photos for the blog than my phone is managing.

I can't wait any longer, I am getting really frustrated with the lack of decent photos! I got so used to having my camera with me all the time last year, forcing myself to take photos of everything just so I'd have a choice for my photo of the week. It feels really strange now, to be out and about seeing things I want to photograph, only to realise the best I can manage is this:

You may not have noticed, but it snowed in the UK this week,

There are far more exciting finished projects on display over at Tami's. You should go check them out.

My stash is growing...

2012-02-07T06:00:00.000Z

A little while ago I hosted a giveaway on the blog, offering up a skein of Candy Skein yarn to the lucky winner. Of course, I couldn't order yarn from Tami without getting some for myself!

I had as much trouble as my giveaway entrants did, deciding which colours I wanted! I also had to be careful to make sure I already had a project in mind for the yarn - if I started buying yarn simply because I liked it I would soon be drowning in stash, and we don't have the space for that here!

I've been wanting to knit Koolhaas for a while, and since it calls for worsted weight yarn, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to actually get my hands on something in a worsted weight. After much deliberation, I went for this:

Yummy Worsted in Blueberry Cheesecake

I expect at this point, you are congratulating me on my self control. Only ordering one skein of yarn for myself? Well, I didn't quite manage that level of restraint. I ordered two.

Yummy fingering in Arctic Mint

It's the January 2012 Sock Yarn Club Colourway! I just love this blue, it was a perfect choice by Tami for her January colour. As I was ordering my yarn in the right month, I had to get a skein. I don't know what it will become yet. It may even become my first pair of socks, if I ever find myself wanting to knit socks.

I have to say, the Midnight Mousse colourway chosen by my giveaway winner is absolutely fantastic. The photos just don't do it justice. No wonder it is so popular!

Free Pattern: Kindle Cozy

2012-02-05T19:07:00.000Z

I have a new free pattern available via Ravelry!

I replaced my stolen Kindle this weekend. Unlike the first one, which I barely got to play with before it was taken, I've been reading my book on it all weekend and I love it. So much so, that I am determined to take it with me to work tomorrow. However, chucking it into my handbag along with everything else makes me nervous, so I wanted a cover to protect it.

I've been looking at knitted Kindle and iPad cozies on Ravelry for a while, but knew the pretty cabled design I had chosen would take me longer than a few hours to make, especially as it involves learning new techniques like Judy's Magic Cast On, and magic loop. I decided to quickly crochet myself something in the interim.

A quick search of the free crochet patterns on Ravelry told me there was nothing to suit my purpose. I had no interest in seaming anything! So I rummaged through my bag of yarn scraps to find all the Hayfield Bonus Aran I had left and got hooking.

The end result is this cozy.

The stripes are uneven, because I was using up scraps and changing colour whenever I reached the end of a ball. But it does the job, it fits my cozy and it will keep the screen scratch free in my handbag.

You can see the pattern on Ravelry here, or download it directly using this link.

Cook from a cookbook: Double Chocolate Brownies

2012-02-04T09:51:00.001Z

We've had an extremely stressful couple of weeks in work (year end) so I thought my team deserved a Friday treat. Out came the Good Housekeeping Baking Book! This time, I opted for the Double Chocolate Brownies.

I doubled the quantities because a shallow 8 inch square tin isn't all that big really. It was crazy! Two whole blocks of butter! Four big bars of chocolate! Eight eggs! I enlisted Jamie's help to melt the chocolate in the microwave, while I measured out everything else and got whisking.

Mmmmm gloopy

I found it very odd to whisk the eggs and sugar together without the butter (that gets melted into the chocolate).

Action shots are hard with an iPhone!

It did look extremely pretty once I had poured it into the tin and swirled the melted white chocolate in. No shots of the finished article though, it got a bit burned on the edges so wasn't the prettiest!

Look how pretty!

It was quite late by the time we finished baking, so they weren't cool enough to cut up. I left them out on the side overnight on a rack, and in the morning they were perfect. Crisp, cracked cake on the outside, squidgy and gooey but solid enough to cut on the inside. I had to trim the burned edges off to take only the nice insides to work, so I ended up with a large box of squares to take to the office, and a slightly smaller box of edge bits to keep at home!

It was very popular with my colleagues, and really helped keep us going through what would otherwise have been a really difficult Friday.

A drastic decision

2012-01-29T13:13:00.001Z

This morning a made a big decision. My very first project from the list, that I first cast on way back in the summer when we started this Year of Projects, has been frogged.

Easy Lace Stole by Arlene's World of Lace

It's a great beginner's lace pattern. I learned a lot from it, when I first started knitting it. But my God, it was dull to work on. I had no idea what I would use the finished project for. I don't need more scarves!

Then we had the drama of the yarn snapping on me mid row.

My worst nightmare

The first time wasn't too disastrous. With the help of friends, we got the yarn rejoined and the stitches picked up and me back on track. When it snapped again a couple of rows later, I put the project on the naughty step and hadn't looked at it since.

This morning I realised it was never coming out of hibernation, so I made the decision to frog it and use the yarn for something else.

So with Jamie's help, we ripped out the knitting and wound the yarn back into a hank on my swift. Because it had already snapped, this single skein of yarn is now in two pieces. One is still neatly sitting in the centre pull cake I had wound the skein into, and the yarn we've unknit is now a separate hank, ready for a soak to relax the kinks.

I am not sure what I'm going to do with the yarn now. I may give Ishbel a go. Mostly, I am unsure that I like knitting with laceweight yarn. I didn't so much mind crocheting with it, so if I don't get on so well with Ishbel I may abandon all plans to knit it and do something crocheted instead.

Comfort knitting

2012-01-26T21:46:00.001Z

With all the stress of the weekend, I really wanted some relaxing, comforting knitting time. None of my current projects fitted the bill; cherry wrap is getting dull, and I didn't want to wrestle with dpns so the gloves were out too.I happened to glance up at my stash, and spotted my ball of Rowan Big Wool in a gorgeous shade of purple. I know I said I wasn't going to cast on any more year of projects things until I'd finished the existing wips, but I couldn't resist.

It's 198yds of heaven. My first triangle shawl! Just complicated enough to keep my brain occupied, the yarn is so soft and lovely to work with. I'm almost at the end of the first repeat of the body; as the rows are still quite short it is going quite quickly. I'm sure it will slow right up as the stitch count increases!- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Afternoon stroll through the Englefield Estate

2012-01-22T16:53:00.000Z

For our first countryside tromp of the year we chose a short 4 mile circular walk around Theale. Because of yesterday's burglary, I was forced to rely on my iPhone camera and I have to say, I don't think it let me down. I did miss having a zoom function though!

The walk mostly took us through the Englefield Estate.

There were a bunch of old agricultural machines and carriages
just sitting in a barn in the middle of the village

I spotted this wonderful garden entrance behind the garden centre

St Mark's Church, which dates back to 1190. It wasn't open,
so we couldn't go in and have a look inside.

The main house, as seen from the churchyard. The gardens
weren't open so I couldn't get a closer look.

The main gate at the entrance. The driveway was very long indeed!
This dates back to the 1860s.

Holy Trinity church in Theale. I had no idea this was there!

It wasn't open either. I would love to see inside.

The bell tower is even taller than the main church.

I got lucky with the blue skies and sunshine for these shots.

Karma's a bitch

2012-01-21T13:49:00.002Z

Just a public service announcement really. We were burgled last night, and my laptop, camera and kindle have been stolen (along with some other bits and bobs). Everyone is okay, just a bit shaken up is all.

Fortunately Jamie's laptop wasn't taken, so I still have the ability to read and blog, but without decent photos I may not be posting frequently. Once I get a replacement camera, we'll be back to normal.

I have new toys

2012-01-21T09:00:00.000Z

I would have had a finished project to share yesterday, had I been a bit more focused in the morning. As it is, I only had one out of two gloves done, despite having something close to six hours on Friday morning where I did nothing but wait for a workman to arrive at the house. I could have knit. I could have easily finished the second Rapunzel mitt in that time. But I didn't. I played computer games instead.

Eventually though, the workman arrived, my window was fixed (well, not fixed, as there was nothing wrong with it apart from the glass wasn't toughened, which is apparently a requirement in rented properties for windows that close to the floor) and I was free to leave the house and go about my day.

A day which included a trip to the sorting office to pick up a parcel of yarn!

10 brightly coloured skeins added to the stash.

The yarn is Rico Creative Cotton and I have bought it for the express purpose of maintaining a stash of dishcloth cotton; should the desire to knit another dishcloth arise, I will have the yarn to satisfy it! I particularly wanted the striking blue shade to do some Doctor Who Tardis themed cloths.

I then made a couple of very exciting purchases, made possible by an unexpected tax rebate.

My current read - The Count of Monte Cristo

First up, an Amazon Kindle for myself. Luckily, they sell them in Tesco, so rather than ordering one online and having to wait, I was able to pop to the supermarket and pick one up with my groceries!

The screensavers are so pretty!

I have transferred all of my knitting pattern PDFs onto it. All I need to do now is knit a cover. I have one queued, I just need to choose the right yarn.

Yes, Jamie was resting the iPad on the cat on his lap. No, the cat doesn't mind.

We finally replaced our tired old netbook with the iPad 2. We've been wanting one for a while now, and the tax rebate gave us an excuse to actually buy one! Technically it belongs to Jamie, but I expect I will use it almost as much as he does, at least until I get my own.

I'll be honest, the main attraction for me is this:

It's the best game in the world! You have to divide shapes into equally sized pieces using limited numbers of cuts. It's actually quite challenging. For the last six months or so, whenever we've been in a shop with iPads I have made a beeline for this application. Setting up the pad last night, it was one of the first apps Jamie downloaded, just for me.

I wonder how long the novelty value will last for our new gadgets.

For once, lots of progress to report...

2012-01-18T20:19:00.001Z

I had a lot more time for my crafting this week. Not only have our Thursday night roleplay sessions resumed after the Christmas break, but we spent all day on Saturday playing in a different game, which effectively meant I had 12 hours of practically uninterrupted crafting time (interruptions mainly in the form of eating snacks and pizza, and occasionally having to roll some dice).

I'll start with the existing WIPs first. I am oh so close to finishing the crocheting part of the Cherry Wrap. No new photo since last week, but I have finished the first sleeve and started the second. Soon will come the trials of blocking each piece to the same measurements, and crocheting all the seams.

I cast on for my second leafy fingerless glove on Thursday. Progress was swift, far quicker than the first glove! I guess all that practice on DPNs is really paying off.

I promise this is actually glove two, not a rehashed
photo of glove one at a similar stage.

You can tell its the other glove, as the leaf pattern is the mirror of the glove I've already done.

I think gloves might be my new obsession. I really wanted to knit glove yesterday, but didn't want to deal with complicated patterns so didn't reach for the leafy gloves. Instead, I cast something else on.

Yes, I know, I said I would finish my outstanding YoP Projects before starting anything new, but these aren't on the list so they don't count. Plus, it's using up stash.

Version one, knocked up last night

The yarn is the Cashmerino Chunky I used for my free rapunzel hat. The pattern is a free Ravelry download - easy half mitt. The above photo shows my first attempt. I followed the instructions to the letter and wound up with a lovely glove that was too short for my hand. So it got frogged, and I got out my pencil and paper to work out how to adapt the pattern to fit.

Then I had a crazy idea, and stayed up later than I should have done scribbling.

The modified pattern, and the start of version two.

It occurred to me, that as I am using the same yarn, I could match these gloves to my hat by including the cabled braid pattern from the brim of the hat. So I raided the pattern for the cable chart, and worked out how to fit it onto the back of the plain mitt. I think I've got it right, I just need to knit it up and find out if it works. They're pretty quick to knit up, so even with these modifications I don't think they will take long.

Giveaway winner!

2012-01-16T19:59:00.002Z

Well, it's been two weeks since I posted my fabulous blogiversary giveaway to win a skein of Candy Skein Yummy lace or fingering, and I have to say, I have been overwhelmed by the response. Thee were sixty entries in total, more than I ever imagined I would get. So thank you to everyone for entering!

Sadly, there can be only one winner. Using the ever popular random number generator at Random.org I have selected....

A Little Bit Sheepish!!!

Congratulations!!! Please drop me a PM with your postal address and I will get the yarn out to you as soon as it arrives from the US.

Candy Skein Yummy Fingering in Midnight Mousse

Now all I have to do is decide which colours I want to buy, so I can place the order!

Keeping ahead of myself

2012-01-14T09:38:00.002Z

There is a theme developing among my fellow bloggers, in their goals for the new year. Everyone is talking about taking control of their yarn stash, making wild promises to only knit from stash, or to ensure that even with yarn purchases, total stash decreases in a frenzy of knitting.

Up until now, I've always been very careful when it comes to yarn buying. I haven't bought yarn without a specific project in mind, so even though I now have 15km of yarn sitting on the shelves (thanks, Ravelry, and your fabulous export to excel feature on the stash page), only 2km of that isn't assigned to a specific project. Which makes me feel a little better about having it, when I see others with twice as much yarn as my total, and nothing assigned to any project at all!

The danger now, though, is that I am starting to receive yarn as presents. Christmas came, and with it three separate yarny gifts.

King Cole Bamboo Cotton in purple

First came the UK Swap Group Falling into Winter swap parcel, and the ball of King Cole Bamboo Cotton that was included in that. I still have 70 yards of black left over from my Sweet Pea Shawl, so I'm thinking I will make something that uses both. Gloves, perhaps with a black cuff? Or a small shawlette?

Then came Christmas itself, and on the day there were two yarny surprises waiting for me. I've mentioned the first before; the UK RAK Secret Santa swap parcel I received contained four balls of Artesano 100% Alpaca DK.

It is not as pink as this photo makes it look.

I think I may end up doing some sort of matching set with this. Hat, cowl, gloves, not sure what patterns to use. In total I have 430 yards.

My final yarny gift is going to be the hardest to choose a pattern for, because the colour I've been given is insane! Beautiful, but insane.

Skein Queen Squash in "Baubles"

It's Skein Queen Squash, 100% Merino fingering weight. 430 yards in the skein. Will this be my first pair of socks? Or can I find something else where the bright colours won't look out of place.

Outside of these gifts, I only have two yarns I've bought with no pattern in mind.

Wollmeise Sockenwolle 80/20 Twin in Sonne

5 balls of Rowan Calmer in black

But Wollmeise doesn't count, you're allowed to buy that on a whim. It will become a gorgeous shawl one day!

If you have any suggestions at all for what I can use these yarns for, I would appreciate it!

Friday quickie

2012-01-13T20:59:00.001Z

Friday means showing off finished projects, and this week I have some dishcloths I knit earlier on in the week.

Forgive my not so great instagram photo, but it was late

I had about 40g of Lily Sugar'n'Cream left over from my earlier attempts at dishcloths, so decided to use it up making two more basic cloths. These are the same size as the first one I knit, but more pink. I still need to weave the ends in, though, before I start using them!

I am surprised at how much use I've been getting out of my knit dishcloths. I will definitely be ordering more cotton soon! Although I think a cheaper option than this American cotton is to get Rico Creative Cotton in bulk from eBay - plain colours, but then I can experiment more with dishcloth patterns. I've got my eye on a few Doctor Who themed ones!

Last reminder - my blogiversary giveaway entry closes at midnight this Sunday, winner to be announced on Monday! I can't believe how popular it has been - over 60 entries - and I can't wait to find out who has won.

Wednesday sure comes around quickly!

2012-01-11T23:03:00.001Z

I think I'm still struggling to get my head around a normal five day working week, after all the disruption of Christmas bank holidays! It seems like it's been less than a week since it was Wednesday...

You'd think my WIP progress this week would be all excitement over my second glove. It's not. I haven't even cast on yet! What I have done is knit some more dishcloths (come back on Friday, I might have woven my ends in by then) and get out my crochet hook again.

Sticking to my plan to finish my Year of Projects WIPs, I dug out the Cherry Wrap from its semi-hibernation and got hooking.

Not the greatest photo, but it's late and I'm tired, so it's the best I've got!

I've finished the three main panels (back, left front and right front) and all I have left are two sleeves. I've started the first already. All I need to do now is not run out of yarn before I'm finished! Each panel took about two and a half skeins, and I've got 4 left after I finish the part skein I'm working with now. So I should have enough, with enough spare to do all the seaming.

Oddly enough, it's not the seaming that's got me worried, it's the blocking. I'm going to have to block all the pieces before I seam them together, and I've never blocked anything this big in one go before.

Cook from a Cookbook(ish) - Bread

2012-01-09T21:52:00.001Z

So, it's been a while since I did a Cookbook challenge. Christmas kind of got in the way! There was nothing particularly new or exciting about our Christmas cooking (lets face it, the traditional dinner is just Sunday roast with extras), although I could claim the boiled and baked ham as a new recipe. We combined two different recipes found online (the boiling instructions from here and the glaze from here) to create an incredibly tasty joint of meat. It was so successful, we did it twice.

Gratuitous shot of the Christmas buffet preparations - 80 pigs in blankets
and a boiled but not yet glazed 3lb ham joint

But I am not here to talk about roasted pig product. No, I have a more exciting cooking experiment to regale you with. You see, every year we buy those part baked bread rolls to have in the house over Christmas (you know, because the shops are shut for *gasp* an entire day, so you have to stock up, in case you run out of something absolutely vital). This year, we were wandering round Tesco and somehow ended up in the home baking aisle. I stopped in front of the packets of bread mix on the shelf, and we both had a mini eureka moment. We picked up one plain white mix, and one fancy cheese and onion flavour.

We baked the white loaf on Boxing Day. I followed the instructions to the letter (pretty much add water, mix into dough, knead, leave to rise, bake) and ended up with a rather tasty, if overly large loaf of bread.

When it rose, it rose somewhat more on one side than the other.

We ate it with the left over ham, and it was delicious.

Just this weekend past, we re-discovered the other bread mix and gave that a go.

It smelled really cheese and oniony, right from the start

This one rose in a far more sensible fashion than the other loaf.

Look! Proper bread!

Arty farty shot of the slices, before I slathered them in Clover and pate.

So, not technically a cook book recipe, but our success has paved the way for some more experimentation using the recipes in my Good Housekeeping Baking Book!

Year of Projects update January 8th

2012-01-08T06:00:00.000Z

I am very pleased to report this week that my plan to clear out the existing YoP WIPs before starting anything else is going well! Of the four WIPs I listed last Sunday, one is gone (to the frog pond, sadly) and I have made sterling progress on another!

Please ignore my un-woven-in ends. I will do them when the other glove is complete.

I have focused almost entirely on the fingerless gloves this week, and to my eternal delight, have finished the right glove.

Thanks to your wonderful advice last week, I forged ahead using safety pins and scrap yarn as stitch holders while I negotiated the tricky task of knitting each little finger tube.

I am so pleased with how this glove has turned out! It's gorgeous, and it fits, well, like a glove. Now to avoid the trap that is Second Sock Syndrome, and remember that I have to knit another one before I can call this project done. Glove one has taken me just over two months... I don't actually need them till Easter, so I have plenty of time to get the second one finished. More pleasingly, I have just weighed the remaining yarn from the ball, and I still have 28g left, which means I won't need to break into the second ball I bought in case it was needed. Hmmmm, will need to find another project for that....

A New Year Adventure

2012-01-07T13:27:00.002Z

I've been so caught up in the post-Christmas madness that is taking down decorations and going back to work, that I haven't had time to tell you about my New Years Day adventure!

After a leisurely breakfast following our New Year festivities (a quiet night in with friends) we jumped in the car and drove into London to visit Kew Gardens. Jamie and I hadn't been before, so it was all new and exciting for us.

Friends included for scale! Some of the trees are absolutely enormous.

It was a rather grey, blustery day, but there was still plenty to see and do. Three enormous glass houses filled with a wondrous variety of plant life.

We loved the carnivorous plant display in the Princess of Wales glass house.

After walking through the first glass house and the surrounding gardens, we headed over to Palm House, one of the two huge Victorian structures in the centre of the park.

There's a fantastic range of heraldic statues outside the Palm House. This one is a Yale.
The Yale is a mythical beast that could swivel its horns independently!

Inside the glass houses there are so many plants. It being the middle of winter didn't really bother them, as they were all warm and cosy in the rather humid air. You can climb up beautiful wrought iron spiral stairs and walk along a balcony at canopy height.

It's actually quite high, once you get up there!

The glass houses are very old, and have clearly seen better days!

We adjourned to the cafe for a spot of tea and cake, and I was shocked to discover they didn't sell Coke! Caffeine is essential to my hangover recovery plans, so I had to make do with coffee cake. While we were in the cafe, it started to rain. Proper, heavy, serious rain. We spent a bit of time browsing in the shop (where we determined our plan for the year was to collect a fridge magnet from every place we visited in 2012), but the rain didn't let up. We decided we were quite hardy folks, so a bit of rain shouldn't get in our way; however the rain was so severe we were forced to purchase a Kew Gardens branded umbrella, for the princely sum of £25!! It is, I will concede, a very good umbrella - a huge golfing umbrella with a button you press to open it up.

Thus protected from the worst of the weather, we walked over to the Temperate House, the largest of the glass houses, and spent some time wandering inside.

This is the oldest pot plant in the world. The timeline below shows all the major
world events that have occurred since it was planted. France still had a monarchy
when this plant was born!

There was one other thing we were determined to see, in spite of the weather. The tree top walkway! 18 metres above the ground takes you through the canopy of lime, sweet chestnut and oak trees. Of course, it being winter, you could see quite a long way out across the park.

Yes, it really is as terrifying as it looks. With only four of us walking on it,
it wobbled alarmingly. And the floor is see through.

The view is quite nice though.

We had a great time, and will definitely be going back when the weather is better, as there is so much we haven't seen! I'm particularly keen to get a closer look at the Japanese pagoda, as we saw it rising up out of the trees but didn't want to slosh across the grass pathways to get to it.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

2012-01-06T20:10:00.001Z

Last night was the Twelfth Night of Christmas, making today the twelfth day, and the deadline for taking down the Christmas decorations. I always count down to the 6th January, as I am determined each year to leave the decorations up for as long as possible.

This year I had so much fun putting up a daily decoration for the advent calendar, I decided to make myself a Twelve Days of Christmas calendar too!

I found these gorgeous embroidery patterns for sale online here. I printed out the full size pictures onto some thin card, cut them out and each day I have been putting them on the wall. We have this handy edge that is exactly the right size for them!

It is a shame I don't have a laminator, or I'd laminate them to keep them for the future. I will put them away carefully this year so hopefully I can use them again.

First FO of 2012

2012-01-06T00:19:00.000Z

Determined as I was to get my WIP list down to a sensible level, I took advantage of all the extra crafting time the Christmas break has afforded, and finally finished Jamie's hat!

Pattern: Ribbed Watchman's Hat by Channah Koppel
Yarn: Patons UK Wool Blend Aran in olive green (less than one skein)
Needles: 4.5mm dpns

This was a really simple pattern to work, but the endless rounds of k2p2 ribbing got on my nerves after a while! I was so fed up by the time I neared the end, I finished the main part half an inch early, knitting to 9 inches instead of 9.5. The decrease rounds flew by, but I'm not too keen on the way they switch from rib to plain stockinette for the last few rounds, it looks a bit odd.

I had a bit of a hard time starting out with this hat, because I initially cast on the 96 stitches as per the pattern., but the combination of yarn and slightly smaller needles meant it wasn't big enough. So after knitting somewhere between three and four inches, I had to rip it all the way back and start again with more stitches! I didn't think ahead far enough though, reasoning that increasing in multiples of 4 was all I needed, to maintain the rib. So I added 12 stitches and started again. When I got to the decreases, I realised that increasing in multiples of 8 was actually far more sensible, so had to fudge one of the rounds to keep the stitch count right. So next time (if there is a next time) I will increase my starting stitches by 16!

It fits alright, needs to be worn a bit to stretch it out a little (I can't be bothered to block it). Here's a terrible shot of me wearing it - I haven't managed to get one of it on Jamie's head yet, although he has been wearing it. It's been pretty cold, wet and windy here of late, so it's seeing plenty of use already!

As ever, more FO's are linked to over at Tami's. Don't forget my giveaway!

First WIP Wednesday of the new year!

2012-01-04T18:44:00.002Z

I have less WIPs this week than I had this time last week. Sadly, not because I have been finishing things, but because I have been frogging things!

The Ribbed Lace Bolero in Rowan Calmer? Gone. I just wasn't feeling the pattern, in the yarn, on the needles I was using. And I kept making mistakes. So it has been frogged, and I will either find a new pattern to use the yarn with, and replace it on my Year of Projects list, or choose a different yarn to make the Bolero with.

I also finished and then frogged the first of my experiment in making Saartje's Booties on larger needles, to make a larger pair. They came out way too big, so I am going back to the drawing board to find a suitable pattern for the remaining Baby Cashmerino.

There has been progress though! After announcing my determination to finish my existing Year of Projects WIPs before casting on anything else, I was immediately beset by a desire to cast on new things. I'm sure you are all familiar with that feeling!

I resisted though, and dug out my Leafy Fingerless Gloves.

All this experience I've had working with larger DPNs, on things like Saartje's Booties and the Free Rapunzel hat, has made me far more adept at wielding the tiny ones this project demands. I've finally reached the thumb increases, and am about 10 rounds away from starting the really scary part - the fingers!

See my lovely neat increases!

They look quite small on the needles, but I have been trying them on and there is a lot of stretch in that ribbing! The leafy pattern really opens up as well, once it's stretched out over a wrist. I don't currently have any stitch holders, though, so progress may be suddenly halted until I can get hold of some at the weekend,

To see what progress folks have made, head on over to Tami's. And don't forget to enter my blogiversary giveaway!

Blogiversary Giveaway!

2012-01-02T07:00:00.000Z

As I posted on Boxing Day, I have reached my one year blogiversary. What better way to celebrate than by having a giveaway!

This is my first giveaway on the blog, and I am very excited about it. I hope you are too!

I've mentioned several times on this blog, that pretty much the first crafting blog I found when I started looking was Tami's Amis and Other Creations. Not only did she inspire me to set up Master of a Thousand Things, but her weekly link parties on Wednesdays and Fridays led me to other amazing blogs, and brought me many of my regular readers.

Back in May, Tami opened up Candy Skein, selling her amazing hand dyed yarns. Ever since the shop opened, I have been dying to get my hands on some of her yarn. The colourways she devises are absolutely divine, and I just love the names she gives them. Every project I've seen using her yarn has looked brilliant, and I've only ever read rave reviews. However, it always seemed ridiculous to me to order yarn from the US, when I have so many sources of great indie dyed yarn here in the UK.

I decided to treat myself with some of my Christmas money, and will soon be ordering some Candy Skein yarn of my own. And this, dear reader, is where the giveaway comes in!

Tami has very kindly agreed to help me coordinate the prize for my giveaway. Yes, you've guessed it, the prize I am offering is a skein of Candy Skein Yummy in lace or fingering weight. Even better than that, the winner gets to choose the colour!

Yummy fingering hand painted Robin Egg Malt Ball

So here's the juicy details. Yummy is Tami's range of 100% Merino wool (fingering weight is 75% merino 25% nylon). In the lace weight, you get 880 yards in a 100g skein, the fingering weight is 465 yards.

Tami's full range of colourways can be seen here.

The Rules!

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post stating which weight and colour you would choose if you were the winner.

The contest is open to everyone! I know my readership is pretty much evenly split between the US/Canada and the UK. If you could please let me know in your comment which side of the world you are on, that would be really helpful.

The giveaway will close at midnight (GMT) on Sunday 15th January 2012 and I will randomly select a winner and announce it on Monday 16th January.

Please feel free to blog/tweet about my giveaway, but I'm not giving anyone extra entries for doing so.

Good luck!

Year of Projects update - 1st January!

2012-01-01T04:00:00.000Z

So we are officially into the second half of this year long challenge. Like a lot of people, I am once again looking at my list and wondering if I actually want to/will get around to making some of the patterns I've got left to do.

I think I'm looking mostly at the crochet part of the list, and deciding to cull some of the extraneous patterns there. Like the Diamond Shawl, which is beautiful, but I don't really need it and can't really afford it because I'd want to make it out of expensive yarn. Plus, I have to buy an entire pattern book just to get my hands on the pattern.

Another project being lined up to drop is the Phoebe Jane Vest. I just don't think I'd wear it as much as I'd need to to make it a worthwhile project.

I do have the pattern already though, so I may make it later on in the year. I don't want to feel pressured into making it when I'm not really feeling it!

The final pattern to get the chop is the Pineapple Monokini. Yes, I know it's an awesome pattern. And I do still want to make it. I just don't think I've got the time for it, nor will I have the occasion to wear it this year!

I've updated my List to reflect these changes. I am also determined to finish my existing YoP WIPs before starting any more:

Cherry Wrap

Hypernova

Leafy Fingerless Gloves

Ribbed Lace bolero

Review of the Year part two - photography

2011-12-31T15:00:00.000Z

I set myself three photography challenges at the start of the year. I have successfully completed two of them, but the third has been more difficult.

The easiest challenge to complete was the Four Seasons Challenge. Quite simply, one photo representing each season. I blogged about completing it here, once I'd taken the fourth and final photo for Autumn.

Autumn leaves

The longest challenge was the 52 Photos in 52 Weeks. Obviously, I only finished that yesterday! The full set of 52 photos is here on the blog, but you can also view them in their own set on my Flickr photostream. Quite a few of the photos turned out to be yarn related, as I found myself lacking in time and inspiration quite a bit through the year!

Tusculum Cowl blocking - week 23

I did use it as an excuse to get out and about though, and managed to see loads of awesome places, like Beale Park, Whipsnade Zoo, London, Oxford and the Elvetham Hotel in Hampshire. I also spent a lot of time playing with all the settings on my camera, and getting to know how to use it better. I was very impressed with the fireworks settings!

Elvetham Hotel - week 14

Giraffe at Whipsnade - week 29

Newbury fireworks - week 45

Looking through the photos now, it seems Mr Fidget and my cooking also feature quite heavily in the weeks where nothing else interesting occurred!

The third and final challenge was actually quite challenging. It was the Object Photo Challenge, which involved taking a list of items and taking photos specifically of them. Some were fairly easy, and I was able to grab a suitable photo while out and about, but others required more forethought and as a result, are still not there! I will carry this over into 2012, and make sure I take the time to find the missing objects.

Review of the Year Part one - knitting and crochet

2011-12-31T08:00:00.000Z

Back in January I had just started writing this blog. I set myself some goals to meet, and I have to say, looking back on the year, it is nice to say that I have achieved a fair few of them! So much to talk about in 2011, but I thought I would try and sum it up in as few words as possible.

Presenting the first part of my review of 2011 - my knittting and crocheting FOs from the year:

I only really got bitten by the knitting bug once I started on the Year of Projects challenge. Determined to learn more advanced knitting techniques than I already knew, I have tackled lace, cables and knitting in the round and succeeded with everything I've tried. I still have several knitting WIPs on the needles to take me into the new year, plus several more still to do from the list.

My crochet output has been somewhat more prolific. I've crocheted hats, scarves, shawls, baby gifts, toys, charity squares, LRP costumes and socks. I knew I'd done a lot, but until I'd put them all together in one collage I had no idea it was this much!

I hope I am able to produce as much (and of the same quality) next year!

A Christmassy FO

2011-12-30T08:00:00.000Z

So to round off the year, here is my final FO of 2011 - a last minute Christmas gift for Jamie, who sprung on me the surprise, just two days before Christmas, that instead of not getting any presents for me as we'd agreed he had actually bought me presents! I had to do a mad dash into town on the 23rd to pick up some presents for him, but before doing that I made good use of the hour I was up before him to crochet him a stocking!

Pattern: Bev's Christmas Granny Square Stocking by Beverly A Qualheim

Hook: 4mm

Yarn: Sirdar Bonus DK in red, green and white

I modified the pattern slightly. Instead of four round grannies, I did three, and to avoid lots of end weaving from colour changes, I used the continuous join-as-you-go instructions here for the final contrasting colour round.

For the first side, I did red in the middle surrounded by green, but for the reverse side, it's green in the middle with red outside.

I then used up the last of my white yarn to join the two sides together with a round of single crochet through both layers, doing one stitch in each dc of the clusters, and two in each chain space.

The end result came out extremely cute. I packed it full of chocolates - a Terry's Chocolate Orange in the toe (because all good stockings have an orange in the toe, and I thought a chocolate one would be better received than a couple of sad looking satsumas) and the rest is stuffed with chocolate coins (milk and white, as Jamie is a lover of white chocolate). It was a bit of a tight squeeze, because the opening isn't all that wide or stretchy, but I managed to get it all in!

I then wrapped it up in paper, so he wouldn't have any clue what it was. He even saw me working on it on Friday morning, but didn't realise what I was doing!

For it is in giving that we receive*

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000Z

Christmas is a time for giving. One of my favourite ways of spreading the love at this time of year is getting stuck in to a Secret Santa or two, and this year was no exception. I had organised one in the office, but then I got a new job, so had to pull out. In its place, I signed up to a Secret Santa swap organised by the UK Random Acts of Kindness group on Ravelry. It's a great group full of extremely kind hearted and generous people; if I'm honest, I was far more excited about the prospect of buying lovely things for a complete stranger who shares my interests, than for someone I saw every day but shared nothing with apart from a place of work!

There were no real rules to the swap, spend as much or as little as you could afford and no requirements on package contents. The only stipulation was you had to wait until Christmas Day to open your parcel! Since in this house, we open our presents on Christmas Eve (as soon as the clock strikes twelve!), I got to be one of the first to open and post pictures of their present.

I have to say, my Secret Santa absolutely spoiled me. I am over the moon with the contents of my parcel. It arrived only a few days before Christmas, so I didn't have to wait too long with it tempting me from the corner of the room! I don't think I could have lasted more than a few days!

All of this was crammed into a parcel that really
didn't look like it contained this much stuff!

I waited until I'd opened all of my other presents before tearing into my secret parcel. The first thing I saw was the yarn. Four gorgeously squishy balls of Artesano 100% alpaca DK in a lovely shade of red.

It's more red than it looks in this photo. The flash, you see.

Hidden under the yarn was a ton of other amazing goodies. A set of red captive bead stitch markers from Atomic Knitting, a set of 4mm 10" Brittany DPNs, a red tape measure and a Hotel Chocolat dark chocolate reindeer lolly...

I just love dark chocolate. I have been well stalked!

Hiding underneath all that, was a beautiful hand made gift - a warm and snuggly cowl, in a fantastic shade of red which matches the yarn I'm using for my Cherry Wrap!

This isn't a great photo, so you can't really see the pattern detail.
I blame the flash again, taking photos at 1am is never a good idea!

As if that wasn't enough, nestling in the bottom of the parcel I found not one, not two, but five printed patterns! The patterns are for:

I don't know who my Secret Santa is, but I love her! I am overwhelmed with gratitude. It just goes to show what a fabulous community we're all a part of.

Edited to add: I found out who she is! Nikki outed herself after seeing my gushing praise for her parcel in the forum. Which means you can find all the details on my cowl from her project page.

*so said Francis of Assissi

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

2011-12-26T07:00:00.000Z

Today is my first blogiversary! I can't believe it's been a whole year since my first post. I've had so much fun writing the blog and I've discovered so many fabulous people out there in the crafting blog community.

I've written over 200 posts, and had nearly 13,500 pageviews over the last year. My most popular post of the year has been, surprisingly, the post announcing my free crocheted uterus pattern! It will come as no surprise to learn that Ravelry has been the main source of my blog traffic - I love that you can link your projects back to the blog posts they feature in. Second behind Ravelry, and only by a small margin, is the wonderful Tami's Amis and Other Creations, the blog that inspired me to start blogging myself.

I had originally intended to start my blog on the 1st January, but I was too excited about it to wait, so I've ended up with a blogiversary on a very awkward day. I expect a fair number of my usual readers are busy off doing Christmassy things with their families, so I am going to wait until the new year before holding my celebratory giveaway. So come back next week to get all the details for that!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T10:36:00.001Z

A Very Merry Christmas to all of my readers!

The advent calendar is full!

I spent ages hunting for string yesterday to get the cards up properly.
Then I realised I had a massive pile of yarn I could use instead!

The tree is filled with presents, and we can't wait to open them! Luckily, in this house we have
a tradition of opening presents on Christmas Eve, as soon as it hits midnight.

Home baked croissants for breakfast is another tradition here.

I hope you've all been good, and Santa brings you

everything you wished for!

Not quite the last FO of the year..

2011-12-23T19:46:00.003Z

Last minute Christmas preparations today almost made me forget about FO Friday! You see, we had decided that we weren't going to do presents this year, so I hadn't done anything about making/buying presents for Jamie. Then, I came home from work last night to discover he'd sneaked two presents into the tree for me! So I had to face the madness of town this afternoon and pick him up some gifts.

I did make use of my hour or so of being awake and up before him this morning to make a little something, but I can't really show you that until he's seen it, so I'll share that next week!

This FO post is for my baby hat, the other half of my present for the Brown baby due next year.

Pattern: Simple Baby Hat by Alison Williams

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino

Needles: 4mm DPNs

I reversed the colours for the hat, starting in purple and then switching to red. I could have carried on with the purple for a bit longer, I think, as with all the decrease rounds the red section is almost twice as long! I did suffer a little with laddering between my needles on this project, which I hadn't encountered when using DPNs before. But it didn't affect the overall look by the time I'd finished, so I'm not too worried.

I knit the newborn size, which looks huge compared to the size the booties came out! The second pair of booties are on the needles, so hopefully this gift will be finished before too long.

Head on over to Tami's for more FOs!

In the bleak midwinter...

2011-12-19T20:20:00.000Z

Six days to go!

I'm starting to get really excited about Christmas now. We're on the final string of the advent calendar, just five more ornaments to come out of the box. I bought the chocolate decorations on Saturday and they are now hanging in their proper place on the tree. Even Fidget is getting into the Christmas spirit.

This is as close to clothing on cats as I will go.

The tree has created its own problems though. I cannot access my stash shelves without serious risk of tree-related injury. I have had to be creative, and find an alternative place to keep all my active WIPs so they remain accessible.

There is a very handy space between the cushions and the wall,
now stuffed full of acrylics for my granny blanket.

There are four WIPs nestled in that space. The granny blanket, obviously, but if you look closer you may also spot Jamie's hat, a second pair of Saartje's booties and my latest cast on - the ribbed lace bolero. Now, when I find myself sat on the sofa in front of the TV, I can just reach up behind me and grab something to keep my hands occupied.

Fidget remains unmoved by the proximity of yarn. This is good.

It's another one from my Year of Projects list, and I've been itching to get started on it ever since I acquired the perfect yarn. You see, a fellow Raveller was having a destash, and one of the items on the list was five balls of Rowan Calmer in black, for a wonderfully cheap price of £15 for the lot, including postage. Mooncalf alerted me to its existence, so I bought it to prevent her from breaking her yarn buying ban. It is lovely yarn! I just hope I've got enough. I'm sure I have, but you never know!

Year of Projects update - December 18th

2011-12-18T04:30:00.000Z

I can't believe we're nearly half way through this project now! As next Sunday is Christmas Day, I suspect I will be too busy to write an update (and you'll all be too busy to read it), so this is going to be my last Year of Projects update in 2011.

I started out in July with a list of twenty knit or crochet projects that I wanted to make. I modified the list, taking four off and adding five more. In the last six months I have cast on/hooked for 11 projects from my list, which means I've started just over 50% of the list. Of those eleven, I've finished six. 30% complete!

Here's a round up of my finishes:

Sweet Pea Shawl - made for a wedding and now seeing daily use as a scarf

Crochet Lacy Wrap - now part of my LRP costume

Victorian Scarf - haven't worn it yet!

Jane Austen Shawl - worn to a wedding, and a couple of times since
as a scarf to brighten up an outfit

Thinking of You scarf - I have been wearing this
in the current cold weather

Free Rapunzel hat - I wear this a lot!

Maybe I would be further through my list if I hadn't managed to distract myself with so many other projects! According to my Ravelry page, I've completed 12 other projects since July, and have four non-YoP WIPs currently on needles/hooks alongside the five unfinished WIPs from the list!

I'm going to try my best to resist the urge to cast on things which aren't on my list, at least for the first few months of the new year. I may also have to revise the list down a bit, and cut some of the projects that are either going to be too expensive (like the Diamonds Shawl, which will require me to buy a book just for that pattern, and expensive yarn to make it from) or just wont get used/worn (such as the Pineapple Monokini, which was only on the list because it was so silly).

I am also hoping that I can take advantage of all these Christmas Bank Holidays to get some serious knitting time in. I reckon if I focus I should be able to finish the Cherry Wrap and make some very decent headway on the gloves and my latest cast on, the ribbed lace bolero.

FO - Saartje's Booties

2011-12-16T18:24:00.003Z

I am so proud of these! These booties will go with the hat that's currently on the needles, for a baby which is due in the new year.

Pattern: Saartje's Booties by Saartje de Bruijn (direct link here)

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in red and purple

Needles: 2.5mm DPNs

Mods: The pattern as written is to knit them flat, then seam. I chose to follow the in the round instructions provided here as I wasn't keen on the idea of all that seaming and end weaving.

They've come out pretty small, so I'm worried they won't be of any use. I am reassured by Em who has knit them before that they will be fine, but I think I might make a second pair on larger needles, to make a slightly bigger set and then send them both just to be sure!

They knit up so quickly, and I even learned a new cast on method as you use the cable cast on to get the stitches for the straps. The buttons were ones I had left over from the packs of acrylic buttons I used on my advent calendar. I may have to use different colour buttons on the second pair, as I don't know if I have another 4 white ones! I might also do the colours the other way around.

More FOs over at Tami's!

A quick check in

2011-12-15T18:57:00.000Z

I'll say one thing for my new job - it's keeping me busy! I didn't quite realise just how much spare time I had on my hands in my previous job, as my interaction with all social media has taken a bit of a nose dive over the last two weeks. For the first time in ages, I have a backlog of unread posts in my Google Reader, and I've been nowhere near as active on Twitter or in the Ravelry forums as I usually am. This has also had the knock on effect of giving me less time to write posts here, which I am not happy about!

Hopefully I will remedy this once I am settled in properly and back to something resembling a normal sleeping pattern.

I have been knitting though, so here's a quick catch up on what's been keeping me busy this week.

Hat!

Jamie's hat is now back up to where it was before I had to frog it for being too small. It's looking like it will be big enough now, but I've still got another five or so inches to knit before I can start decreasing.

Another hat!

Another hat! Compared to the photo above it looks massive, but it's nowhere near as big as Jamie's. This one is for another baby, due in the new year. I've already made a pair of booties (I'll share them tomorrow) so this is a hat to match. It's Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, which is just as lovely to work as the DK and Chunky weights! Just the Aran weight left, and then I'll have worked with them all. It's definitely my new favourite yarn.

Not a hat!

Ok, so this isn't a knit or crochet project, but this week a friend and I got together to make flavoured gin. We'd picked a fair amount of sloe berries on our walk in Whitchurch, which had been sitting in the freezer ever since we got them home. On Tuesday evening we met up and had a rather fun time squishing the berries into a bottle of gin. We only had enough sloes for one bottle, so since we had two, we dug out some blackberries from the freezer and used them to fill this bottle. The sloe gin is under the care of my friend, while I am responsible for the blackberry. It's such a great colour (which unfortunately, hasn't really shown in the photo), and I am quite enjoying giving it its daily shaking. Shame it's going to be at least three months before we can try them out!

Countdown to Christmas

2011-12-10T08:00:00.000Z

I finally got around to finishing my advent calendar last night. After much deliberation, I opted for Chrissy's suggestion of a candle.

These two have gone straight in the box for the surprise drawing each morning

The white candle went straight on the wall, to fill the gap we'd left on the 8th

We're being fairly random about how we choose which ornament goes up each day, but as I have 8 different designs, and there are 8 pegs on each string, it seemed logical to have one of each design on each string! So on the 8th we left a gap to fill when I made the final three pieces.

This is how it looked yesterday evening

I really like it now that it's starting to fill up. Such a lovely use of an otherwise wasted space, as the wall on the side of the stairs isn't secure enough to hang a painting from.

Also, I realised I showed you last years video of us putting up the Christmas tree, but haven't shown you the additional decorations which are now traditional (you do something twice, it becomes a tradition, right?).

See how the tree completely blocks access to my stash

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed there are amigurumi peeking out of the branches. As soon as the tree goes up, the various creatures from around the room migrate to the tree and live there throughout the Christmas period.

All of the amis from the shelves are here. The Cyoot Sad Eyed Dragon, and his friend Sir Tiny Knight (not made by me),
both crabs, both lobsters, Yoda, R2D2 and the tiger. Oh, and I've turned some random swatch motifs into ornaments.
And my cuddly Gruffalo and Reindeer come along for the ride too.

Of course, I wouldn't want my snake to feel left out, so we decorate George, the dragon tree, as well. Just tinsel this year, but in previous years he's had baubles and lights too.

It's some sort of tropical Christmas out there.

FO Friday - Rosie's Rosie Rabbit

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000Z

I can't tell you how happy I am with this FO. It is my one piece of Christmas gift crafting and it is done! I've had the pieces finished for a couple of weeks now, but what it needed was some dedicated time to sit down and weave in ends, trim tails and sew it together. Always my least favourite part of amigurumi construction! But it was worth the effort.

Isn't she adorable?

She is just so darn cute. I want to keep her. But I know she'll be far better appreciated where she is going! I just hope everyone likes her.

Pattern: Rosie Rabbit by Paola Navarro (direct link to Delicious Crochet shop here)

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK in various colours

Hook: 2.5mm

I made no real modifications to the pattern, all I did was substitute colours. I wanted to make her grey instead of beige, because my favouirite stuffed animal from my childhood was a grey rabbit, and I loved the Little Grey Rabbit book I had when I was a child (I had Little Grey Rabbit's Birthday). I also used a slightly different combination of pink/purple for the clothes. I also used a more beige colour instead of white or ivory for the socks and pants.

The little bob tail is so sweet!

I also omitted the three flowers that are meant to adorn her hat. By the time I was done crocheting the ribbon to go around it, I was fed up of working with the teeny tiny hook and the rather stiff fabric it creates with DK weight yarn.

I have to say, I am very impressed with the pattern. Once I'd got over the odd phrasing of the translated-into-English instructions, I flew through the pieces and was amazed to see how the shaping used creates such perfect features. The head in particular is extremely well designed.

Even if the eyes were a little fiddly!

The hat is removable, but the rest of her outfit is very firmly attached. Hopefully you can see from the photos that her legs and arms are poseable, due to the way they are attached, so she can stand up or sit down, and you can put the arms practically anywhere.

I can't work out if she looks cuter with or without the hat

I will be wrapping her up tonight ready to go in the post tomorrow, with my Christmas swap parcels. I want to make sure she gets to Wales in plenty of time before the big day. It will be Rosie's first Christmas and although she is going to be far too young to really get involved (she's only 3 months old or so) I hope her parents appreciate the gift, and that Rosie gets to love her Rosie Rabbit for as long as I've loved my old grey rabbit.

WIP Wed... er Thursday

2011-12-08T21:32:00.000Z

Starting a new job this week has made me so brain dead by the time I get home each night I haven't really had much energy or focus to craft or blog. I still haven't made my final three felt ornaments for the advent calendar, and now it's the 8th already and I don't have an ornament to hang. I think I've finally decided which shape to make, but now all my craft things are hidden behind the Christmas tree, the effort required is currently proving too great. Hopefully I will get time at the weekend to sort that out.

My WIP list is looking a lot healthier these days, after finishing two projects this week. I'm back down to 6 projects listed as WIPs on Ravelry, but that sort of hides the two projects I've relegated to hibernating status as it's been so long since I worked on them (the filet panel, and the forest lace stole).

The one thing I have been working on is another hat. Since I enjoyed knitting Free Rapunzel so much, I cast on another hat shortly before I finished it. This one is for Jamie, and it's a basic ribbed beanie.

This picture was taken a little while ago

The pattern I'm following is the Ribbed Watchman's Hat which is a free pattern developed for a charity knitting project, making hats for Israeli soldiers. The yarn I'm using is Patons Wool Blend Aran, on 4.5mm needles. I thought maybe I would have gauge issues, but didn't bother to swatch.

I wish I had.

This photo was taken today

After I got to about 4 inches of knitting, I tried it on. It was snug on me, so it was never going to fit him! I did measure and count my stitches, and made the executive decision to frog and start over, with an extra 12 stitches. This one should fit! It is a nice easy knit that I can do almost without looking at my hands. Hopefully I will get it finished before the cold weather really hits.

Here is my progress on my granny square blanket. The red line marks the original edge of the bought blanket, so I'm four rows done! I've chosen to go back to the paler colours present in the centre, and work outwards back to the brighter ones. I'm using yarns I have left over from various projects, although you may recognise these first three as coming from Rosie Rabbit. She is finished, and will be unveiled in all her glory tomorrow, before I wrap her up and pop her in the post.

Cook from a Cookbook - Scotch Eggs

2011-12-07T07:34:00.000Z

The second thing we cooked on Sunday that we'd never made before was Scotch Eggs. Now, I'm cheating a little on the challenge here, as I don't have a recipe from my cookbook shelf for this, so we sort of looked up several online to get the basic idea, then made up our own!

I swear that gin is doing its best to be in all my Cookbook challenge photos!

We only boiled our eggs for 4 minutes, as we prefer them soft boiled, and figured they'd cook a bit in the fryer too, so we didn't want to overdo it. Most of the recipes we'd looked up involved adding all sorts of exciting extras to the sausage meat; we stayed simple, and seasoned it with salt, black pepper and dried mixed herbs.

I am amazed that I managed to keep the flour away from my clothes this time

Sausagemeat is far worse to handle than minced meat, so making up the Scotch Eggs was less entertaining than forming burger patties.

There's that gin bottle again...

I love coating stuff with breadcrumbs

But you don't half get messy doing it.

We had no idea what temperature to set the fryer to, since we had no recipe, so we hedged our bets and set it to about 130°C.

We cooked two at a time, for ten minutes, turning halfway through

Oh my God they were delicious. I love Scotch Eggs, but to have them fresh out of the fryer, still warm, with slightly runny yolks still inside.. it was amazing. We will definitely be making these again!

Cook from a Cookbook - Cinnamon Whirls

2011-12-05T18:31:00.000Z

My final day of repose before starting my new job involved a lot of cooking. Two of the three recipes were new to me, so I'm including them here as part of Nat's Cookbook Challenge.

First up, it's the cinnamon whirls. I've wanted to make these for ages, as they are one of our favourite sweet treats. Luckily, my Good Housekeeping Baking Book had a very simple method for them.

So few ingredients!

It took us a little while to get our heads around the badly-worded instructions for how to fold and layer the pastry, but when we were done we had two really cute little sausages to cut up.

The best part of this recipe was using sugar
instead of flour to stop the pastry sticking

They smelled so good in the oven, and we couldn't resist tucking in as soon as they were cool enough to handle.

The recipe claimed it would make 34, but we only got 28 out of it. But they are tiny, so we didn't feel too guilty about eating lots of them while we cooked the rest of our lunch!

Year of Projects Update - 4th December

2011-12-04T11:50:00.000Z

Can you believe it's December already? I know a lot of my fellow Year of Projects bloggers have scaled back their efforts in completing projects on their lists to focus on the dreaded Christmas knitting, but as I only have one present to make (Rosie's Rosie) I've been able to keep up with my list quite comfortably.

I've been making steady progress on my other WIPs, but I've been so busy this week doing fun holiday things I've not actually had all that much time for knitting. And now my Christmas tree is up, it neatly hides and partially blocks access to my stash and WIP shelves, so I've not had anything to hand!

Yesterday afternoon I found myself sitting down to watch the rugby with nothing to fiddle with, so I braved the tree and rescued my Rapunzel hat.

It's finished! I'm so excited by this hat. It's amazing. The yarn is so soft and warm, the cables are beautiful and the braids are just the right amount of silly. I decided against adding the pompom to the top, mainly because I already have a hat with a pompom and I know just how ridiculous I look when I wear it. So we made an executive decision to omit that from the pattern.

Here's the details then:

Pattern: Free Rapunzel! by Tiny Owl Knits

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky in chocolate brown. I used less than two balls.

Needles: 9mm circular and dpns

Mods: other than omitting the pompom, I didn't really modify the pattern in any way. I could have made the braids looser by going up a needle size or two, but as my 9mms are the biggest I've got, I couldn't do that. I quite like them as they are. I also used elastic hair ties to tie off the braids, rather than a thread of yarn as the pattern suggested. I think they'll be more secure this way. The purple ribbon I had lying around in my LRP kit, and was too short to be of any use to me there, so I happily donated it to this hat.

It all turned out rather well. I have a new hat that I love, one more project to cross off the list and I've developed my knitting skills to the point where I am no longer afraid of cables or knitting on DPNs. So unafraid, in fact, that I've already got another hat on the needles!

I have just over two balls of this lovely yarn left over, so I think once I'm done with the other hat, I will cast on some mittens to match Rapunzel's hat. After all, I'm sure she'd need to protect her delicate princess hands while she's doing all that hard work pulling the prince up into her tower!

Oxford

2011-12-03T15:57:00.000Z

To round off my fabulous week of holiday, Jamie and I went to Oxford yesterday. Our main purpose was to check out the Christmas market and see what we could manage in terms of starting our Christmas shopping, but we realised there was plenty more we could do while we were there.

Oxford has many gorgeous old buildings, but this one was my favourite

Upon the advice of my friend, who got all excited when we mentioned we were going to Oxford and insisted we go to see the dinosaurs, we took in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

There were indeed dinosaurs

There are many awesome things in the museum. So much crammed into such a small space! The rather menacingly posed T-rex skeleton was particularly cool.

These dodos were pretty dead

It's quite tricky to take photos of a lot of the exhibits because they are either behind glass cases or, in the case of all the big mammal skeletons, were crammed so close together and against such a busy backdrop that it was impossible to frame a good shot. Most irritating!

These are the claws of the aye-aye skeleton. Aye-ayes are cool

I didn't really take any photos of the Christmas market, but we did pick up a few things for my Secret Santa swap partner, some mulling syrup to make mulled cider with and an enormous joint of ham for next weekend's Christmas buffet.

The only real downsides of the trip were that Oxford was very cold indeed, and we didn't stay in town long enough to meet up with the lovely Mooncalf for a post work coffee and cake!

It's Christmas!!!!

2011-12-01T11:50:00.000Z

Happy 1st December everyone! I am very excited about Christmas this year, because I don't have exams to sit any more, so can start thinking about it right from the start of December.

As it's the 1st, and my Facebook and Twitter feeds are filled up with people talking about what was in their advent calendar this morning, I thought I'd share some pics of my homemade advent calendar up on the wall.

It looks a bit bare at the moment, but imagine how it will look in a week or two!

I still haven't made the final three ornaments, but will get that done this weekend. I need to make the final decision on which shape to use! Thanks to you guys and your fabulous suggestions, I now have lots of choice.

Today we drew the yellow star

This afternoon is dedicated to tidying the house in preparation for putting up the Christmas tree. As we're out roleplaying tonight, we may not have enough time to get the tree up today. so I thought I'd share a video I made last year, when we put up the tree.

We made it for our vlogging group on Facebook, so feel free to skip over the first couple of minutes, in which I waah about other stuff. I also apologise for some of the editorial musical choices, as we were quite drunk by the time we came to put the video together! The video may also be blocked in some countries due to copyright issues with the music we used, so apologies if you are in one of those countries and the video doesn't work for you.

London Calling

2011-11-29T22:47:00.000Z

As part of my plan to fully enjoy the week off I have between my old job and my new job, I went to London today. I get very, very excited about going to London. I can count the number of times I've been there on both hands, which means I still enjoy doing things like riding the underground trains, and gawping at all the touristy spots. Jamie, and most of my friends, have spent a lot more time in London than I have (cos, you know, they live there, or work there, or have done in the past). So nobody else really shared my enthusiasm for the day I had planned!

Buckingham Palace, where the Queen lives.

My side trip to Buckingham Palace wasn't originally part of the plan, but when I discovered its proximity to where I was meeting my friend for lunch, I knew I had to wander over and take a peek. Then I realised how close I was to Westminster, where I needed to be, and decided to abandon my original plan of tubing over to Waterloo in favour of walking through St James Park. I am glad I did, because I had the most amazing experience ever while I was there.

Squirrels are everywhere in the park, and they are not at all afraid of people.

The squirrels were bouncing about the place, digging up food. I was enjoying myself, laughing at their antics and trying to take photos, when I spotted one little fella perched on the railings watching me rather intently. As I approached, he jumped from the fence into a deep pile of autumn leaves, which then flew everywhere as he bounded out of them and came to a stop right at my feet. I bent over to say hello, and he climbed up my leg! I was very sorry not to have any food to give him, because he soon gave up on me and ran off. But there was a squirrel! Climbing up my leg!

Obligatory shot of the Palace of Westminster, complete with the clock tower

One of these days I am going to arrange to go on another tour of the Houses of Parliament. I did it once when I was on a school trip and it was really interesting. We even did the climb up the clock tower, and stood at the top, close enough to touch Big Ben, when it chimed 11am. I'd love to do that again.

London Aquarium. Target one on my "fun things to do" list for the day

The aquarium was great. The main issue I have with them, is that all the Sea Life centres kind of look the same. Once you've been to one, you've pretty much been to them all. London's main attraction is now apparently the penguins, although I have to say of all the displays that was the most disappointing. Far more exciting was the huge tank full of sharks (which moved too fast to photograph!) and the huge tank full of rays and turtles, complete with underwater walkthrough tunnel. I took a video of that tank (which you can view here), because again, everything was moving too quickly to photograph properly.

The London Eye. Target two on the list

I've wanted to go on the London Eye ever since it was first built. Twice, I have stood beneath it and not bee able to go on. The first time was not long after it opened; I'd gone to London with my Mum, and she refused to pay the extortionate ticket price for us to go on (I think she'd been too shocked by the £7 cinema tickets when we went to the Odeon on Leicester Square). The second time was a couple of years ago, when Jamie and I were in London to visit the Imperial War Museum. Then, we simply couldn't afford the exorbitant ticket prices, and didn't really have the time either.

Not so this time, for I was armed with a two-for-one voucher, which made it rather more affordable.

The view across the Thames towards Embankment station

It was a very odd experience. You don't really notice the wheel move, and then all of a sudden you realise you are extremely high up. It had started to rain, so our views of the entire city were clouded by the weather somewhat, but it was still fantastic to see the city all lit up. You can see so many landmarks. Buckingham Palace looked tiny from the top, especially compared to the (much closer) Palace of Westminster. St Pauls Cathedral looked particularly cool. And as we descended, Battersea Power Station rose out of the darkness, but as it's not lit it doesn't show up in any of the photos!

Proof that I was on the Eye, in case you thought I was making it up

Full set of photos on Flickr.

In which I went for a walk

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000Z

Nothing like going for a tromp around the countryside on a crisp November morning.

The old Mill House at Pangbourne

The mill wheels still in place underneath the house

The lich gate at the church in Whitchurch-on-Thames

Mushrooms growing in the village green

A Red Kite soaring majestically over the downs

Gorgeous views

Sheep!

Alpacas!

An awesome human sundial, which was correct
(but set to BST, so the dial said it was 2.30)

Quotations in the bricks outlining the Thyme Maze surrounding said human sundial

The full set of photos can be found in this Flickr set.

Year of Projects update 26th November

2011-11-27T17:48:00.000Z

I had an exciting parcel pushed through my letter box yesterday morning. I'd ordered some new knitting needles from a seller on eBay; 9mm bamboo DPNs and 16" circular, for the express purpose of knitting the Free Rapunzel! hat from Tiny Owl Knits, which was added to my YoP list earlier in the year.

I've had the yarn in my stash for a while, having bought four balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky from a friend who was destashing back in August.

I resisted all morning, but as soon as I found myself sitting down on the sofa to watch the Barbarians rugby game yesterday afternoon, I couldn't resist digging the yarn out and getting started!

Lots of firsts for me in this pattern:

First time knitting cables - I didn't have a cable needle so I used one
of the DPNs instead, which mostly worked ok

First time picking up stitches to knit

First time knitting stockinette in the round

Switching to the DPNs was tricky, as I had to keep moving the stitches about to get the crown decreases in the right place and prevent my stitch markers from falling off the ends. I did the cable band while watching rugby, and accompanied the lovely stockinette portion (have I mentioned how much I loved knitting stockinette in the round?) with two episodes of The Walking Dead season 2. I would have stayed up all night to knit the braids too, but having arranged to go out for a tromp around the countryside this morning, I decided to leave it till later.

I ran out of yarn from my first ball while in the middle of my decreases, so I used the magic knot tutorial that Evelyn linked to the other day to join my second ball. Genius! It worked like a dream.

I'll be back tomorrow with the photos from my countryside tromp - there were herds of alpacas!

Cook from a Cookbook: Lemony Lemony Lemon Drizzle Cake

2011-11-26T11:12:00.000Z

Yesterday I had the perfect excuse to break out my newest cookbook and have a go at a recipe I've never tried before. It was my last day at my current job, where tradition demands an offering of cake.

I did a re-run of the Chocolate Crispy Cakes I made for my birthday, since they had proven so popular with my colleagues, and selected the Lemon Drizzle Loaf from my Good Housekeeping Baking Book.

The recipe is actually incredibly simple. I did get a little covered in lemon from all the zesting and juicing, but getting messy is half the fun of baking, don't you agree?

I was ably assisted in my baking by my friend CJ, and copious quantities of Bombay Sapphire. The cake smelled divine when it was in the oven, and cooked to perfection in 40 minutes with a minimum amount of crust burning.

We had to cut the end off to fit it in the box. Honest.

As you can probably see in the photo, I made one small change to the instructions. I didn't have a grater capable of finely grating the lemon zest, so the two lemon's worth of zest that was meant to be grated into the mixture was actually just pared zest, the same as went into the drizzle. I actually quite liked having proper pieces of zest inside the sponge. Which, by the way, was light and delicious and Oh So Lemony. I had quite big lemons, so there was a lot of drizzle, and it soaked right into the sponge and made it all sticky and moist.

It was a real hit with my now-ex-colleagues and I will definitely be making this again!

FO Friday - Dishcloth madness

2011-11-25T09:33:00.000Z

A quick round up of all the dishcloths I've knit but not blogged about! After his initial uncertainty over using them in the kitchen, Jamie has come around, and our paper towel usage has dropped dramatically! I love how quick they are to clean too; I pop them in the machine as I'm doing a normal washing load, and they dry really quickly once they come out.

Grandmother's Favourite, stopped increasing at 28 sts

After making the first one (blogged here), I used the left over yarn to make a smaller one (above) which I use as a facecloth in the bathroom. I love it!

Diagonal Knit Dishcloth

I used a different pattern for my purple cotton. This one has a waffle stitch section in the middle, which is really pretty and makes for a very effective scrubbing surface. Great for all the dried on grease that ends up on our work surfaces!

I started out using the rest of the purple to make a mitred square dishcloth, but soon ran out. So I used up the last of the pink/orange ball, and broke into my pink/purple ball to finish it off.

poor colour on this one, I took it with my phone

This was a great, mindless knit, but it sat around for ages before getting finished off, because I didn't have a button. Because I chose to do it in stockinette rather than garter, it looks and feels more like a tea-towel.

better colours in the kitchen, thanks to the fluorescent lighting

I've hung it up on the window above the sink, where it is very handy for wiping utensils and cutlery being used directly from the drying rack.

I still have some of the pink/purple/white ball left, so I may make another basic Grandmother's favourite with it, measuring carefully to use up exactly half before I start decreasing!

To see more FOs, head over to Tami's.

Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit*

2011-11-23T18:46:00.000Z

In my quest to find a suitable quotation relating to today's post to use as a title, I found the above quote by Oscar Wilde, which made me laugh.

I have made a deplorable lack of progress over the last week or so. Partly this can be attributed to me having far too many projects on the go, and nowhere near enough time spare in which to work on them. I was away all weekend having fun in a field, you see. Sadly my camera remained packed away - I always seem to be too busy playing the game to take photos.

Slightly blurry photo courtesy of my friend Rich

What you can see from the one photo of me I do have, is that I took my crochet lacy wrap to the event and wore it as a scarf, secured with a cloak pin. I would have frozen to death if I hadn't taken it, so I am very glad I made the last-minute, spur-of-the-moment decision to steam block it on Wednesday evening last week, and chuck it in the bag.

I had intended to bring my leafy fingerless gloves to the event as well, to prevent my hands from getting cold in the chilly November evening mists, but they haven't really progressed all that much! I am still getting to grips with the DPNs - I realised after a little while that my tube of knitting was inside out, and have been struggling to get to grips with the idea of working with the needles in a slightly different orientation. But we'll get there. I have almost finished the second pattern repeat on the first glove, and will soon be working the thumb. As I have four months before the next LRP event, I am sure I will have them finished in time!

Mostly my craft time has been focussed on Rosie's Rosie Rabbit and the Poncho. All of the pieces for the rabbit have been crocheted and stuffed; all that remains is to weave in ends and sew the thing together. I am hoping to get that done next week, as I have a week off work and intend to be very productive during it. I am up to 54 motifs for the poncho, so definitely heading towards the halfway point on that. It makes for very effective roleplay night crocheting, because I no longer have to pay any attention really to what I am doing.

And now you see why I am quoting Oscar Wilde today. My books of choice for the last couple of weeks have been classics. I picked up Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray in a charity shop. Both are books I'd wanted to read for a while, but didn't own. Northanger Abbey was an odd read; it's quite different to the other Jane Austen novels I'd already read, which I am mostly attributing to the fact it was her first novel. I still prefer Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park, although I have yet to read Persuasion.

Dorian Gray I wanted to read for slightly different reasons, as it was more a book I felt I ought to have read by now. I have enjoyed reading it, but I doubt it will become a regular feature in my list of books I read repeatedly. I wanted to make sure I'd read it before watching the most recent film adaptation of it though, because I didn't want my appreciation of the book to be skewed by the film. Having finished the book, and read the plot synopsis for the film online, I am glad I did, because it seems like they changed it quite a lot! I will probably still watch it though; mainly because Colin Firth is in it. I loved him in The Importance of Being Earnest. This was my first time actually reading Oscar Wilde, so it took me a little while to get used to his writing style. I also found it very strange reading a book from such a male perspective, if that makes sense!

For purely fiber arts WIP updates, head over to Tami's; to see what folks are reading as well as working on, you'll want to head over to Small Things.

Winning is the most important*

2011-11-21T23:28:00.000Z

Today's post brought to you by the excitement of actually winning a giveaway on a friend's blog!

A couple of weeks ago, Natalie over at Misadventures in Craft held a giveaway to celebrate the end of her first year of knitting. She had some great prizes on offer, so I popped my name in the hat and thought no more about it. Imagine my excitement, then, when last Friday she announced the winners of the giveaway and I discovered I had won a prize!

I won the crochet pattern book! It came in the post today, and I already had an inkling it would be waiting for me at home when I saw Sarah (Crafts from the Cwtch) tweeting photos of her prize earlier on in the day.

Like Sarah, I also had an extra bonus surprise gift in my parcel - a really cute mini skein keyring in my favourite colours that Nat had made for me.

A quick flick through the book has already got me thinking about projects to work on once the Year of Projects is over. I've included my initial seven in the photo above. Most of the patterns in the book involve beads or sequins, which will be a new experience for me. I am particularly excited about that purple dress, and the beaded green scarf (not that I need any more scarves, mind you, but it is very pretty...).

Thank you Natalie! I will have to get my thinking cap on to outdo your giveaway prizes when my blogiversary rolls around in December!

*Winning is the most important. Everything is consequence of that. Ayrton Senna

FO Friday - Tree Frog

2011-11-18T11:18:00.000Z

One of my super seekrit projects, unveiled now it is finally residing in it's proper home.

Project: Tree Frog for CJ

Pattern: Tree Frog by Brigitte Read (direct link here)

Yarn: Sirdar Simply Recycled DK (natural), Sirdar Calico (Orange), James C Brett Kool Kotton (green)

Hook: 2.5mm

Notes: Very few modifications to the pattern as written. Used a smaller hook to create a tighter, stiffer fabric, which worked really well. I pretty much followed the directions exactly for the head, body and legs, but made some changes for the feet and eyes.

Eyes: I didn't have orange animal eyes, so made do with 10mm black safety eyes. I chained six stitches and joined in a loop, then crocheted 8 sc into the ring. I then increased 2sc in each stitch for the second round (I think) before fastening off, and attaching to the head using the safety eyes through the small hole in the centre.

Feet: The pattern suggests crocheting the feet and the sucker pads separately, then sewing the pads onto the toes before attaching to the legs. I couldn't be bothered with all that extra sewing together, so made the feet by crocheting the chain, doing 5sc into the end chain, and slip stitching back down the chain, three times in total for each foot. The back feet are slightly longer than the front feet.

I also failed to consider leaving a length of pipe cleaner at the end of each foot to insert into the body to secure the legs more effectively, nor did I remember to attach the legs before I sewed the top and bottom half of the body together. It worked out alright, so I'm not really worried!

Overall, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It was pretty fiddly, but I can't think of a way you could get the same end result without making all the constituent parts separately. And it was well received by my biologist friend, and looks awesome sitting on her bromeliad flower, which was kind of the point!

More FOs over at Tamis!

Advent Calendar

2011-11-15T09:09:00.000Z

A little while ago the idea came into my head to make an advent calendar for this year. I scoured Pinterest for ideas, but hadn't really settled on anything. Then, I found these adorable numbered pegs for sale in Tiger,

Clearly, then, I had to focus on those ideas that involved hanging things from pegs! I'd been slowly falling in love with all the cute little felt ornaments I'd been finding on Pinterest, and had even gone so far as to buy some felt and buttons to have a go at making some.

I made these as a present to go alongside the crocheted uterus.

They turned out so cute, I decided my advent calendar would have 24 of these adorable felt ornaments, one for each day.

This past weekend, my living room turned into a felt ornament production line! I took over half the room with my table, slowly covering everything in scraps of felt and embroidery thread. The end result, though, is 21 gorgeous little felt ornaments in 7 different designs.

All cut out and ready for sewing and stuffing

Finished ornaments ready to hang

I know, I can see what you're now thinking. There are 24 days on an advent calendar. Why do I only have 21 ornaments? The thing is, I ran out of ideas. I found/made templates for seven different non-religious Christmas-related shapes: the bird and heart I originally tested, a five pointed star, a bell, two different shaped Christmas tree baubles (the round one above, and a tear shaped one) and the little stocking.

I have no idea what to do for my eighth shape! Do you guys have any suggestions?

Cook from a Cookbook: Welsh Cakes

2011-11-14T00:28:00.001Z

So, I haven't had much chance to cook anything exciting from our cookbooks recently. We made cornbread again on Saturday morning, but added more sugar this time (maybe five times as much as the recipe states? We weren't really counting) so it came out sweeter. Not too sweet, but definitely sweeter. It was lovely.

I was idly flicking through my baking book on Sunday morning (because it was still out) trying to decide what I should bake from it to take into work next week, when I spotted the recipe for Welsh Cakes. Given that I was feeling slightly peckish at that point, it is no surprise my stomach growled make these now!

Luckily, I had all the ingredients to hand.

The recipe wanted me to use lard. Who has lard in the fridge these days?
Also, those are sultanas, not currants. I don't think it matters.

The trouble with welsh cakes is, like scones, they require all that pesky rubbing of butter into flour. I usually have quite cold hands, which makes me a natural at that sort of thing, but I wanted them now so decided to take the easy route.

I love my food processor so very much.

The only real downside to using the processor is it chops all the fruit up into little bits. I don't mind though.

They're so quick, only five or six minutes in the pan and they're done.

Just a light sprinkling of sugar to finish them off.

The recipe reckons it makes ten. I got sixteen out of it, plus a bit of left over dough to eat while I waited for them to cook. It think I might add them to the list of things to take into work.

Another WIP?

2011-11-12T10:27:00.000Z

Please tell me someone is researching a vaccine for startitis? I don't need any more projects, I really don't. And yet... I find myself starting one. The trouble is, the logic I followed is impeccable.

You guys remember my Granny Rectangle? Well, I absolutely adore that blanket. I use it almost every evening, wrapping myself up in it on the sofa while watching TV. It's brilliant.

I have a similar blanket upstairs, for the bedroom. I originally bought it a few years ago for the cat (I know, I hang my head in shame. But I didn't know how to crochet then, otherwise of course I would have made it myself). It is a lot smaller than the rectangle, and it's a square.

Here it is being used by Mr Fidget

He looks less impressed with it here.

Cats, though, are fickle beasts, and eventually Mr Fidget tired of it. It spent a year or so tossed in the cat bed (also abandoned) in the bottom of my wardrobe next to the bed, until last winter, when it was so cold and I needed an extra something to keep me warm in bed.

Some mild flailing later, and I had grabbed hold of the blanket and pulled it over me. It was lovely and snuggly, and it spent the rest of the winter on my side of the bed, keeping me warm. Unfortunately, due to its size, it could only really keep my arms and chest warm; the rest of me was still colder than I'd have liked!

As the temperatures have dropped this week, particularly at night, I've found myself crawling into a freezing bed again. I remembered how fabulous the blanket was at keeping me warm, but then also remembered its lack of size.

Then came the dangerous realisation. The stash of acrylics I have downstairs are the perfect colours to match this blanket. I could make it bigger. Much bigger. Big enough to cover our king size bed.

So of course, I did the only sensible thing I could. Rushed downstairs, pulled out all the acrylics from the shelf, chose my colours and started hooking!

We will remember them.

2011-11-11T10:12:00.001Z

Crocheted Poppy

For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

New Free Pattern - Crocheted Uterus!

2011-11-10T09:26:00.000Z

Another secret project now out in the open, complete with bonus free pattern!

A friend of mine recently underwent surgery for an ovarian cyst, so I wanted to make her something that would make her smile. I've seen several patterns for fake boobs and wombs, for women who have undergone mastectomies or hysterectomies, so I considered finding/making a pattern for a crocheted ovary. Of course, I didn't really find anything, and when I started researching what an ovary actually looks like, I quickly realised that they don't look particularly aesthetically pleasing!

So I decided I'd make a uterus instead. A quick search on Ravelry uncovered a couple of knitted uterus patterns, including this awesome pattern from Knitty, but there wasn't really a crocheted version that really caught my eye. I moved my search to Google, and found this free pattern. There were no pictures, and as far as I can see the pattern is not linked on Ravelry. But I thought I'd give it a go.

About halfway through I realised the stitch counts were completely off, and set about working out my own variations which would work. And I ended up with this:

I decided to write up the pattern and upload it to Ravelry, just in case anyone else felt the urge to crochet themselves a uterus. The pattern can be found here, and directly downloaded in PDF form by clicking on this link:

download now

I used Sirdar Bonus DK in hot pink, and a 4mm hook, but any yarn and the appropriate hook size would be fine. I forgot to measure it before I posted it, but I reckon it's about 4-5 inches tall. The fallopian tubes are pose-able, as they have pipe cleaners inside. I did briefly toy with the idea of putting a face on it too, but thought that might be a step too far!

I think I levelled up again

2011-11-09T09:02:00.002Z

I had another knitterly revelation last night. I've been exercising new skills!

Last week I showed you why my Hypernova was in time out:

A knitter's worst nightmare. The unwanted hole!

It had been sat like that for a while. I'd been afraid of having to fix it. I was terrified that in trying, I would somehow screw up, all the stitches sliding off the needles into a sad little heap, each stitch slowly unravelling as I desperately tried to fix it.

So it sat, hidden in my train-knitting-handbag, while I built up the courage to deal with it. To be honest, I have so many other projects on the go, it was easy to put it aside and forget about it. But I began to pine for my Wollmeise; I missed knitting it on the train every morning. And now I only have three weeks of train commuting left, I want to cram as much train knitting in as possible. There will be no knitting on my new commute, as I will be driving to work each day.

Last night, then. I decided to take a break from crocheting the rabbit (see yesterday's post for an update on that) and really wanted to knit something. As both of my current knit projects were in time out, my only option was to dig out Hypernova and have a go at fixing it.

As if by magic, the hole disappeared!

I started out thinking I could insert a lifeline a few rows below the mistake, but that proved far too complicated. Where was I meant to put the needle, that I would end up with the right stitches facing the right way at the end?

I had a closer look at the hole, and determined it was a rogue yarn over in the row below the row I was working on. Just under two rows wasn't too off-putting a prospect to unknit. The first row was mostly just purls, so that wasn't too bad. Undoing the right side row was more of a pain, as I had to reverse all the central double decreases. I ended up using my 2.5mm crochet hook to help pass the slipped stitches back over.

And then it was done! The rogue yarn over was removed, the two rows knit back, and another two rows added for good measure! Hypernova is back in the game!

Progress update - Rosie's Rosie

2011-11-08T19:28:00.001Z

Ravelry tells me I started working on this project on September 30th. I have mentioned it on the blog before, just the once, a few days later.

Rosie Rabbit
Copyright Paola Navarro

At that stage, I had just done the basic head shape, and was very excited by the pattern and the clever shaping Paola uses. Unfortunately, I then fell foul of having too many WIPs on the go, and since I didn't have to get it done till Christmas, I sort of left this one off to one side for most of October.

Over the last couple of days I've picked it back up, though, and have now made pretty good progress. The head, eyes, ears and body are all done. All I've got left are the legs, arms, tail and hat, and then I can sew it all together! I am very pleased with my colour choices; the grey really works for the fur and I struck lucky with my two shades of pink for the clothes.

Working DK yarn with a 2.5mm hook creates a really dense, stiff fabric, which is great for the shaping and the overall durability of the finished item, but it doesn't half play hell with your hands! My fingers are aching by the time I'm done working on it for the day!

Gunpowder, treason and plot

2011-11-06T15:43:00.001Z

Remember, remember, the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot

I see no reason, why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot...

This year, we went to a proper, organised firework display. We've not been to one before, not as adults anyway. We chose the display at Newbury Racecourse, as it was close and we had several personal recommendations.

I got the chance to play with the fireworks setting of my camera, and got some spectacular shots!

See the complete set of photos over on my Flickr account.

That Friday Feeling

2011-11-04T20:36:00.002Z

This week has, for various reasons which shall for now remain unspoken, been a rather stressful and hectic one. The ultimate effect of that on my usual blog topics has been a near-disastrous lack of progress on anything at all. I missed WIP Wednesday and the Yarn Along, even though I have started reading a rather exciting new book and wanted to share.

I do have finished objects to show off, however they are all gifts which have not yet been given, so for now, the ta-da looks like this:

I will post more details when I am able. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for the recipients.

I now have two projects sitting on the naughty step - I still haven't fixed the snapped yarn in Forest Lace, and I discovered a mistake in my Hypernova that requires frogging back a few rows. I need to be more chilled out to tackle those problems!

See the hole that is in the wrong place, and imagine my tears of frustration
when I discovered the mistake on the way into work on Monday

I have made some progress on the Poncho; my tally of circles now stands at 34 and reaching my target of 120 doesn't seem quite so daunting now.

While I have plenty grey and dark brown remaining,
I will need to get more of the beige soon.

What I really need to get done is my gloves, otherwise I won't get them finished in time for the 18th November. They don't look much different to last weekend, though.

Unfortunately, I made a purchase today which is going to distract me from knitting my gloves this weekend. You recall my musings on creating my own advent calendar this year? Well, I was out scouring shops for my swap package and found these:

Tiny craft clothes pegs! With numbers attached in cute red hearts!

They were only a pound! Bargain. Now I need to decide how to arrange them and what to hang from them!

Porcelain Berries

2011-11-03T12:55:00.002Z

I feel like I should be using these gorgeous colours as inspiration for a piece of knitting or crochet or artwork. The green, blue and purple together looks amazing.

I have been quite lazy with my photography for the last couple of weeks, mostly down to the darkening evenings and being super busy with real life stuff. I am hoping that over the next few weeks I will be re-enthused, and start finding more interesting subjects for my weekly photos, as well as chasing down the objects for my object challenge. Starting this weekend, where I hope to test out my ability to take photographs of fireworks, as well as playing with sparklers and lighting effects.

Year of Projects - October round-up

2011-10-30T15:25:00.001Z

So we've reached the 4 month mark in this Year of Projects now. One third complete. So, theoretically, I should have hit 33% completion on my list, right?

Lets take a look:

Knit Projects:

1. Easy Lace Stole - in progress, but currently in time out because of snapped yarn. Probably about a third complete.
2. Thinking of You scarf - completed
3. Victorian Scarf - completed
4. Hypernova - in progress, making steady progress too, as this is my train knitting.

I get about five rows done on the way to work, and about three or four
done on the way home each day. Slow but steady growth.

5. Sojourn Falls scarf - not started. Yarn in stash, still need to order seed beads and get a cable needle.
6. 198yds of heaven - not started. Yarn in stash.
7. Ribbed Lace Bolero - not started. Have just bought some Rowan Calmer from a Ravelry destash which should be perfect for it.
8. Eleonora - not started. Yarn not chosen yet.
9. Leafy Fingerless Gloves - in progress. Maybe a quarter to a third through the first glove.

Working on DPNs is incredibly fiddly and annoying.

10. Free Rapunzel! - not started. Yarn in stash.
11. Alasse Miriel Hooded Cowl - not started. Yarn not chosen yet.

Knit Totals:

Completed: 2 (18%)
In Progress: 3 (27%)
Not Started: 6 (55%)

Crochet Projects:

1. Sweet Pea Shawl - completed
2. Crochet Lacy Wrap - completed
3. Jane Austen Shawl - completed
4. Diamonds Shawl - not started. Yarn not chosen.
5. Cherry Wrap - in progress. Four balls out of fourteen used up. Still a way to go!

This project is impossible to photograph! This is one complete back
panel, and the start of one front panel.

6. Fern Cowl - not started. Yarn in stash.
7. Phoebe Jane vest - not started. Yarn not chosen.
8. Persimmon Pullover - not started. Yarn not chosen.
9. The Pineapple Monokini - not started. Yarn not chosen.
10. Pond Friends Stacking Toy - not started. Yarn in stash.

Crochet Totals:

Completed: 3 (30%)
In Progress: 1 (10%)
Not Started: 6 (60%)

Overall Totals:

Completed: 5 (24%)
In Progress: 4 (19%)
Not Started: 12 (57%)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have finished more crochet projects than knitting projects at this stage. Crochet is, after all, faster. Even though my finished percentage is only 24%, if you add in the in progress stuff that pushes it up to over a third, so I guess I am pretty on target. Quite a few of the up-coming crochet projects are going to be quick ones, as will a couple of the chunkier knit projects. Once you take into account the fact I have other WIPs on the go as well, and not unlimited time, I think I'm doing pretty well!