A Little bit of Modulus in my life, A little bit of Accustrike by my side, A little bit of Rebelle is all I need, A little bit of Rival is what I see, A little bit of N-strike in the sun, A little bit of Vortex all night long, A little bit of Zombie Strike here I am, A little bit of Nerf is a great plan…
It’s been a hell of a week, and I haven’t slept much, so I blame that for the insanity my brain is producing right now. Though ‘Nerf Bag No.5’ can be done to the tune of ‘Mambo No.5’ quite easily. It’s my excuse, I’m sticking to it.
Like the other Nerf bags, the pattern is loosely based on the free pattern Pignoli by Berroco Design Team. Unlike the others, this one has belt loops rather than a shoulder strap. I ran one in s previous Nerf war and rabbis decided she wanted one to match her own Fearless Fire (the blaster in the photo) and I think I managed to colour match pretty well from my stash!
In non knitting news, a friend of mine and fellow GM has started running a new Pathfinder campaign. I’m not a very good player, and I prefer horror to fantasy, but i’m enjoying it and I’m also playing Reyth again – so don’t be too surprised if some of the other characters get knitted up and posted here!
Wool Count
Starting total – 704
Wool used – 5 (3 this week) Wool bought – 0 Wool given – 0 Wool gifted – 0
Happy new year everyone! May it be happier and healthier than last year!
Since my last post, I finished up three projects – a snake hat for Felix, a cosie for the in-laws and a teeny tiny knitted jumper, as I keep getting asked by someone to make them a jumper and, no, just no.
The tea cosie is based on the free pattern Mug and French Press Jacket by MK Carroll, as you can see in the photo, it’s a glass teapot with a very, very short spout and I figured having the bottom covered was better than the top!
The jumper is made following the free pattern Mini Sweater Ornament with Cables by Emily5446 – very cute, very well written pattern and I have a jumper that’s about 4 cm tall!
As for 2020, I have finished my first project just yesterday! Maleficent!
This pattern is based on Dragons by King Cole Ltd – though I had to tweak it a fair bit and add a lot of extra details to turn it into Maleficent! The reason for this is that every year I knit a Christmas decoration, and for 2019 I planned to knit a Mickey mouse head to mark our first proper family holiday to Disneyland Paris!
Except Felix told me no, I had to knit Maleficent. I argued that I wouldn’t get all the detail into an ornament, to which I was told not to make an ornament, but a dragon big enough to sit on top of the tree!
Engels oh so helpful in put to this was ”if you knit an even bigger one it could sit under the tree and guard the presents!”
So Maleficent it was, and at a hefty 60cm long she’ll either be taking the whole top of the tree, or hoarding the presents beneath – we’ll have to wait till next year to find out!
Till next week!
Wool Count
Starting total – 704
Wool used – 2 Wool bought – 0 Wool given – 0 Wool gifted – 0
Total – 702
I feel I had best explain why my wool count has gotten so much bigger – I was given quite a few balls for Christmas (Inkling gave me two yellow balls and informed me that one was a digger and the other a bulldozer, hmm, I suspect he’s learning from Felix) and I ripped out a few old finished projects that weren’t being used, so that wool has gone back into the wool stash. I also bought four balls of bright orange in order to make a project I have planned! This year, I really do hope to finish with 600 or less!
It’s been one hell of a week. Fortnight actually. Home stuff, stuff that doesn’t belong on here, but needless to say it’s pretty much killed what little festive spirit i’ve had.
Seriously, I have felt festive for two hours this year. Which in turn makes it hard to create the magic for Felix and Inkling. I think I’ve managed – they’re eagerly counting down the days and it’s getting harder and harder to settle them at night!
The tree is up, the decorations out, presents squirrelled away everywhere…yep…even if I don’t feel it, it’s nearly here…
Even if I haven’t been feeling it, I have been cracking on with Christmas knitting! Though I had said I wouldn’t make any this year…
In order to not be eaten by the Yule Cat, you must receive something warm and wooly. I showed Felix a bunch of patterns and without looking at them, she informed me I was to make her a snake jumper. When I sarcastically asked her if there was a specific snake she had in mind, she replied cobra…and that it had to be a green jumper…sigh…
The jumper is based on Heart Sweater from the book ‘Cool knits for kids’ by Kate Gunn & Robyn Macdonald. I used the snake charts from the free pattern Swing-Snakes by Tina13.
And if I make something for Felix, I make something for Inkling! He chose the free pattern traffic by Amy Bahrt, insisting on a red car. Then I found the matching Traffic Hat and yeah…
But wait, there’s more!
My new gaming group are obsessed with Pokémon, and with the new sword and shield game out, have sorted themselves into teams of Pokémon type to have battles with their other friends. There was talk of team colours and then I saw this free pattern on Ravelry (Dawn/Hikari Pokéball hat in 2 variations by Mina Janssen) and I knew I had to make them.
So, top left is bug, top right is ghost, bottom left is poison and bottom right is dragon.
There’s other things in the works too, but you won’t be finding out about those until next year, so until then, have a good festive season!
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 112 (3 this week) Wool bought – 63 Wool given – 167 Wool gifted – 31
Even though it’s early (for us) the pleading eyes of Felix and Inkling have led to the Christmas tree being put up, the decorations festooned around the house, and the Christmas knits are falling off the needles.
If only I had more hands and time to work on all the things I want made for Christmas…
One project that I have finished however was a request from Felix. She wanted to give everyone in her class both a present and card. After a bit of negotiation, we agreed to a small Christmas tree decoration for each child and no cards.
I suggested candy canes, as they are quick and easy and cute, but what did she want?
Have you noticed that most couples have some cute or endearing little terms they use with one another if the other is say, in a bad mood, or being particularly excited?
For example, if myself or Engel want to be left alone, it’s described as ‘being a squeezle’ ( a No Reservations reference to a porcupine) or if one of us is being just grouchy then they’re ‘a grumpy bunny’ if all’s well then we’re ‘little/big cat’.
Well I was requested to make someone else’s version of ‘grumpy bunny’ and that is ‘angry badger’…
Think he looks angry enough? I think he looks ready to murder someone…
And a side view of him having a tantrum and destroying all the Duplo…
I’ll be honest in that I had a lot of fun with this, I’ve not knitted a badger before (this is a great free pattern Miss Barlow Badger by Jem Weston) and I have never purposefully tried to make a toy look angry before!
He went down really well, and there’s already been a request for a ‘bad news badger’ for Valentine’s, I’ll wait till closer to the time to see if that’s something that is genuinely going ahead, but it’s certainly made me laugh!
Not much in other news, well, that’s not quite true, a lot has been going on, but not the kind of stuff I talk about here. It’ll all be fine in the end, just need to remember that there is an end, and it is in sight.
Christmas has descended upon the household, did a Grinch-mas trail last week and the tree has gone up today. A bit early for myself personally but the combined puppy eyes of Felix and Inkling made me cave in.
Oh, one more thing, the wool count! Normally I pop it on the bottom of the post and leave it at that but after using one ball up these last two weeks I am now at 666! The number of the beast!
Though I keep singing ‘Knit-Knit-Knit, the stitches of the beast!’
On that note, cheerio till next week!
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 108 (1 this week) Wool bought – 63 Wool given – 167 (was gifted four balls this week) Wool gifted – 31
A friend of mine does a bonfire/Halloween fancy dress party every year, and after being rescheduled several times, finally happened last night. The theme this year? Lovecraftian Horror!
After much debate, I settled on myself and Engel being cultists of Shub Niggurath, (Black Goat of the Wood with a Thousand Spawn) and Felix and Inkling went as two of the said spawn.
Rabbie did me a huge favour in putting together a pair of awesome cultists robes (that double up as jedi robes and wanderers of the apocalypse robes) Edit: just linked to her blog post about the cultists robes and it made me laugh, I took my two to a cthulhu themed party, complete with bonfire, and she’s taken the fur baby to Santa Paws…
Anyhow, so all I had to do was whip up four pairs of hats with horns! Which I started monday. Oops.
Managed it more or less and super pleased with the outcome!
These are made based on the pattern Skull by Vanessa Mooncie from her book “Monster Hats: 15 Scary Head-Warmers to Knit”
Ready for the full effect?
I’ve positioned it so you can see inside the cloak and see all the eyes of the other 998 spawn yet to be summoned. Felix wore her knitted sheep costume from a long time ago, plus hat, and Inkling had his bear costume on, with goat horn hat rather than bear hat.
All in all, we made for an adorable family set! I’m also pleased to say a lot of people also turned up dressed, and there was an amazing Hastur and a good number of people with that ‘Innsmouth Look’ about them!
Will leave it at that, see you all next week!
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 107 (2 this week) Wool bought – 63 Wool given – 167 (was gifted four balls this week) Wool gifted – 31
Total – 667 (If I use one more ball, it’ll be the number of the beast! Or would that be knit of the beast?)
First of all I shall start with this weekends activities – The Winter Battle of BritNerf! Fridays battle as held in a skatepark, and I’ll be honest, it was chaos. I hit it too hard, too fast, and hadn’t eaten properly because of driving all the way up to Scotland, and about half way through went all wobbly. Once I had eaten and recharged I was good to go, and 15 seconds into humans Vs zombies, I got tackled and had I been on anything other than the smooth skate ramp, I’d have been fine, but instead went down, along with the ‘zombie’ and landed hard on my left wrist.
One of my fellow team members immediately called in first aid and I had an ice pack on it in under a minute and a very thorough apology from the Zombie. After twenty minutes I realised my wrist was definitely sprained and the drive to Rabbies was rather painful.
Worse still, I couldn’t knit. The horror!
Saturday saw the main event, a close quarters combat scenario, and in this set of games in tight narrow corridors with small areas to hide and hunker down and also to snipe the ‘enemy’ – myself and Engel where in our element! Despite my sore wrist making me unable to prime any blasters (thank goodness for flywheels!) I lasted the majority of the games, and instead only had to call it quite after being literally smoked out.
Asthma and smoke bombs in confined areas, not a great combo. I missed the last two games and due to even more smoke bombs, decided not to dart sweep and instead tidied the resting/set up area.
And despite taking it easy on the wrist, no knitting on Saturday either…
Overall, a great weekend, made better by good company and my sister’s fantastic sweet treats and her adorable dog, Missy. I wouldn’t go to the effort of the four hour drive for the skate park again, despite being fun, just not quite my cup of tea, but for another close quarter game? Definitely!
I’m just doing some research into gas masks that would be suitable for nerfing in, and which I can easily purchase filters for…
In knitting news, I shipped up my holiday knits, some very boring but incredibly good stash busting dish/washcloths!
In more interesting knitting news, Engel managed to somehow sell one hat to two people. He nearly sold it to three before it was realised. What hat was it?
My dead Blinky hat! The original was a commission that fell through (hence why I now ask for half payment up front) and was never actually photographed and recorded anywhere. This is the second, and as most have probably already guessed, made following the free Knitty pattern Fish Hat [Dead or Alive?] by Thelma Egberts.
That’s enough nattering for now, I need to rub some life back into my legs following this weekends mad activity! Mine aren’t too bad, more stuff than sore, Engels though…
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 105 (0 this week) Wool bought – 63 (I fell off the wool wagon hard this weekend, there was a few absolute bargains of wool I really like that’s being discontinued so I stocked up…33 balls…In fairness, my guilt from doing this meant I bought Engel a Hades (a very, very big Nerf blaster!)) Wool given – 163 Wool gifted – 31
Total – 665 (If I buy one more ball, it’ll be the number of the beast! Or would that be knit of the beast?)
A friend did us a huge favour when our oven died, by helping us get a new one that very night! There was some fun and shenanigans, and I learnt that he had a huge love of dragons, so much so he had a drawing of his own own complete with fantastic colour scheme!
So as a thank you, I decided to knit him up a dice bag with his very own dragon on it!
I took the dragon chart from Targaryen Knit Hat by Holly G Hats, (a free pattern) and combined it with another fantastic free pattern, Cthulhu Dice Bag! By A. A. Leavitt-Reynolds. Doing all the different colours to make it match the drawing was both a challenge and quite fun – it’s been some time since I’ve experimented with colourwork!
Aside from that, it’s been a busy week. My dad came to visit last weekend from Ireland, we all did the circus and saw the Blackpool illuminations, and then it’s been work, work, work.
This weekend saw next the part of cthulhu scenario where despite internal group sabotage, no one died. I need to up my game, or stop giving them special one off reroll tokens to increase their chances of survival…
Felix got to take part in the Rememberance Parade with her little Beaver Pack. Group? Collective? No idea. They didn’t let girls in the Scouts when I was a kid!
Engel informs me that it’s a Lodge.
Wikipedia informs me it’s a Colony.
I prefer Pack so let’s run with that.
As well as that there’s been play dates and knitting and the usual mayhem, as well as the added mayhem of a Nerf event next week, so Engel and his friend destroyed the living room modding Nerf guns…
Ah well, it’s worth it cause next weekend is going to be a blast! (Pun intended)
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 105 (2 used) Wool bought – 30 Wool given – 163 Wool gifted – 31
It’s my favourite time of year, the weather is growing colder, the leaves are turning red, all the winter knits can finally be brought out and worn and best of all, Halloween!
Because if Halloween landing on a Thursday this year, we’ve managed to spread it over a whole week. The Manchester Halloweekend, Felix’s school spooky disco (the only one she will go to) actual Halloween and trick or treating, then friends coming round for games and far too much food…
For Engels costume I dug out my oldest WIP, and after 30 minutes of detail work, it was finished. Part of me feels rather ashamed of was sat in s corner for four years, the other part of me is chalking it down to experience…
A facehugger! This guy is of my design, the pattern notes for it is long gone, so it’s one of a kind too. Which is a shame, but that’s life!
Did everyone else have a spook-tacular Halloween?
But wait, there’s more!
It was my mum’s 60th a few weeks ago (it was dances of the decades with an encouragement for people to dress up) and my present was paying towards the big party bash. But I wanted to give my mum something as well, and Rabbie handmade an awesome elephant patchwork quilt, but what stereotypical gift do you give a 60 year old woman?
Slippers.
Elephant slippers (to match the blanket)
So I made these:
The Cuddliest Kitty Slippers by Janine Peter, a free pattern, tweaked a little as I prefer slippers to cover the ankle. But that’s a cat, I hear you say.
So I took those, combined it with ‘Elephant’ from Sarah Keens book ‘100 Little Knitted Projects’ and got…
Aren’t they adorable?! And we’ll received. My mum’s hinting at having more slippers…
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 103 (2 used) Wool bought – 30 Wool given – 163 Wool gifted – 31
Free pattern Striped Stockinette Snake by Purl Soho – though I tweaked it a bit to be more cobra like!
I was looking at my hand dyed wool I did quite a while ago now, and had the urge to knit it into a snake. Felix wholeheartedly agreed.
Thus, this cutie!
Sometimes I just make things on a whim with little to no reason or story behind it. Doesn’t make for interesting blogging, but it looks cute!
In other news, it’s my favourite time of year nearly – Halloween! Have quite a few fun activities lined up, and intend to enjoy them thoroughly!
But what costume to wear?!
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 101 (Can’t believe it!!!! 6 used) Wool bought – 30 Wool given – 163 (was given a cone of the perfect toy sheep wool at work!) Wool gifted – 31
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