Category: Knitting

Apologies for the lack of updates lately, I’ve had family visiting, holiday in the Lakes (I highly recommend the ‘Wheres Peter Rabbit?’ show – the puppets are beautiful!) then more family visiting!

But, I have finally finished the next part of the Hungry Caterpillar sets! The salami!

In order to get a salami I liked, I created my own pattern, which is available here for free!

This one took a few trial and errors – colour mostly, then how I wanted to do the ‘slice’ but I got there in the end. Enjoy!

Short post today as I have a lot to do!

Wool count:

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 67 (0 since last post)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 606

Tagged with: , , , , ,

First of all, apologies on missing my blog post last week – been having lots of family down visiting, and also a new addition!

Everyone, meet Ziggy:

 

Now onto the knitted food!

Oranges:

Pattern used was Advent Tree: Tangerine by Alan Dart. (Knitting 15 of those was a challenge in staying awake!)

Chocolate cake (with a cherry on top)

Used free knitting pattern Let Them Knit Cake by Hannah Kaminsky, and Cherry by Linda Dawkins. (I used fuzzy wool for the frosting, to give it a bit more texture)

Ice cream

Used free pattern Scooped by Marcie Nishioka (Felix decided she didn’t want a pink one like in the book, and instead wanted her favourite ice cream flavour – mint choc chip!)

Pickles (yes, really, pickles)

Used free pattern Fuzzy Short Row Pickle by Ana Clerc (I was amazed this pattern existed, but apparently it’s a German tradition to hide them in Christmas trees…?)

Swiss cheese slice

Very heavily modified the free pattern Swiss Cheese Scarf by Winnie Shih (My mods have been noted down on the project page on my Ravelry account)

Phew, lots of knitting! And still lots more to do to finish the Hungry Caterpillar sets…

In other news, been doing a massive clean up before the next round of family fun! There was a very near disaster though with Engel hoovering…much like the one documented here:

True story…killed the hoover too…but I got my wool back!

Man these comics are old…now I feel old…oh well! Back to knitting, it’s salami next.

Wool count:

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 67 (2 since last post)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 606

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Pears:

Free pattern – mr. pear by peachcake knits

Plums:

Pattern used is Advent Tree: Sugar Plum by Alan Dart

Strawberries:

Free pattern – Strawberries by Pezdiva

Been a hectic week with family down – won’t lie, there was a lot of ups and downs, but also a fair bit of knitting time!

On that note, I am shattered, so super short post today, but at least there was lots to look at!

Wool count:

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 65 (2 since last post)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 608

Tagged with: , ,

Heh, I’ve been reading way too many nursery rhymes…

Let me explain the reason for this particular blog post. I don’t know when it started exactly, but somewhere between me finishing primary school and Felix starting (ok, she’s at nursery school, but close enough! She wears a wee uniform and everything!) it’s become a thing to give teachers presents on the last day of school.

Rather than the shops recommended chocolates or tat, I opted to knit them little something’s instead because…well, it’s what I do!

So, the owl first:

Pattern used is Oisin owl by Pauline Gallagher. When Felix first started she kept insisting one of her teachers was ‘Mrs Owl’. For months we heard about Mrs Owl and, come parents evening, we discovered that Mrs Owl was actually Mrs Powell.

Couldn’t resist making her an owl though.

And the caterpillar?

I’m on a roll with these guys…once again, the pattern used is the free pattern Caterpillar by Kimberly Chapman, with the same modifications mentioned in my previous post.

You’ll also note this caterpillar is wearing a scarf. This is because it’s for Mrs Scarf. And no, that is her actual name, though we did initially think Felix must have misheard that one too! A bit more effort was put into this one as she’s recently announced she’s pregnant, and well, it’ll be cute for her little one to be.

Right, back to knitting food for –

Oh wait, other things to be knit!

A FOURTH meret hat (free pattern Meret (Mystery Beret) by Woolly Wormhead) as my mum decided to steal the one meant for my aunt, so I whipped up another one for my aunt. Plain black this time, but it’s an angora/silk/wool blend so oh so snuggly…

Anyhow, as my mum stole the other hat, she cheekily asked for matching armwarmers (she does work in a playground which is a wind tunnel, in Scotland, so I can’t begrudge her too much as the stolen hat was way warmer than the others…)

Free pattern Camp Out Fingerless Mitts by tante ehm, I’ve made them before for mum and as she likes and wears though, went for the same pattern again. Was playing yarn chicken, hence the stripes!

Right, now back to knitting all that food!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 63 (3 since last post)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 610

Tagged with: , , , , , ,

I bought Felix ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ as a ‘congratulations on being a big sister’ present when Inkling was born, after she had watched the short film adaption on Netflix. I was surprised that we didn’t already have a  a copy as I’m a lover of books and have been actively trying to pass that love on.

Once bought and given, I thought it’d be nice for her to have a knitted set to go with the book, but she’ll be earning each bit for being good as opposed to it being more presents.

And on that train of thought, picked up another two books as gifts and plan to make knitted sets for those as well…cause why not?

Because I’m insane more like…

First of all, the Hungry Caterpillar!

This guy is based on the free pattern Caterpillar by Kimberly Chapman. I knitted bobbles for the feet into the body rather than later adding i-cord legs.

I even managed to get the apples done too this week!

I used the free pattern Apple Knitting Pattern by Linda Dawkins for these!

And on other knitting news (lots to show this week!) I discovered my tribble problem wasn’t under control after all…

A pink mutant varient was discovered lurking under the kitchen sink, all five have been captured, sterilised and sent off for further study… (MIL was rather taken with the captured blue ones I had, so felt it best to let her have these pink ones) Free pattern – Tribble by Abigail – 1870pearl.

Wool count!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 60 (1 since last post – lots of knitting but not many whole balls used.)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 613

Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Let’s start with a story. Every time we go into Manchester, Engel likes to check out the gaming shop (so do I for Call of Cthulhu RPG expansions) and if Felix is good, she gets a dice for her dice bag.

For some time, Felix has called this shop “The Tentacle Shop” as it has a plushie tentacle. A month or so ago we went and, horror of all horrors, the tentacle was gone. Even though it wasn’t for sale, it had been sold (some people are very pushy) and Felix was devastated.

Felix informed us (and the shop) that there would be tentacles – she was going to make some and so was mummy. I shrugged it off (my to knit list is ridiculous right now). She did indeed make a tentacle herself out of paper mâché and pompoms and was very pleased and I figured that was that.

Then, the day before Free RPG day, she asked me where the knitted one was as she wanted to take it to the tentacle shop and give them it as it can’t be the tentacle shop without one.

Cue mad panic cast on, and with an hour to spare:

Its based on the free pattern Gripping by Hunter Hammersen, I added little bobbles for the suckers.

The tentacle was given to the tentacle shop, Felix got her dice, we got free RPGs, everyone was happy.

Then Felix asked where her tentacles where.

Sigh.

But I have had fun with them…

Maybe a bit too much!

Wool count!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 59 (3 since last post – lots of partial balls used)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 614

 

Tagged with: , , , , ,

Summer in the city, back of my neck getting dirty and gritty…

(Summer in the city, The Lovin’ Spoonful)

Good thing you cant hear me sing! It is very, very hot today, and yesterday, it’s been hot (for me) all week really, which makes my latest knitting project of wooly hats feel very pointless! Ah well, it’ll be of use soon, possibly tomorrow knowing the British weather.

Free pattern – Meret (Mystery Beret) by Woolly Wormhead

There’s an story to these (there’s always a story) I’ve made three of these for my mum previously – the first two were made from New Lanark wool to match a jumper I made her, and a matching scarf and mitts. The first of these she wore through (she works at a school and it’s a playground must have for her, plus anytime she goes outside in the poorer weather), the second is in use, and the third was a little cotton summer version which, her living in Scotland, gets about a week of use a year.

My aunt saw her hats and asked for one as well, so…

There’s not an inch of New Lanark wool left so I stash dived and found this pretty unlabelled wool.

In other news, it was free RPG day yesterday! And I had far too much fun, though the heat did kill quite a bit of the enjoyment as my energy levels just dropped…

I ended up having a siesta! With company round! At least some of said company had siestas too…

There’s an amusing story to tell regarding free RPG day, or more specifically the shop it was at, but I’ll save that for next week.

Later!

Wool count!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 56 (6 since last post – lots of partial balls used)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 617

Tagged with: , , ,

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks already, since my last post, since Inkling arrived, and that it’s taken so long to finish my current knitting project!

That said, this project rapidly grew in number…let me start from the beginning.

We got a fishtank, last summer, and it’s essentially cat TV, the cats will watch it for hours, and Felix kept dragging blankets off the sofa to sit next to the cats to also watch the fish tank…so I decided the fishtank needed a mat in front of it.

The ‘Kitty Placemat’ in ‘Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and their People’ by Donna Druchunas to be precise, just bigger. (I’ve used the fish motif before) Showed it to Engel who pointed out that the actual cat bowls could do with little matching mats as well, with spares so they can get washed.

So I went from one, to five. Engel pointed out the fishtank should have a spare as well (fishtank mat is twice the size of placemat)

So one to six, ok. He then pointed out that when we get cat number 3 (Salem was his cat, and he wants his own little cat buddy again) it’ll need a placement and a spare.

So that’s one to eight.

Eight! And I agreed! Clearly baby brain got the best of me!

Look awesome though, don’t they?

Now onto the next project! Which will be getting fitted in between feeds, sleep deprivation, energetic three year old, demanding newborn, housework, arts and crafts, cooking, baking…

I can see where those three weeks went…

Wool count!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 50 (2 since last post – it was only the edging I had left to do when Inkling arrived!)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 623

Tagged with: , , ,

Hi all,

As promised, a bit more of an explanation as to my last post.

When Felix was born, there was complications. Lots. End result, emergency c-section. With Inkling, because of prior complications, we knew he would have to be a planned c-section.

Due to complications during my pregnancy the consultants decided that Inkling​ wouldn’t be removed at the previously planned 39 weeks, but two weeks early, with less than a weeks notice and some horrible, horrible steroid shots…

Ok…problem. Engels parents who were going to look after Felix for us, where on holiday that week. My family are 300 miles away and have their own commitments.

Panic. Panic. Panic.

Time to bank in on the good favours of others!

Thankfully, two people really helped us out, and as thank you gifts (and severe nerves/nesting energy) I whipped up these guys:

‘Octopus’ by Hansi Singh from her book ‘Amigurimi Knits’, you may recall this is the pattern used for Inklings first knitted toy – the blue ringed octopus.

Seemed fitting, and they went down a treat, as did the Thank you cards Felix made, and cat pompom keyrings she made (though Engel had to get the glue gun out once she was in bed as PVA does not hold pompoms together at all…)

And that’s the story, in a nut shell, not much on the details but some things are best left unshared!

Inkling is doing really well by the way, and we’re all happy at home, though very tired!

In other knitting news, I have a large project still on the needles but progress…yeah…that’s down to a crawl…ah well, I have an adorable, happy, whole little family to enjoy in, I think I’ll just go and enjoy them some more before I pick the needles back up…

On that note, blog posts for the foreseeable future are probably gonna be sporadic, will try to keep to my every Sunday update, but I make no promises.

Wool count!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 48 (5 this week! Don’t expect to see so many used again any time soon!)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 625

Tagged with: , , , , ,

Things have gotten a little bit manic here this past week – mixture of life not going as planned and taking on a few too many knitting projects which kind of got bigger and bigger…

More on that though when said projects are finished! So this weeks post is another ‘from the archives’ which is better than a ‘nothing to see here’ post at least!

Rather than picking a broad theme, like pineapples or tea cosies, I’m going for a designer here as I have made a lot of her things over the years. The majority before I started to document my various knitting successes and fails. Here is what I do have photos of though!

McIntosh the dog! Another pair can be seen on this post here.

The brontosaurus from Little Men and Monsters pattern – I’ve made them all, but only have photos of this one.

And here’s ‘Panda’.

And ‘Piglet’.

And ‘Koala’ (A butchered version can be found in this post where I turned it into a snuggly)

And lastly, a butchered version of the last three to make something a bit more unique – a little red bat!

Thats all now!

Wool count!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 43 (2 this week!)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 630

Tagged with: , , , , ,