Category: Knitting

Felix has recently started to refer to herself and her most loved ones (mummy and daddy) as cats. It’s very cute, if not incredibly confusing to everyone not clued in on the cat craziness here.

Seriously, we’re all crazy old cat ladies, without the old part and, in the case of Engel, he’s a laddie, not a lady.

Anyhow I’ve spent the last few days in Edinburgh, seeing the family, and having lots of adventures! By the end of it, Felix’s cat family expanded to include her granny and two cousins as well – that was an interesting thing to explain to an eleven and six year old, why it was an honour too be called a cat…Granny figured it out right away.

She’s used to my crazy.

A little present my neice asked for, quite coincidentally, was ‘happy family – cats and kittens’ from the book ‘Knitted cats and kittens’ by Sue Stratford.

I also made the matching tiny mice. It went down well and sums up the trip a fair bit!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 11 (1 this week)

Total – 686

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Several years ago, before Felix, I made myself a crocodile scarf (the pattern was from an old let’s knit magazine) and after wearing it that winter, it got shoved into the box of spare scarves and gloves and forgotten.

One day, looking for anything that Felix might agree to wear that was warm, she spotted the crocodile scarf and has since worn it like a shawl around herself.

It was adorable, and warm, and I never thought more about it.

The other day she got a toy cat that came with a lilac sparkly scarf with fluffy white trim. After one look at it, and a testing cuddle, she demanded the offending purple fluffy thing be removed and replaced with its own crocodile scarf.

I was about to tell her not to be silly when Engel replied ‘of course mummy will make Whiskers (the toy cat) one!’

Out came the pattern and one was made in miniature. And I have to admit, the photo bombed pictures of Felix hugging that cat wearing its scarf and squealing ‘thank you mummy! Love you!’ does make it worthwhile…but they’re for my private collection, so you’ll have to make do with the cat by itself.

He is cute with it on…

Besides this scarf, I made Engel another pair of armwarmers. Same pattern, same wool, same colours. Boring!

Quiet week otherwise. Well, a slow one. Redundancies have been announced at work so I’m playing the waiting game to see if I’ll be staying or going.

I’ve begun to stress knit…wool tension is through the roof though…

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 10 (1 this week)

Total – 687


 

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Completely different!

A warm cosy hat for Engel! I used the free pattern ‘Leef’s Ear Flap Hat (3-color)’ by Leef Bloomenstiel, only changes were a knitted merino lining inside the hat for extra warmth and the number of stitches. The pattern says 84, Engel has a huge head. Seriously. He wears an XXL motorcycle helmet and even that’s a little snug. I increased the number of stitches for this hat to 147.

147!

But it fits, and he likes it, and I am reminded once more why I don’t knit him hats. I’ll forget in a few years and offer to make another no doubt…

Onto my other project this week!

Remember how I blogged about my obsession for dice bags? Well, Felix has clocked on that when we’re playing our RPGs that everyone (near enough) in the group has a knitted dice bag. So, she demanded her own dice bag and dice. And it had to be a full complement of dice, not just the D6’s!

Here’s the dice bag – her pick of pattern and colours.

Not surprisingly, she wanted owls. This bag actually is a cross between her mittens and her Christmas stocking. I was impressed with how well she managed to get across what she wanted!

That’s all for this week – except the wool count, three balls used again this week!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 9 (3 this week)

Total – 688

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Slight change of pace this week – I couldn’t leave Felix out after both myself and Engel getting armwarmers, so mittens it is!

I used the free pattern ‘Owlet‘ by Odessa Reichel – though I did end up making two pairs as the first came out large enough for a 6/7 year old! Felix can have those when she outgrows the smaller pair (pictured).

For the food item this week I actually went old school and used one of my many knitting books – Amigurimi knits by Hansi Singh. Can you guess which pattern I used? Here’s a hint:

Peas! This is probably going to be the last knitted food for a while – I will be making more, but will wait till Felix asks for them! She actually seems satisfied with the influx she’s received these past three weeks…

Last but not least:

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 6 (3 this week)

Total – 691

Have a good week everyone!

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Well, I couldn’t resist. After I made Engels armwarmers last week, I got jealous of their warm merino softness…and made a pair for me…

Not the exact same as his, but a billion times cuter! Based on the free ravelry pattern ‘Foxy Mittlets for Mama Foxes‘ by Mertsu. I made them longer and added a thumb so they were a little more suited to me!

Onto other knits, lots more plasy food for Felix!

Banana! Free pattern by Kimberly Chapman. Adorable too – you can ‘peel’ the banana skin!

Made using a free Cherry knitting pattern by Linda Dawkins

And lastly, after Engel commented that Felix needed more ‘interesting’ food…

A durian fruit! They smell like rotting fresh when ripe, but apparently taste like custard…this one is based on the free knitting pattern ‘Stinky‘ by SSknits. The only difference is since I can’t crochet, I did a BlackBerry stitch outer ‘shell’. Not quite as cool as the original patterns, but good enough for me.

Felix just enjoys having things she can ‘chop’ and cook…

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 3

Total – 694

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A request from work:

Tractor gloves! This is a combination of two free patterns – the gloves are Michelle Gloves by Drop Designs And the tractor is from Gustaf – tractor mittens by Kamilia

This was for his son, but, he’s recently had a little girl! And, important life lesson, never give one without giving the other. So even though shes too young to understand that, yet:

Baby Mittens, free pattern by Malin Nilsson. In real life these are actually bone white, rose pink and bright pink…camera flash kills colour sadly…

Adorable, aren’t they? Both items, that is!

Short post this week, busy making a start on getting the festivities ready!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 113 (3 again! Thats three in a row!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 704

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That’s right. Dice bags.

It all started with this one:

Free pattern – Cthulhu Dice Bag by Arcana Vitae – though I worked this one, and all of them, on 3.75 mm. This is one of about…10? Different colours of cthulhus, backgrounds, eyes, i-cords…

But after my first, I quickly started to use this pattern as a a base and any chart I fancied with it.

So, cats? (Own chart)

Or fish? (Engels chart this time)

Less nature? Alright, Binary code?

(This is based on the free pattern Binary by Christine Domoulin, and this particular bag is coded, it reads – EngelCRLF – the CRLF is the command for carriage return, line feed. Think typewriters!

More geeky? How about the Aquila logo from 40K?

(Logo is from the free Ravelry pattern ‘Warhammer Double Knit Scarf’ by Emma Littlehales)

More cute?

Gotta love Pusheen the cat! (Charts pulled from google)

There’s been more, a VW campervan, fish bones, the 40K ork logo to name but a few, lots get gifted before I get a chance to photograph them!

I have a tradition with gaming group friends in particular – the first birthday they celebrate with the group, they get a dice bag. *Shrug* Its just one of those things. Pusheen was the one I made the other week, the VW campervan the one before…who knows what next! Though I am tempted to make me a new cat one – the red and black one at the start of this post is mine, before I was confident with color changes and patterns, but part of me think I’ll lose all my awesome dice luck if I do…

Till next week, and happy St Andrews!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 110 (3 again this past week!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 707

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On a dishy…

When the boat comes in!

Now, this post isn’t to do with the fish (though its a lovely free Ravelry pattern ‘striped fish‘ by Nettas Knits, though mine is a plain silver/grey, not striped) its all about the plate.

Yes, the plate.

As part of the cat commission I did a while ago I was asked to knit a replica of the plate they used to eat from, and a little snack too. So, here’s the original plate:

And here’s the knitted one:

The plate itself was easy – pinwheel increase, blue purl edge, pinwheel decrease, plastic plate inside with holes drilled in to allow the wool to be fixed and shaped.

The embroidery though! 3 hours! Worth it though for the look of shock it received.

Never again though. Never!

In other news – busy week. Been dying of the plague at work, craft fair Friday, and two of my friends had joint birthday celebrations on Saturday. I did knit a little something for the occasion, but I’ll blog about that next week – there’s a saga involved and I need to get quite a few photos together!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 107 (3 this past week!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 710

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I know its only November, and I’m breaking one of my own cardinal rules, but I’m going to talk about Christmas.

(Normally I don’t talk about it till December, I get the shopping done in January mind you, but I don’t actually like the whole festive thing till December)

But I have a two year old and she knows what Christmas is all about: presents!

And in my case, craft fairs. So, some Christmas knits! Its all tree decorations, and I’ll state now, not all of these are stock, a lot of them are because Felix saw the pattern and then demanded ‘mummy make! Mummy make me happy!’

How can I refuse?

So, onto the photos!

Advent Tree: Candy Cane Heart by Alan Dart (expect to see more of these patterns, Felix wants the lot, except the elf…

Free online Santa hat (tree decoration sized) pattern. Its Knitted Santa Hat Christmas Ornament Pattern by Linda Dawkins.

Felix loves stars, I think its cause she sees them in the shops and they’re bright and sparkly…so this was a must. Free Ravelry pattern called Stjarna by Karolina Eckerdal. These ones are knit in a sparkly silver wool, for extra cuteness!

And last but not least, based loosely on the free Ravelry pattern ‘Oh Balls!‘ by Marcie Nishioka, with some creative colour changes and additions…

Reindeer!

Robins!

and Christmas puds – oh my!

What else? Not a lot bar work and DIY and life…oh, wool count! 6 Balls since last post (and one was a 500g one too!)

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 104
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 713

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More play food for Felicity, that happens to tie in nicely with the time of year! Its a free Ravelry pattern, ‘Natural Look Halloween Pumpkin‘ by Caroline Lord.k

Also working well for the time of year, some baking that Felix ‘helped’ with.

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Its amazing how much fun a two year has mashing bananas…the recipe itself is a sugar-wheat-dairy free banana and date cake. Though to help the coffin appearance, I used some 70% cocoa chocolate and a few spoonfuls of cream to make a dark frosting. I’d say it went well at he party I took it to, but Engel made it clear it was his and everyone else should eat the sugar filled cake he couldn’t have…

What else have I been making?

Market bags!

Lots of them! Its another free Ravlery pattern, ‘Grrlfriend Market Bag‘ by Laura Spardin.

Rather than wrapping all my christmas presents with paper that would then just be thrown away, I opted to ‘wrap’ presents in market bags! The super colourful one was my prototype (and for Felix to play with) and I learnt one important lesson. Make the strap short, once any weight goes in that bag, its going to stretch.

Felix needs to grow a foot before shes going to be able to get any actual use out of hers!

I made five more afterwards, only got four photographed (and even then in poor lighting) and I may well make more, but thats all I had time for as I was giving them to all my family in Edinburgh when I was up for my mums birthday a fortnight ago.

What else to say? Its all been rather busy! Eh…oh, I’ve had a few queries as to how one accidentally purchases thirty balls of wool. Quite simply when the wool is only sold in packs of ten and I wanted three different colours. What a shame…but hey! Nine balls used since the last post, and not all of them little ones either!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 98
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 719

Annoying, despite using nearly 100 balls of wool, I’m only down by about thirty in my collection…

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