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Category: Little one

by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Mwahahahaha!!!!!!

The second big project is done! Done!

I made a little advent calendar using the free pattern Mini Christmas Stocking Ornaments by Julie Williams – there are eight designs so I did three of each to make the 24.

The reason behind this? I knit a little string of stockings (several, actually) a few years ago to use as an advent calendar. This year, Felix, despite getting a Lego advent calendar, she decided that she wanted the little string of stockings I was using for myself (containing mint chocolate and fudge this year, yum!) So another string of advent stockings was needed for this coming Christmas, but I wanted to knit something a bit different to the other set, so I went for fair isle…maybe not such a good choice, but so cute!

The sad fact is I know in a few years I’ll be knitting another set for Inkling…

I also had time this week to work on a birthday present for MIL.

I used the pattern Wayfarer by Jen Lucas from the book ‘Doomsday Knits: Projects for the Apocalypse and After’ – it’s a great book with lots of lovely patterns, and this one is going to be made again in something more suitable for my wardrobe! So black or grey…

Now that those two big projects are done with, I have a whole bunch of little ones mentally lined up in my head to do – though who knows if I’ll stick to doing those projects in that order!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 5 (only 1 this week)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 1
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 618

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 4 Comments

Coming in at 30cm and 2 meters long…

My new table runner! Knitted following the free pattern ‘Art-Deco Tablerunner’ by Dawn Martin, more or less.

Look at the cable work! And the cute triangular shaped ends! Ok, it’s all black so not the easiest of colours to see all the detail, but it’s there, and I’m proud of it!

My last table runner died a death about…two years ago? It was light green, and met black coffee, which stained it yet my attempts to dye it resulted in nothing…so I picked out this pattern all the way back then and have only just got around to casting it on.

That gives you an idea of how long my ‘to knit’ list is…

Anyhow, the reason it’s ‘more or less’ the pattern is that the centre diamond part confused me. Granted, having a little one waking me up four times a night and a not so little one having me up at 6am leads me to being easily confused…but I gave up on the pattern and winged it.

Came out fine, so that’s all that counts really!

In other knitting news I’m plodding on with big knitting project 2 still, but I’m about 3/4 done, so the end is in sight! Hopefully you’ll all see it next post!

Short blog today as pretty tired running around the park and duck pond with Felix and her best friend who we were looking after today. Inkling was marvelled by the ducks, but didn’t like the swans. That said, when they’re hissing and rearing because of a careless dog owner letting their dog run right into them…well, it’s a pretty scary sight!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 4 (3 this week!)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 1 (Engel bought me a Small Clanger kit, its meant for Inkling as Felix has a Tiny Clanger, but it’s still mine right now! Another item on my to do list!)
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 619

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 1 Comment

May this year bring health and happiness to us all!

Despite the fact that Inkling was born, this has not been a very great year, not as bad as 2016, but still not a great year. Fingers crossed things turn round for 2018!

But your not here to read my woes, your here for the knitting! And I do not disappoint!

Several months ago I started the great Very Hungry Caterpillar Set (X 3) and declared it finished at the start of September. One set went to Felix, the second to the school my mother works at (as a teaching aid for the autistic children she works with) and the third…hasn’t been homed. But that’s a different story.

Anyway, Felix immediately asked why there was no fat caterpillar, I put it down to her just wanting everything and she already had a caterpillar, she didn’t need the fat one.

Then I asked my mum for feedback from the school. About fifty kids had played with it, and loved it.

Every. Single. Kid. Wanted. A. Fat. Caterpillar.

All. Of. Them.

So, not to disappoint, I’ve reluctantly gone ahead to make the fat caterpillar.

It’s a monster.

No, you can’t really appreciate the fatness of this caterpillar. Let’s compare it to the original caterpillar.

He could eat 4 of the small caterpillars for breakfast – and he would still be hungry!

Joking aside, I’ve winged this pattern out of thin air, and still need to make another two for the other sets, but I couldn’t resist sharing it with you all, especially as no doubt a lot of us probably felt like the small caterpillar at the start of the festive season and a lot more like the fat one by the end of it!

Lastly, start of a new year, so the wool count gets refreshed! I did manage to use three balls of wool since last post and Felix bought me a ball for my Christmas, so with that in mind, the wool count looks like this:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 0
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 0
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 622

Have a good year everyone!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized 2 Comments

Every year, since…2007 I have made a decoration for my Christmas tree.

2007: The one to start it all, a tiny santa hat for the top of the tree. No pattern used, just kind of winged it with what I had on hand.

2008: Pattern is Advent Tree: Sugar Mouse by Alan Dart – to mark the fact that the flat I was living in (a very old listed building) had mice in the walls, and under the floors, and in the ceilings…

2009: Pattern is Advent Tree: Marzipan Pig by Alan Dart – to commemorate the swine flu, I was also doing my first job after uni which was QC checking the swine flu vaccine vaccine.

2010: Another pattern I winged, a guinea pig in a test tube (ok, a pot for holding swabs, but close enough) as I was onto my second job, which was a mix of sales and microbiological testing. My favourite client was a guinea pig farm – I got to cuddle 200+ baby guinea pigs!!!

2011: Based on the free pattern Beans the Cat by Linda Dawkins, this is Crumble the cat, the first cat we fostered. Also our first pet cat as she was deemed unhomable due to the many issues she had with people and food (she was treated badly before we got her)

2012: Based on the free pattern Rose pins by Sarah Kim Tenbuecken – a set of four tiny roses in the same colours as my wedding bouquet (yep, decided to get married in the same year the world was supposed to end) Interestingly, I made these again as actual hair pins in 2016

2013: Free pattern Tiny Onesies! by Akaemi Barnett – to mark the birth of Felix (right) and the other was for my bosses daughter, also born 2013, 6 weeks after Felix. (This is also the first decoration I actually posted on the blog in real time!)

2014: Free pattern Tiny Train Knitting Pattern by Diane Stobbart – marking Felix’s first birthday being held at a miniature railway.

2015: Free pattern Oisin owl by Pauline Gallagher – to match the owls on Felix’s stocking

2016: Based in the free pattern Phoenix and Dragon Finger Puppets by carinbrat – tweaked the wings, turned the puppet into a body…nothing too major. This red dragon is to represent Wales, as we had our first proper little family holiday there.

2017: Free pattern Tiny Onesies! by Akaemi Barnett – to mark the birth of Inkling, it only seemed fitting to do the same as I did for Felix back in 2013! They’re even both made with the same ball of white sparkly wool.

I wonder what 2018 will be?

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 149 (1 since the last post)
Wool bought – 51
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 624

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized 3 Comments

Yeah…I may have watched a lot of Pokémon recently…

Anyhow, first of all, Pip. My niece is collecting the whole Pusheen family, but the newest addition, little brother Pip, isn’t available in a soft toy form, so for her birthday, she asked me to make her Pip. Not one to disappoint…

Based on the pattern Tiny and Stripy by Sue Stratford from her book ‘Knitted Cats and Kittens’ – I followed the pattern more or less as written, except I used loop stitch then cut the loops at the end to make it super fluffy.

Awesome. Super.

Except you can’t make one (my niece) without making for the other (nephew) it’s only fair. And he’s really into Pokémon right now, so…

I used the free pattern pokeball pokemon toy by Emma Whittle, super quick and super easy.

After Felix pinched it for the eighth time to throw at various things and yelling ‘I choose you!’ or ‘I’ll catch you!’ I realised two things.

One: Felix wasn’t going to let me give away this pokeball.

Two: I made Pip for my nieces birthday. Not her Christmas. I don’t have to make my nephew something until his birthday, and even then only if he wants something.

So Felix is tucked up in bed with her pokeball.

After throwing it at her daddy a good dozen times to catch him, I don’t think he was too amused when I said to her that she was trying to catch a Snorlax…

Anyhow, still have that big project on the needles (keep picking up and putting it down as I start and finish other projects) and I have a few more little ones to do as well…

Including this year’s Christmas decoration!

Till next week.

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 146 (3 since the last post)
Wool bought – 51 (2 balls of white DK as I’m almost out, and I surprisingly enough use a lot of white…)
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 627

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 2 Comments

Just spent about forty minutes trying to work out why I couldn’t login to write this week’s blog post…after mithering Engel he managed to fix it in under five minutes…

Something about my . htaccess file…?

Anyhow, because did that I’ve pretty much forgotten what I was going to write about. I have no new finished projects to show this week as I’m working on another big one and have had next to zero time to actually do any knitting… There’s a lot to do in the run up, to the run up before the mad rush before Christmas. (If that made sense to you then you know exactly what I’m getting at)

Ah, now I remember!

Ok, Christmas, no new projects but I did find two old ones that never got put online anywhere! And they’re both cute quick Christmas knits as well!

This is a particularly cute free pattern – Snowman Christmas Ornament by Barbara Breiter – that uses up any old oddments of wool, and which Felix helped decorate with beads and glue!

This is also another cute free knitting pattern – Christmas tree by Baiba Dzelme – and again one Felix helped with (she glued the buttons on which I secured afterwards with thread) and topped with a little bell!

Hopefully I’ll have something new to show next week!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 139 (1 this post)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 632

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized 1 Comment

To be eaten…

The Christmas reference is because of this:

Inklings very own Christmas stocking (based on free pattern: Pet Love Christmas Stocking by Sarah Hood, incorporating the free Bunnies Chart by Sylvia Leake and the fish chart from Kitty Placemat by Donna Druchunas from her book Kitty Knits: Projects for cats and their people.)

Two years ago, I knit Christmas stockings for myself, Engel and Felix all based on the pet love Christmas stocking (you can have a look at those here if you want) and it only seemed right to include Inkling in on this tradition.

I had to guess his favourite animals, it’s kind of hard when he’s not quite 6 months old yet – I went for rabbits as he squeals when he sees them on the TV, and he loves watching the goldfish in the fish tank, so fish it was.

So, the being eaten reference is because of this:

Yup. It’s Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young). I mentioned on a previous post that after knitting the Stubborn Goat I wanted to make one, but not the thousand young so nope, not happening.

Two weeks of pester power and here s/he is, Shub-Niggurath (used the free pattern Fester The Whole Goat by Jenny Stacey again for this one)

There will not be any young. Especially not a thousand of them.

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 138 (3 this post)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 633

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 1 Comment

I’m not talking about ice cream, Raspberry Ripple is the name of the colours way of the lace wool I’ve been using on the big project I’ve been mentioning in the last few posts.

This week, I’ve managed not to get side tracked (it was hard) and managed to push on and finish a lace shawl!

I used the Birch Leaf Shawl (aka Bottom-Up Birch) by Susan Gutperl (it’s a free pattern and fantastic if you don’t know how many yards of wool you have!) The photo above shows it being blocked, I managed to get it to 140cm across and 76cm tall! Though I can’t take all the credit, Engel is actually really, really good at blocking. I suspect it’s the engineer in him making sure everything is just so, he did ask what the tolerances were on knitting, but I suspect that’s his new job affecting him…

That’s a close up of the lace pattern – can you see the leaves going left to right? And you can see why the colour way is called Raspberry Ripple!

Unfortunately I don’t have a better photo of the finished product – it’s been very grey and wet here, and as it’s a Christmas present for the MIL I’ve squirreled it away in the present box now. I don’t usually make such elaborate gifts for Christmas presents but she’s helped out a lot since Inkling has been born, so I wanted too give her something especially nice and pretty as a bit of a thank you.

That’s all really, just back from a Moana themed party that Felix was invited to, so we’re all going to go practice the hula some more! Or possibly the hokey cokey?

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 135 (1 this post – but it was a ball of lace weight yarn!)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 636 (I’m going to give up trying to get below 600 this year…)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Cats, Knitting, Little one 1 Comment

This is Halloween, this is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!

Can you tell I like Halloween?

I’ve had a lot of fun this week, Felix is now at the right age where she can get stuck into various crafts and make decorations and actually feel part of the whole celebration process. We’ve both also done a fair bit of baking – she wanted to carve pumpkins and I refuse to let food go to waste, so there was pumpkin shaped pumpkin bread rolls and sugar free pumpkin cupcakes (for Engel) and I still have more than half a kilo left of pumpkin puree still…

We all went and did the Manchester Halloweekend trick or treat trail, meeting count Dracula, bride of Frankenstein, a witch, a mummy and a skeleton juggling pineapples…? There was also a haunted maze and giant tentacles on top of the House of Fraser – a few of my gaming friends came along as well and we spent far too much time pretending to pass/fail sanity checks against the eldritch horror breaking free into our realm…

So much fun.

But also a lot of knitting. Again, a few little projects and one big project, which is still ongoing as it’s boring and I keep getting distracted by little projects…

Halloween themed first!

Felix was dressed as a vampire (again) this year, wearing an awesome costume her aunty made her, but Felix wanted Daddy’s toy cat (they have a time share on him, much to Engel’s bemusement) to dress up as a vampire to. So without further ado:

Phineas in his matching vampire costume. It’s a little jumper and separate cloak. During my photoshoot with Phineas, Ziggy decided to join in…

So Count Phineas took revenge:

I have far too much fun…no pattern for this one as I just winged it in the needles.

In other knitting news, there have been babies, so there have been little knitted presents!

This is made using the free pattern Polar Bear by The Knit Cafe Toronto – only I did a mummy and baby brown bear…this was for in laws friends newest grandson.

Then there’s this little fishy, another free pattern – Frida the Fish / Francis the Fish by Lion Brand Yarn – which I’ve now made for the fourth time.

And for the older brother, Pokemon Poke Ball Knit Hat by Vicki Mann (free pattern) curiously, Skully modelled a different pokeball hat in the same post as the previous goldfish given above, funny coincidence!

Alright, that’s all for the post today. Hope to get a good push on the big project done and finally get it off the needles! Let’s see how long it takes for me to procrastinate and/or get distracted…

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 134 (3 this post!)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 637 (Will I get below 600 this year?)

P.S. in other news Engel has taken up brewing and is trying to convince me to knit some fermentation vessel cosies, it may be sleep deprivation, or the sheer lack of interest in my other project, but they sound tempting. I could knit them to look like little wooden barrels, or have cute little motifs knitted into them…

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized 2 Comments

When Felix was very little, I knitted her a Cthulhu (my very own pattern too) and kept meaning to knit one for Inkling.

Well procrastinate no more, here is the cute tiny Elder God in all his tentacular glory!

After knitting Cthulhu I decided that whilst I was on a roll I’d try another free Lovecraftian pattern I had spied previously:

The Great Race of Yith by Samantha Lynn – I omitted the pipe cleaners and beads the pattern calls for to make it more baby chewing friendly.

(I was going to knit just one, but you can’t have a race with just one!)

The Yith are one of the lesser known Lovecraftian creations, but Inkling seems to enjoy swinging them by their various appendages…

Also this week (I was on a knitting roll! Though I did ignore my big project) my mum requested I make The Stubborn Goat, as another teaching aid.

Made using the free pattern Fester The Whole Goat by Jenny Stacey

I am now debating knitting Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young) since I’m on a Lovecraft inspired knitting kick…

Then Felix said Id have to knit a thousand baby goats. That idea has now been shelved…

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 131 (6 this post!)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 640 (Will I get below 600 this year?)

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