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Tag: Knitting

by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

(Pun courtesy of Engel)

I received a challenge from my frenemy Ed Skar (watch the ordo redactus at the end of episode two – the last ten minutes – and you’ll understand), and it went like this:

@foxymitts knit me an Escher XD

Not one to back down from a challenge, I begun my research. An Escher in this instance, is not the mathematician and artist, Escher, but a faction in a war game called Necromunda, part of the Warhammer 40K universe/franchise. A friend at work happened to have some source material I could skim through:

so much inspiration, so many ideas, but after much though and discussion, it was paired back to knitting an Escher gangers ‘little sister’. And here she is:

The body is based on the free pattern Babes’ Little Sister by 123fionadolls McDonald (wasn’t the name fitting?!) Oh, and here’s another photo from the other side:

And of course every lady needs a weapon suiting for the fine art of war:

(It was supposed to be a lasgun but came out a heavy stubber- what can I say? (Walk softly and carry a big gun. – Engel) I think girls look cute with oversized weapons! She does also have a more moderate sized dagger tucked into her overskirt)

I think I can safely say challenge complete!

In other news, not much spinning this week, though there are a few knitting things in the works. Crumble is almost entirely back to her old self, just need some more weight on her still, and that’s about all.

Oh. I should mention that last week, due to the current Covid restrictions, my grand plan to have a day trip and meet Rabbie half way were scrapped, and I had a sulk. A big sulk. My first proper sulk since the start of all this chaos. And Engel, bless him, got me a present. 15 miniskeins of the most awesome hand dyed yarn! One is in tropical fish colourways and the other is ‘adventure bike’ colours…which he has batted his eyelashes at in the hopes I will left my sock ban and make him another pair…after mine though!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 138 (2 this week)
Wool bought – 28
Wool given to me – 318 (Up 15 – thank you though Engel! I love them!!)
Wool gifted to others – 8
Wool handspun – 16

Total – 914 (up 13)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

After the jealousy Crumble, Queen of the kitties in this house, showed towards the knitted Siamese flamingo float kitties, it was decided she needed her own knitted version.

But it wasn’t going to be as simple as just digging out some wool and following the pattern, oh no, Crumble needed, after also showing jealousy at the special Missy colourway that I dyed and hand spun, she needed her own tiny Crumble in her own Crumble colourway hand spun.

I only filled one bobbin with single ply, took it off on the ballwinder then made a 2 ply from that to create just one skein – that’s all I would need for one tiny knitted Crumble, right?

Engel commented that he couldn’t wait for his tiny Crumble for his desk at work. So, two tiny Crumbles.

Then Rabbis commented that the Crumble wool was just the perfect match of her friends mums cat who is going through a really hard time and maybe I could…?

And so, two Crumbles and a look a like where knitted in hands-on Crumble inspired wool and put into little boxes also knit from hand spun.

The Queen herself seemed somewhat surprised at the sudden appearance of so many tiny versions of herself, but they all received her sniff of approval. (For those asking, she is doing much better after her little fright and there’s been no long lasting restriction of movement to her back leg. She is still on double dinners though, and loving it).

Oh, and never let it be said that I don’t block! In this instance, Duplo blocks where just what was needed!

I have already begun spinning some wool (Suffolk texel dyed in beetroot and some more dyed with fresh coffee) to start getting ready for the next invasion of tiny kitties – Lockdown and Outbreak inspired ones!

In other knitting news, I finished a rather large challenge yesterday but need to get some good photos first – so you can see that next week!

In non knitting news, we did a Halloween trail today! My enthusiasm to life has increased drastically knowing that I can still have my Halloween – it’ll be different, like everything has been in 2020 – but it’s not cancelled!!!

Till next week, stay safe.

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 136 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 28 (There was a ‘yarncident’ and I ‘accidentally’ bought an adorable hand dyed mini skeins set to make myself something cute! 10 mini skeins in total)
Wool given to me – 303 (gained two, as well as half an old project and two bottles of cider as a thank you for repairing a person’s favourite hat…with some embellishment of course!)
Wool gifted to others – 8
Wool handspun – 16 (Up 1 with the Crumble wool)

Total – 901 (no change…)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Not going to lie, this is my favourite time of the year for me and the rest of us spooky loving folks! Despite this, I had a bit of a slump this past few weeks. Crumble had gone missing for two weeks and when she finally limped home she had a large chunk of flesh missing from the back of her leg and was terrifyingly skinny. Trip to the vets (something else that has been affected by Covid-19 – I have to drop her off and talk to the vet on the phone whilst sat in the car, surreal) and antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds and double dinners and this week she’s getting back to being the Queen of the house. She’s still a shadow of her former self, but I can see that fierce little spark coming back.

As well as this, I’ve hit a slump at work. It’s the new normal. I don’t like it. Nothing is how it should be and everyday I keep thinking I’ve got it and I just haven’t. But a routine is being formed, and seeing other people returning to work and going through the same rollercoaster of emotions is actually reassuring.

And what else has Covid-19 and the lockdown restrictions affected? Halloween. No trick or treating. No house parties. No spooky disco at my little ones school (which was also the only event I actually volunteered to help with…)

Crumbles second vet trip and clean bill of health (wound still healing, but it’s clean and it’s already 1/4 the size it was) and seeing the kids ability to just accept whatever the world throws at them and keep going has inspired me to do the same.

We’ll get there. We will. It’ll be different but we’ll make it work.

And Halloween? I just get to go nuts on decorating and enjoying the spooky atmosphere with my little family unit! There’s even talk of a Skype party! So to get in the holiday spirit…

I still haven’t made my summer or autumn wreaths, but that can be done later, for now, let’s have Jack Skellington grinning at the world outside my window! I found a cross stitch chart that I based his head on. The bowtie I just winged. The cat head is ‘Kitty Cat Head’ by Sara Elizabeth Kellner from her book ‘Knits for Kitties’ and the pumpkins are a free pattern – Pumpkin Napkin Rings by Lily / Sugar’n Cream.

Till next week, stay safe guys!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 125 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 28 (There was a ‘yarncident’ and I ‘accidentally’ bought an adorable hand dyed mini skeins set to make myself something cute! 10 mini skeins in total)
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 910

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

A rare siting in my knitting repertoire – plain, basic, sensible knitting. With Inkling starting nursery, which attached to the school Felix goes to, he is required to wear the school uniform. Unfortunately he didn’t want to wear Felix’s old school cardigans, and didn’t want to wear the jumpers, so I knit him a pair of sweater vests in the correct bottle green…

(Made following the free pattern 6-Stitch Plait Unisex Vest For Kids by Ratchadawan Chambers)

I actually made three of these, the first one I somehow mucked up my gauge swatch (I suspect I used the wrong needle) and the whole thing was just too small…but attempts two and three are perfect – a good year or twos growing room in them!

And I can’t make for Inkling and not Felix. She thankfully didn’t want any new cardigans and instead pointed out a pattern she had previously spotted in my Revelry library:

Yep, an adorable snake cowl to match her snake hat! This pattern is Snake Coil Cowl by Ariel Woods and is currently free, so if you want it, grab it now before it becomes a paid for pattern!

I’ve got a few more knitting and spinning projects in the go right now, and hopefully I’ll focus on one and get something more fun done for next week. Seeing as we are in local lockdown, I imagine my distractions should be a bit less in the coming weeks…though I have been running Cthulhu Invictus on Skype and that’s been a lot of fun, but being GM takes a lot of time and prepwork! That reminds me, one of the gaming guys has given me a knitting challenge, so I’ll have to see how that goes…

And speaking of challenges, I joined in on the wild challenge on Instagram – first stop is Africa with a theme of flamingos! Now to decide just which flamingo themed thing to knit…

Till next week, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 122 (4 this week)
Wool bought – 28 (There was a ‘yarncident’ and I ‘accidentally’ bought an adorable hand dyed mini skeins set to make myself something cute! 10 mini skeins in total)
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 913

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Cutting a long story short, two things have been on the cards for a while. A family friendly console that is fully supported (Curse you Wii!) and a birthday party for Felix. With the current situation regarding the plague, it as decided fairly early on that Felix would not be having her big class party. So what to do?

Rewind a few weeks when we were visiting family and Felix was introduced to her auntie and uncles Switch and promptly fell in love. Inkling, despite being 3, could even join in the games and play them (with all the baby settings on, but he didn’t need to know that). I had a go, Engel too, and yeah, it was pretty much decided that when we get a console, it would be the Switch.

Which brings me back to the present. The money saved on not having a big party paid for the majority of a Switch, and Felix quickly agreed to having one or two friends round for pizza and a Switch party. This is taking place next week, so if there’s no post, they’ve probably sacrificed me to an Eldritch Terror.

They grow up so fast…

But come on, it’s not a party organised by me without some cute knitted element! And so I took these Mario kart images:

And turned them into:

Mario Kart party bags! Each one unique with a variety of symbols! There is nowhere near that many invited, just so you all know, it’s to give the kids a choice so as to reduce the chance of a fight breaking out. And so the parents reminiscing of days long past can swipe one too…

If I haven’t been sacrificed to an Eldritch Terror, I’ll share my latest spinning triumph with you all next week. If not, Engel should have finished performing the necromancy ritual for the week after.

Until then, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 118 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 18
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 907

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Which is your favourite? The Scottie or the Westie dog?

I think they themselves quite like the other!

These cuties are knit following the free pattern Tiny Scottie Dog by Sue Stratford. I am on a mission to reduce all my craft stashes in a bid to make room and get more organised. I had a set of 30 bone buttons and recorded they would look rather fetching on little dogs.

So there are 15 Westies and 15 Scottie dogs!

Now what to use up next in the stashes…

I am currently working on Felix’s birthday bags, and a school vest for Inkling. The bags are cute and will definitely make an appearance, the vests…we’ll see how slow a week we have when they’re done!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 115 (8 this week)
Wool bought – 18
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 910

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Jack the Jackalope, close relation to Jacob the deer! So close, I used the same pattern and more of the same first lot of handspun!

Like Jacob, I am really proud of this guy – and they’re looking great on the wall together! I have the urge to knit more heads now though!

In other news, I’ve been doing school knits, not much spinning, lots of work and a bit too much Animal Crossing. It’s just so addictive!

Short post this week as I’m ripping the house apart in preparation for Felix’s 7th birthday – due to Covid she isn’t having her usual class party, so we’re having a class mate of two round for a Switch party and one is staying for a sleepover. The house isn’t ready for this level of chaos!!!

Till next week, stay safe guys!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 107 (5 this week)
Wool bought – 18
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 918

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

I’ll be starting this post by recounting a tale that goes back to the start of the third week of July when lockdown was beginning to be lifted. My little family unit of terrors met up with some good friends at Ash End House Children’s Farm. The sun was shining, the kids got to run around and see animals, I may have hugged a few sheep and it was a fantastic day that ended with ice cream. And two whole angora fleece. But that’s a different story.

Whilst we were wandering around the big field where the various animals were out chilling, we started to collect feathers for our good friend. Then random odds and ends of wool fleece that was stuck to fences etc. Then a good few handfuls of reindeer fur – the poor mite was mid moult and scratching at everything to help him shed, so I ‘helped’ and nabbed good few handfuls of incredibly soft but short hairs.

The challenge: can you spin reindeer? The answer is, if blended with the random wool scraps collected on that trip…

Yes. Yes you can. It may look like rough string, but that’s incredibly soft and squishy…and of course if I’ve made wool, I had to knit it!

Combined with some handspun Jacobs, there was just enough for two rather stocky sheep! One for me, and one for our good friends to mark the great day out.

And following from there, in my quest to reduce my wool stash, I was determined to finish every last bit of gold from the golden peaches and made these guys:

They’re plotting about what to do with that Jason fellow and his so called Argonauts…

All the sheep are made following the free pattern FellowSheep by Anna Hrachovec (also known as the wonderful creator of MochiMochi Land!)

Lastly, speaking of my wool stash, I used five this week, haven’t had a chance to spin any more and was pleased that it was going down a good bit for the first time in ages…then Engel brought home five balls of ‘plant fiber’ wools. Two hemp, two recycled cotton and one jute. The jute will be cat toys, the cotton probably wash clothes and the hemp is a very nice green similar to the one Felix wears as her school uniform…

Best get knitting I guess! Except…we got a Switch. And I got Animal crossing. My knitting time has taken a nose dive…

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 102 (5 this week)
Wool bought – 18
Wool given to me – 301 (Up 5)
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 923

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

As Great Grandma’s (Engels side) 90th birthday was celebrated this week I decided it was a good time to show a special project I made for her.

In Chinese culture, peaches are eaten by the gods to bring immortality, so peaches, particularly golden peaches, are a symbol of longevity. So I knit quite a lot of peaches for the whole family. There is one giant peach for Great Grandma, and then the rest are in pairs. Five pairs of big peaches for the children, and thirteen pairs of little peaches for the adults. That’s thirty seven peaches.

I also knit five red bags for the children’s peaches to go in, as red is a lucky colour and based on my own children enjoying putting things in and out of bags, I figured the others would too!

The peaches are based on the free pattern georgia by peachcake knits and the bags are another free pattern Openwork Drawstring Pouch by Mary Schaefbauer. For those curious, that super shiny gold is Rico Design Creative Lamé – it’s not the nicest to knit with, but it gives a fantastic sparkle!

In spinning news, I spun five skeins – more to be revealed later though when I finish the contrast skeins. As they’re a gift I won’t be adding them to the final total as they’re not destined for my stash.

In non knitting news, it was my birthday this week and I got lots of nice presents, I’ve also started a new Cthulhu scenario and been having fun with that. It’s also the end of my second week at work and I am exhausted – it’s all very different from before! I’ll get used to the ‘New Normal’ but it’s a steep learning curve…

Till next week, keep safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 97 (0 this week)
Wool bought – 18
Wool given to me – 296
Wool gifted to others – 7 (4 balls to work colleague)
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 923

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

So, let’s begin at the beginning. Over a year ago, two crazy yarn friends convinced me to go to the wool experience and got me hooked on fleece. I bought a whole Jacobs fleece that day, and a bunch of samples. Then, a few weeks later, so just shy of a year ago, Engel bought me a spinning wheel. A few months later a hand carder followed suit because carding with brushes is hard and tiring and time consuming. Anyhow. I finally had the chance to take the spinning wheel apart, clean it, seal it and have Engel reassemble and service it during lockdown.

I also stained her as part of the sealing process, but as all the shops where closed I had to use what was on hand, which was ebony. She looks looks like something from a dark fairy tale and has subsequently been called Grimm. After the Brothers Grimm. Because I was told very firmly that all spinning wheels have names. It’s not just me that’s mad.

But I digress.

Jacob, who you will meet shortly, has been over a year in the making. The past few weeks I have spun the wool to make him:

(Look! My first three balls of handspun wool! All wound into pretty little cakes!)

And then I finally got to knit him.

Jacob isn’t just special because he’s knit from the very first wool I have spun, but also because he has a set of real Roe deer antlers that were still attached to a bit of skull that I have incorporated into the actual knitting. I will tell you now, knitting around antlers is a very tricky thing indeed! And pointy. He’s also very cute and practical with his coat hook.

So there you have it, my current knitting triumph. But wait! I have a second set of antlers, just in case anything went wrong with the first…and instill have some of my very first handspun left over…I think Jacob needs a friend, don’t you?

Oh, in non knitting news I went back to work this week. And it was boiling this week. I survived but I think I need a month to recover…it wasn’t the work exactly, it was being around people again, having to think and talk about things above that of a 6 year olds mind set…

Till next week!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 97 (5 this week)
Wool bought – 18
Wool given to me – 296
Wool gifted to others – 3
Wool handspun – 10 (4 have been used!)

Total – 927

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