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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

The very next knitting project…not quite the same ring as the actual song, but it’ll do.

Remember how just a few weeks (ok, start of January) I knit a lovely pair of cat mittens for Engel? Well, he decided they were too big.

Ok, they’re wool, I’ll felt them.

They barely shrunk in the washing machine.

Ok, must be treated wool, I’ll felt it by hand.

The black decided it was not colour resistant at the temperature needed to begin felting.

Hmm. New pair of mittens it was.

Please excuse the photograph, I had to pry these off Engel to get this quick snapshot!

And for those curious, the original cat mittens have found themselves a good home to a fellow cat loving friend with much,much larger hands than Engel. They fit their new owner like a glove. Pun intended.

In other knitting news, I received a knitting kit for a cuddly toy. More on that later, let’s just say though that there is an amusing story behind it. But it does mean my stash has grown by 7 balls of fluffy wool…I debated adding this to my total, but feel I should as I will want to count the used wool as it leaves my stash…

As such, my wool count looks like this now:

Wool Count

Starting total – 843

Wool used – 21 (1 this week)
Wool bought – 1
Wool given to me – 13 (7 in the knitting kit)
Wool gifted to others –0
Wool handspun – 1

Total – 831 (Net difference: -6)

Theres still more than twice out than what’s gone in, which I am going to take as a victory!

Theres isn’t much else to say for this week, some grand plans went awry, but we made the most of the weekend, and even begun sowing the first wave of seeds! I’m hoping for a good year of vegetables!

Till next week, stay safe!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

I would love to promise that this is the last of the fox related things, but the urge to use this knitted fur technique to make more and more is incredibly powerful!

and without further ado, fox ears:

So very cute! Although the cats seem to think that they’re either a toy just for them, or a small furry animal just begging to be pounced on…

Here you can see Outbreak “helping” within three seconds of my placing the ears in the floor for a photograph. I suspect I will need to knit them something using the same knitted fur technique I have used for the ears…

Oh, normally at this point I would link a pattern but…there isn’t one. This is me just playing around…

In other wooly news, I finally spun and plyed the Shetland fleece I have been playing with for the last few weeks – it was a challenge for myself to spin as fine as possible, as consistently as possible. Having been 2 plyed it has come out at 150m of lace weight yarn. It’s a little thinner in places, but not thicker, so it’s definitely getting there!!

No idea what it will be. However, I have plans and ideas in the works that require me to spin yarn, so more shall be spun, but with intention.

…am I the only one that think that sounded unnecessarily aggressive? Spinning with intention?

Anyhoo, very busy week at work, no gaming but Inkling did get to go to a trampoline birthday party and as he is under five, I had to go with him and ‘supervise’. The sore muscles today were worth it. Felix didn’t miss out as she got to have an adventure with Engel on the motorbike.

After so much excitement, we finished the weekend with board games and cleaning up some Battletech miniatures that the terrors are looking forward to painting.

Until next week, take care!

Wool Count

Starting total – 843

Wool used – 20 (2 this week)
Wool bought – 1
Wool given to me – 6
Wool gifted to others –0
Wool handspun – 1

Total – 831 (Net difference: -12)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Or should that be ‘cloak and nerf blaster’?

Last year I mentioned I had a few sewing projects, the first and biggest one was to make a Gaunts Ghosts (a unit from a Warhammer 40K book series of the same name), style cloak for a friend of mine. I did achieve this after a few weeks of messing around and phoning Rabbie for help…

Not going to lie, by the time I sewed the last edges and tidied up the lining, I was pretty proud of my creation! Just one problem, photos.

The person receiving this lives pretty far away, and the size difference between him and myself is laughable. Nearly a foot taller, and about three times more broad in the shoulders, there was no hope of me getting photos wearing it! So poor Engel was drafted in, and wearing his motorcycle jacket, was much nearer the scale needed.

Well, in the shoulders, Engel is only a little taller than me so still a good bit shorter! However, you get the idea of the fit at least.

So, seeing as I took these photos in August, why am I only sharing them now? Well, the first reason is the cloak reached my friend end of September, and he did some footage of it which is stuck on a hard drive a cat decided to wee onto. I doubt any photos will be taken in the wet and cold of British winter so…yeah.

And…reason two may be that I have no finished knitted projects to share so figured why not just share this now?

Regardless of the reason, here is one of the first sewing projects I plan to share!

That’s all for this week, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 843

Wool used – 4 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 1
Wool given to me – 0
Wool gifted to others –
Wool handspun – 0

Total – 843 (Net difference: -3)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

It’s going to be a fairly quick post today as last week was…well, it was a week…not for me, personally, but I hadn’t realised how many of my friends trust me enough to relieve all their emotions onto…

So without further ado…

I finally knit Engel his mittens! He chose Missy C by JennyPenny from her book ‘Winter Knits from Scandinavia’ and not gonna lie, these are amazing! The whole book has gorgeous patterns and, sneak preview, I’ve got another of those patterns on the needles right now for me!

Of course, however, I couldn’t resist a few tweaks, and turned the mittens into convertible city mitts!

In other knitting news, the polar bear garrison has begun, photos as and when I have no other FO’s to share,but with a target of 80,it’s going to be my ‘out the house’ project for quite some time…

That’s all for this week, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 843

Wool used – 1
Wool bought – 1
Wool given to me – 0
Wool gifted to others –
Wool handspun – 0

Total – 843 (Net difference: 0)

The sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed I have bought a ball of wool despite saying two had to go out for every one in. Well…it was an emergency. I found myself having to wait for a few hours in a cafe with no knitting! And so, poor Engel was dragged around until a wool shop was located and I could buy some wool and needles…oops!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

I couldn’t resist the pun…but what pun you may ask? Well, remember how I mentioned that my mum roped me into doing some knitting for her?

That there is the seventh Meret (Mystery Beret) – free pattern by Woolly Wormhead- that I have knitted for mother. And since Meret sounds like Merry….

Anyhow…shes nearly wore her last ones straight through out of sheer use. So after telling her exactly that after the mending I did on them last visit, I had to break it to her that next time, there won’t be any hat left to mend… So to prolong those precious hats, I suggested she could have a different hat for when working in the school playground which is when they get their hardest use.

She was immediately in my stash digging through the purple section to select just the right shade to match the school colour (a deep purple) and informed me she wanted two in the same pattern and alterations as the others.

And matching arm warmers, as they’re near worn through also. I did opt to do a new pattern on those though – Half-Pint Fingerless Gloves by Théa Rosenburg, another excellent free pattern – which are super quick and easy to make at least.

Two pairs of arm warmers have been knit, as well as one hat, and the second is a solid evenings worth of knitting away from being done.

In non knitting news, I have had an incredibly busy, but fun, Christmas break. There was a lot of catching up, people and p!aces where visited, games have been played and so many things have been made or built. One of which was a bat detector which Engel decided would be perfect for Felix – and I’ll hand it to her, she took to learning to solder like a duck to water! Inkling was in the mean time getting a sewing lesson from myself and, worst comes to worst, has the rudimentary skills to at least temporarily patch something together now.

Lastly for this blog post, the wool count is going to be reset, and with it, I am going to set a few goals to also try and achieve.

Wool Count

Starting total – 843

Wool used – 0
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 0
Wool gifted to others –
Wool handspun – 0

Total – 843 

And my stash goals for this year are:

1 – to have no more than 1 ball of wool enter the stash to every two that leave the stash.

2 – to spin more wool – I have done a lot of dying, and have projects planned for handspun, but by the end of the year I had very little time/ energy/ spinning mojo

3 – handspun wool does not apply to the wool in vs wool out totals, as it’s stash already present, just undergoing a metamorphosis from fleece to yarn…

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

I hope everyone has had a good start to the festive season! For us, it’s been a ball – a busy, chaotic ball – and sorely needed. Sadly, I know this hasn’t been the case for some of my friends, which makes me treasure these moments all the more.

But introspective reflections don’t belong on a knitting blog, so I shall leave it there and move swiftly on to the knitting!

Any one who has followed my shenanigans for a long time will know that I make a new decoration for the tree every year to mark an occasion or event that has happened that year. We have all sorts on the tree now, from Maleficent guarding the tree top, to a pig with a hankie, an this years addition is just as fun!

I made a MOSFET! Specifically a TO-247 MOSFET (Engel edit: It’s actually a GaNFET! The future is here!). And one became seven as I decided to give one to each member of my team at work. Here’s the little gang chilling out in front of actual MOSFETs so that everyone who is currently scratching their head right now can see what they’re supposed to be.

This year I joined Engel in the world of semi conductor’s after much thinking and reflection regarding my now previous job in radiochemistry. There was a lot of uncertainty but it has been the right decision, and on the last day before the Christmas shutdown, I received the news that I have passed my probation and I’m a permanent member of staff.

Best. Christmas. Gift. Ever!

That aside, remember how I said I joined Engel? Well, this time round it was him who was up to shenanigans when I presented all the knitted MOSFETs…

In the blink of an eye, the little guys were being hooked up to an oscilloscope! Much chaos and laughter ensued before I managed to recover and gift the little knitted critters, aside from mine, who is happily chilling on the tree.

I hope you all have a good festive season! I’ll see you all next year, until then, stay safe!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Its beginning to look and feel like Christmas, and that’s been reflected in my knitting!

This is a combination of Northern Stocking by Rae Blackledge and Falling Snow Stocking by Jennifer Hoel – both are free patterns available on Ravelry.

Initially I was asked to make just the one, but the wee boy it’s destined for was sad his parents wouldn’t have one and so wouldn’t get presents either…

So I made all three them a stocking each! Oh, and although you can’t see it in the photo, the white is sparkly and adds just a bit more of a Christmas flair.

Continuing on with the Christmas theme, it was Inklings first nativity this year – he didn’t have one last year due to Covid – and I was really impressed the length the school went to make it happen. Watching him run around being a ‘naughty sheep’, you wouldn’t think he had spent over half his life in various forms of lock down.

It was a bit surreal when that thought first crossed my mind. Not quite managed to get over it, and I do worry about the impact it’s going to have on a whole generation of kids.

That’s getting pretty heavy, let’s move on swiftly!

The kids took their penguin ornaments to school this week, and Felix has informed me that next year it’s going to be polar bears. I had best get a move on with those seeing as 60 penguins weren’t enough and I had to whip up an extra 6!

Speaking of ornaments, this years one has been selected and knitted up. I wound up getting carried away and made a few extra to give to my team, but not so carried away as Engel did photographing them. You’ll have to wait till next week to see those!

Until then, keep safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 152 (1 this week!!)
Wool bought – 50
Wool given to me – 47
Wool gifted to others – 4
Wool handspun – 13

Total – 843 (Net total of 39 down!)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

A very good friend of a very good friend is currently undergoing chemotherapy, and I’m not sure what else to really do to help, so I knit her a hat.

But not any hat! A one of a kind, super soft, purple and black bat hat!

I used the numbers and shaping from Slouchy Cat Hat by Marna Gilligan from her book Cat Knits. The charts are ‘winged’!

Apologies for the photo quality, I literally finished casting off and weaving in the ends at work and dropped it off to her on the way to run some errands before going home.

I’ve been told it fits perfect and she’s very happy, and especially giving the current cold snap, it’s been more than needed!

Thats all this week – it’s been a busy one, overtime at work, visiting friends, a belated leaving do for a number of us from the last place and poor Engel was roped into helping a guy from my new workplace fit heated grips onto his motorbike.

(I have promised him a special treat and an IOU, so don’t worry!)

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 150 (2 this week!!)
Wool bought – 50
Wool given to me – 47
Wool gifted to others – 4
Wool handspun – 13

Total – 845 (Net total of 37 down!)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Thats not the most burning question, really, it’s actually:

Which looks cutest? Just shorn, growing back in or time for shearing? (Left to right)

Need more cuteness to help with the decision?

Just look at those faces!

These are all knit with the same needles and same pattern (the one used the other week – Tiny Alpaca! by Anna Hrachovec) but with different fluffy/textured wool and it has affected the size, shape and cuteness by a lot!

I’m curious to know which is your favourite? I’ll reveal later which one actually won out for my grand alpacalypse plan!

Been a busy week (isn’t every week these days?) and have just got back from seeing friends at the zoo, and I am physically and socially worn out from it! We all had a ball – Felix was super excited to see a leopard up close and Inkling had a bonding moment with a gibbon who was as curious of him as he was of it! And for me it was all about the ring tailed lemur, which due to Covid, meant that the walkthrough enclosure was currently closed. Turns out lemurs are susceptible to human respiratory illnesses and that includes Covid.

The things you never knew!

Oh! We also saw a pair of vicunas today (the smallest of the camelidae family and the wild ancestor to what we know of as the modern alpaca) with a fleece that is super fine and soft but can only be sheared every three years…and was of great value to the Incas to the point only royalty could wear things made from their fleece…If it went for the electric fence…

More things you never knew!

So with that, I shall leave it till next and until then, stay safe!

(Oh, and in case your wondering, I have three projects – 1 sewn and 2 knitted I can’t reveal quite just yet but hopefully soon! Until then, expect more alpacas. Or llamas. They appear to have become interchangeable in this house and I haven’t quite had the heart to sit everyone down and go through what exactly separates the two species!)

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 130 (2 this week!!)
Wool bought – 35
Wool given to me – 47
Wool gifted to others – 4
Wool handspun – 11

Total – 863 (Net total of 34 down! Or 45 if I don’t count the handspun, cause it was fleece in the stash anyway…it’s just changed form…what are your thoughts?)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Its been a busy week! Mostly of my own making, but it’s been good at least. Yesterday I met up with a group of friends whom I haven’t seen in person since pre-Covid. One set, whom I have seen, fell in love with my knitted jackalope head.

I had a spare set of antlers…and plenty of natural fleece to spin…and well, I was going to see them so…on Friday I made the decision to spin the fleece.

And by Monday night, I had all that I needed spun and plyed and wound into balls of wool ready to knit.

Tuesday to Friday saw much frantic knitting, as well as Engel stepping in on the Wednesday to saw the skull down some more to allow me to fit it inside the jackalope head, and Friday saw the last bits knitted and all the assembly taking place.

Pattern is a modified version of the free pattern my dear – a deer trophy by Claire Garland and the wooden plaque is from Pallets2Place – commission piece in regards to both size and shape! I also have another two to redo my other knitted heads as I was so impressed with it!

The wooly critter was handed over yesterday and then there was lots of axe throwing – the reason for everyone meeting up was to have a laugh and test our apocalyptic survival skills. I did far better than I had expected! Then there was food, home, meeting with in laws and more food.

Today has been much quieter – a play in the park, climbing trees and a quiet afternoon of playing games and getting on with some sewing.

How have your weeks been?

Till next, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 111 (4 this week!!)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given to me – 47
Wool gifted to others – 4
Wool handspun – 11 (2 skiens for the jackalope head!)

Total – 880 (A net total of 17 down)

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