So this month’s Wildknitting challenge was Australia, the Great Barrier Reef and more specifically, sharks! I opted to do a trade again, and rather than go for the obvious option of a cuddly toy, I decided to have a bit of a play.
First I googled how shark skin looked under a microscope…
And then I looked for a stitch pattern that resembled it, with luck, I found a hat pattern that had the perfect one on it! And free too! Zinnia Dahlia by Petra Hoy – I worked the slipped stitches in a metallic grey and the rest in a soft grey wool to give…
As well as a hat, I did a matching cowl, and to make it extra shark like, added teeth! Here’s the finished result.
I’m pretty happy with the result, and the slipped stitch pattern definitely has potential for a few future projects. But those will be a long time off as I have a very long list of projects to get in with in the mean time!
So until next week, stay safe!
Wool Count
Starting total – 704
Wool used – 140 (1 this week) Wool bought – 28 Wool given to me – 318 Wool gifted to others – 8 Wool handspun – 16
Pokémon mania has spread through the house at an alarming rate thanks to this Switch game. There’s been lengthy discussions of Pokémon evolution, strengths, weaknesses and battle tactics over dinner, and outbreaks of the Pokerap and the classic opening theme throughout the day.
Felix got the game for her birthday, and within a fortnight of her having it, had jumped to the top reading band at school, so aside from the nostalgic elements of the classic 150 Pokémon for us as parents, it has dramatically helped her reading.
As a reward for doing so well at school, I asked if she wanted anything and…she wanted me to knit a new hat. An Eevee hat. So, for those who don’t know what that is:
This adorable little critter which is her starting Pokémon in the game. I couldn’t resist such a cute challenge, and so:
We have the ears on top of the hat and the fluffy ruff is a keyhole scarf attached to the back of the hat! I think it’s ‘super effective’! And to show it on something, here it is on a cuddly toy cthulhu which was the only thing it would fit on that was at hand…
Obviously it is far cuter on Felix! The only issue is, Inkling now wants a Pokémon hat too, but is having problems deciding just which one he wants…
Till next week, stay safe everyone!
Wool Count
Starting total – 704
Wool used – 139 (1 this week) Wool bought – 28 Wool given to me – 318 Wool gifted to others – 8 Wool handspun – 16
The 1984 quotes are still going strong! This one is about repair. Why?
Because of this cutie. (Demi Octopus by Jennifer Wang – the octopus itself is the free pattern).
One of my work colleagues has a favourite hat. But it had been worn that much it had developed a hole. He showed me it, asking for options and after going over what I could realistically do, including the dreaded darning, he decided to have a little fun with it.
The octopus is deliberately almost exactly the colour of the hat for he wants people to have to do a double take.
This conversation took place the day before lockdown started and was the first finished project of lockdown for myself. I’ve held off and held off on posting this as I wanted to give it to him before showing it off to the world, but as I am potentially be furloughed for another two months…
(I have offered to post it to him, but with the hot weather he is happy to wait for now until we see each other in person)I have had to resist the urge to knit a dozen more of these cuties I’ll be honest!!!
In other knitting news, I have been knitting more Christmas gifts and also a secret project. More on that next week.
In non knitting news, I have finished tearing up and redoing the garden! Apart from painting the fences. And cutting the grass. But the actual hard part is all done! Woo hoo!!!
What to tackle next…
Hope your all staying safe and enjoying the hot weather (I myself am fighting with the cats to get a spot on the cold slate floor in the kitchen as I don’t enjoy the heat…)
\no wool count this week as nothing has gone up or down despite the sheer amount of knitting I have done lately!
Not sure what happened, but the past I wrote on Saturday doesn’t seem to have published… so going to write it up again super quick!
Another “pattern” from a 6 yo – so cute! Used the free Turtle II chart by Sandra Jäger and my now standard cobbled together hat pattern.
In other news, I kind of fell off my resolution of using only wool from the stash…
Monday – I needed about 50g of a specific colour for a requested knit, and wound up coming home with the correct colour, just 3x100g worth…
Tuesday – was having a bit of a bad day and when I got home, found two balls of ‘pick-me-up’ wool from Engel. (He’s a sweetie, they’re a good colour and the correct weight and type as the majority not my stash)
Thursday – I was given a 300g ball of wool for another project to help raise funds for Felix’s school.
Friday – bobbed into the shops to get a little something sweet and walked out with 4 more balls of wool…it was a lovely colour!
So my wool count now looks like this:
Wool Count
Starting total – 704
Wool used – 25 (5 this week!) Wool bought – 7 Wool given – 3 Wool gifted – 0
I promise I am knitting things besides hats! Honest!
This week we had a request for a snake hat, identical to Felixs and, rather interestingly, Felix turned up from school with a ‘pattern’ one of her best friends had designed for a hat get herself.
Felix gave me the puppy eyes. I rssisted. Them the pout. I caved.
Blue brim, brown background, lion on the side, and a pom pom on top. Check, check, check and check! The lion chart used was a freebie – Lion Chart by Kyra Alvey.
And to show them together:
Snakes and lions oh my!
Not long back from a family Nerf event – feeling rather stiff and sore do going to call this post quits and try and unlock my muscles with a toasty hot shower!
Wool Count
Starting total – 704
Wool used – 13 (4 this week!) Wool bought – 0 Wool given – 0 Wool gifted – 0
First things first: Happy Chinese New Year everyone!
On to the knitting:
In my quest to get Inkling to wear a hat for more than 8 seconds (his car hat I knit him to match his jumper lasted 8 seconds, previous record was 6) I have resorted to my TV nemesis, Paw Patrol.
After a lengthy discussion with a 2.5 year old over his favourite character (Zuma and Chase, he won’t have one, it’s not fair) his favourite colour (blue and green, maybe orange) I have up and watched several episodes with him whilst knitting in a sulk.
Then I saw it.
Ryder (the boy who looks after all the pups) wears a red and blue knitted beanie in the winter/cold weather episodes. That there, was the solution to my problem!
I followed the Basic Family Hat by Yarnspirations Design Studio (free pattern) changing the colours to match and added the Paw Patrol logo on free hand at the end.
He wore it for thirty five minutes! Paw Patrol came to the rescue!
In a few years I will look back on this and laugh…I hope…
Have a good weekend everyone!
Wool Count
Starting total – 704
Wool used – 7 (none this week sadly) Wool bought – 0 Wool given – 0 Wool gifted – 0
First of all I shall start with this weekends activities – The Winter Battle of BritNerf! Fridays battle as held in a skatepark, and I’ll be honest, it was chaos. I hit it too hard, too fast, and hadn’t eaten properly because of driving all the way up to Scotland, and about half way through went all wobbly. Once I had eaten and recharged I was good to go, and 15 seconds into humans Vs zombies, I got tackled and had I been on anything other than the smooth skate ramp, I’d have been fine, but instead went down, along with the ‘zombie’ and landed hard on my left wrist.
One of my fellow team members immediately called in first aid and I had an ice pack on it in under a minute and a very thorough apology from the Zombie. After twenty minutes I realised my wrist was definitely sprained and the drive to Rabbies was rather painful.
Worse still, I couldn’t knit. The horror!
Saturday saw the main event, a close quarters combat scenario, and in this set of games in tight narrow corridors with small areas to hide and hunker down and also to snipe the ‘enemy’ – myself and Engel where in our element! Despite my sore wrist making me unable to prime any blasters (thank goodness for flywheels!) I lasted the majority of the games, and instead only had to call it quite after being literally smoked out.
Asthma and smoke bombs in confined areas, not a great combo. I missed the last two games and due to even more smoke bombs, decided not to dart sweep and instead tidied the resting/set up area.
And despite taking it easy on the wrist, no knitting on Saturday either…
Overall, a great weekend, made better by good company and my sister’s fantastic sweet treats and her adorable dog, Missy. I wouldn’t go to the effort of the four hour drive for the skate park again, despite being fun, just not quite my cup of tea, but for another close quarter game? Definitely!
I’m just doing some research into gas masks that would be suitable for nerfing in, and which I can easily purchase filters for…
In knitting news, I shipped up my holiday knits, some very boring but incredibly good stash busting dish/washcloths!
In more interesting knitting news, Engel managed to somehow sell one hat to two people. He nearly sold it to three before it was realised. What hat was it?
My dead Blinky hat! The original was a commission that fell through (hence why I now ask for half payment up front) and was never actually photographed and recorded anywhere. This is the second, and as most have probably already guessed, made following the free Knitty pattern Fish Hat [Dead or Alive?] by Thelma Egberts.
That’s enough nattering for now, I need to rub some life back into my legs following this weekends mad activity! Mine aren’t too bad, more stuff than sore, Engels though…
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 105 (0 this week) Wool bought – 63 (I fell off the wool wagon hard this weekend, there was a few absolute bargains of wool I really like that’s being discontinued so I stocked up…33 balls…In fairness, my guilt from doing this meant I bought Engel a Hades (a very, very big Nerf blaster!)) Wool given – 163 Wool gifted – 31
Total – 665 (If I buy one more ball, it’ll be the number of the beast! Or would that be knit of the beast?)
One of Andrews cousins is having their first child, a little girl, due June/July, and I couldn’t resist making this adorable set for when the little baby arrives!
The first two are made pretty much as written, but with red rather than pink wool, and I just played about with the colour placement/changes to make the bootees match the rest of the set.
Very pleased with how it came out! Can’t wait till the baby arrives to send them!
In other knitting news I’m still ticking away on a different ongoing project, and not sure when it’s going to stop, but it’s been great for using up all my odds and ends and scraps! Which means the wool count is going down pretty quick!
More about that in a week or two when I hopefully decide I’m done!
In non knitting news, it’s been a busy week at work and a fun weekend – a wooly playdate with Sisterix which included a wander down some trails, a hedgemaze for the kids, and a stroll through Broadbottoms Midsummer yarnbomb!
If your in the area, it’s in until the end of June and I do recommend going for a stroll! Though maybe in drier weather, we had to time our stops to view the various pieces between rain showers!
Today it was another playdate at the Didsbury beer festival, I was designated driver but had a good time catching up on all the gossip and getting a bit of knitting done!
That’s all for now.
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 46 (12 this week!!) Wool bought – 13 Wool given – 155 Wool gifted – 31
Its sensible in that this is possibly the only hat I have made for me without cat ears…and with it being fair isle, it’s so warm and cosy! A must for the recent cold snap we’ve had. The pattern is free and can be found on Ravelry, Lovecraft’s Bane – Cthulhu Hat by Lisa Wilt
Engel decided to share a photo of it with the Nerf 3D printing guy and…
Not one, but two more Cthulhu Hats were requested! One is in the colours of the Cthulhu mittens just made, and the other in khaki green and dark grey for a more muted version.
Want to see them all together?
So much Cthulhu!
On the downside, as I was casting off the rib portion on the final hat, I snapped one of my favourite dpns…such things happen, especially when working on 3mm needles, but I was not impressed!
Ah well, invoking the elder god’s do call for sacrifices to be made…
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 18 (2 this week!) Wool bought – 13 Wool given – 4 Wool gifted – 0
Total – 575 (Woohoo! Finally getting the stash numbers back down!)
In preparation for a trip to Disneyland Paris we’ve been working through classic Disney movies with the little terrors, and Engel, as he hasn’t actually seen most of them, but anyway!
One of the first ones we’ve watched was the classic 1951 Alice in Wonderland and immediately Felix fell in love with the Cheshire cat. Inkling seemed particularly fond of the dodo and the walrus, but to each their own. During the movie, Felix reminded me that I had promised to knit her a new hat this year, and she knew just what she wanted…
Made this based on the free pattern: Matilda’s Eary Hat by Thelma Egberts. And to go with it…
Cheshire cat arm warmers of adorableness!
Made these following the free pattern mini mitts by jessi koontz. Inkling fell in love with them so…
Aviator arm warmers of adorableness!
These are made in the smaller size and with a length of icord to go between them so he doesn’t lose them…
Well, it’s been a busy week with work and family visiting, so I shall leave it at that!
Wool Count
Starting total – 576
Wool used – 5 (Another one bites the dust!) Wool bought – 2 Wool given – 0 Wool gifted – 0
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