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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

So, last post I mentioned that we live in interesting times. Since then interesting has moved on to insane. We’re in lock down, not allowed out the house more than once a day, no work myself (unless there’s an emergency lab sample) Engel working from home, Felix is now being homeschooled as the schools are closed…

Its…strange. I’ve managed a surprising amount between home schooling Felix and wrangling Inkling – gutted the conservatory, started a sour dough culture, lots of carding my sheep fleece, a handful of odd jobs that were being left until I had ‘5 minutes spare’…

I have also managed some knitting too!

This is Morris. He’s a combination of two patterns – Alley Cat and Ginger Tom both by Sue Stratford from her book ‘Knitted Cats and Kittens’. Morris happens to be Engels Pathfinder character – he’s a Cat-folk engineer. (I keep calling him a technomage and keep getting told no). Much like my Kobold Barbarian Reyth, I will get round to making some clothing for this guy. Just not sure quite what yet…

And a nice one of his back as I just winged the striping!

In other knitting news, I have finished off a lot of little bits, which I will post next week/later. No wool in or out so will skip the wool count this week, again.

And in non knitting news, the world has gone mad, I’m just staying inside and following the rules to do my bit, but otherwise avoiding all the crazy I can. The terrors are loving having all the mummy attention but not sure when novelty will turn into annoyance…

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 3 Comments

Literally.

I’ve been knitting balls this week.

inkling has been wanting to join in with our little Nerf wars in the house, only he can’t prime a standard blaster, and the flywheel ones are too heavy for him to carry and aim at the same time. A solution has been found, in the form of a “Little Tikes blaster”.

Inkling adores it. He can load it, shoot it, and run around all at the same time. Only issue is that it came with just three balls for ammo, and that lasts all of four seconds.

So I have been knitting balls. Bright, multicoloured, balls.

And a Nerf bag for them to go in, that match his blaster, so he can join in with the rest of us when dart sweeping.

The pattern used for the balls is a free one called ‘Oh Balls!‘ by Marcie Nishioka. It’s a great pattern for using up little scraps, or in my case, wool that’s so bright and obnoxious I’m not too sure what to make with it!

Not much else to say really for this week – it’s been busy, like really busy, but not a lot to talk about it…oh! I got to play my new game, Llamas unleashed, and am now resisting the urge to knit an army of llamas, alpacas, goats and rams to match all the different artwork! So cute! Fun to play too…

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 17 (2 this week!)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 0
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 687

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 2 Comments

Something that isn’t hats! But what exactly is it?

Is it a llama? Is it an alpaca? We can all definitely agree it’s cute! Pattern for the actual critter is a free Ravelry download – Flounce the Fluffy Alpaca by Tabitha Rose – and I just winged a blanket and teeny tiny pom-pom detailing!

I made this cutie as a thank you to a fellow yarnie work colleague who crochets as opposed to knits, and gifted me a cone of the fluffy wool as it wouldn’t behave for her crochet hooks! I made it yield to the knitting needles!

(The llama unleashed game was Engel giving me a random ‘saw this and thought of you’ gift, squee!)

That’s all today, Inklings had a stomach bug start of this week that rivals THAT scene from the exorcist, and after one day of peace, Felix has now started…when will it end?!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 15 (2 this week!)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 0
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 689

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Just like the title says – it’s Bad News Badger. He’s made roughly following the free pattern Rabbit and Bear by April Cromwell and is a companion piece to The Angry Badger I knit a while ago.

I had far too much fun with this guy – especially making his little tiny newspaper! He’s small enough he can sit in the palm of my hand…

In other knitting news, still working on those two big projects, interspersed with a few small ones as I’ll go insane otherwise…

Just a short one today, it’s been pretty manic as of late! Oh, except to say that after knitting the Ryder hat for Inkling, he has decided that his traffic one is the bestest hat and is now wearing that…sigh….

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 9 (2 this week!)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 0
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 695

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

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

Total – 697 

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

Happy new year everyone! May it be happier and healthier than last year!

Since my last post, I finished up three projects – a snake hat for Felix, a cosie for the in-laws and a teeny tiny knitted jumper, as I keep getting asked by someone to make them a jumper and, no, just no.

The tea cosie is based on the free pattern Mug and French Press Jacket by MK Carroll, as you can see in the photo, it’s a glass teapot with a very, very short spout and I figured having the bottom covered was better than the top!

The jumper is made following the free pattern Mini Sweater Ornament with Cables by Emily5446 – very cute, very well written pattern and I have a jumper that’s about 4 cm tall!

As for 2020, I have finished my first project just yesterday! Maleficent!

This pattern is based on Dragons by King Cole Ltd – though I had to tweak it a fair bit and add a lot of extra details to turn it into Maleficent! The reason for this is that every year I knit a Christmas decoration, and for 2019 I planned to knit a Mickey mouse head to mark our first proper family holiday to Disneyland Paris!

Except Felix told me no, I had to knit Maleficent. I argued that I wouldn’t get all the detail into an ornament, to which I was told not to make an ornament, but a dragon big enough to sit on top of the tree!

Engels oh so helpful in put to this was ”if you knit an even bigger one it could sit under the tree and guard the presents!”

So Maleficent it was, and at a hefty 60cm long she’ll either be taking the whole top of the tree, or hoarding the presents beneath – we’ll have to wait till next year to find out!

Till next week!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 2
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 0
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 702

I feel I had best explain why my wool count has gotten so much bigger – I was given quite a few balls for Christmas (Inkling gave me two yellow balls and informed me that one was a digger and the other a bulldozer, hmm, I suspect he’s learning from Felix) and I ripped out a few old finished projects that weren’t being used, so that wool has gone back into the wool stash. I also bought four balls of bright orange in order to make a project I have planned! This year, I really do hope to finish with 600 or less!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 1 Comment

It’s been one hell of a week. Fortnight actually. Home stuff, stuff that doesn’t belong on here, but needless to say it’s pretty much killed what little festive spirit i’ve had.

Seriously, I have felt festive for two hours this year. Which in turn makes it hard to create the magic for Felix and Inkling. I think I’ve managed – they’re eagerly counting down the days and it’s getting harder and harder to settle them at night!

The tree is up, the decorations out, presents squirrelled away everywhere…yep…even if I don’t feel it, it’s nearly here…

Even if I haven’t been feeling it, I have been cracking on with Christmas knitting! Though I had said I wouldn’t make any this year…

In order to not be eaten by the Yule Cat, you must receive something warm and wooly. I showed Felix a bunch of patterns and without looking at them, she informed me I was to make her a snake jumper. When I sarcastically asked her if there was a specific snake she had in mind, she replied cobra…and that it had to be a green jumper…sigh…

The jumper is based on Heart Sweater from the book ‘Cool knits for kids’ by Kate Gunn & Robyn Macdonald. I used the snake charts from the free pattern Swing-Snakes by Tina13.

And if I make something for Felix, I make something for Inkling! He chose the free pattern traffic by Amy Bahrt, insisting on a red car. Then I found the matching Traffic Hat and yeah…

But wait, there’s more!

My new gaming group are obsessed with Pokémon, and with the new sword and shield game out, have sorted themselves into teams of Pokémon type to have battles with their other friends. There was talk of team colours and then I saw this free pattern on Ravelry (Dawn/Hikari Pokéball hat in 2 variations by Mina Janssen) and I knew I had to make them.

So, top left is bug, top right is ghost, bottom left is poison and bottom right is dragon.

There’s other things in the works too, but you won’t be finding out about those until next year, so until then, have a good festive season!

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 112 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 63
Wool given – 167
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 662

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Even though it’s early (for us) the pleading eyes of Felix and Inkling have led to the Christmas tree being put up, the decorations festooned around the house, and the Christmas knits are falling off the needles.

If only I had more hands and time to work on all the things I want made for Christmas…

One project that I have finished however was a request from Felix. She wanted to give everyone in her class both a present and card. After a bit of negotiation, we agreed to a small Christmas tree decoration for each child and no cards.

I suggested candy canes, as they are quick and easy and cute, but what did she want?

Stockings. Little advent stockings, like the ones I have made for her and Inkling. Sigh…

There’s 33 there. 29 for her classmates, 2 for the childminders children, 1 for her teacher and 1 for the teaching assistant.

They went down well, but I hope to not knit anymore! At least for the rest of the year! (Pattern is free, Christmas Stockings by Amanda Berry)

How goes everyone else’s Christmas preparations?

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 109 (1 this week)
Wool bought – 63
Wool given – 167 (was gifted four balls this week)
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 665

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Have you noticed that most couples have some cute or endearing little terms they use with one another if the other is say, in a bad mood, or being particularly excited?

For example, if myself or Engel want to be left alone, it’s described as ‘being a squeezle’ ( a No Reservations reference to a porcupine) or if one of us is being just grouchy then they’re ‘a grumpy bunny’ if all’s well then we’re ‘little/big cat’.

Well I was requested to make someone else’s version of ‘grumpy bunny’ and that is ‘angry badger’…

Think he looks angry enough? I think he looks ready to murder someone…

And a side view of him having a tantrum and destroying all the Duplo…

I’ll be honest in that I had a lot of fun with this, I’ve not knitted a badger before (this is a great free pattern Miss Barlow Badger by Jem Weston) and I have never purposefully tried to make a toy look angry before!

He went down really well, and there’s already been a request for a ‘bad news badger’ for Valentine’s, I’ll wait till closer to the time to see if that’s something that is genuinely going ahead, but it’s certainly made me laugh!

Not much in other news, well, that’s not quite true, a lot has been going on, but not the kind of stuff I talk about here. It’ll all be fine in the end, just need to remember that there is an end, and it is in sight.

Christmas has descended upon the household, did a Grinch-mas trail last week and the tree has gone up today. A bit early for myself personally but the combined puppy eyes of Felix and Inkling made me cave in.

Oh, one more thing, the wool count! Normally I pop it on the bottom of the post and leave it at that but after using one ball up these last two weeks I am now at 666! The number of the beast!

Though I keep singing ‘Knit-Knit-Knit, the stitches of the beast!’

On that note, cheerio till next week!

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 108 (1 this week)
Wool bought – 63
Wool given – 167 (was gifted four balls this week)
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 666 the number of the beast!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

A friend of mine does a bonfire/Halloween fancy dress party every year, and after being rescheduled several times, finally happened last night. The theme this year? Lovecraftian Horror!

After much debate, I settled on myself and Engel being cultists of Shub Niggurath, (Black Goat of the Wood with a Thousand Spawn) and Felix and Inkling went as two of the said spawn.

Rabbie did me a huge favour in putting together a pair of awesome cultists robes (that double up as jedi robes and wanderers of the apocalypse robes) Edit: just linked to her blog post about the cultists robes and it made me laugh, I took my two to a cthulhu themed party, complete with bonfire, and she’s taken the fur baby to Santa Paws…

Anyhow, so all I had to do was whip up four pairs of hats with horns! Which I started monday. Oops.

Managed it more or less and super pleased with the outcome!

These are made based on the pattern Skull by Vanessa Mooncie from her book “Monster Hats: 15 Scary Head-Warmers to Knit”

Ready for the full effect?

I’ve positioned it so you can see inside the cloak and see all the eyes of the other 998 spawn yet to be summoned. Felix wore her knitted sheep costume from a long time ago, plus hat, and Inkling had his bear costume on, with goat horn hat rather than bear hat.

All in all, we made for an adorable family set! I’m also pleased to say a lot of people also turned up dressed, and there was an amazing Hastur and a good number of people with that ‘Innsmouth Look’ about them!

Will leave it at that, see you all next week!

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 107 (2 this week)
Wool bought – 63
Wool given – 167 (was gifted four balls this week)
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 667 (If I use one more ball, it’ll be the number of the beast! Or would that be knit of the beast?)

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