by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Here she is, looking for her kittens amongst the cat mint growing in the garden! She won’t get very far finding them, seeing Tom Kitten is chasing Peter Rabbit and his sister Moppet is currently on the needles. Mittens is still just a small pile of balls of wool…

Continuing the Beatrix Potter knits, this is Tabitha Twitchit by Alan Dart, and this time I cracked. I have followed the pattern, mostly, but started to knit whatever I could in the round to reduce in the mountains of sewing these projects entail.

I also have her little pads on her paws like I did for Tom Kitten, makes her cuter!

If the weather hadn’t killed me so badly she would have been done for last week’s post, but with the heat, it’s just unpleasant holding wool and needles.

Moppet is next on the project list, then Mittens, then probably a short break in the Beatrix Potter knits but as of yet undecided!

As an aside, I joined the Stash Knit Down group on Ravelry some time ago, mostly to encourage my attempts of reducing the stash, and I’ve done a few of the challenges. They are currently doing a ‘Hot Flash Dash’ where people try and use 10,000 yards in a month (by themselves or part of a team) and I opted to be a cheerleader. There’s no way I could do that with my current commitments! I posted my first cheer though the other day:

P-U-R-L!
You are all doing well!
K-N-I-T!
Let’s all craft to victory!

So, turns out, cheerleaders don’t actually cheer on forums, but I got a laugh and trying to come up with some more, if anyone has any inspiration?

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 54 (4 since last post)
Wool bought – 8 (1 since last post – it called to both myself and Felix!)
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 578

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Updates 1 Comment

Heatwave.

Any hope of revival?

More thunderstorms.

Please?

You may have noticed that my last three posts all mentioned the hot weather – I don’t cope well with the heat, Engel less so, Felix less than that and poor Inkling is a degree off melting into an actual puddle.

There has been some respite the past two days with small thunderstorms, but it’s not been enough to let us catch up on sleep and recharge.

And I may have given myself a cold by dancing in the rain, every time it has rained these last few days.

Yes. I’ve been out there, hopping and skipping and cheering.

I’m beyond caring what the neighbors think.

So, why am I telling you all this? Because the heat has actually killed my desire to knit. I’ve been focusing more on reading my Achtung Cthulhu scenario and source books, as well as joining in on the highly competitive crossword and soduko solving antics at work.

I’m not kidding either. It’s getting cut throat – someone had managed to get the crossword done before morning break and there was nearly a mutiny over it. Subsequently at least three copies of the newspaper are now present in the breakout area each morning, to give everyone a chance…

So. No knitting to show this week. Or an updated wool count.

Apologies all, hopefully the cooler weather will get me back to knitting again and I’ll have something to show next week!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

The next in line of my Beatrix Potter knits – the Twitchit family!

And first of all is the little mischief maker, Tom Kitten, dressed in his finest, but not best fitting, clothes!

Here he is having scrambled up the cat scratched tower, and he’s popped his coat buttons! What a naughty kitten! (I mostly followed the pattern, another Alan Dart creation, but I used the same eyes as given for Flopsy as the ones written looked a bit bulbous. I also, after Engel pestered and pestered, sewed little ‘beans’ onto his paws)

I have plans to make his sister’s Moppet and Mittens, not sure as to what state of dress they wilk be in mind, but first it’s their poor mother Tabitha that’s on the needles.

Unless I get distracted.

Or the weather picks up again and it’s too hot to think of holding wool…which I really hope isn’t the case, we all desperately need a break in the hot weather!

Short post today as other than work and some chores, we’ve been mostly having lazy or art and craft type days cause of the heat.

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 50 (1 since last post)
Wool bought – 7
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 581

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 2 Comments

They might EGG-splode!

Ok, ok, I know it’s an EGG-stremely bad pun, but it had to be done!

These are a little pair of knitted hand grenade egg cosies, based on the free pattern ‘GRENADE’ by Ali Hogg (Cast kn 42, start from row 15, follow pattern as written) and the purpose of these EGG-celent knits is as a little token gift for my dad for his birthday. I’m sure he’ll appreciate them, at least more than my awful sense of humour!

Though I’m sure he’ll at least get the YOLK! Hee hee! I crack myself up!

Ha! Unintentional egg pun! Thats pretty EGG-citing!

Ok, ok, this post has probably become EGG-scrutiating so I will stop there.

Hope everyone is coping with the hot weather, we haven’t been at all, Engel, Felix and Inkling appear to have given up trying to sleep unless they literally crash out, and I’m fairing only marginally better, but that could be exhaustion (see, I didn’t make a pun there) creeping in and making me deluded.

I wonder if I could blame this post in the heat as well…

Till next week, where hopefully it will be cooler and I’ll feel more inclined to actually knit – it’s a bad sign when the weather has stopped me from my most favourite of hobbies…

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 49 (2 since last post)
Wool bought – 7
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 582

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 1 Comment

How I wish I was doing just that! It’s gotten so hot at the moment that we’re keeping our time outside to a minimum (I can cope with a fair bit of heat and sun, but Felix and Inkling? Nope) there’s even been amber health warnings issued!

Apologies for the lack of post last week – we had Rabbie, her husband, a good friend of theirs and Felix’s favourite doggy cousin, Missy all staying with us! Lots of fun was had, which Rabbie has covered in a fantastic blog post already, but between that and having no finished project to show you all, I decided to skip a week.

This week though I do have something to show! A birthday present that I was literally casting off at the last minute before heading out to give them!

Its based on the free pattern Wavedeck by Kate Atherley – it’s actually a semi circle but I thought it would showcase the gradient change in the wool off beautifully and I had twice as much as needed…so I made it a full circle.

Which is why my timing was so far off, that and it’s been far too hot to knit with essentially a blanket on my lap…but it’s done and I have another ball of gradient wool, but much nearer the recommended yardage for the pattern, so I see another wavedeck in my future!

But after some smaller knits, at the very least once the heat subsides…

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 47 (1 since last post)
Wool bought – 7 (Bought that lovely ball of gradient wool…)
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 584

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

So, when I made the Chaffys not that long ago, I mentioned that Felix liked to play ‘Find Chaffy’ with them. This is fine and fair enough when playing games, but the Chaffys appear to sneak around and get into all sorts of places…

Like under the sofa.

Nestled in the sock drawer.

Lurking in the toy box.

Peeping out from in the blankets.

Hiding under cushions…

The list is pretty endless. The point is trying to get all ten in one place and staying there was driving me mad. So, I did the obvious thing!

I made a  Chaffy bag. In all the colours of the Chaffys. It’s pretty bright, and almost but not quite rainbow like! I used the free pattern ‘Taffy’ by The Noble Thread – mostly because I liked the construction and it would allow panels of colour as opposed to the normal stripes.

It had nothing to do with the fact I found it highly amusing that Taffy and Chaffy rhyme.

Honest.

You’ll notice in the photo that only nine of the ten Chaffys are present, and a little set of fingers, this is because Inkling has taken a shine to them, especially the dinosaur one, and kept photo bombing and stealing them, this was the best of a bad bunch!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 46 (1 since last post)
Wool bought – 6
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 584

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized 4 Comments

Look who else has been sneaking into my Pak choi!

It’s Peter Rabbit! As with Flopsy Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny, this is another Alan Dart pattern. I really am enjoying these, and debating who to knit next!

I do have a few in between projects though that need doing before I start the next one, so I have plenty of time to decide.

Oh, following on from my post last week:

Engels hats now have stars and moons! Thanks to Rabbie for the idea of using felt – so much quicker!

Only a short post today as it’s Father’s Day and I think Inkling and Felix have exhausted poor Engel!

Too cute!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 45 (0 since last post)
Wool bought – 6
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 585

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

Following on from my last post, Hobgoblins, I have finished Engel’s request of making two more…

Engel’s hat, based on Wychwoods ‘KingGoblin’…

And for Inkling, Wychwoods IPA Hobgoblin…

Both based on the free pattern Oblio’s Cap by Emily Anna Bingham (I increased the sts and rows for Engels hat, decreased them both for Inklings)

So, it only took me making three hats to get my original one back, just in time for another spell of hot weather… sigh…

I have, however, managed to cast on Peter Rabbit, fingers crossed he’ll be fine next post, but no promises I won’t get distracted and/or my knitting commandeered!

On a tangent to that, I was looking at ‘top 25 scientific knitting patterns’ and one of them was a computer hat – a beanie featuring CRT monitors – and I showed it to Engel asking if he’d like a hat like that.

His response was no, he wanted one showing John Von Neumann Architecture…

I really should learn not to ask his opinions on things…

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 45 (2 since last post)
Wool bought – 6
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 585

 

Edit:

While proofreading Engel demanded to know why his hat didn’t have stars and moons on it… Sigh.

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

About a decade ago I knit a green night cap (it was vaguely supposed to be based on Links hat from The Legend of Zelda, but I was winging the pattern whilst taking turns playing the game, so take that as you will)

Anyhow, I have thick hair, so in the winter months after I’ve washed it at night, I pop on my hat and go to bed (yes, I know going to bed with wet hair is supposed to give you a cold, no, it doesn’t actually give you one and no, I won’t hairdryer it as the only times I tried took an hour and it was still damp in places).

This past winter, Felix had taken to stealing my hat when she had her hair washed, and I would steal it back when I washed mine. A few weeks ago she pointed at a t-shirt Engel was wearing and stated ”I want a red night hat like that!’

The t-shirt happened to be a Wychwood brewery Hobgoblin T-shirt (the classic ‘lagerboy’ one).

After we explained that the red hat was a hobgoblin hat, it was agreed that she would return my green one in exchange for her own hobgoblin hat.

Its a bit big, but she’ll grow into it (I know I generally don’t post photos with people in, but I wanted to get one showing the drape and Felix refused to let me put it on anything else!). Made using the free pattern Oblio’s Cap by Emily Anna Bingham – very easy pattern to follow, and a pretty quick, simple knit all things considered.

Which is good, as Engel has pointed out that there are more Hobgoblin beers, in fact, the King-goblin would suit him, and wouldn’t Inkling look adorable in the IPA Hobgoblin hat?…

Guess what my next knits are?

As an aside, last May I posted that I had discovered some Tribbles in my wool stash, and despite attempts of extermination, found more not once, but twice!

Well, sadly, the originally caught specimens are showing their age, and one has also passed on through the wooly gates…so I went to see if there were any survivors lurking in the wool stash…

Yep. Found six more!

Till next week!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 43 (1 since last post)
Wool bought – 6
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 587

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

Following on from Flopsy Rabbit, I’ve now made…

Benjamin Bunny! And what a little rascal, eating the pak-choi!

The pattern is Benjamin Bunny by Alan Dart, and like Flopsy, it’s very well written and pretty easy to knit, but the sewing! So much sewing!

That said, I’m a glutton for punishment and plan to cast on for Peter next, though I have a few smaller projects to fit in as well…more on those when I’ve made them, or at least have something to show you all!

Just a quick post this week, it’s been a pretty busy week with work and the little ones, and there was some drama as something’s taken a chunk out of Ziggy’s tail, but it’s all been cleaned and bandaged and despite the dirty looks she’s been given me, she’s all fine now!

Though I suspect she’s had her revenge as last night, I jumped up and landed on one of Inklings wooden blocks, and subsequently have a chunk of my toe missing…so much pain…

We’ve also been doing most of the activities at the MOSI today (Felix was deemed too young to be allowed to do any soldering, much to her daddy’s disappointment!) but she did manage to convince the poor chap running the 3D printers to let her have the space invader charm he’d just made as she recognised it as something her daddy likes…

Shame it’s bright pink!

See you all next week, where I’ll no doubt be even more worn out as it’s the school holidays and it’s all me and the terror days subsequently! Now, to Pinterest for ideas on what to do that are fun, educational but not going to destroy the house…

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 42 (0 since last post)
Wool bought – 6
Wool given – 5
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 588

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