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Tag: Knitting

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

Twenty four balls of wool used, twenty four balls of wool knit, we take a ball, we knit it all, twenty four balls of wool used up!

Only six hundred and sixty ball of wool to go!

Insanity aside, it’s been busy since my last post. I’m now in the process of changing jobs, my love for Rockband being awakened, knitting, work itself, a massive spring clean and lastly I spent a week’s break in Wales with Engel and Felix.

A brief summary is thus:

Three railways – one diesel (Welsh highland heritage), two steam (Ffestiniog and Talyllyn) – all narrowguage, three beaches, two harbours, one failed attempt at crabbing (Felix dropped her crab line into the sea), several successful rock pooling attempts (caught four fish, a dozen crabs and a live clam), a swimming pool, rabbit farm and sea zoo, plus a brief look at where they make seasalt.

It’s been busy.

But good.

I doubt anyone is really interested (except Rabbie) on a blow by blow account of my trip, so my summary I hope will suffice.

Onto the knitting!

Another little knitted extra for person at my work who is pregnant with a little girl.

Something Felix, my little one, adored when she was tiny was a little Scamp snuggly (I think alike people call them lovelys?) A little fabric square with an animal head.

Hopefully this one will be loved too!

Worked top down from the head and then onto the blanket from the centre out, finishing with a picot bind off. Seeing as my cat Crumble refused to move as I was finishing it, I took a photo of it on her.

And a firm favourite – pattern is Cat-ears Hat by Donna Druchunas, from ‘Kitty Knits: Projects for cats and their people’ – a very used and loved Christmas present from Rabbie, many, many moons ago!

“But that hasn’t used up twenty four balls of wool” I hear you say, why no, it hasn’t. The two projects above used up four. The other twenty is from cat ears and tails as I blitz my way through my fluffy/fuzzy wool collection.

Engel has been helping me on this crusade by knitting the cat tails with as small knitting machine we got Felix.

She’s made a few too.

It really is that easy to use.

I’ll take a photo of them all when I finish, there’s still fluffy/fuzzy wool left (I suspect it’s breeding, and related to Tribbles)

Well, that’s all for today, still sorting out the post holiday stuff that needs doing…

Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 46 (24 balls used up this week!)
Wool bought – 9

Total – 660

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting No Comments

Does whatever knitting I can…

For some reason the spider man song leapt into my mind. Must be the sleep deprivation catching up with me! Work, being a mum, attempts of a social life and a house keeping have just killed me lately.

Have managed a fair bit of knitting though!

These were made using the free Ravelry download ‘Stripy baby dungarees’ by Becky Smith. This was a request from someone at work who is expecting their first grandchild – they asked for grey dungarees and this was the pattern I settled on.

I do like the two tone grey – its very soft on the eyes and gender neutral.

This is also the first project I’ve used a hammer on! (It was for the big silver fasteners – but still, a hammer! For a knitting project! Engel appeared to feel that my invasion of his sacred toolbox warranted him the right to ‘supervise’. Or maybe he doesn’t trust me with heavy tools…)

But that’s not all this week! More baby things!

Lots of baby things! The cardigan pattern is ‘long or short sleeved coat with flower’ from sirdars ‘Beautiful baby knits’. (Got to love the incredibly unimaginative names!) The booties are from the same booklet, they’re from the ‘Sweetpea’ set. The hat is another free Ravelry download – Alfafa Baby Hat by Kate Gagnon Osborn. Lastly, the mittens pattern is a free online pattern ‘Wee baby mitts’ by Christine Vogel. Adorable! To tie the set together I added the flower from the cardigan onto everything. I think it’s worked out well. 

Though I still have a ball of that wool left – maybe a matching cuddly toy?

Wool countdown!

Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 22 (5 balls used up this week!)
Wool bought – 9

Total – 684

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Uncategorized 1 Comment

Or perhaps the road map playmat of Sods Law. Super cute blanket, but I had a bit of a nightmare making it!

Let me tell you my tale of woe…

I was stash busting, as you know, my current goal being to get that number at the bottom of each post down to skmething bordering reasonable, but Sods Law, I ran out of wool.

Grr.

I needed more but, Sods Law, couldn’t get the same colour…So I then had to use two shades and tweak which squares had which one.

Grr.

This happened not once, but twice. The green and yellow.

Double grr.

After what felt like knitting all the squares I needed twice over, I ran out of green again! Seriously?!

GRR!

So I changed the road layout to accommodate.

Grr.

Finally, I had knit all the squares, and started to sew it up, when Dashie, one of the cats, ran in, stole a square and hid it.

Photographic evidence of Dashie ‘helping’. Sigh.

Upon retrieving the stolen square from where the cat hid it (under the sofa) I found several more complete knitted squares.

I had 39 squares, not the 35 the pattern required.

GRR!

Turns out I did have enough of the second green not to have tweaked the pattern… But was a bit late to do anything by then!

I’m taking this as a sign from the great elder God Cthuhlu to rethink my blanket making strategies…

Wool countdown!

Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 17 (Despite the shenanigans, none where used up this week!)
Wool bought – 9

Total – 689

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting No Comments

Just a short post to say my Easter has been busy but fine – even with all the gardening and the thunderstorms! I managed to mostly avoid being outside during the thunderstorms but the few seconds I was out…

Anyhow. Felix had fun, too much chocolate was consumed, cakes got baked, crafty things were made and the houses was turned upside down only twice.

Amongst this, I finished knitting the squares for the blanket. And some. Will blog later when I feel like I won’t murder my cats and the blanket is sewn.

You can instead look at this mini knit I did during the week:

It’s (another) Miss Marple scarf, present for Engels godmother for her birthday.

There will be a much longer and more entertaining post next week.

Wool countdown!

Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 17 (3 this update!)
Wool bought – 9

Total – 689

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting No Comments

Still plodding on with my blanket – having a little saga with it, but more on that when I post about it…

It’s been a fairly quiet week all in all, used up one ball of wool, done lots of work, Felix has been up to no extra mischief than normal…though the weekend should be fun, but let’s see how that goes before I go on about it!

So, when there’s not much to say or show, it’s time to hit the knitting archives of things not on this blog yet!

Today: Teapots.

I posted, back in November 2013 about my commissioned Scottish hippo teacosie but no other tea cosies have appeared on my blog. And I’ve made lots. Like dice bags, there’s a certain charm to making tea cosies…but they’re something that’s nearly obsolete to most people. I do own a pair of Teapots, but my sister Rabbie owns a whole collection…I’ll try and get a photo of it some time!

Let’s start with…

Grannies traditional tea cosie, free pattern by Keren Smith – this one is not in traditional colours (the orange and green are both UV reactive and will glow under a black light) but it’s a lovely design that never fails. I’ve made half a dozen or so in different colours for people, usually to match their kitchens!

After a few I was inspired to make this using the same pattern, just the one colour, and a few added details…

Cactus teacosie! This was a present for the father in law, who loves his cacti, and I will say now, I’ve never known a knitted thing to be used as much as this has. Everyday since February 2012, and several times a day at weekends, this gets used.

My in-laws are big tea drinkers.

And as an aside, nothing makes a knitted happier than knowing their knitting is used/loved to the point of repair. That base and the flower and the seams have all been redone several times…

Anyhow! Before I digress further, one of my own creation, for my mum this time;

She loves elephants and wanted an elephant tea cosie, but didn’t like any I showed her, so she told me to make my own up. It boggles that the woman who taught me to knit thinks I can do a better job than her (maybe on toys, but baby stuff? No way, never ever…)

And last but not least:

‘Sheepish look’  by Caroline Lowbridge. The pattern is from ‘Tea Cosies’ to which I own books and and two…again, this is a pattern I’ve made a dozen times or so – I make it for myself and before it’s even done, it gets thieved…always with permission mind you…it’s hard to say no sometimes…

Alright, hopefully next week I’ll have something new to show you all!

 

Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 14 (1 this update!)
Wool bought – 9

Total – 692

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

Hi all,

Apologies for the lack of a blog last week, there was an issue with the server but I’m back now!

Today myself, Engel and Felix went lambing – it was rather surreal and more of a walk in documentary type affair than the hands on experiences I’ve had with lambing in the past.

Needless to say though Felix had a ball – with much shouting of sheep! And lambs! Took a while for her to understand that baby sheep were lambs and mummy lambs were sheep, but we got there. She was very timid about petting them though.

I find it amusing that my two year old fearlessly deals with the snakes and tarantulas that we own as pets, but runs screaming because a sheep baa’d at her…

Onto knitting news, still working my way through the blanket, not sewn anything together so other than a bundle of squares there’s not much to show. I do however have line little finished project:

Yes it’s another dicebag birthday present.

And yes, it’s a star wars one too. The charts are from the free pattern ‘star wars double knit scarf‘ by Notanicedragon.

I may have to extend my circle of friends, or criteria, about making dice bags, there’s only one or two left who haven’t received the traditional gift – this troubles me as I enjoy making them far too much!

Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 13 (2 this update!)
Wool bought – 9

Total – 693

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 1 Comment

Just a few things since my last blog post…

A request from someone at work who is expecting their first grandchild – it’s an adorable hooded cabled cardigan called, rather excitingly, ‘Design I’ from Sirdars Gorgeous Babies booklet. I’ve just cast on a blanket now for them also, but more on that on a later post.

Next of all, a little story.

Whilst in Edinburgh, at the museum of Scotland, Felix batted her eyelashes at Daddy and left cuddling a small triceratops.

On the bus ride home, she informed me it needed a mummy and I was going to make her it.

Can’t fault a two year olds logic sadly…

It was easy to achieve though using the triceratop pattern from ‘Knitted Dinosaurs’ by Tina Barret. Just a little bit of colour work and voila!

I must admit, the squeals of joy when I gave her it this morning made the effort well worth while!

Except, just one small detail.

She just asked for a Daddy dinosaur…

Wool Count down:

Starting total – 697 balls

Wool used – 11

Wool accidentally purchased – 9 (it was a super good offer and a really nice bright green that will make an adorable…something…)

Total – 695

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one No Comments

Felix has recently started to refer to herself and her most loved ones (mummy and daddy) as cats. It’s very cute, if not incredibly confusing to everyone not clued in on the cat craziness here.

Seriously, we’re all crazy old cat ladies, without the old part and, in the case of Engel, he’s a laddie, not a lady.

Anyhow I’ve spent the last few days in Edinburgh, seeing the family, and having lots of adventures! By the end of it, Felix’s cat family expanded to include her granny and two cousins as well – that was an interesting thing to explain to an eleven and six year old, why it was an honour too be called a cat…Granny figured it out right away.

She’s used to my crazy.

A little present my neice asked for, quite coincidentally, was ‘happy family – cats and kittens’ from the book ‘Knitted cats and kittens’ by Sue Stratford.

I also made the matching tiny mice. It went down well and sums up the trip a fair bit!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 11 (1 this week)

Total – 686

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Uncategorized No Comments

A commission from work, made loosely following the ‘dinosaur toy’ pattern from ‘nursery knits for boys’ by sirdar. He’s turned into a cutie I must admit, but I could only work on this whenever Felix wasn’t around/paying attention in case she demanded it for herself!

Slow week knitting wise really as there’s been a bit of a cold virus going through the house, and with work and everything else…yeah…tired.

In other news I’ve not been made redundant, but seeing as nearly two thirds of my department will be leaving sooni’m wondering if  that’s a good thing or not…time will tell I guess.

No wool count this week as I’ve not used up any wool, a good bit of each of the dinosaur colours has been used, but not a whole ball!

 

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

Several years ago, before Felix, I made myself a crocodile scarf (the pattern was from an old let’s knit magazine) and after wearing it that winter, it got shoved into the box of spare scarves and gloves and forgotten.

One day, looking for anything that Felix might agree to wear that was warm, she spotted the crocodile scarf and has since worn it like a shawl around herself.

It was adorable, and warm, and I never thought more about it.

The other day she got a toy cat that came with a lilac sparkly scarf with fluffy white trim. After one look at it, and a testing cuddle, she demanded the offending purple fluffy thing be removed and replaced with its own crocodile scarf.

I was about to tell her not to be silly when Engel replied ‘of course mummy will make Whiskers (the toy cat) one!’

Out came the pattern and one was made in miniature. And I have to admit, the photo bombed pictures of Felix hugging that cat wearing its scarf and squealing ‘thank you mummy! Love you!’ does make it worthwhile…but they’re for my private collection, so you’ll have to make do with the cat by itself.

He is cute with it on…

Besides this scarf, I made Engel another pair of armwarmers. Same pattern, same wool, same colours. Boring!

Quiet week otherwise. Well, a slow one. Redundancies have been announced at work so I’m playing the waiting game to see if I’ll be staying or going.

I’ve begun to stress knit…wool tension is through the roof though…

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 10 (1 this week)

Total – 687

 

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