by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 2 Comments

For lots of baby knits!

This is a little blanket for Felix’s childminder’s daughter’s baby. (Say that five times fast – I knit a blanket for her first born last year) and is based on the free pattern ‘Jericho Baby Blanket’ by Shana Schasteen. I also added a fluffy trim to make it even more snuggly! The photo is it folded up, just so you all know!

Another two adorable pair of bootees for the new mum whom I made a set for featured in this blog post. Same bootee pattern, just different detailing. The pom poms I winged, the butterflies though are a free Ravelry download ‘Springtime Wreath, Butterflies’ by Frankie Brown. So cute!

But I couldn’t just make two pairs of very (pink) bootees, that’s a bit boring!

So I made these monster feet! It’s a free pattern again – ‘Monster Baby Booties’ by Needyl and they are so very, very cute. But a baby needs a hat to match such cute shoes! Especially with winter approaching…

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It’s a monster hat!!!! And it matches (same fluffy wool, same contrast wool). Yet another free pattern – ‘baby monstaa’s very scary bonnet’ by Jones & Vandermeer.

OK, I’ll admit, no Christmas knitting has taken place at all this past week, but the main reason wasn’t because of all the very cute distractions, but because it was Felix’s third birthday on Wednesday! I took the day off work and we had a ball at the ice cream farm, and today we had a few friends and family attend a little gathering at Stockley farm (it’s dog friendly so Felix’s doggie ‘cousin’ Missy could join! She has her own blog btw, it’s worth a look for those looking for doggie adventures of their own)

Alright, it’s been a long day and I for one am tuckered out. So I’ll leave the blog post here and finish off with the wool count – five balls used this week! OK, almost all of that was in the blanket, but hey, five balls used is five balls used!

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 105 ( 5 this week)
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 7

Total – 612

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

To show you this quick little leaving present for someone at my work:

It’s based on the hat worn by Jayne Cobb in an episode of the cult hit TV series Firefly. I’m pleased to say she was happy with it! No pattern given as it’s something I whipped up from my head…

In other not knitting news, I had my sewing lessons again and made more cushions! (Waiting for the rest of the class to get confident with the machines before I move in to more fun things) so here’s my latest upcycled T-shirt cushion!

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It’s probably one of my favourite T-shirts that Engel doesn’t wear anymore (it’s so baggy it’s like a tent, and that was before he lost weight!) So now, it’s an awesome cushion.

And since I had time…

Well, let me explain this one, from the beginning. The beginning by the way, is some point in 2011.

This is the result of a string of disasters.

I wanted to knit my other half the big bad wolf jumper, (from the book Domiknitrix by Jennifer Stafford) so bought some wool and cast on.

Halfway through, I ran out of wool and found it to have been discontinued. I managed to find something similar so…rip rip rip went my first attempt, and I cast on again using the new wool.

Sigh.

I knit all the pieces, sewed them together and had him try it on. I’d sewed the arms too tight, so yank yank yank out came my sewing and back I sewed again.

Grr.

It fit. Perfectly. Just the right amount of drape so as not to be snug, but not so much as to be baggy.

It was worn every day for a week before I got it off him and into the washing machine…where it did something very weird. It got both wider and shorter.

Argh!

He put it on once it was a dry and it looked like a super baggy belly top…not his look at all!

OK, that did give me a chuckle.

After sitting in the naughty knitting corner for a year, I rather haphazardly turned it into a cushion. It was ok, but… I kind of sewed the cushion into the cover. So… not so easy to wash.

Grr!

So today I pulled it apart again and turned it into a much nicer, neater cushion!

And that is the rather long tale of why my big bad wolf jumper is now a cushion…

There you have it for today’s post.

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 100 ( 3 this week)
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 7

Total – 617

 

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized 1 Comment

As mentioned last post, working on Christmas knits so nothing to show right now! Well, I do have this recent creation:

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Not knitting, but still craft related. There’s a group in the village over that teach people all kinds of craft – knitting, crochet, sewing, card making, felting, all sorts! So I’ve been getting to grips with a sewing machine. I’ve always been able to thread one (mum uses a machine, but her eyes are not so good so that was a job she had me and Rabbie do) and I can do a straight line and that’s about it.

Now though, I turned one of Engels old super baggy but still too awesome to just throw away t-shirts into a cushion cover! This is the practice one, there’s more awesome ones to do.

Want to see knitting though? Here’s a pair of pen-tacle cuties from the archives:

Who says stationary has to be boring? The red one is a classic squid/octopus inspired creation, and the second…blame Engel. He was playing Day of the tentacle… Or something?

Lastly, the wool count. Yeah…well, you see…I worked out what I was going to knit for the Christmas presents, but came up three balls of wool short (yes, I came up short despite owning 600+ balls of wool!) So in Tuesday popped to the wool shop near work (Black Sheep – it’s amazing!) and managed to walk out with just the three I needed (even more amazing). Yesterday though, I got home to find Engel had picked me up three balls more wool and a bag of tablet as I was feeling a little blue.

Considering I hadn’t actually told him this, and had only just begun to feel blue, well, that’s probably the most amazing thing of all.

Or it’s the brood telepathy.

Does however mean that instead of being good and using two balls of wool, I added six, so net gain of four balls of wool. Oops…

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 97
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 7

Total – 620

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 1 Comment

My neice was given a doll (a 16″ American Doll whom she named Holly) but she didn’t have many clothes for this doll. So she gave me the puppy eyes and asked me to make a few little pieces for her, and well, I’m a soft touch when it comes to the puppy eyes…

Felix can attest to that.

So without further ado, a whole little party outfit:

All free Ravelry patterns:

Knotted Openwork Girls Shrug – with matching American Girl size by Kristen Renneke

American Girl Doll Empire Waist Lace Dress by Elaine Phillips

Doll Shoes for 18″ Dolls by Onelia

And for when the weather gets colder, which it will:

Again, all free Ravelry patterns:

American Girl Doll Retro Winter Outfit (Coat, Hat and Muff) by Elaine Phillips

Easiest and fastest baby UGG booties ever! by A la Sascha (Doll size)

Cute, aren’t they? Haven’t decided if they’ll be a Christmas present, birthday present or just spontaneous gift yet – guess i’ll see what’s closest when I see my neice next!

It’s been a busy week – Wythenshaw Garden Festival yesterday, and I have to say I was impressed at just how much Felix could get involved with. We now have a 3ft scarecrow she (helped) made in the front garden, button bracelets, banana badges and lots of colouring, and she got to do painting, eat crickets and mealworms (taste like pork scratchings and…creamy?) She planted pumpkin seeds and made her own fruit salad!

Her highlight: getting to hold the tiniest owl I have ever seen. Which was comical as the man demonstrating was holding a greater horned owls which weighs about as much as she does…

And today has been arts and crafts and swimming – knackered now!

All in all, a good weekend.

And this week I managed to use up three balls of wool!

*Does a little dance*

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 95
Wool bought – 10
Wool given – 4

Total – 616

 

P.S.

I’ve made a start on the Christmas knits for this year so there won’t be many new projects posted over the next few weeks (I wouldn’t want to spoil any surprises), but I’ll try and post a few things from the archives to keep things interesting!

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

I think that’s an apt name for this:

It’s based on the Free Ravelry Downloadable Pattern Vortex Shawl by Kristina McCurley and made with the yummy wool I blogged about last post.

The name comes from the current computer game Engel is playing ‘No Man’s Sky’ where you got from planet to planet, discovering, cataloguing and mining for resources as far as I can tell…to a relaxing soundtrack…great for switching off in the evening, and what I’ve been watching as I worked in my shawl…

Not the most attractive photo if it, but the best colour match to real life, and it gives you an idea of the shape too. The merino/yak was lovely to knit with, and loved by certain four legged critters…

Salem wasn’t caught in the act of stealing it, three seconds after I put it on the floor to photograph…of course not…

I also wore it yesterday at a wedding banquet, where I shamefully had to call it quits after the fifth of eight courses…seeing as it started with an entire roast suckling pig between eight of us, I don’t think I did too bad. Oh, and for those curious, the heads in the fridge, I couldn’t let such a yummy treat go to waste!

Not much else to say really, life’s been ticking along, I had some family visit, been spending a fair bit if time with Felix, working on her crafty skills – pom pom caterpillars today! And pom pom monsters. She wanted to make a pom pom Cthuhlu, but decided the tentacles would be too difficult to make from pom poms alone…

So cute!

Wool count:

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 92
Wool bought – 10
Wool given – 4

Total – 619

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Cats, Gaming, Knitting, Uncategorized No Comments

Cthuhlu phtang!

This time last year I posted about how awesome my friends are. How they all donned on cat ears and played Cathuhlu all just for my birthday.

They out did themselves this year, and I have to say, my friends are more than awesome, they’re amazing!

I mean seriously, look at this cake!

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It’s the Necronomicon, as a cake!

It’s not the first amazing cake that particular friend of mine has made for my birthday, two years ago, it was this tentacular beauty!

Tentacle Cake 2~2

In case you haven’t all guessed, I’m obsessed with Cthuhlu. I’ve read all of H. P. Lovecrafts mythos stories, own numerous RPGs (Call of Cathuhlu, Delta Green, The Laundry, as well as numerous source books) I even created my own knitted Cthuhlu pattern!

It also happens to be my literally just now finished project:

Cthuhlu mittens!

This is based on the free Ravelry download Cthulhu Mittens by Lyle Stafford. I changed mine so that I can, let’s say, rather than pet Crumble with mittens:

I could…

Scritch her with my fingers instead!

I sense more mittens in my future as I had a lot of fun with these, but there are other projects to be done first…so many projects, so little time…

In other news, I went to the pop up knitting show in Port Sunlight (as it was pouring with rain, good ol’ British weather!) And accidentally bought myself a very nice little ball of wool that was positively singing to be a shawl. So that is what it shall be.

And that is what will be in my needles next!

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 91
Wool bought – 10
Wool given – 4

Total – 620

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 6 Comments

Packed his trunk and said goodbye to the – wait, that was Nellie, this is Elmer:

Technical details first – I followed the ‘Eddie the Elephant’ pattern by Ann Franklin from the May 2015 edition of ‘Love Knitting for Baby’s.

When I saw it last year, I knew it would be used to make this project. Took getting the actual books and for Felix to give me the puppy eyes to have it jump the knitting queue and get made!

(For those who don’t know, here’s the Wiki link to who/what Elmer is all about)

I’m 99% sure he’ll be remaining as a one if a kind knit by me though. He was actually very easy to knit, and to sew, but all those colour changes…

All 156 of them…

Would happily reknit this plain, or in just two colours, but this won’t be getting remade until the memory of those colour changes has been forgotten!

I managed to use up quite a few of my tiny scrap balls making him, but only four where part of the wool count (when I get to less than 5g of wool, it’s counted as used and moved to the scraps box, so all bar four of the balls of wool I used in their entirety have been counted as finished previously)

Without further ado, the wool count!

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 90
Wool bought – 9
Wool given – 4

Total – 620

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 1 Comment

Apologies for the crazy blog post, I couldn’t resist. I’m in a funny mood today, probably because I got stuck behind Thomas the Tank Engine on the motorway on my way home today.

Yes, it was an actual steam engine, done up like Thomas, on a flat bed.

If I had a passenger, I’d have made them take a photo, but alas, I didn’t.

Anyhow! Parka Meower two:

Same details as the original Parka Meower, this one is for Maki, and also a photo of the two cats wearing them below.

They’re brothers – Maki and Ramen, and actually belong to Engel, but Felix has ‘acquired’ them.

Next up: Attack of the turtles!

Seems knitting turtles is rather addictive. And to answer my question from the original blog post about the turtles, I got 6 out of a full ball of wool. Well, 6 and 3/4s.

That’s the last of those for a while. I’ve currently got two projects on the needles – one for travelling and one for home, but only when Felix is in bed as it has ten balls of wool on the go at any one time.

I also think I should ban the cats from being near me as well whilst knitting it…more info on that next post, when it’ll hopefully be done.

Not much else to report really, other than Felix has been particularly adorable this past week, having made a house, at the childminders, for her pet tarantula (the other kids made them for fairies)

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This is actually mine, Sakura, a Chilean Rose, Felicitys tarantula, Incy Wincy (she named it) is a Salmon Pink Bird Eating Tarantula, and although not fully grown, was too big for the house…

I sent lots of photos to the childminder who, it turns out, is terrified of spiders. Oops. Oh well, at least she knows Felicity really did make a house for her tarantula and it got used!

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 86 (just 1 since last post)
Wool bought – 9
Wool given – 4

Total – 624

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one No Comments

Perhaps a side profile?

Pattern is ‘Parka Barker’ from Woolly Woofers by Debbie Bliss – a book I picked up for Rabbie…sorry Rabs! I’m just testing it, honest!

Let me explajn. Like small children everywhere, Felix likes to take her toys wherever she goes. I generally let her (just one though! And something small!) but there are times I say no. Like no, we’re not taking all two hundred of your cuddly toys. No, we’re not taking a soft toy into the swimming pool. No, we can’t take your fishing net to soft play.

No, we can’t carry (insert name of soft toy) outside, it’s raining.

So Felix asked ‘could they play in the rain and not get wet if they had a coat? Can you make them a coat?’ – who was I to refuse? (But just the one coat!) Engel suggested using a dog coat pattern, so smaller needles and fewer stitches later, a cute cat coat!

Blame Felix for the color choices – at least the blue matches Ramen (the cats) eyes!

Second one on needles now for Maki – Ramen’s little toy cat brother…I know, I said just one, but they’re adorably cute…

Speaking of adorable, Felix has decided what she wants to be when she grows up.

A vampire.

I suspect a costume will be getting put together soon…

Wool count

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 85 (just 1 since last post)
Wool bought – 9
Wool given – 4

Total – 625

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Uncategorized 1 Comment

Hi all,

Apologies for not posting last week – been having a number of security issues. Some of you may remember that I had to take down my site a few years ago, strip it and start again because some moron with too much time hacked into it.

Since then, I’ve learned. As such, I’ve had no issues until the last fortnight where I’ve been getting multiple failed attempts of people trying to log in, judging by the times, it’s an automatic system but still, it’s irritating.

Why anyone wants to hack a knitting blog of very low notoriety I don’t know, but there you have it.

So rather than blogging, I’ve been beefing up my security, again, as I do not want to start this site over again.

Now that my rant is done, cute turtle time!

It’s based on a free online pattern called ‘Duuuude, the sea turtle‘ by Cheezombie. Only changes are the front flippers and the eyes. It’s super cute and works up fast – I actually have an army of them forming! I think there’s 14 last count, but I lost track after the fifth one.

There’s been so many turtles I’ve used up five balls of wool! OK, they were all partial balls, between 15-30g but I just started on a full 100g one so let’s see how many turtles i get out of a full ball!

Unless I get bored. in which case I have an alarmingly long list of things I fancy making!

Till next post.

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 84 (5 since last post)
Wool bought – 9
Wool given – 4

Total – 626

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