by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 1 Comment

Last week my eldest sister was in the area so decided to pay me and Little Felix a visit. (OK, she was just visiting Felix, but I can try and muscle in on the quality family time) Brother in law, niece and nephew were also here and I can sum it up pretty well as a whirlwind of activity.

On Tuesday my niece and nephew played with Sakura:

My Chilean Rose tarantula

Isn’t she adorable? My niece saw her the week before on Skype so was desperate to hold her, and my nephew just loves anything that moves. Amazingly, my big sister who is terrified of spiders actually held her. On a bet mind made by her husband. For £50. For 10 seconds.

Subsequently, my niece wanted a tarantula. A real one wouldn’t be allowed to step a furry leg into her house, so I knitted one for her in the requested colours of purple and green. I found this out last week so had the time to make it for her!

From ‘knitted pets’ by Susie Johns

And I couldn’t leave my nephew out, who requested a ‘lizard’, with so little time, (one evening) I made him a tiny crocodile.

From Knitting Mochimochi: 20 Super-Cute Strange Designs for Knitted Amigurumi by Anna Hrachovec

They got to take these home with them on Wednesdays visit. This visit also involved a lot of finger paint – my big sister wanted to get all the grand-kids hand prints together, though Felix wouldn’t co-operate (she was just over 3 weeks at this point!) so her footprint was used instead.

I had a fun time explaining why there was paint everywhere to Engel when he got home from work, and even more as to why Felicity was now red and blue…but it all washed off so she’s back to her normal colour!

What else happened this week? A meal with Engels extended family which Felix slept throughout (hooray!) though i was (jokingly) accused  of drugging her milk with sleeping tablets…the next day she decided to be awake for nearly three hours just to make up for it, I’m sure…

Last but not least I’ll be attending a craft fair this Sunday at the Hazel Grove Conservative Club, Manchester, open from 1 till 5. Its raising money for the RSPCA and there’s a raffle which all stallholders will be donating a prize to.

Hmm. I’d better get knitting that prize…

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting No Comments

As you can see, pineapples!

Pineapple for keyrings here, and bag here.

I’ve not gone mad (well, more so than normal) honest! These are my mums birthday presents – the big bag was last years, and the matching purse and key rings are this year. She loves pineapples and its become a bit of a running joke – although I’ll hastily add she does actually use these! The big one is a lunch bag and/or toiletries when travelling, and the little one she uses to store her electric cigarettes and chargers.

I like it when a present is used, though now I’m stuck for next years pineapple related present…suggestions anyone?

I gave her these when she was visiting last weekend, and on her actual birthday spoke to her via Skype – it was amusing joining in the birthday song and munching cake 300 miles away from the actual party, but hey, it was fun! I did also spend time chatting to my niece and, after her showing me her glittery Halloween spider, I showed her my own knitted tarantula.

Engel then upped us both by bringing in my real tarantula and showed her off, to my nieces horror and fascination!

Its been a quiet week otherwise, worked on some Christmas presents and some stock for the next craft fair – more on that in a future post!

Well, going to make a move and get back to my knitting needles.

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

I felt like relaying a conversation I had with Engel a few days ago:

Engel – This feels like surgery.

Me – I think taking his eyes off counts as major surgery.

Engel – But he’s happier now!

Me – You have a screwdriver in his eye socket – nothing would be happy with that!

Engel – He didn’t have an eye socket till I put the screwdriver in.

Me – I’m going to have to cut his head off, aren’t I?

Engel – Can you go in through his temple? While your at it, how about giving him some dental work?

Me – I think the lobotomy he’s getting is enough, honey…fine…just pass the body here…

So, what were we on about? Nothing too grisly, just this little guy:

Isn’t he cute?

This is my very own knitted version of Engel, based on the Alley Cat pattern featured in Knitted Cats and Kittens by Sue Stratford, he comes complete with pudgy tummy and gammy ear.

Reason for the conversation? I had put one set of eyes onto him, only Engel found some other safety eyes he really liked instead, so some surgery had to be done to…change them…and then a mouth got added, just because. I don’t recommend taking safety eyes off a knitted toy unless you have all the proper surgical equipment. In the end, a scalpel worked best.

Hope everyone is having a nice week since I last posted – on the baby front, I’m settling into a routine, not a lot else to report.

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Little one, Updates 1 Comment

A week ago today, after 30 hours of labour and an emergency c-section, little Felix was born. She came earlier than expected, and is rather small (only 2.29kg at birth, that’s about 5lb for the imperialists out there.)

Just letting you all know I’m a mum now and that things here just got a bit more hectic, and probably sparodic!

Hopefully it’ll even out as I figure out how lifer works all over again!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Cats, Knitting 1 Comment

As mentioned in my last post, Engel and myself have a house! We moved in more or less about three weeks ago and currently still up to our ears in boxes, but the unpacking is getting there! And the sorting! And building of furniture! And all the other things that come with a house – like setting up gas, electricity, paying bills…

Enough with the boring stuff.

Jin Chan chilling on his new pad.

I’ve finally found my camera and can get on with photographing my various knits. Above is a little house knit I did – because even amongst the chaos of moving, I thought it could do with a little knitted touch. So Jin Chan got himself his very own knitted pad, water lily pad mind you. (Pattern can be found here.) For those curious, Jin Chan is the three legged frog, or money frog, associated with wealth and good luck. I could do with both! A wiki article can be found just here.

What else has been happening? Well whilst Engel and myself where in house limbo, we were staying with the in-laws. Sabrina (one of the foster kitties) took a rather unhealthy obsession to ‘playing’ with plants. Eight cacti and four orchids later…yeah…it wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for her pulling the plant out and ripping the roots apart – broken pots and chewed leaves can result in a saved plant, but the roots? Nope.

Cat-proof cactus

So as an apology, I knitted up a cactus that could survive even Sabrina – break the pot? No problem. Roots? There aren’t any. Chewed leaves? Off to the washing machine! (Pattern can be found here for anyone else who could do with one!)

It’s late so I’m going to leave it at that, but expect a few more image heavy, full of knitted item, posts coming your way!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Updates 1 Comment

On the way to the house this morning Engel and I realised something.

You are expecting a workman at between 10am and 2pm.  If you turn up at the house  late then you will have missed the workman.  If you turn up on time he won’t turn up until after 2pm.  Thus the workman is in a state of quantum flux both being late and early whilst on the journey to the house.  Whether he is dead or not is another matter however.

Quantum physics was never my strong point but being able to describe wave particle duality using workmen at 8 in the morning is quite impressive.  Needless to say the workman turned up at 12:15 as soon as lunch came out of the oven, that’s just sod’s law.

Update: We have a house now! And as of 12:30, internet. Its just taken me over six and a half hours to find a spare moment to tell you all this.

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Cats, Updates 2 Comments

A few moments ago I received a phone call from my eldest sister, to summarise:

“I just passed by a cattery and thought of you – ever thought of opening one as your own business?”

Now, I do foster kitties, have done for nearly two years, and I admire their independent natures, and there may be evidence of me stopping everything I was doing to go and coo over little kitty toes…

And I digress. I find it amusing that when people see anything cat like they think of me, as if I was some kind of crazy cat lady, who spends her evenings knitting on a rocking chair chatting to her swarm of cats…

…

OK, I may do that, talk to the cats, but its more a horde than a swarm, and I do knit whilst doing so…and I might own a rocking chair…

Hmm. At some point I turned into a crazy cat lady…I blame Engel. If in doubt, blame the other half.

Anyhow. I found the two minute phone call amusing, and thought I’d share it. Good enough reason for a quick update!

Engel and myself have been moving for about four months now, and still are whilst all the fine details get ironed out, hence there’s been a severe lack in online activity in regards to posting photos of my knitting and cats etc. (That includes here, ravelry and DA – I’m foxymitts for both of those if you’re looking for me on those sites) Just wanted to say that things are happening, in the background, and once I have somewhere to take photos and my camera is out of storage, there will be more posts.

Until then, just little bites of random like this one.

Oh, and for those curious, I have contemplated a cattery as a little job to keep me ticking over if I ever won the lottery. Won’t happen, but I can always dream.

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Motorbike, Updates 1 Comment

Once a year, everyone who owns a motorbike is encouraged to pop on and ride to work, even though I don’t personally own a license or motorbike (Engels the rider, I’m the driver, though I hope to change that!) I do usually spend most of today watching out for all the pretty motorbikes…

So far, I’m on thirteen, and seeing as that’s only my half hour commutes into work and back, not bad going.

Of the thirteen, Engels wasn’t one of them. He’s currently in a bit too much pain after his weekend of motocross – dirt biking to the majority. So lots of wet grass, muddy slopes, jumps and twisty turns on a kind of bike he’s never been on…needless to say he came off a few times, no major injuries barring bruises, scrapes and a hurt pride. The aches and pains stopped him from hopping on his bike this morning however…

I’ll admit I was desperate to have a shot on the dirt biking myself, and there was an option for complete novices who’d never rode before, but I wasn’t allowed on account of carrying a kitten of my own at the moment…

In hindsight, I’m glad. Not one person didn’t come flying off, and a few people were seriously hurt. The fact they had an ambulance on standby was a giveaway that even though this is a ‘fun’ sport, its one that carries its risks. So I happily munched on my double portion of cheesy chips (eating for two, according to the very nice chipvan owner as he gave me extra for free) and watched.

How I wish I had my camera for when Engel ended up in a three bike dogpile…

In regards to site updates, comments have been finally enabled – hopefully I wont have the same issues as last time with spam then malware…

Oh, and thanks to all the people who emailed and/or got in touch via Ravelry regarding how things are going and the patterns finally coming back online – I do like to hear from you all occasionally!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Patterns, Updates No Comments

Had another busy week (both real life and online) and managed to get a few more things back up and running for the site!

My sister Rabbie, aka themagpiesnest, whose knitted (and sewn, and baked) goodies can be found here, or her blog over here, asked me to host two of her patterns which are now back online for people to use and make!

So here they are, a B-Bomb pattern and a Kirby pattern! Whats better, they’re both free!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Cats, Patterns, Updates No Comments

Firstly, Crumble complained that Salem and Sabrina were receiving too much attention and that she should have her photo posted.

The gorgeous Crumble cat.

Now that I’ve finished bowing to the cats every demand, on to my readers/watchers/followers commands!

Both the Axolotl pattern and the Companion Cube pattern are back online! They’ve had some revising done to them, mostly to make things more self explanatory and to try and iron out a few issues… These and all other free patterns I get round to digging out, dusting off and typing up will and can be found on the Free Patterns page.

Lastly, I’ve put a link on the menu bar (look at the top of the page, there’s one for the Free Patterns too) to my DA gallery. I’m hoping to eventually have a gallery on here of my knitted things, or something similar, but its pretty intensive work and I’m currently far too lazy/busy/tired. If anyone has any suggestions however…you can get in touch via the new Contact page! (Also in the menu bar)

More to come soon! Hopefully…

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