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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

This week’s blog title definitely has two meanings. The fun one is to do with my most recently completed knitting project, the other…

Last week, lockdown fatigue had really, really set in. It was literally at the point where I felt like I was just dragging myself through each day, one day after the other after the other…the mantra of ‘Just keep going, just keep going’ playing in my head.

But the restrictions here have begun to ease, last Sunday our little family went an hour and a half down south to meet up with our friends and their parents dog and we had an amazing day at their local reservoir/water park – there was lots of new scenery, big play parks, a tiny train…it was amazing.

And exhausting. I am not a sociable creature by habit, but we are a sociable species, and finally getting that social contact…yeah, I was tired.

So this low followed by this exhausting high led to their being no blog post last week. As such, we are having not just one, or two, but three finished products to show off!

These are made following the free pattern 19 Fishes on a Mitten by Magdalena Svanberg, except I added extra length so there’s 24 on these.

The idea of this whole set came into being after Engel bought be some of Siobhan Crafts hand dyed mini skeins all based on fish, I looked at them and knew they had to be made into a gift for Rabbie. She did marine biology at university, she does diving still, and her love of all things that live in the seas, oceans, rivers and lakes is astounding.

This crazy bright creation follows Alternating Current by Alex Tinsley from the book ‘Doomsday Knits’ – I followed the pattern pretty much except I used 3.5mm needles rather than the recommended 5mm due to the wool weight.

Another reason Rabbie deserves all the cosy warm Knits’ is that she feels cold. Painfully feels it. I often joke she’s a lizard, but I do feel for her. So this satisfies my mother like instinct to swaddle her in all the hand Knits!

Another free pattern, Fishies by Jackie Ziegler – I was determined to use every scrap of this wool!

This weekend I’m seeing the same friends I saw last week, only they’re driving up to us. I’m excited about this, but no where near as much as the fact that I am finally allowed to see my sis again! Next week we’re meeting up and I can’t wait to give her all these warm and cuddly things I have made, and let her know everyone she wears them that she’s appreciated and how much I miss her.

This pandemic has taught me a lot of things. I am a much stronger person than I ever thought I would be, I am capable of being a teacher, a mum, a wife, a friend, a sister, an entertainer, a crafter, a story teller, a games master, and more than I could list in here. It’s also taught me that I can’t survive alone. I can be a mother and a wife, but I need the husband and father. I can be a sister, a daughter, but I need family. I can be a friend, but I need them too. When presented with the unknown, I fill it with as much as I can to make it seem less scary, and I burn out because of it. But most importantly:

All any of us can do really, is to just keep swimming. We’ll get there, wherever there is.

Till next week, take care.

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 63 (13 this fortnight)
Wool bought – 3 (needed more black DK)
Wool given to me – 21
Wool gifted to others – 1
Wool handspun – 8

Total – 865

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Gaming, Knitting 2 Comments

First of all I shall start with this weekends activities – The Winter Battle of BritNerf! Fridays battle as held in a skatepark, and I’ll be honest, it was chaos. I hit it too hard, too fast, and hadn’t eaten properly because of driving all the way up to Scotland, and about half way through went all wobbly. Once I had eaten and recharged I was good to go, and 15 seconds into humans Vs zombies, I got tackled and had I been on anything other than the smooth skate ramp, I’d have been fine, but instead went down, along with the ‘zombie’ and landed hard on my left wrist.

One of my fellow team members immediately called in first aid and I had an ice pack on it in under a minute and a very thorough apology from the Zombie. After twenty minutes I realised my wrist was definitely sprained and the drive to Rabbies was rather painful.

Worse still, I couldn’t knit. The horror!

Saturday saw the main event, a close quarters combat scenario, and in this set of games in tight narrow corridors with small areas to hide and hunker down and also to snipe the ‘enemy’ – myself and Engel where in our element! Despite my sore wrist making me unable to prime any blasters (thank goodness for flywheels!) I lasted the majority of the games, and instead only had to call it quite after being literally smoked out.

Asthma and smoke bombs in confined areas, not a great combo. I missed the last two games and due to even more smoke bombs, decided not to dart sweep and instead tidied the resting/set up area.

And despite taking it easy on the wrist, no knitting on Saturday either…

Overall, a great weekend, made better by good company and my sister’s fantastic sweet treats and her adorable dog, Missy. I wouldn’t go to the effort of the four hour drive for the skate park again, despite being fun, just not quite my cup of tea, but for another close quarter game? Definitely!

I’m just doing some research into gas masks that would be suitable for nerfing in, and which I can easily purchase filters for…

In knitting news, I shipped up my holiday knits, some very boring but incredibly good stash busting dish/washcloths!

A lovely free pattern, Diagonal Knit Dishcloth by Jana Trent.

In more interesting knitting news, Engel managed to somehow sell one hat to two people. He nearly sold it to three before it was realised. What hat was it?

My dead Blinky hat! The original was a commission that fell through (hence why I now ask for half payment up front) and was never actually photographed and recorded anywhere. This is the second, and as most have probably already guessed, made following the free Knitty pattern Fish Hat [Dead or Alive?] by Thelma Egberts.

That’s enough nattering for now, I need to rub some life back into my legs following this weekends mad activity! Mine aren’t too bad, more stuff than sore, Engels though…

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 105 (0 this week)
Wool bought – 63 (I fell off the wool wagon hard this weekend, there was a few absolute bargains of wool I really like that’s being discontinued so I stocked up…33 balls…In fairness, my guilt from doing this meant I bought Engel a Hades (a very, very big Nerf blaster!))
Wool given – 163
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 665 (If I buy one more ball, it’ll be the number of the beast! Or would that be knit of the beast?)

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

Some of you may remember this time last year I was knitting fish for Felix’s birthday party, it was for a game called ‘Feed the Shark’. This year it’s been demanded to make a return but, seeing as this year’s birthday theme is cats, not Octonauts, we’re going for ‘Feed the cat.

And what do cats eat?

Mice!

Haven’t made the cat part to ‘Feed the Cat’ as I need a big bit of cardboard, but the mice are done at least! Though I’m debating more, 55 just don’t seem like enough…

Seeing as I don’t have a photo of the finished game (yet!) I’ll reward you all instead with a photo of Dashie being Queen of the Cat Scratcher, Hoarder of knitted mice!

She looks so regal…

Got a few more little projects, and a small one, on the needles but more in them when they’re done! I may knit a few more mice in between projects mind you, just in case 55 isn’t enough…

Not much to say on the non knitting front, life’s been busy with work and family time (had a good laugh at Portland Basin Museum today)and I may have gotten severely distracted playing Unravel (Yarny is so cute!) but getting there. Even if my boiler decided to die on me whilst I was in the middle of washing my hair…so cold still…

Alright, enough of me whining, wool count time!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 66 (8 since last post! Hooray for odds and ends!)
Wool bought – 8
Wool given – 6 (1 as a birthday present!)
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 570

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

This is Halloween, this is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!

Can you tell I like Halloween?

I’ve had a lot of fun this week, Felix is now at the right age where she can get stuck into various crafts and make decorations and actually feel part of the whole celebration process. We’ve both also done a fair bit of baking – she wanted to carve pumpkins and I refuse to let food go to waste, so there was pumpkin shaped pumpkin bread rolls and sugar free pumpkin cupcakes (for Engel) and I still have more than half a kilo left of pumpkin puree still…

We all went and did the Manchester Halloweekend trick or treat trail, meeting count Dracula, bride of Frankenstein, a witch, a mummy and a skeleton juggling pineapples…? There was also a haunted maze and giant tentacles on top of the House of Fraser – a few of my gaming friends came along as well and we spent far too much time pretending to pass/fail sanity checks against the eldritch horror breaking free into our realm…

So much fun.

But also a lot of knitting. Again, a few little projects and one big project, which is still ongoing as it’s boring and I keep getting distracted by little projects…

Halloween themed first!

Felix was dressed as a vampire (again) this year, wearing an awesome costume her aunty made her, but Felix wanted Daddy’s toy cat (they have a time share on him, much to Engel’s bemusement) to dress up as a vampire to. So without further ado:

Phineas in his matching vampire costume. It’s a little jumper and separate cloak. During my photoshoot with Phineas, Ziggy decided to join in…

So Count Phineas took revenge:

I have far too much fun…no pattern for this one as I just winged it in the needles.

In other knitting news, there have been babies, so there have been little knitted presents!

This is made using the free pattern Polar Bear by The Knit Cafe Toronto – only I did a mummy and baby brown bear…this was for in laws friends newest grandson.

Then there’s this little fishy, another free pattern – Frida the Fish / Francis the Fish by Lion Brand Yarn – which I’ve now made for the fourth time.

And for the older brother, Pokemon Poke Ball Knit Hat by Vicki Mann (free pattern) curiously, Skully modelled a different pokeball hat in the same post as the previous goldfish given above, funny coincidence!

Alright, that’s all for the post today. Hope to get a good push on the big project done and finally get it off the needles! Let’s see how long it takes for me to procrastinate and/or get distracted…

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 134 (3 this post!)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 637 (Will I get below 600 this year?)

P.S. in other news Engel has taken up brewing and is trying to convince me to knit some fermentation vessel cosies, it may be sleep deprivation, or the sheer lack of interest in my other project, but they sound tempting. I could knit them to look like little wooden barrels, or have cute little motifs knitted into them…

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 1 Comment

It was Felix’s fourth birthday on Thursday, and subsequently we had a party for her, her friends and school friends.

At her request, we had an Octonauts themed party – pin the eyepatch on Kwazii, Octonaut skittles, paper plate whales, Octonaut colouring sheets…there was also decorating cupcakes but how does this relate to knitting?

Because of the best game ever!

Feed the Shark!

As well as the party bags that get handed out, I’m putting together a ‘Feed the Shark’ game where kids toss fish into a cardboard cutout sharks mouth. For completing this Octonaut Mission, they got to pick a fish and put it in their party bag.

I used the free pattern: Fishies by Jackie Ziegler, and had over sixty for the party! Took a photo of what was left afterwards, as well as the rather beat up shark – clearly he’s suffering from indigestion! (It was the selfies at the I end with the kids putting their heads through the mouth that did it really!) It was also the most popular game at the party, so mission success!

Wool count

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 117 (2 since last post!)
Wool bought – 42 (5 since last post – needed Gyrados blue, came in packs of five, honest!)
Wool given – 131
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 647

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

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks already, since my last post, since Inkling arrived, and that it’s taken so long to finish my current knitting project!

That said, this project rapidly grew in number…let me start from the beginning.

We got a fishtank, last summer, and it’s essentially cat TV, the cats will watch it for hours, and Felix kept dragging blankets off the sofa to sit next to the cats to also watch the fish tank…so I decided the fishtank needed a mat in front of it.

The ‘Kitty Placemat’ in ‘Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and their People’ by Donna Druchunas to be precise, just bigger. (I’ve used the fish motif before) Showed it to Engel who pointed out that the actual cat bowls could do with little matching mats as well, with spares so they can get washed.

So I went from one, to five. Engel pointed out the fishtank should have a spare as well (fishtank mat is twice the size of placemat)

So one to six, ok. He then pointed out that when we get cat number 3 (Salem was his cat, and he wants his own little cat buddy again) it’ll need a placement and a spare.

So that’s one to eight.

Eight! And I agreed! Clearly baby brain got the best of me!

Look awesome though, don’t they?

Now onto the next project! Which will be getting fitted in between feeds, sleep deprivation, energetic three year old, demanding newborn, housework, arts and crafts, cooking, baking…

I can see where those three weeks went…

Wool count!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 50 (2 since last post – it was only the edging I had left to do when Inkling arrived!)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 623

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized 1 Comment

There’s really not much to say or show knitting wise or life wise – lots of working and chores and a baby blanket that’s taking an age to knit is all.

So I present to you, From the Archives – It’s cold!

Ok, so not so much a theme as a response to the temperature but it is cold.

As the temperature drops, I instinctively start making a cocoon for myself out of blankets and hot water bottles. I keep hoping to emerge as a beautiful butterfly come spring, but the best I can manage is a moth…

So blankets first. I’ve posted my ten stitch blanket before. And my chunky bright green weekend TV lapghan.

Here is my ‘Knitted Blanket of Awesome’. Done on 5mm needles, no pattern and primarily a giant stash busting project as well as desperately needed sofa throw/blanket back in 2011.

And lastly for the blankets, my pride and joy: Free pattern A Recipe for Fish by April Broken.

lt took 2 years to complete (namely because I kept abandoning it for months at a time and the moment the weather got warm) but I did manage to complete it just in time for my wedding, and subsequent honeymoon in Aberdeenshire. It was needed. There’s 375 fish in there, for those curious.

On to the hot water bottles:

I’ve already posted my Aperture Science hot water bottle cosie, but I haven’t shown you:

The hot water bottle pattern is based on the free pattern EXFOLIATE! Dalek Cloth by Penwiper – I put the image (tweaked to be in colour) on a hot water bottle cosie pattern I made up as I was going along. The tiny matching Dalek? He’s based on another free pattern, Dalek Egg Cosy by Lyles Knit.

Speaking of Daleks, I have made this guy…

Back in 2008. He was huge! Used the free pattern EXTERMIKNIT! by Penwiper for him.

Thats all for today – keep warm guys!

Wool count:

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 11 (4 this week)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given – 46

Total – 685

…

Ok, no one’s going to just let 46 balls of wool slide into the wool count, I was given a work friends Mrs wool oddment stash – she knits blankets and jumpers, so all those odd balls of wool, partially used balls etc, kind of sit there, not doing an awful lot. She was clearing her stash and as I’m primarily a toy knitter who only uses a bit of a ball here, a bit of a ball there, she figured I’d like them in my stash.

I won’t deny that this is a very true fact, and I’ll just have to knit extra hard this year to bring the wool count back down. At least it hasn’t hit 700! Yet.

 

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized, Updates No Comments

I think I’ve knit the last Christmas gift, I hope I have anyway as I’ve moved on to other projects.

Present 1:

This is for my nephew and uses the free pattern A PokéHat by Mrs Luedeke. Quick and easy knit surprisingly! It fits me, so if my nephew doesn’t want it, I suspect my Pokemon loving sister will nab it…

Present 2:

For my mum, who nabbed off with a replica of the original Fairground Fish (free pattern Frida the Fish / Francis the Fish by Lion Brand Yarn)

I have the one photographed above, it was originally given to my grandfather in 2011 as a random gift as he often fondly told us the tale of ‘that cursed fairground fish, it lasted 25 years it did!’ The sole purpose of this was to make him smile. It worked. He passed away this year, and it’s the only thing that I took as a reminder of him before the funeral. The replica was more or less an identical match, a gift I never got around to giving, and when my mum tried to walk off with the original, I gave her the replica instead.

The reason for the silver version? My mum had fish. They all died this year – curse of 2016 we’re calling it – but before they went belly up, they laid eggs, and out hatched two fish. A gold one and a silver one.

So the silver one I just made is to join the gold one from before.

Pretty convoluted, I do apologise.

Not a Christmas present:

Same patterns as featured in my previous post back in April 2016. (Cardigan is ‘long or short sleeved coat with flower’ from sirdars ‘Beautiful baby knits’. The booties are from the same booklet, they’re from the ‘Sweetpea’ set for those who don’t want to read the previous post)

These are part of the growing bundle of gifts for my neice to be in America – I’ve got another on the needles at the moment, but will post about that when it gets done.

Anything else to comment? Not much except it’s getting scarily close to Christmas, and now I’ve finished the last of the Christmas knitting I think I may actually be getting excited about it…

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 117 (4 since last post! Again!)
Wool bought – 53
Wool given – 7

Total – 650

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Gaming, Knitting No Comments

 

That’s right. Dice bags.

It all started with this one:

Free pattern – Cthulhu Dice Bag by Arcana Vitae – though I worked this one, and all of them, on 3.75 mm. This is one of about…10? Different colours of cthulhus, backgrounds, eyes, i-cords…

But after my first, I quickly started to use this pattern as a a base and any chart I fancied with it.

So, cats? (Own chart)

Or fish? (Engels chart this time)

Less nature? Alright, Binary code?

(This is based on the free pattern Binary by Christine Domoulin, and this particular bag is coded, it reads – EngelCRLF – the CRLF is the command for carriage return, line feed. Think typewriters!

More geeky? How about the Aquila logo from 40K?

(Logo is from the free Ravelry pattern ‘Warhammer Double Knit Scarf’ by Emma Littlehales)

More cute?

Gotta love Pusheen the cat! (Charts pulled from google)

There’s been more, a VW campervan, fish bones, the 40K ork logo to name but a few, lots get gifted before I get a chance to photograph them!

I have a tradition with gaming group friends in particular – the first birthday they celebrate with the group, they get a dice bag. *Shrug* Its just one of those things. Pusheen was the one I made the other week, the VW campervan the one before…who knows what next! Though I am tempted to make me a new cat one – the red and black one at the start of this post is mine, before I was confident with color changes and patterns, but part of me think I’ll lose all my awesome dice luck if I do…

Till next week, and happy St Andrews!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 110 (3 again this past week!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 707

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

On a dishy…

When the boat comes in!

Now, this post isn’t to do with the fish (though its a lovely free Ravelry pattern ‘striped fish‘ by Nettas Knits, though mine is a plain silver/grey, not striped) its all about the plate.

Yes, the plate.

As part of the cat commission I did a while ago I was asked to knit a replica of the plate they used to eat from, and a little snack too. So, here’s the original plate:

And here’s the knitted one:

The plate itself was easy – pinwheel increase, blue purl edge, pinwheel decrease, plastic plate inside with holes drilled in to allow the wool to be fixed and shaped.

The embroidery though! 3 hours! Worth it though for the look of shock it received.

Never again though. Never!

In other news – busy week. Been dying of the plague at work, craft fair Friday, and two of my friends had joint birthday celebrations on Saturday. I did knit a little something for the occasion, but I’ll blog about that next week – there’s a saga involved and I need to get quite a few photos together!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 107 (3 this past week!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 710

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