Home › Posts tagged motorbike
Tag: motorbike

by RoxyPosted on Posted in Gaming, Knitting, Motorbike, Updates 2 Comments

As the title says, socks!

Socks!

Socks!!

Yeah…I went a little sock mad…I blame Rabbie. She came down for the rather soggy doggy day and the night before her visit mentioned wellies, so Felix wanted her cat welly socks.

Then Engel rubbed it in that he had cat welly socks.

So cat welly socks for me jumped the knitting queue! All of the above socks resulted from this rather rash decision I’m afraid to admit! All of them are based on the pattern I used for Engel’s cat socks – Quick Kilt Hose by Jessica Correa but I tweaked the needle sizes and stitch numbers to get a better fit.

The first pair came out a smidge small, but a perfect fit for the MIL, so I removed the cuff and off those went to her. Second pair came out purr-fect and I finally got my cat welly socks!

But I had a bit of wool left, and Rabbie has the same size of feet as me, though they’re slowly being crippled by arthritis, and she really deserved a bit of TLC and a thank you for pulling out all the stops to make the soggy doggy weekend work…

So the striped pair practically fell off the needles for her! Not that she needs real wool socks in this sudden heat…

Oh well, winter is never far off in this country!

In non knitting news, the website gallery page is finally updated so you can see my 10+ years of finished projects that were actually photographed and recorded. Engel has his new bike, and she’s a beauty, so that’s one disaster nicely squared off, and we’ve had a busy weekend with the local village festival yesterday and nerfing today. I ache, badly, but it’s my own fault for throwing myself down grassy hills and into sandy bunkers to try and pick off the other team and not get hit…

Till next week!

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 56 (No change…)
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 155
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 660 (No change…)

Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Motorbike, Updates 2 Comments

Well, motorbikes. Which is what I’ll start on then I’ll get to the butterflies.

On Friday, Engels motorbike died. We knew that she had begun to slowly mechanically deteriorate, as all things do with wear and tear and the lovely state of British roads. She was a work horse of a motorbike and did a 40 mile round commute everyday in sun, sleet and snow. So when she died, Engel was left in a rather awkward predicament or requiring a motorbike to commute to work, as he cant feasibly get there via public transport, as fast as possible but with no actual savings to get one.

Yesterday (Saturday) we called upon a few favours and managed to get someone with motorbike know how to, firstly, breathe a few more last breaths into the old motorbike, and then go with Engel to kick some tyres and find a replacement. It was a long day, and I ended up driving for a total of 4 hours (but there was lots of doggy cuddles, four huskies and a collie!), but a new lovely lady of a motorbike was found and we just have to get Engels poor workhorse of a motorbike to last a few more days until everything is in place to get the new one.

Not going into any great details, but I now have a motorbike to pay off, so I’m officially reopening commissions – since Felix was born I’ve pretty much only been making things upon request for  friends and family (and work colleagues, as Yorrick is proof of) but as of now, anyone can request one. Full details on the commissions page.

I’m curious to see what requests get made, I’ve had quite a few interesting ones in the past – life sized knitted recreations of peoples pets, items from games or movies, a knitted womb that would double as a purse… (that last one wasn’t made in the end, after it was explained to me that it was going to be a ‘congratulations on your hysterectomy’ gift, I didn’t feel it would go down well and I do like to think I have a pretty dark sense of humour)

Now, onto the butterflies!

Felix has asked for a ‘mini beasts’ birthday this year (for those wondering what a mini beast is, its now the ‘correct’ term for creepy crawlies, insects, bugs etc – schools didn’t feel it fair on the insects to cast a negative light on them by calling them creepy). Her birthday isn’t until September but I figured that insects would make nice, small, travel sized knits.

So I started with butterflies…

Using the pattern Common Blue Butterfly by Lesley Stanfield from her book 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet

I made a lot of butterflies.

But they were so good for using up scraps…

And using my hand dyed wool…

Oh, and I needed moths too!

After realising there was about 50, or maybe more, of the things I decided I had to make myself stop and choose a new insect for travel knitting. When I finish with that one, I’ll do another post like this one!

I’m going to go and get back to knitting some socks now (a very ‘normal’ knit for me I must say!) and working out which husky pattern to cast on next as a thank you for the motorbike friend…

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 56 (8 this week!!)
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 155
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 660

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

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

Now where to start?

No knitting to show this week as working on a surprise mystery project! I know what it’s supposed to be, but we’ll all have to wait to see if it turns out the way it’s supposed to! If it does, I’ll post the pattern, if not…oh well…

As for the motorbike part of this blog post, Felix finally got her first taste on daddy’s motorbike at the ripe age of ‘very nearly five!’ I made sure Engel knew very, very, very well what the consequences would be if he wasn’t super careful with my most precious cargo…

But I needn’t have worried. They both came back fine, so fine that she demanded another go right away! So glad I invested in a full set of miniature bike gear (jacket with spine guard, trousers, gloves and helmet) though she looks so tiny in it!

And for those questioning the legality of this decision, in the UK the only restriction for a pillion is that their feet must touch the foot pegs, which, depending on the motorbike, ranges from those with short legs to long legs! It’s also perfectly legal to adjust or modify the foot pegs too!  Engel is now planning all sorts of trips out with her.

I can feel my hair turning grey at the thought…

The only other thing to comment on really is that after much persuasion (bullying? Peer pressure?) I have joined Instagram. I’ll post the photos from my weekly blog posts on it, perhaps some knits in progress and on Thursdays my old blog posts till I’m all caught up.

Don’t be surprised if some of Felix’s creations end up sneaking into it though!

Oh, and the Hot Flash Dash’ cheer for this week?

2, 4, 6, 8!
Your all doing great!
1, 3, 5, 9!
Your projects are looking fine!

Till next week!

Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

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!

Tagged with: , , ,