Bits and bobs

Well, I finished the Caera cowl, it knit up absolutely beautifully and I love how it looks, unfortunately I can't post a pic as I think the person due to receive it reads my blog. However, for all you ravelers, please feel free to peruse my pics here

I also, in a fit of sheer insanity, cast on something else, however, I believe it was a wiser choice of pattern... the dropstitch scarf, I have knitted it before, so I don't need to look at the pattern. Here's a sneak preview.



There was another pattern I wanted to knit and I checked the needle size required and I thought 3.75mm... no problem, I've got those needles. You see, a few years ago when I took up knitting, I bought about 30 sets of needles on ebay for £10 (in fact, it might have been more needles than that) and since then have completed my collection as I needed with bits and bobs, however, it seems that in all my knitting I have either never needed 3.75mm.... or I just made do with another size. So, I thought I would try out the new spectra flair acrylic tips from knit pro. They are much cheaper than the metal or wood tips which suits my 'bare minimum' price range. I ordered them a few days ago and was very happy when they arrived today... that's really fast delivery for me as they came from the UK.



I bought them at the ebay store of www.P2tog.com and I would happily recommend the shop to anyone as they were very efficient and well priced (items and postage).I can't wait to try them out!..... Oh yeah, and the little lady knitting card is a needle size conversion chart.

Last of all (then I will let you go) a while back I did a swap with a fabulous etsy shop. I received an email from Elizabeth, of Creations by Elizabeth, who was interested in a swap (involving nappies) so her end of the swap was these absolutely gorgeous fabric letters for Rafaela. We will put them on a little rail in her bedroom (once we have built her bedroom that is)


As you can see, there's a good reason as to why I don't get anything photographed these days!



Ok... I know I promised that would be it but just a quick not to say that I am having a sale on all my handpainted roving, just in case anyone is interested.

Busy Busy and Broken down

Well, I have spent the best part of the last 3 weeks housebound. Our old, tired and irritating hunk of junk car played up for 3 weeks. We were paying for one trip into town with 2 days at the mechanic (who is very kind to us thankfully) we were repeatedly towed, rescued and picked up by various members of my family, until last friday when we decided it might be time to make a huge sacrifice and buy another car. No sooner had we decided this, than the car actually just gave up. So while the old car settled down for a long rest on the driveway, my sister picked us up to go look at some used cars. We finally settled with a VW Golf, diesel engine as it's more economical. We couldn't really afford it, but we also can't afford not to have a car as we live in a village and transport is crucial, including for my getting to work. So, we are very excited about it all, if not considerably poorer.

Frustrated days at home meant I could catch up on some things I had to get done, as well as having a little time left for knitting.

I finished my wee one's 'dress' but it looks like it will be a better top for a one year old than a dress for a 6 month old baby, so that's probably what it will be. The wool worked out beautifully for it, so pretty.




I have also been spinning....but not for myself. I have an order to spin 1000 yards of wool for someone on etsy. The shetland moorit tops are absolutely delicious...


This is the yarn spun and navajo plied (as per request)



It's really lovely, my hubby is jealous I am not knitting him a soft jumper (sweater for those of you picturing my husband in a dress).

My first nappy (diaper) order went down well, my client received them and was happy with them, which I am glad about. I have another little idea in the works that I am hoping to start selling soon.... will keep you posted.

So, that's pretty much it from this wee corner of the world for the time being. It's snowy still and cold so we can't start work on our garden yet but that's going to be a priority soon too. Rafaela is learning to crawl, she can get onto all fours, but she seems to start moving backwards when she does. She's still blowing her raspberries and has also progressed to sticking her tongue out too... which is embarassing in the quiet intervals at church.

Urban Chick!

Well, some of you may remember my long time work in progress .... urban aran (patons pattern)... well.... I sort of lost t, which of course puts a damper on the whole knitting side of things.... however, yesterday I finally thought to myself, this is stupid.... and rumaged around in packed and half unpacked boxes till I found it.

I had finished the back piece but when I looked at it yesterday and I remembered how cold the winter was this year, I though, "I think I would like it a little longer" so I unpicked it to the armhole shaping, then I tried to work out where I was in the cable panel... so frusgtrating, but finally I managed and it's now 2 inches longer and ready, once more, for armholes.



However, our best news of the day is this......



The first hachling on our little smallhold. Our hen has been sitting for a couple of weeks now and though we thought she was due at the weeked.... SURPRISE!

Is't it fab... heres a wee video too just because it's so amazingly sweet, he's only a few hours old!!



There are more chicks on the way too, she's sittng on a heap of eggs and there is 'cheeping' coming from under her. Very exciting, probably means I wont have time to knit today though as I have to keep nipping out to check for chicks!

Blog Fairy

Well.... as you can see I visited the Blog fairy and used one of the fabulous free templates to jazz up the old blog a little.... I like it.... ok, so it's really the dummy's guide to redecoration, but quite frankly, when it comes to computers, that's about the extent of my capabilities.

Do let me know if you find it obscenely difficult to read wont you??

If you check out 30 Days, you will see that Mique has a fantastic blog makeover giveaway going on... so if you fancy a makeover, and you are more on the ball than me.... why not enter... you never know, you might just be the new author of the trendiest blog in blogland.

So.... I have no pics of the mans jumper... which isnt finished...though it almost is. Other than that preparations are insane and we are about to move house....tomoro.... oh and did I mention that we are hosting christmas for 20 people.... yes... I think we might be mad afterall.

Wish us luck... and lots of good cheer!

There are jumpers and there are jumpers

Hmmm... well... just a short post.... not yet the giveaway post... I thought I should clear something up. You see I'm making a jumper for my husband.... To me, 'Jumper' conjours images such as this...


Not my pic (or my hubby in fact) but you get the idea.... rugged, manly and so on. However, as a good friend pointed out (with a giggle) this is what the word 'Jumper' conjours up for her....

As you can see there's rather a significant difference there...

A quickie

Well... I've been busy, the hubby's jumper is close to finished (pics to follow eventually) and I made a couple of purses for the shop and a pencil case (with terrible pics).

The Sew mama sew giveaway is on tomoro (check out the button on the side ---->) and I am taking part, so feel free to take a look at what is on offer tomorrow.

Sorry about the dreadfully dull post... see you tomorrow.

Vintage Stripes

OK... so here's a wee pic of the finished jumper...on me... eek


Here's the only bit I dont like

A wee squiggle on the neck.... but it's fine, it's not so bad that I plan to unravel the lot... I especially love the long sleeves and it's going to be nice and cosy when we are tucked up in our little cottage this winter.

Finished...

Well... I do have a finished item to show you... though I will do that in the next post. In the meantime, I started the Hubby's jumper with the wool he picked in Australia. Which is a pain to knit with but knits up fast.

This is what it looks like up close



It reminds me a little of this....

See the similarity


So when it's finished, the hubby will be like a big wooly sheep and hopefuly just as warm.

Back in business

Well, winter is rolling in and the frost is heavy in the mornings. The days are short and crisp making everyone scurry around quickly about their business to get it all done and get home to the fireside. We're not immune to this scurrying and we always feel a little desperation as the sun starts to set and the days work isn't done.

However, long cold nights wrapped up indoors leads to lots of knitting.... I'm proud to present my first knitting in months ....


These are the sleeves of the jumper I am almost finished knitting..... I LOVE the wool. It's Cleakheaton 'Vintage hues' from a sale in a Sydney wool shop. I decided to just knit a very plain v-neck to emphasise the fabulous striping.

You may also recognise those needles..... yes.... I finally have my very own knit picks! I havn't photographed them yet, but I will. I just have the small started pack with 3 wires and 3 needles, though I bought an extra pair.

So in Sydney I had a little adventure in a wool shop.







pics from Morris and sons themselves

Thankfully they had a couch, which homed the hubby for the duration of the adventure. They had 30% sale on everything (yes, everything) including the knit picks. I bought 40 balls of wool..... um.... it came in packs of 10. I bought the vintage hues for me and then the other 20 were this.....

This is for the mans jumper...nobbly curly stuff.... I love it (thought not as much as my own)

I also had an adventure in a wool and fabric shop in france (it really was an adventure) couldn't understand anything and couldn't explain that I wanted the book I had seen in the window. In the end I took the lady out of the shop and pointed to the book in the window, and smiled a lot. It was a tiny little shop with every surface filled with shelves of fabric and wool and with racks of crosstitch, tapestry, patterns, tension squares, beads....you name it, it was stocked there somewhere. With barely enough room to maneuver, I purchased this....


It's just gorgeous and I cant wait to start something from it.

Unfortunately my little shop stands startlingly empty, I have not had time to do anything to sell there. Not only that, but I can't see anything happening for a while yet as christmas is round the corner and I plan to make some gifts. Not to mention that lovely nativity that I STILL havn't finished. Oh dear. Looks like, once again, I am all outta time.

OK, today I am off to paint our bedroom. We ought to have the power turned on today too (fingers crossed) and then soonish (in a couple of weeks) we should be living out there. In case you forget what out there is, this is the acre we stand on...


Oh... and we need to get some firewood too.

Much to do, and we are going to host christmas (with a big fat goose) hopefully. Better hop to it, catch you later.

Hot water.... at last

Well, that hot water pipe that burst over a week ago now was fixed last night when my fabulous father (jack of all trades) turned up last night and said.... "oh, you still dont have that fixed... hang on, my tools are in the car"

Fantastic.... now there is hot water coming from the tap in the kitchen!

I paid him back with cream cheese and parma ham toasties.

As the gals of the sock year know, I have not finished my feb socks.... though, I am here


My progress on all things is slightly hindered by this delightful bout of flu I have. I gave in and went to the doc today, so it must be bad.

Astrum Beret : : A knitting pattern

I bought this fabulous wool boucle from Yarntopia Treasures and I knew it was destined to be a beret. It’s knitted top down to use lovely neat yarn over increases as a feature of the pattern, resulting in an asterix of sorts.

So here’s how to do it…

Materials:

Aprox. 230 yards of sport weight wool

The beret is knit in a round, so, you need whatever needles you use to knit on the round in a size 4mm (US size 6) (i.e. a set of 4mm dpns, 2 circular size 4 needles, 1 long circular size 4mm needle whichever you feel comfortable with. )

Gauge:

aprox 5 stitches per inch. I used a looser gauge as the boucle is more effective when not so closely knit. However, if you aren’t using boucle, use a thicker yarn and aim for the same gauge.

Abbreviations

CO Cast on

K Knit

P Purl

M1 Increse one stitch in last knitted stitch

YO yarn over

SKP Slip the next stitch knit-wise onto right hand needle, knit the next stitch, pass the slipped stitch over the knitted stitch.

2x2 Rib knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches

St Stitches

Rnd round

I knit this with one long circular and cast on with figure 8 magic loop for a neater start. If you haven’t done this before you can find instructions here, or you can just cast on and join the round in your usual way.

Begin! …

CO 4 stitches

Knit one round even.

Next round: increase one stitch in every stitch (8 st). Repeat this step on the next round (16 st)

Place a marker at the start of the round

K1 M1 K7 M1 K1 M1 K7 M1

*K2 M1 rep from * to end of round (30 st)

• K one Rnd even

*K3 M1 rep from * to end of round (40 st)

• K one Rnd even

*K4 YO rep from * to end of round (50 st)

• K 2 Rnds even

*K5 YO rep from * to end of round (60 st)

• K2 Rnds even

*K6 YO rep from * to end of round (70 st)

• K2 Rnds even

Repeat this pattern, increasing 1 stitch before the YO each time and knitting 2 even rounds after each increase round.

Stop repeats after you complete *K14 YO rep from * to end of round (150 st)

-End of the increase pattern

K 5 Rnds even (you should still have 150 st)

-The decreases begin here

K13 SKP

K12 SKP (130 st)

• K 1 Rnd even

K11 SKP

K10 SKP (110 st)

• K 1 Rnd even

K9 SKP

K8 SKP (90 st)

• K 1 Rnd even

K1 K2tog, K45, K2tog K to the end of the round (88 St)

Work 2x2 rib for 1 inch (or desired band width)

Loosely cast off (try the stretchy Russian Cast off) and sew in the tails of yarn.

Now all that’s left is to block it.

This pattern is far from perfect, so, if you have any questions, corrections or suggestions please feel free to leave me a comment.

Russian cast off : : A knitting tutorial

The Russian cast off (Russian bind off) is a looser, stretchier and more elegant way of casting off than the traditional method. It works particularly well as a finishing to ribbing, especially on a ribbed collar or a ribbed band (eg on a hat).

To start with, take your row of stitches (practice on a swatch first I think)




Knit the first one as you normally would when casting off



Now, insert the left needle in the back of the stitch you just knitted, you should have this sort of thing...



Now, take the tip of the right needle and insert it in the next stitch, as if to knit,



you should see a lovely cross formed with the stitches and the needle through both of them and out the back, like this



Now, just pass the yarn round the needle as usual for a knit stitch



Pull the point of the needle back through your cross, you should have a lovely stitch on your needle


Now pull that off the left needle, and start again


Put the left needle through the back of the stitch on the right


Right needle through next stitch to knit


Knit



Off



Keep going, it should look like this



and eventually, you have this



Here are a couple of examples of this stitch in real live action.....

The collar of the Drops Jacket



The band of the Astrum Beret



Simple, elegant and useful, give it a go.

Birthday quilt

Ok, so this is what I have really been working on, now that it's been gifted away to my wee sister for her 18th.

It's pretty huge so it's not all in this pic...


She said she liked it.... she's a pinky girlie girl

These are some of my favourite squares from it



I also had to learn how to do the binding.... I did OK but also learned alot.


I actually found it difficult to be totally honest, Not the task itself, but keeping going to get it done. I mean of course I love the outcome and I wanted to make something lovely for Annie but I hated sewing hundreds of little lines, it became very tedious very quickly. But I suppose that's part of the love wrapped up in it, the task itself makes the quilt special.

OK I will stop rambling and get off. I am really feeling pretty ill so sitting it out today and going to finish my beret and see where I get.