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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 Knitting, Updates 1 Comment

Here’s the duck:

And here’s the mushrooms:

Both for Felix of course!

The duck is a free pattern by Mimi Codd, ‘Rubber Duckie Face Cloth‘ and the mushrooms are another free pattern, this time by Leslie Glenn and is aptly called ‘Mushroom‘. I could have knitted dozens of those mushrooms, cute, quick and easy…but three seemed the right number as play food for Felix. And the duck face cloth, thought it would help wash that mucky little face of hers during bathtime!

In other news, the commissions were finished and we all celebrated Felix’s second birthday at Chester Zoo on Saturday (birthday is actually tomorrow, hence the early post – more time to spend with the little terror on the actual day!) It was a great day out – the weather was gorgeous, the animals were making themselves seen, and far too much food and cake was consumed by all.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend!

Wool Count down:
Starting total (28Feb15) – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 78 (2 balls this week! Woot!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 13

Total – 706

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Updates No Comments

Engels incredibly bright, not too warm-not too cold blanket, as per his request. Snuggles decided to photo bomb the photo shoot as the sea of green was just destroying my retinas…

And yes, this wool is just that bight. Its neon. And UV reactive. It actually glows under black lights!

The pattern is based on the ‘Weekend TV Lapghan‘ by Lionbrand, different needles and wool used, and subsequently this was the monster of a blanket where I accidentally cast on three times the number of stitches…

But that is the last of the blankets! For now.

I’ve got another bunny commission on at the moment, so a pause on the personal projects, though I did squeeze these in:

These are based on the ‘Miss Marple Scarf‘ pattern by SusanneS-vV. The black one is for Felix as the weather gets cooler, and the pink one is a gift for one of Engels relatives. The photo was taken at a sushi place in Manchester which is where I did the final bits of the pink one, along with some very yummy salmon and cracked black pepper with rice…

Other updates: Life, super busy, between work, Engel, and the growing terror that is an almost two year old Felix, very little time is left for much else!

Wool update: The past two weeks, seven! Very nearly finished a few more, but colour changes, I’ll have to go back to those later…

Wool Count down:
Starting total (28Feb15) – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 76 (7 balls this week! Woot!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 13

Total – 708

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

Yesterday was my birthday. Its generally an occasion I celebrate at home, generally pretty small, and usually with very little fuss. My circle of friends however has grown quite a lot, and not the kind of friends you hang around with cause they work with you or whatever and its convenient, proper friends.

And I take my hat off to them. Best birthday ever.

Really!

I mean, seriously, how many people out there would toss aside their usual inhibitions, put on cat ears and tails and play Cathulhu (yep, Cat-thoo-loo) just because they know its what you kinda really want to do but not really want to make them do cause its just a bit mean?

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(That’s what was left this morning, I made more, but they went home with their new owners! No pattern, just winged.)

They even organised one of the others to GM so I could play (I was polydactyl calico cat with a fair bit of 1920’s streetwise attitude and those thumbs of mine could open doors and windows…it was awesome.)

They also spoiled me rotten (not important, but I was worried they were fed up with my GMing Cthuhlu and seeing the pile of Cthuhlu scenarios I got and expansions, not so worried!) and made me an awesome cake!

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Three layers of super yummy chocolate cake, tons of yummy frosting and 90% cocoa on the outside…gorgeous!

Other thing that made my weekend? I got pounced on by Felix in my bed, she was wielding an amazon box and yelled ‘Happy Birthday Mummy! Present! Can eat monkey cake now?’ Sarah Keens Noahs Ark was the present, but that moment in time? Priceless – the girl takes after her mum most definitely!

Only used one ball of wool as, like I mentioned on the post last week, only little projects! Lots of ears and tails!

Wool Count down:
Starting total (28Feb15) – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 66
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 3

Total – 708

Hope everyone else has had as awesome a few days as I have!

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

…coming to you from under a blanket…

First things first, photos of all the holiday knitting I’ve been keeping secret.

Haughty Hen Trio from Knit & Purl Pets by Claire Garland

This is for my niece, a miniature version of her very own pet chicken!

Holy Hand Grenade, free pattern by Wylde Strandes

And this is for a good Monty Python loving friend of the family! Pattern is a ravelry download that can be found here.

For those not in the know, its featured in the movie ‘The Holy Grail’.

And lastly, advent stockings!

Little Christmas stocking for beginners, free pattern by Fluff and Fuzz

Never. Ever. Again. Ever. That’s five sets of twenty four stockings, that’s a hundred and twenty stockings! I was dreaming of knitting these things! For anyone out there mad enough to attempt their own, the pattern can be found here. From the top, red, white and purple for my niece. Green, white and blue for my nephew. Dark red and sparkly white for my mum. Black and grey for Engel. Red, green and white for me.

Sadly, the hardest part wasn’t the knitting or sewing, but assembling it together. Here is a photo of me trying to do so:

Crumble supervising to ensure all is done properly

Wool everywhere, stockings everywhere, cat trying to ‘help’…the moment I gave her a sacrificial extra stocking, she lost interest and decided to go play with her catnip mouse instead…

Anyhow, a good festive season has been had so far by myself, Engel and Felix. Engel has actually been festive and put christmas music on yesterday, in the 6/7 years I’ve known him, this is a first! He blames Felix on being the christmas spirit…

How about you guys?

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Updates No Comments

Did everyone go out Haggis Hunting in preparation for their traditional St Andrews feast on Saturday?

I did! Here’s the evidence:

Traditional method of catching the wild haggis

Had friends round and a good time was had by all. Except for the haggis. I think being skinned and boiled wasn’t very enjoyable…

What else has happened since my last post? Went to see the Barenaked Ladies in Manchester (I blame my friend entirely for that).  It all started with their album snacktime…

Anyhow, I would highly recommend seeing them if yo enjoy a good laugh, Engel doesn’t so he stayed home and looked after Felix.

Finally everyone has the plague.  I came down with a cold and have managed to infect Engel and Felix…

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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 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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