by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

How can it only be March?! It has, again, been quite a week. I’m leaving it at that…

The title isn’t really a pun so much as playing on the fact that I received a commission to knit a Space Marine, a Horus Heresy Thousand Sons one to be exact. But what is that, I hear?

For those who may remember, I knit an Escher’s Sister from Necromunda a while back, and these guys are actually connected to them in part of the world building backstory…

But I digress, without further ado:

I was asked to make a chibi like version as it’s a gift for a small child. I ended up creating the whole pattern from scratch, and tweaking that even as I went along, so he is truly one of a kind.

I also had a lot of fun with all the little details, like his shoulder pads and backpack!

And on that, I will see you all next post.

Until then, stay safe!

Starting total – 880

Wool used – 7 (+1)
Wool bought – 10
Wool given to me – 2
Wool gifted to others – 3
Wool handspun – 2

Total – 884 (Net difference: +4)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Still a pun, promise, but also how I’m feeling about 2023. It has been very much one thing after another after another…

Almost all are just little things, slowly grinding me down, and the odd big thing just flooring me…but there have been positives too.

So lets warm up those cold feet with something fun and bright, shall we?

This is another pair of socks knit using the NO Swatch, ANY Yarn Socks by Ida-Maria Tyyskä – a free pattern I highly recommend for all new sock knitting beginners!

And with that, I shall leave this post at that. Let’s hope for a quiet week!

Until then, stay safe!

Starting total – 880

Wool used – 6 (+2)
Wool bought – 10
Wool given to me – 2
Wool gifted to others – 3
Wool handspun – 2 (+1)

Total – 885 (Net difference: +5)

by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

I’ll be there…Owl Bear there… kind of hard to manage a pun with owl bear specifically but I think I will count that as a win on my pun blog post entries…

First of all, as you will have noticed, no past last week as I was in Cheddar, busy exploring caves, running about gorges and eating far too much cheese. For those who follow my Instagram, you will have seen a little wild knitting photo of me in Cheddar Gorge.

It has taken me this long to recover enough to actually put together a blog post, and for being patient, there’s a bit of a treat today!

But first, the knitting:

I have a long standing tradition of knitting my gaming friends a dice bag the first birthday they have in the group. This particular friend already had a small mountain of dice bags, so I decided to knit a dice bag bag. A bag for dice bags?

Moving on. She loves Owl-Bears, but try as I might I just couldn’t find the perfect chart so…I made one. The one you see is version 6 (the first version could best be described as an owl blob and it never need be mentioned again). I just winged a bag pattern to fit round the chart in her favourite colour, and voila!

Which brings me on to the treat for today: The Owl Bear Chart is available in the free patterns page!

Hope you all have a great week and until next post, stay safe!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

So, as you all know, I didn’t post anything last week. It had been a very busy, but good, week, a lot of the issues that had been ongoing had been resolved – those that need to know, know, I won’t bore anyone with the details – and the Monday was a nice quiet one with a friend round doing some miniature painting with us. (Ok, I spent it cleaning models, but it counts).

So Tuesday rolls round, I’m about to put the little terrors to bed and then post on here when Inkling stood up, declared his tummy hurt and then puked. And puked. And puked.

There must be some form of eldritch magic at work because something so small can not contain that much puke. This was followed by much cleaning and a long night of puke, clean, puke, clean until pretty much time to get up for work…

It took till Friday before my littlest terror could be classed as ‘well’. He could keep down food and drink, and had some energy, but not quite his usual bouncing self which took till Sunday.

Unfortunately that same Friday, just a few days ago, I then became ill…

Hence, you got to be kitten me.

The pun game is still on, and it still ties in with this week’s knitted thing!

Cats, cats, cats! This is a close up of Covered in Cats Cowl by Marna Gilligan from her book ‘Cat Knits’.

I wanted another cowl, and I loved the colours in my 100% That Witch jumper, and I just needed to knit this cute pattern so… Perfect trinity? Oh, and as you can see, it doubles as a kitty blanket.

On that note, I shall leave you with a close up of this cutie and give you the wool count. Until next post, stay safe!

Starting total – 880

Wool used – 4 (+3)
Wool bought – 10 (+10 – bought for this year’s 100 Xmas decos)
Wool given to me – 2
Wool gifted to others – 3
Wool handspun – 2 (+1)

Total – 887 (Net difference: +7)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

I will continue the puns!

This is the last of the Christmas knits, well, it isnt technically a Christmas knit, but seeing as the birthday girl is very early January, it falls into the Christmas knits time period.

It was my neices 18th and, as it was a big occasion, and she had dropped a million hints, I decided to break my ‘no knitting large garments as gifts’ rule.

The look of sheer happiness certainly made the effort worth while.

So, what was she wanting? Well, after our WW2 frolics last year, she has been seriously eyeing up my Betty Davis cardigan…

So, here is one of her very own! Same pattern as mine, Quickly-Knitted Jacket by Australian Women’s Weekly, and same modifications, just a more neutral, will go with everything, colour of varying charcoal grey’s.

In other crafting news, I managed to pick up my spinning again and finish a bobbin! Its been a bit of an uphill battle with my health and medication side effects, but I think I’m in the right balance between breathing and dexterity.

Hooray!

And with that, I have a project I have had to put off for nearly a year that I can finally start, so until next week, stay safe!

Starting total – 880

Wool used – 1
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 2
Wool gifted to others – 3 (sharing the wooly love)
Wool handspun – 1

Total – 879 (Net difference: -1)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

I am loving my puns this year!

Following on from my last Christmas knits post, we have a pair of berets. These where knit for those who didn’t receive one of the helmet liners I knit.

First up we have:

This beautiful pattern is a free pattern, Béret Généreux by Isabelle Allard. The background is a blue/purple marled yarn, and the grey is actually a dark grey to white yarn, but with such a small area being knit up, you can’t really tell…

Secondly, another gorgeous free pattern, Gramma K’s Fair Isle Tam by Kathleen Taylor. Knit with a plain black wool background and a fairly quick blue to purple gradient wool.

I really enjoy knitting fair isle, especially little patterns like these where I can play with the colours, so I had a lot more fun knitting these than the helmet liners! Although if I was told to wear one, it would be the helmet liner – my ears have to be kept warm after all!

In non knitting news, it has been a decidedly less eventful week this week. Still tired, but a lot less stressed, and that’s the main thing. There’s been lots of non knitting crafting going on as well, which I will share in a few weeks once I have managed to retrieve all the bits from the kids for a few good photos!

On that note, I will bid you farewell until next post. Until then, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 880

Wool used – 1
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 2
Wool gifted to others – 2 (sharing the wooly love)
Wool handspun – 0

Total – 879 (Net difference: -1)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Who doesn’t love a good pun?

As I said last post, we will slowly work on catching up on all the Christmas knits so that I can have a fairly relaxed start to the year, knit wise at least.

The start of my year has not been relaxing. It has been one thing after another after another.

Its also why I didn’t post yesterday, if I did it would literally have gone:

Me: Bad weekend. Here. Photos.

Photos.

Me: Here, details.

Me: Done now. Take care.

Which would have been a somewhat poor post…not that this one will be much better as I am tired! Things have been fixed/improved, so the stress is easing, but I am still worn out.

Enough babble. This week we are going to look at cowls!

As a thank you for a wonderful weekend away, I decided to knit a little gift for the hosts. This first set is Duotone Cowl by Orange Flower Yarn, a free pattern, and even though it’s for the man of the house, Girl Gift Mitts by Debbie Meiklejohn knit to match.

Its a great pattern, very easy, lends well to stripes and with it being ribbed, fits everyone from my skinny wrists to manly shovel hands!

And for the lady of the house, Lizard Ridge Cowl by Janis Witkins, also a free pattern, and knit in Hufflepuff colours. Again, a pair of Girl Gift Mitts to match!

These were both cowl patterns I wanted to try, so I was more than happy to knit these as gifts.

Right, until next post, take care!

Wool Count

Starting total – 880

Wool used – 1 (Woo!)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 2 (so very pretty balls of wool too!)
Wool gifted to others – 0
Wool handspun – 0

Total – 881 (Net difference: +1)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

To begin the year I will be sharing all the Christmas knitting I was doing and having to keep secret over the next few weeks. You get to see what I’ve been up to behind the scenes, and I get a slow dawdle of a start to the year.

Win-win, right?

Speaking of slow dawdle, I am exhausted. This weekend was a blur of going up north to visit the family, potion making, my niece’s 18th birthday party (time has been warped somehow because I swear she was only nine the other month), then pancakes and home.

Oh, and Rabbie did my hair, it’s much shorter, it’s coloured like a mermaids, and it’s awesome!!!!

A much more detailed description of the chaos that was the weekend can be found on Rabbies blog, with cute bonus photos of the ever so cute Missy!

With that said, here is my first knitted Christmas project I started, and also the last one I finished…

Helmet liners! And not just any helmet liners, but ones knit following the same 1916 knitting pattern that was spotted at the ‘through the ages’ event we went to at Duncarron many months ago. (Theres actually five that I knitted up, but I had foolishly wrapped one up before finishing the last one for the group photo)

Pattern details are: Helmet by F W Woolworth, it is a free pattern as it’s a scan from a booklet from 1916. Be warned though that knitting patterns have come a long, long, long way since this was written!

The reason behind these was that whilst at the Duncarron event, Inkling got to try on a knitted helmet liner (same pattern as above) and was so cute it was unreal. I joked that given the cost of living going up and the cost of gas and oil and electricity and, well, everything, I should make everyone their own to help combat the cold.

A month later, my family kindly reminded me of this ‘promise’ when I enquired if anyone needed any household knits (tribbles, wash cloths etc) topping up for Christmas…

I took a break between each one to work a different project, but my oh my was that a lot of garter stitch…

And with that, I shall leave you to next week.

No wool count as it’s neither gone up nor down!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

I think it’s safe to say for all of us that it’s been a year. As was last year. And the year before.

The past two years I have gone ‘it can’t be worse’, ‘we’ll make up for the previous year’, ‘lets start fresh and make a go of it’. But we live in interesting times. War. Disease. Pandemics. Health scares and ongoing issues. Burn out. So much burn out.

Theres been lots of good too, and many amazing memories and experiences, but this year?

I’m entering this year with a whisper, not a roar. I am taking it slow, and careful. I’m making no grand plans or promises. My one aim is to get through it as quietly, and gently, as possible.

So, in a hushed tone, I wish you all a happy and uneventful 2023.

All that said, you’re here for the knitting, not the ramble, and I shall show you my last knitted item of 2022:

Cthuhlu in a Santa hat. He’s definitely more bah humbug about the whole affair, what with everyone worshipping other creatures beside him, but he is commemorating the start of a new Cthuhlu group, and many campaigns to come.

Fresh blood, got to love it.

There are a whole load of Christmas knits that I will share in the coming weeks, but that’ll be after I have given them to everyone!

And last but not least, my wool count. Most years I have a target of using 100 balls of wool in a year (I did manage that in 2022), and to have a net negative of no less than 50 of what I started with (negatives 19, I did badly in 2022, I blame my COVID comfort purchases). This year, I’m not putting any targets on it. So long as by year end I have at least one less than I started with, I don’t actually care.

Wool Count

Starting total – 880

Wool used – 0
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 0
Wool gifted to others – 0
Wool handspun – 0

Total – 880 (Net difference: nill)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Not even a…well…mouse?

Two mice? No, more!

Eleven in all!

Turns out, the department I now work in has an annual ‘cheese day’ at this time of year. Essentially everyone brings in cheese, or crackers, or charcuterie…and I had intended on bringing in little polar bears from the great polar bear army I knit at the start of the year but…

Its cheese day, it had to mice!

I used the medium sized pattern of mice by Sue Stratford from her book ‘knitted cats and kittens’, and managed to knock out eleven in two evenings. So cute! And they went down a treat.

Now, I must dash, there’s a lot to do at this time of year and not a lot of time to do it.

Have a good festive season and I will see you all next year!

Stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 843

Wool used – 100 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 51
Wool given to me – 32
Wool gifted to others – 5
Wool handspun – 3

Total – 824 (Net difference: -19)

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