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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

This is Octocat, the mascot for GitHub, a software version control provider.

I don’t know quite what that is either, but Engel wanted it, and playfully pointed out that it has been a year or so since I last knit something for him… (he isn’t counting the slippers he stole, seeing as he stole them, they weren’t made for him.) So I relented and…

Not a bad likeness, eh? He’s based on the free pattern Octopuss by Bethany Hendrickson. You can’t see it so well in this photo, but he has suckers on his tentacles!

Here he is chilling at Engels work – there’s no one in his office at the moment so I like to think it’s keeping him company at least!

In other knitting news, my spinning is coming along! Engel jokes every time I ply my singles together I level up – when I finished plying balls 5 & 6, I could literally hear the Final Fantasy VII level up mysic…

So as you can guess, I’ve added to the wool stash, and decreased the fluff stash. That balances out, right? Course it does. And I was super good and gave three balls of my stash away this week to a pair of my friends who want to try knitting as something to help with the lockdown monotomy. (Lockdown is lifting, yes, but my friends and myself are being very cautious and treating life as if in still full lockdown for the most part.)

So yeah, the wool count was looking good, even more so after using 6 balls of wool this week. And then Ratman (a Nerf friend of mine) who does IT for a hospice, told me they were chucking out all the wool in the little charity shop they have, and the little cafe too where they encouraged people previously to craft whilst waiting on loved ones. Now, Mrs Ratman knits, so I figured once she had her share there wouldn’t be that much left, so yeah, I’ll take it, can’t have good wool just thrown in the bin.

283 balls.

Yes, that’s not a typo, 283 balls from 10g to 500g have been added to my stash. And on top of that, 5 more from a different friend who wants me to make him a dice bag with them…and keep the leftovers as payment…

Want to see the damage in numbers?

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 63 (6 this week)
Wool bought – 11
Wool given to me – 296 (up 288)
Wool gifted to others – 3 (Up 3!)
Wool handspun – 6 (Up 4!)

Total – 950 (it’s gone up, a lot…not had this much in my stash for a few years…)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Literally!

This is based on the pattern Charlie’s Checkers by Sophia Minakais – the only changes in made was the choice of colours and adding details to make the pieces ladybirds and bumblebees!

And the bag. I decided I wanted to give helical knitting a try – and it worked. It gives the effects of single coloured stripes but your actually working all the colours at once across the round, and the stripes spiral up the bag.

It’s supposed to be a great way of using up scrap wool in hats and things, which I may try at some point.

Another thing I’ve been trying is my spinning wheel. I managed to fill two bobbins and ply them together to make two balls of my own handspun wool! I’ve also just finished filling a third bobbin to make even more!

My wool is bumpy, and goes thick to thin, but it’s my wool! And by the second bobbin I could see a marked improvement with my drafting. I have a project lines up to use it, but need to do a few more colours first – all shall be revealed in time!

In non Knitting news not a lot has happened apart from dying from the heat. I don’t like it above 20C, and to have several days of near and over 30C has just about killed me.

But it has rained! And it’s cooled down! And I am so very happy!

On that note, I shall leave you with just one last photo from my checker board photo shoot as it sums up my knitting attempts to a T.

(That’s Outbreaks paw btw)

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 57 (Just 1 this week)
Wool bought – 11 (Up by 4 – they were half price and colours I use a lot!)
Wool given – 8
Wool gifted – 0
Wool handspun – 2 (New category!!!!)

Total – 667 (this is going to go up a fair bit as I work through all my sheep fleece…)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

And the clocks were striking thirteen…

Ok, not quite, but I couldn’t resist. Something did happen yesterday, on a bright cold day in April, which was the addition of two new members to the family.

Please all say hello to Lockdown and Outbreak! They are 8 weeks old and adorable. Outbreak is very outgoing, into everything and itching to explore. Lockdown just wants quiet and cuddles. I feel they suit their names well!

As a thank you for the kittens, I made these:

Little ginger kittens! The patter used was Happy Family – Mother Cat & Kittens by Sue Stratford from her book ‘Knitted Cats and Kittens’

That’s all from me this week, I have adorable kittens to coo over, and beautiful cats to give love and cuddles too also.

I will say this, the world seems a lot brighter and friendlier this weekend, I hope it lasts!

Till next week!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Following in from the last post, kitty beans, Engel and the kids won the argument and now the table has knitted kitty paws.

But not any paws. A big table needs big kitty paws.

Big jaguar kitty paws!

This is combination of two free patterns, Chair Paws: Cat by Nicola Valiji and 0-401 Wrist warmer with jaguar pattern by DROPS design.

And of course, they needed beans!

Just a short post as I’ve been very poorly as of late (one of the reasons for the missed post last week) and I’ve pretty much not done anything but sleep. Like 12-16 hours of sleep a day type sleep.

I’m feeling better, not brilliant, but the doctors have told me it’ll be weeks, if not months before I’m back up and running at full speed.

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 95 (3 used)
Wool bought – 30 (Up by 11, I thought I bought two skeins of gradient wool, turns out, they were 5 balls of wool braided together to look like one skein. Hence my cheeky purchase of 3 suddenly became 11…)
Wool given – 162 (5 get better soon balls of wool appeared…)
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 644 (net gain of 2)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Cats, Knitting 1 Comment

How could anyone resist such cute squishy toes on such dainty paws?

And thus began the madness.

Long story short, I have laminate flooring, and wooden chairs. The felt on the bottom of the chairs had worn off and they were beginning to scuff the floor. I was going to replace the felt but…

They look so much cuter than plain chair legs! But I couldn’t do one chair, oh no, all six chairs had to have them. And they all had to be different cats too.

Tabby, British blue, tuxedo, Calico, mackerel tabby, Siamese. Of course everyone had to pick their favourite for their chair, but once done I now have chairs that don’t scratch the floor!

For those curious, I used the free pattern Chair Paws: Cat by Nicola Valiji but on larger needles and a few extra stitches as my chair legs are obviously chunkier than what the pattern was designed for!

That’s all this week!

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 92 (2 used)
Wool bought – 30 (Up by 11, I thought I bought two skeins of gradient wool, turns out, they were 5 balls of wool braided together to look like one skein. Hence my cheeky purchase of 3 suddenly became 11…)
Wool given – 157 (2 as birthday presents!)
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 642

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

As mentioned area weeks ago, I’m trying to take up spinning and make my own wool. It’s slow going, mainly as I have a lot of fleece that needs washing and carding before I can try spinning, but it’s there.

One thing I need to do all this though is a drop spindle. Before going to the wool experience where I ended up picking up three, I organised a trade:


A beautiful, 3D printed drop spindle (this photo was taken before I attached the hook) in exchange for:

A little knitted replica of his recently deceased kitty, Minnie.

(Pattern used is Tortoiseshell Cat by Sally Muir and Joanna from the book Best in Show: Knit Your Own Cat)

Even though I used a pattern, the markings where all done by eye to match up, as best at I could with wool, the markings on the actual cat. I had six very cute reference photos for the job!

And even though I now have four drop spindles, this newest addition is just lovely to work with…well worth the effort! Though I don’t fancy trying to match Calico cat markings again any time soon!

In other news, I got a little table top loom for Felix, which has been surprisingly fun! She’s finished a bag on it, though I have yet to cut it off, and currently starting a wash cloth for her grandmama! Looks like creativity is running in the family! Photos will come soon once I’ve got them off the loom and all the ends weaved in.

That’s it for now, has been a very busy week at work and at home and an absolutely manic weekend with playdates, christenings and birthday parties all to attend…

Oh, and as I’ve had a few private enquiries regarding last week’s blog post, my sister’s brother in law survived the operation so it’s now just the long road to recovery. He’s not fully out of the woods yet, but definitely over the worst! And the knitted hugs went down well, and didn’t over step any boundaries, so very, very pleased with how it’s all worked out!

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 59 (1 used)
Wool bought – 16 (3 more, mentioned above)
Wool given – 155
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 660

Fleece bought/own – 13 lots, varying quantities…in process of being cleaned  (just three little bags left! The big fleeces have been washed!), carded and combined by sheep breed.

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Gaming, Knitting, Uncategorized 2 Comments

I’ve been playing Fallout76 lately (I know, I know, it will never compare to the glory of Fallout 3, but it’s been a nice, bumbling play, and with the daily quests it provides a nice goal to complete each night when I don’t have time to push on with serious plot)

Anyhow, for those not in the know, it’s a computer game based in a post apocalyptic future where you have to wander and kill and collect to survive. It’s also filled with silly little things to lighten up a rather dark and unpleasant setting.

One such thing is Mr Fuzzy. A rather creepy looking mascot to a now abandoned and rotting theme park. The little toys (and so many varieties) are everywhere!

And of course, after scrapping so many for material and leather in game, Engel decided he wanted one to keep…

I think it’s creepy.

It’s supposed to be creepy.

Definitely one of the ugliest creepiest things I’ve made. Maybe about equal only to the naked molerat…another Fallout knit…

For those curious, I heavily modified the free pattern Basic Body by Sara Lee and until I did the face, it was actually looking really cute!

No change from last week’s wool count so won’t include it this week.

Till next week!

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

Hey all,

A bit of an aside to the usual knitting, (though there is knitting further down) a few weeks ago Felix was given a doll’s house:

Except…she didn’t want a doll’s house. She wanted a haunted house. Filled with monsters.

After looking at lots of photos of haunted houses, Engel was let loose:

And not just on the outside of the house:

With Felix’s help, of course. She particularly enjoyed painting the galaxy in the attic – by clicking white paint off a toothbrush!

But a haunted house needs it’s monsters! First up is a witch. But Felix insisted it had to be a ‘real witch’, after some prompting she produced her Meg and Mog book. And so:

Meg! Based on the free pattern Fairy Doll by Stephanie Law.

But I couldn’t have Meg without Mog!

Made following the free pattern Tiny Window Cat by Sara Elizabeth Kellner

But now the question is, what monster to make next?

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 79 (2 since last post!)
Wool bought – 24 (16 since last post – I couldn’t resist! It was a bargain!)
Wool given – 7
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 574

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

It’s been busy since my last post – despite losing three days to the plague (some viral infection that resulted in me seeing black spots during coughing fits, and left me so short of breath I was unable to go up/down the stairs without a break halfway up/down) – I have managed to tie up the ends of a few projects, Felix has had her fifth birthday and there was a crazy cat party with 30+ around five year old kids, with games, activities and even a wizard!

Rabbie has done a good post that covers more on that last bit!

Needless to say I am exhausted! But it’s been worth it, Felix was so happy and excited!

And that leads us to both the lion and mice part of this post. Mice first:

A few more mice where knitted, but more importantly, I finished the cat of the ‘Feed the Cat’ game. Here it is having survived the party, in pretty good shape all things considered!

The lion:

I’ve wanted to make Missy, my dog-niece, something for a while, and even though she wasn’t going to Felix’s cat birthday party, I wanted her to join in. Originally I was planning on mostly following the pattern ( To humiliate the dog by Amoena Online – its a free and very cute mouse/reindeer doggy costume pattern) and adding cat ears…but somehow I ended up doing loop stitch and making it into a lion’s mane…

She’s a big dog, so maybe she needed to be a big cat…?

So incredibly cute!

And lastly, crocodiles. Well, crocodile, singular.

The mini crocodile scarf I had made previous was mislaid last winter, as happens with small children, at the time Felix was good about it and accepted a quick knit black scarf I threw together.

When digging out the winter woolies for this year, however, she once again spotted my crocodile scarf, grabbed it and paraded about in it like a shawl…before asking where hers was…

To which Daddy then said ‘wheres her crocodile scarf? Have you not made her another yet?’

Sigh. So I’ve made another for this winter…hopefully it won’t get lost!

Wool count:

Starting total – 622

Wool used – 77 (9 since last post!)
Wool bought – 8
Wool given – 7 (1 as a cheer up gift, along with a new need gun!!)
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 560

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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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