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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 Knitting, Motorbike, Uncategorized 1 Comment

The title of this post has definitely given the game away over the knit to show you this week!

This is made following the pattern Siberian Husky by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne from the book Knit Your Own Dog: Easy-to-Follow Patterns for 25 Pedigree Pooches.

The reason behind this cutie is based on the events that occurred the other week, which I mentioned in this blog post.

Short story: Engels motorbike died. Engels motorbike was revived temporarily. Person who helped revive motorbike also helped him find new replacement motorbike. New replacement motorbike is very, very nice. And called Meowzebub.

Said very lovely person also owns four huskies and a collie. I got lots of doggy cuddles that day. And as a thank you for helping us out for near enough a whole day at incredibly short notice, literally the night before, Engel suggested I make a replica of one of her huskies.

Isn’t he cute?

There may be the rest of the pack on its way eventually, I believe that’s in debate…

In other news, today was The Wool Experience! And my friends Sisterex and Charisobelle have convinced me to pick up spinning as a new hobby. Or to at least try it. So I went to get a little bit of sheep fluff and a drop spindle.

Yeah…

I now two whole fleeces, 5 little sample bags of different fleeces and 3 drop spindles. Sisterex also gave me three lots of commercial fluff I gave her the other year as it wound up in my stash by accident and Charisobelle also gave me three little bags of fluff in different washed stages so I could see the differences each step made and could practice on those for washing myself.

I think I need to learn this hobby, and get competent in it, pretty quick…

Oh, and I also picked up three skeins of undyed wool for me to have a play with my dyes some more…

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 56 (Still no change…)
Wool bought – 16 (3 more, mentioned above)
Wool given – 155
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 663 (It went up!)

Fleece bought/own – 13 lots, varying quantities…

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized 1 Comment

One of Andrews cousins is having their first child, a little girl, due June/July, and I couldn’t resist making this adorable set for when the little baby arrives!

I used the following free patterns for this set:

Watermelon Baby Cardigan by Stitchylinda Designs

Watermelon Baby Hat by Stitchylinda Designs

Basic Mary Jane Baby Booties by Christy Hills

The first two are made pretty much as written, but with red rather than pink wool, and I just played about with the colour placement/changes to make the bootees match the rest of the set.

Very pleased with how it came out! Can’t wait till the baby arrives to send them!

In other knitting news I’m still ticking away on a different ongoing project, and not sure when it’s going to stop, but it’s been great for using up all my odds and ends and scraps! Which means the wool count is going down pretty quick!

More about that in a week or two when I hopefully decide I’m done!

In non knitting news, it’s been a busy week at work and a fun weekend – a wooly playdate with Sisterix which included a wander down some trails, a hedgemaze for the kids, and a stroll through Broadbottoms Midsummer yarnbomb!

If your in the area, it’s in until the end of June and I do recommend going for a stroll! Though maybe in drier weather, we had to time our stops to view the various pieces between rain showers!

Today it was another playdate at the Didsbury beer festival, I was designated driver but had a good time catching up on all the gossip and getting a bit of knitting done!

That’s all for now.

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 46 (12 this week!!)
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 155
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 670

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

All that red could do was stuff his face!

A guy at work spotted me knitting the blue car and asked if I was going to make a red one, after saying I had already made a red one he grinned and proceeded to start singing the Milky way car advert song. Even more concerning was when another guy joined in…

For those who don’t know the advert but are curious…

Yeah…anyhow, this week saw two blue cars on the knitted car front. Next is a car with a mind of its own and starred originally in a 1969 Disney movie…

On the non car knitting front, I finished my other project!

A cute shawlette and a free pattern – Now in a minute by Brenda Dayne. You use several colours and gradient them together, mine is cream to black.

Want to see it blocked for a better look at its shape?

For some reason it acted as a summoning circle during blocking, every time I chased one cat off, another took its place…

Lastly, as a special little extra, or should I say teeny tiny…?

Pikachus! Yep, I’m celebrating the release of Detective Pikachu, saw it on the opening night with the kids having a sleepover at the inlaws so I could enjoy it proper! And had a bit of a date night with sushi to start…

There was four of the guys in total, one was given away and the other three are up to mischief somewhere in the house…

Here’s one next to a 2p just so you can see how teeny tiny they are! They’re based on a free mochimochi pattern – Tiny Baby Bunnies

That’s all for this week!

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 29 (3 this week!!)
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 155
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 687

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

I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It’s the only way to live
In cars

Got to love classic 80s synth…and funnily enough, Inkling appears to be a big Gary Numan fan, or maybe it’s just because he sings about cars…

And speaking (or singing) about cars…

Two green cars, as Felix insisted there had to be green ones…

And two orange cars, because it gave me the opportunity to use a partial ball of wool up…

So that’s four cars in a week with me not really devoting all that much knitting time to making them. I’ve been pretty worn out, so my other knit has been getting worked on a lot more as it’s pretty mindless!

Well, that’s all the knitting news, Happy Easter everyone!

…

…

Ok, my good conscience demands I come clean about the wool count. One of the guys at Engels works grandmother passed away, so in clearing out the house they came across some wool and passed it to Engel to pass onto me in exchange for my, at some point, knitting up a first gen Pokémon.

No problem!

Yeah…major wool miscount. The small bag of wool I was expecting turned out to be 151, yes, one hundred and fifty one, balls of wool. It turned out that 31 of those balls had mohair in it, so they were quickly rehomed, but that’s still 120 extra…

So. New wool count!

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 25 (1 this week!)
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 155
Wool gifted – 31

Total – 688

If I see below 600 this year I will be amazed…part of me is upset about the stash increase, but the majority is rolling around in the new wool going ‘pretties!’

Till next week!

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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 Knitting, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Roar!

Last of the washcloths (for now) and Felix chose a dragon for hers! It’s based on the free pattern Dragon by Louise Sarrazin.

There’s actually a bit of a back log of knits to show at the moment, but I’m going to space them out as I know there will be weeks soon when I’m working on bigger projects and will have nothing to show you all!

That said, I’ll share this one with you:

Yep. It’s a photo of a triceratops wearing a nose warmer. The reason behind the nose warmer? It’s a long story involving my mum having a bit of an ongoing saga with her electric company, and she was lamenting that the only part of her that she can’t stand being cold was her nose…

And yes, nose warmers are a thing. Here’s the free pattern I used: Nose Warmer by Kristi Kittelson – though I used glittery wool because, well, because my mum likes a bit of sparkle in her life!

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 15 (4 this week!)
Wool bought – 13
Wool given – 4
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 578 (Only up 2 balls of wool…)

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

A quick post of a quick project!

It’s a washcloth, made following the free pattern Kitty Prints Dishcloth by Louise Sarrazin. I’m in the process of updating a few of our washcloths that have been worn thin from sheer use!

This one will be for Inkling, who is currently going through a ‘cat, cat, meow’ stage with his babbling, Felix has chosen something more interesting though for hers!

But more on that when I’ve made it. Which is after a much larger project that’s nearly off the needles, but there’s a story to that! Which I’ll tell you about she they’re done.

I do have one story to tell, though it’s more of a confession… You see, last week I mentioned in the wool count that I had to buy a ball of wool for a commission. Which is true. Except…it wasn’t quite the shade I wanted. It looks good, and works, but it wasn’t what I wanted in my head. I checked three shops for this wool with no luck. Then I was in town on Sunday and there it was.

The exact colour I had been looking for.

The exact weight I had been looking for.

And on clearance.

But only sold in packs of 10.

So now my wool count is higher than I had initially started with at the beginning of the year. Oh well!

Oh, and I was given four balls of wool as well for fixing a jumper for someone else.

So yeah, wool count is truly screwed…

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 9
Wool bought – 13 (it was on clearance!)
Wool given – 4
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 584 (I’m actually up 8 balls of wool…)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Cats, Knitting, Uncategorized 1 Comment

I’m not a huge D&D can, much prefer Cthulhu, but in Cthulhu you don’t really get items that boost your stats, just corrode what little sanity the players have remaining…

Anyhow! A friend of mine emailed me a photo of a cat wearing a crocheted Wizards hat with the comment that I should make one. I was tempted, but my kitties have access to lots of props to play with in the course of my various creations.

However, his cute little kitty has none…

The pattern used is just the hat from Little Witch by Jean Greenhowe. The stars were added afterwards using the free pattern Stacking Stars by Frankie Brown. For an extra bit of magic, I used a dark blue wool with a strand of sparkly thread in it…

Witch hat? That sounds more my style mummy!

I hope he likes it! And his kitty!

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 9 (Another one bites the dust!)
Wool bought – 3 (Bought one to use as part of a commission, that’s totally allowed!)
Wool given – 0
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 570

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Rabbie asked me to do a Mary Poppins/Mrs Tiggy-Winkle mash-up and like any crazy knitter up for a challenge…

The main body of the pattern is based on the Alan Dart Mrs Tiggy-Winkle pattern I made last time, with some colour changes, a few tweaks and some extras. Such as…

The hat comes from the pattern Emily by Jean Greenhowe, it’s one of her knitted dolls, but the hat was perfect! And I couldn’t resist putting it on Crumble, she looks so cute in hats! Even if she gives me death glares for it…

Carpet bag! Not an exact replica by any means, but it’s still cute!

Winged the carpet bag, a must for Mary Poppins and probably one of my favourite parts of the whole movie, but I used the free chart from Headband ‘Roses’ by Ann Linderhjelm

And who could forget the umbrella?!

For this one, I used the free pattern Quick Mini Yarn Parasols by Amanda Williams, but added extra stitches and worked it on larger needles.

It was a big project, and took a fair bit of time, but I’m really pleased with it. I hope Rabbie likes it as much as I do!

Especially the hat.

I may have to make one for Crumble…

Wool Count

Starting total – 576

Wool used – 8 (Three more down!)
Wool bought – 2
Wool given – 0
Wool gifted – 0

Total – 570

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