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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Now, I will admit that I love magic. The kind that leaves you pondering just how they managed to do that, was it an illusion? A slip of the hand? Mind control? My brother in law does a lot of magic, and I personally think he’s amazing at it. Both the terrors are convinced that he’s a wizard, and he wears that title with pride.

So when he asked me to knit a teeny tiny bear, no taller than 6cm, in burgundy, well, how could I refuse?

And here he is, safely up in Scotland nestled amongst a variety of magic tricks! I knit him following the pattern Teddy Bear by Sarah Keen from her book 100 Little Knitted Projects.

I cannot wait to see him in a magic show! Will he disappear? Reappear? Transform?!

In other knitting news, I finished the huge hand spun project I’ve been working on. It’s been blocked and is ready for a photoshoot, the only problem is that when I came up with the concept, I had a certain type of location in mind to photograph it…but with lockdown/ covid/ the plague…well, I can’t get there. Even something remotely similar…

Guess we’ll have to wait and see how that pans out…

In regards to the rest of life, I finished off the current Cthulhu campaign and if it wasn’t for the fact I let players spend their luck to fudge their dice rolls…well…they all died. Repeatedly. In various fashions. But with barely any to spare they did manage to limp home victorious!

Its been a hard week this week with all our routines being out of sorts, and not having Crumble to give me my evening cuddles and bedtime snuggles… But we’re getting there, wherever there is.

Just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other and take life one day at a time I think!

So until next week, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 24 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 0
Wool gifted to others – 1
Wool handspun – 7

Total – 879

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

It’s been an interesting week, half term and being in furlough for half a week meant I got up to a lot of mischief with the kids. Well, as much as you can given the current time of plague.

There’s been baking, bike rides, dancing, colouring and painting, building dens and other activities. Between this, I managed a little spinning (need more for my big project, it’s eating the handspun!) and a bit of penguin knitting. Yes, they are still marching.

I do however have one new knit to show, a little good bye and good luck gift for a colleague whom I’ve worked with on and off for eight years…

This is Cat in a Life Preserver by Anna Hrachovec, in this case, the black cat is for the fact that she gave me the loveable kitty Dashie, the life preserver as it’s joked that when it rains we need them for our work, and a little four leaf clover for good luck.

I left that in her desk and in exchange, she left me a bag of her collies hair, which I had mentioned I wanted to try and spin. And I have. But more on that next week!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 16 (2 this week)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 0
Wool gifted to others – 1
Wool handspun – 4

Total – 884

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

The weather has been bitterly cold as of late, to the point the duck pond near us has completely frozen over. As such, I have been going through our stock of tea like crazy!

It’s been a quiet week all told. Work is quiet, so much so near all of us are on part time furlough – feels strange only doing three day weeks but I imagine I will quickly enjoy it! It will also give me a chance to do all those jobs round the house I have put off all winter, as it’s been too cold or wet…

Chinese New year, usually a big occasion, was also quiet. Felix, upon seeing her red envelope, was initially excited, before stating “Oh, it’s lockdown. There won’t be the dragon parade or dancing lions”. After speaking with Rabbie, it was decided that if there is no official dragon parade, then we will have our own! It’s amazing what Engel can produce with cardboard, fabric and a glue gun! The kids decorated his creation, and with some red fabric, we had our own parade!

It was chaos, and there was more falling over laughing than parading, but it was so nice to hear laughter! There was also Skype calls with both Engels family, and my own, and it was actually really nice.

Felix’s best friends birthday is today, and we arranged a small meeting at the park to exchange presents and let the kids fun around. The cold kept the visit short, and we all welcomed hot showers, fluffy pyjamas and tea when we got in!

Which leads me to this week’s knitting news – part of the gift given today!

A striped butterfly hat and a tiny cup and saucer with milk and a biscuit. The latter part of that gift was actually a request she had given me three times so I figured her birthday was the perfect time to cave and make her it!

The pattern for the cup and saucer is Teacup and Saucer by Sarah Keen from her book ‘100 Little Knitted Projects’ and the cookie is a free mochimochi land pattern!

That’s all for this week, until next, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 14 (1 this week)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 0
Wool gifted to others – 0
Wool handspun – 4

Total – 887

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

So Inkling has taken to watching a show in Netflix called Gabby’s Dollhouse, which is very much cats, cats cats! His favourite character is MerCat:

Yes, she’s a cat mermaid, or a purrmaid? He likes her best as she’s A) Pretty and B) a scientist like mummy. Too cute! So when he asked if I could make him one…how could I refuse? I modified the free pattern My Little Purrmaid by Myka Watson to create:

Inklings very own MerCat!

In other knitting news, the penguins are still matching in to 60 of them, and my other big project is in time out whilst I work out the maths for the border…

No spinning and not much else happening, lockdown is still on so between that and the poor weather, we’ve not managed much here other than some baking, kids craft and playing games of all descriptions! Oh, speaking of games, I now have two Cthulhu groups – double the death and double the insanity, loving it!

Till next week, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 13 (1 this week)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 0
Wool gifted to others – 0
Wool handspun – 4

Total – 888

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Remember how I mentioned that I was going to have to knit a few more Pokémon hats? Well the terrors took the decision out of my hands and demanded a set of hats that matched their cuddly Pokémon toys.

So without further ado I present…

We have Inklings Espeon on the left and Felix’s Umbreon on the right, with the matching hat/toy. These are two of the evolution choices for Eevee, which I knitted a hat version of previously…

With a bit of luck, that will be the last hat for a while. Unless I knit myself one. Still debating just which one mind…

It’s a short list this week as I have been really under the weather – it’s not the plague! But I have definitely lost my enthusiasm and energy this week. On top of finishing those hats off, I did manage to spin and ply the ball of wool I needed to keep working on my other big project – hopefully I can reveal that soon!

So until next week, keep safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 12 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 0
Wool gifted to others – 0
Wool handspun – 4 (1 this week)

Total – 889 (Back to last week’s total!)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Despite my best wishes and hopes, the start of 2021 was far more eventful than I wanted. That said, it wasn’t all bad!

The worst part was that, as I suspected, we’ve been put into lockdown again. So no school for the terrors, but unlike last time, I’m not on furlough. Cue many sleepless nights, much stressing and general feelings of despair. But, it all worked out. Both myself and Engel have been deemed as critical workers and we have secured places for both Terrors at school and nursery.

On a better, eventful note, I was surprised by a review video of my knitted Escher Ganger!

You can watch it here!

More eventful news, I won a toy pattern and two sweater patterns through the Wild Knitting challenge! I am really looking forward to doing some knitting for me, but I really need to reduce the stash before I can justify buying two sweater quantities of wool! I’m working on it, managed to burn through 6 balls this week!

In less eventful news, I have managed some spinning for one of my big projects, been plodding away at my year long project and finished a quick little one for Engel just last night which I will share now!

It’s Snorlax! Engel demanded that he get a Pokémon hat after Felix’s Eevee hat and Inklings Meowth hat, so I asked the kids what Pokémon I should knit for him and within three seconds, the answer was Snorlax!

Now the kids are demanding I should make one for me, but there are just so many choices… Gengar? Wooloo? Purrserker?

Till next week, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 6
Wool bought – 0
Wool given to me – 0
Wool gifted to others – 0
Wool handspun – 0

Total – 891

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Good riddance 2020, roll on 2021, may it be a pleasant and uninteresting year!

Amongst the pre new year clean up, the post Christmas toy playing, the snowball fights, sledging and snow trolls I have managed to squeak in one quick last finished knitted object!

A little mat with a pair of hops on it, using bits of cotton I had on hand. It has three shades of purple for the background as I knew I wouldn’t have had enough to do the whole thing with any one shade.

Here’s a close up of the hops.

But why this knit with this design? Because Engel. I got him a number of empty kegs and a dispenser for his Christmas to make bottling up the homebrew that bit faster and easier. So hops for beer and a mat because the dispenser drips a little after initial use before the pressure settles and it’s all good. Here is it in action:

And that’s really all to say this week. I’ve got a big project on the needles which I am still spinning wool for (spun two this week, need to do the next colour now), a multiple small item project that will be done here and there between projects for probably the whole year, and an idea brewing that I am debating whether or not I should knit it. There is also the very long to knit list that needs working through!

So keep safe till next week!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

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

Total – 897

The wool count has been recent as I do every year, usually I aim to get 100 balls out of stash, which I have done, but stash in was much higher. This year I aim to simply have more out than in, not including handspun, as that is just turning fleece stash into a usable form!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Hello all, I hope you have had a fairly nice run up to the end of the year, regardless of what you cekebrate. Christmas here was surprisingly pleasant. I received some bad news at the very start of the morning, but other than that, it went smoothly.

Felix and Inkling are both at that age where they get swept up in Christmas and everything has that magic to it than only exists when you are small and young. And it was infectious. It was exactly what myself and Engel needed.

Because of all the changing rules and regulations, we kept it pretty simple, and have one set of friends over, and they too definitely needed the same dose of Christmas magic from the kids as we did!

It was one of their birthdays just a few days prior, so I knitted him up a little gift, which in my tired and exhausted brain from a last final push at work to complete a hell of a lot of work in a tiny time frame, may have drove my work colleagues mad…

Shark mittens!!! (Free pattern Puppet Mittens by Debbi Parker, there’s a bunch of animals so well worth a look) and because my brain was running on fumes, I did a tiny shark finger puppet.

Baby shark, doo doo de doo…baby shark doo doo de doo…and I have a mummy and daddy shark too so was giggling inanely to myself at my desk in work playing with them and breaking into song when people looked over at me…

I would like to point out that it wasn’t just me who was losing the plot completely, a lot of us where! They just didn’t see the brilliance of the shark mittens and song combined…

In other news, I had a chance to get my spinning wheel out and did a little bit of spinnjng. It had been too long since I managed to indulge myself with it! So one new ball of wool! But I also used a ball in my current project.

I’ll go into more detail in that at a later date, for now, I have festive chaos to return to!

Keep safe everyone!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 156 (2 this week)
Wool bought – 28
Wool given to me – 318
Wool gifted to others – 8
Wool handspun – 17

Total – 898 

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Guys and Gills, are you ready for an un-frog-etable end to the wild knitting challenge?

Are you ribbeted to your seats?

I assure you it’s toad-ally worth the awful puns!

Madagascar was the final destination and the final animal of inspiration was the tomato frog. Those who know of the extent of Engels frog phobia will probably be aware of how loudly I cackled when I saw the challenge.

It was very, very loudly.

So, for flamingoes I did cats in flamingo floats, for sharks it was a matching hat and cowl based on shark skin under a microscope, so what to do for tomato frogs?

After a lot of debate, I settled in Engels least favourite option.

A somewhat realistic, but most certainly life sized, replica! I think it’s adorable, it gives Engel the creeps.

But this little guy is going all the way to America, and so he needed a friend for company. But who?

How about a native to the area? Like the American tree frog. But again, fairly realistic and life sized.

Such a cute pair! (Oh, pattern is Green Frog of Happiness by Sara Elizabeth Kellner from her book Knits for Kitties)

These guys are already in the post, as much fun as it is to tease poor Engel about frogs, these were actually genuinely giving him the creeps and to be fair, when caught out of the corner of your eye, they made me wonder for a split moment if the cats had brought a little hopping present home…

(They did that once, Engel has yet to forgive them, and it was about five years ago)

So on this lovely, fun, light hearted note, I bid you all a good week. Until then, take care!

P.S. Apologies for any spelling and/or grammar issues, my ‘editor’ happens to be the same person who has the frog phobia…sorry Engel! And he’s refused to proof read this post – too many frogs!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 154 (0 this week)
Wool bought – 28
Wool given to me – 318
Wool gifted to others – 8
Wool handspun – 16

Total – 899 (no change)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

O Christmas Wreath I never any to knit another…

Long story short: I don’t like Christmas cards, I feel they are a waste of perfectly good trees, and any parent who has had to try and get their child to write out thirty of the things for all their classmates knows, it’s hell.

So last year I knitted decorations for Felix’s class – there’s no bits of paper that’s just going to get tossed, there’s an actual keepsake, and no pain of writing the things out. Felix remembered and wanted to do it again this year.

And if Felix got it, Inkling wanted it to.

That’s 60 decorations. Ok. That’s doable. Kids settled on wreaths, not the quickest, lots of sewing, but doable.

Oh, wait, because of Covid all cards have to be handed in two weeks early. That’s 60 wreaths in under two weeks. And work has been hell. A couple of projects that due to things beyond my control, have to be done by Christmas. So that’s 60 wreaths, full time job, overtime, weekend work, running a house, looking after two terrors, trying to be full of Christmas spirit…

But on the flip side, I got to use up a lot of little nodes and ends of green which has made a nice dent on the stash, and they look cute, even if I was up until 11:30 the night before they got handed in sewing them all up…

Want to see all 60 ready for school?

Next year, I’m starting in November. Pattern btw is free, it’s Advent Garland 13, Wreath by Frankie Brown – if you haven’t checked out her patterns, I highly recommend it.

Now I’m off to enjoy my Sunday in peace. I have a house to put back together and terrors to entertain, but I’m happy with that!

Till next week, stay safe.

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 154 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 28
Wool given to me – 318
Wool gifted to others – 8
Wool handspun – 16

Total – 899

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