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Category: Knitting

by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Pokémon mania has spread through the house at an alarming rate thanks to this Switch game. There’s been lengthy discussions of Pokémon evolution, strengths, weaknesses and battle tactics over dinner, and outbreaks of the Pokerap and the classic opening theme throughout the day.

Felix got the game for her birthday, and within a fortnight of her having it, had jumped to the top reading band at school, so aside from the nostalgic elements of the classic 150 Pokémon for us as parents, it has dramatically helped her reading.

As a reward for doing so well at school, I asked if she wanted anything and…she wanted me to knit a new hat. An Eevee hat. So, for those who don’t know what that is:

This adorable little critter which is her starting Pokémon in the game. I couldn’t resist such a cute challenge, and so:

We have the ears on top of the hat and the fluffy ruff is a keyhole scarf attached to the back of the hat! I think it’s ‘super effective’! And to show it on something, here it is on a cuddly toy cthulhu which was the only thing it would fit on that was at hand…

Obviously it is far cuter on Felix! The only issue is, Inkling now wants a Pokémon hat too, but is having problems deciding just which one he wants…

Till next week, stay safe everyone!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 139 (1 this week)
Wool bought – 28
Wool given to me – 318
Wool gifted to others – 8
Wool handspun – 16

Total – 913

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

(Pun courtesy of Engel)

I received a challenge from my frenemy Ed Skar (watch the ordo redactus at the end of episode two – the last ten minutes – and you’ll understand), and it went like this:

@foxymitts knit me an Escher XD

Not one to back down from a challenge, I begun my research. An Escher in this instance, is not the mathematician and artist, Escher, but a faction in a war game called Necromunda, part of the Warhammer 40K universe/franchise. A friend at work happened to have some source material I could skim through:

so much inspiration, so many ideas, but after much though and discussion, it was paired back to knitting an Escher gangers ‘little sister’. And here she is:

The body is based on the free pattern Babes’ Little Sister by 123fionadolls McDonald (wasn’t the name fitting?!) Oh, and here’s another photo from the other side:

And of course every lady needs a weapon suiting for the fine art of war:

(It was supposed to be a lasgun but came out a heavy stubber- what can I say? (Walk softly and carry a big gun. – Engel) I think girls look cute with oversized weapons! She does also have a more moderate sized dagger tucked into her overskirt)

I think I can safely say challenge complete!

In other news, not much spinning this week, though there are a few knitting things in the works. Crumble is almost entirely back to her old self, just need some more weight on her still, and that’s about all.

Oh. I should mention that last week, due to the current Covid restrictions, my grand plan to have a day trip and meet Rabbie half way were scrapped, and I had a sulk. A big sulk. My first proper sulk since the start of all this chaos. And Engel, bless him, got me a present. 15 miniskeins of the most awesome hand dyed yarn! One is in tropical fish colourways and the other is ‘adventure bike’ colours…which he has batted his eyelashes at in the hopes I will left my sock ban and make him another pair…after mine though!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 138 (2 this week)
Wool bought – 28
Wool given to me – 318 (Up 15 – thank you though Engel! I love them!!)
Wool gifted to others – 8
Wool handspun – 16

Total – 914 (up 13)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

After the jealousy Crumble, Queen of the kitties in this house, showed towards the knitted Siamese flamingo float kitties, it was decided she needed her own knitted version.

But it wasn’t going to be as simple as just digging out some wool and following the pattern, oh no, Crumble needed, after also showing jealousy at the special Missy colourway that I dyed and hand spun, she needed her own tiny Crumble in her own Crumble colourway hand spun.

I only filled one bobbin with single ply, took it off on the ballwinder then made a 2 ply from that to create just one skein – that’s all I would need for one tiny knitted Crumble, right?

Engel commented that he couldn’t wait for his tiny Crumble for his desk at work. So, two tiny Crumbles.

Then Rabbis commented that the Crumble wool was just the perfect match of her friends mums cat who is going through a really hard time and maybe I could…?

And so, two Crumbles and a look a like where knitted in hands-on Crumble inspired wool and put into little boxes also knit from hand spun.

The Queen herself seemed somewhat surprised at the sudden appearance of so many tiny versions of herself, but they all received her sniff of approval. (For those asking, she is doing much better after her little fright and there’s been no long lasting restriction of movement to her back leg. She is still on double dinners though, and loving it).

Oh, and never let it be said that I don’t block! In this instance, Duplo blocks where just what was needed!

I have already begun spinning some wool (Suffolk texel dyed in beetroot and some more dyed with fresh coffee) to start getting ready for the next invasion of tiny kitties – Lockdown and Outbreak inspired ones!

In other knitting news, I finished a rather large challenge yesterday but need to get some good photos first – so you can see that next week!

In non knitting news, we did a Halloween trail today! My enthusiasm to life has increased drastically knowing that I can still have my Halloween – it’ll be different, like everything has been in 2020 – but it’s not cancelled!!!

Till next week, stay safe.

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 136 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 28 (There was a ‘yarncident’ and I ‘accidentally’ bought an adorable hand dyed mini skeins set to make myself something cute! 10 mini skeins in total)
Wool given to me – 303 (gained two, as well as half an old project and two bottles of cider as a thank you for repairing a person’s favourite hat…with some embellishment of course!)
Wool gifted to others – 8
Wool handspun – 16 (Up 1 with the Crumble wool)

Total – 901 (no change…)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

We call home, everyone hail to the pumpkin song…

I am definitely hailing to the pumpkin song with my Sally wreath to match my Jack Skellington one! Definitely feeling the Halloween spirit!

Crumble is back to ruling the house with a firm paw, and the mood just seems better than last week in work and at home, even with further lockdown restrictions potentially coming into place.

Aside from Sally, I also finished my half of a trade for the Wild Knitting Challenge over on Instagram. The idea is that we’ve gone to Kenya and the theme is flamingos.

So the person I’m swapping with has a pair of Siamese cats and I couldn’t resist this super cute MochiMochi Land pattern and…well…I did tweak it to fit the ‘flamingo’ criteria to some degree at least!

Crumble is not amused at my knitting other people’s cats. I do however have something going on behind the scenes which should satisfy Her Royal Highness!

Till next week, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 133 (8 this week)
Wool bought – 28 (There was a ‘yarncident’ and I ‘accidentally’ bought an adorable hand dyed mini skeins set to make myself something cute! 10 mini skeins in total)
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 8 (1 this week, to a friend making some terrain)
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 901

by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Not going to lie, this is my favourite time of the year for me and the rest of us spooky loving folks! Despite this, I had a bit of a slump this past few weeks. Crumble had gone missing for two weeks and when she finally limped home she had a large chunk of flesh missing from the back of her leg and was terrifyingly skinny. Trip to the vets (something else that has been affected by Covid-19 – I have to drop her off and talk to the vet on the phone whilst sat in the car, surreal) and antibiotics and anti-inflammatory meds and double dinners and this week she’s getting back to being the Queen of the house. She’s still a shadow of her former self, but I can see that fierce little spark coming back.

As well as this, I’ve hit a slump at work. It’s the new normal. I don’t like it. Nothing is how it should be and everyday I keep thinking I’ve got it and I just haven’t. But a routine is being formed, and seeing other people returning to work and going through the same rollercoaster of emotions is actually reassuring.

And what else has Covid-19 and the lockdown restrictions affected? Halloween. No trick or treating. No house parties. No spooky disco at my little ones school (which was also the only event I actually volunteered to help with…)

Crumbles second vet trip and clean bill of health (wound still healing, but it’s clean and it’s already 1/4 the size it was) and seeing the kids ability to just accept whatever the world throws at them and keep going has inspired me to do the same.

We’ll get there. We will. It’ll be different but we’ll make it work.

And Halloween? I just get to go nuts on decorating and enjoying the spooky atmosphere with my little family unit! There’s even talk of a Skype party! So to get in the holiday spirit…

I still haven’t made my summer or autumn wreaths, but that can be done later, for now, let’s have Jack Skellington grinning at the world outside my window! I found a cross stitch chart that I based his head on. The bowtie I just winged. The cat head is ‘Kitty Cat Head’ by Sara Elizabeth Kellner from her book ‘Knits for Kitties’ and the pumpkins are a free pattern – Pumpkin Napkin Rings by Lily / Sugar’n Cream.

Till next week, stay safe guys!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 125 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 28 (There was a ‘yarncident’ and I ‘accidentally’ bought an adorable hand dyed mini skeins set to make myself something cute! 10 mini skeins in total)
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 910

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

A rare siting in my knitting repertoire – plain, basic, sensible knitting. With Inkling starting nursery, which attached to the school Felix goes to, he is required to wear the school uniform. Unfortunately he didn’t want to wear Felix’s old school cardigans, and didn’t want to wear the jumpers, so I knit him a pair of sweater vests in the correct bottle green…

(Made following the free pattern 6-Stitch Plait Unisex Vest For Kids by Ratchadawan Chambers)

I actually made three of these, the first one I somehow mucked up my gauge swatch (I suspect I used the wrong needle) and the whole thing was just too small…but attempts two and three are perfect – a good year or twos growing room in them!

And I can’t make for Inkling and not Felix. She thankfully didn’t want any new cardigans and instead pointed out a pattern she had previously spotted in my Revelry library:

Yep, an adorable snake cowl to match her snake hat! This pattern is Snake Coil Cowl by Ariel Woods and is currently free, so if you want it, grab it now before it becomes a paid for pattern!

I’ve got a few more knitting and spinning projects in the go right now, and hopefully I’ll focus on one and get something more fun done for next week. Seeing as we are in local lockdown, I imagine my distractions should be a bit less in the coming weeks…though I have been running Cthulhu Invictus on Skype and that’s been a lot of fun, but being GM takes a lot of time and prepwork! That reminds me, one of the gaming guys has given me a knitting challenge, so I’ll have to see how that goes…

And speaking of challenges, I joined in on the wild challenge on Instagram – first stop is Africa with a theme of flamingos! Now to decide just which flamingo themed thing to knit…

Till next week, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 122 (4 this week)
Wool bought – 28 (There was a ‘yarncident’ and I ‘accidentally’ bought an adorable hand dyed mini skeins set to make myself something cute! 10 mini skeins in total)
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 913

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

I survived! And no one was sacrificed to Great Cthulhu! The birthday party (slimmed down to just Felix’s best friend as they are in the same bubble) went well – better than expected to be fair!

The only down side to the whole weekend was I was too busy playing games and dancing and wrangling children to do much knitting, so much so I have nothing to show this week. And if I had finished, it would have been a somewhat boring pair of cabled sweater vests for Inkling to wear to school… However, I have a few cute cat themed KAL’s with a friend of mine, and i’ve joined a knitting challenge on Instagram so I’m sure there will be cute stuff aplenty soon!

But in the meantime, I have a special spinning project I can at least reveal! It’s taken five dying experiments to get the colours of the fleece just right, but finally, finally I can present:

Missy? Yes. Missy. The Missy of The Grand adventures of Little Miss daisy. My sister and I decided that such a beautiful loyal and loving member of the family deserved her own wool. So with her being tan and black and her signature pink collar, I got to work.

Natural black Hebridean, fresh coffee dyed Suffolk-Texel and acid dyed pink Suffolk-Texel. I present ‘Missy in the Meadow’.

I had tried used coffee grounds, beetroot and purple kale to get the colours but fresh coffee and the acid dye where the best matches.

But I needed something else, and so, a contrast colour was decided upon.

Depending on the light, her tan colouring can change quite spectacularly, and in the moonlight, it fades to a much fuller brown, and so the used coffee grounds Suffolk-Texel was spun with more natural black Hebridean to give ‘Moonlit Missy’.

There’s approximately 317m of Missy in the Meadows and 196.5m of Moonlit Missy making its way to Rabbie. I look forward to seeing what she makes with it, and will be sure to feature it here!

Last photo – promise – of the two colours together!

Stay safe everyone!

(No woolcount this week as no changes.)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Cutting a long story short, two things have been on the cards for a while. A family friendly console that is fully supported (Curse you Wii!) and a birthday party for Felix. With the current situation regarding the plague, it as decided fairly early on that Felix would not be having her big class party. So what to do?

Rewind a few weeks when we were visiting family and Felix was introduced to her auntie and uncles Switch and promptly fell in love. Inkling, despite being 3, could even join in the games and play them (with all the baby settings on, but he didn’t need to know that). I had a go, Engel too, and yeah, it was pretty much decided that when we get a console, it would be the Switch.

Which brings me back to the present. The money saved on not having a big party paid for the majority of a Switch, and Felix quickly agreed to having one or two friends round for pizza and a Switch party. This is taking place next week, so if there’s no post, they’ve probably sacrificed me to an Eldritch Terror.

They grow up so fast…

But come on, it’s not a party organised by me without some cute knitted element! And so I took these Mario kart images:

And turned them into:

Mario Kart party bags! Each one unique with a variety of symbols! There is nowhere near that many invited, just so you all know, it’s to give the kids a choice so as to reduce the chance of a fight breaking out. And so the parents reminiscing of days long past can swipe one too…

If I haven’t been sacrificed to an Eldritch Terror, I’ll share my latest spinning triumph with you all next week. If not, Engel should have finished performing the necromancy ritual for the week after.

Until then, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 118 (3 this week)
Wool bought – 18
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 907

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Which is your favourite? The Scottie or the Westie dog?

I think they themselves quite like the other!

These cuties are knit following the free pattern Tiny Scottie Dog by Sue Stratford. I am on a mission to reduce all my craft stashes in a bid to make room and get more organised. I had a set of 30 bone buttons and recorded they would look rather fetching on little dogs.

So there are 15 Westies and 15 Scottie dogs!

Now what to use up next in the stashes…

I am currently working on Felix’s birthday bags, and a school vest for Inkling. The bags are cute and will definitely make an appearance, the vests…we’ll see how slow a week we have when they’re done!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 115 (8 this week)
Wool bought – 18
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 910

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Jack the Jackalope, close relation to Jacob the deer! So close, I used the same pattern and more of the same first lot of handspun!

Like Jacob, I am really proud of this guy – and they’re looking great on the wall together! I have the urge to knit more heads now though!

In other news, I’ve been doing school knits, not much spinning, lots of work and a bit too much Animal Crossing. It’s just so addictive!

Short post this week as I’m ripping the house apart in preparation for Felix’s 7th birthday – due to Covid she isn’t having her usual class party, so we’re having a class mate of two round for a Switch party and one is staying for a sleepover. The house isn’t ready for this level of chaos!!!

Till next week, stay safe guys!

Wool Count

Starting total – 704

Wool used – 107 (5 this week)
Wool bought – 18
Wool given to me – 301
Wool gifted to others – 7
Wool handspun – 15 (4 have been used! 5 gifted)

Total – 918

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