Tag: Felix

Something I always wanted as a kid was a Christmas Stocking. A proper big one. A special one, that was just for me.

This year, I made three. One for Felix:

One for Engel:

And mine!

They’re all based on the Pet Love Stocking by Sarah Hood (Free Ravelry download) with a few of the charts chopped and changed to better suit the individual. Felicity has cats, owls and ducks. Engel has cats, spiders, bats and fish bones, whereas I have black sheep, cats and red squirrels. (All the charts are free on Ravelry, full links can be found on the Ravelry Project pages on my Ravelry account)

Its also no coincidence that there are two black cats and one tortie on each stocking – Dashie, Salem and Crumble, our little kitties!

Quick post today – have presents to wrap!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 115 (Just 2 this week)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 702

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I know its only November, and I’m breaking one of my own cardinal rules, but I’m going to talk about Christmas.

(Normally I don’t talk about it till December, I get the shopping done in January mind you, but I don’t actually like the whole festive thing till December)

But I have a two year old and she knows what Christmas is all about: presents!

And in my case, craft fairs. So, some Christmas knits! Its all tree decorations, and I’ll state now, not all of these are stock, a lot of them are because Felix saw the pattern and then demanded ‘mummy make! Mummy make me happy!’

How can I refuse?

So, onto the photos!

Advent Tree: Candy Cane Heart by Alan Dart (expect to see more of these patterns, Felix wants the lot, except the elf…

Free online Santa hat (tree decoration sized) pattern. Its Knitted Santa Hat Christmas Ornament Pattern by Linda Dawkins.

Felix loves stars, I think its cause she sees them in the shops and they’re bright and sparkly…so this was a must. Free Ravelry pattern called Stjarna by Karolina Eckerdal. These ones are knit in a sparkly silver wool, for extra cuteness!

And last but not least, based loosely on the free Ravelry pattern ‘Oh Balls!‘ by Marcie Nishioka, with some creative colour changes and additions…

Reindeer!

Robins!

and Christmas puds – oh my!

What else? Not a lot bar work and DIY and life…oh, wool count! 6 Balls since last post (and one was a 500g one too!)

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 104
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 713

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More play food for Felicity, that happens to tie in nicely with the time of year! Its a free Ravelry pattern, ‘Natural Look Halloween Pumpkin‘ by Caroline Lord.k

Also working well for the time of year, some baking that Felix ‘helped’ with.

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Its amazing how much fun a two year has mashing bananas…the recipe itself is a sugar-wheat-dairy free banana and date cake. Though to help the coffin appearance, I used some 70% cocoa chocolate and a few spoonfuls of cream to make a dark frosting. I’d say it went well at he party I took it to, but Engel made it clear it was his and everyone else should eat the sugar filled cake he couldn’t have…

What else have I been making?

Market bags!

Lots of them! Its another free Ravlery pattern, ‘Grrlfriend Market Bag‘ by Laura Spardin.

Rather than wrapping all my christmas presents with paper that would then just be thrown away, I opted to ‘wrap’ presents in market bags! The super colourful one was my prototype (and for Felix to play with) and I learnt one important lesson. Make the strap short, once any weight goes in that bag, its going to stretch.

Felix needs to grow a foot before shes going to be able to get any actual use out of hers!

I made five more afterwards, only got four photographed (and even then in poor lighting) and I may well make more, but thats all I had time for as I was giving them to all my family in Edinburgh when I was up for my mums birthday a fortnight ago.

What else to say? Its all been rather busy! Eh…oh, I’ve had a few queries as to how one accidentally purchases thirty balls of wool. Quite simply when the wool is only sold in packs of ten and I wanted three different colours. What a shame…but hey! Nine balls used since the last post, and not all of them little ones either!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 98
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 719

Annoying, despite using nearly 100 balls of wool, I’m only down by about thirty in my collection…

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Tra la la la la…

Life’s been manic the past two weeks – Felix had her second birthday, there was a surprise family visit, Thomas day out, kicking off a new Call of Cthuhlu campaign, and work, work, work…

Like I said, manic.

One of the things that isn’t helping is i’m cramming Christmas knitting in before I visit the family up north this weekend.

I could really do with some extra arms, like this:

That’s a golden oldies from the archives! A Christmas present for Rabbie way back when I was at uni…

Even original text from the time!

“What can I say really? Its a squid knitting little socks for its tentacles for those cold winter seas.

This is the pressie for my sis, she was very happy with it, I think, she spent most of the night pointing out how I had tweaked the pattern to make it more anatomically correct…

She’s a marine biologist, what should I expect?”

Free pattern from Berroco.

Not much more to say really other than I may have accidentally purchased…32 balls of wool…

I have used 11 up since my last post!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 89
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 727

I’m not doing too well anymore with the wool reduction plan…

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Here’s the duck:

And here’s the mushrooms:

Both for Felix of course!

The duck is a free pattern by Mimi Codd, ‘Rubber Duckie Face Cloth‘ and the mushrooms are another free pattern, this time by Leslie Glenn and is aptly called ‘Mushroom‘. I could have knitted dozens of those mushrooms, cute, quick and easy…but three seemed the right number as play food for Felix. And the duck face cloth, thought it would help wash that mucky little face of hers during bathtime!

In other news, the commissions were finished and we all celebrated Felix’s second birthday at Chester Zoo on Saturday (birthday is actually tomorrow, hence the early post – more time to spend with the little terror on the actual day!) It was a great day out – the weather was gorgeous, the animals were making themselves seen, and far too much food and cake was consumed by all.

Hope everyone else had a good weekend!

Wool Count down:
Starting total (28Feb15) – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 78 (2 balls this week! Woot!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 13

Total – 706

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Engels incredibly bright, not too warm-not too cold blanket, as per his request. Snuggles decided to photo bomb the photo shoot as the sea of green was just destroying my retinas…

And yes, this wool is just that bight. Its neon. And UV reactive. It actually glows under black lights!

The pattern is based on the ‘Weekend TV Lapghan‘ by Lionbrand, different needles and wool used, and subsequently this was the monster of a blanket where I accidentally cast on three times the number of stitches

But that is the last of the blankets! For now.

I’ve got another bunny commission on at the moment, so a pause on the personal projects, though I did squeeze these in:

These are based on the ‘Miss Marple Scarf‘ pattern by SusanneS-vV. The black one is for Felix as the weather gets cooler, and the pink one is a gift for one of Engels relatives. The photo was taken at a sushi place in Manchester which is where I did the final bits of the pink one, along with some very yummy salmon and cracked black pepper with rice…

Other updates: Life, super busy, between work, Engel, and the growing terror that is an almost two year old Felix, very little time is left for much else!

Wool update: The past two weeks, seven! Very nearly finished a few more, but colour changes, I’ll have to go back to those later…

Wool Count down:
Starting total (28Feb15) – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 76 (7 balls this week! Woot!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 13

Total – 708

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Yesterday was my birthday. Its generally an occasion I celebrate at home, generally pretty small, and usually with very little fuss. My circle of friends however has grown quite a lot, and not the kind of friends you hang around with cause they work with you or whatever and its convenient, proper friends.

And I take my hat off to them. Best birthday ever.

Really!

I mean, seriously, how many people out there would toss aside their usual inhibitions, put on cat ears and tails and play Cathulhu (yep, Cat-thoo-loo) just because they know its what you kinda really want to do but not really want to make them do cause its just a bit mean?

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(That’s what was left this morning, I made more, but they went home with their new owners! No pattern, just winged.)

They even organised one of the others to GM so I could play (I was polydactyl calico cat with a fair bit of 1920’s streetwise attitude and those thumbs of mine could open doors and windows…it was awesome.)

They also spoiled me rotten (not important, but I was worried they were fed up with my GMing Cthuhlu and seeing the pile of Cthuhlu scenarios I got and expansions, not so worried!) and made me an awesome cake!

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Three layers of super yummy chocolate cake, tons of yummy frosting and 90% cocoa on the outside…gorgeous!

Other thing that made my weekend? I got pounced on by Felix in my bed, she was wielding an amazon box and yelled ‘Happy Birthday Mummy! Present! Can eat monkey cake now?’ Sarah Keens Noahs Ark was the present, but that moment in time? Priceless – the girl takes after her mum most definitely!

Only used one ball of wool as, like I mentioned on the post last week, only little projects! Lots of ears and tails!

Wool Count down:
Starting total (28Feb15) – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 66
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 3

Total – 708

Hope everyone else has had as awesome a few days as I have!

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It’s been another busy week. Work, team building day involving playing Rambo by shooting my work colleagues and superiors with laser guns running about the woods, the conclusion to Cthuhlu: Horror on the Orient Express (it was epic, and so far off course the actual written recommended ending that no matter how much I could try and explain, no one but those who were there would understand.)…and Fallout: Shelter was just released on Android (my platform of choice).

Because of all this, mostly my new game, this not-so-little owl lay languishing in pieces for four days.

Free pattern courtesy of  Rachel Gallagher-Miller

Cute, isn’t it? It’s for Felix’s childminders birthday this week (cutting the sewing close here) and the colour choice, well, this is what happens when a not quite two year old gets let loose in my wool stash.

And that’s it for this whole week. In shame, and frustration at my own addiction, I’ve deleted Fallout:Shelter from my tablet. Productivity has quadrupled…

However!

Last week I finished this cute project.

Centre panel is a free pattern – Paw Print Cloth by by Rhonda White and I just winged the rest…

It’s a dog blanket for my dog-niece Missy (or Mishap) and I had far too much fun making it!

No wool used this week, so no wool count.

Not sure if any will be used this week either as I have lots of little projects on the go, and two blankets, but they’re going slowly…

Chat to you all next week!

 

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This seems a good week to go through the archives and dig out all the microbes I’ve made! (Last week was missed due to ill health, I blame Felix – little plague carrier!)

Rhinovirus juggling balls

C. diff – a super bug needs a cape!

Listeria spp

Salmonella spp

No pattern details – these are all my own imaginings! They were all also made when I was at university studying … microbiology! Yeah, no surprise there really, is there?

Anyhow, wool count! Seven used these past two weeks, will post the pictures next week when I have more energy…

Wool Count down:
Starting total (28Feb15) – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 65
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 3

Total – 709

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That describes my whole week.

It’s been a very intensive training course, Felix has decided to hit the terrible twos a few months early this week and with Engel out of action after nearly cutting his finger off with an axe…

Yeah, its just been nonstop just to keep on top of things. I have however managed some knitting!

First up, a project I actually finished over a week ago, some Marvel themed cushions!

It was a good friends birthday the other week, and she’s a huge Hawkeye fan – hence the purple arrow (his logo) and she’s also a fan of his ‘sniper bro’the Winter Soldier – hence the red star. (The star motif is from Star Pillow by Jennifer Stafford in her book DomiKNITrix, the arrow I just winged)

I actually had far too much fun making these, and have penciled designs for a whole range of other characters, but I doubt I’ll ever get time/reason to make them!

Though a Deadpool cushion would be awesome…

Anyhow! On to more knitting, and part of the reasons Felix has been difficult this week. Recently, she has become obsessed with ducks (we feed our local ones every weekend) and wanted to take one of her ‘duckies’ to bed. Her choice was a wooden one, fair enough, I thought it was solid but turned out it wasn’t. Thankfully it broke when I was handling it!

So, I cast on An Emergency Duck.

Free Pattern by Frankie Brown.

It goes with her everywhere, and usually it gets ‘fed’ not cooked! At least she knows where roast duck comes from…

On, and its ‘Mummy made duck’ not just ‘duck’. I give it week before she shortens it entirely…

Her other tantrum trigger? Clangers.

She demands a cuddle on the sofa whilst watching them, or else an episode in bed with her milk (usually on Engels phone) and if she doesn’t get her way…

It’s weird though, during the day, she’s rather watch the Octonauts, but before bed? It is relaxing mind…

Anyhow! It’s taken all week (as a certain little Felix keeps stealing the in progress body for bedtime cuddles, and tonight, wanted to dress Tiny herself so I couldn’t sew the armour…) But here’s my first ever Clanger!

(Psst, its a free pattern on the BBC website!) I’m actually rather proud, which is unusual for me, but seeing as Felix has told me she wants ‘Clangers all! Me! Mummy make all Clangers!’ I’d best get started on the next one…

Last but not least, the wool count: This week I found ten more balls of wool hiding in the conservatory (to be fair, it was hiding in some fabric) and I’ve managed to use four balls. I’ve caught up in height with the blanket, but seeing as its a third the width, I’ve not used the equivalent in wool yet. But its my zombie knitting, so it wont be too much longer!

Wool Count down:
Starting total (28Feb15) – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 58
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 3

Total – 715

 

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