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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 3 Comments

This is, entirely, my sister Rabbies fault.

I mean, sure, as a knitter and spinner I would be lying to say I have a slight obsession of all animals that produce suitable fleece for my hobbies.

But Rabbie…

First of all, during the first lockdown, she and her husband kindly skyped us to help keep the kids sane. And one of the recurring ‘characters’ to these calls was a very naughty, very colourful, Drama Llama.

There was even a video of him having quite the adventure at a bears tea party!

Then, some time ago, after lockdown, we had a family holiday in Wales. Unbeknownst to the kids, their favourite aunt and uncle where joining us halfway through. We greeted them in the dead of night (8pm) and then bid them goodnight fully expecting the cries of pure happiness from the kids to wake us up in the morning…

I was in for a shock when I woke up – they had decked the place out with llama bunting and pop up cardboard llamas. We had llama cups, plates, napkins even llama goody bags!

Or where they alpacas? Cue a holiday of us going ‘Alpacalylse or Llamageddon’…

When we got back, I got the conservatory roof replaced to a proper one, not glass, and it was decided this new craft space should have a theme…

I have made llama curtains, we bought alpaca cushions, all the things from the Llamaggedon or Alpacalypse party decorate every thing I could creatively think of…

And of course, we needed a wooly touch, to help brighten the shelves…

Its taken a long time, a project between projects, a llama here, a pom pom there, an alpaca every now and again… and of course, the kumihimo braid – credit goes to Felix who chose the pattern,colours and did about three feet before getting bored!

Oh, and the llamas? Alpacas? Pattern is Tiny Alpaca! by Anna Hrachovec – available on her website.

Without further ado, I will see you next week, until then, stay safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 843

Wool used – 48 (1 since last post!)
Wool bought – 23
Wool given to me – 27
Wool gifted to others – 1
Wool handspun – 3

Total – 848 (Net difference: +4 I’m getting close!)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

A very short post today as I am very, very tired after finally getting to work and doing a full day.

Last week was spent shaking off Covid and the kids returning to school. Except…after day two of school I noticed Felix had some red spots…and in the morning…yep. covered.

Our new feature for this blog: What plague has hit the house this week?

Answer: chicken pox. Both of mine had them around 2 years old, so I was surprised to see them on her. I imagine her immune system is low and the chicken pox took its chance, but regardless, it’s been pretty rough for her.

My loving response to it?

A very cute pair of The World’s Simplest Mittens by tincanknits in cotton to stop her scratching her spots at night. And to help take the sting out, I added a few cats from Covered in Cats Cowl by Marna Gilligan from her book Cat knits.

Felix will hopefully be back at school tomorrow, the last of the pox has scabbed up this morning and the oldest spots have begun to heal.

And thats it really. Oh, I did get a small break of freedom and may have accidentally purchased 9 balls of wool but…I don’t really care right now, I feel I deserve a treat. Even if it’s the right wool and colour for a super cute jumper for Inkling…

Starting total – 843

Wool used – 29 (1 since last post)
Wool bought – 17 (Up 9)
Wool given to me – 16
Wool gifted to others – 1
Wool handspun – 3

Total – 849 (Net difference: +6)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Its been an interesting week! Car had its MOT, parents night for the little terrors, gaming with some friends, meeting up with other friends for a mooch and to attend the local Pokémon Go event…

But lets backtrack a bit to explain this week’s knitting.

Parents evening. Both of mine received plenty of nice comments, and nothing really negative other than trying to get them to slow down and double check their work before handing it in. It’s a big ask for a 4 year old and an 8 year old!

One thing that became clear though was that in Inklings class they had been learning about chickens, and had been incubating eggs which had hatched…

And he’s obsessed with the fluffy things. Taking one look, I could have pocketed all four of them there and then and made a run for it.

I successfully passed my willpower roll, and jokingly mentioned it to Inkling. He searched all of my pockets, twice, just in case, and was somewhat sad that I hadn’t stolen a chick.

There was only one option.

Its based on the free pattern Spring Chick by Barbara Prime, except I made mine fluffy. Outbreak immediately claimed it as hers. Once rescued from the cat, the chick was put in my pocket for the next morning…

Inkling was super happy with his chick, and insisted he could take it to school to show it to the other chicks. In all the excitement, I realised Felix was feeling a little left out.

There was only one option. Again.

So here is chick number two. And Outbreak again. Who tried to claim this one also.

I am doing my best to ignore the urge to knit a third chick just for the cat!

Until next post, take care!

Wool Count

Starting total – 843

Wool used – 23 (2 this week)
Wool bought – 1
Wool given to me – 13
Wool gifted to others –0
Wool handspun – 1

Total – 829 (Net difference: -8)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

I would love to promise that this is the last of the fox related things, but the urge to use this knitted fur technique to make more and more is incredibly powerful!

and without further ado, fox ears:

So very cute! Although the cats seem to think that they’re either a toy just for them, or a small furry animal just begging to be pounced on…

Here you can see Outbreak “helping” within three seconds of my placing the ears in the floor for a photograph. I suspect I will need to knit them something using the same knitted fur technique I have used for the ears…

Oh, normally at this point I would link a pattern but…there isn’t one. This is me just playing around…

In other wooly news, I finally spun and plyed the Shetland fleece I have been playing with for the last few weeks – it was a challenge for myself to spin as fine as possible, as consistently as possible. Having been 2 plyed it has come out at 150m of lace weight yarn. It’s a little thinner in places, but not thicker, so it’s definitely getting there!!

No idea what it will be. However, I have plans and ideas in the works that require me to spin yarn, so more shall be spun, but with intention.

…am I the only one that think that sounded unnecessarily aggressive? Spinning with intention?

Anyhoo, very busy week at work, no gaming but Inkling did get to go to a trampoline birthday party and as he is under five, I had to go with him and ‘supervise’. The sore muscles today were worth it. Felix didn’t miss out as she got to have an adventure with Engel on the motorbike.

After so much excitement, we finished the weekend with board games and cleaning up some Battletech miniatures that the terrors are looking forward to painting.

Until next week, take care!

Wool Count

Starting total – 843

Wool used – 20 (2 this week)
Wool bought – 1
Wool given to me – 6
Wool gifted to others –0
Wool handspun – 1

Total – 831 (Net difference: -12)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

I couldn’t resist the pun…but what pun you may ask? Well, remember how I mentioned that my mum roped me into doing some knitting for her?

That there is the seventh Meret (Mystery Beret) – free pattern by Woolly Wormhead- that I have knitted for mother. And since Meret sounds like Merry….

Anyhow…shes nearly wore her last ones straight through out of sheer use. So after telling her exactly that after the mending I did on them last visit, I had to break it to her that next time, there won’t be any hat left to mend… So to prolong those precious hats, I suggested she could have a different hat for when working in the school playground which is when they get their hardest use.

She was immediately in my stash digging through the purple section to select just the right shade to match the school colour (a deep purple) and informed me she wanted two in the same pattern and alterations as the others.

And matching arm warmers, as they’re near worn through also. I did opt to do a new pattern on those though – Half-Pint Fingerless Gloves by Théa Rosenburg, another excellent free pattern – which are super quick and easy to make at least.

Two pairs of arm warmers have been knit, as well as one hat, and the second is a solid evenings worth of knitting away from being done.

In non knitting news, I have had an incredibly busy, but fun, Christmas break. There was a lot of catching up, people and p!aces where visited, games have been played and so many things have been made or built. One of which was a bat detector which Engel decided would be perfect for Felix – and I’ll hand it to her, she took to learning to solder like a duck to water! Inkling was in the mean time getting a sewing lesson from myself and, worst comes to worst, has the rudimentary skills to at least temporarily patch something together now.

Lastly for this blog post, the wool count is going to be reset, and with it, I am going to set a few goals to also try and achieve.

Wool Count

Starting total – 843

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

Total – 843 

And my stash goals for this year are:

1 – to have no more than 1 ball of wool enter the stash to every two that leave the stash.

2 – to spin more wool – I have done a lot of dying, and have projects planned for handspun, but by the end of the year I had very little time/ energy/ spinning mojo

3 – handspun wool does not apply to the wool in vs wool out totals, as it’s stash already present, just undergoing a metamorphosis from fleece to yarn…

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Its beginning to look and feel like Christmas, and that’s been reflected in my knitting!

This is a combination of Northern Stocking by Rae Blackledge and Falling Snow Stocking by Jennifer Hoel – both are free patterns available on Ravelry.

Initially I was asked to make just the one, but the wee boy it’s destined for was sad his parents wouldn’t have one and so wouldn’t get presents either…

So I made all three them a stocking each! Oh, and although you can’t see it in the photo, the white is sparkly and adds just a bit more of a Christmas flair.

Continuing on with the Christmas theme, it was Inklings first nativity this year – he didn’t have one last year due to Covid – and I was really impressed the length the school went to make it happen. Watching him run around being a ‘naughty sheep’, you wouldn’t think he had spent over half his life in various forms of lock down.

It was a bit surreal when that thought first crossed my mind. Not quite managed to get over it, and I do worry about the impact it’s going to have on a whole generation of kids.

That’s getting pretty heavy, let’s move on swiftly!

The kids took their penguin ornaments to school this week, and Felix has informed me that next year it’s going to be polar bears. I had best get a move on with those seeing as 60 penguins weren’t enough and I had to whip up an extra 6!

Speaking of ornaments, this years one has been selected and knitted up. I wound up getting carried away and made a few extra to give to my team, but not so carried away as Engel did photographing them. You’ll have to wait till next week to see those!

Until then, keep safe!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 152 (1 this week!!)
Wool bought – 50
Wool given to me – 47
Wool gifted to others – 4
Wool handspun – 13

Total – 843 (Net total of 39 down!)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

Remember how two weeks ago I said:

Thats all for this week, hopefully I will either block one of my knits to show for next week, or finish a different project which has taught me the importance of paying attention and reading ahead in a pattern. Again. Twice. I mean, Inkling can totally do with 8 mittens, right?!

Well, I did block my jumper as you saw last week, and this week it’s time to come clean about the mittens.

Oh the mittens.

In short, Felix has been asking for a pair of city mitts’ like mine, but cats. She spotted the pattern Flippy Kitten Mittens by Marna Gilligan in the ‘Cats knits’ book I was recently gifted…except they were adult sized.

Inkling saw these and also demanded them.

So I had them ‘shop’ for wool in my yarn stash and pick the colours they wanted. I measured their hands and, after some debate, settled on doing Inklings first as he didn’t want the flip part that turned the wrist warmers into mittens.

Easy, right?

I cast on for the pattern, dropped needle size, tweaked the stitch count, worked some math and measured all the way and…voila! First pair done!

Except the pattern is written so you have two different coloured cats on each mitten, and each hand has a different coloured cat on top, so they’re not identical. Inkling pointed out he had requested ginger cats on the tops of both mittens.

Ok, easy enough, I just flip the colours of what I did before. Except I didn’t.

Inkling was even less amused.

And so, I knit two more pairs, painstakingly triple checking I had flipped the colours to give:

Four pairs of mittens so he has matching ginger or grey or mix matched pairs. And if he loses one, doesn’t matter, there’s seven more to go!

Life has a habit of, just when you think you can easily alter something and knock it out because you think you have enough skillpoints in your knitting skill…and you roll a critical fail instead and end up with eight mittens…

Oh, and for those curious, here Felix’s:

She wanted them to be different coloured cats, and she wanted the flip top too. See below for a view of the tops of the mittens when folded over.

In other news, it’s busy on the project front, more on that when each one is ready, and work wise it’s pretty manic, so I’ve been doing overtime. Managed another session of Cthulhtu on Friday and it’s getting tense, cannot wait till the next session to see how they’re going to get out of their current mess! And aside from a playdate with Felix’s friend today, that’s about it. Oh, and snow.

Storm Arwen has mostly avoided us, but today we’ve had a steady torrent of snow. It’s finally stopped now, but with freezing temperatures predicted tonight, I suspect a cold and frosty morning will be in order!

No wool count as no changes this week!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

What can I say? It’s coming up to my favourite holiday and I am definitely getting in the spooky mood!

Heres one of my projects currently on the needles (I know I don’t generally share WIPs but I’m quite proud of how this MKAL has gone!)

The pattern is 100% That Witch by Brittany Westmorland – it’s a MKAL that’s currently running on Ravelry and I’m actually running two weeks behind as my needles were in another project. I’ve also deviated from the pattern in a few places (I can’t help it!) but I’m really enjoying how it’s come out so far!

Now, here’s one of my latest super cute and completed spooky knits:

Isnt this pumpkin kitty adorable?! The pattern is Jack-o-Cat by Anna Hrachovec (Mochimochiland) and is part of her Spooky Ookie Cats set – look out for more coming in the future!

Now, Mochimochiland is running a competition based on spooky photos involving her designs, and Inkling has come up with a rather amazing idea when I was taking the above photo. I’ve collected all the things I need, including 14 new balls of wool, and it’s a race against time to see if I can make his idea happen to submit it for the contest!

If not, still expect cute photos at some point in the future!

Speaking of future, I am still waiting on the go ahead for two finished knitting projects and one sewing project to share with you all…sigh…soon I hope, soon!

In other news it’s been a bit of a week. The lurgy has hit the house making small chores seem like mountains to climb, and on top of that, Lockdown came rushing in Wednesday night dripping blood everywhere. Turns out something bit his tail and it’s tooth punctured clean through it.

Emergency day off work Thursday and off to the vets for first appointment of the day – antibiotics, painkillers, anti-inflammatory meds, cone of shame and house arrest have been prescribed for my ginger trouble maker, and fingers crossed when he goes to the vets tomorrow (Monday) they will decide the wound has healed enough with no permanent nerve damage and he won’t have to get it amputated…

Not sure who would be more upset about that, myself, the kids, or him. I suspect myself mainly.

Other than some gardening and Felix going to her first sleepover (they grow so fast!) not much else has happened really. On that note, I’m going to get back to knitting Inklings amazing idea and keep an eye on Lockdown who is having a little break from his cone so he can groom himself…I don’t trust him at all however…

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 131 (1 this week!!)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given to me – 47
Wool gifted to others – 4
Wool handspun – 11

Total – 863 (Net total of 21 down! Curses! I will claw that number back!!!)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Thats not the most burning question, really, it’s actually:

Which looks cutest? Just shorn, growing back in or time for shearing? (Left to right)

Need more cuteness to help with the decision?

Just look at those faces!

These are all knit with the same needles and same pattern (the one used the other week – Tiny Alpaca! by Anna Hrachovec) but with different fluffy/textured wool and it has affected the size, shape and cuteness by a lot!

I’m curious to know which is your favourite? I’ll reveal later which one actually won out for my grand alpacalypse plan!

Been a busy week (isn’t every week these days?) and have just got back from seeing friends at the zoo, and I am physically and socially worn out from it! We all had a ball – Felix was super excited to see a leopard up close and Inkling had a bonding moment with a gibbon who was as curious of him as he was of it! And for me it was all about the ring tailed lemur, which due to Covid, meant that the walkthrough enclosure was currently closed. Turns out lemurs are susceptible to human respiratory illnesses and that includes Covid.

The things you never knew!

Oh! We also saw a pair of vicunas today (the smallest of the camelidae family and the wild ancestor to what we know of as the modern alpaca) with a fleece that is super fine and soft but can only be sheared every three years…and was of great value to the Incas to the point only royalty could wear things made from their fleece…If it went for the electric fence…

More things you never knew!

So with that, I shall leave it till next and until then, stay safe!

(Oh, and in case your wondering, I have three projects – 1 sewn and 2 knitted I can’t reveal quite just yet but hopefully soon! Until then, expect more alpacas. Or llamas. They appear to have become interchangeable in this house and I haven’t quite had the heart to sit everyone down and go through what exactly separates the two species!)

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 130 (2 this week!!)
Wool bought – 35
Wool given to me – 47
Wool gifted to others – 4
Wool handspun – 11

Total – 863 (Net total of 34 down! Or 45 if I don’t count the handspun, cause it was fleece in the stash anyway…it’s just changed form…what are your thoughts?)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

It’s been a very long and busy week. Despite the heat it’s also been very productive. The roof is all fixed now, my nest egg is but a few pieces of shell, (just in case, commission’s are open!) I got all the fences painted, both gardens weeded, fruit harvested and a whole load of cleaning, tidying and sorting!

Thankfully the majority was done at the start of the week as it’s been getting hotter and hotter as it’s progressed. But I was planning on physically resting anyway as my new job starts tomorrow.

The nerves have well and truly hit me, but there’s still excitement! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

On to the knitting content!

Its approaching the end of the school year here, and as such I’m knitting a few small gifts for the teachers and teaching assistants. One of the TAs in Felix’s class also runs Welsh club, which Felix has really enjoyed going to, and as such, Felix felt she deserved a special knit – a little red dragon! Or should I say ‘draig goch fach’?

(Ok, I have a friend he speaks Welsh, and I asked her as I know zero Welsh)

Anyhow, the pattern is Dragons 9051 by King Cole Ltd – I added front legs, ears and the little spikes down his back though to make it more like the Welsh dragon.

Anyhow, I’m exhausted and dying of the heat, hopefully I’ll have a post for you all next week but with it being the first week at not just a new job, but of a career change, I make no promises!

Wool Count

Starting total – 897

Wool used – 98 (1 this week)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given to me – 29 (Andrew picked me up 8 balls of cotton for the Christmas projects I’m plotting)
Wool gifted to others – 1
Wool handspun – 9

Total – 876 (Up 7, sigh, still more out than in though!)

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