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Category: Knitting

by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 1 Comment

On a dishy…

When the boat comes in!

Now, this post isn’t to do with the fish (though its a lovely free Ravelry pattern ‘striped fish‘ by Nettas Knits, though mine is a plain silver/grey, not striped) its all about the plate.

Yes, the plate.

As part of the cat commission I did a while ago I was asked to knit a replica of the plate they used to eat from, and a little snack too. So, here’s the original plate:

And here’s the knitted one:

The plate itself was easy – pinwheel increase, blue purl edge, pinwheel decrease, plastic plate inside with holes drilled in to allow the wool to be fixed and shaped.

The embroidery though! 3 hours! Worth it though for the look of shock it received.

Never again though. Never!

In other news – busy week. Been dying of the plague at work, craft fair Friday, and two of my friends had joint birthday celebrations on Saturday. I did knit a little something for the occasion, but I’ll blog about that next week – there’s a saga involved and I need to get quite a few photos together!

Wool Count down:
Starting total – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 107 (3 this past week!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 45

Total – 710

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

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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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one 2 Comments

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

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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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Updates 1 Comment

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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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Updates No Comments

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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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

Hooray! One blanket is off the needles!

Its based on the free pattern: Western Hills – The Blanket by Julia Stanfield. Its knitted in a pale blue and mint green, and as I was knitting it, I felt it needed a little pop of colour. Hence the crochet border and fish in orange.

It also made me remember one of my past knits:

The fish motif is from ‘Kitty Placemat’ in ‘Kitty Knits: Projects for Cats and their People’ by Donna Druchunas.

I do like goldfish, they make me smile…

Anyhow, short post today as its been a bit hectic with work and family life at the moment.

Wool Count down:
Starting total (28Feb15) – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 69 (3 balls this week! Woot!)
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 13

Total – 715

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting 2 Comments

I was working on a christening shawl, made in very fine cotton, for my then boss’s little one christening in Australia. The finished result, looked like:

Lovely, isn’t it? Its a free pattern, Hemlock Ring Blanket by Jared Flood. The pattern suggests a cozy wool and 6mm needles, I worked this with 2ply cotton and 4.5mm, I think, maybe 4mm.

Why do I mention this knit of mine from the archives? Because this year I’m knitting Engel a throw and a baby blanket for an expectant friend at the moment. Both these projects are very slow going, as is the nature with blankets, so I had nothing interesting to show this week…

This week has also been horrid as I’ve spent the entire time revising for two exams that I had on Friday. At least it was a bank holiday weekend to recover with! Helped along with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream, a giant bar of Galaxy chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate cake and cupcakes…and lots and lots of family time with Engel and Felix, which despite my love for knitting, come first.

So those are the reasons why not one ball of wool has been used this week. And why my wool count has actually increased by ten…it was commiseration wool! Very nice, very squishy, commiseration wool!

Wool Count down:
Starting total (28Feb15) – 747 balls
Extra stash found – 20 balls (so far)
Wool used – 66
Wool given – 3
Wool bought – 13

Total – 718

See you next week!

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Gaming, Knitting, Updates No Comments

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

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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