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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized 3 Comments

Yeah…I may have watched a lot of Pokémon recently…

Anyhow, first of all, Pip. My niece is collecting the whole Pusheen family, but the newest addition, little brother Pip, isn’t available in a soft toy form, so for her birthday, she asked me to make her Pip. Not one to disappoint…

Based on the pattern Tiny and Stripy by Sue Stratford from her book ‘Knitted Cats and Kittens’ – I followed the pattern more or less as written, except I used loop stitch then cut the loops at the end to make it super fluffy.

Awesome. Super.

Except you can’t make one (my niece) without making for the other (nephew) it’s only fair. And he’s really into Pokémon right now, so…

I used the free pattern pokeball pokemon toy by Emma Whittle, super quick and super easy.

After Felix pinched it for the eighth time to throw at various things and yelling ‘I choose you!’ or ‘I’ll catch you!’ I realised two things.

One: Felix wasn’t going to let me give away this pokeball.

Two: I made Pip for my nieces birthday. Not her Christmas. I don’t have to make my nephew something until his birthday, and even then only if he wants something.

So Felix is tucked up in bed with her pokeball.

After throwing it at her daddy a good dozen times to catch him, I don’t think he was too amused when I said to her that she was trying to catch a Snorlax…

Anyhow, still have that big project on the needles (keep picking up and putting it down as I start and finish other projects) and I have a few more little ones to do as well…

Including this year’s Christmas decoration!

Till next week.

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 146 (3 since the last post)
Wool bought – 51 (2 balls of white DK as I’m almost out, and I surprisingly enough use a lot of white…)
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 627

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized 1 Comment

To be eaten…

The Christmas reference is because of this:

Inklings very own Christmas stocking (based on free pattern: Pet Love Christmas Stocking by Sarah Hood, incorporating the free Bunnies Chart by Sylvia Leake and the fish chart from Kitty Placemat by Donna Druchunas from her book Kitty Knits: Projects for cats and their people.)

Two years ago, I knit Christmas stockings for myself, Engel and Felix all based on the pet love Christmas stocking (you can have a look at those here if you want) and it only seemed right to include Inkling in on this tradition.

I had to guess his favourite animals, it’s kind of hard when he’s not quite 6 months old yet – I went for rabbits as he squeals when he sees them on the TV, and he loves watching the goldfish in the fish tank, so fish it was.

So, the being eaten reference is because of this:

Yup. It’s Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young). I mentioned on a previous post that after knitting the Stubborn Goat I wanted to make one, but not the thousand young so nope, not happening.

Two weeks of pester power and here s/he is, Shub-Niggurath (used the free pattern Fester The Whole Goat by Jenny Stacey again for this one)

There will not be any young. Especially not a thousand of them.

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 138 (3 this post)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 633

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

When Felix was very little, I knitted her a Cthulhu (my very own pattern too) and kept meaning to knit one for Inkling.

Well procrastinate no more, here is the cute tiny Elder God in all his tentacular glory!

After knitting Cthulhu I decided that whilst I was on a roll I’d try another free Lovecraftian pattern I had spied previously:

The Great Race of Yith by Samantha Lynn – I omitted the pipe cleaners and beads the pattern calls for to make it more baby chewing friendly.

(I was going to knit just one, but you can’t have a race with just one!)

The Yith are one of the lesser known Lovecraftian creations, but Inkling seems to enjoy swinging them by their various appendages…

Also this week (I was on a knitting roll! Though I did ignore my big project) my mum requested I make The Stubborn Goat, as another teaching aid.

Made using the free pattern Fester The Whole Goat by Jenny Stacey

I am now debating knitting Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young) since I’m on a Lovecraft inspired knitting kick…

Then Felix said Id have to knit a thousand baby goats. That idea has now been shelved…

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 131 (6 this post!)
Wool bought – 49
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 640 (Will I get below 600 this year?)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized No Comments

Let’s get the sad news over with first.

My wool count. I screwed it up royally about two and a bit months back and only just realised. I typed out this post, went to do the wool count, looked at the numbers and thought ‘wait a minute…’

Yeah…a number of weeks ago I was given 80 balls of wool from Engel’s grandma, well, I forgot to add that to the overall count. I also, on two occasions afterwards, mucked up the number of balls used and the number of balls bought.

So what does this mean? It means the rather proud achievement of getting my wool stash below 600 (566 to be exact) was wrong. Very wrong. I have 639.

I was off by 73 balls of wool. I could actually cry. Especially as I got wool this week as a little pat on my back for doing so well…

Sigh…I’ve gone back and fixed the totals in my blog, and changed some of the content to accurately reflect the numbers…

The despair part of this post aside, I did manage a fair bit of knitting this week, even taking into account a small family holiday to see the Blackpool Illuminations! My small project turned into a larger for two reasons.

Reason 1: I wound up knitting two:

(Pattern is Little Miss Widow by Anna Hrachovec from her book ‘Super-Scary Mochimochi’. There’s so many awesome patterns in that book…)

Reason 2: The hairband was liked so much I wound up knitting a further three.

The reasoning for this was Felix wanted the spider one, so I agreed, and it actually stayed in, so I knit two in her school colours – bottle green and lemon yellow. The childminder she visits liked them so much she asked if she too could have one. So another spider was knit and a more sensible one also, in red, which Felix says is her favourite colour…

So my quick little project took much longer than I planned and my big project has barely been touched.

Oh well. I have another little project (actually, three) which I will start Monday alongside my big project.

Hopefully this time I won’t be side tracked!

Wool count

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 125 (0 this post, only used parts of balls of wool)
Wool bought – 49 (7 from my Blackpool trip, at least I was good and resisted all the 10 packs of wool…)
Wool given – 135
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 646 (Getting dangerously near that starting total again)

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized 1 Comment

So, let’s show off the only thing I have to show this week: Butterflies!

For these guys, I used the free pattern: Metamorphosis part II – the Butterfly by ChemKnits. You’ll notice that each of these, unlike the other Hungry Caterpillar set items, are all different. I had three different wools I could use for the wings, so decided to make one butterfly per different wool. (I couldn’t decide basically). Then did body colour to match. My favourite is the left one, though Engel likes the one on the right! Felix settled on the middle one as it was the first one to be made.

I’m currently working on the cocoon, though I’m having to make up my own pattern for this one, if it turns out well I’ll post it online. Hopefully it will at least meet the demands set by my three (four in just over three weeks!) year old gremlin…

That’s all for now, there’s a cold going through the house so I’m going to make lemon tea and curl up in a blanket nest and relish the few hours of quiet I have before bed…

Wool count:

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 89 (9 since last post!)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 131
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 666 (Mwahahah!!!!!)

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

First of all, apologies on missing my blog post last week – been having lots of family down visiting, and also a new addition!

Everyone, meet Ziggy:

 

Now onto the knitted food!

Oranges:

Pattern used was Advent Tree: Tangerine by Alan Dart. (Knitting 15 of those was a challenge in staying awake!)

Chocolate cake (with a cherry on top)

Used free knitting pattern Let Them Knit Cake by Hannah Kaminsky, and Cherry by Linda Dawkins. (I used fuzzy wool for the frosting, to give it a bit more texture)

Ice cream

Used free pattern Scooped by Marcie Nishioka (Felix decided she didn’t want a pink one like in the book, and instead wanted her favourite ice cream flavour – mint choc chip!)

Pickles (yes, really, pickles)

Used free pattern Fuzzy Short Row Pickle by Ana Clerc (I was amazed this pattern existed, but apparently it’s a German tradition to hide them in Christmas trees…?)

Swiss cheese slice

Very heavily modified the free pattern Swiss Cheese Scarf by Winnie Shih (My mods have been noted down on the project page on my Ravelry account)

Phew, lots of knitting! And still lots more to do to finish the Hungry Caterpillar sets…

In other news, been doing a massive clean up before the next round of family fun! There was a very near disaster though with Engel hoovering…much like the one documented here:

True story…killed the hoover too…but I got my wool back!

Man these comics are old…now I feel old…oh well! Back to knitting, it’s salami next.

Wool count:

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 67 (2 since last post)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 606

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by RoxyPosted on Posted in Knitting, Little one, Uncategorized 4 Comments

Heh, I’ve been reading way too many nursery rhymes…

Let me explain the reason for this particular blog post. I don’t know when it started exactly, but somewhere between me finishing primary school and Felix starting (ok, she’s at nursery school, but close enough! She wears a wee uniform and everything!) it’s become a thing to give teachers presents on the last day of school.

Rather than the shops recommended chocolates or tat, I opted to knit them little something’s instead because…well, it’s what I do!

So, the owl first:

Pattern used is Oisin owl by Pauline Gallagher. When Felix first started she kept insisting one of her teachers was ‘Mrs Owl’. For months we heard about Mrs Owl and, come parents evening, we discovered that Mrs Owl was actually Mrs Powell.

Couldn’t resist making her an owl though.

And the caterpillar?

I’m on a roll with these guys…once again, the pattern used is the free pattern Caterpillar by Kimberly Chapman, with the same modifications mentioned in my previous post.

You’ll also note this caterpillar is wearing a scarf. This is because it’s for Mrs Scarf. And no, that is her actual name, though we did initially think Felix must have misheard that one too! A bit more effort was put into this one as she’s recently announced she’s pregnant, and well, it’ll be cute for her little one to be.

Right, back to knitting food for –

Oh wait, other things to be knit!

A FOURTH meret hat (free pattern Meret (Mystery Beret) by Woolly Wormhead) as my mum decided to steal the one meant for my aunt, so I whipped up another one for my aunt. Plain black this time, but it’s an angora/silk/wool blend so oh so snuggly…

Anyhow, as my mum stole the other hat, she cheekily asked for matching armwarmers (she does work in a playground which is a wind tunnel, in Scotland, so I can’t begrudge her too much as the stolen hat was way warmer than the others…)

Free pattern Camp Out Fingerless Mitts by tante ehm, I’ve made them before for mum and as she likes and wears though, went for the same pattern again. Was playing yarn chicken, hence the stripes!

Right, now back to knitting all that food!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 63 (3 since last post)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 610

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

I bought Felix ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ as a ‘congratulations on being a big sister’ present when Inkling was born, after she had watched the short film adaption on Netflix. I was surprised that we didn’t already have a  a copy as I’m a lover of books and have been actively trying to pass that love on.

Once bought and given, I thought it’d be nice for her to have a knitted set to go with the book, but she’ll be earning each bit for being good as opposed to it being more presents.

And on that train of thought, picked up another two books as gifts and plan to make knitted sets for those as well…cause why not?

Because I’m insane more like…

First of all, the Hungry Caterpillar!

This guy is based on the free pattern Caterpillar by Kimberly Chapman. I knitted bobbles for the feet into the body rather than later adding i-cord legs.

I even managed to get the apples done too this week!

I used the free pattern Apple Knitting Pattern by Linda Dawkins for these!

And on other knitting news (lots to show this week!) I discovered my tribble problem wasn’t under control after all…

A pink mutant varient was discovered lurking under the kitchen sink, all five have been captured, sterilised and sent off for further study… (MIL was rather taken with the captured blue ones I had, so felt it best to let her have these pink ones) Free pattern – Tribble by Abigail – 1870pearl.

Wool count!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 60 (1 since last post – lots of knitting but not many whole balls used.)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 613

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

Let’s start with a story. Every time we go into Manchester, Engel likes to check out the gaming shop (so do I for Call of Cthulhu RPG expansions) and if Felix is good, she gets a dice for her dice bag.

For some time, Felix has called this shop “The Tentacle Shop” as it has a plushie tentacle. A month or so ago we went and, horror of all horrors, the tentacle was gone. Even though it wasn’t for sale, it had been sold (some people are very pushy) and Felix was devastated.

Felix informed us (and the shop) that there would be tentacles – she was going to make some and so was mummy. I shrugged it off (my to knit list is ridiculous right now). She did indeed make a tentacle herself out of paper mâché and pompoms and was very pleased and I figured that was that.

Then, the day before Free RPG day, she asked me where the knitted one was as she wanted to take it to the tentacle shop and give them it as it can’t be the tentacle shop without one.

Cue mad panic cast on, and with an hour to spare:

Its based on the free pattern Gripping by Hunter Hammersen, I added little bobbles for the suckers.

The tentacle was given to the tentacle shop, Felix got her dice, we got free RPGs, everyone was happy.

Then Felix asked where her tentacles where.

Sigh.

But I have had fun with them…

Maybe a bit too much!

Wool count!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 59 (3 since last post – lots of partial balls used)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 614

 

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

Summer in the city, back of my neck getting dirty and gritty…

(Summer in the city, The Lovin’ Spoonful)

Good thing you cant hear me sing! It is very, very hot today, and yesterday, it’s been hot (for me) all week really, which makes my latest knitting project of wooly hats feel very pointless! Ah well, it’ll be of use soon, possibly tomorrow knowing the British weather.

Free pattern – Meret (Mystery Beret) by Woolly Wormhead

There’s an story to these (there’s always a story) I’ve made three of these for my mum previously – the first two were made from New Lanark wool to match a jumper I made her, and a matching scarf and mitts. The first of these she wore through (she works at a school and it’s a playground must have for her, plus anytime she goes outside in the poorer weather), the second is in use, and the third was a little cotton summer version which, her living in Scotland, gets about a week of use a year.

My aunt saw her hats and asked for one as well, so…

There’s not an inch of New Lanark wool left so I stash dived and found this pretty unlabelled wool.

In other news, it was free RPG day yesterday! And I had far too much fun, though the heat did kill quite a bit of the enjoyment as my energy levels just dropped…

I ended up having a siesta! With company round! At least some of said company had siestas too…

There’s an amusing story to tell regarding free RPG day, or more specifically the shop it was at, but I’ll save that for next week.

Later!

Wool count!

Starting total – 650

Wool used – 56 (6 since last post – lots of partial balls used)
Wool bought – 33
Wool given – 49
Wool gifted – 59

Total – 617

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