Well, it’s Friday at last, and this week it couldn’t come fast enough! I’m normally at work by ten to eight (and finish at four) so I’m really looking forward to having a lie in tomorrow! I’ve got really behind on my blog reading this week - sorry everyone - hopefully I’ll be able to catch up tonight/tomorrow!

My FO this Friday is a nice little quick pattern. It’s a really neat little ball, that I think could make a great little baby toy. One of my friends is having a baby this summer, and I think some of these in a selection of bright colours would make great safe little toys. Especially if I could get rattles, squeakers and crinkly noise things into some of them. I don’t think I stuffed this one quite well enough. It felt really full before I closed it, but afterwards I thought it felt a little empty. It was a really nice fast little pattern, and I learnt and practiced quite a few techniques, like picking up stitches - I admit to resorting to my crochet hook a couple of times to pick up stitches! - and I learnt how to do kitchener stitch to graft the last end together. It was a really neat seam and I really like it. 

I think while I’m working on big projects, I’m also going to keep looking for small quick projects that will teach me or let me practice new techniques that I don’t use often as a way of broadening my horizons and increasing my skills I’m sure by the end of the year I’ll hae learnt a fair bit.

Check out Tami’s for more Fo Fridays! 

Well, this week I’ve been busy, but I don’t have very much to show you. I cast on for a fingerless glove at the weekend, but the first one is finished now - although I still need to sew in ends and put a button on. It’ll be ready for you to see on Friday. I’m not going to cast on a second one until the weekend. Just now I’ve been working on my hairpin lace blanket. I’ve joined the One a Day group on Ravelry, with the aim of doing between 50 and 100 loops everyday. I got 75 done last night, so my total is now 375. The first two strips I want to make 500 loops long, so that I can see how many loops I really need and undo any loops I don’t need . It’s always better to have too many to begin with because it’s much easier to pull them out than add to them.

Magrathea is still in timeout for bad behaviour, so I pulled Genevieve back out of the bottom of my bag. If I want to be able to wear this one, I should probably get on with it while the weather’s still cold. This is an old photo, because I only did a few rows last night, and really it’s still just a rectangle. I’m very close to putting the sleeves on now  and then it should start to look more interesting. It isn’t the most exciting pattern to work on, since it’s just long stretches of the same stitch, but I’m determined to finish this one, and I just have to keep pushing myself to carry on.

To see what everyone else has been up to, check out Tami’s!

Well, it’s Wednesday again, and I always look forwards to Wednesday lunchtime as it marks halfway though my week, and means I’m halfway to the weekend! I managed to get quite a bit done this week, and I’m happy with how my projects are doing, although I am getting a bit bored with so much garter stitch in both my projects. I really want to use my stash addict yarn so I might start the Henslowe shawl on my Year of Projects list, but I should also work on some of the things that have been hibernating for a little while. On the other hand though I should really use up the last of my Drops Nepal making some fingerless gloves, if I have enough yarn left, before the weather warms up and I don’t need them any more. At the moment though, I’m being strong and resisting the urge to start anything new until the Long Nights Cowl is finished.

 Speaking of which, my cowl is now 19” long, with five to go! Hopefully I’ll be able to get most of it done tonight, then assemble it tomorrow and have an FO for you to see on Friday. I have still got some off my skien to go, but I’m not sure how much - I should probably weigh it. Hopefully it will be enough to finish off the five inches, but if not, I’m tempted just to let my cowl be a little bit shorter - provided I can still get it over my head! To bind this off, you sew the last row to the straight section to join it in a loop. I’ve never done anything like this before so I’m not quite sure how it will work out, however, I guess the best thing to do is just to try it and see.

Magrathea is still getting longer and wider. Each row takes longer and longer to complete, but it’ll be worth it in the end. I try to do a minimum of one repeat per day to make sure I keep going. I’m going to London at the endo of February, so I’m aiming to have it finished and blocked before I go so I can wear it when I’m down. I’ve finally reached a point where I’m beginning to remember the pattern. For some reason it’s taken me a long time to remember how the four rows (not counting the purl rows) go.

I also started my Hairpin Lace blanket this week. So far I’ve done between 70 and 80 loops. I kept losing count last night, so I put it down and left it. I’m going to aim for an easily accomplished number of loops per day to keep this one moving a long too. Hopefully I’ll be able to complete one or two strips a week this way. I might even join in the One a Day group on Ravelry to keep me motivated and moving along with this one. If I can get this blanket done, then I’ll have a lot more room in my yarn boxes!

For more WIP Wednesdays, check out Tami’s!

I decided that since I had lost all motivation for my Realta Blanket, I had to find another way to use up all the yarn I had for it. After looking around Ravelry for a while, I fell for Hairpin Lace. It’s a really nice tchniques, while being fairly simple, and it’s also feels different to crochet and knitting, so I hope I’m less likely to get bored with it!

I’m using this great tutorial to get started, although I find the way she shows of joining the yarn at the start quite awkward. Instead, I started with a slip knot on the hook, then slip stitched the first loop (I hope that makes sense, I’ll try to take photos when I start my next strip). I couldn’t find a loom here, but it was ridiculously easy to make my own. I got a strip of Basswood from the craft shop (modeling shops - especially railway ones will sell it too), cut two five inch pieces from it, then drilled 2 holes in each. I made my holes 5mm in diameter, and placed them 3 inches apart. I did have a pair of long knitting needles which claimed to be size 9 and should have been 5mm. However, they were thinner than 5mm and more importantly were very old, and very bent, so I could never get the loom to sit flat. So yesterday my husband bought me some new 5mm needles (mine are 40 cm long) and they fit perfectly. The fit with the holes is so tight that I don’t have any problem with the wood slipping.

I really like making this lace. It does feel a bit strange to begin with, but you quickly get in to a rhythm. Moving the hook from the front to the back is a bit awkward though, and I hope it will improve with more practice. I’m using DK yarn so I made the gap between the legs a bit smaller than the tutorial, and I’m using a 4mm hook to crochet the lace. 

In the photo I have 60 loops and it doesn’t look very long! I think I want it to cover our bed, which is a double, although we have a king sized duvet, so it would have to be around that size, or I could make it into a throw for the sofa. I’m going to work on this strip and get the length I want, then count how many strips that is. Once I’ve made a second strip I’ll join the two of them together and then I’ll hopefull be able to work out how many strips I need, and be able to plan how I want to put them together. I have one skien each of 19 different colours, as well as 3 skiens of black, which should be plenty to make a big blanket!

Another week is over, and we seem to be getting through January quickly. It’s even still a bit light when I leave work now, so it feels like we’re on the way to spring. I’m starting to think about my birthday and Christmas presents for people this year. One thing I’m considering, is letting my best friends choose a few scarf or shawl patterns they like on Ravelry, then making it up for them in some gorgeous yarn. One of my friends is also having a baby, due on the 31st of July, so I’d like to have something ready for her when the baby arrives, so there might be a few more things on the list soon!

This week I’ve been working on my Magrathea. We bought a couple more skiens of yarn to make sure I have enough to finish it. The yarn was on sale in the shop, so I got two for the price of one which was a bonus! The pattern states you need 25% of your yarn to complete the lace border once you’ve reached the length you want. That means, I can use up to three skiens to make the rest of the shawl. I’ve just joined my second skien and I’ve done 8 pattern repeats. I think I probably want it around 16 repeats long, so hopefully I should have enough yarn for that, bearing in mind that each repeat uses up slightly more yarn as the body gets wider. Sorry for the awful photo - my desk isn’t big enough anymore, so I laid it out on the bed, but the lighting is terrible.

I also started out on a Long Nights Cowl, to use up my Drops Nepal yarn. Originally this yarn was going to be a Broomstick Lace Scarf, but I didn’t really like the way it felt when I crocheted it. I love it in garter stitch though, and it feels lovely and soft. I’ve just joined my second skien of yarn for this, and I think I’m around halfway through. I’m hoping that I won’t need to use my third skien of yarn, because I’d like to turn it into some fingerless gloves. There should be just enough in one skien to make a pair.

I’ve added a scissors case and a needle book to my list below, as they’re a couple of things I have missing from my knitting bag. I’ll probably make a case for my crochet hooks later too. My plan for these (and the pincushion) is to make them out of scraps and left over yarn.

I’ve also changed the realta blanket on the list. The idea of making 80+ hexagons, and even more squares and triangles for the blanket is just too boring and I can’t motivate myself to do it. Instead I’m going to be making a hairpin lace blanket - I expect it’ll probably still be boring, but I’m not going to need nearly so many strips - probably only 20-30, so hopefully it won’t be so tedious, and I love the joining method, so I won’t have to sew anything. Once I’ve made a couple of strips I should be able to work out how many I need for the whole blanket. I’ll definitely be blogging about hairpin lace later this week if you want to pop back.

Hope you all have a great week!

The Revised List

Scarves and Shawls

• Lacey Crochet Scarf <- Finished
• Iris Crocheted Shawl <- Finished
• Shawl Collared Cowl <- Finished
• Urban Shells <- Finished
• Elise Shawl <- Finished
• Betula Ring <- Finished
• Recuerdos de Infancia <- In progress
• Magrathea <- In progress
• Happy Lavender Scarf <- In progress
• Mochi Neck Warmer <- Frogging first Betula Ring for yarn
• Branching Out - Patons Smoothie DK
• Chinook/A Little Bit Bohemian - Debbie Bliss Andes
• Henslowe <- Stash Addict yarn
• 200 Fingering Rocket Shawl/Usoa Shawl <- Drops Fabel
• My Kind of Town Cowl <- Wendy Serenity Super Chunky
• Sunderland <- Wendy Happy (Cinders)
• Long Nights Cowl <- In progress, Drops Nepal
• Blue Lagoon

Amigurumi

• Knit Bunnies x 7 <- Finished
• Realistic Octopus <- Finished
• Sheldon Turtle <- Have yarn
• Tilly the Panda
• Finola the Fox
• Chester the Dog <- Knit picks yarn

Other Things

• Tote Bag <- Finished
• Windschief Hat <- Finished
• Snowbaby Hat<- Finished
• Skaði Fingerless Gloves <- Finished
• Hairpin Lace Blanket <- Replacing Realta Blanket
• Giselle
• Genevieve <- In Progress
• Faceclothes/Make up pads <- Drops Paris
• Cap Sleeved Top <- Freedom Sincere
• Calorimetry<- Have yarn
• Phone sock/cosy <- Finished
• Pin cushion
• Fingerless gloves <- Left overs of Drops Nepal, hopefully
• Needle book <- Trying out entrelac
• Scissor case

I’m so glad it’s Friday at last! This is a very long week for me - it’s the first time I’ve worked a 5 day week in nearly two months and I’ve been missing the extra knitting time. This is also my 100th post on my blog! So I want to say thatnk you to everyone who reads and those who comment.

I haven’t finished anything I’ve been working on this week, but I have some stitch markers I made during the holidays to show you. Once I started I couldn’t stop, so there’s quite a few for you to see!

I made them with charms and beads, using some nylon coated wire and crimp beads to hold everything in place. I did four with earring clasps, for using on crochet. I made the loops using my 10 mm crochet hook as a guide, so I should be able to use them for most projects. Pretty much everything I used, other than the wire, were things I had in my jewellery making stash, from the last couple of years Christmas presents for friends. I don’t often wear jewellery, although I enjoy making it, so it was nice to make up these, as I know they’ll get plenty of use, and they were fun to do - so much fun that I made 16 just for knitting! I doubt I’ll ever have them all in use in one go.

For some yarny FO’s check out Tami’s and see what everyone else has been up to.

I was around May last year when I first started to play with yarn. I had just started using Google Reader, and one of the few things (those were the days!) on it was Craft. One day they posted  up this article, of a floral coaster. I thought it was gorgeous, and set about finding out more about crochet, and started with amigurumi. You can see more about how I started off my yarny journey here. I really enjoy crochet. I just can’t stick to one thing! Looking around on Ravelry I slowly got pulled in to the world of yarn, and got more adventurous with my crochet and did everything that caught my eye.

Looking around for a while, I found the knooking group. I thought this sounded really intreging and eventually decided to give it a go. If you haven’t heard of knooking before, basically, it’s knitting with a crochet hook.. You have a cord attached to your hook, which acts as your second needle, and you use your hook essentially as a needle, doing knit and purl stitches. You can make literally any knitting pattern this way, and it’s an awesome tool, especially for working in the round.

Now I’ve started knitting - properly with two needles - and I have to say, I feel a little bit guilty, because although I started out with crochet, then flirted with knooking, I think knitting is actually my favourite yarn craft, and I feel like I’m cheating on crochet! It’s not just my love for garter stitch (so soft, squishy and warm) or how soft the fabric is, or the neat little holes which make such amazing patterns in lace, all of that I can get with knooking - and knooking at least uses a hook, so that’s a bit more like crochet, even if you are making knitted fabric. It’s the way both of your hands work together, and the way your needles click I think that I love best. Really I think it reminds me of my Granny, and it feels very comfortable and “homey”.

In reality though, without crochet grabbing my attention, and knooking teaching me the basics, I don’t think I’d have got to the stage of knitting, which is quite special in it’s own right. Crochet was a gentle way to work, which helped me get used to holding yarn in one hand, my hook in the other, and get used to the idea of an even tension and gauge. Knooking  took it a step further, giving me a simple way to learn knit and purl stitches (again, since I did once learn to knit - badly -  as a teenager), and get used to the different movements, with a familiar tool. Knooking always gave me a safety line across the last row I had don, so dropping stitches was less of an issue - and if I did drop a stitch and have to pick it up again, I had my hook ready for it. The hook is really what makes it easier - all you have to do is catch the yarn in it and pull it back through the loop. You don’t have to slide it round the needle and off, and I think that’s what really made a difference. It made the learning process simpler.

Last week I got my first set of knitting needles. I went for circular needles, as you can use them for flat and round knitting, and I think they’re much easier to wield than long needles. I got a set of Knit Pro Nova Metal needles. I really love the Knit Pro interchangeable crochet hooks I have, and they came with a set of cords that fit my Nova Interchangeables too. I love these needles so much already, and it hasn’t even been a week yet! I love how smooth they are, the way they fit in my hand and the way they click together. While I still like and enjoy crochet, I’ve noticed more and more knitting patterns getting into my favourites and on to my Year of Projects list, and I think in the future knitting will be my favourite yarn craft.

Friday at last on my first working week after Christmas. The weekend can’t come fast enough! I had some stitch markers to show you today, but I forgot to photograph them, so they’ll have to wait for next week. One of my biggest challenges this week, is trying to get through my Google Reader! I had over 500 things on it because I hadn’t read any over Christmas. I knocked off quite a few that I normally skim through, but I’ve been stuck at around 250 this week - it seems like the more I read, the more everyone blogs! So that’s one of my challenges this weekend, try to empty my reader and get back around everyone’s blogs and comment!

The next thing I have to show you is very geeky! I play a game called World of Warcraft, on the side of the Alliance. There’s quite a few WoW patterns on Ravelry, but most of them are for the Horde, the opposing faction. The only Alliance pattern I found was this pair of gloves, but they are missing the lion’s mane, and the eyes are a little hard to make out (they’re the loopy bits at the top). The pattern on the gloves is cute, but it’s also too big for my phone cover, and I really wanted the mane on my lion.

So with a little help from my husband, we turned the Alliance symbol into a knitting chart, and I made it into a phone cosy! The official colours for it are blue and gold, but since I didn’t have either colour, but I did have the left over yarn from my Snowbaby Hat, that’s what I used. The pattern is a little too wide for the front of my phone so it wraps around the sides to the back as well. I’m actually really happy with it. One little problem I did have though, is I think I pulled my floats and wraps a little tight across the back.

Once I had the chart, I mostly made the rest up as I went along! I started by casting on with Judy Becker’s Magic Cast On, and it is awesome! It’s really for toe down socks, but it worked perfectly for this and it’s so smooth! I love it! I did a few increases at each side over a few rows, then started knitting the pattern. I did have to rip it all out and start again a few times, once because I didn’t do enough increases and a second time because I started the pattern a little too late and it wouldn’t all fit on.

Once I had completed the pattern I did a round of brown and then started 2x2 rib. I had an odd number of stitches, so I finished with one purl stitch, but it isn’t really noticeable and it’s on the back anyway. I did a decrease row at the top, decreasing four times, then bound off in patter, using a basic bind off and it was done. I was going to use a stretchy bind off, but it actually made the top too loose and the basic bind off works fine. And there we have it - a geeky Alliance logo phone sock to those in the know, and a gorgeous (I think so anyway) Lion phone cover to everyone else! If anyone is interested in the pattern, let me know and I’ll put up the chart on Ravelry.

For more awesome FO’s, check out Tami’s!

And I want to show you the last of the gifts I’ve made for the girls on my list! I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I like to get them a selection of little gifts all packed into a box or bag. I usually pick things like bath bombs, small teddies, notebooks, jewellery, candles, chocolates and anything else I see that takes my fancy when I’m shopping! I normally make jewellery for them, but this year I made even more things. This year I’ve made charm bracelets and candle holders which I’ve shown you before. I’m also making little knitted bunnies, which I’ve been posting about a lot! Three are finished, three are awaiting faces and tails and one is still a square, but I’ll finish them tonight and you’ll see them in FO Friday tomorrow. I’ve also made covered notebooks and origami boxes for them, and that’s what I want to show you today!

I saw notebooks covered like this in a guest post on the Southern Institute, when I was looking for ideas of how to make my covers. It’s a very fast and simple way of covering them - although I seem to have made a lot of mistakes! And although it was designed for much smaller notebooks, it was easy enough to adapt it to the right size for my own notebooks. One thing I really loved about these covers is that they can be removed and put on a new notebook. I bought WHS A5 hardback notebooks so they’ll be easy to replace.

I used A3 brown paper for the covers, and decorated it with some decoupage paper from Hobbycraft I got 3 different colours so that all the people that know each other can get a different one. When I was making these, I got myself a papercutter. It can do straight lines (of course), but it also scores, perferates and does wibbly lines, and it was great for making these up! Scoring made folding it neatly a lot easier. I used a sponge underneath the card to keep it nice when I stuck the split pin through it. I cut the brown card out with my new craft knife, so it isn’t perfect, but that gives it character I think!

I also made origami boxes to put the charm bracelets in. I got some pretty origmai paper and paired it with some plain coloured paper for the box lids. For the bottom of the boxes I chose a colour that co-ordinated with the lid and the bracelet that was going in it. I really like the way the boxes turned out. They were very easy to make and two of the three patterns were made by folding the pieces the same way, then assembling the modules slightly differently. The pin wheel is actually my favourite, but it’s a bit harder to fit together neatly so I only made one like that. I need to shred some tissue paper to go inside the boxes and cushion the bracelets and then these will be all done.

Here’s a picture of everything together. There’s a candle holder with two apple blossom tealights, and two strawberry and passionfruit tea lights. A bubble bar or bath bomb from Lush, which is my favourite shop for bath things. I love the smell of everything they make, and I love their soaps too. A lip balm from the Body Shop, which is also one of my favourite shops! These were on three for the price of two, so I got a couple for myself too! And of course there’s a couple of chocolates for everyone, and having these sitting around the house for a couple of weeks has really tested my self control! Now I need to wrap everything up in tissue paper and pack it carefully into gift bags. Come back tomorrow, to see the last four bunnies!

Well this weekend has been busy! I finished my notebooks and origami boxes (which I’ll be sharing tomorrow) and I finished my Snowbaby hat! I loved working on the hat! The colourwork was a lot of fun. I was holding both colours of yarn in my left hand, which I guess is continental style? Because I knook (knit with a hook) instead of actually knitting, I tend to hold things as I do when I crochet - hook in my right hand, working yarn, and my work in my left - I should probably get my husband to take a photo sometime.

Once I got into the rhythm of reaching over for the brown and under for the cream, I stopped twisting my yarn up together, and got along pretty fast. The pattern was really easy to memorise, and was quite sad when it was over! I loved doing the colourwork, and I think I’m going to have to look for more patterns that use it! I’m also quite proud of the back of the work - I managed to keep the tension on my floats nicely without being too tight. I even took a photo of it to show you! It was minus five this morning when I wore my hat out for the first time and it was lovely and cosy! The cashmerino is gorgeous and soft, and I love it. I used a russian join again when I joined my second ball of the brown, and I wove in the ends of the cream while I was knitting too, so when I got the the end I only had two ends to sew in, which was also great, and I will definitely be using both techniques in future!

I’m also very hard at work on my knit bunnies. I finished a third (giant) one on Friday. I’d love to have a photo of the seven together before I give them away so I need to finish them by this Friday. I’ve finished another square that’s ready to be bunnyfied and I’m halfway through a second square. I’m going to finish the other two and a half squares, then put all my bunnies together at once.

I’m also starting to plan what I’m going to work on over Christmas, and making sure I have what I need. My Stash Addict yarn has been tempting me for weeks, so as soon as I’m finished my bunnies I want to start my Magrathea. I’ve ordered the 3mm Knit Pro Symphonie Interchangeable Crochet hook that didn’t come with the set I bought, and that I need for Magrathea. I hope it’ll come very soon, in plenty of time for Christmas. I also ordered some yarn for my Guenvieve cardigan, because I think a long holiday is a good time to start work on something that big! It’s worked flat, but in one piece, so seaming it together shouldn’t be too bad, but I do have to measure and alter the pattern to fit. Luckily though instructions are given at each step for how to fit it. I just have to follow the instructions properly. I also want to do more work on my Realta Blanket, Polo neck Bag, and my Recuerdos de Infancia shawl, so I’ll have plenty to do!

I won’t be doing my YoP update on Sunday this week, for obvious reasons! But I’ll probably have it up on Wednesday. Have a great time everyone!

The Revised List

Scarves and Shawls

• Lacey Crochet Scarf <- Finished
• Iris Crocheted Shawl <- Finished
• Recuerdos de Infancia <- In progress
• Urban Shells <- Finished
• Elise Shawl <- Finished
• Happy Lavender Scarf <- In progress
• Blue Lagoon
• Magrathea <- Have yarn
• Betula Ring <- Finished
• Mochi Neck Warmer <- Have yarn
• Shawl Collared Cowl <- Finished

Amigurumi

• Chester the Dog
• Tilly the Panda
• Sheldon Turtle <- Have yarn
• Realistic Octopus <- Finished (and awesome!)
• Finola the Fox
• Knit Bunnies x 7 <- 3 done (plus 1 square)

Other Things

• Tote Bag <- Finished
• Cap Sleeved Top
• Guenvieve <- Yarn ordered
• Ginny Cowl
• Realta Blanket <- In progress
• Polo Neck Bag <- In progress
• Skaði Fingerless Gloves <- Finished
• Hearts on Her Sleeve Fingerless Gloves <- In progress (one done)
• Calorimetry <- Yarn ordered
• Windschief Hat <- Finished
• Snowbaby Hat<- Finished