Fridays are for FOs!

Yes, yes, they are!

It's been so long since I've been able to show off any finished projects on a Friday, and I'm so very happy with this project.

The Scheepjes Mystery Blanket has been finished for a little while now, but I never seem to get round to photographing it because either I'm at work, or it's in use, or it's too dark and dreary to get good light...

But anyway, here it is, in all its glory:

And another one for good measure... 

And from above... 

And if you haven't had enough now, here are some detail shots... 

I added the squares together with a single crochet stitch, which works quite well I think, because it adds a little raised frame around each of the squares but it is simple enough not to draw attention away from the individual squares. After some contemplation I added a plain single crochet border. I was going to make it wider, but D convinced me that it was good as it was and I was pretty sick of border crocheting by that point, so who was I to argue? ;)

Again, I deliberated for a while but in the end decided on a simple border because i didn't want anything too busy that would compete with the crochet squares. I really like how it's turned out and it's definitely been a success with the family, boys and cats and all - it's almost constantly in use, in particular as boy #1 seems to have kidnapped my granny square blanket for his own personal use in his room. Yesterday when I snuck up there before I went to bed he was all snuggled up in it. Much as I'd like the blanket back to keep in the living room I just don't have the heart to take it when he clearly likes it that much. Maybe I'll have to make another one...

I'm still waiting for the buttons for the Garter Yoke cardi to arrive, so I'll have to leave that FO for another post... 

Shared with:

A Year of Projects

Yarn Along Wednesday

With all the Christmas business this is my first Wednesday update in a while. I do have things to show for though, both WIPs and FOs. I won't dwell on the latter here, as I'm planning a more extensive FO Friday 'reveal'. ;)

In addition to my usual A Year of Projects update and Keep Calm, Craft On, I'm also joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along this week and I thought I'd for once do the reading-and-knitting update that Yarn Along really is about. I actually read a lot, but I rarely remember to blog about it. 

This Christmas I got a little book of poems on motherhood from my brother in law. It's Carolyn Jess-Cooke's BOOM!, and I'd been hankering after this book for a while now so I'm thrilled to finally get my hands on it. The poems are lovely - in turn funny and touching and always so very recognisable in the emotions that they express. Truly beautiful. 

I'm also dipping in and out of sixteenbynine, which is the pilot issue of a new journal on television. It's interesting, but not having read much of it yet, right now I'm probably most in love with the cover design, which I desperately covet as a poster to put in my office! ;)  

As for knitting, with various projects close to completion I've embarked on another Ink Flare. I fancied making another one ever since I knitted one with my unruly purple wool last summer, and I had this perfect green hand-dyed mohair yarn from Fleece Artist lying around here. I'm making this one in the round to avoid all that sewing and on 6 mm needles this knits up so fast. After knitting both Tea Leaves and the Garter Yoke cardi on 4.5 mm needles I'd forgotten how quickly a project can grow on big needles. I've already completed the body and have just started the first sleeve.  Judging from prior performance with sleeve knitting this will probably be the point where progress slows right down, but it's a lovely yarn to work with and I really REALLY want to wear this jumper soon, so I'm hoping this will keep my motivated. The knitted fabric is loose and airy, which is what I'd intended, and the colour variations give it some texture and I'm so looking forward to seeing it finished!

As for my other projects, the Scheepjes Mystery blanket is truly finished now. Here is a little peak before the bigger post:

The Garter Yoke cardi is also finished, at least the knitting part. I've ordered some buttons for it that will hopefully arrive soon. 

There is some progress on my never-ending sock, but not enough to warrant a photoshoot. Who wants to see the same sock every week anyway if there isn't any vast difference?!

Post-Christmas update

I've been MIA for some time now. It wasn't intentional, but when things get busy, as they often do this time of year, the blog is one of the things that falls off the cliff. There were any number of occasions when I thought 'oh, I need to blog about that', but I just never found the time to upload the photographs, look through them, write a post... I'm sure it was the same for a lot of you too.

We spent Christmas in Germany this year. It was good - seeing family and friends, spending time with the boys, taking walks in the forest, going to the local Christmas market - but it's also oh so very nice to be back. Our return journey was a bit of an adventure because after some quite mild weather the temperature dropped to -10C the day of our departure and it started snowing in the early hours of the morning. I don't think the journey to Rotterdam has ever taken us quite this long, not because we had trouble with our car (we go in a 4-wheel-drive because it isn't the first time we've been caught out by a cold snap) but because everyone else was. This is what the motorway looked like for the majority of our journey:

The boys, of course, were outraged by the whole thing. First there was no snow for DAYS, and then, on the day of our departure, when they can't play in it because they'd get wet and cold, it starts snowing. And not just that - all their hopes of a snowball fight on British shores were dashed when we arrived back home and found that there was not a fleck of snow here! 

We've had some beautiful frosty weather, though, so the day after we got back I grabbed the camera and my knitting and crochet (yes, I've still been working on WIPs!) and went into the back garden to make use of that clear winter light. 

Look at how the natural daylight makes the colours on the mystery blanket pop! I finished all the squares before we left for Germany and then assembled it all while there. I'm still working on the border, but apart from that it's done. I'm so happy with how it's turning out. Here are a few more pictures of it, though not taken outside (the frost everywhere meant that I couldn't spread it out very well...).

It should be big enough to fit a single bed quite comfortably, but I suspect it will probably end up downstairs as a snuggle blanket on the sofa. :)

I've also been working away at the Garter Yoke cardi. I'm finding the sleeve knitting quite dull, so I've been a bit slow with this, but it's made a good travel project so I got a few inches done on the way to Germany and back. I think I have perhaps 5" to go now, so I'll try to prioritise the project so I can start wearing the cardi.

  

Shared with:
Keep Calm, Craft On
A Year of Projects

Another WIP Wednesday...

... and I'm finally catching up!

Let me present - this week's crochet square. Yes, you heard that right, this is actually this week's pattern piece.

I haven't done them all, obviously, but I finished last week's pattern piece on Sunday, meaning that I started on this week's pattern only a few days late and crucially, BEFORE the next piece of the pattern is released on Friday. I've finally done it, I've caught up with the CAL!!

Here is the pattern from the previous week. It was probably my favourite so far - all that delicate lace work in the centre - and it was quite quick to do as well (hence enabling me to catch up). 

The pattern this week is quite fun too, but not quite as much so as last week. I did enjoy doing the little stars in the centre, though, and since you need to break the yarn to continue anyway I decided to just do all the stars first. Cute, no?  :)

Anyway, I'm thrilled with my progress this week, not only because I now actually have a chance to finish the CAL before Christmas but also because it means that I will, occasionally, have time to work on my other projects again. Garter Yoke Cardi here I come!!

Initially I did a single-colour square, just to get used to the pattern, and then I had the seemingly grandiose idea of using two colours, not to do rows but instead to pick out parts of the wheel pattern. It worked - kind of:



I'm not actually too happy with it. Sure, it sort of worked, but the work was immense. Can you imagine all those ends to sew in? Awful! I tried to carry some of them on so I'd have less to sew, but that made the purple bits a bit larger than the yellow, which, again, wasn't that great. This square needed a lot of blocking and shaping to come out the right size... Needless to say, I decided that this pattern piece wanted to be in a single colour (I didn't think different coloured rows would work too well, because they distract from the pattern) and did the rest of them in yellow, purple and green.

Another thing I wanted to show this week is this:



It's that Cheviot fleece I washed the other week. It spins up really nicely and I did this bit at my monthly spinning group a couple of weeks ago. I've been meaning to show my progress ever since, but had the wheel packed away. This morning, though, I had a couple of friends here for coffee. They wanted to learn how to spin, so I dug the wheel and the drop spindles out to show them. So ta-dah, the beginnings of a bobbin of Cheviot yarn. :)

Now tell me, what do you think this is?



Any idea?

No?

I don't blame you! ;)  It's my big 'Red Canvas'. I occasionally paint - usually acrylics, although I've done some oils too. This is not for anyone but myself, so please don't think that I fancy myself an artist, but I enjoy painting and when I have time I occasionally work on a canvas. This one is fairly abstract, The idea came from a photograph, taken while D and I were on honeymoon in New England. I took a picture of my red silk skirt, fluttering in the wind while at the beach. It's this one:

This was years ago, mind, but I really like the picture and the abstract quality of it, and ever since I've been meaning to do something with it. It finally occurred to me that it might be a starting point for a fairly abstract painting. This is a big canvas, and I've only just done 2 layers, outlining the colours and the rough shape, so this is a long way off being finished, but we'll see how things go over the coming months...

Shared with:

A Year of Projects

Yarn Along

Keep Calm Craft On

WIP Wednesday - still in the middle of a crocheting frenzy...

This Scheepjes Mystery CAL, it's taking over my life! Seriously, I've not got round to any of my other projects because this is literally taking up all the free time I can muster. I've been crocheting during my lunch breaks, and when the kids are watching telly, when I'm waiting in the car or at the doctor's, when I need five minutes of peace, and every single evening. My poor Garter Yoke Cardi is languishing in its bag on top of the sofa, untouched. There is only one sleeve left to do so I should really push ahead with it, but this CAL, it's far too addictive.

I've finally finished the fourth pattern piece. See the little flowers in the middle? Aren't they adorable?

Because I missed last week I also didn't get round to showing off the pattern pieces for week three:

I actually think I found the week three pattern the most enjoyable so far. They were quick, and fun, and I did them in only a few days, which enabled me to catch up a little.

I'm still two weeks behind, though. Tonight I'm going to start on Week 5, but the pattern for Week 6 came out last Friday, so aaaaaahhhh, please stop the bus, I want to get off!! 

There is nothing for it, I will have to persevere!

Here are the pieces so far, in all their glory. :) 

Shared with:

A Year of Projects

Yarn Along

Keep Calm, Craft On

You know what is one of the most gratifying things for a knitter and crafter?

To see others develop an interest in fibres, and knitting, in crocheting, in creating things. Especially when those others are your children. 

These past few weeks boy #1, aka 'oldest', has been watching me crochet my Scheepjes CAL mystery blanket. Every time I start a new square he's commented, has made colour suggestions, has asked me to tell him about it, has asked me to teach him, has asked me to let him have a go. 

And I have taught him, and I have let him have a go. Admittedly, often I unravelled what he'd done as soon as he was out of the room, but most of the time it's not (anymore) because it's totally wrong but because it always shows in the stitch consistency if someone else picks up and continues your work. Plus, he still pulls quite a bit, which makes for massive loops. ;)

He is getting the hang of it, though, and a few days ago he even came up with his own pattern. I had taught him crochet chains and doubles and trebles, and he was up in his room in the evening, experimenting with that before bedtime. In the morning he came down and presented me with a necklace.

Apparently he'd been meaning to make a wrist band but ended up crocheting into the same stitch over and over. Maybe a slightly unorthodox way of creating a pattern, but a pattern it is, because he then set out to teach me how do make what he calls a 'Donut Necklace'. They really are quite pretty, aren't they? :)

Wednesday catch-up...

I can't believe it's been a week since I've last updated. These past couple of weeks have been sooo busy! And the changing of the clocks doesn't help much either. Nobody tells little children about daylight saving time! All the people we know who have no kids, or bigger kids rejoice about an hour longer in bed, while us, and everybody else with little ones, just has to make do with an hour less sleep every night, because of course you immediately adjust the time you go to bed to an hour later, but your kids will still be up at their usual time, which now isn't 6am but 5am. Oh, the joy!

Despite all the work and the lack of sleep, I've been knitting, though. And crocheting. Mainly the latter, actually. I'm still 2 pattern pieces behind. Actually, it's a bit more than that now, actually, so things are not exactly moving in the right direction! Still, I've nearly completed all the pieces for pattern piece 2 and the weird popcorn stitch. 

Once it's done it's not quite so bad, but it's still not my favourite pattern. I'm looking forward to pattern piece 4, which has a lovely flower in the middle of each square. Very cute. :)  

Other than that I've slowly making headway with the Garter Yoke cardi. I'm basically at the end of the first sleeve now, with just the cuff to go. I'm kind of bored with this now - while it makes great mindless knitting it's also quite dull to just knit stockinette in the round... Can't wait for it to be finished.

No progress at all on the Lombard Street Socks, mainly because I've forgotten it at work for the past week. That said, right now the crochet squares have replaced it as my small portable project. I'm determined to get this done before Christmas though! 

Shared with:

A Year of Projects

Yarn Along

Keep Calm Craft On

WIP Wednesday

Look what arrived last week:

It's the yarn for my Scheepjes Mystery CAL blanket!! I'm so excited!

Needless to say, I've been a little preoccupied. I only wish I wasn't so busy at work or I'd have crocheted far more. As it is I have at least completed the first part of the pattern - 6 squares. They are quite large, about 20cm x 20cm, so it took a while. I'm still very much behind (about 2 or 3 pattern pieces) because my yarn arrived so late. Hopefully I'll still manage to catch up, but if not there is an alternative November start date that I could join. 

This is the start of pattern piece 2. Popcorn stitches... So far I'm not entirely sold on this, but I'm sure it'll be fine when combined with the rest of the pattern pieces. 

In all the excitement I haven't quite forgotten about my Garter Yoke Cardi. It's coming on nicely - managed to do a few inches during Downton Abbey on Sunday night, so sleeve #1 is nearly done! :) 

 Shared with:

A Year of Projects

Yarn Along

Keep Calm Craft On

Hooking on Hump Day