Flurry of FO's

The blogging may be intermittent but I have been knitting. And here's the proof. I finally finished my Blithe top from Kim Hargreaves book Nectar. It would have been finished a lot earlier except that I ran out of yarn. After a quick trawl through Ravelry, I found a few people with 1 skein in the stash. Before I knew it, a very kind soul offered me her skein for free. A few days later, 2 sleeves and neck edging were completed and I can finally wear my top for the summer weather we're having! You gotta love the kindness of knitters. They are the BEST!

I also managed to start and finish a little top for Keira. She had a birthday coming up and wanted a handknit something as part of her present pile. 2 weeks of effort later, I finished this cute little top for her. The pattern is Heidi from Yarn Forward magazine. Keira loved it so much, she wore it for 2 whole days.

Spring shoots

This is the second instalment from the Knit Love Club. Don't they look gorgeous. The yarn is Soft Strength from Brooklyn Handspun in Persephone. The pattern is Spring Shoots from Alice.


The socks look like any normal sock but they're constructed very differently. It involves knitting a tube for the foot, putting some lifelines and making a cut and unraveling the knitting to make an afterthought leg. Oooh - it was scary stuff, especially the cutting bit. The socks fit really well. There are some great tutorials on Cat Bordhi's website the subject. Go check it out!

Pinwheel Jacket

I've been on a bit of a finishing frenzy. I have so may unfinished items hanging around that I'm feeling swapped, pressured and unmotivated. So I decided to tackle some of them I started this baby pinwheel sweater over a year ago. It was almost finished - it needed 2 sleeves and some edging. A few nights of focused knitting and miraculously, it's now finished. Hopefully, Zoe will get a chance to wear it before she outgrows it.

New things for Spring

I love Spring. New starts, new beginnings, new shoots. I love the weather - just warm enough, but not too hot. I particularly love when the sun shines. It really motivates and inspires to spring clean and start afresh.
On the knitting/craft front, I've decided to focus on a few long standing WIPs and getting those done before starting anything new. I've finished a few jewellery projects and I'm working on those knits! Here's one necklace I made for a friends birthday. Turquoise nuggets, crystals on a chunky chain. Looks pretty good!

More FO's

Remember the cardigan and beret for Robynn from Purlescence, well I still had yarn leftover. So I decided to make something else for her. Here's the Little Sister Dress, well Tunic because there wasn't quite enough yarn for a dress. There's amazing yardage from 1 skein of the Fleece Artist Organic Wool. I love this yarn. The colours are great and the yarn is soft and squooshy. Really lovely.

Easter holiday

I've forgotten how reliant I am on the internet. We took a family holiday to Malaysia to visit family and to get a much needed fix of warmth and sunshine. While we were there we had no internet connection, for pretty much 2 whole weeks. I felt like I had lost all connection to the outside world. We had a great holiday, but I'm glad to be back home.

The one good thing about not having any internet connection was that I didn't waste time on Facebook, Ravelry, internet shopping, etc etc. I actually started and finished a few projects. Amazing - I know!! The first project is Haruni shawl, which I started on Day 2 of the holiday and finished on Day 14 of the holiday. The yarn is Sunshine yarns, Classic sock in Mother's Day colourway. It was an easy and yet interesting pattern. I love the leaves in the edging. However, beacuse the yardage was less than the recommended amount, I had 1 less repeat, so the shawl is slightly smaller than I would have liked. Having said that, I love it all the same.



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Knit Love Club

These socks are Rumpled by Alice (previously of Socktopus). The first installment of our sock club socks. The pattern is great, the yarn is yummy (if a bit splitty) and they're keeping my footsies nice and toasty.
You should wait and see the second installment of the sock club. Scary!!!

A hoodie

I've been thinking about knitting a hoodie for myself for a very long time. If you check out my queue on Ravelry, it's got quite a few hoodies on that list. My favs, in no particulare order:

Cardigan for Arwen
Vivian
Apres Surf Hoodie

However, I decided to cast on for the Heather Hoodie from Knitscene Fall 09. I started it in December and I finished it a few weeks ago. I've been wearing it without any closures. I thought I'd put toggles but I didn't like them. So I think I'm going to put in a zip. I just need the time to find one and take a deep breath to sew it in.

Apologies for the bad photos - they were taken by the 7 year old.

More handspun

Like a proud mummy, I'm showing off my handspun. This is what I've managed to spin over the last 3-4 weeks.
This is my latest handspun. 140g of BFL fibre dyed in pinks and purples. There's approximately 220 metres of yarn. This was my first lot of handspun on the wheel. I had approximately 80g of white undyed BFL and approximately 80g of orange, yellow mystery fibre ( I think it's also BFL but I can't be sure as it had no labels!)
This I showed off in the last post.


And finally, this is merino silk fibre which I had dyed in indigo at a natural dyeing workshop. I think theres 100g of fibre.

Adventures in Spinning

I have been a very busy trying out my new-found hobby. Spinning on a wheel - so much faster and easier than on a drop spindle. No - I haven't splurged and bought a new wheel, I borrowed a wheel from a friends who was travelling and will be moving house. I've had it for 3 and half weeks and I've been spinning practically every day. The first few days were soooo frustrating - I just couldn't do it. I perservered and voila! - It clicked and I've had a bit of success. So far I've managed to spin about 400g of fibre.

Here's one little example. The fibre is from LimeGreenJelly, which I bought ages ago.


And this is the end product! What shall I make with it??

Baby knitting

The lovely thing about knitting baby things - is that it takes almost no time at all (except when you screw up the sizing and have to reknit it again!!)

I knit this cardigan and beret set for Robynn of Purlescence for her daughter who's turning 1 soon. It's being modelled by Zoe. The cardigan is simple top down raglan with rolled neckline and hems with 2 rows of eyelets on the yoke and near the edges. I even found matching buttons in my button stash for the cardigan. The edges are 1x1 rib for 5 stitches. The cardigan is inspired by a cardigan from a Phildar magazine ( I need to hunt out the magazine number and a picture). The yarn is Fleece Artist Organic Wool in the colourway Flirt. It's really yummy to knit with (unless you have a wool allergy!)

Sparkly things always cheers me up

Apart from the knitting, I've also been making bits of jewellery in a bid to cheer myself up. Making and wearing sparkly things really does lift the spirits.

This is my amethyst and rose quartz necklace.
This one is made from mookite.This was made for Keira who chose the beads and had the vision/inspiration for the necklace. I was merely the maker.

Winter blues

I can't quite believe half the month of January has gone. One day it was New Year's Eve, next thing I know it's mid January. Where does the time go??

I think I'm suffering from the winter blues. We didn't go anywhere during the Christmas break and it has been cold, grey and snowy for the longest time in London. The only good thing about the cold weather is that it's encouraging me to knit again.

Just look at how grey and snowy everything is....

Somewhat belatedly - Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Ready for Christmas

I know it's nearly mid Dec but I have literally lost 2 weeks of my life. Kids have been really ill. I've been really ill. It's only now that I'm feeling like myself.

My major achievement this weekend - putting up the Christmas tree. It took about 2 hours because the children were helping me. Zoe insisted on carrying every breakable glass bauble and dropping quite a few but luckily not breaking any. Here's our tree in all its glory.

Little angel I made years ago.....Rudolf ornament
Angel
Beautiful bauble from Chicago