Not the modifications post

So, it turns out that I need to think more about the modifications I plan to make to cockatoo brae…expect that post later. Maybe a couple of weeks. Because…

I got more yarn! This has a plan. A very solid plan. Working out presents for my dad has always been awkward. So, this year I finally did the sensible thing, and asked him to pick from a small number(4) of scarf patterns. I offered:

1)A star wars double knit scarf. This one apparently was too busy for his tastes

2)Fellowship of the ring iconic scene scarf. I really thought that he’d like this one, but the fact that it’s sideways put him off

3) One ring scarf. This was a firm favourite, until I showed him the one that he did pick. I’m not quite sure why this one loses out to it but I must admit to being pleased. As well as already having knitted this, there is a LOT of stocking stitch. In the round. I’m not sure how long I could do that for!

4) Riders of Rohan scarf.(edited to provide correct link)This one won. I’m not sure exactly why, maybe he fancies himself a rider of Rohan in a different life…

I tried to not influence his decision at all (after all, I do want him to wear it!), however, I am happy that he chose this one. I haven’t knitted it before, and it seems interesting, but not too complicated. (I may do the star wars one for me later, just for the challenge…). I’ve never tried double knitting before, so I’m looking forward to giving it a go on something fairly straightforward 🙂

The problem is, I asked him what colours he wanted (homestly expecting the iconic green and white. How could he not want that???) to be told brown and brown. *sigh*. Well, he didn’t tell me, he showed me the shades he wanted from his current (shades of brown and brownesque) scarf. The first two shades he suggested were brown and a reddy brown almost exactly the same when viewed on greyscale…not going to happen. So then he suggested a sandy brown and a darker brown, which I agreed to.

Then came the hunt for the right yarn. I knew I wanted tweedy (I considered Rowan felted tweed DK but ditched it because of how expensive it would be…). I went around all the yarn shops in York (Ramshambles is closing if anyone reading this is also in York. They don’t have much left, but there may be a few nice things), and found this:

(The white is more off-white, something akin to cream). This met with my dad’s approval, and so the knitting can commence (this will delay the cockatoo brae plans more, but oh well. I think I need to spend more money and work out how to fudge dye lots for that one, so we’ll see…). I’m planning on using a 3mm needle, because I knit loosely, and double knitting is loose as well. My current projects are on 1.5mm needles and 2mm needles. This is going to feel large my conparison! Knitting can commence as soon as I find a set of 3mm needles (either straight or circular). If I have to go into town again to find a set, I will be rather annoyed…now, do I have any other needles than my interchangeables, and those that are being used already??? (And if so, where are they???)

Which one of those scarves would you have chosen? And why? If you have any alternatives from other fandoms, I’d also love to know about them. It’s too late for my dad though, he’s getting this one.

Back-stitching

I am constantly surprised by how much of a difference back stitching makes to a piece! I’ll look at a piece before back stitching, and wonder just how something coherent will come out of it! Sometimes I even wonder if I need new glasses, it seems to out of focus!

And then, I’ll do the back stitching, and it all comes slowly into focus!

Here are before and after pics of the back stitching for my dad’s card!

Tada! I think my dad will like it- he does a lot of gardening with my mum, especially over the summer!

I did it! I did it! (Well, sorta!)

So, I managed to finish all the back stitching for my housemates-leaving card:

Yay! She’s leaving today, so I must now remember to give it to her! I hope she likes it *fingers crossed*

I also was sorta on track for the mittens for my dad, but then I finished the first one, and it still seems rather small for my dad- it just fits my length of hands, and I will be very surprised if our hands are the same size. So, I’m going to give him the first one, and if it fits, I can easily whip out the next one this coming week and give it to him before I come back to York! Otherwise, I’ll have to get my big guns out and knit two new mittens in a week…(it’s packed, but there isn’t exactly a lot for you to see, anyway!)

 

And then last night, I suddenly realised that I had a half-finished pair of handwarmers to go with my mum’s cowl as a birthday present (not for over a month yet, but if they’re finished now they don’t need to go through the postal system!) so I pulled them out to finish. The plan was to just finish the thumb on one of the handwarmers, and then just start the ribbing so I have something easy but not mind-numbingly boring as socks to take on the train ride tomorrow… and then a few hours later I figured I might as well darn all the ends in! Oops…

I probably won’t get a chance to write a new post next Saturday, as I’m going back to Salisbury for my dad’s and my birthdays, so normal transmission should resume the week after 🙂

Ok, so clearly my knitting and cross stitch didn’t listen to me. I’ve been crafting up a storm, in between teaching and my maths! First off, I finished the second green sock, so I have another pair to wear

A friend of mine commented that I don’t have many pairs of matching socks, so I decided to make the next pair completely matchy-matchy. Therefore, I’m doing them two-at-a-time 🙂 They should be nice when they’re finished, but they’re just started now, and buried somewhere, so I don’t have a photo to show you.

I also wanted to do some cross stitch, but again, everything was wanting me to finish them (does anyone else get this? When I cross stitch, I *have* to be doing it because I like cross stitching, rather than I want the thing finished? I think it’s because I cross stitch very slowly (in my mind, I don’t know how fast I am in relation to anyone else!)) so I pulled out my butterfly from enchanted-needle, and worked on that.

Now I have the words, hearts and frame bit left, but I wasn’t in the mood to finish that after all of the changing threads for the main section, so I went back to OUAT. I don’t have a picture of that, but I’ve nearly finished April’s block- hopefully I’ll finish it this weekend, in time for May’s to come out!

Some more illicit stashing…

So, I may have ‘accidentally’ bought some more stash…

Having bought (and since started) the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery year-long Once Upon a Time sampler, obviously I needed to get the threads for it. And some of them needed changing (I want to do a different coloured border, and use variegated threads for some of it), and I wanted to get some more sock yarn (even though there is no way I’m going to run out any time soon…), and then I remembered that I want to make some coasters for my parents, so I thought I might as well get them then as well. So you see, it’s all totally sensible really… but yeah, I just need to get some sock yarn for my dad’s birthday present, and then I really am all set. Well, at least until I finish the next cross stitch project! Given that I’m working on 3, with the Cat Alphabet (and Spirit) in hibernation, I’ve got quite enough to be getting on with, I think.

Especially when you add in a sudden birthday on Tuesday which I need to make a card for (it’s too much effort going all the way into town!)This is what I’ll be doing this weekend, in between marking! It’s already coming along really well, I think. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to photograph decently, so you’ll have to wait for that. Hopefully when it’s finished I’ll be able to get the camera to focus on it properly!

But it hasn’t all been cross stitching (although it does feel like that sometimes!) Somehow I’ve managed to fit in enough knitting time to finish the first happy stripy sock, as I’m calling this pair, and start the next!

All my housemates are amazed that I’m doing something as large as the pokemon cross stitch I’m doing. They all think it’ll take me in the region of 30 years to finish…given how fast I’m stitching on it, that’s entirely possible! Hopefully I’ll be able to pick it up again, I really like how it’s stitching up, but birthday cards first! Maybe I’ll do a couple more so I have some ready… forward planning is always the way to go!

So, how’re all your crafty things coming along? Any last minute emergency things, or is everything plain sailing?

Wow, this has been a knitting-heavy week!

Well, I have been busy this week. I’ve finished a hat and handwarmer set (available for free on knitty, or ravelry). I actually finished them on Wednesday, but the knitting was done by Monday. I just needed to wait to pop into town to look for buttons. I have another 4 of these buttons, which will go on a kindle cover I’m planing on knitting in the same yarn and pattern. Matching accessories for the win!

 

You can also see the finished cowl now, as I’ve borrowed a friend’s camera. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to keep borrowing her’s until summer, but hey ho. The cowl is really snuggly, it’s wonderful 🙂 Rather than open it up to show you how large it is (it’s big. I think it ended up about 15 inches high!), I’ve just taken a photo of it neatly folded. It shows off the smooshiness and sparkliness better, I feel

I also finished a sock! Go me!

I’ve already started the next one, but since there isn’t much more than the toe at the moment, I didn’t bother taking a picture of that.

Although there has been more plain sock knitting going on 🙂

Please excuse the maths underneath it, I was alternating between the two today 🙂 Given that I’ve nearly finished turning the heel after 1 day, I think we can all guess how much maths was actually going on… 😛

 

There’s also been some swatch knitting going on. This yarn is Rowan tweed aran, which is wonderful to knit with, very snooshy 🙂 I’m slightly surprised just how loose my tension is- the pattern (Tempting, available on knitty) calls for 5.5mm needles, and I’m very slightly loose on 4mm! But hey ho, whatever works. The only thing I dislike about this yarn is how bad it smells while washing! But it’s totally worth it for the yarn 🙂

That brings me onto the (slightly naughty) stash enhancement which has been going on up here. Firstly, there was a skein of laceweight which I’m going to double up to make a Glitz shawl (available on knitty). Now, that of course means I need the beads to go with it, so I ordered those online. I’m looking forward to getting them (isn’t getting post such fun?), but that does mean there isn’t a picture of them yet. Unfortunately, I probably won’t start it anytime soon, anyway, just because I’ve got so much other stuff I want to make!

I also bought some more sock yarn whilst in town on Wednesday. I know, I really didn’t need to, but I walked into a yarn shop and it jumped at me and refused to let go. I’m thinking just a pair of plain socks in this, or maybe the jaywalker pattern that everyone loves…I’m thinking vanilla.

I did also order a set of nova 4mm tips for Tempting, and since paying postage for just a pair of knitting needles is silly, I also ordered another ball of sock yarn from that website too 🙂 Socks forever 🙂

The only downside I can see to all this knitting loveliness is that the cross stitching is suffering 😦 I can’t remember the last time I picked up a sewing needle, which is a bit of a shame…then I look at all the lovely things I’m knitting and feel better. If only it didn’t take so long to start! Maybe it’s something to concentrate on next week.

What stash enhancement have you done recently?

Socks socks SOCKS!

Aren’t socks wonderful things to knit? I am totally loving them at the moment. Well, that and I’m also working on a cowl for my mum’s birthday (I may be slightly ahead of myself here, it’s not until July!)

Currently I have two pairs of socks on the go, one for me, and another pair for a housemate, who spins. He gave me the yarn before Christmas! I may have gotten slightly side-tracked by Christmas and my top, and, and… well, anyway. The first sock is now finished, and wowsa it’s big!

Big sock indeed! It’s using the Hermione’s every day sock pattern, available on ravelry, and has 72 stitches in total! I’m looking forward to starting the second one, but got slightly sidetracked by a wonderful ball of Wendy Happy lying about, which has already become this…It’s actually got a bit of a ribbing pattern on the top (k3 p1), but that is hiding in the sock. When I’ve turned the heel I’ll show another picture of my wearing it for you. I’m totally loving this yarn- it’s a 75/25 mix of bamboo and nylon, which it really smooth and wonderful to knit with. Just to see the difference in sizing, I’ve got a photo of this sock on top of the giant sock I made James:

And I only have 2 more inches or thereabout before I start the heel! Massively smaller, and therefore quicker (mostly, I am using smaller needles too). I’m sure that if these socks are as smooshy to wear as they are to knit, I will be wanting lots of Wendy Happy yarn in the future for my socks, it’s divine!

And here’s a photo of my mum’s cowl:

It’s difficult to tell from this photo, but the yarn has a thread of sparkle running through. It’s an absolute dream to knit with, this yarn, too. It’s King Cole Glitz, and by smooshing it you really couldn’t tell that it’s 97% acrylic! It feels only slightly rougher than the bamboo I’m making the socks from!

Wow, I’ve been busy knitting! The only downside to which is that I haven’t done any cross stitch. But hey ho, I craft because I want to, so it’s all good. After all, who can be sad with hand-knit socks? Have you knit any socks recently?

 

I found my camera :)

So now you can all see the lovely photos of all the things I’ve been doing. Okay, so there’s only been two things. But still, it’s all lovely.

First off, I’m still working on my butterfly. I have a little over a week to finish it before Uni starts again properly, and I actually think I’m gonna make it…

That damned staring contest is really starting to get on my nerves…

The amount I have left to do took me about a week for the other side. This mean that I’ve squished 7 weeks work for the right hand side into 3 weeks work on the left hand side. and I don’t even like the left hand side! I much prefer working patterns left to right, which is crazy, because knitting charts are more often right to left than left to right… *shrugs* I’m not gonna complain, especially if it means this is ready before Uni starts, rather than having to be put onto a back burner until all my Christmas presents are done.

Yeah, I made the start of Uni (or the completion of my butterfly, whichever comes sooner…) the start date for Christmas presents. I’ve already got the threads I need for everything, and most of the other materials, I’d just really like to get the butterfly done first :). and it looks like it’s gonna happen, so *squeeeeeeeee

I did take a couple of days out to work on my Grandpa’s birthday card, since his birthday is at the beginning of October, and I think he’s going away, so I need to finish it up and get it in the post pronto!

This is what I sewed for him

My grandpa’s birthday card

The main fairy was really nice to do, and the backstitch wasn’t as painful as I thought it was going to be. I had to keep repeating to myself ‘backstitch is nice, backstitch is your friend’, especially when it got to the metallic thread for her wings and October, but it really worked! It probably helped that most of it was straight lines from one hole to another, rather than that randomness of ‘the thread will go through here, even though it’s about a third of the way up and some way along, so it’s really hard to make the lines line up’. There was a bit of that for her face, but even that was relatively nice. I really liked this fairy, and want to do the entire set now! And ideas on framing them???

Unfortunately, this has mean that I haven’t been doing any knitting :/, which really is a bit of a bummer. Hopefully I’ll be able to get into it soon, as a couple of my Christmas presents are knitted things rather than cross stitch, but I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see. Which means no knitting picture for you 😦

Well, I think that’s everything for now (isn’t cross stitch monogamy such a bore for all my readers 😛 ). I did see a wonderful idea for a cross stitch rotation, where each cross stitch piece was given a week, and then sent to the back of the queue again; is this a common thing? Or do people prefer working on one thing at a time, and being able to remember where you were up to? If you do work on more than one thing at a time, how do you remember where you’re up to, or is it just a skill that comes with time?

Okay, that is me done for now, probably talk to you all next Saturday, when (fingers crossed, eh?), my butterfly will be cross stitched, washed and de-wastefied. See ya then!

So. Much. Craftiness :)

So while I was away from home (and The Creature 🙂 ) for a while, I’ve kinda been offline. And then these last few days I’ve been inundated by a desire to create, rather than ramble about what I’ve created. With the upside of getting So. Much. Craftiness done, it’s amazing, but with the downside of not enough sleep, not getting on with the things I should be getting on with and generally not doing anything else at all. Which has been rather strange, but I think that’s all done now, and it’s out my system… hopefully, at any rate. But enough of that. Want to see what I’ve been up to? Of course you do 🙂

Firstly, I knitted a pair of slippers while I was away (in a day, but like, I knit fast 🙂 )

Made using Snowflake chunky yarn, two balls. I started them 4 times- wrong number of stitches (for the wrong size), wrong size, wrong number of stitches, then finally right:). I should’ve made the size down, but oh well

Then when I came back, I finished off my mum’s cards. There are 10 in total, 3 each in 2 designs, and 4 in the third design. They’re really great fun to make(when all the pricking’s done, at any rate!), and I’m kinda sorry that they’re finished :(. But I’ve got another set to make my next door neighbour for Christmas(different design), so it’s not all doom and gloom. Does anyone else feel sad when they finish a (fairly long) crafting project? It’s never happened to me with anything knitted (maybe because I haven’t really knitted anything big…)

Here are the other two designs sewn on

The tail was such a delight to sew. He is eating a nut, but it’s hard to see, even in real life

That toadstool was such good fun to make, I’m glad that this was the design that had 4 cards made of it!

Then I took a photo of all of them together, and I think that the set works really well. I really do love the attention to detail the form-a-lines team show in all their cards

Such a lovely set of cards to give me mum for her birthday 🙂

And, on top of all that, I’ve carried on making socks(I may have ruined a pair on the washing line…), but they haven’t been photographed (I was far too eager to get them on my feet!), so when I finish the next pair I’ll try to photograph them before putting them on!

I’ve also finished my aunt’s birthday present:

All that backstitch was slightly (okay, a lot) irritating, and I decided to not backstitch the word Magnolia on the bottom of it, just because I’d really had enough by then. But I think it looks pretty nice 🙂

So that’s where I’ve been the last few days. And when I haven’t been crafting, I’ve been organising all my crafting things, and finding lots of other things to do. Why is there never enough time in the day?

A new beginning for a new level of craftiness

When I was younger, I was rather crafty. Rather bad at it, but I gave it my all. But then big school happened, and the crafting fell by the wayside. Now this summer I’ve decided to get crafty again, and was really excited about this. However, no-one else seemed to be, so I decided to set up a blog to share my craftyness and hopefully meet some like-minded crafters to learn from (because, let’s face it, I haven’t exactly improved in my years away from crafting).

My desire to get crafty again sprang from knitting the Creature( more normally known as my sister) a pair of socks for her birthday. Okay, so I maybe lied a bit, I’m fairly good at knitting. Whilst knitting them, I was suddenly struck by ‘the sock bug’, which is impossible to describe to anyone who doesn’t have it.

The Creature’s birthday present

And after that there was no stopping the ball rolling. I’ve started cross-stitching, card sewing, and am thinking of learning crochet this summer, time allowing(which it probably won’t). Why is there never enough time to do everything you want to?

Speaking of time, I’ve got to go and finish tidying up my crafting things. See ya!