Nearly finished the GAAA

The end of the aran afghan is finally in sight, all 24 blocks from the book have been knitted, I've even designed my own block too so I have a 5'x5' square , I'm now in the middle of sewing all the blocks together then its just the border left to do.
Its very snuggly, DS2 has already decided its his.


I'm determined to get this finished by next monday to show off to the knitting group at the library.

Spring stash dash update

Well, this is whats left of the Spring stashdash basket, I still have 2 1\2 x 400g balls of aran destined to be knitted into a Great Aran American afghan, 3 balls of wendy happy which will become mythos and a skein (now balled) of moondance which will be the mystery shawl from Wendyknits. The orange fluff is a fibre with mohair in, I'm aiming to spin a spindle full of fine yarn which will be plied on itself to hopefully produce a laceweight yarn.

This is what I've achieved from the basket so far since mid April

A cardigan in king cole mirage for Mums birthday, she says it fits perfectly 4 and a bit more squares for the Great Aran american afghan

I finished Kvothe, kitted in zauberball

And spun 5og of oatmeal BFL (front) and 20g of browngrey BFL (back)

Hopefully I dont get too distracted and manage to work my way through more of the basket.

Spring Stashdash

I decided to join in the Spring Stashdash taking part over at the Stash Knitdown group on Ravelry. The idea is you fill a basket with stash\ current projects and only work on those until the end of June.

Heres my basket with the planned knitting in it.

And it all spread out on the bed, theres a bit of fibre there too to spin with

So far I have finished the shawl at the left front (the orang and purple yarn) and knitted up 2 balls of the blue striped yarn,
I think I might swap the grey skein for another as I am going to knit my neice some socks for her birthday at the end of June.
Wonder how long it will take for me to get fed up with these projects, or whether I will see the bottom of the bin by the end of June.

Its been 6 months .. what have I been up to

Hi, since last blogging I completed the naknitmo challenge. I originally thought I could knit 30000 stitches in a month, I managed 68992.

Knowing I knit that much means theres no reason why my stash is as big as it it. I took pics for 'flash your stash' day on Rav at the start of April, I can just get it all squeezed onto a double bed

I decided at the start of the year to only buy more yarn if I could buy it in person, so made sure that I stocked up when away at Skipnorth in March. Some of this has now been knitted up

Naknitmo

Havent blogged for ages, but still been busy knitting. For the month of November I've signed up to Naknitmo, the idea is you set yourself a target number of stitches to knit during the month. you can up your target during the month but cannot decrease it.
I've set my target at 30,000 stitches to start, no idea if this will be easy to achieve or a struggle, time will tell.

The first project I'm working on this month is the lacy sweater from Adorable knits for Tiny Tots by Zoe Mellor, I knitted this 2 years ago for a friends wee girl but she has now outgrown it and her mum had requesed another in a bigger size. I'm using James C Brett Kool Cotton, purchased at Texere in March 2009 on the way to Skipnorth.

Will post progress pics and stitch totals later in the week.

Yes, I'm still here

Crocheted this christmas tree for the local library where I work as a relief library assistant, we have no spare plug sockets for a tree with lights. Its 7" high, and the lights are hama beads I also made some cranfords from the leftovers from my crochet jacket, these are too small for me but are now keeping a friends hands warm

These are 2 more strips I made for 'stitches on the bridge'

The scarf above is stolen moments

and I'm sure you all recognise clapotis.

I dont think I will manage to finish 12 sweaters this year, I've finished 4 more (photos soon) and have the sleeves to do on no 11 but been sidetracked by other knitting. I still have 10 more sweaters than I did this time last year (and my mum got one too). I still have plans to knit more sweaters next year but found being tied to one type of project too stifling.

Halfway through Nakniswemodo

Dont know if you remember back to the start of the year, but I set myself the challenge of making 12 sweaters this year, as part of the nakniswemodo (knit a sweater a month dodecathon) group on ravelry, the only rule being they had to be adult sized.I've now passed the halfway mark, this is a crochet cardi for me crocheted in Yarnyarn lochan, I got the main colour at woolfest last year and the purple contrast this year, the pattern is an old one from Me magazine (late 80's or early 90's) which was a jumper, I've adapted it to a cardi.

Sweater no 7, 8 and 9 are all on the needles and now the baby stuff is all finished (for now) I might manage to actually finish all 12 by the end of December

Bakewell tarts and skye bridge scarf

Crocheted these bakewell tarts for Rhymetime in Fort William library to use with the song '5 currant buns in a bakers shop'. They were used for the first time last week, the toddlers loved them so much that some tried to eat them.

This is a Broomstick crochet scarf for the stitches on the bridge project on Skye, I did a panel measuring 26cm x 200cm, hoping to go over to Skye for the day when all the panels are on the bridge, they will be up from 22nd to 26th October if anyones interested.

A to Z

Knitted this Alphabet blanket for my niece's bump, its due next month.

Also knitted this blanket buddy for the bump.

and crocheted this sun hat for a friends wee girl, she liked it so much she wore it Sunday and Monday even though there was no sun.

Not much knitting done this week as I have been helping with the Kilmallie free church holiday club doing crafts, the craft theme was the armour of God so plenty of swords, shields etc. We had around 100 kids each day who all seemed to have a great time.

Mums belated birthday present

Knitted in James C Brett marble, for my Mums Birthday. Made up pattern myself, based on various modular knitting techniques. Front view

Back view

baby bits and socks

Knitted this travel blanket and hat for my niece, she's having a baby boy in september, pattern is Sejia set from the happy hooker, yarn is James C Brett marble, shade MT2

Alos knitted more socks for my stepmup and stepniece. The top ones are knitted from the yarn I dyed with koolaid at Skipnorth , basic sock pattern, the bottom ones are knitted in Regia Kaffe Fasset mirage, shade earth and the pattern is Cafe Curtains

Rainbow Girls and tour de fleece

Been taking part in the Tour de Fleece over on Ravelry to coincide with the Tour de France

The fleece was the blue bag I got from Woolfest, its coming out at 20 WPI, it will probably be a shawl when its all spun.

I also made these wee dolls for the last day of Sunday school for me class of 3-5 yr olds. They all loved them, some were even named before church had finished.

The patterns Rainbow babies, a free pattern from Jean Greenhowes site, I adapted it to add a skirt, made the heads smaller and added hair.

Been busy knitting , I've nearly finished my 5th sweater of the year, just got to sew on buttons, and am now busy knitting baby stuff as my niece is having a baby in september.

Woolfest 09

Just spent 2 1/2 days in Cockermouth at Woolfest, helping Wyesue and Ambermoggie on the Kindred Knitters stall. Ambermoggie and Mr Mog had made shawls and swifts with profits going to charity, Wye sue had leaflets about shadow knitting and mitred squares with a donation to charity for the leaflet and there was a competition to guess the weight of a bear, with a skein of Laalbears laceweight as prize. £150 was raised, split equally betweem Medicine Sans Frontiers, sheep for Africa(woolfests chosen charity) and Ambermoggies local hospice.

I saw loads of people from blogland/ravelry, it was great to meet up with familiar faces and to meet new people and put faces to names too. Not going to mention everyone I saw as I know I will forget someone, but it you saw a plump person with greying curly hair, talking quickly in a Yorkshire accent on the Kindred knitters stall it was probably me.

Despite being on the stall for most of the time, I still found time to shop.

The black at the back is 5 balls of DK weight merino, the blue skein is Yarnyard toddy, the blue ball is sock yarn, the pale purple is Yarnyard Lochan, the dark purple is Knitwitches laceweight and the pinks is 200g of knitwitches cashmere/merino.

I also got fibre, a spindle and other oddments

The fibre is a bag of blue oddments from winghams, spindle is from
Whorl drop spindle, The big stick is a broomstick for broomstick crochet , bag is from ambermoggie and theres a sock keyring and some crochet hooks there too.

At the end of Saturday Wyesue and Ambermoggie both gave me things as a thankyou for helping out so much.

This is 2 skeins of Sues handspun, one with fish in it the other with bells, I think the fish one will become a bag (along with other yarn) the bells will either be part of a hat or a shawl edging.Ambermoggie gave me one of her lovely shawls, I'm sure I will get plenty of use out of it up here. Now hoping for this heatwave to end so I can snuggle into it.

Been busy

Computer went on the blink last month so it was away getting fixed but I have been busy knitting, here are my latest finished projects. Socks for my husband knitted in the Yarnyard sock wool I got last year at woolfest.

A hottie cover for my mum for mothers day, got the wol for this at the SECC craft show, its new lanark DK

Eerie from Rowan 43, in Kidsilk Spray, this was being knited into a spiders web shawl last year, but didnt like the way the yarn and pattern worked so frogged it and knitted it into this. It took just under 4 balls so very light to wear.

This is MS4 that I did the first half of last year, got the second half finished last month and grafted it when we were at my mums in the holidays (thats my mum doing the modelling)

This is a crochet hat I did on the train when I went down to glasgow for the SECC craft show, its adult sized but fits my son too so very versatile.

and just finished Hey Teach (from Knitty) in washed haze aran, this took 6 days from start to finish.

Now I'm dithering what to knit next so swatching for 3 different jumpers.

back from Skipnorth 09

I spent the weekend in Haworth at Skipnorth, with a large group of knitters. I went via Texere in Bradford and got this.

Its James C Brett Kool cotton, a ball of dishcloth cotton and 2 circular needles.

On the Friday at skipnorth we did workshops.

I dyed 2 skeins of yarn using Koolaid and also did some modular knitting.

Later on there was a yarn swap with donations to p/hop too. I got this.

I'm going to make a top for my friends wee girl out of this.

On Saturday we got on 2 coaches and went yarn shopping. First stop was coldspring mill just outside Haworth.

I got 900g of this yarn (3 skeins) so there should be enough to make a cardi or 2. It was £2 a skein but no label, though at that price I'm guessing its a high acrylic content.

Next stop was the Skep and a haberdashery shop in Leeds.

I got 4 balls of the blue/purple sock yarn, it will become a stole or cardi, a ball of the bright sock yarn and 5 balls of mohair.

After all this we went to the KCG just outside Holmfirth, we got to see examples of knitting from the early 1900's and then were let loose on the 1p a gram yarn mountain. I was very restrained and just got this.

Its 5 x 25g balls of 2ply pure new wool in a light grey shade, enough for a shawl.

That night I improved my spindling and learnt to andean ply,

This is my first plyed skein of yarn , its somewhere between DK and Aran in thickness.

On sunday we went to Winghams and boosted by my spinning I got some fibre, so now I have a fibre stash as well as a yarn stash.

The grey and black is merino, the aim is to spin it and knit a scarf and gloves in grey with a black edging.

The blue is a wee sample of merino silk blend, I got it so I can see how different it looks when spun and plied, it will probably look a lot different.

The stash is all safely stowed away at home now, I reckon theres enough here to keep me going until woolfest at least.

Skipnorth was great, it was lovely to meet loads of knitters and pick up hints and tips, a big thanks to Lixie and Nic for organising it all.

finally got some blocking done.

Finished Secret of the Stole III last autumn, finally got round to blocking it now, this was knitted in Lane Borgosia, shade denim, with seed beeds throughout the pattern

I also blocked the Goddess knits anniversary shawl which was finished just before the new year. I chose clue 1A, 2B, 3C and 4D

I have also been knitting Mystery stole 4 which I started last year, now only got 20 rows of clue 6 to knit plus the 2 sides to graft together,