Busy Being Retired

Ten weeks into my husband's retirement and we have settled into a lovely routine.  We potter around the house and garden, go for long country walks and watch a lot of sport on television.

We've been enjoying plenty of walks along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.  The canal is 127 miles long and this year there have been celebrations to mark 200 years since its completion.

Burscough

Lydiate

It really is a beautiful and peaceful place for a stroll.

And besides all this loveliness, I'm finding lots of time for knitting.

The past six weeks have flown by in terms of my knitting projects.  I've been joining in with a stranded knitting KAL with one of the groups I belong to on Ravelry.  I've put links to the relevant Ravelry project pages for each project.  Since chatting to you last time, and sharing my Fair Isle cardigan, I've completed my first ever pair of Fair Isle socks.

I can't believe I have put off knitting colourwork socks for so long, because I enjoyed knitting these so much.  I'm now busy browsing all the colour work sock patterns on Ravelry and I can't wait to start another pair.

I've also completed this cute Bumblebee Hat.

I was inspired by one of the other knitters from the Ravelry group to make this pattern.  She had had issues with the size of the hat, so I reconfigured it to match my favourite hat recipe, keeping the charts from the original pattern.

It was such a joy to knit and I couldn't put it down once I started.

So a very productive six weeks in terms of stash-busting.  For the four projects I finished for the KAL, I used 532g and 35 different colours in total, all in 4 ply weight.  Very satisfying.

And if that isn't enough, I knitted up a shawl with the Cuddlebums yarn I bought at Yarndale in September this year.

I love the little pops of colour in the pink background.  I used a favourite knitting pattern (it's free on Ravelry) called Age of Brass and Steam.  It's simple but very effective.

Lastly, I've been at the sewing machine again.  This time I made a simple skirt.

I used the skirt sections of my favourite Simplicity 2444 dress pattern and added a waistband.  I'm very happy with the fit and will be making more skirts like this in the future.  I would have liked to have shown you a picture of me wearing the skirt but to be honest, I don't trust my husband's photography skills!

I've recently bought two lots of new dress fabric and one lot of skirt fabric, however, I'm in the middle of decorating one of the bedrooms so crafty projects may have to take a backseat until the decorating is out of the way.  So until next time, I'm off to my pasting table to get suitable sticky.  Enjoy your week.

Make a List...

Isn't February flying by!  As usual I've set myself so many goals and targets, I'll be lucky if I get even half of them done.  I have so many knitting and crocheting projects on the go now that I need to stop creating new projects and concentrate on getting some finished.

So, obviously the first thing you do in this situation is draw up a list (I love lists).  I've split all the wips into three groups: short term, medium term and long term.  I maybe should have a fourth group called open ended but I'm not too worried about the long term projects at the moment.

For the medium term projects, shown in the baskets and bags above and taking up a significant amount of space in the living room, I have -
Eve's Fair Isle cardigan,
Grey cardigan for me,
Hansel Hap,
Leftie shawl,
Granny Square bag,
Aran Sophie blanket.

The last one is something I started earlier this week.  It's the Sophie's Universe blanket that I made last year, but using up my leftovers of Aran weight yarn.  It'll be a modified version, as there isn't that much yarn to work with.

So I'm hoping to get maybe two of these finished during the course of the next week - although I haven't decided which two to work on yet, so I'm flitting from one to another at the moment until I decide (which probably means that I won't get any of them finished!)

In the short term category I only have one project and that's my February socks.  I've been using my new basket for this project.

I've been asked by a number of you for instructions on how I make my basket liners, so I'll write up some notes and share them with you shortly.  But back to the socks, and at last  I have something finished to show you.

They are just plain vanilla socks, cuff down, using Regia 4 ply.

I love the colours, they remind me of the rows of lipstick testers on the cosmetics counter.

Full details of this project can be found on my Ravelry project page, here.

So now I'm going to sit down and work out which other projects I want to concentrate on and hopefully finish - before I get tempted to start something new!

Mini Sock Yarn Sweaters

Following on from my previous post, I'm pleased to say that the knitting pattern for my mini sock yarn sweaters has now been published on Ravelry. As with all my patterns, it is free for everyone.  

You can download the pattern direct from Ravelry and save it to your library.

You can also download the PDF without using Ravelry, HERE.

And I'm including the full pattern instructions in this post, below.

I hope that you find the pattern fun to make.  I'd love to see your finished objects on Ravelry.

Enjoy the pattern.

Mini Sweaters

These decorative sweaters are worked in one piece, top down.

You will need –

Approximately 5g of sock yarn

A set of 2.5 mm double pointed needles

A stitch marker to indicate the beginning of the round

A small amount of waste yarn to temporarily hold stitches

Abbreviations used -

st(s) – stitch(es)

DPN – double pointed needles

k – knit

p – purl

p2tog – purl two sts together

m1 – make one st by picking up the loop between the two sts and knitting into the back of it

inc – increase

RH – right hand

Instructions

Cast on 28 sts with 2.5 mm DPNs, join for knitting in the round.

Round 1: knit all sts

Round 2: purl all sts

Round 3: [inc round] (k1, m1, k7, m1, k1, m1, k5, m1) x 2. (36 sts)

Rounds 4 & 5: knit

Round 6: [inc round] (k1, m1, k9, m1, k1, m1, k7, m1) x 2. (44 sts)

Rounds 7 & 8: knit

Round 9: [inc round] (k1, m1, k11, m1, k1, m1, k9, m1)x 2. (52 sts)

Round 10: knit

Split for body and sleeves

Round 11: k15 (for the back of the sweater), cast on 4 sts, place the next 11 sts from RH needle onto waste yarn (first sleeve), k15 (for front of sweater), cast on 4 sts, place remaining 11 sts from RH needle onto waste yarn )for second sleeve).  (38 live sts for body, 2 x 11 sts on waste yarn for sleeves)

Redistribute the sts evenly over your needles.

Rounds 12 & 13: knit

Rounds 14: [inc round] k16, m1, k19, m1, k3. (40 sts)

Rounds 15 – 24: knit

Round 25 – 27: (k1, p1) to end.

Cast off in rib.

Sleeves

Place the 11 sts from the waste yarn onto 2.5mm DPNs and pick up 4 sts from underarms, distribute evenly over the needles ready to knit in the round.

Knit 15 rounds.

Round 16: (k1, p1) x 6, k1, p2tog. (14 sts)

Round 17: (k1, p1) to end.

Cast off in rib.

Repeat for other sleeve.

Tidy all loose ends. 

Finishing off the Year

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas.  It was wonderful having the girls back home, catching up and doing all the things we love doing together.  Eve has gone back to London now, but Grace and her boyfriend are still here for a few more days.

It's been a lazy few weeks and I've enjoyed plenty of knitting and crocheting time.

I knitted these mittens for the girls for Christmas.  They're lovely and snug.

Full details of the pattern (which is a free one) and the yarn used can be found here.

I also made some socks for my husband.

Full details of these, here.

I finished the crochet shawl I was making myself - another hot pink one!  I need to branch out into some new colours.

The yarn is gorgeous and soft and the pattern a nice easy one to work with.  Full details on Ravelry, here.

Grace and I cast on some socks on Christmas Eve.  I wanted to try something different than the usual recipe I use, so I made these toe up, using Judy's Magic Cast On, Fish Lips Kiss Heel and Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off for the cuff.

I love the colours in this yarn and I particularly enjoyed the toe up construction of the socks.  I will be using this recipe again when I cast on for January socks.  Full details of my socks can be seen here.

And my final project for 2015 was some more fingerless mittens.  No particular reason for making them apart from I love the colours in the yarn which was leftover from some socks Grace knitted me earlier in the year.

Full details of the project are here.

We have nothing planned for tonight.  A few beers and a cosy evening with hubby looking back over the year.

It has been a very good year.  Nothing sensational happened to me,  but I've been happy and busy and I finish this year on a contented note - the best way to end the year.

I have my jar crammed full of happy memories of the year and I'm looking forward to reading through them all this evening and reliving the happy times.

Whatever celebrations you have planned for tonight, I wish you a very happy New Year.  Here's to another jar full of memories for 2016.

Bold, Busy, Bright Block-a-month Blanket

Hurray!  It's finished!  My Block-a-month blanket.

My bold, bright and very busy blanket.

It certainly is colourful.  It has been fun trying to place the squares, in the end I decided it didn't really matter where they were placed, so I just got on and sewed them up.

I did a simple border of lemon then lipstick to.complete it.  I think the lipstick helps to bring it all together.

It has a certain jolliness about it that will make it a lovely blanket to snuggle under in the Winter.

Despite cutting the project short, the blanket is still a generous 52 inches square.  You can see full details of yarn colours and amounts used on my Ravelry page, here.

It's good to get that project out of the way, it was starting to become a bit of a chore.  I still have another CAL (the Circles of the Sun cushion cover) and a KAL (the Dancing Bees shawl) on the go.  They should both be completed by the end of the month.  I'm then looking forward to starting some new projects - I can't believe how disciplined I'm being at the moment.  Although, there are a few other CALs I have my eye on but I'm trying not to be tempted to start them yet.  For now I'm concentrating on catching up with the shawl knit-a-long whilst watching the golf in the evenings.  Hope you're having a good weekend.  Bye for now.

Crossing the Finishing Line

Congratulations to Chris Froome on winning his second Tour de France.  It's been a gruelling three weeks.  My stash busting KAL is now finished.  During the last three weeks I have completed 11 projects.  I used up 768 grams of yarn, which worked out at 1800 metres.  That's quite a hole in the stash pile.

The last project completed was these mittens made with chunky yarn, so a very quick knit.

I've enjoyed knitting up these projects from my leftover bits and pieces.  I've used yarn that's been lurking at the back of the cupboard for quite some time.  The Tour de France group on Ravelry has proven to be a great motivating force.  It would be a useful exercise to have another dedicated stash busting period at some point in the future.

For now though, I shall be glad to get back to my other wips.  They have been sadly neglected over the past three weeks.  I'm behind with all of my KALs and CALs (not to mention the housework!)  So it's going to be a catching up week.  Have fun whatever you're up to.  Bye for now.

Three Down, Not Many More to Go

I'm looking forward to starting some new projects shortly.  Today I can show you three more finished objects, hurray!

The first one is my socks for this month.

I just loved the colours in this sock yarn, so knitted up a pair of plain socks.

For these socks though, I tried a different heel style.  I used the Fish Kiss Lips heel which gives a lovely looking heel and a great fit.

I'll definitely be using this heel style again for my socks.  It looks so neat.

My second finished object is a little crocheted mat to sit inside my notebook basket.

It's just two-round grannies in random arrangement of colours with shell buttons sewn on.

I used join as you go for the second rounds, so it was a very quick make, but I think it adds a dash of colour to the basket.

Finally for today, I made a little doily.

It's crocheted using acrylic DK and is based on a doily I made many years ago.  I made this before I discovered Ravelry, so I have no record of where the pattern came from.  I just copied the original doily, which had been done in just one colour.  I think using the different colours brings out the details of the daisy quite nicely.

So that's it for today.  Won't be long now until I'm having another cast on party!