One of Those Days

The loss of my camera has put me out of sorts the last few days.  I don't know why it should but I don't seem to be able to get myself organised.

Thankfully, my darling husband has now picked up a lovely new camera for me.  Same make as the last one but a more up-to-date model.  I should be back on form again soon.

On Thursday, I had planned on a day out to Chester, as part of my birthday treat days.  I arrived at the train station, bought my ticket, and then found out that the train had been cancelled and subsequent trains were subject to delay!  Then it started pouring down with rain!

I got a refund on my ticket and went home - I thought I'd have a leisurely day at home instead.

Half an hour after returning home the rain stopped and it started to brighten up!  I then spent the next two hours cursing myself for giving into the weather so easily.

But you can't sit around feeling sorry for yourself and I needed to go to the bank, so I thought a walk would do me good.  It's a mile walk to the bank branch - a nice brisk energetic walk to blow away the cobwebs.  As soon as I arrived at the bank it started to pour with rain again!  I had a miserable walk back that didn't feel in the least bit brisk or energetic, just soggy!

Nothing for it but to grab a crochet hook and some zingy colours of yarn and make something to cheer me up.

So this is what I made, a lovely juicy-coloured liner for a basket that I can use for my works-in-progress.

I used Stylecraft Special DK in Pomegranate, Saffron, Cloud Blue, Turquoise and Shrimp.

I love the colour combination - it really cheered me up.

Now I have a jolly new basket for my WIPs and I still have a trip to Chester to look forward to - I'm going this coming week, whatever the weather!

Death of a Camera

Yesterday my camera ceased to work.  You don't realise how much you use something until it's no longer there.  I feel like I've lost a limb!

I use my camera every day.  It's not a fancy camera, just a very nice compact one.  It's been with me for a long time now (it was actually Grace's camera but I seem to have acquired it some years ago).

I can't function without my camera.  My only alternative is the Kindle I got for Christmas - and the quality on that is a bit iffy, especially as I tend to shake quite a bit.

It'll have to do for now, until I get a replacement.

Farewell dear camera - you were so loved!

Warm and Cosy

Last weekend at Grace's, I knitted a sock.  Grace is a recent convert to sock knitting and I love what she has been making, and especially the lovely sock yarns she has been buying.

I would have made the other sock straight after, but I got distracted with cardigan issues and the cast on party.

However, being a conscientious knitter (!), after the rush of excitement of casting on so many nice new things, I did cast on for the second sock.

And today it's finished.  These will be house socks, for lounging in!

The wool is worsted weight, leftover from the skirt I knitted a few months back.  The lovely thick yarn makes these socks lovely and toasty.

The thick yarn also made them a quick knit which is definitely good in my books.

The pattern is called Traveler Socks and it's by Diana Gates, a freebie download on Ravelry.  The sock is knitted toe-up, which I found quite interesting (I've only ever knitted one sock pattern before and that was quite some time ago).  You can read all about this project on my Ravelry page, here.

I followed the pattern as written, but I found the cast off stitches around the leg were rather tight.  I re-did the cast off using a sewn cast off.  This gave a much more elastic opening, but doesn't look very pretty.  I'll have to research sock knitting techniques.

I've so enjoyed knitting up these socks that I think I'll make some more.  I'd like to use proper sock yarn, there is so much choice available and the hand dyed yarns are so lovely.

I've already started browsing the yarn shops.  But before then, I've got rather a lot of unfinished wips to be getting on with.  Bye for now.

Bob the Bunny

Happy Valentine's Day to you all.  I hope you are having a good day.

Here's a little something I knitted up the other day.

His name is Bob and I think he's really cute.  He's three and a half inches from the top of his ears to his toes.

The pattern is a freebie, called Little Baby Bunny and it's by Justyna Kacprzak.  You can download the pattern,  here.

He didn't take long to make.  I used a small amount of Rowan fine tweed 4 ply for the Bunny, this gives a lovely tweedy fabric.  The jumper isn't part of the pattern but I thought he would nice with something to wear.  I knitted his jumper with a small amount of wool left over from my latest shawl.

I think he would make a lovely little gift for someone, just to say hello.

BAMCAL2015 February Squares

I had a lovely day yesterday, starting so many new projects.  Some will be fairly quick ones, others are going to take some time.  I'll show you the projects over the next few posts.

Today, I finally finished my February Squares for the Block-a-month crochet-a-long.

Last month I only joined this Ravelry group part way through the month, so I was not able to participate in the voting for the filler square.  This month I greatly enjoyed being part of the process.

The main square for February is this one.

It's called  Happy Hearts and it's by Chris Simon.  Very appropriate for Valentine's Day.

The filler square was this one.

Quite an interesting pattern to make.  It's called Fall Blossom and it's by Aurora Suominen

Finally the smaller square is called Corner Cluster 6" Square  by Lois Everett

As I did last month, I made four of these to equate in size to the large squares.

My squares are approximately ten inches in size.  I now have the equivalent of six large squares, so I already feel as though I'm well on my way to a finished blanket.

I can't wait for next month's squares.

Treats For Me

I've just got back in from a walk to the local charity shop, to drop off a bag of unwanteds.  Typically, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, I then bought a bagful of other people's unwanteds.

Fortunately, the bag coming home with me was smaller than the one I left with, so overall I managed to reduce the junk in our home.

Amongst my finds from the charity shop, I was lucky to pick up some vintage Ladybird books for only £2 each.

The garden flowers book dates back to 1960.

They really are gorgeous.

A trip to the charity shop, especially if I find some lovelies always puts me in a good mood.  Now that I'm happy knitting with the cardigan, I'm feeling especially jolly.  Another reason for jolliness is my approaching birthday.

Anyone who has been reading my blog over the years, will know that my birthday is the most important date in the entire year.  I start planning treats for myself as soon as Christmas is out of the way.  Now it is less than four weeks to my birthday, so the countdown steps up a gear.  I'll be putting myself on light duties soon, so that I can indulge myself!

In addition, I have nominated Thursday as an official day of rest for me, starting today.  Thursday is my favourite day of the week, I was born on a Thursday and nice things always seem to happen on that day of the week.  As a Thursday's child, I should have far to go, but as a home-loving introvert, it doesn't apply to me.

I've made some scrumptious cakes.

They're called doffins, a cross between a donut and a muffin!  I found the recipe in an old Asda magazine when I was decluttering my recipes.  I was unsure how they would turn out, but they are lovely, quite a pleasant surprise.

Anyway, as a treat this afternoon, and as the knitting is going well, I'm going to have a cast-on party.  I'm going to go wild and cast on all the projects I've been wanting to make in the last few weeks.

It's going to be a fun afternoon - am I a little strange in finding this exciting?

I'll let you know how it goes.  Happy knitting to you.

Why?

I'm sitting in the pub with the football on the television.

Chelsea have just beaten Everton 1 - 0.  Why didn't I bring my knitting?

Que Sera Sera

Having had such a great weekend in Sheffield with Grace, knitting away to our hearts content, I came away with plenty more patterns I want to make.  So being keen to get started but also applying the discipline of finish first, start second, I picked up the needles on my Miette cardigan again.

I spent a productive evening on the sleeves, feeling that I was making excellent progress.

Then, the next day, I tried on what I had knitted so far and I knew, I just knew, I was never going to love the Miette cardigan.

I tried so hard to love it, I've been wanting to knit this for so long.  I've really appreciated all the encouraging comments you have posted.  I'd especially like to thank Caz for her one woman cheerleading.  But sadly,  I have to be honest with myself, there is no point in persevering with the project because it'll never be right.

Here's a final couple of photos of the ill fated cardigan before it is frogged.

It was tempting to put the wool to one side and do something entirely different, but I can't work like that.  I so want to make a cardigan with this wool, and sooner rather than later.

So, the good news is, I've found another pattern and I'm loving knitting it up and it's growing nicely.

Here's the pattern picture.

The pattern is called, rather appropriately, Que Sera, and it's by Kirsten Kapur.

Here's what I've knitted so far.

The textured pattern makes it lovely and squidgy.  This cardigan will be a looser fit than the Miette would have been.  It's also a much longer length.

So, in future I'm making sure I feel totally happy with my projects rather than putting myself under pressure to try something new.  I'm off now to do some happy knitting.  Be back soon.

knitting and Nattering

We had a lovely weekend in Sheffield with Grace.  I do so enjoy our knit and natter meet ups.

 

I knitted up the sweater for Mr Bakery Bear and so he is all finished.

We took a photo of three bears, my two and Grace's, before we made the sweaters together.

And here they all are, fully dressed.

As always Grace didn't need much help mastering the cables pattern.  In return she instructed me on Kitchener stitch.  I came away with a diagram of how it's done so hopefully I'll get it right next time I try.

We had a great day out at Weston Park, visiting the museum.

Me with Snowy the polar bear

Here in Liverpool we haven't had any significant snow (I think it snowed for about quarter of an hour once but didn't stick) so, on our journey to Sheffield, it was quite a sight to see the Penines looking so wintery.

Grace and I got plenty of knitting done over the course of the weekend.  We knitted together whilst watching an old favourite film, Van Helsing!  I've started some socks, more portable than taking the cardigan with me.  I'll have to put them to one side for now whilst I finish the Miette cardigan, I've fallen out of love with it again but I'm hoping our love - hate relationship will reverse again when it's done.

I hope you all had a good weekend.   Bye for now.

Sunny Days and Happy Knitting

What sunny days we have had lately, very cold, but lovely clear blue sunny skies.  I ventured out into the garden for the first time this year and had an enjoyable time pottering around tidying up and marvelling at the multitude of tiny shoots bursting through the soil, getting ready to fill the garden with colour, despite my uselessness as a gardener.  Isn't nature wonderful?

I won't show you any pictures of the garden - it's not something I'm good at, I just about manage to keep it tidy [2015 Resolution - do more gardening!].  Instead I'll bring you up-to-date with my WIPs.
 
When I'm having a crafting session, I like to sit on the floor, on my lovely floor cushions and spread everything out around me.  I like to alternate between the various WIPs so that I feel I've made some progress on all of them.

I've been working on my crochet blocks for the BAM CAL 2015.  I'll do a separate post on this month's blocks shortly, but I also made three more small squares to add to the January blocks.

I decided to do two colourways and do two of each so that the four small squares would be the equivalent of one of the big ones.

I'm still working on the Miette cardigan.

I'm on the sleeves now.  I've been having to use DPNs but my preferred method of knitting in the round is to use two long circular needles.  I only had one circular in the size I needed until yesterday when I popped into town and bought another one - should move along a bit quicker now.

Finally I'm making another bear.

Grace bought me the Mrs Bakery Bear pattern for Christmas and then she bought the Mr Bakery Bear for herself.  She sent me a copy so we're both making him.

Grace has finished hers (which is called Rufus) and is just waiting for me to show her how to do the cabling for the sweater.

I've only got one arm and the sewing together to do.  I should get his shorts done before I see Grace, so we can have a nice knitting session together working on the sweater.

In return for showing her how to cable, she is going to show me how to do Kitchener stitch properly.  For some reason I can't get my head round it - I understand the logic, but can't quite pull it off.  I love it when we have our knit and natter sessions.

I'm at that lovely stage now where I can see the finish for the two knitting projects, so I'm already thinking ahead and browsing new patterns on Ravelry.  The sun is still shining and the knitting is good.  I hope you are enjoying your day.  See you soon.

Knitting Update

Have I stopped dithering?  I think so!

I tried re-writing the Miette pattern for bottom-up, but it was far too complicated.

I even started the Searing pattern.

But got so far and decided it wasn't making me feel any better.

So I gave it a few days and then picked up the Miette again.  I made it past the armholes, which gave me the opportunity to try it on.

And, hey, it's not a bad fit on the shoulders.  The sleeves look a bit wide, but that should change when I start knitting down.

So I'm knitting away now.  I'm feeling more confident about the pattern.  In fact I'm actually enjoying this top-down knitting (probably not a full convert, but I haven't written it off completely).

I've almost finished the body, it grows ever so quickly once you're past the armholes.

So far so good.  I'm not the adventurous type, but sometimes it's good to step out of your comfort zone, even if it's only knitting we're talking about!

Little House

To take my mind off my knitting dilemma, I had fun the other day painting this little house.

Yellow and pink my favourites.

It started out as a plain brown house-shaped box.

Inspiration came from Pinterest, these lovely ceramic houses by Flossy Teacake.

So I gave my house a coat of white paint.

I drew on the door and window frames.

Then I dug out some old cans of emulsion paint and set to work.

I used little squares of acetate to cover the windows and a piece of painted card for the door.

And I'm very pleased with the result.