Anyway, as I've said, I'm aiming for a pretty short update this time, just a whistle-stop tour of the regulars. It has to be done though, I've got a weekend break to Bletchely Park and its surroundings, and a week in Cornwall coming up very soon, so if I'm not going to become overwhelmed with holiday knitting and souvenirs of both yarn and penguin variety, then I need to be up to date before I go.
WIPs
This bit is actually pretty easy right now, because almost everything I've been working on for ages has either been a pattern test, or a commission!
So first of all we have 1 of a pair of "Puttees", or military leg-wraps for my very tall friend. Not the most exciting thing to look at I guess, and I'm a bit annoyed that I couldn't get the pair finished before this weekend, but I'm assured that there is no rush. It's just me wanting to get "work" finished before going on holiday mostly! The second puttee is on the needles, but it will now be on hold for a few weeks until I get back to real life again.
There isn't really a pattern, just a very, very long strip of stockinette, tapered at the end to a 4 stitch i-cord for securing in place. The yarn used is King Cole Giza, which is a cotton 4-ply.
The pattern is Star Pattern, by Rachel Murray, and the yarn is Rico Essentials Merino DK, in the colourway "Patina".
And last on the list of active WIPs is this basic granny square blanket. Yes, it's crochet, but I'm enjoying it, and I'm pleased with how it's turning out. I've mostly been using the left over yarn from the many hats I've been making recently, but for some reason that seems to be resulting in a lot of grey and green squares. So I've also bought a few odd balls of more colourful yarn to go with them. After all, I am going to need 100 squares in total, I can't expect to make them all up from scraps!
Finished Objects
I was working on this one when I last wrote an update I think. This was a test knit for my Beginner Beanie pattern tutorial.
I'm pleased to say that the pattern is now available here, for free. The yarn used for this version was Juniper Moon Findley DK Dappled, in Grey.
I've also finished a selection of test knits for another pattern that I'm hoping to release at some point. All of the next 3 hats use the same pattern, but in different ways, to create several different effects.
The first is knit in Countess Ablaze Grand Merino DK, in the Limited Edition colourway "In league with his mother to rule".
This version is made with Rosie's Moments Merino DK, in the colourway "Emerald Isle".
Finally, my personal favourite, made using Countess Ablaze Lord of Silk DK, in the colourway "Beautiful People".
As before, the pattern is Star Pattern, by Rachel Murray, and the yarn is Rico Essentials Merino DK, in the colourway "Blau", held double with a strand of King Cole Cosmos, in the colourway "Starburst".
More hats! Who'd have expected that?! These ones were supposed to be knitted during a group Knit-a-long session as part of "Life: A festival of health from head to toe". The event was called "100 hats for 100 babies", and planned to create 100 hats for premature babies in one day. Sadly, I was suffering badly that day, and didn't make it to the event in the end. I don't think they minded, they still managed to make over 300 baby hats! As well as blankets and cardigans too! I still made a couple of the hats though, and I'll be sending them off to the premature baby ward as soon as I can.
The pattern for these was given on the event page, although I did adapt it for knitting in the round. The yarn I used was King Cole Baby 4-ply, in white.
Finally, something a little silly. A friend shared this pattern with me on April 25th, as that is International Penguin Awareness Day. Within an hour I had made my own version, without ever needing to move more than 5 steps from where I was sat when I first saw the pattern too! I included the crochet hook (4mm) for scale, so you can see just how tiny this dude actually is!
The pattern is Teeny Penguin, by Amanda Berry, and I used scraps of leftover merino DK to make mine. Oh, and I used yellow felt for his beak, because yellow embroidery thread was the one thing I didn't have in the same room as me!
Oh! Wait! Not finally! I do have another finished object, it's just that it's not knitting or crochet, it's spinning! I finally plied the singles that I spun back in the autumn, and created this beauty.
The fibre was 100% Southdown, dyed by Countess Ablaze, in the colouway "Spreads news among people".
Stash Acquisition
Here, of course, we have the obligatory Countess Ablaze additions:
These were from the final installment of the Odyssey Trail. 2 skeins of Lord of Silk DK, in the colourway "So spoke Athene".
These are both The Bluefaced Baron 4-ply, in the colourways "Only when invited", and "The new normal".
From the penultimate Odyssey Trail update, these are also all The Bluefaced Baron. 1 skein is "Bring me brimstone, Old dame", and the other 2 are "My spirit tells me to speak out".
I've been admiring the work of Penguin Soup from afar for quite a while now, but I've managed to resist buying because of the shipping costs. However, when I saw this sparkly laceweight I couldn't resist any longer. The 4-ply may have accidentally slipped into my basket too. Even though I probably chose the worst time ever with the British Pound at an incredible low, it was still worth it. Ginny is lovely, and she was very understanding when I either had a massive brain fog moment, or a technical malfunction, we're still not sure which, and ordered a worsted yarn instead of the laceweight. She sorted it all out for me, and even sent me a mini skein of lovely arctic blues, some stitch markers, and a Storm Trooper cookie cutter with my order! How cool is that?!?
This is Fairy Sock, in he colourway "Major", and Tuxedo Lace, in the colourway "April Showers".
Having introduced my lovely friend Heather to the joys of knitting, I've also had the joy of visiting a couple of local yarn emporiums with her. Just because I'm there to introduce a friend doesn't mean I can't pick up a little something for myself too, right?
At least at Craftastic all I picked up was one skein of Wendy Merino DK, a handful of wooden buttons that will be perfect for children, and some beads. I did have a £10 loyalty card to cash in that day too though!
These all have a purpose too. The boys have been playing a computer game called Division, and while fighting valiantly in pox-infected, post-apocalyptic streets, they also seem to spend an awful lot of time collecting knitwear. Especially scandi style bobble hats. So I've bought the yarn required to knit 2 scandi pattern bobble hats for them to use in real life.
These are all King Cole Merino Blend DK, and the colourways are "French Navy", "Slate Blue", and "Beige".
For reasons involving decopatch, I had to visit Hobbycraft. Somehow I couldn't just walk past all that 3 for 2 yarn...
So as well as decopatch papers, and something else that you'll see later, I left with 2 balls of DMC Creative World Woolly, in the imaginatively named colours "062", and "074", and a ball of Regia sock yarn in the amazing "05560", which as you can see, is a LOT more exciting than it sounds!
Speckles are where it's at right now in the world of yarn. But also in my case, purple and turquoise, and a matching crochet hook! I picked this up in the Yarny Love sale, it's a sparkly merino sock yarn, in the colourway "Watercolours".
The weekend before last I went up North to visit the family. While I was there I made the unusual decision to go for a drive along the coast on my own, and just happened to find a couple of yarn shops that I'd never visited before...
I was feeling far less flush with cash during this visit, so I kept my purchases to what I consider to be a polite minimum.
In The Wool Works, I found a colourway of King Cole Zigzag that I'd never seen before called "Crush", and this yummy Adriafil Knitcol, which is shade "071".
I could have stayed in Ringarosie all day! Lovely to chat and meet more of the Knitting Illuminati as Stephen calls us, and I can't wait to see some of the hand-painted yarn that Rosie herself dyes, but sadly didn't have any left when I was there. Probably just as well considering the state of my finances to be fair!
Instead I picked up this lovely dark rainbow barber pole spun Regia, colourway "04067", and 2 more little baby Regia balls for my collection. I even stood in the shop checking Ravelry on my phone to find which colourways I didn't already have!
Finally, today I popped into Craftastic to let the girls know that I won't be around for Yarn Shop Day this weekend, as I'll be down South with Stephen instead (Although I may have researched yarn shops near Bletchley Park, just in case!)
I also wanted to get a couple of brightly coloured DK yarns for the crochet blanket, and these seemed to fit the bill quite nicely. Stylecraft Cabaret, in "Aurora", and "Ocean", plus a few more pretty wooden buttons.
Some other things
While I'm here, I thought you all might like to see some of the things that my very talented Daddy has been making for me to sell on my Etsy shop. I won't get them listed this week, but hopefully they'll go on next week when I get back.
These are hand carved wooden or bone yarn needles, perfect for nalebinding, or living history projects. There are also some stitch markers he's made, either really tiny, perfect for fine lace work, or socks. Or lovely, chunky, industrial looking rings that I might just keep for myself!
Just to add a little bit more Yarn Porn, these are the yummy yarn cakes that I've wound today for my holiday knitting. Yay for holidays and selfish knitting projects!
Penguins
So earlier on I mentioned decopatch. You may already have noticed the pretty decopatched head model that I've been using to display hats. While looking at papers for that project, I accidentally bought a cardboard penguin, then apparently flayed him. He's really not a penguin who has been skinned alive, he's just covered in pretty pictures of roses.
This is one of the stitch markers sent by Ginny of Penguin Soup. He's so tiny, and so cute!
I confess to being a geek, and having many geeky friends. I have indeed been known to roll the odd multi-faceted random number generator or 10 when pretending to be an elf, or a vampire, or Twi'lek. One of my friends saw this at a gamescon, and I love him because he bought one for me.
Kelly has been on an epic spring cleaning spree for the last week or so. While clearing out a large cupboard that we had feared to enter for some years, he found this fellow. How could I own this gorgeous penguin, and not even be aware of it?! How could I forget that I owned him, or even whence his origins?!?! Whatever the case may be, he has now been rescued, and is safely ensconced with his brethren.
Kelly also found these patches during his mad tidying. Now I have to decide which knitting bag to put them on!
Oh my, so much for "quick"! I've been at this for 3 hours now, not counting the photography time!
I do believe that has to be all for now. I need to pack, and get some sleep! Laters my darlings.
