The first is all the regulars, and even though it's only been a little over 5 weeks, you'll see that I've been a busy bee! Definitely some progress on the WIP-down effort, however, also a certain amount of undoing my own good work, by casting on yet more new projects...
FO's
This is my daddy :) Of course he can't just pose normally for a photograph!
Last time I'd only just cast on the hat from this set, so you could't really see just how lovely it was going to be. Dad was warned that one of his chemo drugs would make him especially sensitive to the cold, so a nice, warm, woolly hat and scarf were recommended. Of course the first thing I did was take him to a yarn shop to choose the yarn for these things. By the end of his first session I'd already finished the hat, and by the start of the second session the scarf was ready too - all 6 foot of it! Dad definitely likes both the hat and scarf, but he doesn't actually wear them all that often, because although the first chemo drug they give him does indeed make him sensitive to the cold, the second one makes him hot and sweaty, so by the time we leave the hospital with drug number 3 installed on it's 48 hour pump, dad is usually boiling hot and grateful of the cold early spring breeze!
The solid colour on both of these is Wendy Pixile, in the colourway 3376, and the variegated yarn is Stylecraft Life Vintage Look, in the colourway Indigo. The hat pattern is adapted from Irish Hiking hat by Blackhorse, and the scarf uses the cable pattern from the hat for the contrasting panels at each end, but the rest of the scarf is simply worked in 2&2 rib.
I'm very annoyed with myself about these, and not just because the photo is especially awful. Believe it or not, these are actually green! But I specifically wrote in my project notes that I would be doubling the length of the cuff, because I don't like that cold air gap you sometimes get if your sleeve pulls up a bit. On the first glove, I doubled the length of the cuff, as intended. Then I took a break in order to get Christmas knitting done, and forgot about doubling the length of the cuff when I made the second glove. Of course I didn't notice this until I'd already knit 3 of the fingers, and by that point I just wanted the project to be finished. I couldn't face ripping back. So these gloves don't actually match, and there is potential for a draught up my right sleeve, although to be fair, when I do have my coat on, you can't see that there's any difference.
I think if I were to knit this pattern again, then I'd not only ensure that the length of the cuffs matched, but I'd also work the entire cable pattern through the back loop. I think that would give it much better definition.
The yarn for these was handspun by Emstead Leicester Longwools, and the colourway is "Enchanted Forest". The pattern is Wood Elves Gloves by Christelle Nihoul.
These are incredibly addictive! I'd only intended on knitting 3 to begin with, but in the end I think I made 8. 5 went to the Oncology Day Unit at Rake Lane, along with a 6th that was made by Yasmin. The ODU has the Owl as their mascot, and the day that I knit the last couple of these while sat in there I received a lot of interest in what I was doing! The very first one that I made ended up being claimed by my eldest niece, because she thought it was so cute, and once I'd made the ones I gave to the ODU, a few of my friends commented that they would like one, so I made one for an Owl-o-phile (Is that even a word? Remind me to look up the proper terminology for this phenomenon once I have internet access again! - edit: I looked this up, and couldn't find the proper term easily) and I made one for another friend to give as a gift.
All of these owls were made using scraps of DK yarn left over from other projects, and any DK yarn will work. I bought glue dots to secure the felt eyes and beak, and used tiny buttons for the irises. The pattern is Owl Puffs by Jenna Krupar.
Every year Innocent runs this charity drive in aid of Age UK by putting tiny hats on their smoothie bottles, and every one that is sold results in a 25p donation to the charity. Although a few of my friends have done this before, I never have, but I had all of these little bits of DK left over from making owls, and squares, and preemie items, just when the knitting magazines started publishing patterns for the tiny hats. It only seemed logical that I make a few! I actually made 10 in total, and Yasmin made another 6. I've just packaged them up to send off today.
The pattern that I used came from the March issue of Let's Knit magazine, where there are also charts for some of those little fairisle type patterns. But there are also patterns available in other knitting magazines, and on the Big Knit website.
Technically this isn't really finished, because it hasn't been blocked yet, but that's something that I'll be talking about in my next update, and has been delayed deliberately for Reasons. The knitting part is all done though, and at present this is 5' 6" of super simple lace and cables patterned scarf. Even though it's completely the wrong time of year to be releasing scarf patterns, I hope to have the pattern for this ready for release within the next month, complete with tutorial notes for those learning lace and/or cables for the first time.
The yarn I used for this is Sublime Lustrous Extra Fine Merino DK, in the colourway "Inkling".
As you can see, that's great work for just one month, at least for me it is. 2 projects that were on my long-term WIP-down list, 2 great stash-busting projects, and 2 really useful items for someone I love!
So I ended February feeling accomplished, and ready to tackle some more of those old WIPs...
WIPs
Then I started working on these again. Nothing but the deepest of friendships could have kept these on my active project list. As you can see, I still haven't taken a new photo, because this is still the most exciting photo I can imagine of this project, with the exception of the point at which there are TWO complete leg puttees to photograph together. The second one is about half way finished, and I have added about another 6 inches to it over the last couple of weeks, but neither my hands, nor my brain are enamoured of this project, so I tend to do a couple of inches at a time, then put it down for a few days. It WILL get finished, just slowly, and not as my primary focus.
These have no pattern, they are simple stockinette for roughly 2.5m, followed by regular decreases down to 4 stitches, then about 50cm of i-cord. The yarn is King Cole Giza, in the colourway Grey.
I've been asked by a friend to create a hand muff for her grandmother. At first I thought this would be the quickest, and easiest of commissions, but then I thought about it more carefully, and realised that just 1 layer probably wouldn't be warm enough. So I'm using 2 colours of super fluffy yarn and the double knitting technique to create an extra thick, soft, and warm fabric for this muff. This has the added advantage of making it reversible! So one side is pale blue, the other is white, with loose green cuffs to ensure that no cold draughts sneak through.
I'm not using any particular pattern for this, although I may write it up later if people seem interested. The yarns that I'm using are; King Cole Smooth dk, in the colourway 887, and King Cole Cuddles Chunky, in the colourways "White", and "Sky".
These are sort of progress towards a long-term WIP, but it is a WIP that I'd classified as "So long-term I'm not going to try to finish it this year". These are crochet squares for my Memory Blanket.
These are just your basic 7" granny squares, and the yarn is Lousa Harding Cassia Prints, in the colourway "Feisty".
Another square, for another blanket. Originally I started making squares to be sent to Shetland for charity blankets, but because I couldn't get to Shetland myself, I couldn't take them along, so instead I'm slowly making more squares to sew into my own charity blanket. This project lives at Stephen's house, so I'm only getting to work on it for a day or 2 once every couple of weeks right now. Even that should be enough to finish a full blanket by the end of the year.
Each square will be knit in whatever pattern I feel like doing at the time, so this one is just garter stitch worked from corner to corner. This particular square is actually made from Trish's left over yarn, and there was no ball-band, so other than it being DK, I have no idea what it is!
This was a pure compulsion to cast on some socks, just because it's what I felt like knitting at the time. Socks are also perfect train knitting, and I really didn't want to be working on the leg wraps while crammed into a crowded carriage.
I'm not even sure that I really use a pattern for my own socks any more, but I guess the closest is probably A Nice Ribbed Sock by Glenna C, and the yarn is King Cole ZigZag in the colourway "Bilberry Pie".
I'm not actually sure if I'm allowed to say exactly what all of this is for! So I'll settle for these are part of my contribution for a group yarn bombing project, and I very much look forward to being able to share photos of the final installation.
The hearts and flowers are all crocheted off the top of my head, and the one square that I've made so far is a simple checker board pattern. The flowers are all made using King Cole Flash DK in the colourway "Fruit Salad", the hearts and square are made from The Women's Institute Premium Acrylic, in the colourways "Light Purple", and "Yellow".
For reasons that will be fully explained in my next update, I'm doing quite a bit of spinning at the moment, and this is one of the projects that I have on the go. I'm intending it to be a true 3-ply, gradient yarn.
The fibre I'm using is 100% Merino, dyed by Countess Ablaze, in the colourway "Attack".
This one will be a chain-plied 3-ply yarn, and quite unusually light for me, but I just loved the sparkle, and the really subtle colouring.
The fibre is a blend of Cheviot, and trilobal Nylon, dyed in Northumberland by Sue's Crafts, in the colourway "Cherry Blossom".
Errm... I think I might just have too much on the go right now!
Stash acquisition
I'm starting my stash section with this, because these are my reward for backing a kickstarter campaign last year. Isobel of Izzy Lane keeps the UK's largest slaughter-free flock, and last year she decided to start producing yarn from that flock. I have to admit, I'd expected the yarn to be a bit on the 'rustic' side, given many of the sheep are older, and a mixture of british breeds, which usually aren't known for the softness of their wool. However, this is actually a rather lovely, soft, and quite bouncy yarn. I'm really looking forward to knitting with it.
The yarn is 100% wool 4-ply, and the colourways I have are "Forest Green", and "Natural Grey".
This was very naughty. I did want a skein of this colourway at some point, but I had intended on waiting until I'm not spending the vast majority of my expendable income on train fares. However Jillian regularly runs giveaways on Instagram, usually scrummy yarn, tasty tea, and a pretty project bag. This particular giveaway included a penguin patterned project bag. Now you get one entry for sharing the post, but you can get additional entries by buying yarn and/or stitch markers with the giveaway code. I was determined to maximise my chances of winning that project bag, but sadly I wasn't successful.
The yarn is Superwash Sock, by Mothy and the Squid, in the colourway "Deadly Nightshade".
Another naughty, which I'll justify because buying it supports a friend's business, and I get a discount! Katie shared a selection of her yarns on Instagram (Instagram and insomnia, my downfall!) and I just loved the contrast of these 2 colours together in the same skein.
The yarn is Variegated 4-ply Merino, by Yorkshire Dale Yarns, in the colourway "Lenten Rose".
I had a hankering to make socks, I needed the right size of needles, and I needed a 4mm crochet hook too. I also wanted to visit Barbara at Ring-a-Rosie's to see how she was doing, as she's had a similarly dreadful winter to mine. I picked up this yarn while I was there just because it was so pretty, but inexpensive.
This is King Cole ZigZag, in the colourway "Bilberry Pie".
I needed yellow for the yarn bombing, and yellow is not a colour that you'll find a lot of in my stash. In fact basically the only solid yellow has come free with magazines, or was bought in small amounts to be the beak and feet of penguins. Hobbycraft provides, with their regular 3 for 2 offer. I achieved the almost impossible on this visit to hobbycraft by leaving having only bought 1 thing that I wasn't intending to buy before I went in!
So these are all Women's Institute Premium acrylic, and the colourways are "Light Purple", "Teal", and "Yellow".
I have borrowed a spinning wheel while I'm up in Newcastle, and the very lovely Sue, who loaned me the wheel, also dyes fibre for sale. I chose these 2 to get me started.
On the left is a blend of Cheviot, and trilobal Nylon, in the colourway "Cherry Blossom", and on the right is Jacob Humbug, in the colourway "Sunburnt Zebra".
Another fibre dyed by Sue. I went along to a meet up of the Travelling Spinners, and Sue had a range of her fibre there, including a few braids that had lost their labels and therefore ended up in the bargain bin. I think this one looks like fire turned into fibre.
As I said, this braid had lost it's label, but it looks and feels a lot like the Cheviot/nylon blend that I bought earlier. It didn't have a name of any sort, so I've called the colourway "Like Fire".
Penguins!
I've got a few to include here that were actually Christmas presents, but I hadn't had the opportunity to get photographs, so let's start with those:
My Christmas gift from Stephen's parents was this beautiful little personalised penguin tealight-lantern. I haven't had the opportunity to use it yet, but it will be used to give my bedroom a lovely cosy glow :)
Two of my godchildren chose these for me, and they're amazing! Those little blue things are whistles, and when you whistle the penguins sing and dance, but best of all, you can set them to sing as a 'choir'!
Consumables make the best presents I think. In this day and age those of us priviledged enough to have been born into a developed country have a tendency to put far too much stock into objects. Among my friends of late the theory of minimalism has been growing, and a lot of people have been donating their excess Stuff to charity. Christmas often doesn't help with this urge to Own Many Things, as people have a desire to make people they care about happy, so they spend time and money that could be used for better things just to demonstrate their affection. Often by mid-January we have already realised that we are never going to use the gimmicky gifts that we recieved, and they are added to the clutter at the back of a cupboard.
Now obviously when your friends have obsessions and hobbies it is much easier to find a gift to please them. I am never going to find even the cheapest and tackiest of plastic penguins to be wasteful. But if you can combine an obsession-based gift, with a consumable, that is the greatest thing ever! Hence my belief that these penguin biscuits from my friend Krissy and her family, were one of the best things possible to buy for me.
Yasmin drew this for me. She has some exceptional artistic ability, and for her this was basically a doodle. I love it, and I've stuck it to the side of my main penguin storage unit. I should point out that I have absolutely no artistic ability what-so-ever, and as proof of this I'll include one of my own penguin doodles at the end of this post.
Yasmin also texted me with a photo of a penguin bedding set when she was out shopping one day. As the shop that sells this bedding was very close to a shop that sells woodworking tools it was quite easy to convince my dad to take me there and see if I could find one for myself. I was very lucky, not only was there just 1 double duvet set still available, it was also in the post-Christmas sale, because apparently as spring approaches people want butterflies and cherry blossom, not penguins and polar bears. Foolish people!
There's a little museum in the Winter Gardens in the centre of Sheffield, and they often sell items with this brilliant quote from John Ruskin in the gift shop. There is probably a reason for this, but I don't know what that reason is. I'm just glad that they do! The quickest way to the train station from the centre of town is directly through the Winter Gardens, so last time I was heading up north I was distracted by my new favourite tote bag :)
Also at the museum in the Winter Gardens they sell several different cuddly penguins. I really wanted a lovely knitted penguin that I saw there, but it was definitely too expensive, but this little chap was affordable instead.
Can you imagine a more perfect valentines card for me than this one, with felted penguins, and crocheted hearts, and red glitter! Thank you Kelly :)
Note: Stephen, please don't feel bad! If I loved you for your ability to follow social conventions as regards the sending of greetings cards, then our relationship would have problems. Fortunately, I am not foolish enough to base my trust in your love for me on your memory of birthdays, or interest in commercialised 'romance'. Also, you have bought me many other random penguins ;)
Yes, it's a tissue box. I've had several boxes of tissues with penguins on them over the years, and even just over this winter, but this is definitely my favourite, and worthy of an entry in my blog, just because it has little fold-out wings and feet!
That's all for now my dears, I'll be back soon with interesting tales of living with my daddy :)
Here's that doodle I promised you:
